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<p id="heading">October 26, 2014</p>
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<h1>Vermont Legislature</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="Governor-Shumlin-s-Inaugural-Speech-1-8-2015">Governor Shumlin's Inaugural Speech January 8th, 2015</a>
<li><a href="interactive-transcript-gov-peter-shumlins-2015-budget-speech">Governor Shumlin's Budget Address January 15th, 2015</a>
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<h1>Burlington City Council</h1>
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<li><a href="http://btvcc.avt.io">BTVCC</a></li>
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<h1>Burlington School Board</h1>
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<li><a href="burlington-school-board-special-oct-26-2014">Burlington School Board Special Meeting, Oct. 26th 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="Burlington-School-Board-Nov-11-2014">Burlington School Board, November 11th, 2014</a></li>
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<h1>Startups/Tech</h1>
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<li><a href="Jon-Gold-A-New-Architecture-Jan-28-2015-HNLondon">Jon Gold, "A New Architecture" Hacker News London 1/28/2015</a></li>
<li><a href="Oculus-Connect-Building-the-First-Rift-Development-Kit">Oculus Connect: Building the First Rift Development Kit</a></li>
<li><a href="WooSports-Leo-Koenig-Demoing-the-Woo">WooSports: Leo Koenig Demoing the Woo</a></li>
<li><a href="A-Tour-of-Bolt-with-Ben-Einstein">A Tour of Bolt with Ben Einstein</a></li>
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<header/><p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="3800" class="thewords">Okay. I&#x27;m here with Ben Einstein, the founder of Bolt. Tell us about Bolt.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="8600" class="thewords">Sure. So again, seed&#x2d;stage investment firm focusing entirely on hardware companies. So every company that we work with is building some physical thing. And as part of the investment that we make, we spend a ton of time, energy and resources on helping them actually build that product, which is very different than building a typical software company.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="25900" class="thewords">And so we have a full staff of engineers, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, embedded systems development, industrial design, and then someone who helps build prototypes, a full shop that companies can use.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="38500" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s like a dream toy, the ultimate do&#x2d;it&#x2d;yourself place.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="41300" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s pretty cool. We&#x27;re really lucky to have a space that we can actually use to make stuff. But that comes out of the fact that that&#x27;s my DNA, is just making things. But that comes out of the fact that that&#x27;s my DNA, is just making things. That&#x27;s what I am here doing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="52100" class="thewords">And this is a really good way for me to make a lot of things that are interesting really fast. And so this came out of frustration from the product design world. Many people are familiar with companies like IDEO, or here in Boston, Continuum is very well&#x2d;known, or Altitude, Frog Design, Smart Design &#x2014; there&#x27;s a bunch of &#x27;em.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="70900" class="thewords">And these companies are all services businesses that are hired by Fortune 500 companies to design new products. And that relationship is very interesting, you get to work on lots of different things, it&#x2019;s very exciting and creative, and you get to move around a lot, which is fun.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="89100" class="thewords">But you have this very toxic relationship which is based around money that says, &#x22;We built this product that&#x27;s pretty good, but we want to make a couple changes. It&#x2019;s gonna cost you money to do that.&#x22; And so you solve for mediocrity. And it&#x2019;s a very frustrating thing. As a creative person, you want to have free reign, basically, to build a great product.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="111600" class="thewords">And so Bolt was designed from the ground up to be this very aligned sort of design consultancy. That was the initial premise. And we work exclusively on an equity basis, and we invest capital, that&#x27;s a big part of our business. But a ton of the reason that people take money from us versus someone else is all of the focus on building the product and the company.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="136300" class="thewords">And so it&#x2019;s not a mentor once a week that&#x27;s gonna talk you through a business plan. It is sitting on the ground in front of a CAD program, describing exactly how a part should be designed for injection molding, and actually sitting there and doing it. And so it&#x2019;s a very different relationship than a typical venture firm or incubator, accelerator, whatever category people put us into.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="157600" class="thewords">And a similar firm, in a sense, for the software side, would be Blade. So Paul English is there, sitting down &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="165300" class="thewords">Sure.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="165900" class="thewords">You know, I&#x27;m not going to use the word incubating, but I think that&#x27;s the correct use of it, of having these firms staying with the same mentors and people. What actually brought me today is I was walking by and I saw Warren Katz talking like that, and I know Will Herman&#x27;s here. You&#x27;ve got the best of the best.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="182400" class="thewords">We have this awesome crew of people that we&#x27;re really pumped about. And many of them are either &#x2014; if they&#x27;re not hardware entrepreneurs &#x2014; plenty of them are &#x2014; they have a shop in their garage, or they built their own house or whatever. They have some connection to making things.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="194700" class="thewords">Which is surprisingly common. You learn this about a lot of people. One of the things when I was raising the first fund that I got from individuals, this feedback I heard all the time, was, &#x22;Yeah, when I was at MIT, I was an electrical engineer and I was totally in love with making circuits and all this stuff, and then everybody just started doing software, and so my company was a software company, but at home I was hacking on Arduinos and I had a shop, and I was making cabinets,&#x22; or whatever.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="219200" class="thewords">And so you have this very strong entrepreneurial connection to physical things. And we&#x27;re seeing this, at a very high level, we&#x27;re seeing a renaissance of that in a lot of ways. And so this was a place that was designed, I think, pretty uniquely, to help companies do that. But it attracts all these people that you wouldn&#x27;t expect, that they&#x27;re like, &#x22;Oh, this is really cool.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="237200" class="thewords">And in order to be a mentor here, you have to be able to have already modified your lawnmower to 55 miles an hour.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="243000" class="thewords">&#x5b;laughs&#x5d; Sure, yeah. You have to ride on it like a sports car. Yeah. I mean we&#x27;re not super strict about anything like that, but it just tends to be &#x2014; so much of it is about community, building people that really care and connect about similar things. And so we have probably 95&#x25; of our investors, they care about physical things very deeply.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="263500" class="thewords">And so it&#x2019;s enjoyable for people here to just hang out, because there are people who have similar belief systems, and it works well.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="272400" class="thewords">What is your vision for growth, number of teams that you&#x27;re going to have. You&#x27;ll never have more than two teams, have more than 50 teams, or...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="279400" class="thewords">Yeah. The growth stuff is really challenging for any very hands&#x2d;on space like this. We spend a lot of time talking to Y Combinator and other programs that have this &#x2014; it&#x2019;s all about bandwidth. It&#x2019;s all about, we see 5,000 companies every six months, we want to do 100 deals or whatever. And that just doesn&#x2019;t work for us because we believe in picking a couple of winners and spending a ton of time and energy focusing on those companies for a year, two years, ten years, or whatever it takes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="307200" class="thewords">And so we have companies that fly back from LA and do design reviews but they find it useful. And so that is &#x2014; again, it&#x2019;s very atypical for someone doing this kind of stuff. But I don&#x27;t see it actually getting much larger in terms of the number of companies in a given period of time, because it&#x2019;s very hard to manage this stuff with quality in mind.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="329300" class="thewords">So I imagine... We do about 10&#x2d;12 investments per year. I imagine that will stay relatively similar going forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="336900" class="thewords">Does that mean there are ten companies here at any one time&#x3f; There&#x27;s always one dropping out, another one comes in&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="343000" class="thewords">We don&#x27;t have any specific requirements for companies moving here. So we have a couple companies that actually never moved in here. They just come in all the time and work with our team or whatever.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="352700" class="thewords">But they would be idiots not to be Boston to be able to access these &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="356500" class="thewords">That&#x27;s right. It just doesn&#x2019;t make sense for them. But we have one company that&#x27;s in San Francisco. They were like, &#x22;We&#x27;ll come out in the beginning for a month or two, and then we&#x27;ll work remotely.&#x22; And a month or two turned into three, turned into four. And so I think they genuinely value the time. I think that&#x27;s been useful for them.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="373300" class="thewords">Well, it&#x2019;s still early. There must be some type of up or out or graduation process. Have you come to grips with that&#x3f; Or how do you think &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="379400" class="thewords">What usually happens is companies get too big. And so once they get past eight, nine, ten people, it just becomes, they kind of like push themselves out. It&#x2019;s like, &#x22;This is uncomfortable for me to take these four desks here and cram everybody in here.&#x22; And so they go get their own space. And that&#x27;s happened with about five companies so far.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="397100" class="thewords">And in a year and two months or whatever it&#x2019;s been, that&#x27;s pretty successful, I think. We feel pretty good about that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="403000" class="thewords">Well, let&#x27;s take a look at that space.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="403800" class="thewords">Sure. Happy to show you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="406900" class="thewords">Sort of like general office space. Bolt is divided into two floors. The top floor is sort of common area and office space that the companies can use &#x2014; a lot of meeting rooms and the typical things that you would find in co&#x2d;working space or an incubator. Open seating for all the companies, and there&#x27;s about seven rooms around the space that people can use.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="424600" class="thewords">But all the cool stuff is down in the shop.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="428300" class="thewords">The bottom floor here is really focused on prototyping. And so everything here that we have is designed to build ones and twos and threes of things. This is not manufacturing or large production or anything like that. And so the middle area that you see here is all dedicated team space that companies get in addition to their space upstairs &#x2014; they have access to a work bench setup where they can kinda make a mess, as we say.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="453700" class="thewords">And then there&#x27;s about four or five little sort of sectional areas that have specific focuses in terms of technology. So &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="460000" class="thewords">I haven&#x27;t seen a Bridgeport working in a while.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="461800" class="thewords">Yeah, well, there&#x27;s one here. There&#x27;s actually two here. And so we have a pair of milling machines here. These are old Bridgeports. They have a great story behind them, actually. They sat next to each other in a tool and die shop in Bridgeport, Connecticut for 60 years.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="474500" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s good to see they&#x27;re still together.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="475500" class="thewords">They&#x27;re great. And then we have a big engine lathe.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="484900" class="thewords">We&#x27;re gonna do a little bit of filming here, Jeremy. And so this is to make radially symmetric parts, which are very useful for certain kinds of things &#x2014; axles and stuff.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="496300" class="thewords">And then this is a CNC milling machine, which is sort of the modern equivalent of a Bridgeport. So this takes big hunks of aluminum and steel and plastic, and carves them out using a computer program, versus by hand, which is &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="513600" class="thewords">I consider it a 3D eraser instead of a 3D printer.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="515700" class="thewords">Sure, that&#x27;s a great way to put it. It&#x2019;s like a sculpting machine. And then a lot of our companies have electronics. And so this room is sort of full of all of the electronic things. So, oscilloscopes and function generators and spectrum analyzers, and all the things that are used to make circuit boards, which is a big part of the way most of these products work.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="536900" class="thewords">Lots of standard components and wire and all kinds of other things.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="544600" class="thewords">&#x5b;laughs&#x5d; I&#x27;ll maybe do a snapshot. That&#x27;s classic.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="550200" class="thewords">&#x5b;laughs&#x5d; And this is, by some, the most interesting room. This is what we call rapid prototyping. And so this covers 3D printing, which is something that people talk very often about. Which has been around for a long time, really useful for prototyping. We cover pretty high&#x2d;end printing here.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="568500" class="thewords">So we have what&#x2019;s called a laser cutter down here. This does flat material &#x2014; so sheets of acrylic and plastic and wood, and fiber board and glass and metal, and whatever. And then these two printers here are FDM machines.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="585900" class="thewords">So this is a really sort of quick and easy and cheap machine, and this is sort of the Ferrari of 3D printing.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="593300" class="thewords">And someone&#x27;s been playing around a little.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="595900" class="thewords">Yeah, so these are all test parts that &#x5b;companies often recommend&#x5d;. And this is a really high&#x2d;end 3D printer that&#x27;s built by the company that bought Makerbot.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="606900" class="thewords">Right.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="607000" class="thewords">You may know.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="607800" class="thewords">Stratasys, right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="608500" class="thewords">Yes, that&#x27;s right.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="609400" class="thewords">And this is Formlabs, which was the &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="611200" class="thewords">This is Formlabs, yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="612000" class="thewords">I want to say they were the runner&#x2d;up in the beauty contest in that movie about &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="615900" class="thewords">I think they were the winner of that movie, yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="620500" class="thewords">They stayed the purists.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="621100" class="thewords">Yes, that&#x27;s right, and they&#x27;re doing quite well. They&#x27;re based here in Somerville. And I think they&#x27;re up to about 100 people now. So they&#x27;re doing great. And we had one of the earliest printers. This is actually a new one, but we&#x27;ve had a handful of them. So this is where all the 3D printing happens.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="646300" class="thewords">So this is one of our companies, is a wine startup.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="648800" class="thewords">Wow.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="648900" class="thewords">And so they&#x27;re doing real sort of degradation and testing of wine. Which is sometimes more organized than this, but you can sort of see little wine beakers.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="663300" class="thewords">And then the last sort of like main functional area here is &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="667500" class="thewords">Woodshop.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="668200" class="thewords">Is, yeah, we call this model making. And so this covers making sort of rough prototypes of things that are and really designed to be super functional, but are really useful in assessing whether something&#x27;s gonna work. Or look good.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="680100" class="thewords">And so this is a band saw, this is a big vacuum former. This makes plastic molds. So this is like a little sort of computer mouse that comes off of a machine like this. This is actually a piece of testing equipment that allows us to do temperature cycling. We have one of our companies&#x27; products in there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="701900" class="thewords">And this is a weather system. And so this is being cycled through very intense heat and humidity cycles. And so we can actually make sure that the product is accurately &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; and remains precise.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="715600" class="thewords">And, let&#x27;s see, we have saws and drill presses. This is a sandblast cabinet, this is a cleaning system for our 3D printed parts, and a big drill press.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="724300" class="thewords">Well, what I think is most impressive here actually is the cleanliness of the place, see all the dust collection systems. You may argue about a little bit &#x2014; I&#x27;ve been in a lot of factories, and they don&#x27;t look like this. So obviously, we keep the clean floors here. A clean floor is a clean mind.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="739900" class="thewords">Ben, thank you so much, and good luck.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Einstein</span><span><a data-m="741300" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
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<p><span><a data-m="1300" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d; Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="48000" class="thewords">Thank you. That Kurn Hattin crowd&#x27;s a tough act to follow, and I&#x27;ve just got to say on a personal note, my beautiful daughters are here, and their grandmother, who passed away a month ago, grew up at Kurn Hattin with her brothers and sister. So it&#x2019;s special tribute, special moment for me that they were able to knock it out of the park, as kids from Windham County do. So, thank you, Kurn Hattin.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="74300" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="82700" class="thewords">And thank you all for making it possible for me to give this speech today. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; I&#x27;m humbled, I&#x27;m grateful. I can&#x27;t tell you how much it means to me from the bottom of my heart.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="98000" class="thewords">Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, members of the general assembly, Mr. Chief Justice, distinguished guests, fellow Vermonters, thank you for the tremendous honor and opportunity to serve again as your governor. As a Vermonter who grew up, raised my daughters and built two businesses here, it&#x2019;s the greatest privilege of my life to give back to the state that has given me so much.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="129800" class="thewords">I love serving as governor because I love Vermont. I have worked hard as governor to improve life for Vermonters in these still difficult times. I was elected four years ago on a commitment not to shy away &#x2014; not to shy away &#x2014; from tough decisions. Since then, we&#x27;ve made real progress on the big challenges facing our state &#x2014; growing jobs, bolstering early childhood education and college affordability, raising wages for minimum wage workers, stemming our opiate addiction epidemic, retiring Vermont Yankee and pursuing a cleaner, greener energy future&#x3b;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="177000" class="thewords">Rebuilding our downtowns together, our mental health system, our state office building at Waterbury and beyond, and our crumbling roads and bridges&#x3b; balancing four consecutive budgets without raising income, sales and rooms and meals tax rates. I&#x27;m extremely proud of the work that we have done together on these issues and so many others, to make Vermont a better place to live, to work, to raise a family.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="208900" class="thewords">And I thank you for your partnership, your partnership in making that happen. It&#x2019;s also clear that we have much more work left to do. At a time in America where the gap between those who have great wealth and everybody else is larger than at any time since before the Depression, too many Vermonters are still struggling to get ahead, with bills piling up and the deck stacked against them.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="241600" class="thewords">With health care costs and education spending eating up incomes faster than Vermonters can pull it in, we owe it to them to control spiraling health care costs, address property taxes, keep growing jobs and expanding opportunity and expanding businesses.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="261300" class="thewords">I heard clearly in the election this fall that Vermonters expect more from me and from this state to help improve their lives. From jobs to the environment, I have an agenda for progress that I&#x27;ll partner with you to fulfill in this term and beyond.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="282100" class="thewords">That agenda is rooted in the abundance of hope that I have for Vermont&#x27;s future, and my sincerest belief that our best days are ahead of us, not behind us. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="305800" class="thewords">Now, because of the enormity of issues that Vermonters have called upon us to tackle in this biennium &#x2014; you&#x27;ve heard them, I&#x27;ve heard &#x27;em &#x2014; my agenda for progress will be presented in two parts. Next week, I&#x27;ll deliver my budget address. This is the hardest budget I&#x27;ve had to create.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="326200" class="thewords">And it will take a balanced approach to bring our state&#x27;s funding in line with future revenue projections. I know that economic growth, affordability, and strong quality of life are the surest ways to help Vermonters prosper. I&#x27;ll address next week critical policy areas where we can help move the dial for struggling Vermonters and bolster our quality of life, including workforce development, educational quality and spending, health care, child protection, and continuing our progress with drug addiction.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="366000" class="thewords">But today, in part one of my policy presentation to you, I&#x27;m gonna focus on initiatives also absolutely critical to working Vermonters: Our economic prosperity and our special quality of life in two related areas: Energy and the environment.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="385200" class="thewords">We know what makes Vermont the best place in America. We all know it. Without our mountains, hills and valleys, our farms, streams, lakes and forests, remote, quiet and rooted in rugged marble, slate and granite, Vermont would be just another place to live. Our natural habitat binds Vermonters tightly to our state. It&#x2019;s what inspires others to put roots down here. Ask Ben and Joanna Kinnaman, who moved from Baltimore to the Richmond area.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="424100" class="thewords">The Kinnamans came to Vermont, started their deep sea robotics business, Green Sea Systems. Like so many small entrepreneurs all over our state who sustain us, the Kinnamans could&#x27;ve built their business in any state in the nation. But Vermont&#x27;s people, quality of life, and environment beckoned them, and they now employ 14 people, and test their products in Lake Champlain. They believed in Vermont as the best place to live, to work, to grow a family and to grow a business.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="458600" class="thewords">The Kinnamans are here today. Thank you, Ben and Joanna, for investing in Vermont. Stand up if you would, let&#x27;s give you a hand. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="479000" class="thewords">Now, there are countless other entrepreneurs like the Kinnamans who choose to stay or come here for our environment and our quality of life. That&#x27;s why they come. And there are thousands of Vermonters whose livelihoods are tied to our green economy. Just as in the last century, when a new economic boom was created by chainsaw&#x2d;toting pioneers carving ski trails into the green mountains, we now see a new wave of pioneering and innovators and job creators, in those who are now powering Vermont forward in the renewable energy industry.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="522200" class="thewords">We can also see Vermont&#x27;s future in our beloved Lake Champlain, which drives tourism and supports our economy even as it cries out for us to do more, to stop dumping pollutants that are destroying it before our eyes. We know that everything we hold precious is under threat from climate change and pollution.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="547700" class="thewords">Time and again, since I&#x27;ve been governor, we&#x27;re borne witness together to the destructive power of extreme weather on our homes, our businesses, farmland, roads and bridges. This extreme rain and flooding have also worsened our water pollution problems &#x2014; made &#x27;em much, much worse, hastening all that is undermining the beauty and the health of our lake.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="574100" class="thewords">Now, no one knows better than Vermonters how to turn a challenging adversity like climate change into opportunity. That&#x27;s what we do best. Just look at our burgeoning green energy industry. Throughout Vermont, innovation and collaboration, partnering with creative public policy regulation, we&#x27;re pioneering the development and deployment of locally generated low&#x2d;carbon energy, creating jobs and putting money in Vermonters&#x27; pockets while we do it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="608500" class="thewords">Yesterday&#x27;s huge power plants, far away out there somewhere, connected to us by miles and miles of poles and wires, will be supplanted by tomorrow&#x27;s integrated microgrid, with community&#x2d;scaled renewable energy systems powering our smart green homes and businesses. That&#x27;s the future.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="629100" class="thewords">And guess what&#x3f; &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="641200" class="thewords">And that tomorrow is happening today right here in Vermont. The Borkowski Family of Rutland recently became Green Mountain Power&#x27;s first e&#x2d;home customer, working with the company to complete a radical transformation of their older home, virtually eliminating their need for heating oil &#x2014; gone &#x2014; while cutting their electric use in half.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="667600" class="thewords">They now have a comfortable, super&#x2d;insulated, and affordable home. Solar panels on their roof feed electronics in the garage, including storage for cloudy days, all of which power heat pumps that warm and cool their home and provide hot water while it&#x2019;s at it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="688300" class="thewords">NeighborWorks, Efficiency Vermont, and others partnered helping on this project, supporting local jobs while they did it. The Borkowskis financed the project right on their own electric bill, allowing savings to match or exceed their loan payments. I enjoyed visiting their home with Vermont&#x27;s congressional delegation and US Secretary of Energy Moniz. Mark and Sara Borkowski are here today, and I want to recognize them for being two of Vermont&#x27;s energy pioneers. Mark and Sara, stand up so we can give you a shoutout. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="723000" class="thewords">Thank you for your &#x5b;business&#x5d;. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="734500" class="thewords">And no one&#x27;s clapping harder than Mary Powell. You know, the Borkowskis remind us that our small, rural state has all the ingredients needed to claim the mantel of the nation&#x27;s energy innovation leader, moving beyond dependence on wildly priced, dirty fossil fuels, and helping our environment while spurring economic development, building jobs, saving energy dollars, and improving the lives of Vermonters. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="767100" class="thewords">That&#x27;s, that&#x27;s... &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="776200" class="thewords">It takes innovative entrepreneurs, research and technical training at our state colleges and University of Vermont, progressive utility leaders, which don&#x27;t exist in every state, but we got them in Vermont &#x2014; thousands of committed Vermonters volunteering on energy committees at the local levels in over 100 towns, 100 towns and villages. Together, we&#x27;re making Vermont the energy innovation leader nationwide. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="811100" class="thewords">Now, doing even more to seize the opportunity of Vermont&#x27;s energy leadership by investing more deeply in energy research and development will pay dividends for our colleges and universities. And I call upon them to help us lead these efforts with even more vigor. We are perfectly positioned to make this vision a reality together.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="838600" class="thewords">We have a solid regulatory system, willing and forward&#x2d;thinking utility and energy companies, a statewide transmission company, benefiting our ratepayers, in VELCO, and the nation&#x27;s first statewide efficiency utility, Efficiency Vermont. With this foundation, we also have innovations by Vermont&#x27;s entrepreneurs at companies like Dynapower in South Burlington, which participated with the Department of Energy on the first in the nation microgrid project, built on a landfill, fueled by solar and battery storage.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="874100" class="thewords">Companies like Catamount Solar in Randolph, AllEarth Renewables in Williston, Solaflect, Norwich, and many others, are developing, manufacturing and deploying solar systems, creating clean energy innovations all over Vermont, helping Vermonters go green and save energy dollars. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="905200" class="thewords">SunCommon of Waterbury Center is making solar more accessible for homeowners from all income levels &#x2014; all income levels &#x2014; and providing good jobs for young people who want to stay right here in the state of Vermont and make a good living. Look at Dayton Brown: Born and raised here, attended Vermont Tech for engineering, joined the Vermont Air National Guard, serving a tour of duty in Afghanistan.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="932300" class="thewords">He&#x27;s now making a life for himself and his family, working for SunCommon. His coworker, Graham Fisk, a solar advisor for the company, came to Vermont to attend Middlebury, and after leaving for a time for the big city, saw the lack of wisdom in his ways, came back to Vermont, because we called him back, Vermont called him back.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="954300" class="thewords">Dayton and Graham, I know you&#x27;re here today. Where are you hiding&#x3f; Stand up, we need ya. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; Thank you. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="971000" class="thewords">Thank you for playing for the home team&#x3b; it matters. Now, it&#x2019;s not just clean energy businesses that grow as a result of Vermont&#x27;s energy pioneering. When AllEarth Renewables needs components for its solar trackers, guess what&#x3f; It turns to businesses like the one I visited last summer &#x2014; NSA Industries up in St. Johnsbury. NSA is primarily a metal fabricator and a machining manufacturer, and they&#x27;re now a vibrant part of the solar supply chain.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1002000" class="thewords">Or look at Faraday in Middlebury that was awarded &#x24;1 million from the Department of Energy to develop smart solar map&#x2d;based tools. Each of these companies is creating jobs, attracting highly trained employees, and helping Vermont position as the energy innovation leader while we keep young people in this state. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1032700" class="thewords">Now, the policies that you helped put in place over the last few years spurred Vermont&#x27;s success. Make no mistake about it. We significantly expanded net metering. We supported a solar incentive, which leveraged up to eight dollars of private investment for every state dollar. And we more than doubled, we doubled the size of our renewable energy standard offer program, while simultaneously using the power of the market to cut the price of solar by approximately 60&#x25;.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1067300" class="thewords">This has fostered a clean energy sector that has created over 15,000 jobs for Vermonters &#x2014; 15,000 jobs since we started this out. It has enabled us to build and deploy more than five times the amount of local solar on the grid now than on my first day in office, making Vermont &#x2014; that&#x27;s right, five times... &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1098800" class="thewords">Making Vermont number one in the nation for solar jobs per capita, and helping us sustain one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; It&#x2019;s a good deal.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1114500" class="thewords">Now, at the same time, when some of our neighboring states have seen breathtaking increases in electric rates &#x2014; I read in the paper, some of the businesses in New Hampshire last week complaining about 100&#x25; increases &#x2014; we&#x27;ve accomplished all this while our largest utility cut rates by 2.46&#x25; last year. Our rates are going down, our neighbors&#x27; rates are going up &#x5b;applause&#x5d;, we&#x27;re getting this right. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1145800" class="thewords">Now, we should be proud of our progress, but we can and we must do more. Today I&#x27;m proposing that we take the next bold step together. An Energy Innovation Program that will drive our economy in the next decade and beyond.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1164900" class="thewords">This Energy Innovation Program will replace the SPEED program that&#x27;s set to expire in 2017 with smart, forward&#x2d;thinking renewable electricity targets for Vermont&#x27;s utilities. Now, our proposal is not just a copycat RPS that forces us to buy more costly renewable electricity without an eye towards lowering overall costs for Vermonters who are already struggling to pay their bills.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1193300" class="thewords">That&#x27;s not what it does. Instead, our Energy Innovation Program will promote clean energy and less expensive total energy cost for Vermonters by putting a priority on improving countless more homes across Vermont, like the Borkowskis, and adding hundreds of megawatts of new, community&#x2d;scale, locally generated, clean energy to our portfolio. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; That&#x27;s what it&#x2019;ll do.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1229500" class="thewords">In addition to the e&#x2d;home project, we have many other examples of pilots and partnerships that the Energy Innovation Program will help encourage, from Vermont Electric&#x27;s community solar projects, to Stowe Electric&#x27;s vehicle recharging project, to Washington Electric&#x27;s solar water discount, to Burlington Electric&#x27;s smart energy saving programs.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1256100" class="thewords">We got lots of examples of what&#x2019;s working. This new program will create over 1,000 additional jobs, put money in Vermonters&#x27; pockets, will a net savings of hundreds of millions of dollars on energy bills going forward, and cut greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 15 million metric tons through 2032, helping us achieve nearly a quarter of the greenhouse gas emission reductions we need to get in order to meet our 2050 goal. Now, that&#x27;s a big deal. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1296600" class="thewords">If we work together to enact this legislation, it&#x2019;ll mark our single biggest step so far towards reaching our climate and renewable energy goals. Jobs, energy savings and emission reductions make this program a true win for our economy, and for our environment. I ask that you support this concept during this legislative session&#x3b; let&#x27;s get it done together. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1333600" class="thewords">Innovative energy projects can also help with another pressing problem: water equality. In St. Albans Bay, locals are developing several new manure digesters designed to take waste from up to ten farms in the region &#x2014; so they&#x27;re all doing this together. They generate energy for the farm, and they sell the byproduct, saving money, while diverting many tons of farm waste that could overwhelmed end up polluting Lake Champlain.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1367000" class="thewords">Projects like this are so important because we&#x27;re rapidly losing the battle for clean water. We are losing it. We love our rivers. We love our lakes. From Lake &#x5b;Mafermadog&#x5d; to the Battenkill, from the Lamoille River to Lake Bomoseen, from Otter Creek to the river that I grew up on, The Connecticut.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1392100" class="thewords">And we all revere our crown jewel, Lake Champlain, which supports hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity every single year. Protecting Lake Champlain, make no mistake about it, means protecting Vermont&#x27;s economy. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1422600" class="thewords">Anyone who spent time on Lake Champlain this past season experienced firsthand the heartbreaking reality that it&#x2019;s suffering now more than ever. To see and to smell the massive blue&#x2d;green algae blooms at St. Albans Bay or in nearby Lake Carmi, and to hear the pain and the frustration in the voices of homeowners and businesses who have patiently waited for cleaner and clearer water, it&#x2019;s simply devastating.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1457700" class="thewords">Legislative action is critical. It&#x2019;s critical. But you cannot go it alone. Families, business owners, local officials, anglers, farmers, community members from every corner of our state are working to find solutions to clean up our waters.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1475600" class="thewords">We&#x27;re inspired and informed by the efforts of community groups like the Friends of Northern Lake Champlain, the Lewis Creek Association, and the Franklin Watershed Committee for Lake Carmi.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1490400" class="thewords">You also have the support of local leaders like my friend and former seatmate, David Dean of the Connecticut River Watershed, Denise Smith, and business owners like the Tylers of Tyler Place, and Bob Beach of the Basin Harbor Club. Organizations like the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce have spoken forcefully about the need for strong action, and business community support to protect our lake.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1519000" class="thewords">Farmers like Tim Magnant in Franklin, and Brian Kemp in Salisbury, are showing that it&#x2019;s possible to use innovative, practical and cost&#x2d;effective solutions to the problems of pollution on our farms. I know Tim and Brian are here today as well as Denise and Marty Illick from Lewis Creek and Alicia Sawyer from Franklin Watershed Committee. Stand up, let&#x27;s give you a hand for all you&#x27;re doing together. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1551600" class="thewords">You&#x27;re getting it right. Thank you. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1563800" class="thewords">Now, this collaboration is matched by the exceptional leadership of our congressional delegation. Thanks to the efforts of what I call the Saint of Lake Champlain, Senator Leahy, and Senator Sanders, Congressman Welch, the federal government is committing millions and millions of dollars in additional funds to help achieve our clean water goals.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1588700" class="thewords">I am also your partner. I&#x27;ve asked my cabinet to implement the Lake Champlain Restoration Plan we submitted to the EPA last spring &#x2014; the most comprehensive and strategic effort yet undertaken by the State of Vermont to protect and restore our waters.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1608800" class="thewords">Reasonable people, frustrated people will ask how is our plan different and better than past efforts&#x3f; How&#x27;s it different&#x3f; What we&#x27;ve learned is that if we use the data to target the greatest resources &#x2014; and we now have the data &#x2014; to the greatest source of pollution, to get the greatest return on our money, we can make real progress.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1633000" class="thewords">Now, should the EPA reject our plan &#x2014; and you gotta know this &#x2014; we know that the measures that they would require us to do would be more costly and less targeted than the plan that we have laid out for ourselves. We know the biggest contributors to our water quality problems. It is no mystery to us. 40&#x25; from farm runoff, 20&#x25; from roads and developed lands.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1663500" class="thewords">We also know the largest pollution sources that we should address first and where they are located, and that&#x27;s what&#x2019;s different about our approach. Now, if the EPA doesn&#x2019;t approve our plan, we would lose the flexibility to target our biggest problems first, and instead have to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on the limited areas where federal law gives the EPA direct authority. So they&#x27;ve got a limited scope.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1692300" class="thewords">Guess what&#x3f; It&#x2019;s upgrading our municipal water plants. Even though pollution from these plants only contributes to about three percent &#x2014; three percent &#x2014; of our Lake Champlain water quality problems. That&#x27;s foolish. That&#x27;s foolish. That doesn&#x2019;t meet the Vermont common sense test. So let me tell you the three things that we need to accomplish:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1718600" class="thewords">First, with your support, we&#x27;ll help towns meet their obligation to properly maintain roads and prevent runoff leading to erosion, which&#x27;ll keep nutrients and sediments out of the water. We&#x27;ll help them implement modern storm water management systems that capture and treat the polluted runoff from dirt roads, streets and parking lots. Second, most of our hardworking farmers and loggers, they want to do the right thing&#x3b; they&#x27;re Vermonters.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1751600" class="thewords">Because they care about Vermont and they recognize that our fish and farm and land use practices will often save them a ton of money in the long run. But they sometimes need financial help to make the improvements required. So we&#x27;re gonna direct significant new resources to help them reduce water pollution from their operations.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1774100" class="thewords">We will also work harder to keep livestock out of our streams and seek more careful management and tilling practices in manure applications. Those are critical. With the help of Attorney General Sorrell, we&#x27;ll redouble our effort to enforce existing water quality regulations, so that the good work of so many is not undone by a few. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; We gotta do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1812900" class="thewords">Third, I&#x27;m gonna ask you to help me hold the farms that have not been doing the right thing more accountable, by adding teeth to our current use program. Similar to the way we treat foresters &#x2014; and we do this now &#x2014; farmers who are not following the required practices that prevent pollution should not enjoy the property tax reductions that current use gives them, and until they finish the work or complete the work that is required of them. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1854300" class="thewords">Now, we all know that it&#x2019;ll take some patience, it&#x2019;ll take some time to make these changes, but it&#x2019;ll also take money. Money. Therefore, my capital budget will include &#x24;6.75 million for technical assistance and direct investment in water quality projects around the state. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; That&#x27;s right.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1883900" class="thewords">This includes &#x24;1.6 million in state match, which&#x27;ll leverage &#x24;8.2 million in federal EPA grants, for a total of &#x24;9.8 million, for low interest loans to municipalities, and an increase to &#x24;3.75 million funding for innovative storm water management practices, and &#x24;1.4 million for the agency of ag&#x27;s cost sharing program for livestock fencing and other measures that will help our farmers get it right. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1921200" class="thewords">My transportation bill also includes &#x24;3.2 million for projects that reduce polluted runoff from our back roads, and that too is critical. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1937600" class="thewords">Now, I also ask that you maintain funding for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board even in this difficult budget year, to help support farms and forestry operations, to improve water quality as we conserve working forests, farmland and important natural habitats. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1965900" class="thewords">In order to ramp up our clean water efforts, I&#x27;m also establishing the Vermont Clean Water Fund, and proposing funding sources designed to raise an additional &#x24;5 million this year alone to strengthen significantly our water quality efforts through two mechanisms:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1985200" class="thewords">First, we&#x27;ll propose a fee on agricultural fertilizer because these products contribute to water pollution. This&#x27;ll raise approximately &#x24;1 million a year to improve our ability to address farm practices, to give the farmers the money they need to do the job.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2002400" class="thewords">Second, we&#x27;ll ask owners of commercial land and industrial parcels within the Champlain Watershed for an impact payment. The annual payment will be modest, amounting to &#x24;100 or &#x24;200 for a typical large commercial parcel. Now, we&#x27;re not asking for payment from hard&#x2d;pressed homeowners who are already struggling to pay their property taxes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2027000" class="thewords">The Vermont Clean Water Fund will be structured so that it can serve as a repository, a repository for additional federal and private funding sources. While dedicated state revenues are needed to help this effort, guess what&#x3f; We cannot go it alone.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2047300" class="thewords">I have begun soliciting private donations to The Vermont Clean Water Fund, and I&#x27;m very pleased to announce that Keurig Green Mountain, a company that depends upon clean water, and has made significant clean water investments worldwide, has generously agreed to donate &#x24;5 million over the next five years for Vermont water quality stewardship projects right here in the state of Vermont. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2095200" class="thewords">Now, working in partnership with scientists from UVM and &#x5b;Limatech&#x5d;, the Keurig funds will support projects right here in the state that launched their extraordinary success. A company that we&#x27;re all extremely proud of. I want to thank my friend, Keurig CEO Brian Kelley, whose Chief Sustainability Officer, Monique Oxender, is here today, for Keurig&#x27;s vision, commitment, that will pay dividends for Vermont&#x27;s Lake Champlain and our waters for years to come.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2127500" class="thewords">Thank you, Monique. Where are you&#x3f; Stand up. Thank you, Keurig, thank you, Green Mountain. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; We are truly grateful. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2144700" class="thewords">And let me tell you something, Monique &#x2014; I think Keurig&#x27;s generosity and focus on the importance of water quality will inspire other businesses, other individuals, to aid our efforts for Vermont Clean Water Fund. Thank you so much. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2165900" class="thewords">With plenty of frustration with our progress on water quality, Vermonters have also lost patience with finger pointing about who&#x27;s to blame. When you talk to &#x27;em, most of &#x27;em are sick of it. We must all take our share of responsibility and work together across the divides that can exist among advocates, businesses, farmers, neighbors, government, who else, to get the job done, &#x27;cause this one belongs to all of us.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2200200" class="thewords">I need your support to ensure that the state of Vermont does its part, and I look forward to working with you this session to launch a new era of clean water in Vermont. Let&#x27;s do it. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2225600" class="thewords">Yeah, that&#x27;s the spirit&#x21; &#x5b;applause, cheers&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2243600" class="thewords">Now, thank you because you know as well as I that this will be part of our collective legacy if we can get it right, and the time to act is now. You know, there isn&#x27;t a Vermonter, there is not a Vermonter who doesn&#x2019;t love this great state, who doesn&#x2019;t cherish its special quality of quality of life, who doesn&#x2019;t hope, who doesn&#x2019;t hope for its future.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2275900" class="thewords">To strengthen and sustain Vermont&#x27;s future, we must grow our economy and ensure that Vermonters live in an affordable state with access to good, well&#x2d;paying jobs. It&#x2019;s a competitive world out there. Other states are offering millions of dollars of tax breaks to lure companies to their borders &#x2014; I don&#x27;t know why anyone would want to live there &#x2014; but there are things that the little state of Vermont has that cannot be duplicated, that they can&#x27;t copy.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2309900" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s our natural beauty, it&#x2019;s our clean air, it&#x2019;s our rural nature. It&#x2019;s our resilient, innovative, and entrepreneurial people. These represent our competitive strengths, and they&#x27;re treasured parts of our economic engine that we must protect, nurture and grow together.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2330700" class="thewords">I hope you&#x27;ll agree that the proposals that I&#x27;ve outlined today will help us do just that together. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2350200" class="thewords">Next week I&#x27;ll continue to outline my agenda to grow our economy and protect our quality of life in areas including educating spending and quality, which voters have asked of us, job training, health care progress. I&#x27;ll also present to you a balanced budget. In the long term we all know economic growth is the key to our state&#x27;s success.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2377900" class="thewords">We cannot simply cut our way out of our fiscal challenges year after year, taking away services that are so important to many Vermonters, nor can we tax our way out of all of our problems. Instead, we must meet the challenge to match state spending to our economic growth while working to increase that growth in the years ahead for the health of Vermont&#x27;s future.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2407400" class="thewords">I look forward to a productive term working together with you on what is best for the Vermont that we all love so much. Thank you for the honor of making me governor today. Thank you so much. Thank you. &#x5b;applause, cheers, whistles&#x5d;</a></span></p>
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<p><span><a data-m="600" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2100" class="thewords">Thanks, guys. I really like that slide. It gets worse from here, but you know, whatever. That&#x27;s my internet name &#x2014; it&#x2019;s quite small &#x2014; and that&#x27;s where you can send abuse to me.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="14400" class="thewords">Sometime last year, the middle of last year, I quit my job at a local startup which I&#x27;m not going to mention. That&#x27;s &#x5b;photo of drab, beige cubicles&#x5d; not quite what it looked like, but you know, kind of looking back, it kind of feels like it. So I quit my job, because jobs suck, and I became a freelancer. This is an artist&#x27;s impression of me right now. &#x5b;grizzly dude on a motorcycle doing a wheelie in a lightning storm&#x5d; &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; It&#x2019;s kind of like that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="34300" class="thewords">I actually bought a motorbike&#x3b; didn&#x2019;t match up to the picture&#x3b; there&#x27;s not lightning or anything. &#x5b;BEGIN &#x22;UNICORN&#x22; RANT&#x5d; But anyway, so as is really common, when I meet humans in real life, they say to me things like, &#x22;What do you do&#x3f;&#x22; because that&#x27;s a pleasantry. And I&#x27;ll say something like, &#x22;I started as a designer, but now I do a mix of design and front end and back end and product strategy, and I tweet quite a lot.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="54700" class="thewords">If they don&#x27;t work in tech, they&#x27;ll smile politely and then they&#x27;ll, you know, kind of just go and speak to someone else more interesting. And if they do work in tech, they&#x27;ll say something like, &#x22;Oh, so you&#x27;re a unicorn, then.&#x22; And I&#x27;ll be like, &#x22;Really, the fucking unicorn&#x3f; Like, ugh, really&#x3f;&#x22; It&#x2019;s getting to be a common term. And I feel like people hate this word enough, but I just want to spend a minute dwelling on why it really gets me worked up. I feel really bad standing on a stage in front of hundreds of people talking about why I don&#x27;t like this dude. &#x5b;picture of a unicorn vomiting a rainbow&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="93100" class="thewords">&#x22;Unicorn&#x22;, to me, this word is exclusionary. It&#x2019;s like this kind of snide attempt to mock people with multidisciplinary skills, and makes them seem kind of unattainable, makes them seem ridiculous, makes it seem like anyone who can, &#x22;Oh my God, design and do Ruby,&#x22; is like some crazy charlatan. Oh man, fuck unicorns.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="118300" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve got a quote here. There&#x27;s a couple of quotes. I hate doing that thing when the guy on stage reads off the screen, but I need to do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="125100" class="thewords">&#x22;If you&#x27;re looking for a designer who can come up with your identity, design your site, create UIs, create user experience,&#x22; blah blah blah, &#x22;then code their work in HTML, CSS and maybe JavaScript, you&#x27;re hunting unicorns.&#x22; And this is by a guy who I&#x27;ve got a huge amount of respect for, a good friend of mine, called Sacha Greif. Which is kind of word because he&#x27;s like the best designer I know, and also an incredible programmer.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="146900" class="thewords">Whatever. Anyway, more people, more people don&#x27;t like this thing, more people like create this hostile culture. Chris Dixon &#x2014; he&#x27;s some VC dude: &#x22;Designgineer: A mythical person startups are looking for who can do,&#x22; what is it&#x3f; &#x22;UI and UX, and also excellent front end and back end coding.&#x22; Or this dude &#x2014; it&#x2019;s a bit of a longer quote:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="168400" class="thewords">&#x22;I was speaking to an entrepreneur the other day when he mentioned he was looking for a creative director with UX skills &#x2014; &#x27;someone whose aesthetic I really like.&#x27; I responded, &#x22;Good luck. Having recently completed a yearlong search for such a person, I&#x27;d resigned myself to believe that this person was in fact a unicorn: This person may exist, someone may have seen one once, but in most cases they&#x27;re simply fantastical stories of designers long employed elsewhere.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="196100" class="thewords">Some guy who can do creative directing and UX: crazy mix of skills there, whoa. Can it, Jeff &#x5b;Gothelf&#x5d;, getting crazy. &#x5b;&#x2f;sarcasm&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="203500" class="thewords">Notice how they&#x27;re different: All these guys &#x2014; and there&#x27;s hundreds of more people who made opinions on the internet about how unicorns are this or unicorns are that &#x2014; turns out they&#x27;re not actually a skillset&#x3b; it&#x2019;s just a bunch of people who are a little bit bitter being like, &#x22;Oh, you can&#x27;t do that. Someone else can&#x27;t do that.&#x22; Jeff&#x27;s definition is &#x22;visual design and UX&#x22;&#x3b; Sacha&#x27;s is &#x22;design, UX, HTML, CSS,&#x22; and Chris, he adds &#x22;back&#x2d;end skills&#x22; to that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="230300" class="thewords">It just kind of feels like people don&#x27;t really know what they believe in. People are like, &#x22;Oh, I can&#x27;t do those skills, so there&#x27;s a difference, so I&#x27;m going to write some swears on the internet about how people should not learn to do that.&#x22; I don&#x27;t like it when people tell me what not to do.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="247400" class="thewords">When you&#x27;re freelance, unemployed, whatever I am, when you&#x27;re looking for work, you still have to kind of pitch yourself in some way. So I&#x27;ve basically been sitting at home for six months, like thinking about what to call myself, &#x27;cause that&#x27;s kind of important. You look at kind of the day&#x2d;to&#x2d;day job titles that you throw around.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="268100" class="thewords">So in the most simplistic terms, I do &#x22;design and code.&#x22; This is for me personally. Or you can split it up another level, like, &#x22;I do design and front end and back end,&#x22; or you&#x27;re like, &#x22;I do UX and IA and visual design,&#x22; or you go a bit crazy &#x2014; like this is when you&#x27;re taking to a recruiter and you&#x27;re doing like, &#x22;You know, I do all of these things.&#x22; It gets funny at the bottom.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="286900" class="thewords">&#x5b;slide&#x5d; User experience &#x26; Information Architecture &#x26; Visual Design &#x26; Interaction Design &#x26; Markup &#x26; Stylesheets &#x26; Markup &#x26; Stylesheets &#x26; Swooshy bits of gross, scroll&#x2d;jacking JavaScript that you should never do &#x26; API Creation &#x26; Business Object Modeling &#x26; Sysadmin &#x26; Crying yourself to sleep because a client ignored your invoice.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="291000" class="thewords">How far do you need to break these things up&#x3f; How far do you need to kind of validate all the little tiny bits. &#x22;Oh yeah, I did PHP once six years ago.&#x22; Never again. This is a representation of my skillset&#x3b; extrapolate for yourself. It just seems like there are so many different bits that go together to make up the jobs we do right now.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="311600" class="thewords">&#x5b;slide&#x5d; I make a whole bunch of INTERNET.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="313900" class="thewords">It looks like it&#x2019;s an increasing trend. I don&#x27;t know. Job titles are increasingly divergent. Some people want front end engineers, some people want front end developers. Some people think that developers and engineers and programmers are different things. What the fuck&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="328600" class="thewords">But the jobs we&#x27;re doing seem to be more convergent. Designers are doing sysadmin&#x3b; developers are tweaking in typography &#x2014; that&#x27;s a good thing, by the way.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="338200" class="thewords">I am a big fan of these broad, general terms, apart from the one at the front &#x2014; &#x5b;slide&#x5d; Unicorn, Generalist, Devigner, Designgineer &#x2014; I mean generally. The problem is that the terms suck. Imagine like, I don&#x27;t know, you&#x27;re at your uncle&#x27;s house for Christmas dinner, and he&#x27;s like, &#x22;Oh, so what do you do now&#x3f;&#x22; And you&#x27;re like, &#x22;Oh, I&#x27;m a designgineer,&#x22; or, &#x22;I&#x27;m a unicorn.&#x22; I don&#x27;t want to tell my mum that I&#x27;m a unicorn&#x3b; it&#x27;d be kinda weird. She&#x27;d be like, &#x22;I knew he went off the rails when he was a teenager, but I thought he recovered.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="363400" class="thewords">Yeah, no. &#x5b;slide: crosses out the other words and adds &#x22;Internet Maker&#x22;&#x5d; You know, I make a bunch of internet&#x3b; whatever. Maybe it&#x2019;s just like my friends and the people that I&#x27;ve been lucky enough to work with, but it seems like all of my favorite designers &#x2014; like my favorite programmers these days, all of my favorite programmers and my favorite designers, and the people in London, the people I look up to overseas, it seems like everyone&#x27;s doing this kind of cool mix of different skills.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="387400" class="thewords">But we just have to be called unicorns, whatever. Yet some people have this weird vested interest in making it feel like that it&#x2019;s weird, like it&#x2019;s something we should be ashamed of, like you&#x27;re a fraud for having, for claiming, feigning skills in two different areas. Let&#x27;s look back at why this is. Actually, I say two different areas, but that&#x27;s another problem in itself:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="409900" class="thewords">Back in the day &#x2014; like let&#x27;s get crazy, 10, 15, 20 years ago &#x2014; web servers were written in C&#x2b;&#x2b; and Mac apps were written in Pascal, and you needed to have a degree in Photoshop to make a button or make like a dropdown menu or something like that. It was a huge leap to assume that people could have broad skillsets. Like, I reckon no one has Photoshop and can also compile Pascal&#x3b; it&#x2019;s probably not a thing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="434900" class="thewords">But it seems pretty dogmatic to assume that&#x27;s still the case. Even if it was once the case, it isn&#x27;t really anymore. So there are just these kind of like ancient lines in the sand, kind of like &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;, these kind of things that people are like, &#x22;Yeah, this is the line in the sand, and this line can never change.&#x22; Super weird.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="452700" class="thewords">It seems weird to me that people are like, &#x22;Oh, you&#x27;re a front end developer,&#x22; just because you have Sublime Text open, whereas someone else is a designer just because they&#x27;re doing exactly the same fucking thing in Sketch. That&#x27;s weird.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="465200" class="thewords">But we&#x27;ve been bulldozing these job titles for a while, so it&#x2019;s fine if we keep doing it. Going back historically, I&#x27;ve got a graphic design background, I guess, so let&#x27;s take that as a story, because why not&#x3f;: &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="483700" class="thewords">In the beginning, there were scribes and bookbinders. So some dude would like sit there and just write out a book for forever. And then Gutenberg came along and made this super&#x2d;rad printing press, and then there were no scribes anymore. &#x5b;There&#x27;s like five&#x5d;. So the printing press replaced scribes, and then over a whole bunch of centuries, the printing press got replaced with typesetting, and then linotype.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="510600" class="thewords">All these different things basically resulted in, I don&#x27;t know, the mid&#x2d;20th century you had typesetters, copiers, pasters, artworkers, airbrushers, whole bunch of other people, which then we replaced in 1984 with &#x22;designer.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="524800" class="thewords">This stuff keeps happening. It&#x2019;s going to go further. There&#x27;s some incredible stuff being done in design right now, not by some dude sitting there in Photoshop, but by people like Flipboard and The Grid, using machine learning to create incredibly smart AI design algorithms. This is where the really exciting stuff is. There&#x27;s not going to be someone sitting there with Photoshop soon, which is cool. More jobs are going to get bulldozed &#x2014; sweet.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="553100" class="thewords">&#x5b;slide: clip from Terminator or Terminator 2 of the machines scorching the earth&#x5d; That sounds really bad, doesn&#x2019;t it&#x3f; Over the next couple of years, AI is just going to make this stuff so exciting, that either you see this as like a massive existential threat or you see it as an inevitability, and you just take it as a motivation for just keeping learning, and just keep like refreshing your skill set.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="571300" class="thewords">And let&#x27;s go back to some code, sweet. What about on the web&#x3f; It used to be super difficult to build websites. Like back when everyone made websites in C&#x2b;&#x2b; and Perl and stuff, and everyone cried, and then the jobs were so difficult to do that, in the dot&#x2d;com era, you had &#x2014; how many people did Webvan have&#x3f; They had like 7,000 million people like making like a CRUD website, right&#x3f; &#x27;Cause it was super difficult. It used to be super difficult to do these things.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="599600" class="thewords">Over the years, these things become easier. We turned IT departments into the cloud, and we basically replaced sysadmins with &#x22;git push heroku master&#x22; &#x2014; that was cool. The past decade has been like really cool for people who like doing multidisciplinary things.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="619100" class="thewords">Ruby on Rails has made it super easy for anyone to dive into building the crazy MVP that they have in their website. It&#x2019;s made it going from needing a room of people to write your website in &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; to having something you can pick up over the weekend. It might not be great, and some people might mind about object allocation, but generally things have become easier &#x2014; it&#x2019;s great.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="641800" class="thewords">Recently, I&#x27;m super, super into Meteor. When you see MeteorJS, you&#x27;re like, &#x22;Why did I ever waste all my time doing stuff in Rails in a week when I could do it in like 20 minutes on the bus&#x3f;&#x22; It&#x2019;s just great. You just don&#x27;t need to spend all this time anymore. I&#x27;m super lazy, I&#x27;m not complaining.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="659600" class="thewords">And like developer tools as well. I&#x27;m going to take Bootstrap as an example. Designers are always like, &#x22;Oh, like it&#x2019;s so bad that Bootstrap is on the internet,&#x22; and that&#x27;s bullshit as well, because it&#x2019;s just made it possible for anyone, no matter how little they give a shit about design, to instantly become like, you know, like pretty decent at design, and you can tweak from that, you can learn from that. It&#x2019;s a really good baseline.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="685100" class="thewords">I&#x27;m super psyched about Bootstrap&#x3b; people give it too much flak &#x2014; it&#x2019;s a great learning tool. HTML, CSS, right&#x3f; 10, 15 years ago, no designers wrote HTML and CSS because it was really fucking difficult to get stuff to look good. Like all the browsers were like really really different, really difficult. To get web fonts or to use anything other than like Verdana and Georgia, you had to figure out how to use sIFR and cuf&#x00f3;n, which are basically the hardest things ever.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="718100" class="thewords">But you know, HTML and CSS, they&#x27;re just really easy to use. Any non&#x2d;technical person on the team can learn them. It&#x2019;s great. It helps them, it frees up our time, and it makes it more likely that our businesses will succeed.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="734500" class="thewords">I think it&#x2019;s totally possible for anyone to be a designer and anyone to be a developer. So it&#x2019;s weird when people get into these crazy kind of tribe, gang mentality subcultural things. They form tribes in the office, and people lock each other in silos. They put the UX team in one building and the back end team in another building, and then the front end development office is like in a different continent, and that sucks a bunch.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="760500" class="thewords">You know, are you ever in a meeting &#x2014; assuming most of you are developers &#x2014; you&#x27;re in a meeting, there&#x27;s that UX guy sitting in the corner, and you&#x27;re like, &#x22;Oh, let me try something on that wireframe,&#x22; you pick up the Sharpie and you go over to the wireframe or the Post&#x2d;it notes or whatever, and they&#x27;re like, &#x22;No, only I do the wireframes around here&#x3f;&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="778900" class="thewords">That sucks. Why&#x3f; Why is that just their job&#x3f; Just because they went to UX school. It&#x2019;s total bullshit. &#x5b;slide: Gollum&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="789000" class="thewords">We&#x27;re at Hacker News meetup, but Hacker News on the internet, the comment threads, they&#x27;re all people just constantly, constantly trying to be like, &#x22;Oh, I&#x27;ve got more experience in this thing than this person, so I&#x27;m a better person than this, and they shouldn&#x2019;t talk about what they&#x27;re talking about,&#x22; and stuff. Same as the UX guy. Anyway.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="808500" class="thewords">People trying to validate their opinions over other people and their experiences. &#x5b;slide: Ermagherd, dey turk err jerbsss &#x28;South Park&#x29;&#x5d; And people do it because they&#x27;re insecure. They do it because, oh, I don&#x27;t know, the jobs are getting easier, and they&#x27;re basically going to become redundant, so that would suck. It&#x2019;s a human reaction, but it kind of makes you a bit of an asshole.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="824400" class="thewords">Anyway, a bunch of baggage from the past that we want to shed so we can become super cool generalists in the future.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="831600" class="thewords">I&#x27;m actually going to go back in the past now and see if there are any lessons I can shoehorn into analogies and make this a... talk. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="841700" class="thewords">In 1919 in Germany, we&#x27;ve got the Bauhaus, which is a seminal art and design school, turn of century in Germany. They did a bunch of typography and architecture and sculpture. They were just basically pioneering in absolutely everything, and super cool. And I was reading a book about the main dude, Walter Gropius, and there&#x27;s this quote that I really really like, and if you squint, it&#x2019;s still really relevant 100 years later:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="874100" class="thewords">He says, &#x22;The Bauhaus strives to combine all the arts &#x2014; sculpture, painting, applied and visual art &#x2014; as inseparable components of a new architecture.&#x22; And at first I was like, &#x22;Oh, well, I don&#x27;t really do painting and I don&#x27;t do applied art.&#x22; I don&#x27;t even know what applied art is.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="891200" class="thewords">And then I kept looking at it because there was something about it that stuck out, and I realized if you kind of cross bits out of it and you squint a little bit, and you replace it with whatever arbitrary buzzwords you feel like describing yourself as, it kind of still makes sense.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="908400" class="thewords">&#x5b;slide&#x5d; &#x22;We strive to combine all the arts &#x2014; design, code and product thinking &#x2014; as the inseparable components of a new architecture.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="908800" class="thewords">When I think about the relevancy of being able to code, to be a good designer right now, it still kind of fits together. So I really like this quote. &#x5b;reads revised quote&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="924700" class="thewords">I think the way that we build products now, it&#x2019;s impossible to be a designer without considering the technical rationale behind what you&#x27;re doing, without considering the implications of all the different things.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="937700" class="thewords">So I like this. &#x5b;slide: &#x22;Inseparable Components of a New Architecture&#x22;&#x5d; A couple more analogies, because I&#x27;ve got them:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="942700" class="thewords">If we go to Holland in the early 1970s, we&#x27;ve got Ajax &#x2014; not AJAX, not like JavaScript and that stuff, but the Dutch football team. The main lesson we can learn from these guys that I want you all to apply to your day&#x2d;to&#x2d;day work as programmers, is that you just look better with long hair. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; It just always makes you look cool.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="969100" class="thewords">But also, in the early &#x27;70s they had this style of football, their tactics were called Total Football, and this was a theory that every player, apart from the goalie, should be able to exchange roles. So some dude would be running up the pitch, and then some other person would go to take his place. I&#x27;ve tried to show videos of it on projectors before, but it never works.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="995500" class="thewords">But essentially, you can kind of see it on this &#x5b;slide of soccer diagrams&#x5d;. It&#x2019;s really cool, kind of fluid, kind of biological system, where one person would move, someone else would replace them, and you&#x27;d create this &#x2014; it&#x2019;s almost like being in motion as an organism. It&#x2019;s really really cool.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1014300" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve also worked in product teams like this. The startup I last worked at, we were all generalists. Everyone did design through to Rails, and it&#x2019;s really cool having that fluidity in the work.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1025300" class="thewords">The system went really nicely for Ajax, and they won a bunch of championships. It was used by the Dutch National Football Team, where they went all the way to the World Cup Final before being beaten by West Germany, which, as a British person I know exactly what that feels like.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1041100" class="thewords">And Germany had better hair and mustaches than Holland, so they deserved the trophy. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; But aside from that inevitable beat by the Germans, I think it&#x2019;s a cool idea that I&#x27;d like to take into my work.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1055300" class="thewords">Staying in Holland, staying in Amsterdam, my favorite graphic design studio, these guys, Experimental Jet Set, they have a print design studio, one of my favorites. They grew up in the Holland that was dominated by Total Football. It was as much a part of their culture as, I don&#x27;t know, David Beckham is to us &#x2014; ugh. That kind of thing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1087300" class="thewords">That notion is very clear in how they run their studio. It&#x2019;s three of them, and in this interview they were talking about it, they said, &#x22;Our idea is to stay away from fixed roles. Our intention is that the work is divided equally, and that each of us have the same set of abilities.&#x22; This is really cool, it&#x2019;s a cool ethos. This is where I got the Total Football analogy from.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1109500" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s pretty cool that they think that, and they&#x27;re a much smaller studio. They&#x27;re just working in print design rather than web, rather than products. But this is pretty cool.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1124900" class="thewords">It is really interesting to see how we can take these ideas from people who apply them to a three&#x2d;person print design studio, and how we can move that into people making super quick MVPs, digital products, startups, whatever.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1141500" class="thewords">We&#x27;ve got these takeaways: &#x5b;slide: 1. Inseparable components, 2. equal skillsets, 3. mustache emoji, thumbs up&#x5d; Consider every single thing a component, a part of every other thing. You can&#x27;t take away digital literacy and expect designers to make good systems. You can&#x27;t take away &#x5b;audio cuts out&#x5d; design principles and expect people to make good systems. They&#x27;re all inseparable components, I think. And mustache emoji, cool.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1168200" class="thewords">In real life, I guess I&#x27;ve just got some caveats and stuff, especially when doing it to a more technical audience. I&#x27;ve done this talk once before, and it was all designers, and I&#x27;m like, &#x22;Yeah, you should definitely go and learn code,&#x22; and I 100&#x25; believe that. But there are definitely caveats:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1186200" class="thewords">I think it doesn&#x2019;t apply to every product in the entire world. Obviously, if you&#x27;re doing some crazy low&#x2d;level processing, then stick out of Photoshop, make sure the planes stay in the sky, or something like that. But generally, I think you get better from knowing the jobs that people do on your team. And it&#x2019;s not about designers should learn to code or developers should learn to design, because that&#x27;s kind of a played out argument, and it&#x2019;s also kind of dogmatic.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1213500" class="thewords">Because if I was like, &#x22;I think that every designer right now in 2015 should know how to code HTML and CSS, and everyone should learn how to do MeteorJS,&#x22; that&#x27;s just kind of another form of dogma&#x3b; that&#x27;s as bad as it was before&#x3b; it&#x2019;s just my dogma. Which I prefer, but it&#x2019;s just another meme for people to follow into the future.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1236300" class="thewords">We don&#x27;t want to create new silos for some other guy to stand on stage in another two years and be like, &#x22;Oh, that Jon guy, he&#x27;s a bit of an idiot.&#x22; &#x5b;slide: clip of a grain silo sliding into the ground&#x5d; It&#x2019;s not about that. It&#x2019;s realizing why these current systems suck quite a lot. Love that GIF.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1253000" class="thewords">Anyway, a couple more points to wrap up with, because... more points. A bunch of people are like, &#x22;Oh, you can only learn so much stuff, and if you learn any more stuff, then,&#x22; you know, like learning&#x27;s zero sum. It&#x2019;s clearly not. You can just learn more stuff.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1269200" class="thewords">Learning one thing doesn&#x2019;t make you forget another thing. Years of mastering Lisp won&#x27;t vanish because you learn about typography. You don&#x27;t have to delete emacs to install Sketch. So that&#x27;s cool.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1280100" class="thewords">Learning makes you a better collaborator. No matter what you do, learning about what other people do, people on your team, is only going to be a positive. You know, like when you&#x27;re in a meeting with &#x22;businesspeople&#x22; and they don&#x27;t really get tech, like that guy &#x5b;slide&#x5d; &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;, it&#x2019;s really frustrating, isn&#x27;t it, when they&#x27;re like, &#x22;Oh yeah, the techies over there,&#x22; or like if you&#x27;re in an ad agency and you&#x27;re a designer, &#x22;Oh, the creatives over there.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1305300" class="thewords">Understand what I do. It really sucks when people don&#x27;t understand what you do, and then try and... They&#x27;re not very good to collaborate with. I don&#x27;t want to be that person, either. So let&#x27;s learn more about what designers and developers and marketers and stuff do.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1324500" class="thewords">Curiosity is a key, key part of the hacker ethos as well. I think that&#x27;s what being a hacker&#x27;s about &#x2014; finding the things you don&#x27;t know and then learning some things that no one else knows, and then applying that to what everyone else knows, and you come up with these crazy combinations. That is what hacking is.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1344800" class="thewords">I&#x27;m scared of losing that and turning into some grumpy old guy stuck in his ways, and afraid of the future, afraid of new things. That&#x27;s enough, David Cameron. &#x5b;slide&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1359000" class="thewords">The other thing is that I feel like knowing a whole bunch of stuff, a bunch of disparate disciplines, opens you up to methods of thinking and modes of consciousness that other people don&#x27;t have. Even if you have a designer and a developer in the room, I think by internalizing a bunch of that, you have tighter feedback loops, and you&#x27;re also more than the sum of their parts, if that makes sense.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1389700" class="thewords">There are a bunch of things you can do that you just never get if people didn&#x2019;t understand what each other did.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1396200" class="thewords">I&#x27;m a self&#x2d;taught developer. A bunch of the people I know who are developers are self&#x2d;taught&#x3b; we didn&#x2019;t do computer science degrees. So this really scared me for a long time &#x5b;slide: &#x22;Algorithms&#x22; book from Princeton&#x5d;, and I&#x27;ve been doing this Princeton algorithms course on the internet recently, because I want to be smart, and I&#x27;ve been kind of thinking about this course.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1420300" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s really really &#x2014; it turns out computer science is really much more difficult than building a site in Rails. Who knew&#x3f; So I&#x27;ve been doing this online and I&#x27;ve just been thinking, &#x22;Oh, dude, I&#x27;m really spreading myself too thin. I just don&#x27;t need to know what a big N thingybob is.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1437600" class="thewords">So I was having a bit of an existential crisis work, because I spent my entire week on Coursera. It&#x2019;s pretty dense. And then I stumbled across this stuff. &#x5b;slide: bost.ocks.org&#x2f;mike&#x2f;algorithms&#x2f;&#x5d; Everyone knows D3&#x3f; The JavaScript data visualization thingybob. Mike Bostock, the guy who did that, he&#x27;s a great example of someone with a really in&#x2d;depth visual understanding of the world. What he does is he creates data visualization frameworks, but obviously he also understands about...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1472400" class="thewords">What is this&#x3f; It&#x2019;s like a quick bubble sort&#x2f;merge&#x2f;find a thing. I might really quickly try and show it. Yeah. This is really sweet, actually. &#x5b;scrolling through the site&#x5d; So he&#x27;s come up with all these visualizations of different algorithms that, for someone who learns visually, you&#x27;d just never be able to get that from a really dry textbook.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1498600" class="thewords">This is a sorting algorithm. It&#x2019;s so great, it&#x2019;s really great. I&#x27;ll do one more. These are some maze&#x2d;finding doodads. I think that&#x27;s the technical term. They do this, and again &#x5b;animation of the algorithm finding its way through a complex maze&#x5d;, from sitting there in a textbook, you&#x27;re like, &#x22;Okay, I don&#x27;t understand that.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1516100" class="thewords">A couple people have done visualizations like this. If you take color, you can understand the spread of different trees &#x2014; this is showing breadth first versus a different algorithm that I just don&#x27;t know enough about to really make an informed statement. But you can go and read this &#x2014; I&#x27;ll put the link in the meetup group or something.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1541500" class="thewords">But it&#x2019;s stuff like this &#x2014; this is just completely crazy, and this is something that you&#x27;d basically never get unless you were a designer&#x2f;developer with a really rich understanding of design, and also understanding algorithms and stuff. So that kind of validated my point before I just deleted my whole talk.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1561700" class="thewords">And I think that&#x27;s super inspirational. I think there are definitely &#x2014; an example of something that could just never spring about, because you say to a designer, &#x22;Can you just visualize a bubble&#x2f;sort&#x2f;merge thing&#x3f;&#x22; And they&#x27;d be like, &#x22;No, because I don&#x27;t know,&#x22; and I still don&#x27;t know what you mean. They&#x27;d be like, &#x22;I&#x27;ve got no idea what you&#x27;re talking about.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1580000" class="thewords">So there are definitely things out there that can only come about because of this cross&#x2d;disciplinary approach. I&#x27;m just really excited to see what happens in the future, as hopefully more designers can code, more designers get into doing crazy stuff with machine learning, all of that. I&#x27;m going to leave it there because I just want to see the rest of the talks, then get home and keep coding, I guess.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1606200" class="thewords">Thanks. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1625600" class="thewords">&#x5b;inaudible question&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1636900" class="thewords">The question was where the failings are &#x2014; whether it&#x2019;s stereotypes of, &#x22;This is what designers should do, this is what developers should do,&#x22; or whether it&#x2019;s a learning thing. I think it&#x2019;s a bit of both. There are definitely those attitudes, but I think we can see that those attitudes are going away. More designers aren&#x27;t afraid of code&#x3b; more developers are willing to give designers commit access and vice versa.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1659300" class="thewords">At the same time, yeah, learning tools just used to be &#x2014; it used to be really hard to learn how to code, and it used to be really dense and inaccessible to learn how to design as well. You used to have to go and get a Bachelor&#x27;s in graphic design to do that. The tools are getting better, the tools are getting easier. I think that&#x27;s why so many designers can code now, because it&#x2019;s just more accessible than it used to be.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1684700" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
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<p data-name="Nirav Patel"><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="8600" class="thewords">Thank you, everybody, for coming. I&#x27;m really excited you&#x27;re all here, and if it doesn’t sound like it, it’s because I haven&#x27;t gotten much sleep in the last few days. So, I&#x27;m here to guide you through a slice of the decision&#x2d;making process and development process we went through when we were building the first Rift development kit that kind of helped us reboot VR two years ago.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="27100" class="thewords">And, you know, there was an enormous effort by the SDK team, the software team, building the SDK, the sensor fusion, this cross&#x2d;platform thing that ran on Windows and Mac and Linux, and working with devs to get all this going. There&#x27;s some really incredible and interesting stories around that, but that&#x27;s not what this talk is about.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="44700" class="thewords">This talk is only about the hardware side of the story.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="48900" class="thewords">So building a virtual reality headset is really hard. Building 60,000 virtual reality headsets is a hell of a lot harder. We needed to go from this one&#x2d;off foam core and duct tape kind of prototype with commodity components into something that we could build thousands of to get to all of your doorsteps on a really really short schedule.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="70700" class="thewords">And it was an enormous learning process for us in the company. You know, we were this tiny team of less than ten people. We&#x27;d never really built hardware before. We&#x27;d certainly never built a production virtual reality headset before, but even any kind of mass volume consumer electronics device. We didn’t have the experience.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="87600" class="thewords">So we went in with a lot of uncertainty about how to hardware development. We had a lot of risk that we had to take. And really the biggest one was being willing to ship something that was imperfect. We were willing to accept that worse could be better as long as the pieces that we let be worse weren&#x27;t outweighed by the pieces that were better.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="106300" class="thewords">And building a product is always about making tradeoffs, but in this case we had to make quite a lot of tradeoffs. And we made choices around what we needed to get right on the first revision, versus things that we could defer to future revisions. It’s kind of a software&#x2d;style development model where you ship out an alpha, and then update it with a beta, and then ship a final version.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="126100" class="thewords">But software is not hardware. Hardware, if you ship an alpha and it has a bug in it, you can&#x27;t ship a patch to someone&#x27;s doorstep. You kinda have to live with the mistake you made. So there&#x27;s a lot of risk around that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="137700" class="thewords">But you know, we took the risk. We decided that was the right thing to do. And we could&#x27;ve shot for perfection. We could&#x27;ve shot for, you know, building the perfect virtual reality headset and spending a lot of time and effort into getting it exactly right. But it’s possible that we never would&#x27;ve shipped anything, and certainly we wouldn&#x27;t have had all of you in this room today, and the tens of thousands of people out in the world building virtual reality content right now.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="160400" class="thewords">We decided to take a different optimization and optimize for getting the virtual reality ecosystem seeded as quickly as possible for the sake of figuring out what is VR, what works and what doesn’t work in VR&#x3f; And for that we needed help from all of you, which required us to take the risk and build a product really really quickly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="179400" class="thewords">And in doing so, we accepted some glaring flaws in functionality, but we also identified some key pieces of the product that we really couldn’t compromise on. Stuff like making it inexpensive enough that anyone who was interested in virtual reality could go ahead and back the Kickstarter and get the kit and start playing with VR. We didn’t want to build the 20 or &#x24;30,000 military headset that almost nobody could effort.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="202300" class="thewords">Also stuff like making it lightweight and comfortable enough that you could actually use it to develop with. You know, we didn’t want the giant CRT headset that needs a tether on your head to prevent your neck from collapsing. We wanted something that was lightweight and reasonably comfortable.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="216300" class="thewords">And we also needed to make sure that the performance that was there to allow you to figure out, you know, what is VR, you know, basically just to give you a glimpse of what VR could be when we got it right.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="228700" class="thewords">And that doesn’t mean getting performance perfect. It doesn’t mean getting retinal resolution and getting a full field of view and getting everything right the first time around. Really, what it meant was getting a wide enough field of view and high enough resolution that you could develop virtual reality content and figure out what works and doesn’t work in VR.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="246800" class="thewords">So the low cost and lightweight and wide field of view pieces were kind of solved by Palmer architecturally in what the Rift was in itself, which was a really simple optics design — one lens per eye, really cheap and lightweight — along with a commodity tablet panel, actually. And we kind of leaned on the tablet and smartphone industry for the sake of getting that high&#x2d;res, lightweight, low&#x2d;cost panel in existence.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="272700" class="thewords">You know, it wouldn&#x27;t have happened for VR alone. And so sort of one of the remaining pieces that was on the hardware side that we needed to figure out on our own, and we felt that it was sort of a small enough self&#x2d;contained problem that we could build a team to solve it very quickly, was getting orientation tracking — head orientation tracking — done correctly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="290400" class="thewords">And that was, you know, making sure it was accurate enough, precise enough, and low latency enough to get that sort of fast reaction time you need to feel like your head is really inside a virtual space. And just a brief detour on sort of my background and how I ended up involved in this.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="306100" class="thewords">I was actually a software engineer with no experience building production hardware, let alone virtual reality hardware. I had been hacking on this thing in my spare time, which is the Adjacent Reality Tracker. It’s a wireless, low&#x2d;latency USB interfaced inertial measurement unit that was actually open&#x2d;source. I released it under some open licenses.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="326000" class="thewords">And pre&#x2d;Oculus I had actually handed out one of the few working prototypes to Palmer, and I think it’s probably still in his house somewhere.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="334200" class="thewords">And so this is sort of relevant in that the components were all there for the tracker that we did eventually want to build in Oculus.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="341500" class="thewords">So when I jumped in, I worked with the software team, which was just about two or three people at the time, on spec&#x27;ing out and figuring out what it is that we needed to get low&#x2d;latency and accurate and precise head tracking built ourselves really quickly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="355300" class="thewords">And so what we did was sort of identify what are the different sources of error in orientation tracking, and what were the actual performance requirements&#x3f; And we figured on performance we&#x27;d just shoot for, go as low&#x2d;latency as we possibly could and go as high&#x2d;sampling rate as we possibly could.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="371500" class="thewords">So we built this one&#x2d;kilohertz sampling rate sensor that throws as much data as possible over USB as we could get away with. And we just sort of deferred the decision of how much data do we actually need, how many samples do we actually need to do sensor fusion, for the sake of getting the thing built, and having them all there, and then figuring it out later.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="391200" class="thewords">And we also figured out, you know, what were the different sources of error in orientation tracking&#x3f; And one of the big ones was calibrating the sensor. So these low&#x2d;cost, commodity MEMS gyroscopes and accelerometers have all these different sources of error — scale error and cross&#x2d;axis and offset errors, and all of these errors actually change over the temperature that the device is being used in, and all the errors actually change over time.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="415700" class="thewords">So the Rift that you might’ve bought two years ago is probably woefully out of calibration, which is unfortunately an issue we didn’t catch until after shipping — so, sorry about that. Uh, and there&#x27;s also these weird little things that you wouldn&#x27;t even think of normally, like the gravity in China is actually... or, you know, in the place we&#x27;re producing the tracker in China, was actually different than the gravity in California where we we&#x27;re testing it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="440000" class="thewords">So we had to take that into account in the calibration procedure.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="445900" class="thewords">And, you know, in parallel, while we were building this thing, the tracker end of the thing, we also needed to consider taking that foam core and duct tape architecture of the rift and figuring out how to turn that into an actual mass producible product. And there were a buncha pieces we didn’t have the engineering team for, and we knew we couldn’t scale up an engineering team quickly enough of solve —</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="467100" class="thewords">Like doing industrial design and mechanical engineering on the housing, optics engineering, tooling, process engineering to actually get this thing built. We knew we didn’t have the time or the team to get that together quickly. So this is one of the big places that we had to take a risk on letting worse be better sometimes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="486700" class="thewords">We needed to find a manufacturing partner that we could lean on for solving all these problems — a manufacturing partner that could solve problems roughly and really quickly without an actual specification in place. And we didn’t actually have a specification in place because we were kind of learning the specification as we were prototyping this thing. And so we found just about the roughest and quickest contract manufacturer we could find in China.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="512000" class="thewords">And a couple of the people at the company had had prior experience with this factory, and that was actually really crucial, because the contract manufacturer themselves had to take an enormous risk on us. We were this ragtag group of less than ten people, a company no one had ever heard of, building a product that no one thought was even possible at the price point that we were trying to build it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="533200" class="thewords">And you know, we&#x27;re trying to build 12,000 of them, which was an absurdly small order for a contract manufacturer in China. So they took a big bet on us, just like we took a bet on them.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="543100" class="thewords">We handed them this foam core prototype and worked with them over a couple of months to figure out how to make this plastic kit that we could build a few hundred or a few thousand of a day, rather than the one&#x2d;off foam core kit that Chris Dycus in Oculus in Irvine was making one or two of every week.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="561000" class="thewords">So for one example of how we worked with — back to calibrating those sensors — we had this one rate table in California that we were using that&#x27;s sort of normally used by the aerospace industry for calibrating sensors used in planes and missiles. So there are a few problems with this.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="575800" class="thewords">One was that you can&#x27;t export that into China. And the other one is that even if you wanted to, it would take you five or six months to buy one because they&#x27;re all hand built by the company. We didn’t have five or six months, because five or six months was after units needed to be on all of your doorsteps.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="590700" class="thewords">So we worked with the factory to come up with an alternative solution that you can see there. Those are actually standard Stanton DJ turntables that we hacked up to be computer&#x2d;controlled, and that&#x27;s a USB interface tachometer that we reverse&#x2d;engineered and rigged up to a computer so that we could get precision that was on par with the pretty nice turntable that we started with.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="608600" class="thewords">And we hacked together the first one with the factory, and they kind of took it from there and were able to replicate it and expand it in parallel, so instead of taking ten minutes to calibrate one like we were in Irvine, we could calibrate a dozen in parallel at two minutes a piece, and build hundreds of units a day.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="631600" class="thewords">And you know, despite being made in China, those turntables can&#x27;t actually be bought there. So we kind had to get creative on getting the first few units in. Hopefully the statute of limitations has passed on this, so I can get back into the country. But I got caught at the border of Hong Kong with one of them, and I think it’s probably still sitting in customs there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="650500" class="thewords">This is all part of building hardware as a small startup in China. You make strange mistakes and have interesting stories to tell out of them. And you go on these one&#x2d;week factory trips with people like Nate and Palmer that turned into two or three&#x2d;week factory trips where you start losing your mind a little bit, and it can test your patience.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="669400" class="thewords">But small contract manufacturers in China can also move shockingly quickly when you need them to. For example, you could show up one morning and get a piece of plastic for part of the Rift, and it would have an issue, and you&#x27;d point out the issue, and you&#x27;d say, &#x22;Well, we need to revise it this way,&#x22; and hand it to them, and you&#x27;d expect that it would take days or even weeks to modify steel tooling and &#x5b;chute&#x5d; new parts and assemble a new headset for you to try out and make sure that the fix actually worked.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="696000" class="thewords">But you know, we&#x27;d come back from lunch the same day, and you&#x27;d find a rift waiting for you with a fix there, just incredibly enough.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="702900" class="thewords">And you end up with some weird, entertaining results when you don&#x27;t actually provide specifications on these things. Like this picture, we actually spent hours over one of the trips rubbing different foam interfaces on our faces to figure out what the Rift should actually ship with because we hadn&#x27;t specified a material.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="720900" class="thewords">And hopefully you guys enjoyed the one we did ship with in DK1, and that paid off.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="726800" class="thewords">And you might’ve caught optics earlier as one of the pieces that we chose not to solve internally. It’s another one of those pieces that we didn’t actually really specify. It’s kind of, we took one of the lenses out of Palmer&#x27;s batch of headset lenses that he&#x27;d collected over time, trying to put together his DIY headsets, and kind of took it to our factory in China, and they took it to another factory in China that we actually still don&#x27;t know the name of, and that factory went and measured the curve, and started tooling up a replacement tool for it, and was able to build a few hundred thousand of &#x27;em just immediately.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="760000" class="thewords">It’s really pretty incredible, the kinds of things you can do in southern China.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="765200" class="thewords">So a normal product development process takes something like eight months to go from end to end. And that&#x27;s starting with a locked specification and locked industrial design, and we didn’t have either of these things when we were doing the first Rift.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="777900" class="thewords">And you&#x27;d normally have phases for engineering validation, where you&#x27;d go and test your electrical design and your mechanical design, and make sure that you made all the right choices as you were designing the thing. Then you&#x27;d have a design certification stage, where you&#x27;d actually tool up and make sure that the parts you&#x27;re chuting fit together properly, and the electronics work, and everything passes emissions testing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="797900" class="thewords">And then you&#x27;d have production verification testing, where you&#x27;d set up your factory line and train factory workers and make sure all your testware works and your yields are high, and all the stuff functions perfectly end&#x2d;to&#x2d;end before you do mass production. We had to choose a different process.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="812200" class="thewords">So our Kickstarter ended in September, and the original ship date for units was December. Now, this is pretty insanely short, and actually ended up being completely unrealistic, and we&#x27;re sorry we had to delay a few months, ultimately. But even the real schedule that we did go with, the one that ended up shipping in March, was extremely aggressive, and really actually pretty risky.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="833600" class="thewords">But we did it to optimize for getting units out the door as quickly as possible. And so to do that, we kind of had to design the headset, start cutting steel tools for plastic injection molding, and test headsets that were coming off of this plastic injection molding, all in parallel. And this is as risky as it sounds, because as you can imagine, if there&#x27;s an error at the end of the line, you don&#x27;t really have time to go back to the beginning and fix it, and fix the whole process end&#x2d;to&#x2d;end.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="860900" class="thewords">There&#x27;s really no room to recover from error, which was especially bad, because we did have error. As you guys might know, we initially started with this 5.6&#x2d;inch LCD panel in the Rift, which would&#x27;ve made the thing pretty nice and slick and small, kind of like the rendering that everyone stuck to from the DK1 Kickstarter.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="878900" class="thewords">But ultimately that thing ended up being end of lifed before we could even get our hands on them, and they weren&#x27;t stocked anywhere in China. So we kind of had this mad rush to switch to this seven&#x2d;inch panel, which resulted in this kind of big lunchbox thing we ended up with on everyone&#x27;s faces, unfortunately.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="895400" class="thewords">But it also meant that that panel didn’t really match the rest of the design. It didn’t match the industrial design, it didn’t match the face interface mechanisms, and it didn’t really match the optics. We had all this dead panel area that was going to waste. But it was a tradeoff that we made for the sake of getting units out the door and getting content built as well as.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="914100" class="thewords">And we took a lotta different risk on refinements in the design and in the product for the sake of that. You know, we had design flaws, like those goofy removable eye cups that let dust in anytime you changed the lens, and things like that eye relief mechanism that annoyingly requires a quarter to adjust. No one wants that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="930800" class="thewords">And that plastic rainbow piece around your nose in the first dev kit that cuts in if you have a nose that&#x27;s slightly bigger than average, like myself. And a lens to screen distance that we actually adjusted several times during the process, even though we didn’t really have the ability to. And honestly, I&#x27;m still not sure we shipped with the right distance.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="949400" class="thewords">And we also had a few issues that we did catch, thankfully. We had batches of lenses that weren&#x27;t cooling properly, and ended up with ripples in the plastic. So you&#x27;d end up with these pretty nasty&#x2d;looking things in your vision. And stuff like this issue here, where after some amount of time, basically every headset would fail with permanent green lines etched across the screen — thankfully we didn’t ship with that, would&#x27;ve been pretty disastrous.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="971700" class="thewords">And we also had issues like gyro&#x2d;calibration in the first few thousand units was actually doubling the error on almost everything, rather than eliminating it, which we thankfully fixed with a firmware update out the door, but hopefully didn’t affect anyone too badly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="986700" class="thewords">But you know, these are all issues that we caught, and we actually caught a few extra ones after shipping. Hardware&#x27;s not really like software, in that you can&#x27;t ship patches, but you can correct as you go, and hope that, you know, the people who got the later units get slightly better experiences than the early ones that you had to ship to get out the door.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1006900" class="thewords">In exchange for all of this, all these compromises we made, we got kits out the door really early. You know, earlier than actually we probably should&#x27;ve. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; But we were able to get units on the floor on GDC in 2013, and you know, there were thousands of developers who showed up, and hopefully some of you are among them, and we were able to turn a lot of people into believers in virtual reality in a single day.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1029100" class="thewords">Despite those hour&#x2d;long lines that day. And we got some incredible early content out of the community. We got stuff like &#x22;Blue Marble&#x22; and &#x22;Titans of Space&#x22;, and we were able to put on our own game jam really early, and got some incredible stuff, like &#x22;Dumpy: Going Elephants&#x22;, which was one of my personal favorites.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1046200" class="thewords">And ultimately we think the initial risk paid off. It was good enough, the Rift DK1, it was good enough at the right things, and not so bad at the wrong things, that you could use it to develop virtual reality content and get a feel for what VR could possibly be. And as you built these amazing things, you guys out there, we got this amazing boost in interest in virtual reality, and this boost in DK1 orders to go along with it, which our factory was certainly happy with.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1071700" class="thewords">And it kicked off this virtuous cycle where we were able to hire great engineers and get great content built, and ultimately use that great engineering team to build better VR headsets, to fix some of those flaws that we kind of kicked down the road the first time around. And we did that. We built the HD prototype with higher resolution, and &#x22;Crystal Cove&#x22;, and ultimately DK2, that hopefully all of you guys have, with low persistence and positional tracking.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1096600" class="thewords">So this was hopefully an interesting, informative look at some of what it took to build the first Rift Dev Kit. But we want to give you some deeper insight too, and we&#x27;re gonna do that by giving you the full design.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1108000" class="thewords">As of today, we&#x27;re happy to announce that the first Rift Dev Kit is now fully open source. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1121400" class="thewords">So that includes the tracker firmware, the PCB and schematic, and also all the mechanical pieces. And all this stuff is up on GitHub right now, and as soon as I hit the &#x22;make public&#x22; button, which I&#x27;ll probably do when I get off of this stage, it’ll be available for all of you to poke around at, so you can look at those files and see some of those design issues and mistakes that we made, and you&#x27;ll see some of the patches, especially in firmware, where we kind of went in and tried to fix retroactively some of the issues that we shipped with, like that calibration issue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1149400" class="thewords">And this is most of what you&#x27;ll need to build a DK1 equivalent headset. It’s actually not everything. It doesn’t include the panel or the display driver, partially because you can&#x27;t actually source those components anymore. As you guys might know, we stopped shipping DK1s, actually, because we were no longer able to source that panel.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1167700" class="thewords">But ultimately you guys are probably better off. Anyone who&#x27;s interested, we would be better off poking around the internet, going to some of the DIY headset communities and finding alternative screens and video controllers that are readily available.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1181100" class="thewords">So we&#x27;ll jump into some of the individual pieces that we&#x27;re releasing. So this is the tracker PCB. It’s actually probably the cleanest part of the Rift DK1 design, and that&#x27;s thanks to one of our electrical engineers, Lyle, who really put a lotta love and care into making it look nice and perform well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1197100" class="thewords">The design&#x27;s in Altium, which is unfortunately a pretty expensive and hard to get your hands on software package. But we also released the Gerber files that you could take directly to a board house if you want to get boards back pretty cheaply and quickly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1210200" class="thewords">The design is sort of hand&#x2d;solderable. It’ll be kind of painful. But there are also board houses you can go to to get boards assembled pretty cheaply as well. And this is a slight modification to what we shipped in the first Rift. It actually adds a USB port for the sake of making it slightly easier to use.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1228100" class="thewords">Otherwise, it’s identical. It’s got the same STM32 microcontroller. It’s got the same InvenSense gyroscope and accelerometers, and it’s got the same Honeywell magnetometer.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1238400" class="thewords">So for the firmware we also actually started internally with an expensive and hard to source IDE and compiler tool chain. But we ported the project over to CooCox, which is a free IDE that uses the GCC ARM embedded tool chain, so that all you guys can get access to it much more easily.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1256200" class="thewords">And you can actually program and debug this firmware using some pretty inexpensive ARM programmers. And actually if you aren&#x27;t afraid of modifying your first Rift, if you have a DK2 or you just don&#x27;t care about your Rift DK1 anymore, you can actually put a programming header on your tracker inside of your older Rift and use this exact firmware to start hacking on it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1278000" class="thewords">So the mechanical pieces that we released are a little bit less useful, but we released &#x27;em just because we couldn’t find a good reason not to. Unless you have the money for production tooling, steel tooling for a Rift would probably be something like &#x24;100,000, so I don&#x27;t recommend actually doing that. You don&#x27;t want to use the files directly. They aren&#x27;t going to be what you&#x27;d want to use for 3D printing or other low&#x2d;cost methods of fabrication.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1300900" class="thewords">But hopefully someone in the community kind of pokes around and modifies them a little bit, and makes them easier to use for that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1306700" class="thewords">Your best bet for, if you do want to build your own Rift, would actually be to do what we did starting out, which is use foam core and duct tape and magnifier lenses and off&#x2d;the&#x2d;shelf panels, and kind of hack it together that way.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1321200" class="thewords">And there are plenty of online communities. Like there&#x27;s a subreddit called &#x2f;r&#x2f;diyrift that links to a bunch of good instructions on cutting your own foam core shape to build a headset.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1331300" class="thewords">So you can build a headset. But really we&#x27;re more interested in seeing what people do with the individual components. Like the tracker is a low&#x2d;latency, low&#x2d;cost USB interfaced inertial measurement unit with the firmware and the board available right there, that you can use kind of as the base of a whole bunch of different things.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1348700" class="thewords">And the mechanicals, they&#x27;re not perfect, but there&#x27;s a pretty good facial interface, we think, and there&#x27;s that geometry for the lens cups that&#x27;s in the DK1 and the DK2 that you can use to build little things kind of like the latency tester that we built that pop into the headset.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1364100" class="thewords">And there&#x27;s also the CAD for the carrying case if you want a cool fashion accessory — you&#x27;re welcome to do that. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1369800" class="thewords">So ultimately, the reason that we opened all these things is for the sake of sharing what it is that we&#x27;ve learned. We don&#x27;t want everyone to have to take the same risks that we took and make the same mistakes that we took, and have to relearn the same lessons that we took. We just want to share the things that we&#x27;ve learned so you don&#x27;t have to do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1385400" class="thewords">And ultimately, that&#x27;s the reason I&#x27;m giving this talk, and that&#x27;s the reason we&#x27;re holding this conference. We want to share what we&#x27;ve learned, because we&#x27;re all in this to build virtual reality together. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1411400" class="thewords">All right. Thanks, everybody. We have time for questions, if anyone has any, about the Rift or about the open source project or anything. Yes&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1419800" class="thewords">Okay, hold on, you got a microphone coming to ya.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="1425800" class="thewords">So when are you gonna open source all the DK2 stuff&#x3f; &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="1429000" class="thewords">I expected that question to come.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="1431500" class="thewords">Well, here&#x27;s your chance.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="1432700" class="thewords">Yeah, that is a good question. So, you know, just like with this, actually, even open&#x2d;sourcing the DK1 was a debate that we had internally over the last year or so. You know, for everything that we do, we do actually discuss internally, &#x22;Is this something that is useful to open source, does it benefit the community&#x3f;&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1447400" class="thewords">And we always want to have that conversation and make sure that we&#x27;re doing the right thing. So we are interested in hearing your feedback always, but I can&#x27;t actually answer when we would or if we would open source it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1461500" class="thewords">Yeah&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="1463100" class="thewords">Can you talk a little bit about the collaborative process at an early stage, in terms of working with others in the community&#x3f; And perhaps how your collaborations early on with Valve affected the technologies or the development of the product that ultimately came to market.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="1488200" class="thewords">Okay, sure, yeah. So, a lot of what we did early on was kind of identify people out in the community who were capable of taking really rough, really early technology, and just playing with it to figure out what works and doesn&#x27;t work. And as you identified, Valve was one of those groups.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1505000" class="thewords">So as we were building early foam core prototypes, we handed them out to folks at Valve. Also, places like Epic, we handed some units out to. And you know, part of it was because we were a really tiny team. We didn’t have a huge software engineering staff, we didn’t have graphics engineers, really, aside from sort of half or one, maybe.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1524400" class="thewords">And we didn’t have game designers or anything like that. So it helped to lean on the other interested people and companies in the world, like Valve and Epic, to kind of get assistance on those parts of it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1537100" class="thewords">So getting units out to them, having them actually try to build content with it and see what falls out of that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1543000" class="thewords">A lot of that was on the SDK side more than the hardware side. But we did get feedback on comfort and face fit and adjustments and stuff like that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1554500" class="thewords">Any other questions&#x3f; Yes&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="1557500" class="thewords">Is Oculus going to continue to focus on hardware&#x3f; Or are you guys going to sort of like source out, kinda like Google and their operating system, how other manufacturers actually make the actual hardware&#x3f; Is Oculus leaning in that direction or...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="1578300" class="thewords">Sure. So that&#x27;s a little bit out of scope of this.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="1581300" class="thewords">I&#x27;m sorry, I thought —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="1581800" class="thewords">But no, no, it’s fine. But you know, actually we announced the Gear VR partnership a couple of weeks ago. That&#x27;s kind of an example of, we don&#x27;t have to build all of the hardware. We just want to make sure that virtual reality works the right way. That&#x27;s not to say that we&#x27;re going to continue to head down one path or another. Just right now we have a project that is Oculus software and algorithms and research that&#x27;s not our hardware, the Gear VR.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="1614800" class="thewords">So yeah, the panel change was fun. I miss the old panel. I liked that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="1618800" class="thewords">&#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="1621400" class="thewords">How did you cope with that&#x3f; And how did you find the new panel, how did you decide, &#x22;Yeah, we&#x27;re gonna use that,&#x22; and just accept that pretty nasty change&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="1634800" class="thewords">So it actually helped a little bit that we didn’t have a solid specification or design in place, and that we weren&#x27;t actually throwing away that much when we switched panels. But it was ultimately one of those things where you lean on your contract manufacturer and count on their connections to other people and companies in China and Taiwan and Hong Kong to source out, &#x22;Where can we get a &#x24;35&#x2d;6 panel that&#x27;s somewhere in the range of five inches to eight inches, that interfaces roughly to the video control board we were already developing&#x3f;&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1665900" class="thewords">And they come back to you with a set of samples, and you poke around and you try them all out, and we tried out a few different ones. And this one was the least bad out of the group. That&#x27;s how we ended up with it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="1687100" class="thewords">Can you talk a little bit about how you see the advances in manufacturing processes, whether it’s 3D printing or etc., how you think it affects these kinds of endeavors in the future, the near future&#x3f; Taking an idea from prototype to manufacturing thousands or hundreds of thousands of units in a relatively quick period of time.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="1711100" class="thewords">Sure. So just around 3D printing, we probably couldn’t have built any of the things that we built without 3D printing. You know, it was just sort of an essential part of the prototyping process. You&#x27;d come up with an idea, throw it out to a MakerBot, get plastic back, and it would be, you know, imperfect plastic, and you&#x27;d kinda have to shave it around a little bit and make the pieces glue and fit together.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1730200" class="thewords">But it lets you test out your ideas really really quickly. You know, you don&#x27;t have to have these long cycles where you come up with an idea and send it out to a machine shop and wait for parts to come back, and then fit &#x27;em together and see if it works. You can do fast iterations, and you can even do things like, there&#x27;s the lens to screen distance, right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1745400" class="thewords">&#x22;I don&#x27;t know, let&#x27;s print out 30 different eye cups that are reach .1 millimeters apart, and then try &#x27;em all out in sequence and see which one&#x27;s right.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1753100" class="thewords">But as it goes towards mass production, ultimately it’s you want the thing that you can get repeatable and cheap results with, and I don&#x27;t know if 3D printing is going to be that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="1762900" class="thewords">I mean, but given how difficult it still seems to be to get a hardware operation off the ground, do you see that actually changing in the near future, or is that something that you think is more distant&#x3f; That it’s always going to be, as they say, hardware is hard or much harder than software.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="1778900" class="thewords">Sure. I think it’s always going to be hard, partially because of those things where you can&#x27;t ship patches, you have to iterate and get it right, and verify that what you&#x27;re doing is correct. But I also think that, especially over the last few years, there&#x27;s been a lot of support framework that&#x27;s been built up both in California and in southern China that kind of helps people jump into southern China, find people to work with, and find factories that can help you out.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1800900" class="thewords">And I think that&#x27;s sort of paid off recently. It’s going to continue to get more and more interesting. We leaned on that a little bit, but we actually kind of went our own way as well. &#x5b;We didn’t kind of use&#x5d; one of the accelerator groups.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="1817200" class="thewords">So first off, releasing this open source is really awesome. I&#x27;m sure that the community will do some interesting things with it. One of the challenges with these sort of open source projects, though, is that it has some limited use in terms of where the community&#x27;s already moved on to with the DK2 and everything else.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1836100" class="thewords">So I&#x27;d like to — I&#x27;m curious on your thoughts of, with the background that the Oculus project has had in the do&#x2d;it&#x2d;yourself kind of community, and as a platform, how, as you&#x27;re developing products here, balancing the idea of developing a hardware platform, where hardware hackers can leverage the DK2 and have access to internals, versus a product that&#x27;s just kind of, &#x22;Take it as it is,&#x22; you know, sealed product.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="1865100" class="thewords">Sure. And you know, there are a lotta really interesting tradeoffs around that. You know, in DK2, for example, we have this USB port on the headset, and part of the reason that we put it there was for the sake of, you know, just seeing what could people do with it&#x3f; Can people come up with cool things to use&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1879100" class="thewords">But there&#x27;s also tradeoffs there. You know, it’s another exposed port, it’s geometry, it’s space taken up inside the headset, it’s weight and it’s cost. And so you kinda have to make tradeoffs as you go, and you have to figure out, you know, if you&#x27;re building a consumer product, do you want something that&#x27;s smaller and lighter and more compact and more reliable and more stable, or do you want something that&#x27;s more open&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1897100" class="thewords">And, you know, just personally — I can&#x27;t speak for the company specifically on this — but personally I like things that are easy to open and easy to use, and easy to hack on. But that&#x27;s, you know, there are all these tradeoffs involved in that. So I can&#x27;t really answer the question of what we&#x27;re gonna do going forward — just my personal feeling is that I agree with you that I like products that are easy to hack on.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="1920700" class="thewords">So you said you took, I guess, a random&#x2d;ish kind of lens. How did you go about then calibrating the distortion and the chromatic aberration on an off&#x2d;the&#x2d;shelf lens&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="1930200" class="thewords">That&#x27;s a good question. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; So I think probably every software engineer, and maybe half of the hardware engineers who have come through Oculus in the last two years, have had a shot at trying to solve this problem. And probably, I actually see a few of you in this room as well who have tried to have shots at it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1947300" class="thewords">The one that we have settled on at the moment, which is maybe not... Maybe I shouldn’t tell that story. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; But I will say that a lot of it is sort of coming up with procedures where you align grids and actually visually verify if the distortion that you&#x27;re mapping is correct or not.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1966300" class="thewords">Part of it is, you know, we built rigs internally with lasers, cameras and other devices to try to map the actual profile of the lens. &#x27;Cause actually, even if you do have the design going in, the thing that you&#x27;re manufacturing is not necessarily going to be exactly the same as the thing you&#x27;ve designed.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1980600" class="thewords">So you want to tune for or make your distortion map to the thing that actually came off the mold, not the design that went in at the start.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1988300" class="thewords">So I guess there are several different procedures we&#x27;ve done. The one that we actually use right now, I&#x27;m not going to talk about. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1996600" class="thewords">But we are working on other ones that are potentially better as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="2007200" class="thewords">During the lifespan of the DK1, there was a lot of indie development and games and demonstrations. So do you find that any of this content on the software side shape or form the hardware decisions for DK2 and moving forward&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2021900" class="thewords">Yeah, I think they do. I think a lot of it is just people coming up with use cases that we hadn&#x27;t really considered or didn’t think were that important going in, and then someone builds something cool, we try it out, and hey, it is good. We better take this into account when we&#x27;re designing this thing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2036100" class="thewords">You know, stuff like if you want to use a rift in any manner other than sitting in your chair — like if you want to lie down or lean over or something like that — you know, there&#x27;s hardware ramifications to that in your ergonomic design.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2046900" class="thewords">So there&#x27;s a lotta things around that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="2052200" class="thewords">Early on, it was suggested or said maybe Oculus would actually be selling the tracker as a individual part, I guess. Is the open&#x2d;sourcing of that kind of the end culmination of that idea&#x3f; And also, could you give us a little bit of detail on the latency tracker and its design process, if you were involved&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2068900" class="thewords">Yeah, sure. So on selling trackers individually, I don&#x27;t know if we ever actually said anything publicly about doing that, but yeah, this does ultimately serve the same goal. Anyone who wants to could, you know, set up their own online store or whatever they want to do.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2083900" class="thewords">The licenses are open enough that you can make it and sell it and do really whatever you want. So this does solve that problem. And yeah, the latency tester was another project that kind of went under a different production and development process.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2099600" class="thewords">We actually built that thing entirely in California, or at least the first batch of 500. We kind of wanted to test out, could we build a product in California&#x3f; And that&#x27;s plastics and electronics and assembly, all just local. And we ended up with this &#x24;100 price point that was higher, maybe, than people were expecting, and actually higher than we were expecting internally, partially because we tried this new thing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2124600" class="thewords">And we, I think, actually lost money on each one of those latency testers, amazingly enough. But it was another one of those, you know, sort of go in with a rough spec, build something quickly, because we knew that, well, internally we knew that DK1 wasn&#x27;t too long for the world because we were developing other stuff internally.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2140100" class="thewords">So wanted to make sure that the tool was out there early enough that people could actually get advantage of it and develop their content and check their latency and get their latency lower.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2152400" class="thewords">Any other questions&#x3f; Yes&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="2155600" class="thewords">Why Oculus Rift&#x3f; Like where did that name come from, and when did you guys decide to call the headset that&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2161400" class="thewords">That is a Palmer question, if you want to hand the microphone over. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Palmer Luckey"><span class="overidecolr">Palmer</span><span><a data-m="2166500" class="thewords">Hi, I&#x27;m Palmer. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; So I guess the name Oculus was... Oculus as a company was decided quite some time before the Rift was even a fully coalesced product. I had been doing consulting under that name. I actually picked that name because — without much thought — because I remember when I was working at ICT, some people had been sitting around talking, and a new Ph.D. candidate came in, and somehow he ended up using the word &#x22;oculus.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2196700" class="thewords">We said, &#x22;What’s that&#x3f; What’s that word&#x3f;&#x22; He says, &#x22;Oh, it means like a circular opening or window.&#x22; We&#x27;re like, &#x22;So like glasses are an oculus&#x3f;&#x22; &#x22;Yeah.&#x22; &#x22;And like if you do this, is this an oculus&#x3f;&#x22; And he says, &#x22;Oh yeah, definitely.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2209400" class="thewords">And we were like, &#x22;Wow, that&#x27;s a sweet word, wow. Someone should use that for something,&#x22; and I kinda filed it away. The Rift as a name also had very little effort put into it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2222100" class="thewords">I was actually — I remember I left someplace, and I decided while I was there, I was like, &#x22;I&#x27;m gonna do this headset thing, I&#x27;m gonna actually put them as kits on Kickstarter.&#x22; It’s like, &#x22;Okay, well, let&#x27;s start thinking, what would you call it&#x3f; It’s like a tear in reality, a portal in reality. No, Portal&#x27;s already a thing. Aperture&#x3f; Oh shit.&#x22; &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2242500" class="thewords">So I was running out of options. And then at the first red light, I was sitting there, I&#x27;m like, &#x22;A rift, ooh, that&#x27;s cool. It’s kinda like in &#x27;Jurassic Park&#x27; sequels where they have the tear through &#x27;Jurassic Park&#x27; for the I or the II or the III. It’s Rift, you know, like a tear in reality or something.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2257900" class="thewords">And I was like, &#x22;That&#x27;s pretty good.&#x22; So I got home and I posted. I said, &#x22;I&#x27;m launching this project, the Oculus Rift.&#x22; &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2278900" class="thewords">It’s okay, Palmer. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="2281600" class="thewords">The Chinese manufacturer that took a risk on you guys and that you took a risk on, are you still working with them&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2289000" class="thewords">I shouldn’t answer that question. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; But we did continue to work with them, and that Rift order certainly got bigger and bigger over time. And you know, it was a good relationship that we established, and we got a lot of equipment and processes in place. But I can&#x27;t actually answer whether we&#x27;re continuing to use them or whether we&#x27;re using them now.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="2316300" class="thewords">How many units are in the field currently, like DK1 and DK2, total&#x3f; How many have been shipped&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2323000" class="thewords">That&#x27;s a good... I think it’s over 100,000 right now, but I can&#x27;t give an exact number.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="2339100" class="thewords">Do you think you got lucky with your Chinese partners, or are they generally that agile as an industry&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2351800" class="thewords">I&#x27;m sorry, could you repeat the question&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="2353700" class="thewords">Do you think you got lucky with the partners that you chose for the manufacturing in China in their agility, or is that a general...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2362300" class="thewords">Sure. I mean, so, you know, we&#x27;re still doing a lot of rapid iteration and rapid design work. But it takes a different kind of process to build a million or a few million of a consumer product, as opposed to a few thousand or a few tens of thousands of a development kit that has a different set of expectations.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2379800" class="thewords">You know, if you, as a consumer, buy something on Amazon and get a box on your door, you expect a certain level of fidelity and reliability that we honestly didn’t get with our dev kits. But developers have different sets of needs.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2390000" class="thewords">They need a tool that they can use to develop with. So we do need and are using a different process as we head towards a consumer product. And we&#x27;ll take just one more after this, and then we can let you guys go have some cocktails.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="2409300" class="thewords">The biggest challenge I&#x27;ve found so far — I&#x27;m Greg Roberts with dsky9 — the biggest challenge I&#x27;ve found so far is the jarring reality from going from the mouse and the 2D screen to the goggles&#x2d;on 3D experience. I&#x27;m wondering two questions:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2424000" class="thewords">One, is there going to be an OS kind of infrastructure, so you can stay in the Rift longer without having to do fiddling in the 2D system&#x3f; And the second part of the question is are the OSs going to start to recognize an HMD as a specific type of display, separate from just a 1080p flat screen, so that they have some kind of intelligence to that&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2445600" class="thewords">So those are really interesting questions that I unfortunately cannot answer. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2453200" class="thewords">Okay. Anyone else&#x3f; Oh, one more.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="2468600" class="thewords">What was the most valuable lesson you learned in that whole process that you would probably do differently, or maybe to help you, or that helped you with the development of DK2 or &#x5b;CB1&#x5d;&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2480600" class="thewords">Yeah, that is a good question. I think, you know, a lot of what we learned in the first dev kit was stuff that — you know, I went over a lot of failures, and I didn’t do that to point out that we built a terrible product. I did that to point out that we had a lot of lessons learned in this development process.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2497600" class="thewords">So, you know, as we were building a second dev kit — I don&#x27;t want to go too much into the second dev kit — but we did have a better process. We had a better spec going in. We had a better verification flow, and we certainly built a better and hopefully more reliable product out of it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2509900" class="thewords">So it really was, making those mistakes let us learn what to do differently. Sorry, guys, I think that is... Or do we have...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2518000" class="thewords">Yeah, sorry, that is it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="2520500" class="thewords">I was just gonna ask if you&#x27;re ready to push the button.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2522800" class="thewords">&#x5b;laughs&#x5d; Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="2523800" class="thewords">I want to tweet the URL. Push the button.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Patel</span><span><a data-m="2527200" class="thewords">I will actually push the button live. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2534300" class="thewords">Sorry. No, I&#x27;m just gonna let you know when it happens. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; It says, &#x22;I understand, make this repository public.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2543800" class="thewords">And it is... nope, I have to put in my password. Sorry. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2547500" class="thewords">This is what happens when you do things live.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2556100" class="thewords">Okay, that&#x27;s it, it’s public. &#x5b;cheers, applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
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<p data-name="Leo Koenig of WooSports"><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="2900" class="thewords">So this is the Woo. Uh, it’s a small device that packs a lot of technology into a small waterproof and ruggedized package. And essentially what it does is quantify your action sport sessions. So if you&#x27;re a snowboarder or a kiteboarder, a wakeboarder or whatever it is, with that device you can measure how good you are, you can see how high you jump, how far you jump, how much air time you had, how many rotations you hit.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="24300" class="thewords">It shows Gs&#x3f; So a bobsledder could stick this in his bobsled&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="27100" class="thewords">A bobsledder data stick this on his bobsled. There&#x27;s many other applications that you can think of if you get a little creative, where G&#x2d;forces and impact are involved. But —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="36700" class="thewords">So that&#x27;s interesting. Are there going to be like hacker sessions of people to try to figure out different ways of using the Woo&#x3f; You&#x27;ve already done all the work engineering, right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="44900" class="thewords">Well, we&#x27;ve done the engineering work on the hardware platform. We&#x27;ve done a lot of back&#x2d;end work on the software side of things.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="49400" class="thewords">Oh, here, actually, I&#x27;m going to see if I can get my high&#x2d;tech camera... So what are these equations back here&#x3f; Leo&#x27;s not just a pretty face here, guys.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="61100" class="thewords">These equations essentially describe how we think about calibration of the sensors right now. So you see gain and offset here as two variables in this equation, and if you take three positions with your x acceleration, y acceleration, z acceleration, and variables before those, if you take three of those equation systems in three different &#x5b;positions&#x5d; of the sensor, you can solve it, and then you have a very accurate calibration of both offset and gain in three&#x2d;dimensional space.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="89100" class="thewords">So this is our iOS app. We have a couple of different things we can do in here. First of all, you can check the activity around you. So people in your network or the whole community that had sessions, we see a list of different sessions here. And for example, Patrick, one of our engineers, had a big, big session yesterday in more than 40 knots of wind.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="111000" class="thewords">And he jumped 12.4 meters high. So I can check his session, see all the details — highest jumps —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="116800" class="thewords">So there was a hang time of eight seconds.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="118200" class="thewords">Eight seconds in the air, yup.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="119600" class="thewords">Whoa.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="120200" class="thewords">Completely from takeoff to landing, which is a long, long time. We have a list of jumps. So we can see what jumps were done at which time. There&#x27;s a full timestamp in the system that is synced with GMT.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="135500" class="thewords">Most importantly, and what Patrick cares most about, is the leaderboards. So he can now check where he ranks up in the global leaderboard, and right now he is leading the pack of all of us with his 12.4&#x2d;meter jump that he had yesterday. So that&#x27;s what gets him the most excited.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="151100" class="thewords">You&#x27;re not going to let him keep that title.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="153600" class="thewords">Oh no, no no no, there&#x27;s no way.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="155900" class="thewords">I should note that it’s probably 25 mile an hour winds today, and in the interest of business, Leo is still here doing business, and not out there taking the big jumps.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="167300" class="thewords">Exactly. That should be a sign of appreciation right here. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="170800" class="thewords">When does this thing ship&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="172100" class="thewords">Right now we&#x27;re looking to before Christmas. So we have parts in here that are fully coming from our production lines, working on the last few issues that you always have with manufacturing. But we&#x27;re on track to ship it by Christmas, and of course we already have a lot of our distribution. So we have arrangements with a big kiteboarding manufacturer, Best Kiteboarding, and we have a rolling forecast with them over six months that they commit to already have the first two purchase orders for November and December in&#x2d;house.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="202200" class="thewords">They&#x27;re ten percent down paid already, and so very committed numbers, and we&#x27;re very much looking forward to get the product out there.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="208500" class="thewords">And can people go to you directly as well&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="211200" class="thewords">Yeah, of course. I mean we see a lot of virality in the market. In kiteboarding or in any action sports, it’s a very tightknit community, so people will learn about this very quickly, and they&#x27;re going to ask, &#x22;Where can I get it&#x3f;&#x22; Right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="221000" class="thewords">And WooSports.com is the answer to that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="223300" class="thewords">Leo, I&#x27;m an investor. I want to see return on my money. That means you gotta sell for &#x24;1 billion to GoPro. Hear that, GoPro&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="232800" class="thewords">How about sales&#x3f; Purchase orders.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="234700" class="thewords">First of all, I have to disappoint you. We&#x27;re going to buy &#x5b;you out&#x5d;. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; Then we can sell.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="240500" class="thewords">No, so in terms of purchase orders, the arrangement there is that, again, we have a six months rolling forecast that guarantees certain quantities going forward. They&#x27;re committed numbers from our distributor, Best Kiteboarding, and they trickle all the way down to our manufacturer, so they can build their inventory.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="256900" class="thewords">The payment terms are rather favorable in that sense, that we get paid at FOB from our distributors. So they take all the risk at FOB, which allows us to almost have a negative operating cycle, and no working capital needs for that arrangement per se, and we have healthy net profits on units. So of every unit that we sell through the retail channel and distribution channel, we roughly have a net profit of &#x24;40&#x2d;50, depending on the country where we&#x27;re selling in.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="283500" class="thewords">And if we sell direct, we have &#x24;110 of net profit per unit. And we&#x27;re looking to sell 2,600 units this year alone.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="293300" class="thewords">Okay. And you&#x27;re the only thing like this that I know of. Is that correct&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="298600" class="thewords">Yeah, we&#x27;re definitely the only thing like this, in kiteboarding, but in action sports as a whole. So we have the first mover advantage, and we have, of course, tons and tons of interest on the market. And something we&#x27;ve learned is that this is not necessarily something like a FitBit that you have to convince people to buy. People are going to want to buy this, because if there&#x27;s a competition going on at your local beach, you don&#x27;t want to miss out on that, right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="322300" class="thewords">You want to be on the leaderboard, and you want to compete with your buddies. So we really expect there to be a very high adoption rate in many of those sports.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="329100" class="thewords">And these are the professional kiteboarders&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="332700" class="thewords">No, the device is pretty much for everyone.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="335900" class="thewords">No, I&#x27;m saying there are professional kiteboarders, right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="337600" class="thewords">Oh yeah, yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="338200" class="thewords">And so these guys would be spending thousands of dollars on their equipment and competitions and all that kind of stuff.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="343900" class="thewords">Well, I mean every kiteboarder that is serious about the sport — and there are estimated to be half a million in the world that are serious about the sports — more that have touched the sport, but half a million who are active in the sport. And they spend &#x24;4,000 on a set of kite gear.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="357900" class="thewords">You need two kites, which is at least &#x24;1,500 each. You need a board, you need a wetsuit, you need a harness. And then you travel to go kiting, right&#x3f; You move your lifestyle around, and you go to warm locations in the winter.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="367300" class="thewords">So the average spend on the sport is really really high, whereas the &#x24;199 we charge for a device is more like a throw&#x2d;in, right&#x3f; It really enhances your experience, though. Makes it much more fun to go kiting.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="379200" class="thewords">So is a kiteboard competition judged on artistic...&#x3f; It would seem to me that every guy in the X Games should be having one of these things so they compare it on TV live. Except for I guess it’s not a radio — you only know after you unplugged.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="395000" class="thewords">Yeah. I mean we&#x27;ve conceptualized a lot how we can get this data live, away from the athlete and onto the TV screen, for example, for competitions, and that&#x27;s definitely the future, where I see this going — to be in the X Games, which is not only a great marketing tool, but also a great way to kind of validate your product.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="414100" class="thewords">I would think even like Warren Miller Films or something like that, or the ski guys —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="417800" class="thewords">Well, you know, what I&#x27;m thinking is like you watch the X Games and there&#x27;s not like, &#x22;Oh, yeah, look at this guy doing this and that,&#x22; he&#x27;d be like, &#x22;Yo, 6.9 meters and he stomped that landing with 3.5 Gs, hit it really hard, but goes off the next one, slides that &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; for 1.8 seconds. He held it longer than anybody before,&#x22; right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="432900" class="thewords">So all that exciting data all of a sudden gives the sport, so to speak, a score.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="436500" class="thewords">Well, it’s clear you could do this on a post&#x2d;production basis, you know, adding it in. I think it’s sort of like the invention in poker of the camera watching the hole cards. Now everybody can feel along, and I think that&#x27;s gonna be the case with Woo.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="452100" class="thewords">Yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="452700" class="thewords">All right. Is there an official Woo noise&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="457000" class="thewords">Woo&#x21; Maybe that&#x3f; &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="460100" class="thewords">That&#x27;s what I was looking for. You&#x27;re not exactly Ric Flair here, but —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="463300" class="thewords">Oh, hey, if you want the original Woo noise, you gotta meet us out on the beach. You&#x27;ll hear it all the time. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="467800" class="thewords">Okay, so I just saw Sally from South Africa.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="471300" class="thewords">Yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="471800" class="thewords">And Johnny&#x27;s from France —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="473500" class="thewords">Yup.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="473700" class="thewords">And, you know, we got an entire international team, but they&#x27;re all doing math. Tell us about the team.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="480200" class="thewords">So we actually have six different countries represented. We have France, we have Holland, the US of course, Germany, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. So I think it’s nine people, six countries.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="492400" class="thewords">And you just got some Harvard guy, and the only reason he was able to qualify is he also is a &#x5b;stud&#x5d; athlete&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="498300" class="thewords">He&#x27;s pretty much the perfect &#x5b;mole&#x5d; that you would describe as someone who should work at Woo. He&#x27;s a very passionate and enthusiastic personality per se. He&#x27;s way into kiteboarding. He&#x27;s always the guy who&#x27;s out first and leaves the water last.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="512700" class="thewords">But he also has a cum laude degree from Harvard, mechanical engineer, and he has a brain and a half. He&#x27;s from Zimbabwe, so he&#x27;s —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="518400" class="thewords">Whoa, whoa, and your MIT Media Labs let him get away with bragging rights&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="523800" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t know, not yet. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; So yeah, this is kind of a perfect mole. But yes, we are a diverse team of different nationalities that all kind of unite around this passion of, I&#x27;d say both technology and kiteboarding.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="540000" class="thewords">And actually, entrepreneurship and kiteboarding are two somewhat related things, because you know, in both disciplines you take risks and you do things that might hit you hard, and you get out of your comfort zone, but you enjoy it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="551700" class="thewords">So in that sense, you know, it’s two related things, so it’s very easy to find good entrepreneurs in kiteboarding, and to, more than anything, build a really strong brand and culture around your company as well with that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="561300" class="thewords">And it’s all about accelerating and not crashing.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="565000" class="thewords">That&#x27;s what it’s all about. But as you will see, every now and then the crash is inevitable. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="569900" class="thewords">As long as you learn from the crashes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="571800" class="thewords">Exactly.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Danco</span><span><a data-m="572100" class="thewords">Words to live by. Thanks, Leo.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Koenig</span><span><a data-m="573800" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
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<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p data-name="President Shannon"><a data-m="9700" class="">Welcome, everyone. Excellent turnout tonight. I&#x27;d like to ask you all to stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="25000" class="">&#x5b;pledge&#x5d;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="62000" class="">Thank you all for coming. We will begin our city council meeting at 7:05, and the first item on the agenda is the agenda. Councilor Mason&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><p data-name="Commissioner Mason"><a data-m="73800" class="">Thank you, President Shannon. I&#x27;d like to move the agenda as presented with the following amendments.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="78600" class="">No proposed amendment add to the consent agenda item 4.32, communication Bob Rusten, Chief Administrative Officer, re: plan regarding city&#x27;s billing system&#x27;s compliance with City of Burlington ordinances, charter budgets and enacted resolutions, with a consent action to waive the reading, accept the communication and place it on file per CAO Rusten,</a></p>
<p><a data-m="96500" class="">add updated amendments per Councilor Wright and add amendment per Councilor Ayres for agenda item 5.02, resolution North Avenue Corridor Plan, &#x5b;TEUC&#x5d;, add consolidated proposed North Avenue Corridor amendments for agenda item 5.02 per Brian Lowe, Mayor&#x27;s Office.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="112200" class="">Change &#x22;commission&#x22; to &#x22;committee&#x22; for agenda item00:00:04.320, line 45, per Democratic staff person Judy Stephanie &#x5b;Ahern&#x5d;, add Jeff Nick&#x27;s communication to agenda item 5.03, add Kelly Devine&#x27;s communication to agenda item 5.03,</a></p>
<p><a data-m="126300" class="">remove from the consent agenda item 4.27, approval of MOU. Eileen M. Blackwood, Esq., city attorney, re: &#x5b;Tasqua&#x5d; lease, and place it on the deliberative agenda as agenda item 5.08, per Councilor Bushor.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="142000" class="">Thank you, Councilor Mason. Is there a second&#x3f; Seconded by Councilor Bushor.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="148300" class="">Any further amendments to the agenda&#x3f; Councilor...&#x3f; Okay.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="155700" class="">All those in favor of the agenda as amended, please say aye.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Various</span><p><a data-m="158700" class="">Aye.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="159400" class="">Any opposed&#x3f; That&#x27;s unanimous.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="163200" class="">Next item on our agenda is our annual report from the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="173400" class="">Welcome, Commissioner Montroll.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><p data-name="Commissioner Montroll"><a data-m="177900" class="">Good evening, thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="178300" class="">Welcome back.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><p><a data-m="179300" class="">Thank you. Pleasure to be here. So I&#x27;m Andy Montroll, I&#x27;m your representative to the Regional Planning Commission.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="187600" class="">I was hoping our alternate rep was going to be here also, but I understand he&#x27;s not able to make it &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="195600" class="">He had been planning on coming, so apologize for his not being here. But you have our annual report. It’s been a very exciting year at the Regional Planning Commission.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="204000" class="">There&#x27;s been a lot of activity that&#x27;s been happening. In our report we break it down into activities that are going on here in Burlington and regional activities. Beyond what’s here, what you see in the activities that are going on in Burlington, there are similar type of activities, although probably not as many, going on in all of the other member municipalities in the county.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="226400" class="">So it’s been very active. When I was here last year, and in other times, I think, we&#x27;ve talked about the ECOS Project, which is essentially the regional plan. It incorporates the regional plan plus the transportation plan, plus other plans. And that was done about two years ago.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="246600" class="">And a lot of the work that we&#x27;ve been doing since then really focuses on that and builds off of that, and starts to implement some of the programs that that was recommending.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="257100" class="">I also just want to let you know I was elected as the chair of the Regional Planning Commission last spring. So I&#x27;m pleased to serve in that capacity.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="267000" class="">I was also the chair of, essentially it’s the budget committee for coming up with the budget for this next year, and it was very helpful hearing from folks at Public Works and others who let me know what the priorities for the city were, so I can make sure that those were being incorporated into the work plan for this year that we&#x27;re in right now.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="286500" class="">And one other piece that&#x27;s been important to us and, and to me, is really trying to help promote communications with the Regional Planning Commission.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="295600" class="">And promote better outreach. And hopefully you&#x27;ve all been getting, like, monthly updates from the Regional Planning Commission.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="302900" class="">There are newsletters are emailed to everybody. If you&#x27;re not getting that, let me know, but they go into quite a bit of depth over what we&#x27;re doing.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="309600" class="">The website also makes sure it’s kept up&#x2d;to&#x2d;date with all the different meetings that are going on, the different projects that are going on. So if you ever want to know what’s happening, first feel free to contact me, but also look at the website. There&#x27;s a whole wealth of information there. And with that, I&#x27;d be happy to answer any questions that you have.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="327900" class="">Thank you, Commissioner Montroll. Do we have any questions&#x3f; Councilor Bushor&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><p data-name="Commissioner Bushor"><a data-m="334800" class="">I don&#x27;t have questions, but first of all I want to congratulate you on being elected chair. I think regional planning is in good hands.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="345100" class="">The other thing is I just wanted to let you know that every time you reach out to a community and partner with them to work on a plan, a complete street, I feel that your staff, the staff there are so professional and really help get everyone around the table, and help to bring to closure a plan or a pilot project that is representative of input from the community.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="378700" class="">I&#x27;ve been very impressed with that process, and I just want you to know that as a commissioner, that I think this organization serves Chittenden County very well.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="392500" class="">And I had reservations when there was the merger of transportation and planning together. But I think it’s been a very good uniting of those two issues, which really are intertwined anyway. So I just wanted to give you that positive feedback. Thank you very much.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="410900" class="">And the report was, I really liked the way you divided into Burlington and then the rest of the region. It was very readable. Thanks.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><p><a data-m="417500" class="">Good, thank you, and I&#x27;ll bring those comments back.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="422000" class="">Thank you. Councilor Wright&#x3f; Before you speak, let me just make a brief announcement. We have a lot of people to speak here at public forum, and I know we also have some young kids in the room.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="434000" class="">So Mike is trying to collect names of people who have young kids here or other urgent reasons that they might need to speak sooner rather than later.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="445300" class="">If you give your name to Mike, I&#x27;ll do what I can to move you to... Mike, can you raise your hand and wave&#x3f; Thank you.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="454400" class="">We&#x27;ll do what we can to facilitate that. So, sorry, Councilor Wright.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Wright</span><p data-name="Councilor Wright"><a data-m="457900" class="">That&#x27;s all right, President Shannon, thank you. Really no question. Andy, just wanted to sort of echo what Councilor Bushor said.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="465100" class="">Thank you for your service, great job, and it’s always good to see you back here in Contois where you spent so many years. Thanks.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><p><a data-m="472500" class="">Well, thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="475900" class="">Thank you, Councilor Wright. Councilor Siegel.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Siegel</span><p data-name="Councilor Siegel"><a data-m="478200" class="">Thank you very much, President Shannon, and thank you for coming, and thank you to those who had to amend the agenda and change this to tonight.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="484700" class="">That was at my request, and I really do appreciate the opportunity to speak to you directly and to recognize the work that&#x27;s been done. To folks in the public or watching on channel 17, what we&#x27;re talking about might not be clear.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="497300" class="">CCRPC is a pretty big mouthful. It’s the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. And to a lot of people that sounds like roads and buildings and infrastructure. But it’s also about people, and the ECOS Project really exemplifies that. And I was just so excited when I heard about the diversity and equity efforts that are happening within it, and in particular, the Leadership Training For People of Color Program that was piloted last year.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="530800" class="">And I was at one of the commemorative events at the end of it, and know some of the folks who participated. And it was very valuable. Not just for those individuals, but it in the end will be valuable for all of us, who will get more leadership from people who we don&#x27;t always see in leadership positions.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="554300" class="">So I had two questions regarding what you put in the report about the diversity and equity. One is that it mentions that you&#x27;re updating the Public Participation Plan, and a public hearing is expected in September of 2014.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="571400" class="">I&#x27;m curious if that happened and I missed it, or if it’s coming.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><p><a data-m="574700" class="">It didn’t happen yet. I had prepared the report in I think early August, and the hope was it was going to be on our agenda in September. It wasn&#x27;t finished yet, and so we put if off.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="586800" class="">It’s supposed to be on our agenda on the third Wednesday this month in October. I&#x27;m still optimistic it’s going to be. I think they still need to have a final meeting of the group that&#x27;s working on that.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="599900" class="">Assuming they&#x27;re able to complete their work, it will be on our agenda, and I&#x27;m hopeful that&#x27;s going to happen, because we want to move forward with it.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr"></span><p><a data-m="607600" class="">We would see the public hearing on the agenda for the upcoming meeting&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><p><a data-m="610900" class="">Yes.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr"></span><p><a data-m="611200" class="">Of how to find out&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><p><a data-m="612000" class="">Yes. It’s the third Wednesday of the month.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr"></span><p><a data-m="" class="">Okay, that&#x27;s great. I didn’t mean to criticize at all. That stuff happens. It’s hard, you know, hard to know.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="620700" class="">And then my question, my other question is about the leadership training. And it was a pilot program, it was successful, and there&#x27;s no reference as to whether it’s going to continue. And I know that Sarah Osaba, who led it and really, I think, created it in a lot of ways, made it happen, is now out of state.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="642100" class="">And so without her being there, will somebody else fill that gap&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><p><a data-m="648600" class="">I hope so. As you were pointing out, it was a really successful program last year that ended in June, and there was a kind of a graduation ceremony at our annual meeting in June, where a number of folks who participate in it were recognized. And I don&#x27;t know exactly yet what form it’s going to take on, because as you pointed out, Sarah has gone.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="671400" class="">But I&#x27;m hopeful that we&#x27;ll be able to continue with something, either with the same program or something like it. I think it’s something that we&#x27;ve targeted as being really important to be able to reach out to a broader community, and it’s more than just reaching out. It’s helping to make sure that people in all different parts of our community have the background to really be able to fully participate, and that&#x27;s what that program was all about, was helping give people the groundwork and the base so that they could participate more actively in other things.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr"></span><p><a data-m="702500" class="">And I know you partnered with quite a number of community organizations to make that happen financially and logistically, and I am assuming that they all are still interested and were happy with how it went. So I hope that you&#x27;ll let Charlie know and let the rest of the commission know that we all are rootin&#x27; for you to do it again.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><p><a data-m="724300" class="">Great, absolutely, I&#x27;ll pass that on.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr"></span><p><a data-m="725900" class="">Yeah, thanks.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="728200" class="">Thank you. Anyone else&#x3f;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="733500" class="">Well, thank you very much for your service, Commissioner Montroll, and for coming here tonight. And I know everybody knows that they can contact Andy if you have any questions or concerns. So, thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><p><a data-m="746200" class="">Great. Thank you very much.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="750300" class="">I think normally we wouldn&#x27;t go to public forum until 7:30, but given that I have maybe 50 people who want to speak, I think we can get right to that. And anybody who comes at 7:30 won&#x27;t have missed it.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="768400" class="">So if there&#x27;s no objection, we&#x27;ll just go directly to that. And I only have, I have two people...</a></p>
<p><a data-m="782500" class="">I have two speakers with children that I&#x27;m going to put at the top of the pile, and otherwise take them in the order I receive them.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="789800" class="">The first — so I&#x27;ll just remind people, you&#x27;ll have two minutes to speak, and the lights at the table will go on. When you start talking, the green light will go on. When you need to wrap up your comments, the yellow light will go on.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="802600" class="">And when you need to end your comments, the red light would go on. And I&#x27;d appreciate it if people would really tightly respect the lights tonight, &#x27;cause we do have so many speakers and we want to hear from everybody.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="815700" class="">Please address your comments to me. We try to not make anything personal. We want to hear from you about the issues.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="822500" class="">It’s easier for us to hear your comments if you can address in a respectful way. We really appreciate that.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="832800" class="">And I will let you know both who the speaker is and who is on deck. So our first speaker is Sarah Goodrich, followed by Jenny &#x5b;Cathcart&#x5d;. Welcome.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="842200" class="">And also if you can pull the mike right up — not you, silly. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="849400" class="">That&#x27;s for mom.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cathcart</span><p data-name="Jenny Cathcart"><a data-m="853000" class="">Hi, I&#x27;m sorry I&#x27;m going out of order, as I was the number two speaker, but I got the motion. Is that okay&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="857000" class="">Oh, okay, so you are Jenny Cathcart.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cathcart</span><p><a data-m="858900" class="">Yes. Hi, I&#x27;m Jenny Cathcart —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="859800" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cathcart</span><p><a data-m="862800" class="">And I live at 37 Laurel Court. So we&#x27;re in the Crescent Beach neighborhood, and I&#x27;m here with my three kiddos. Five, three and one. Two of whom already ride their bikes without training wheels.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="873500" class="">So we moved to Burlington two and a half years ago from Madison, Wisconsin, where I was previously the Director of Marketing for Schwinn Bicycles, and a board member for the Wisconsin Bicycle Federation.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="884500" class="">So biking is near and dear to my heart, and having livable, walkable, Complete Streets is very dear to my heart. But now that... Hey, Emma.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="892700" class="">Now, as a mom, it’s even more important to me, because as I looked at the plan, the very well thought out plan that you guys have conceived, I see that there are numerous intersections that my family uses regularly, as we go to Ethan Allen Park, as we go to Hannaford&#x27;s Plaza.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="906700" class="">And we&#x27;re a family that walks and bikes and does a lot of errands. And so the work that you guys are proposing is very important and very near and dear to my heart, and to those in... Shh, thank you. And those in our neighborhood.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="919200" class="">And I truly hope that you stay strong and vote yes to move forward with the proposed changes. Thank you so much for listening, and thank you so much for all the hard work you&#x27;ve done on this issue.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="931200" class="">Thank you for making the effort to come out and talk to us. Thank you all.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cathcart</span><p><a data-m="934500" class="">&#x5b;laughs&#x5d; Okay, sh.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="937100" class="">Sarah Goodrich. Oh. Is Sarah here&#x3f; If she comes back... is Sarah here&#x3f;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="950100" class="">No. Okay, if she comes back, just wave to me and hopefully I&#x27;ll recognize you and we can still hear from Sarah.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="957900" class="">Next we have Chuck Norris Brown followed by Martha Lange.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Brown</span><p data-name="Chuck Norris Brown"><a data-m="975400" class="">Hello. Chuck Norris Brown from Burlington.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="978700" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Brown</span><p><a data-m="979700" class="">Thank you. First of all, I wish to thank the Burlington City Council for allowing public input such as this as well as for listening. We know you listen. In my case, I&#x27;m referring to the support you showed the CCTA drivers during the strike.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="991600" class="">Your involvement has led to constructive changes at CCTA, even as we speak, and I am sure the drivers who are here and the staff also, and the Board of Commissioner people who are here would agree.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1003000" class="">I am sure they all want to work with you to continue to make the Burlington region a model for public transportation.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1009200" class="">In this connection I want to refer to, among other things, Plan BTV, which clearly states among its goals environmental quality, social equity, and energy efficiency in transportation choices. And I&#x27;m sure we can join hands with our bicycle colleagues here this evening, plus those who support public transportation here tonight and watching us across the airwaves to emphasize three reasons why Burlington cannot afford to drop the ball on the downtown transit center.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1034400" class="">The downtown transit center will have highly improved driver room and facilities as well as shelter and better security for passengers. It will also allow for better transfer protocol and ease bus crossings at Church Street. Finally, Burlington is a city choked by cars. In a way, the DTC symbolizes Burlington&#x27;s commitment to taking steps forward for public transportation and the livable city mentioned in Plan BTV.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1057300" class="">We&#x27;re all on this bus together. Please make the decision this evening that will provide the easement necessary to allow CCTA to move forward in building its downtown transit center. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1066800" class="">Thank you. Martha Lange, followed by Greg Roy. You&#x27;re also welcome to come up and sit at the table if you like, if you&#x27;re the next in the queue. Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Lange</span><p data-name="Martha Lange"><a data-m="1079300" class="">It’s two minutes, correct&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1080500" class="">It’s two minutes, yes.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Lange</span><p><a data-m="1082200" class="">My name&#x27;s Martha Lange and I&#x27;m here to talk regarding the Taft School Lease. I am opposed to the 160&#x2d;year lease of Taft School. This deal is not in the best interest of the schoolchildren of Burlington, the taxpayers or Ward One residents.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1096800" class="">Ward One will now be the only ward in Burlington without a school. And the students at Taft, a group of the most neediest, vulnerable children in the city, are being displaced without any public information on where they&#x27;re going to be educated.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1112900" class="">This sale does not honor the intent of Mr. Taft&#x27;s last will. And I go on to discuss why. The &#x24;1.6 million from this lease will be under the control of the Burlington School District, a group who recently took &#x24;210,000 from school maintenance money to buy 59 Murray Street, a building they are being forced to sell because they violated zoning regs.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1140400" class="">This group, when they found out there was a &#x24;2.3 million school deficit, debated whether or not the taxpayer would even be told about it. Eventually there will be a change in school commissioners. What guarantees do we have that the &#x24;1.6 million from Taft School won&#x27;t be as horribly disrespected as the intent of Mr. Taft&#x27;s will and testament&#x3f;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1168400" class="">And what’s &#x24;1.6 million compared to &#x24;14 million that the city misappropriated for Burlington Telecom under the advice of the same law firm representing the school district&#x3f; Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1182100" class="">Thank you. I would like to... Is Sarah Goodrich here&#x3f; She did. Okay.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1193100" class="">If she comes back, let me know. Mr. Roy&#x3f; Welcome. Followed by RJ &#x5b;La Lumiere&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Roy</span><p data-name="Greg Roy"><a data-m="1205500" class="">Thank you very much, Madam President, for allowing me to address the council. My name is Greg Roy, I live on Dale Road in North End.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1213300" class="">First of all, I think we probably should&#x27;ve brought in some tubular police barriers so that we&#x27;d have a place for all the extra bikes that showed up tonight. If everybody leaves at once, it’s gonna look like Beijing out there.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1225700" class="">On the subject of the North Avenue Corridor Study and Project now, I would hope that this gets treated like the pilot project that it is. Personally, I wasn&#x27;t in favor of it from the beginning, and I didn’t really like the end product. I don&#x27;t think that roundabouts are going to be safe for &#x5b;stop&#x5d; control and crosswalks, lights.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1246300" class="">And I don&#x27;t think reducing the width is going to help, either. Road diets work some places, like on Colchester Avenue. It seems to be the fix for there, but I&#x27;ve heard people complaining in South Burlington about the Shelburne Road road diet, and they don&#x27;t like it.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1263200" class="">So I would just hope that you would adopt Councilor Wright&#x27;s amendment to bring this back to the people and check in after the project, &#x22;pilot project&#x22;, is in force. Let&#x27;s just have a word back from the people, if they like it, if they don&#x27;t like it, and let&#x27;s fix it from there. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1281100" class="">Thank you. RJ La Lumiere, followed by Paul Kemptner. Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">La Lumiere</span><p data-name="RJ La Lumiere"><a data-m="1296500" class="">Hi. I&#x27;m from Ward Seven, I&#x27;m a homeowner up there. And I&#x27;d just like to say that I support the proposal as it is with no amendments. Maintaining any on&#x2d;street parking seriously compromises the safety of cyclists, and we like to ride our bikes, we like to walk a lot. We walk down to Hannaford&#x27;s because it’s not safe for her to ride there, although it should be — it’s very close.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1326900" class="">I&#x27;ve heard some effort to frame this as just a New North End issue, but that&#x27;s not the case. It’s imperative that we have a full network across the whole city, so that we can go to school, so we can go to the library, so that we can go to the store and church. And disconnected pieces of intimidating infrastructure don&#x27;t make that possible for us.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1354300" class="">And so I would just ask also that we let the pilot project run long enough that we can collect meaningful data, let people get used to the new configuration, and don&#x27;t prejudge it. Thank you very much.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1371400" class="">Thank you. I should&#x27;ve noted at the beginning of the meeting that we have Councilor Legrand on the phone. So she has been participating through the whole meeting and she is hearing the public comment right now. Councilor Legrand, you&#x27;re there, right&#x3f; Probably on mute. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1393600" class="">Councilor Legrand&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Legrand</span><p data-name="Councilor Legrand"><a data-m="1394400" class="">Yes, I&#x27;m here, I&#x27;m here.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1395700" class="">Okay, thank you. Just confirming.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Kemptner</span><p data-name="Paul Kemptner"><a data-m="1398400" class="">My name is Paul Kemptner. I live in the New North End on Cumberland Road, and I want to say that I want to speak in favor of the amendment as it stands without any amendments. I have lived there for quite some time, and starting when I was about 50, I started bike commuting year&#x2d;round to downtown Burlington.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1420400" class="">My wife still bike commutes. She works out at Fanny Allen, and often has to return quite late at night. And in the winter there are no options. Options imply that you have choices. But in the winter there are no options for commuting. There&#x27;s North Avenue or North Avenue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1441400" class="">So, and I&#x27;ve ridden that throughout the winter, and it’s difficult and dangerous. One of the arguments that I&#x27;ve heard that people have said that they would not support it, is that it might make their commutes longer. But there&#x27;s never been any discussion that if more people were riding their bike, there&#x27;d be less cars.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1463500" class="">So I would offer that to you as for something to think about. I&#x27;ve often heard it suggested the bike path be plowed, but often got the response that it would put too much salt near the lake. And so in the winter the bike path is not an option.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1486300" class="">North Avenue is the only way to go. So, I want to speak in favor of this.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1493800" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Kemptner</span><p><a data-m="" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1496400" class="">Andrea, followed by Mike Walden. Andrea did not give me a last name. But wanted to speak to bike safety&#x3f;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1515200" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Todd</span><p data-name="Andrea Todd"><a data-m="" class="">Sorry about that.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1516600" class="">I&#x27;m Andrea Todd, is my last name.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1517800" class="">You were probably here before it was really really crowded —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Todd</span><p><a data-m="1520200" class="">Yes. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1520400" class="">— and thought &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;. Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Todd</span><p><a data-m="1522600" class="">Thank you. Thank you for letting me speak about this issue. I&#x27;m a bike commuter year&#x2d;round, with studs in the winter, and with my t&#x2d;shirt in the summer.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1534400" class="">I think this is a really appropriate time to speak about bike safety, in lieu of last week&#x27;s pedestrian and bicycle accidents that happened in the city. So I think that really puts a good framework of discussion of safety of the people who are trying to live in Burlington and commute through Burlington&#x27;s streets.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1556500" class="">This project and proposal, I&#x27;m in strong support of because of its ability to allow more people to get on bikes and drive through the city. It’s not a one or the other option. This solution allows both to work together.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1572300" class="">And as someone who is in traffic day in and day out, the idea of a buffer area of something that can protect me from traffic and cars that might hit me is really appealing. This has an opportunity to actually make Burlington a truly bikeable and truly livable city that it is often espoused to be. So please support and put your money really behind the promise of a livable, bikeable Burlington.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1603400" class="">Thank you. And I&#x27;m going to go to somebody who has small children here. Kate Whitman, followed by Mike Walden.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1623400" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Whitman</span><p data-name="Kate Whitman"><a data-m="1624000" class="">Hi, thanks. Thanks for taking us. And, Kate Whitman — this is Ezra. I live in the New North End —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1630300" class="">If you can try to speak into the microphone — I realize you have other challenges —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Whitman</span><p><a data-m="1633800" class="">Hello. Kate Whitman — this is Ezra. I live in the New North End. And I used to be a 12&#x2d;month bike commuter when I lived in a place where I felt safe. This was before kids.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1647800" class="">I hope to be at some point, but the realistic short term for me is being able to ride my bike to get groceries, go to the post office, go to UVM, go to work, and I wholeheartedly support the proposal as it’s written now.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1663400" class="">I think the comments about bike safety, I agree with. The comments about having a good option in the wintertime — I tried it a couple times and I didn’t feel safe, especially at night. So it’s my hope that a protected bike lane would allow me to be safer. So thanks for giving me the time.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1683200" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Whitman</span><p><a data-m="1685700" class="">Oh, and I would take him with me sometimes. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1689700" class="">Mike Walden, followed... Walker&#x3f; Yeah, that could be it. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; Followed by Rich Nadworthy. Thanks for being patient.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Walker</span><p data-name="Mike Walker"><a data-m="1703300" class="">Hi, my name&#x27;s Mike Walker, I live out in the Burlington North End. I guess you&#x27;re asking for a bike path down North Avenue&#x3f; To me, if you want something for safety and riding in the winter and whatever, I suggest we have a bus that goes out there. North Avenue is narrow enough as it is.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1726000" class="">You have children riding in the roads, you have people riding in the roads, and none of &#x27;em follow the rules of the road. As a bus driver, I find it very dangerous to be asking people be in the road. There&#x27;s other ways that they can get around, and I don&#x27;t support the bike path out on North Avenue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1745700" class="">Also, I was asked about the bus terminal. I was told it was too late to say anything. But I don&#x27;t feel that that bus terminal is in the right position. That should be out on Pine Street, where the old bus, Vermont Transit Terminal was. And to me that would make a better position than where it is now, because being located on St. Paul Street, it’s not taking care of any of the safety issues or whatever.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1775700" class="">Like I said, we still have bicycles passing us on the right and whatever. We have delivery trucks and whatever. &#x27;Course, I guess that&#x27;s already been voted on. But I just figured I&#x27;d say my piece on it.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1788000" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Walker</span><p><a data-m="" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Whitman</span><p><a data-m="1790000" class="">Rich Nadworthy followed by John Black.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1798000" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Nadworny</span><p data-name="Rich Nadworny"><a data-m="1798700" class="">Hello. I&#x27;m Rich Nadworny, Joan, and I live in the New North End, and I&#x27;m here to ask for your support for the North Avenue Corridor pilot. You know as well as I there are a lot of exciting things happening in Burlington. The amazing Pine Street Corridor is about to receive even more investment through the South End Connector.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1821400" class="">Our great downtown and waterfronts are starting new, exciting projects this year and next year. And the Old North End continues to renew itself, making it into one of the most interesting and diverse communities in Vermont.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1836600" class="">And yet all of that creativity and innovation and investment seems to stop dead in its tracks as soon as you get north of the high school.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1848500" class="">Through workshops that I arrange and meetings that I attend and conversations that I have, I find an overwhelming desire from New North End residents to be better connected to and more integrated with the rest of the city.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1865500" class="">But to do that, we&#x27;re going to need your help to start putting the &#x22;new&#x22; back in the New North End.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1873300" class="">And that&#x27;s why, as a small step, I want you to support the North Avenue Corridor pilot and do your best to resist the last&#x2d;minute amendments, and to respect all of the hard work being done by our citizens and experts over the past 18 months.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1892000" class="">But we&#x27;re gonna need your support to put that creativity and innovation and investment into the North End in the same way that you&#x27;ve done to support that in the rest of the city. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1906500" class="">Thank you, Mr. Nadworny.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1910000" class="">I understand Sarah Goodrich is with us. Is that...&#x3f; Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Goodrich</span><p data-name="Sarah Goodrich"><a data-m="1917900" class="">Thank you very much. I&#x27;m Sarah Goodrich. Trying to manage tonight with my toddler here. But... I just wanted to come and give my full support for a complete street on North Avenue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1928700" class="">I live in the New North End. I have an almost three&#x2d;year&#x2d;old, and as it is now, I don&#x27;t feel safe biking on North Avenue. But with buffered bike lanes on both sides for the entire avenue, I would feel safe riding my bicycle into downtown, which would be fantastic for us. So I would just like to see North Avenue serve pedestrians and bicyclists as well as motorists.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1954100" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Goodrich</span><p><a data-m="1954600" class="">That&#x27;s about it.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="1956300" class="">John Black, followed by Eric Brown&#x2d;&#x5b;Brauts&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Black</span><p data-name="John Black"><a data-m="1964000" class="">Good evening. I live right on, kind of right across from Burlington College, and I&#x27;m kind of somewhere in between, I feel like Hannaford&#x27;s and City Market. And it would mean kinda the world to me to be able to feel safe, just to bike to Hannaford&#x27;s. As kind of a less expensive option for me, as well as kinda healthier option than the Mobil just down the street.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1993800" class="">It would mean a better quality of life, I think, for myself. Not only spending less money, but also just that kind of peace of mind. The only reason I don&#x27;t go down that way is just because the Burlington Bike Path is just a little bit too far out of the way. Also, as other people have mentioned, impassable in the winter.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2017500" class="">But I definitely enjoy really kind of just having that peace of mind, biking on North Ave. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2026800" class="">Thank you. Eric Brown&#x2d;Brauts, followed by Gary &#x5b;Dion&#x5d;. Okay, thank you.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2039300" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Brown&#x2d;Brauts</span><p data-name="Eric Brown-Brauts"><a data-m="2040700" class="">Hi, thank you. My name&#x27;s Eric Brown&#x2d;Brauts. I live in the South End. I&#x27;m the chair of the Burlington Walk&#x2f;Bike Council.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2047500" class="">And I would like to ask for your support for the North Avenue Study recommendations without amendment. This is an important upgrade, both short&#x2d;term and long&#x2d;term. And won&#x27;t talk about everything that all the other people are talking about. I want to specifically address — well, first I want to acknowledge the long&#x2d;term vision of a complete street, cycle &#x5b;track&#x5d;, intersection improvements, roundabouts, all of which, the details of which will be worked out in the future.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2079700" class="">But it’s important to set the vision today for where that could go. I particularly want to address some of the particulars of the North Avenue recommendations.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2092000" class="">The four&#x2d;to&#x2d;three&#x2d;lane conversion is critical to allow any biking at all in that section and improve safety and ridership in the North End.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2104200" class="">The removal of on&#x2d;street parking — I understand there&#x27;s an amendment proposed to allow parking still on one side of the street. Bike lanes, as RJ was saying, next to parking are dangerous, with the possible of &#x22;dooring.&#x22;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2124300" class="">Someone was killed not too long ago in New Hampshire, I believe, by being &#x22;doored.&#x22; And in addition, having sparsely populated parking along the corridor as it is now will encourage people to weave in and out, which again makes for unpredictable behavior, and reduces safety both for cars and bikers.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2149600" class="">And I&#x27;m losing time. I particularly want to make sure that we preserve a protected bike lane between — if it can&#x27;t be in the section currently proposed — to Washington Street and Institute Road. &#x5b;beep&#x5d; Thanks.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2166900" class="">Thank you. Gary Dion followed by Patrick Johnson.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Dion</span><p data-name="Gary Dion"><a data-m="2175700" class="">My name&#x27;s Gary Dion and I&#x27;m from Ward Seven.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2178000" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Dion</span><p><a data-m="2178700" class="">And first of all, I&#x27;d like to thank the mayor for an outstanding job in reference to many, many issues that should&#x27;ve been taken care of years ago, and also the city council, for your participation and working with the mayor. And especially on the F&#x2d;35. That was an outstanding job that you all did, and I appreciate it, and I know the City of Burlington and the State of Vermont cares for what you did.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2213600" class="">But one thing I would like to say on reference to the North Avenue Corridor, at the present time right now, I take my granddaughter to school, roughly around eight, to Hunt School. There&#x27;s bumper to bumper traffic from Merola&#x27;s store all the way to Heineberg.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2230400" class="">And as I make my left&#x2d;hand turn and I look down the road, it opens up to the four lanes, and there&#x27;s a bus down the road, and there&#x27;s another backup of traffic. What I&#x27;m saying is you make it two lanes, when service vehicles, including the bus and other modes of transportation try to make a turn, and if you&#x27;re behind &#x27;em, and there&#x27;s only one other lane to go into, you&#x27;re backed up.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2265600" class="">Today I was on Riverside Avenue and I was heading back home, and there was a bus that was letting people off.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2275500" class="">And it was at the Salmon Run. The bus — I went ahead. There were 20, my wife counted 28 cars that were delayed because the bus stopped and let people off.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2291400" class="">If we have that issue right now, what is it going to be like when you convert the road over and put two bike lanes in there&#x3f;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2300500" class="">And there&#x27;s also been made &#x5b;beep&#x5d; references about the sidewalks and the kids not being able to walk —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2306100" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Dion</span><p><a data-m="2306200" class="">It’s not true, because there are school guards at each intersection, for each school, and there&#x27;s about six or eight of &#x27;em that —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2313700" class="">Thank you, Mr. Dion.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Dion</span><p><a data-m="2314000" class="">— facilitate for the kids to cross the road. And the sidewalks are not unsafe. The roads are.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2321800" class="">Thank you, Mr. Dion.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Dion</span><p><a data-m="2322800" class="">Okay, thank you. &#x5b;one person applauds&#x5d;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2324100" class="">If you could, if you want to express your support for a speaker, we appreciate it if you could use silent applause, and we&#x27;ll check, we&#x27;ll look for you. Thank you.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2335100" class="">Patrick Johnson followed by Pam &#x5b;Scanlon&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Johnson</span><p data-name="Patrick Johnson"><a data-m="2340300" class="">I hate traffic too. That&#x27;s why I bike. And hopefully it will encourage more people to bike with bike lanes. There is a concern of mine, which is the current bike lane situation we have in the city is two white lines, which does not encumber drivers from crossing.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2361600" class="">All the time you see it as a biker — they&#x27;ll pull over to turn right, and then you&#x27;re over on the side. The amendment this evening to strike out wording, starting on line 72, to eliminate protected bike lanes and flexible posts, is completely unacceptable.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2383400" class="">I have the right to be protected, like cars have the right for traffic stop signs, yield signs and the other basic necessities of travel.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2394200" class="">You probably already all have had this debate, I&#x27;m sure. I&#x27;ve been hit three times. I don&#x27;t wish to be hit again.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2402000" class="">There&#x27;s a lotta other people here that have been hit as well. I know for a fact, striking protected bike lanes from this project will encourage drivers to drift. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2414800" class="">Thank you. Pam Scanlon, followed by Muffy &#x5b;Mylins&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Scanlon</span><p data-name="Pam Scanlon"><a data-m="2422000" class="">Hi, my name&#x27;s Pam Scanlon. This is about the transit center. Am I in this...&#x3f; &#x5b;clears throat&#x5d;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2426900" class="">You&#x27;re good.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Scanlon</span><p><a data-m="2427600" class="">I&#x27;m a resident of Pearl Street on the side that, the south side, I guess it is, where the easements are. I&#x27;m also a business owner there, as a lot of you know. I&#x27;m here, I&#x27;ve been through every iteration of this bus thing. I&#x27;ve been — transit center, sorry — living there over ten years.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2446600" class="">I know we need a transit center. This is the best possible location as far as all the iterations that have come to do it in the core. My concerns are the easements on Pearl Street, and how it will affect the residents, especially the people who are in wheelchairs. I would like to see at least one handicapped&#x2d;accessible spot there, because currently the spots that they&#x27;re going for the easements on are where people park who are in wheelchairs, who come to my businesses.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2472600" class="">And also they have asked me, &#x27;cause they can&#x27;t get here at night, to express their concern about that. I don&#x27;t know if the crosswalks are going to change. I&#x27;d like to know that.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2482500" class="">I&#x27;m kinda concerned that we just spent a lot of money doing a lot of improvements to these streets, and it seems like they&#x27;re going to be, the improvements are going to be taken out.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2492100" class="">And mainly, it looks like there will be six spaces left on the south side of Pearl Street. I would like to ensure that those don&#x27;t get fed by meter feeders who sit there all day.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2505800" class="">And just concerned for everybody in the neighborhood. And that&#x27;s it. Thanks.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2510800" class="">Thank you. Muffy Mylins followed by Joe &#x5b;Harrig&#x5d;.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2519900" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Mylins</span><p data-name="Muffy Mylins"><a data-m="2520600" class="">Hi. I&#x27;m Muffy Mylins, I live at 129 Claire Point. We&#x27;re out at the far North End off North Avenue, next to North Shore, and I&#x27;m —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2529400" class="">If you could speak up a little bit, and into the microphone, we could hear you better.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Mylins</span><p><a data-m="2535200" class="">I work in the center of Burlington, and am very familiar with the many ways to commute in — by bus, car, biking, and yes, walking as well. I do them all. Like many others, I also make many short trips along North Avenue, again, by car, bike and&#x2f;or on foot on a pretty frequent basis.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2553600" class="">The posts in Front Porch Forum have too frequently seemed to be drivers versus cyclists. I think we have lost sight of what the goals should be. To quote a recent posting to Front Porch Forum, &#x22;The real issue here is what is the best way for cars, bicycles, buses and pedestrians to share North Avenue&#x3f;&#x22;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2574000" class="">I urge the council to support the plan that addresses these issues this evening. Cars will have dedicated lanes, cyclists will have dedicated lanes, a pilot project to test the viability of going from four lanes to three, improved crossings for pedestrians, i.e. more crossings.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2592700" class="">The pilot project of going from four to three lanes should be designed with specific measurements and&#x2f;or data collection in order to properly assess the impact and effectiveness of the north&#x2f;south lanes and a middle turn lane.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2605900" class="">The implementations of many of the recommended changes will take time. I believe that a lot of work has gone into this project over the past few months.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2614900" class="">Let&#x27;s work to make the North Avenue Corridor safer for all of us, whether we be drivers, cyclists, walkers and&#x2f;or bus riders, or some combination thereof. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2624700" class="">Thank you. Joe Harig followed by Paulette &#x5b;Saufin&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Harig</span><p data-name="Joe Harig"><a data-m="2632100" class="">Hello, my name is Joe Harig. My wife and I purchased our home on Borestone Lane in Ward Seven two years ago. We are a committed one&#x2d;car family.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2646500" class="">My wife works downtown. I work in Williston. So we both often sometimes use public transportation as well as riding our bikes.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2656000" class="">I would ask you to support the North Ave. Corridor plan as it has been put forward, and to just ignore the two proposals, for the reasons that have been put forth already.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2670000" class="">And just to speak on the two bike paths, neither the 127 or the waterfront bike path are lit. So they&#x27;re kinda unusable at nighttime, and both of them both have large hills at the end of them. There are many people who are not strong riders that couldn’t make it up that hill.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2688100" class="">I&#x27;ve previously been struck by a motorist as well, and I have firsthand experience of the repercussions of that, and I can tell you it was not fun.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2695600" class="">I was out of work for two months, and still suffer from hip pain.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2701700" class="">Since we&#x27;ve moved to the New North End, my wife and I have had numerous experiences cycling on North Avenue in which motorists failed to give a reasonable amount of space while passing. That&#x27;s to say nothing about the three feet that is supposedly state law that they&#x27;re supposed to be giving us.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2719900" class="">Also, Riverside Avenue has kind of a protected cycle track, and I&#x27;ve ridden on that several times and felt completely, like just completely safe riding on that. It’s just way better than being on the street.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2735400" class="">So I would also just like to express my gratitude to the TEUC and all the volunteers that have put in all the work to get us to where we are today. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2746500" class="">Thank you. Paulette Soufin followed by Glen &#x5b;Eames&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Soufin</span><p data-name="Paulette Soufin"><a data-m="2753600" class="">Hi, my name is Paulette Soufin. I have a unique perspective. I live on North Avenue. My kitchen window faces North Avenue. And I can tell you the five years I&#x27;ve lived there, I have seen such a change in the number of pedestrians and bicyclers and weird contraptions of things that go by my window every morning, starting about seven o&#x27;clock. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2773500" class="">The scariest thing I&#x27;ve seen is teenagers on skateboards going down North Avenue while texting. If I was their mama, ooh, you know&#x3f;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2782100" class="">It’s terrifying. So what we&#x27;ve done, we have four parking spaces off&#x2d;street for our duplex. We&#x27;ve taken out the lilac bushes. We back into our parking spaces. We&#x27;re trying not to hit the children. We&#x27;re trying not to hit the people getting off the bus.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2799200" class="">And I will be inconvenienced if you take away the street parking, but that&#x27;s okay with me. I would prefer to see the children, the bikers, the runners, the joggers, who jog in the street because the sidewalks are so crooked, you know, and they have puddles in them.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2817300" class="">They jog in the road all winter long. I would prefer to see them safe. And I will give up my parking. I would ask you, if you come up with an alternative parking area, we&#x27;d love it, love to know where it is.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2827900" class="">Does that mean I&#x27;m done&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2828500" class="">No.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Soufin</span><p><a data-m="2828700" class="">Okay. The other thing is I&#x27;ve noticed that North Avenue Alliance Church and the Elks both have large parking areas. They take care of their constituencies. They have green spaces.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2839500" class="">Most of my neighbors have driveways and green space, and they don&#x27;t park in the street. Between the &#x5b;inner belt&#x5d; and the big rock wall that goes to the high school, I can see the whole two&#x2d;block area.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2852500" class="">In the last month, one car has been parked on the street consistently. One. In the whole area. Unless the high school has an event. Then we have overflow parking. You have to think about something to do with that.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2864600" class="">But like I said, I&#x27;ll be inconvenienced. Please take away our parking and make the street safe. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2871300" class="">Thank you. Thank you all. We really appreciate that.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2878200" class="">And I&#x27;ll just remind everybody again that the yellow light comes on when it’s time to wrap up your comments. The red light comes on when it’s time to stop. Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Eames</span><p data-name="Glen Eames"><a data-m="2887400" class="">Good evening. Thank you, council, for giving me an opportunity to speak. My name is Glen Eames. I&#x27;m a resident of Burlington.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2894700" class="">I&#x27;ve lived here for almost 30 years, and for 29 of those years we&#x27;ve been trying to address some of these issues.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2903700" class="">I urge you to accept the North Ave. proposal as written, and not with the amendments. This is a major corridor into the city, and we&#x27;ve recently gone on to a &#x22;Go For Gold&#x22; campaign in the city, where we&#x27;re trying to improve transportation.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2923000" class="">One of the goals is to improve all of the entrance corridors to our city. I think that North Avenue as a main artery into the city is ripe for this sort of project. People are going to be on North Avenue, and they are on North Avenue now, on bicycles.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2948300" class="">So I urge you to accommodate all forms of transportation here. I&#x27;m a motorist. I own two automobiles. And I&#x27;m also a cyclist. Most people look at me and know me from cycling, but I drive quite a bit in the city too.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2964400" class="">I can certainly appreciate the problems that one of the former speakers spoke of, of bumper to bumper traffic, and I really feel as though this could be part of the solution the problems of North Avenue, allowing people a safer place to ride.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="2982300" class="">So I really urge you at this point to approve the project as&#x2d;is without the amendments. Thanks for giving me a chance to speak.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="2990100" class="">Thank you. John &#x5b;Blakeney&#x5d;, followed by &#x5b;Shanta&#x5d; Eastman.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3006600" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Blakeney</span><p data-name="Ian Blakeney"><a data-m="3007200" class="">Hi, council. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak. My name is Ian Blakeney, I live in Ward Four. This is my wife, Shanta.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Eastman</span><p data-name="Shanta Eastman"><a data-m="3014100" class="">We live on Apple Tree Point Road.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Blakeney</span><p><a data-m="3017600" class="">Ward Four. I really want to urge the council to pass the North Avenue Corridor Study, or Plan, as&#x2d;is without the amendments. I am a, we&#x27;re a one&#x2d;car family. We both bike all over Burlington, downtown, around the New North End.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3032100" class="">And frankly, it’s really not that safe to bike on North Avenue, although I do it. I&#x27;ve had a few close calls myself. And the bike path, we&#x27;ve talked about some of the drawbacks to the bike path at night, and in the winter. And more importantly, I&#x27;m also a teacher, I teach in the Burlington schools, and I&#x27;m thinking about the kids in the New North... Well, the kids all over Burlington.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3051800" class="">I really wouldn&#x27;t feel safe letting my children ride their bikes on North Avenue right now. My kids are going to be going to Hunt and to Burlington High School.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3058200" class="">I want them to be able to get to school on their bicycles, and to their friends&#x27; house, and when they want to go out and have fun and go to the parks. Right now that&#x27;s really not an option.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3066200" class="">So I really urge you to allow the protected bike lanes to be installed in the pilot project, and allow all the kids in Burlington, and the parents, to feel safe with their kids riding on the streets. Do you want to add anything&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Eastman</span><p><a data-m="3080300" class="">Well, I just know that we&#x27;re some of the few year&#x2d;round bikers that we know. A lot of our friends would be bikers, but — and they think we&#x27;re kind of crazy, because when we bike on the avenue, there&#x27;s no shoulder in the winter, &#x27;cause there&#x27;s so much snow piled up.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3101000" class="">You know, the roads are more narrow in the winter. So I would just, I think many more people... If we&#x27;re moving toward a greener economy and thinking about my kids&#x27; future, we need to encourage bicycling as much as we possibly can, and make it more comfortable for parents and families.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Blakeney</span><p><a data-m="3121800" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="3122200" class="">Thank you. Mrs. Blakeney, could you give us your name&#x3f; Because we only have Ian —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Eastman</span><p><a data-m="3125700" class="">Oh, it’s Shanta Eastman.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="3126900" class="">Shanta Eastman. Oh, you&#x27;re the next...&#x3f; Oh. Thank you.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3134200" class="">Jason &#x5b;von Dreische&#x5d; followed by Connie Pressman.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">von Dreische</span><p data-name="Jason von Dreische"><a data-m="3146900" class="">Thank you, President Shannon. I&#x27;m here speaking for Local Motion tonight. Thank you for consideration of tonight&#x27;s resolution that outlines a series of common sense changes to North Avenue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3159900" class="">Taken together, these improvements will make Burlington&#x27;s longest street work better for everyone, whether you&#x27;re walking, biking, driving or taking the bus.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3169100" class="">As you&#x27;ve heard tonight, there&#x27;s strong support across the community as a whole, and in the New North End in particular, for a safer, more orderly design for North Avenue. One that discourages excessive speed, makes it easier to cross the street on foot, reduces the risk of being rear&#x2d;ended when you&#x27;re waiting to make a turn, and provides separated and protected space for bikes.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3191500" class="">Local Motion applauds the hard work and the dedication of the North Avenue Advisory Committee that laid the foundation for this change, of the city staff that mapped out what it would take to make that change happen, and of the TEUC for endorsing that vision for change as the desired direction for our city.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3208600" class="">We call on the city council to adopt the resolution as presented. It’s an excellent plan. Unfortunately, we can&#x27;t applaud the amendments as presented to the council.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3217900" class="">In particular, we&#x27;d like to call your attention to one specific impact of Councilor Ayres&#x27;s amendment — the fact that it strips from the resolution any mention of protected bike lanes. In a city that&#x27;s committed to equity, to quality of life, and to active transportation, this is really unfortunate. Communities of all kinds are installing protected bike lanes with a barrier between cars and bikes, because they make it safer for kids, seniors, new bike riders, and all kinds of people to ride a bike.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3247500" class="">And the truth is Burlington&#x27;s falling behind when it comes to making it safe and easy for everyone to walk and bike. The inclusion of protected bike lanes in the pilot was a solid first step in reversing that trend. I urge you in the strongest possible terms to include a protected bike lane in the pilot by any procedural measure that you deem appropriate. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="3266100" class="">Thank you. Well&#x2d;timed. And thank you all. Connie Pressman, followed by Janet Paterson.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3283100" class="">Janet Paterson. If Connie comes back, let me know.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3290100" class="">And followed by Arthur &#x5b;Vento&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Paterson</span><p data-name="Janet Paterson"><a data-m="3293700" class="">My name&#x27;s Janet Paterson. I live at 24 Bennington Court, and that&#x27;s right off of Saratoga and right off North Avenue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3303500" class="">I&#x27;m a so&#x2d;called senior citizen who have been living in Burlington in the New North End about 40 years. I&#x27;ve been driving the 40 years, but have also enjoyed bicycling. But I refuse to bicycle on North Avenue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3318100" class="">I have two neighbors who ride bicycles, and one reads books to the people in the residence area, and she rides on the sidewalk to get to Reading For Seniors.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3334400" class="">I really want to thank you all for putting together the pilot study. It will make North Avenue much better. And I have two major concerns. One is safe way for seniors to get across. Much like the Pine Street. Because there&#x27;s places right there in the Thayer House that they&#x27;re long stretches that you can&#x27;t get across the street.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3359300" class="">So having those yellow flashing lights would be really great, because it gives you time to get across. Secondly, I have a concern about protected bicycle paths. If I&#x27;m going to ride the bicycle in the new plan, I want some of those orange stakes protecting me along the way.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3379500" class="">I think that amendment calls that they wouldn&#x27;t be there. And the other thing is the pilot study should be just continued. I don&#x27;t think we need any more input.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3391100" class="">The people who put the program together have worked long and hard in this plan, and it’s the best thing for New North End. Thank you very much.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="3399900" class="">Thank you. Arthur Vento followed by Liam Griffin.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3413200" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Vento</span><p data-name="Arthur Vento"><a data-m="3413900" class="">Hello, again. Nice to see you. My name is Arthur Vento. I live on Dodds Court in the New North End.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3420600" class="">First, I find it really interesting that there are three helmets to advertise part of your bias for your own plan.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="3431800" class="">Mr. Vento, could you speak more directly into the microphone&#x3f; &#x27;Cause Channel 17 will pick it up better.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Vento</span><p><a data-m="3435100" class="">Oh, well, that&#x27;s great. Okay. I find it interesting that I see three helmets from council members, showing bias for your own plan.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3443400" class="">That I find offensive right at the start. And there&#x27;s all kinds of stuff I could talk about. I could talk about, I see one bicycle every once in a great while that actually obeys the rules of the road.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3455500" class="">I see a pedestrian from time to time that obeys the rules of the road. You want to change things for 100&#x25; of the people who live in Burlington for less than five percent of the people who live in Burlington.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3469500" class="">What I really want to address is, I don&#x27;t believe there has been any public input about doing away with the parking spaces from St. Mark&#x27;s Church to Burlington High School.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3479000" class="">And with no public input about that, you have no right to do anything.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3485600" class="">Your plan is already dead in the water. Until you discuss it with me — I&#x27;m a part of the public — and with the rest of the people in the public, you can&#x27;t go forward.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3498900" class="">Really simple, really straight&#x2d;forward. You&#x27;ve got a great plan, except you didn’t lay the groundwork for it. And by the way, if anybody wanted you riding on that bike path in the winter, it would be passable in the winter. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="3512200" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3513900" class="">Liam Griffin, followed by Jeff Comstock.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Griffin</span><p data-name="Liam Griffin"><a data-m="3526400" class="">All righty. My name&#x27;s Liam Griffin, I live in Ward Seven. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3532700" class="">One of the amendments proposed this evening adds back&#x2d;in parking along one side of North Ave., as referenced by a few previous people,</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3539900" class="">between 127 and Institute and Shore Road and Plattsburgh Ave. I&#x27;ve been helping survey parking in both those areas over the past few months, and I have a copy of a report that I would like entered into the public record that contains photos and data on both those areas.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3554500" class="">The average number of cars parked between Institute and 127 on average is less than one car, as noted. Why would we add back&#x2d;in parking and eliminate protected bike lanes in this section so one person can park in the street instead of in their driveway&#x3f;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3567800" class="">There&#x27;s plenty of off&#x2d;street parking in that segment, and the protected bike lanes proposed there would provide the safest access to the high school.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3574800" class="">The average number of cars parked between Shore Road and Plattsburgh Ave. is also less than one, with the exception of parking counts done church services at St. Mark&#x27;s.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3583900" class="">On average, 15 cars park on North Ave. during church. That said, at the same time there are an average of 10&#x2d;12 empty spots in the church parking lot, another five spots in the church driveway, and room for many additional cars on Shore Road and other side streets.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3599000" class="">Why would we eliminate the buffered bike lanes through this section so a small number of people can park in front of the church for a few hours on weekends when there is so much unused parking lot behind the church in their own lot&#x3f;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3612000" class="">North Ave. is a public street, not a private parking lot, last time I checked. So much of this discussion always seems to come back to a basic fear of change.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3621800" class="">People feel comfortable with the status quo and it can be really difficult for people to imagine how a change that might inconvenience them a little bit personally could also be game&#x2d;changing in a really positive way for the broader community.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3634300" class="">I strongly suggest you reject this amendment, look at the flawed logic of what is being presented. And it seems like we&#x27;re making a lot of compromises on a great plan that works for everybody who uses North Ave. for transportation, for the sake of a few people who insist that it needs to be used as a parking lot. &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="3651100" class="">Thank you. Thank you. Jeff Comstock, followed by Tad Cook. Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Comstock</span><p data-name="Jeff Comstock"><a data-m="3656700" class="">Yes. Good evening. Jeff Comstock, Ward Seven.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3660000" class="">I want to focus my comments on the idea that just because you can doesn’t make it a good idea. In this case I&#x27;m talking about the &#x22;bicycles may use full lane&#x22; rule currently in effect on city streets. For example, just because you can ride your bicycle down the middle of North Avenue during rush hour traffic doesn’t make it a good idea.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3683300" class="">I&#x27;ve wanted to share these comments with the council for a long time, but now that the North Avenue Corridor Study is on the agenda, my request is even more urgent.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3693500" class="">As the redesign of North Avenue becomes a reality, I&#x27;m asking the council and the Transportation, Energy and Utilities Committee to eliminate the &#x22;bicycles may use full lane rule.&#x22; I too am a runner and a cyclist. I support the principle of &#x22;share the road.&#x22;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3710900" class="">However, I don&#x27;t have respect for strident bike riders who obstruct traffic just because they&#x27;re entitled to.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3719400" class="">If Burlington really wants to promote itself as a bicycle&#x2d;friendly city through the Complete Streets model, then it must make a real commitment to create bike lanes and not aggravate the conflict between bike and auto traffic.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3732900" class="">The &#x22;bicycles may use full lane&#x22; concept is a failed policy. In fact, I consider it an abdication of the city&#x27;s public safety responsibility.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3742400" class="">Rather than create a bicycle&#x2d;friendly city, it has created bike chaos and is fostering a self&#x2d;entitled, irresponsible bike culture.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3754100" class="">For one, I&#x27;m neither foolish enough or selfish enough to ride my bike down the middle of North Avenue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3759300" class="">Those who do are a traffic hazard, and a threat to their own personal safety.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3764200" class="">I also believe the current emerging biking culture in Burlington — and that&#x27;s not a compliment — should anger quality, responsible cyclists because they too will suffer the consequences of deteriorating driver sentiment.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3779900" class="">It’s time for the cycling community to protect its own reputation and not frame this as only a car versus bicycle debate. &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3789000" class="">So please, now is the time to eliminate &#x22;bicycles may use the full lane&#x22; concept from —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="3794500" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Comstock</span><p><a data-m="3794900" class="">— Burlington&#x27;s transportation playbook. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="3797900" class="">Thank you. Tad Cook followed by Steve Norman.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3807700" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Cook</span><p data-name="Tad Cook"><a data-m="3808400" class="">Thank you. Thanks for the chance to speak. I joined the North Avenue Steering Committee 18 months ago, representing Ward Three.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3817700" class="">I previously had worked on North Ave. and I biked between Ward Three, down North Ave. to Institute every day.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3825700" class="">And so I joined because I personally was concerned about what the experience is like between those two points, and along the rest of North Ave.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3833600" class="">And so during the steering committee process, I both biked and drove through the winter, and when it was warmer, to the meetings over the last 18 months.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3843800" class="">And I would urge the council and ask you to support the amendment, or the proposal as&#x2d;is, and not with the proposed amendments.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3853200" class="">It’s a plan that represents a lot of work by members of the community and by staff in the city, and by great consultants. And I think it represents a vision for North Ave. that can be replicated across Burlington.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3869400" class="">And if we don&#x27;t put out a vision now that is the best possible scenario, then we&#x27;re never going to get there down the road.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3877200" class="">You have to start with a big vision and then make it realistic from there. So thank you, I appreciate the chance to speak, and I appreciate the chance to serve on the committee, and thanks for your consideration.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="3889200" class="">Thank you. Steve Norman followed by Phil &#x5b;Hammersaw&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Norman</span><p data-name="Steve Norman"><a data-m="3896600" class="">Hi, I&#x27;m Steve Norman, and I live just off of North Avenue on Staniford Road between North Avenue and the bike path. In the year 2000, with much advanced deliberation, the city adopted its legacy plan, which looked ahead 30 years., and envisioned a city of perhaps as many as 65,000 people, believe it or not.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3918500" class="">It’s good to be ambitious, I guess, but we are growing already. We&#x27;re not there yet, but we&#x27;re growing, and the North End is growing. And our visitors are growing. And anyone who thinks we&#x27;re going to maintain past speeds of car travel while we grow larger, perhaps hasn’t been driving anywhere else but here.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3939200" class="">&#x5b;laughter&#x5d; That&#x27;s not what we learned from the 20th century. It doesn’t happen that way. To the contrary, our own public policy has already wisely shifted away from higher car speeds to other options — more public transportation, more active transportation, and infrastructure, to empower those choices.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3958900" class="">Complete Streets is the law. Act 250 was amended this year to lower the minimum traffic flows through the downtowns in Vermont.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3967900" class="">Transportation planners are expanding our bus routes, and commuters are taking advantage of those routes.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3974300" class="">I&#x27;ve lived just off of North Avenue for 25 years. It’s taken me most of that time to calm myself down and my driving habits to meet the 30 mile an hour speed limit.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="3986900" class="">But I do, and most others fly past me on one side or the other, depending on which lane I&#x27;m in in that part of the street, because it was designed and built for 40 mile an hour speeds, and people tend to go what feels right on the highway.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4001900" class="">So that was a mistake. Remember the interstate&#x2d;type overhead signs we used to have at the beltline interchange&#x3f;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4008700" class="">Those came down. We really don&#x27;t want our neighborhood to look like exit 14 and to grow like that.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4016500" class="">Four&#x2d;to&#x2d;three&#x2d;lane diets do work on Colchester Avenue and Williston Road. &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4024600" class="">They work fine. Use that lane for your left&#x2d;hand turn and to pass the bus, and we&#x27;ll all be safer. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4029700" class="">Thank you. Phil Hammersaw, followed by Susan &#x5b;Moncrese&#x5d;.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4039500" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Hammersaw</span><p data-name="Phil Hammersaw"><a data-m="4040200" class="">Thank you. I want to speak in favor of not adopting the amendments, but taking the recommendations that were worked so hard on by our citizens, DPW, the TEUC, all of us.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4057600" class="">And I want to see that recommended. And I&#x27;ll start off by saying it’s the economy, stupid. This is not a war between bikes and cars, pedestrians and buses.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4069300" class="">This is about real estate. North Avenue is real estate. And as real estate, it predominantly is designed for cars.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4078400" class="">That&#x27;s not its highest and best use. Its highest and best use is for multiple modes of transportation. Bikes, cars, walkers, public transportation, which is essential.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4093000" class="">And when this is done in cities all over the United States and the world, what happens is real estate value increases, residential and commercial.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4103900" class="">Who has ever seen an ad that says, &#x22;House for sale, close to the bike path and close to public transportation, not close to the main road&#x3f;&#x22;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4114300" class="">When this is done in areas, corridors, when we add bike paths and we add good pedestrian walkways, businesses increase in that zone by 40&#x2d;60&#x25;. That&#x27;s money in the local economy.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4128900" class="">Every dollar gained in the local economy generates seven dollars more for the whole community. When we go out to the box stores, what happens is you get five percent return on a dollar.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4142800" class="">It’s the economy, stupid. What’s going to make Burlington grow, what’s bringing us to the 21st century, is not a fight about narrowing the roads or streets. It’s about facing reality, it’s a changing world, we need to do it.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4157300" class="">These bike lanes and pedestrian walkways are essential to the growth of the community. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4164100" class="">Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Susan Monkrese, followed by Matthew &#x5b;Tchabat&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Monkrese</span><p data-name="Susan Monkrese"><a data-m="4172100" class="">Good evening. I&#x27;m Susan Monkrese. I am a mom and a bicyclist, and I live in the South End of Burlington. I would like to urge the council to support the resolution un&#x2d;amended.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4183800" class="">On the issue of protected bike lanes, I&#x27;m a mom who listens to all the other moms at school saying they wish they could pick their kids up by bike or on foot.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4194200" class="">And they do not feel able to ride to schools and take their kids to and from school. Protected bike lanes make a major difference in the safety of children.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4204000" class="">I&#x27;ve been a bike commuter for 20 years, and I&#x27;m willing to take risks for myself, but I will not take risks for my children that they have no say over.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4211900" class="">They&#x27;ll get to make their own risky decisions come 13 or 14.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4217100" class="">I would also like to speak to the issue of an amendment which appears to privilege the opinions of people in the New North End over others in determining the future of the pilot study.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4228400" class="">As I understand it, streets are public, and as a taxpayer I want access to the high school that I hope my daughter will ride to on a bicycle, and I hope that we would recognize that these are a shared resource that belong to all of us.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4243300" class="">This point came home to me very forcefully in the last time I spoke in front of a body here in Burlington, which was the parks commission.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4250200" class="">I was active in establishing a new community garden. We held outreach forums, we did neighborhood discussions, we had groups of neighborhoods from surrounding the garden.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4260600" class="">And at one of those open forums, someone stood up and yelled at me that this garden was being rammed down their throats, that there was no opportunity for feedback, and it was a done deal.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4270800" class="">And at that point I luckily remembered that community gardens have been approved by the city council, where appropriate, as a use on city land, and so I informed this person that community gardens are an allowed and approved use of city park land when they are deemed appropriate.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4289100" class="">My understanding is that bike lanes &#x5b;beep&#x5d; are part of Complete Streets, and therefore are an approved use, and I&#x27;d like to see them treated as such.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4295800" class="">Thank you. Matthew Tchabat, followed by John &#x5b;Halvey&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Chabot</span><p data-name="Matthew Chabot"><a data-m="4306400" class="">Thank you. Good evening. My name is Matthew Chabot, I&#x27;m the general manager of Burlington Town Center. I am also a member of the Church Street Marketplace Commission.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4314300" class="">I&#x27;m here this evening to voice my support for the relocation of the CCTA bus station from its current location at Church and Cherry over to St. Paul and request that the city council provide the easement that&#x27;ll allow that to take place.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4330300" class="">Over two years ago I was approached by the CCTA regarding different proposed alternatives to its current location, and we did feel strongly and continue to feel strongly that maintaining the bus hub in the downtown corridor, with a close proximity to Church Street, does serve the best needs of all involved — certainly those that utilize the services in the downtown corridor, and the bus station as well.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4361200" class="">Church and Cherry does create a chokepoint for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic based on the location of the current bus station. And again, I would just simply ask that the city council grant the easement request of the CCTA. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4378700" class="">Thank you, Mr. Chabot. Councilor Blais, you are the keeper of silent consonants. I hope you&#x27;ll remind me next time.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4388200" class="">John Halbey, followed by Lee &#x5b;Trehune&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Halbey</span><p data-name="John Halbey"><a data-m="4397300" class="">President Shannon and town council, thanks for taking the time to listen. And my hat&#x27;s off to everybody that&#x27;s worked on this project. I know there&#x27;s a lotta people involved in it. I&#x27;ve been reading about it on the Front Porch Forum for quite some time.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4415200" class="">Cars and bikes don&#x27;t mix physically. There&#x27;s danger involved. And I don&#x27;t have any children, but I&#x27;d be really scared if they went on the avenue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4425000" class="">I would recommend they grow up learning how to ride on the bike path. The bike path is beautiful, something we should all be proud of. It brings a lot of tourists to the area.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4434600" class="">We have a couple of bike paths. We have the one to the Intervale as well as the one on the lake.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4444900" class="">If you enter North Avenue from the north, Plattsburg Avenue, and there&#x27;s a bicycle on your right, and you want to take a right on Tracy Drive, we signal our — I&#x27;m driving a car, the bike&#x27;s on the right — I signal to turn a right on Tracy Drive, the bike wants to pass me on the right at the same time. I don&#x27;t see the bicycle.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4465600" class="">I have poor peripheral vision, might be a touch of glaucoma. Can&#x27;t see the bike. Keep it in mind. We&#x27;ve got 65 aprons and entrances between 127 and Shore Road.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4478700" class="">65 aprons &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;. Can&#x27;t see the bike passing on the right, okay&#x3f; So you got one lane of cars, there&#x27;s no way for the right&#x2d;hand turn people to slow down.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4490500" class="">If you&#x27;re taking a right&#x2d;hand turn, the bike&#x27;s passing you on the right. It’s scary. The center left lane — you go down the Williston Road, you&#x27;re going to the airport, get in the center left lane to take a left to the airport, the shortcut road — I don&#x27;t know the name of it, everyone knows it’s there.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4505500" class="">The same time, a car coming towards Burlington, headed west, wants to turn left. We&#x27;re playing chicken in the center left lane. Who was there first&#x3f; No, I just bailed out, get to the right... &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4519600" class="">Sorry. Thanks for listening to me.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4521200" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Comstock</span><p><a data-m="4521800" class="">Go, bicycles.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4523500" class="">Thank you. Lee, Trehune, followed by Russ Ellis.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4537800" class="">Councilor Ellis, welcome back.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ellis</span><p data-name="Councilor Ellis"><a data-m="4546400" class="">I take it Lee is not here.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4548500" class="">That&#x27;s what I am told.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Comstock</span><p><a data-m="4549500" class="">Okay.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4550100" class="">If she should come back before we&#x27;re done, she will —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Comstock</span><p><a data-m="4552700" class="">Okay.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4552800" class="">— be given another chance.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ellis</span><p><a data-m="4556300" class="">Well, there is something familiar about sitting here, I&#x27;ll have to admit that. Thank you. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4560800" class="">Good to see you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ellis</span><p><a data-m="4561600" class="">You know, I&#x27;ve lived here — Nancy and I have lived in Ward Four for 45 years, and it’s always been a neighborhood to me.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4571500" class="">We raised four children here. We were fortunate enough to have some of those children grow up and then move into Ward Four themselves and raise their own children.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4580800" class="">So we&#x27;ve had the benefit of children and grandchildren, and it’s been fun.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4585700" class="">Ward Four to me is a neighborhood. And when I think of a neighborhood, what I think of — I made a little list here — I think of bicycles, I think of children, I think of senior citizens — a strange thing that happens to middle&#x2d;aged people &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;,</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4603400" class="">I think of parks, and we have many of them, or several of them, anyhow, in the New North End. And they&#x27;re on both sides of North Avenue, so that half the people, to get to one set of parks, has to cross.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4619400" class="">And the other half has to cross this way if they want to get to those parks. So the parks are there, but there is North Avenue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4631300" class="">I think of skateboarding, and I&#x27;ve seen my kids do that. I think of front yard soccer, another thing, and the ball frequently goes off the yard, into the road.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4646300" class="">I think that of all the things that they do, and they go to school. And I just checked some of the data on schools.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4653900" class="">You know, we have four schools, three schools. These are grade schools, first through eighth grade. C.P. Smith, Flynn and Hunt.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4665000" class="">Together, those three schools have about 1,000 students in them. And they serve both sides of North Avenue. &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4678500" class="">I know you&#x27;re not accustomed to having the timer on you, are you, Councilor Ellis&#x3f; &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ellis</span><p><a data-m="4681100" class="">Yeah, I&#x27;ve got about 15 more minutes. But anyhow, they all have to cross. And I think that&#x27;s a shame. I&#x27;m in favor of the motion that&#x27;s put forward.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4690000" class="">I&#x27;m not in favor of the amendments. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4693000" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4695900" class="">Nathaniel Burns followed by Don McDonald.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Burns</span><p data-name="Nathaniel Burns"><a data-m="4705800" class="">Hello, councilors, my name is Nathaniel Burns. I&#x27;m a resident of the New North End, specifically on North Avenue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4713600" class="">And I&#x27;m in support of this thing that&#x27;s in front of us, with any amendments.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4722300" class="">And I&#x27;d like to speak about those amendments.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4725100" class="">To sum up one amendment, it says basically if public input from the New North End does not support its continuation, the city will restore the 4&#x2d;3&#x2d;lane pilot area to its current configuration.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4738900" class="">And I assume that is taking into consideration the people who live in that region and what they want, because they have to live there and deal with it.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4749000" class="">So I also assume that if we&#x27;re going to have that in there, maybe we could add another amendment, a little bit of pork, and say that after the F&#x2d;35s are put at the airport, everybody who lives over there in that area, after a few months, can decide whether or not they want to keep them.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4768800" class="">And if they decide against it, then we&#x27;ll just take them outta there. Obviously, I&#x27;m kidding.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4775600" class="">My logic is flawed, and so is this amendment. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4780800" class="">The second amendment I&#x27;d like to speak about is about between Institute Road and Vermont 127, is what I know best — that&#x27;s closer to me. I don&#x27;t know as much about further north on North Ave.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4792800" class="">But I go past there all the time in a car and on a bike, and I rarely see cars parked there. A few here and there. That&#x27;s right north of the high school.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4803000" class="">And I looked on Zillow the other day at the size of the lots there, and they&#x27;re pretty big lots. They&#x27;re like quarter acre, half acre.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4812900" class="">There&#x27;s only a couple that are multi&#x2d;unit, and so I don&#x27;t know why they need all that parking on the street for their personal use. We&#x27;re not talking about apartment complexes that have no parking lot for them to park all the people who live there.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4826100" class="">So I don&#x27;t support that amendment either. And I also want to thank everybody for all the time you put in, for everything you do to make this city so great, and we appreciate it. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4836000" class="">Thank you. Thank you.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4839700" class="">Don McDonald followed by Andrew Crawford.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">McDonald</span><p data-name="Don McDonald"><a data-m="4845800" class="">My name&#x27;s Don McDonald, and I reside at Fern Hill up on North Prospect Street.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4852100" class="">I&#x27;m involved with the Vermont Community Alliance For Public Transportation, which is an advocacy group for improved public transportation in Chittenden County and throughout the state of Vermont.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4863800" class="">We&#x27;re at the point now of starting construction of a long overdue CCTA terminal in the Church Street area on St. Paul Street. We&#x27;re basically debating the paint scheme of the trash cans and whatever else can be thrown in to delay this terminal.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4880400" class="">We need this terminal, we need it now. We needed it 20 years ago. Is it the end all and be all&#x3f; No.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4888400" class="">An intermodal terminal also needs to come in the city — intermodal being down by the railroad station.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4894800" class="">Many businesspeople believe that nobody takes the bus, and I&#x27;d like to invite the merchants on Church Street to visit the Church Street Terminal any Saturday and check the number 76 bus from Middlebury and the students that come from Middlebury College to spend a lot of money in Burlington.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4917100" class="">We need this terminal, we need it now. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="4920500" class="">Thank you. Andrew Crawford followed by Tom &#x5b;Morley&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Crawford</span><p data-name="Andrew Crawford"><a data-m="4929100" class="">Hello, my name&#x27;s Andrew Crawford, and I&#x27;m a resident of the New North End on Laurie Lane.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4935700" class="">I am a father of three, and our entire family uses both vehicles, buses and bikes to get to school, to get to work and to do local shopping.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4950700" class="">I just want to say that a lot of people have mentioned safety issues on North Avenue. I have many experiences on North Avenue that would corroborate some of the concerns that they have.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4960900" class="">I think that it’s imperative for the New North End to open the corridor to people who are on bicycles, and I think that there are substantial economic possibilities that would happen if that were to go forward.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4974800" class="">So I want to say I support the vision for a Complete Street on North Avenue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="4980900" class="">I also support the North Avenue Corridor as&#x2d;is, the pilot project as&#x2d;is with any amendments. In addition to that, I have to say that while we also use the 127 bike path and the waterfront bike path occasionally to come into town, more for recreational purposes, both of those, as has been said, are not plowed in the winter, and also they are not lighted at night.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5007900" class="">We are a one&#x2d;car family, and we cannot afford another car. So the bicycles and the buses are the ways we get into town.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5016100" class="">If that car&#x27;s going somewhere else. Thank you very much for your time.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5020100" class="">Thank you. Tom Morley, followed by Robert &#x5b;Herandine&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Morley</span><p data-name="Tom Morley"><a data-m="5028600" class="">Hi. My name is Tom Morley. I live just off Ethan Allen Parkway. I drive on North Avenue almost every day. I&#x27;m an avid biker. I do use the bike paths, but they&#x27;re crowded or not lit or not plowed. The Intervale&#x27;s got a fairly nasty hill at the end of it.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5049800" class="">It’s not really a practical means of getting into town. And if I want to go to the shopping center or I want to go down to Battery Park, that&#x27;s not a practical way to get there.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5064100" class="">I agree with the person who said in another meeting that while I&#x27;m driving, I hate the bikers, and while I&#x27;m biking, I hate the drivers. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; Because we&#x27;re all thrown in the same street and we sort of make up our own rules.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5078700" class="">I note the person who said, who mentioned the &#x22;bikers may take the whole lane&#x22;, and when I use North Avenue, yeah, I&#x27;m an experienced biker, I take the lane, I pedal like hell so I don&#x27;t hold up too many people behind me. As I&#x27;m going north on 127, I suddenly find people on my right, merging at high speed.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5104400" class="">So you&#x27;re sorta taking your life in your hands there. And I will not go to the shopping center, which is about three&#x2d;quarters of a mile from my house, because you have to make a left turn, which is just clearly dangerous.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5120300" class="">Or you can go up on the sidewalks, and if there&#x27;s people on the sidewalks, the sidewalks are in poor shape and narrow, so there&#x27;s really no way to get to the shopping center. And I would be doing a heck of a lot more errands there if there was a discrete bike path.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5137800" class="">So I like the idea of taking the four lanes and going to three. I think that&#x27;s a proven design. We&#x27;ve got a lot of experience with that. &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5149700" class="">It’s simple. And for that reason, I urge the council to adopt the recommendations without the amendments, as stated. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5159400" class="">Thank you. Robert Herandine &#x5b;clears throat&#x5d;, followed by Nancy Berger.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Herandine</span><p data-name="Robert Herandine"><a data-m="5172000" class="">Hi, I&#x27;m Bob Herandine, I live in the North End. I&#x27;m over 70, and I&#x27;m a year&#x2d;round bicyclist. Since I&#x27;ve come to Burlington eight years ago I estimate I&#x27;ve biked to downtown from the North End 800 to 1,000 times, year&#x2d;round.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5191500" class="">I support the proposed pilot. I do not support the amendments because I think each one kills off an important part of a reasonable test.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5203600" class="">If we put those amendments in, the test will be a weak test. The first one is the separation of bicyclists and cars.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5212800" class="">Vermonters aren&#x27;t afraid of the cold and dark, but they are afraid about being run over by a Mack truck. Therefore, we must have separation, or the test is weak.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5224700" class="">Second, we need a test that runs year&#x2d;round. When people talk about how much fun it is to bicycle, they show a picture of somebody going along in a tank top and shorts in July, but as a year&#x2d;rounder I also know what it feels like at 5pm in February.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5239100" class="">We need a test that runs throughout the entire year. If the amendment allows us to cut the test off after just a few months, we don&#x27;t do that.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5247200" class="">Therefore, I do not support either amendment, but I do support the pilot. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5253000" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5254500" class="">Nancy Berger followed by Dan Fry.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Berger</span><p data-name="Nancy Berger"><a data-m="5260700" class="">Hi, there, I&#x27;m Nancy Berger, I live in the North End, the New North End. I&#x27;m a cyclist, and I&#x27;m a runner and a pedestrian. I came to oppose the North Avenue Corridor, because we have the bike path, and I felt it was redundant to be spending more tax dollars on yet another way to get downtown.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5281300" class="">But I&#x27;ve heard a lot of eloquence here tonight, and a lot of reason. And I&#x27;ve changed my mind. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5290700" class="">Okay. Thank you for sharing that.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5294000" class="">Dan Fry, followed by Jim &#x5b;Hallway&#x5d;.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Fry</span><p data-name="Dan Fry"><a data-m="5299100" class="">Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I just came to speak in favor of the North Avenue Corridor Plan. I think it’s well thought out. It’s been well&#x2d;planned, and I think it’ll work.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5315400" class="">One only needs to drive on North Avenue once or twice and encounter a bicycle or a pedestrian crossing the road at the wrong place to understand that there&#x27;s two issues involved here.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5327900" class="">And I think the main issue is public safety.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5333200" class="">I actually have been to the website where the plans have been laid out, and I&#x27;ve studied them, I&#x27;ve looked at &#x27;em. I&#x27;m in favor of the three&#x2d;lane and the two&#x2d;bike lane plan.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5346500" class="">I&#x27;ve also, on Channel 17, watched the NPA wards four and seven proposal of the plan, and I listened to it carefully.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5360600" class="">I don&#x27;t know how many people are aware that over the last four years there have been 76 car crashes on North Avenue. 76.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5368100" class="">It seems excessive to me. I&#x27;m not an expert, but it seems a lot.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5374700" class="">The other issue is quality of life. I don&#x27;t know if you notice that when a street is paved or a sidewalk is improved or new curbing comes in, people try to kind of improve their property, they mow the lawn a little bit more, they might, you know, grow some flowers, try to make their property look better.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5403000" class="">You know, an upgrade on North Avenue is just going to make our neighborhood look more attractive. And I think it’s going to attract more commerce to the area. And I think that the North Avenue has been stagnant for a long time, and it needs to kind of walk into the 21st &#x5b;beep&#x5d; century.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5421900" class="">If I&#x27;m allowed, I&#x27;ll just say one more thing. I&#x27;m getting a little tired of hearing the drumbeat of negativity that comes out of the New North End.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5431400" class="">I don&#x27;t think it’s representative of most residents.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5434700" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Fry</span><p><a data-m="5434800" class="">&#x22;I can&#x27;t support the school budget, I can&#x27;t support the school budget.&#x22;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5438800" class="">Your time is up.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Fry</span><p><a data-m="5440400" class="">I&#x27;m sorry. I don&#x27;t think it’s a good idea, and I&#x27;m not in favor of it. We need to stop that.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5444300" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Fry</span><p><a data-m="" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5447600" class="">Jim Hallway followed by Michael &#x5b;McGargen&#x5d;.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5453500" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Hallway</span><p data-name="Jim Hallway"><a data-m="5454400" class="">Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to speak, and I want to say thanks to the mayor and the city councilors who have also been listening carefully along this process. And mostly to all the people here who have voiced their opinion. It’s a great community engagement.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5477200" class="">&#x5b;beep&#x5d; That was quick. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5478300" class="">Happens sometimes. Actually, buys you extra time.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Hallway</span><p><a data-m="5481500" class="">Oh, I&#x27;ll try not to take it. As a representative on the Corridor Study Committee over the last 18 months, I&#x27;ve heard a lot of these comments, and I hope that you guys listen to them carefully.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5498500" class="">I think that the plan that is out there is a good one. Of course, as we, you know, you might think... But it really did weigh on, put into consideration as many of the comments as possible. It’s hard to get something that&#x27;s perfect.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5516400" class="">For that reason, I&#x27;m very supportive of doing the pilot. I think that&#x27;s the way to take it from an academic process to a reality, doing it cautiously to be sure that we do it right. There&#x27;s time to make the New North End even more of a sense of community, and having it a race track doesn’t really do that.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5540200" class="">So I do also want to say that I&#x27;m not in support of all the amendments, but I do think that it’s a good idea that an ad hoc committee be paying attention during the pilot study.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5555600" class="">So I think that&#x27;s a good idea that there is one. I understand that&#x27;s part of the thought. I think the parking, especially at St. Mark&#x27;s and a few other places, there wasn&#x27;t enough discussion to necessarily put that in the pilot study now. So I support kind of leaving that alone.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5578400" class="">And again, I really applaud this community for engaging so spiritedly. And lastly, I agree with what the last gentleman said. The negativity, I&#x27;d like to see it disappear. I think a lot of people have seen some of that lately, and that&#x27;s not what a good community does. What we&#x27;re doing here is. Thanks.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5597100" class="">Thank you. &#x5b;beep&#x5d; Michael McGargen, followed by Nancy Elis.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5614300" class="">Welcome. That&#x27;s it.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">McGargen</span><p data-name="Michael McGargen"><a data-m="5616400" class="">Hi.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5619800" class="">So, I just wanted to mention a few things fast here. Since I had a few pages of quick bullet points here.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5630600" class="">So quickly, since I&#x27;ve been on North Avenue, since 1971 — you can do the math — I feel, since I changed from ward four to ward seven, where I&#x27;m living now, I had a vested interest on this North Ave. Corridor study.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5653400" class="">And one is, you know, you can&#x27;t legislate common sense, manners, patience and individual responsibilities. No matter what you try to do with these plans. The studies with the roads and the productive things out here. We have bike paths, we had an original bike path, which was the one that was the train tracks, and then we had the one that was on the other side of 127, which doesn’t get a whole lotta use.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5689100" class="">You know, but to sit there and try to take over lanes of traffic on North Avenue now, we haven&#x27;t seen any discussion and heard any discussion from the fire department and the police department weighed in out of any of these things out here, which is glaringly obvious, silent, whatever you want to say.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5712300" class="">Everybody wants to talk about the merits of the bicycles, but you know, what’s going to happen when somebody wants to say, &#x22;What if I want to ride my horse out here&#x3f; Where&#x27;s my horse gonna go&#x3f;&#x22;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5723600" class="">That hasn’t been discussed yet. Are we gonna make a special allowance for that&#x3f; &#x5b;beep&#x5d; Oh geez, that&#x27;s awfully fast.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5731000" class="">You know, there&#x27;s a whole lotta things that can be talked about here, but the right thing to be brought up is there&#x27;s a whole lot of people who want to say they have rights, but there&#x27;s a lotta people like myself that say we have rights, and the city council shouldn’t just be making a decision out here that the voters and the residents of the New North End who are most affected shouldn’t, they should have a say in the process.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5756700" class="">Thank you. Nancy Ellis, followed by Genevieve Jacobs.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ellis</span><p data-name="Nancy Ellis"><a data-m="5767800" class="">My name is Nancy Ellis, and I live on the New North End. And I want to say I appreciate the many improvements the city has made to accommodate automobile traffic along North Avenue since I first moved to Burlington in 1969. That&#x27;s 45 years, according to my husband — he does the math.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5790100" class="">One of the major improvements was the Intervale Beltline. The beltline is an alternative, fast route dedicated to automobiles, with no bikes allowed.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5805600" class="">I&#x27;m a bicyclist, believe it or not, and walker, pedestrian and a driver. I do support a protected bike lane along North Avenue now, and improvements to the pedestrian traffic access. I have noticed that the City of Montreal has well used protected bike lanes throughout the city, and those bike lanes don&#x27;t seem to inhibit the flow of traffic there, with a much larger population than Burlington.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5840000" class="">So I support the protected bike lane resolution tonight, without the amendments that might dilute the purpose of that resolution. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5853900" class="">Thank you. Genevieve Jacobs is our last speaker.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5860000" class="">Welcome.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Jacobs</span><p data-name="Genevieve Jacobs"><a data-m="5861600" class="">Thank you so much.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5862600" class="">You get the last word.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Jacobs</span><p><a data-m="5863600" class="">Oh boy, whoo.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5864400" class="">Almost.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Jacobs</span><p><a data-m="5864900" class="">Don&#x27;t know if I can live up to that. Thank you, everybody —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5868200" class="">Just except us.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Jacobs</span><p><a data-m="5868500" class="">— it’s very impressive to see how involved all of the citizens of Burlington are. In smooth flow of commerce, traffic, community, thank you to everyone for that. Bikers, walkers, drivers.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5883900" class="">I&#x27;ve been living on North Champlaign Street since 2001, and on Front Street since 1998. Raised my son here, used all modes of transportation, plan to continue.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5898700" class="">But I had a big surprise — and I&#x27;m sure it’s a surprise to most of you as well — when, in the process of repaving North Champlaign Street, which is also known as Route 127 North, sister to Park Street, 127 South, to discover that the speed bumps which had been four inches high, and 100&#x25; successful in keeping vehicular traffic under 25 miles per hour, had been replaced without any consultation, comment, notice of any kind, to conform to some new federal guideline, to be under two inches.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5943600" class="">They are now speed suggestions, at best. And so puny as to, why even bother&#x3f; Now, that is also a protected bike lane, and it seems to me that given the amount of concern and consciousness in this room, somebody made a bad call with that decision, and it is not acceptable.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5968700" class="">It’s going against what everybody has agreed upon we want to see for our city. So I&#x27;d like to see that rectified as soon as possible, while they&#x27;re still paving. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="5979300" class="">Thank you. So thank you all for your comments, and for your utterly civil behavior and silent applause. We really appreciate that. &#x5b;beep&#x5d; &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; Okay. Move to adjourn. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="5998600" class="">We will now go to our consent agenda, right, Councilor Bushor&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr"></span><p><a data-m="6003100" class="">That&#x27;s correct.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6004700" class="">Councilor Bushor.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr"></span><p><a data-m="" class="">So I would like to move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6010000" class="">Seconded by Counselor Ayres. Any amendments or...&#x3f;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6018600" class="">Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting the consent agenda and taking the actions indicated, please say aye.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Various</span><p><a data-m="6024700" class="">Aye.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6027300" class="">Any opposed&#x3f; That&#x27;s unanimous.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6035300" class="">We now have a resolution recognition of John Dewey Day, and annual John Dewey Parade and children&#x27;s event. Councilor Paul.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><p data-name="Councilor Paul"><a data-m="6044700" class="">Thank you, President Shannon. I&#x27;d like to move this resolution, ask the floor back after a second, and with the council&#x27;s indulgence, would ask for a reading of this resolution by Councilor Blais prior to the vote.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6059800" class="">And is there a second&#x3f; Councilor Blais. Councilor Paul&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><p><a data-m="6063400" class="">Thank you very much. This resolution is a recognition of John Dewey, a philosopher and educator who was born in Burlington on October 20th, 1859. John Dewey was a proud graduate of the University of Vermont, and he had a long career in the philosophy of education, living to the age of 92.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6085900" class="">Professor Dewey was not only an American philosopher, he was a psychologist and an educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and in social reform.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6098700" class="">He was a well&#x2d;known public intellectual, and a major voice in progressive education and liberalism. He was also known for his advocacy for democracy, and he considered the two fundamental elements, schools and civil society, to be major topics needing attention and reconstruction to encourage experimental intelligence and plurality.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6125700" class="">He advocated that complete democracy was to be obtained not just by extending voting rights, and if you&#x27;ll recall when he was talking about this, at least for some point, at that point women did not have the right to vote.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6141000" class="">But he spoke extensively about voting rights, but also about ensuring that there exists to be a well formed public opinion accomplished by effective communication among citizens, experts and politicians, and with the latter, being accountable policies that they adopt.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6163100" class="">I&#x27;m pleased to bring forward this resolution and would ask that Frank Gonzalez, a man who has been instrumental in keeping the heritage of John Dewey alive and well in Burlington, be able to come forward and speak to this resolution, and after his remarks, I would yield the floor to Councilor Blais or whomever you deem. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6185300" class="">If Mr. Gonzalez can be very brief —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><p><a data-m="6187400" class="">Yes.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6188100" class="">You may come up.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6195100" class="">Welcome, Mr. Gonzalez.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><p data-name="Mr. Gonzalez"><a data-m="6201000" class="">I&#x27;m here on behalf of the John Dewey committee, and I have to share with you a deep concern that I have. After having been born here, he was known throughout China, Japan, Europe. And when I speak to people on the street, &#x22;Are you aware of John Dewey&#x3f;&#x22;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6225300" class="">&#x22;Oh yes, the decimal Dewey.&#x22; No, that&#x27;s Melville Dewey, and he left a legacy. But John Dewey is known throughout, and if more people could know about his legacy, they would say, &#x22;This is so timely.&#x22; And we need to beat that creative drum like never before.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6248000" class="">Because we are in a situation now where we need to build community, and understand that each individual is unique. And that&#x27;s what I learned in the program when I was in a John Dewey program in Pasadena, California for three and a half years, and discovered that he was born here in Burlington, and began to read his works.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6273100" class="">And I realized I owe you, John Dewey. So on behalf of the John Dewey Committee, we want you all to be aware of his writings as well, and I brought some of his quotes that I would like to pass on to you.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6296600" class="">And if I may just read this one, &#x22;In Vermont, perhaps more than elsewhere, there was embodied into the spirit of the people the conviction that governments were like the houses we live in. Made to contribute to human welfare, and those who lived in them were as free to change and develop the needs of the human family called for such alterations and modifications.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6327800" class="">&#x22;So deeply bred in Vermonters was this conviction that I still think that one is more loyally patriotic to the ideal of America when one maintains this view than when one conceives of patriotism as rigid attachment to a form of the state alleged to be fixed forever.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6349600" class="">&#x22;So that one should heed the claims of a common human society as superior to those of any particular political form.&#x22;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6363100" class="">So with that, I would like to pass these on to you folks, and share them, please, with your family, your neighbors, and friends.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6376300" class="">And are there any questions about John Dewey&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6382300" class="">Councilors, did you have any questions for Mr. Gonzalez&#x3f; No&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><p><a data-m="6388000" class="">I might add one thing.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6389700" class="">Councilor Knodell&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><p data-name="Councilor Knodell"><a data-m="6393000" class="">Mr. Gonzalez, are you familiar with the place where John Dewey is buried&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><p><a data-m="6399700" class="">I&#x27;m sorry, say —</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><p><a data-m="6400900" class="">Are you familiar with the place where John Dewey is buried&#x3f; On the University of Vermont campus.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><p><a data-m="6410400" class="">Oh, at the University of Vermont.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><p><a data-m="6412200" class="">Yes.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><p><a data-m="6412900" class="">Well, he was born here on Willard Street, and when I walk by there, I always stop and salute. And when you see the house, you&#x27;ll see there&#x27;s — you can&#x27;t see the entrance, but you see a window where the fireplace is, the chimney. That&#x27;s the room he was born in.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6434700" class="">And the family that owns the house, they&#x27;re very welcoming, and they have allowed us to go in and visit where John Dewey was born. Very, very touching.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6447600" class="">Thank you. Councilor Knodell, go ahead.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><p><a data-m="6451200" class="">I just — while we&#x27;re on the subject of Mr. Dewey, I just wanted to urge everyone to visit the gravesite, which is on the north side of the chapel. And it’s a very quiet, private place. And it has a quite important inscription on the tomb.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><p><a data-m="6471800" class="">And one of the quotes that I want to share with you is on his tombstone. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6477900" class="">Councilor Brennan.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Brennan</span><p data-name="Councilor Brennan"><a data-m="6481800" class="">Thank you, President Shannon, and thank you, Mr. Gonzalez, for coming and sharing. I wasn&#x27;t going to speak, but I felt the need to share with you, six years ago I was on the school board, and there was many talks of dismantling the schools in the Old North End, and bussing kids out of the community.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6510100" class="">And a committee was formed — well, maybe, it was more than six years ago — but a committee was formed, and there was many of us that were on the committee, and there was a professor, Charlie Rathbone that was on there. And he indicated many of the things that we were doing to save our schools in the Old North End and make them magnet schools would&#x27;ve made John Dewey proud.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6539700" class="">And I think that it’s a testament of what we actually have at the Integrated Arts and the Sustainability Academy, there&#x27;s some dedication to John Dewey in that.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><p><a data-m="6550800" class="">Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6551100" class="">Thank you. Councilor Blais&#x3f;</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Blais</span><p data-name="Councilor Blais"><a data-m="6553400" class="">President Shannon, thank you. If I may, be it resolved by the city council of the city of Burlington as follows, that whereas John Dewey, philosopher and educator, who was born on October 20th, 1889 in Burlington, Vermont, and studied philosophy, graduating from the University of Vermont in 1879 before going on to teach at Columbia and the University of Chicago, and whereas John Dewey&#x27;s distinguished career included a particular interest in and substantial work on the philosophy of education,</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6587100" class="">and whereas one of John Dewey&#x27;s enduring contributions to the discourse on education was to remind us that, &#x22;The child and the adult learn in identical ways,&#x22; and that we should, &#x22;encourage the child to think creatively and independently in solving a problem.&#x22;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6608300" class="">And to, &#x22;Test his ideas in actual practice and to profit from experience.&#x22; And whereas John Dewey&#x27;s educational theories were based on an acknowledgement of and respect for the uniqueness of each individual, which would, in his opinion, promote tolerance and understanding between people.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6628900" class="">And whereas John Dewey understood that education is necessary to preserve the values of a democratic society, and whereas honoring John Dewey by acknowledging the date of his birth provides an opportunity to celebrate, reflect, learn from each other, have fun and discuss the value of education.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6652000" class="">Now, therefore be it resolved that October 20th, 2014 be declared John Dewey Day, and be it further resolved that the current John Dewey Parade be held on the Church Street Marketplace, and that a mask making event open to all people occur at the Fletcher Free Library prior to the parade. Thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6674700" class="">Thank you, Councilor Blais.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="6678300" class="">If there&#x27;s no further comment, I&#x27;ll go for a vote. All those in favor of the resolution, recognition of John Dewey Day and annual John Dewey Parade and children&#x27;s event, please say aye.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Various</span><p><a data-m="6691400" class="">Aye.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6692600" class="">Any opposed&#x3f; That is unanimous. Thank you very much. We appreciate all of your efforts.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">&#x5b;Plough&#x5d;</span><p data-name="Jean Plough"><a data-m="6700500" class="">And if I may say something, my name is Jean Plough, I&#x27;m a long&#x2d;time resident of Burlington. And I&#x27;ve worked with Frank for over 30 years, in working in art classes in schools. He&#x27;s, I would say, world&#x2d;renowned himself as an art educator. So I want to, on behalf of the John Dewey Committee, thank the council and the mayor, and Ron &#x5b;Redmond&#x5d; for his efforts to bring this proclamation forward. So thank you.</a></p>
<span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><p><a data-m="6738300" class="">And I thank you on behalf of my daughter, who&#x27;s been a mask maker at your event. Thank you.</a></p>
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<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4800" class="thewords">Welcome, everyone. Thank you for coming out tonight. I will convene our local control commission at 7:10, and I apologize for the delayed start. We had a work session just prior to this which kept us a little longer than expected.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="21700" class="thewords">So the first item on our agenda is the agenda. Commissioner Blais&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Blais</span><span><a data-m="25800" class="thewords">Commissioner Shannon, thank you. I would move that we accept the agenda as set forth.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="30500" class="thewords">Is there a second&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Ayres</span><span><a data-m="31400" class="thewords">I&#x27;ll second that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="32500" class="thewords">Seconded by Commissioner Ayres. All those in favor of the agenda, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="38400" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="39200" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; That&#x27;s unanimous. The next item on our agenda is a first class restaurant&#x2f;bar liquor license. Commissioner Blais&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Blais</span><span><a data-m="47600" class="thewords">Commissioner Shannon, I would ask that the full commission approve the first class restaurant&#x2f;bar liquor license application&#x27;s been submitted by Burlington Paint and Sip Studio.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="59100" class="thewords">Thank you. Is there a second&#x3f; Seconded by Commissioner Tracy. Any discussion&#x3f; Commissioner Bushor.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="69300" class="thewords">Yes. In the packet... what do I call you&#x3f; Chair of the local control commission&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Ayres</span><span><a data-m="76700" class="thewords">You could call me whatever you feel comfortable calling me.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Blais</span><span><a data-m="77800" class="thewords">No no no no no, no. President Shannon, I&#x27;m trying to figure out what I call you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="82100" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s not about you, Commissioner Blais. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="85700" class="thewords">Anyways &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Blais</span><span><a data-m="86100" class="thewords">I could sense a question coming to me &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="87600" class="thewords">May I ask the chair of the sub&#x2d;committee a question&#x3f; Thank you. So in the packet there was a statement that the permit had been submitted but not approved. Has that happened now&#x3f; This is the zoning permit, I believe.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Blais</span><span><a data-m="105900" class="thewords">I&#x27;m not certain. The applicant is here. She could probably speak to that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="109100" class="thewords">Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="111100" class="thewords">If you would come up to the table, please, so that... we have the microphones here. Thank you. And if you could just state your name.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Hover</span><span><a data-m="119400" class="thewords">I&#x27;m Catherine Hover, the owner of Burlington Paint and Sip Studio.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="123300" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Hover</span><span><a data-m="124000" class="thewords">Thank you. So yeah, the zoning permit has been approved, and we should be closing out all of our building permits by the end of this week.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="132200" class="thewords">Okay, thank you very much.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Hover</span><span><a data-m="133400" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="134100" class="thewords">Thank you. Okay. Are we ready for a vote&#x3f; All those in favor of the first class restaurant&#x2f;bar liquor license for Burlington Paint and Sip Studio, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="146000" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="146600" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; That&#x27;s unanimous. Congratulations.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Hover</span><span><a data-m="150100" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="152600" class="thewords">With no further business, I will adjourn the local control commission. And we will move to our city council meeting. If you would all please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="166500" class="thewords">&#x5b;pledge&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="190600" class="thewords">Thank you. And we will now convene our city council meeting at 7:12. The first item on our agenda is the agenda. Councilor Mason&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="203500" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I&#x27;d move to adopt the agenda with the following amendments. Note title change in supporting documentation for agenda item 4.08, resolution downtown tax increment financing district, &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; phased filing authorization Board of Finance per the mayor&#x27;s office and city attorney&#x27;s office, add to the consent agenda item 4.15, communication, Neale F. Lunderville, Interim General Manager, re: BED billing issue, 60&#x2d;day update with a consent action to waive the reading, accept the communication and place it on file.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="233300" class="thewords">Per Chief of Staff Kanarick, CAO Rusten, and BED Interim General Manager Lunderville. No proposed amendments for agenda item &#x2014; excuse me &#x2014; 5.03, resolution, exploration of feasibility of offering municipal sale of gasoline to customers. Councilors Tracy, Colburn, Siegel, per counselor Tracy, change order of agenda items 5.04, ordinance health smoking prohibition at city parks, Parks, Rec and Waterfront Commission, and Councilors Shannon, Paul and Mason, first reading now 5.05, and 5.05 ordinance health, smoking in outdoor places prohibited. Councilors Mason, Paul, Shannon, Brennan, Hartnett, Blais.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="271000" class="thewords">Second reading, now 5.04, per Councilor Mason, and removed from the agenda item 5.06, ordinance peddlers and solicitors license applications, review fees, locations, clerk treasurer&#x27;s office, ordinance committee second reading, per Councilor Mason. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="286400" class="thewords">Thank you. Seconded by Councilor Bushor. Are there any further amendments&#x3f; Seeing none, all those in favor of the agenda as amended, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="297400" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="298200" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; That&#x27;s unanimous.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="306500" class="thewords">So our first time on our agenda is a CCTA update. Do we have Commissioner Spencer&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="323800" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Bose</span><span><a data-m="324700" class="thewords">Thank you. I&#x27;ll just start with a quick update on a few items. The first thing I wanted to mention in relation to the work environment, the labor environment at CCTA, which the council asked us to give some updates on &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="344700" class="thewords">The first thing I wanted to note is Interim GM Paul Bohne&#x27;s open door policy, which has been very well&#x2d;received. Basically, from removing the locks on administrative offices and generally sort of opening up the space, this has had both the actual effect of increasing flow from staff and drivers into these offices, but it&#x2019;s also, I think, been a really big symbolic move &#x2014; something that I&#x27;ve heard from drivers, comments made in comments periods, but also just informally mentioned as well as a really important step.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="388300" class="thewords">The Labor Management Committee has met twice prior to the RBO, the Relationship By Objectives program, the mediation and conciliation program. The actual RBO was conducted September 23rd to the 25th. In attendance were two stewards, two teamsters, five staff, and a board member.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="411800" class="thewords">So there&#x27;s a report that is coming out of this process. As well, the steering committee that came out of the RBO process, overseeing the safety and scheduling committees met last month. It is also meeting next week on Tuesday. The composition of this committee is three shop stewards, one member of the maintenance union, a business manager as a staff representative, HR, and the GM.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="443500" class="thewords">It has been a productive forum. So, yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Spencer</span><span><a data-m="449800" class="thewords">Great. Thanks for having us. I decided to break it up a little bit and have both of us present a little bit. I served &#x2014; I&#x27;m Chapin Spencer, Director of Public Works&#x3b; also one of the Burlington commissioners on the authority &#x5b;as a board&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="464900" class="thewords">We also underwent a hiring process for a new general manager, as you all know. We were very pleased in establishing a much different hiring process than previous hires. And in serving on that search committee, I can tell you that we had staff representation, union and non&#x2d;union. We had public representation on the search committee, including members from the disabled community.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="494600" class="thewords">We had our interviews for the final candidates in public session, videotaped them and made them available online, and also asked for public comment from any member of the public or our staff, for those candidates as well. And while it was a process that indeed had a wide range of opinions and differing perspectives, I believe at the end, the process, by being as public and open as it was, enabled all of us to move forward for the good of the authority with the selection that was made.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="539900" class="thewords">I will also say that the after action report that was promised as a result of the strike that happened this spring will be out next week. And a draft copy of that after action report is online now on CCTA&#x27;s website. We don&#x27;t expect it to change much. But a lot of the comments and suggestions out of the after action report track very similarly to the relationships by objectives report that Pablo identified a moment ago, which is good, that there&#x27;s consistency in the recommendations.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="577600" class="thewords">And then last, I will just say that there is an operations committee of the board that was discussed with you previously, recognizing that a number of the concerns that were raised were operational in nature, and concern over management. So the board has set up a separate committee focusing specifically on operations. That committee does have staff engagement and has met three times to date, is meeting tomorrow in our central Vermont Berlin office.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="609500" class="thewords">And that will continue to be a key strategy for the board to ensure the level of oversight needed to ensure that we&#x27;re moving forward for the good of all. So that&#x27;s our brief update.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Bose</span><span><a data-m="621400" class="thewords">I just wanted to add really quickly &#x2014; as somebody who came into the CCTA after the strike and came into this obviously very charged atmosphere, I certainly didn&#x2019;t expect things to change overnight. This takes a long time. I would like to highlight, again, I think the contribution that the interim GM has made in really creating a much more positive, a very positive environment, and treating kind of all members of the organization with a great deal of respect, which is something I&#x27;ve heard on multiple occasions.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="661100" class="thewords">And I&#x27;ve seen elements of this need to reach out to all of the members of the organizations in various ways. The strategy committee, which I chair, right now is engaging in a marketing and outreach campaign. And I&#x27;ve been happy to see that there&#x27;s been a lot of attention given to how do drivers and other workers and staff feel about different things in the organization.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="688400" class="thewords">So I think a lot of that has to do with leadership.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="693000" class="thewords">Thank you. Are there questions from councilors&#x3f; Councilor Brennan&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Brennan</span><span><a data-m="699800" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I don&#x27;t have a question, but I do want to comment on the positive feedback that you&#x27;re giving here today. I really appreciate it, and I think all the ridership appreciate management and the union working together. It definitely shows. It shows in who&#x27;s showing up here tonight, as well as the ridership itself positively recognizing the differences.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="732500" class="thewords">So thank you so much for your leadership.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="735600" class="thewords">Thank you. Anyone else&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="740800" class="thewords">Thank you, Mr. Spencer and Mr. Bose.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Bose</span><span><a data-m="743000" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Spencer</span><span><a data-m="743400" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Bose</span><span><a data-m="744100" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="748100" class="thewords">We&#x27;re a little bit short of public forum, but I do have several speakers that we could get started with if there&#x27;s no objection.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="760100" class="thewords">So if you want to speak at public forum, you need to sign a form that&#x27;s in that corner, and hand the form to our clerk&#x27;s table. When I call your name, you come up to the table and you have three minutes to speak. The green light will go on when you begin your comments. The yellow light comes on when it&#x2019;s time to wrap up your comments.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="783800" class="thewords">And when the red light comes on, it&#x2019;s time to stop talking. So I will let you know who is up, and then who is in the queue, and if you could keep your comments respectful and address them to me as the chair, I would appreciate it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="798700" class="thewords">The first speaker is John &#x5b;Bosange&#x5d; following by Richard Hilliard.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Bosange</span><span><a data-m="814700" class="thewords">Good evening. I think by now you&#x27;ve all received the draft non&#x2d;smoking resolution in our parks. It included a document from the Burlington Partnership For Healthy Living, that gave the facts about secondhand smoke, and listed outdoor smoking&#x2d;free zones in Vermont and many other cities, and why smoke&#x2d;free areas really make sense.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="844700" class="thewords">And also included in that packet, I hope, was a listing of the hundreds of cities across our country that have banned smoking in their public parks. And quite honestly, in Burlington I think we&#x27;re really behind the curve with this issue, and I was trying to think of a reason why that would be, and the only thing I can come up with is that maybe &#x2014; and I don&#x27;t have the history here &#x2014; but maybe that&#x27;s never been presented before as a draft resolution for our parks, &#x27;cause I really can&#x27;t think of a reason why we would allow smoking in a public park.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="879900" class="thewords">For one simple reason, and the basic premise that one&#x27;s right to clean air supersedes anyone&#x27;s right to smoke in a public park. When we think back to 30 years ago, 20 years ago, when we used to allow smoking in so many public buildings and spaces, and we remember thinking about all the restaurants and different places where we heard about people&#x27;s rights to smoke, and how are you gonna enforce it&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="910600" class="thewords">All those issues have gone away, they&#x27;ve become answered over time. And if we just think forward &#x2014; it doesn&#x2019;t seem possible now &#x2014; but if we think forward five years from now, I&#x27;m sure people will say, &#x22;What took you so long to ban smoking from your parks&#x3f;&#x22; If you want to smoke, you wait outside, and then you go into the park, just as you do with many other non&#x2d;smoking areas in our city.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="934400" class="thewords">I believe this should be a very simple issue. And I think it&#x2019;s time that Burlington catch up to the many many other cities across our country, and eventually ban smoking from our public parks. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="950000" class="thewords">Thank you. Richard Hilliard, followed by Nancy Kaplan.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Hilliard</span><span><a data-m="960300" class="thewords">Thanks. My name&#x27;s Richard Hilliard, live in Ward One, on Riverside Avenue, the home of Burlington&#x27;s cheapest gas. So I&#x27;m here to support Councilor Tracy&#x27;s resolution brought about by the price of gas here in Chittenden County.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="980800" class="thewords">I used to work for IBM, so I take a passing interest in IBM plants and their destiny, and as a result, the GlobalFoundries investments, especially in Malta, New York. I happen to pass through that area at least every other month, so I&#x27;m familiar with the price of gas as I pass through.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1001100" class="thewords">The Cumberland Farms on Riverside Avenue sells a gallon of gas for &#x24;3.25, about the least expensive in town, and that includes taxes of 50.5 cents.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1014500" class="thewords">The Cumberland Farms in Ballston Spa, which is three miles down the road from Malta, sells for &#x24;2.98, and that includes taxes in New York of, total taxes of 68 cents. So the pretax cost is &#x24;2.75 in Burlington, &#x24;2.30 in Ballston Spa, and that&#x27;s a 45&#x2d;cent disparity. Or to put another way, an additional 19&#x2d;20&#x25; markup to the cartels.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1043800" class="thewords">One of these monopoly distributors taunted Mr. Tracy&#x27;s idea of the city to sell gas by saying, &#x22;I hope they have better luck with this than they did with Burlington Telecom.&#x22; But I would counter that it&#x2019;s nothing about luck. It&#x2019;s all about a monopoly and a competitive disadvantage that Burlington can&#x27;t afford and shouldn&#x2019;t afford.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1066400" class="thewords">Clearly, everyone would prefer to resolve this amicably, but this is all about fairness. So I urge the city council to consider Mr. Tracy&#x27;s recommendation, and the city administration not to be too scripted, and to take these cartels to task. Thank you very much.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1083400" class="thewords">Thank you. Nancy Kaplan followed by Brian &#x5b;Metovsky&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kaplan</span><span><a data-m="1094900" class="thewords">Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Hi.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1097600" class="thewords">Welcome again.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kaplan</span><span><a data-m="1098500" class="thewords">Thank you. I&#x27;m here tonight on behalf of the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Committee. I&#x27;m the chair of that committee. And I just wanted to speak to the resolution that&#x27;s coming before you, and really just to add a little bit of history to the resolution, for those of you who weren&#x27;t here when we passed our first smoking ban in parks.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1126200" class="thewords">We came up with a compromise solution, which was to ban smoking 25 feet from any place where children were playing, essentially. So given that most people don&#x27;t walk around the parks with a tape measure, it&#x2019;s become very apparent, besides all the really good reasons to ban smoking in a park &#x2014; and I&#x27;m quite sure that there are other people here tonight who can speak to that with much more eloquence than I can &#x2014; what I would like to tell you is that the Parks Commission has considered this very carefully for a number of years &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1164000" class="thewords">For as many years as I&#x27;ve been on the Parks Commission, which I think is about five. And I know well before that. And so the fact that we&#x27;re bringing this resolution to you now as a complete smoking ban is merely about the fact that it is the time. Now&#x27;s the time to do it. Now&#x27;s the time for Burlington to actually, sadly, not be in the forefront, but to be actually on the coattails of many other municipalities around the country.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1193200" class="thewords">And that&#x27;s pretty much all I have to say. So I really urge you to think carefully and understand that there has been a lot of public process before this resolution came to you. We have had any number of open meetings about it. Public has spoken. And so we bring it to you in our job as the Parks, Rec and Waterfront Commission. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1218200" class="thewords">Thank you. Ryan Metovsky followed by Kenneth Peterson.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Metovsky</span><span><a data-m="1226300" class="thewords">Hello.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1226500" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Metovsky</span><span><a data-m="1228400" class="thewords">So I have some opinions about the outdoor smoking ban on Church Street, and I wanted to provide some context to those opinions. So I grew up in the restaurant industry where all of the employees of our family restaurant smoked, and they all told me the same thing: &#x22;Don&#x27;t ever start, &#x27;cause it&#x2019;s the hardest thing to quit.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1246300" class="thewords">And I deeply respect and admire these people, and I spent a lot of time with them. And every time I would go out on a smoke break, just to take a break, because I needed a break, I would do this funny little wind shuffle to avoid their smoke and enjoy their company. And one of the things I wanted to articulate here was that most smokers I know are very considerate people, and their choice to smoke is a completely reasonable one.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1269700" class="thewords">And I have a preference to not inhale that smoke. And on a small scale, that&#x27;s easy to accomplish. But on a larger scale, we need your help to set a community norm. Because when &#x2014; oh, excuse me &#x2014; when going to have that conversation, it&#x2019;s very difficult without context to say something to someone who is smoking, and not offend them.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1292900" class="thewords">And in the same regard, it&#x2019;s very difficult to have that harm come to my lungs and be okay with it. So it&#x2019;s put in a limbo situation where there&#x27;s no win, but if there&#x27;s a ordinance that I can refer to and be assertive to people and say, &#x22;Hey, just like biking, it&#x2019;s not available.&#x22; Just for this busy area of Church Street. And I think Church Street is really special because it allows people to naturally gather in large groups.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1320900" class="thewords">I really love the nightlife, I really love having dinner with friends and family, and when community events are happening. And when people gather in these large crowds, it&#x2019;s almost impossible to avoid secondhand smoke. I know that some people made some comments in former meetings about anecdotal evidence of not seeing smoke. But the large crowds is what the issue comes to mind for me.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1348300" class="thewords">And I think that when these large crowds form, it can be any time of the day. So it can happen at night, it can happen in the morning, if we&#x27;re doing a Mardi Gras Parade. Whenever it happens, it&#x2019;s necessary to refer back to something, some sort of community norm, to say, &#x22;Hey, smoking, like biking, isn&#x27;t allowed here.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1366300" class="thewords">And I think it would be really nice if we were able to say, &#x22;Hey, the behavior of biking isn&#x27;t allowed on Church Street, but bikers are of course welcome, as long as they walk or park their bikes.&#x22; And in the same spirit of that, hey, like smokers are welcome on Church Street, as long as they pocket their cigarettes. You know, it&#x2019;s just for this space, it&#x2019;s really important that we keep this community norm in mind.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1387800" class="thewords">And the ordinance, as presented by the ordinance committee, I strongly support. I think it&#x2019;s a fair compromise between what&#x2019;s needed in the community and what&#x2019;s helpful. And I&#x27;d like to encourage a conversation about the spirit of that ordinance also mirroring the welcome behaviors of biking, as you would smoking.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1408100" class="thewords">So I think if people can be part of the community in all types and walks of life, that&#x27;d be really great. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1415500" class="thewords">Thank you. Kenneth Peterson, followed by &#x5b;Joe Harig&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Peterson</span><span><a data-m="1422600" class="thewords">Good evening. I&#x27;m Ken Peterson, Ward Four. I kinda changed my agenda here all of a sudden. First off, my wife is a 14&#x2d;year cancer survivor, okay&#x3f; She was a smoker. And her brother was a chain smoker, and no matter how much I talked to him about to stop smoking, no way, &#x22;I&#x27;m not gonna quit smoking.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1450300" class="thewords">And you know how it is when someone&#x27;s &#x5b;bowheaded&#x5d;. Heck, I&#x27;m bowheaded. Now, one day he come out to the house, and I&#x27;m trying to figure out a good method of showing it. And on the countertop snack bar, I had a report from the surgeon general on HIV, on AIDS.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1467400" class="thewords">And I said, &#x22;Look at this idiot. He says that you can get HIV through needles.&#x22; I said, &#x22;That&#x27;s nonsense, you cannot get HIV through needles.&#x22; &#x22;Yes, you can.&#x22; I said, &#x22;No,&#x22; and then I said, &#x22;And they say you can get it from sex.&#x22; He says, &#x22;No.&#x22; I mean it&#x2019;s like, he was defending the Surgeon General of the United States of America.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1493400" class="thewords">And so the more I said against him, the more he defended him. So then I took the paper, and I moved it. Underneath it was the surgeon general report about smoking. And he called me a nasty name, but I proved a point to him. Okay&#x3f; People, we don&#x27;t owe the smokers a dang thing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1511900" class="thewords">Why should such a minority of people threaten our lives with cancer when they don&#x27;t need to on any public street, sidewalk in this city or anyplace in this state&#x3f; Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1526100" class="thewords">Thank you. Joe Harig, followed by Michael Lee.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Harig</span><span><a data-m="1534600" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. My name&#x27;s Joe Harig, I a resident of Ward Seven. I&#x27;m in favor of the ordinance to ban smoking on Church Street marketplace. Every Sunday my wife and I got to Speeder and Earl&#x27;s on Church Street for coffee and a bit of people watching while we take turns on the latest Seven Days crossword puzzle. We do this almost every Sunday, and during the warmer months we obviously prefer to sit outside.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1555800" class="thewords">Sounds like the beginning of a nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon, you are correct. Except for the fact that we can&#x27;t sit for a ten&#x2d;minute span without gagging on somebody else&#x27;s secondhand smoke. The offending smoke might come from a fellow patron or from someone just standing nearby, but the result is always the same. I start to get a headache, I start to get a sore throat, I start to get a tad bit irritable, which my wife does not much care for. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1578500" class="thewords">Having said that, here&#x27;s a few points I came up with. The health concerns of others. Church Street hosts a variety of activities, which every year never fails to draw a sizeable crowd. There&#x27;s nothing to stop somebody from lighting up a cigarette right next to a family or a group of small children watching the street performers.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1596900" class="thewords">Side note: If that family chooses to leave because of the smoke, the performer might miss out on some revenue &#x2014; money that would likely be put back into the local economy. There would be less trash to pick up. There&#x27;s a box of cigarette butts that this gentleman has over here that I&#x27;m sure we&#x27;ll hear about tonight.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1614000" class="thewords">There are smoking bans across the country, including Boulder, Colorado, which is kind of a sticking point for me, a problem for me, because my sister&#x2d;in&#x2d;law moved down there a couple years ago, and she&#x2019;s like, &#x22;Oh, Boulder&#x27;s just like Burlington,&#x22; because of their ped mall and everything. But is Boulder just like Burlington or is Burlington not everything that Boulder is&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1632500" class="thewords">That rubs me the wrong way. Coworkers of mine have expressed a desire to go downtown for dinner, but are severely put off by the amount of smoking, especially while dining outside. And I&#x27;ve had arguments with people about &#x2014; I&#x27;ve tried to not bother people, but I tried to talk to some friends of mine about it, and one guy was like, &#x22;People should be able to smoke if they want to.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1657800" class="thewords">So if two people want to go out on a sunny day, and one of them lights up a cigarette butt, how many of them are enjoying that day&#x3f; This guy starts smoking, and is just infringing on my ability to enjoy a nice day. So I would urge you to pass this resolution. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1677500" class="thewords">Thank you. Michael Lee, followed by Sarah Wiley.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Lee</span><span><a data-m="1685000" class="thewords">Thank you, Councilor.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1685300" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Lee</span><span><a data-m="1686100" class="thewords">Thank you. I&#x27;m just here following up to the email I was able to send to all the councilors this weekend. Like many of you, I ran my first campaign this past week, and spent the past week licking my wounds of my loss. But I did want to &#x2014; and expressed in the email I wrote to my friends and neighbors, highlighting some of the frustrations and challenges that I dealt with with the Burlington City Clerk&#x27;s Office in the election practices and process.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1715100" class="thewords">Although majority of the time was a really great &#x2014; you know, I do commend the Burlington City Clerks for the response time and their professionalism &#x2014; there were definitely some frustrations that I outlined in the email and letter, and those were just three of the very many frustrations that I heard from both voters and other candidates, and as well as volunteers at the polling places, of their interaction and kind of misunderstanding of the Burlington Clerks&#x27; practices and election process.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1744300" class="thewords">And so I&#x27;m here in person to hopefully just remind you to read the email and take a look at that, as well as do a thorough review of the election practices of the Burlington Clerk&#x27;s Office. I understand that the mayor has requested a review by Mr. Rusten on the Clerk&#x27;s Office, but I think voters and constituents are wanting more than that. They&#x27;re wanting the city council themselves to be able to ask questions to the Clerk&#x27;s Office on why some of the decisions were made during this past general election cycle.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1777300" class="thewords">And hopefully these things can be fixed, so that in March, when all of you are going through your campaigns for reelection, that you won&#x27;t face the same frustrations. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1787100" class="thewords">Thank you. Sarah Wiley, followed by Eli Lesser&#x2d;Goldsmith. Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Wiley</span><span><a data-m="1796600" class="thewords">Evening. My name is Sarah Wiley, and I&#x27;m a resident of Burlington. So on a first personal level, I&#x27;m speaking in support of the smoke&#x2d;free bans on Church Street, and also in the parks.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1808200" class="thewords">I live in Burlington, and I work right off of Church Street, and I would personally be more likely to spend more time downtown outside if it were smoke&#x2d;free. It&#x2019;s my personal dream to walk my daughter to daycare in the Old North End, and then continue on to work and not smell any secondhand smoke. I would just like to do that one day.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1826500" class="thewords">That&#x27;d be great. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; On a second personal level, my dad is a smoker, and he&#x27;s tried to quit many times, mostly because we asked him to when we were kids. But I think there are always triggers for nicotine. It&#x2019;s an incredibly powerful drug. And whether that was an environment he was in or that was an activity that he was taking part in, he has been smoking for 50 years, and I don&#x27;t think he&#x27;ll ever stop.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1851500" class="thewords">But I know that most smokers, like my dad, want to quit. Work from Vermont smokers that nearly three in four of them want to quit, and nearly one in two of them will try every single year, and that&#x27;s regardless of income, education, age. Regardless of whether they have mental illness or they have another addiction. Half of all smokers will try to quit every single year.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1873800" class="thewords">So the question is how can we help them to be successful&#x3f; And one of the ways we can do that is by creating spaces that are free of that drug and free of that addiction. And that&#x27;s what the Smoke Free Church Street and the Smoke Free Parks Ordinance are about, is creating those addiction&#x2d;free, drug&#x2d;free spaces, to help people to quit smoking, and to help keep those spaces addiction&#x2d;free, so that children don&#x27;t start. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1897600" class="thewords">Thank you. And our last speaker is Eli Lesser&#x2d;Goldsmith.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Lesser&#x2d;Goldsmith</span><span><a data-m="1905300" class="thewords">Good evening.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1906600" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Lesser&#x2d;Goldsmith</span><span><a data-m="1907400" class="thewords">I&#x27;m Eli Lesser&#x2d;Goldsmith, Burlington resident and a member of the Church Street Marketplace Commission for the past four years. You can ask Ron, I&#x27;ve been advocating for this ordinance from before I was on the commission. My number one issue back then is exactly the same as it is today: Smoking kills people.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1925400" class="thewords">Both firsthand smoke and secondhand smoke. These are irrefutable facts. Why under any circumstance would we protect smokers, smoking or the tobacco industry&#x3f; In my opinion, a vote against this ordinance is a vote for Big Tobacco.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1940800" class="thewords">The opponents of this ordinance say that Church Street is a sanitized experience that is not a true representation of our city and its residents, yet our own surveys have shown that 70&#x25; of the visitors to the marketplace are residents of Chittenden County.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1955600" class="thewords">The people shopping and spending money in the marketplace are your neighbors and friends. The marketplace is the single largest economic retail driver in Vermont, and it&#x2019;s thriving. This ordinance will only make it better, more healthy and more clean. A smoke&#x2d;free marketplace becomes a talking point, and a marketing tool for the city, and will drive new and thankful customers to our doors.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1977400" class="thewords">And lastly, while I have a few minutes, I would like to strongly urge the council to let the idea of a city&#x2d;owned gas station die on the vine. The mess and debacle that is Burlington Telecom should be reason enough of remind everyone of the perils of city&#x2d;owned businesses. Leave running businesses to businesspeople, please. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1999900" class="thewords">Thank you. With no other speakers, I will close the public forum, and we will go to our consent agenda. Councilor Bushor.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="2012300" class="thewords">Thank you. I would like to move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2018300" class="thewords">Is there a second&#x3f; Councilor Ayres.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Ayres</span><span><a data-m="2019200" class="thewords">I&#x27;ll second that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2021300" class="thewords">Any discussion&#x3f; All those in favor of adopting the consent agenda, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="2025600" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2026700" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; That&#x27;s unanimous.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2036700" class="thewords">Councilor Blais, an indoor entertainment permit application for Bento.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Blais</span><span><a data-m="2041000" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I would ask the full council to approve the indoor entertainment permit. The application for the year 2014&#x2d;15 has been submitted by Bento at 197 College Street.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2053100" class="thewords">Seconded by Councilor Tracy. Any discussion&#x3f; Councilor Bushor&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="2061400" class="thewords">I always like to ask this, just to be reassured. Were there any noise issues from any kind of neighbors in that section&#x3f; Are there any neighbors in that section, I guess&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Blais</span><span><a data-m="2073600" class="thewords">To whom are you addressing question&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="2075200" class="thewords">Uh, I was &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2076400" class="thewords">To me, right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="2077100" class="thewords">&#x2014; addressing the chair, I mean the president of the council, but then if she would refer it to the chair of the...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2084500" class="thewords">Commissioner Blais, would you like to answer that question&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Blais</span><span><a data-m="2087300" class="thewords">Thank you. Yes. With this particular applicant, we spent a fair amount of time talking with him about the noise issues. The area where the entertainment will take place is a very small area. He assures us that there are no residential apartments located above it, and we&#x27;ve indicated to him that one of the things that we customarily do is, if we get a noise complaint, then we will be looking at this application and seeing about a revision.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2114000" class="thewords">So, the applicant is here as well, and he knows that&#x27;s a concern of many of the members of the council.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="2120300" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Blais</span><span><a data-m="2120700" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2121900" class="thewords">Thank you. Any further discussion&#x3f; All those in... whoops.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2129200" class="thewords">All those in favor of an indoor entertainment permit application for Bento, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="2134200" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2134900" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; It&#x2019;s unanimous.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2138800" class="thewords">We know have an appointment for fence viewer. Are there any nominations for fence viewer&#x3f; Councilor Ayres&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Ayres</span><span><a data-m="2146400" class="thewords">I will nominate Charlie Giannoni.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2149000" class="thewords">Thank you. Are there any other nominations&#x3f; I don&#x27;t think we have any other applicants, so there can&#x27;t be.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2156000" class="thewords">All those in favor of appointing Charlie Giannoni to fence viewer, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="2163000" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2163700" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; Charlie Giannoni is unanimously appointed. Congratulations.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2173800" class="thewords">We now have exploration of feasibility of offering municipal sale of gasoline to customers. Councilor Tracy&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="2182800" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I would like to move approval of the resolution, as amended, and I have placed the amendment language both on Board Docs and in front of you in physical copies. Let me know if you need that additional language. I&#x27;ll cover that after having waived the reading and getting a second, asking for the floor back, that is.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2208400" class="thewords">Is there a second&#x3f; Councilor Brennan. Councilor Tracy&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="2213100" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. So, for the past 14 consecutive weeks the Burlington area has been one of the most profitable places to sell gas in the Northeast. In fact, according to the independent Oil Price Information Service, or OPIS, our area has regularly been one of the top five most lucrative markets, with profit margins topping 50 cents a gallon.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2233100" class="thewords">As a direct result, consumers in the Burlington area have been paying gas prices that are frequently 20&#x2d;30 cents higher than communities as close as Middlebury and Rutland. Considering that the cost of transporting gasoline further north from Rutland to Burlington only adds five cents to the purchase price, according to OPIS, the real reason for the price discrepancy is the distinct lack of competition in Chittenden County, as only three companies sell the majority of gas in our area.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2259500" class="thewords">Now, recognizing this fact, I&#x27;m not content to sit idly by while hard&#x2d;working Vermonters, many of whom have no choice but to drive long distances for work or other needs, are forced to decide between putting gas in the tank or putting food on the table, between filling a prescription or filling the car up.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2276600" class="thewords">And these are impossible choices that no one should have to make. And it is my opinion that if the city of Burlington can do something about these things, that it should. To this end, I&#x27;ve proposed a resolution asking the Department of Public Works of the city of Burlington to look into opening municipal gas pumps to the public to create more competition and drive prices down.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2295700" class="thewords">In Somerset, Kentucky, where they have experienced a similarly un&#x2d;competitive market, the city government opened the municipal pumps, which resulted in significantly lower gas prices, and saved consumers an estimated &#x24;4.5 million annually. Those savings in turn stayed in the local economy. It is my hope that Burlingtonians will be able to realize similar savings through such an endeavor.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2318000" class="thewords">Additionally &#x2014; and this speaks to the amendment where I ask that we add a consideration from the department of what types of revenue might be generated from this, and also how we might use that to support our transition or support multimodal infrastructure &#x2014; the modest revenue might be used to aggressively transition our vehicle fleet to newer, more efficient models, we found out a couple years ago when we did our resolution regarding tar sands.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2343700" class="thewords">Or to enhance our pedestrian, bike and public transit infrastructure. However, in order to realize these benefits, the council will need to take the first step and pass this resolution to explore the feasibility of opening Burlington&#x27;s municipal pumps to the public. Given that consumers in Burlington and northwestern Vermont are paying exorbitant prices because of a lack of competition, I think that it is more than reasonable for the city to explore what we can do to remedy the situation.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2368500" class="thewords">My resolution before the council tonight is the first step in that process.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2375000" class="thewords">Thank you, Councilor Tracy. Councilor Mason&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="2381000" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I would just note for the record my recusal from consideration of this matter under our conflict of interest policy. My firm and I both represent Champlain Oil Co. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2392700" class="thewords">Thank you. Counselor Knodell&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="2395400" class="thewords">President Shannon, I&#x27;m also stating my intent to recuse myself from this discussion, on the basis of my affiliation with Burlington College, which this fall has been drawn into this controversy, and the stated desire by Interim President Smith for the leadership team to remove itself from political controversy. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2417900" class="thewords">Thank you. Any other comments&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2428200" class="thewords">Councilor Brennan&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Brennan</span><span><a data-m="2430500" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I&#x27;d like to commend Councilor Tracy for bringing this resolution forward. Certainly, since this resolution was made public, there&#x27;s been much discussion about the price of the gasoline in the Chittenden County area, and some of the reasons why we, or some of us who are co&#x2d;sponsoring this resolution, why we would look to reduce the cost of gasoline.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2466000" class="thewords">And it&#x2019;s not a matter of reducing the cost of gasoline. It&#x2019;s a matter of fairness. It&#x2019;s a matter of fairness for all of us living here in Chittenden County, being held by these 25... It&#x2019;s, on average, 25 cents per gallon. And if we look across Chittenden County, the amount of opportunities for that 25 cents to be bought, it&#x2019;s significant. And I really appreciate one of the public members coming forward and recognizing that we are being held somewhat hostage.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2503500" class="thewords">And the reference was as to a cartel. And I firmly believe that we should be standing up. And currently, the city has one pumping station, and the infrastructure needs to be looked at, as it was noted in the paper from the Director of Public Works. But I would just say that the city has made moves to increase its infrastructure in other ways.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2539300" class="thewords">We just recently purchased 300 parking meters that significantly upgraded the parking opportunities. That infrastructure was increased to generate revenue funds, and I believe in the same spirit as Councilor Tracy&#x27;s resolution here today. So I do believe, if there&#x27;s a will with this council, that we could find a way to create this competition, to create fairness across the board. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2577000" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Ayres&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Ayres</span><span><a data-m="2581600" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I will be voting against this resolution this evening, and I encourage my fellow councilors to do the same. Let me address a couple of the reasons briefly why I&#x27;ll be doing so:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2594100" class="thewords">The Department of Public Works is the principal steward of our city&#x27;s vital infrastructure, from sidewalks and streets, its water, its wastewater, its storm water systems, its recycling and solid waste programs. And as winter descends upon us, as it&#x2019;s about to, with the all important task of removing snow from our streets.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2614100" class="thewords">All of the city&#x2d;owned vehicles that are essential to the central infrastructure and emergency preparedness functions of the DPW make use of the six fossil fuel pumps at the Pine Street DPW facility. The central maintenance facility on Pine Street services 300 city vehicles.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2633600" class="thewords">The city&#x27;s staff and fleet respond to emergencies around the clock, and 24&#x2d;hour ready access to those fuel pumps is absolutely critical, particularly for large vehicles such as our fire trucks, and for snow plows, which may take up several fueling stations because of their size and length, and which take up to 15 minutes to fill.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2656300" class="thewords">In addition, none of the pumps are presently equipped with payment terminals. For all these reasons and more, the logistical constraints in offering any of these fuels to the public for retail consumption are simply unsustainable. To the price question, it&#x2019;s also important to underscore the fact that both the diesel fuel and the regular fuel, gasoline held in tanks at DPW are exempt from federal gas tax because they are for municipal use.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2686500" class="thewords">This would not be the case if the city were to suddenly decide to go into the retail gasoline business, competing both against chain and independent mom and pop, family&#x2d;owned retail fuel distributors in our region.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2700000" class="thewords">Furthermore, the installation of smart pumps with the ability to distinguish between taxable and non&#x2d;taxable sales could prove prohibitively costly, and a logistical nightmare from an accounting perspective for the city. Given all these constraints and more, I urge my fellow councilors to reject this resolution this evening.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2719800" class="thewords">Even the serious feasibility study called for in the resolution is ill&#x2d;advised, given the significant investment of staff time and financial resources that would be required to make it possible. Our DPW needs to be attending to the nuts and bolts of city maintenance &#x2014; of sidewalk repair and street paving, of snow plowing and bike path maintenance, of addressing the shortfalls of our storm water system, and moving forward with the implementation of the all important Complete Streets and Carter Study programs.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2750700" class="thewords">This is not the time, nor is there any time, really, for the city to be going into the retail gasoline business. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2759000" class="thewords">Thank you. Mayor Weinberger&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="2763800" class="thewords">Thanks, President Shannon. I just would simply add to Councilor Ayres&#x27;s statement that the exploration that is requested in this resolution has essentially been done. The feasibility has been found to be... not possible without compromising core city services. And we welcome the suggestion.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2791400" class="thewords">Certainly, any opportunity to save Burlingtonians money is one worth looking into. However, we&#x27;ve looked into it, and I think any further exploration is not warranted, given the findings of the Public Works Director.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2804400" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Paul&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="2808100" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I appreciate very much the desire and the intent of the sponsors in bringing this forward, and I also appreciate the comments from Richard Hilliard in support of this resolution. I believe that this resolution is ill&#x2d;advised at this time, and I appreciate very much Councilor Ayres&#x27;s comments about the logistical realities as well as the mayor&#x27;s comments about a feasibility study that has essentially already been done, and the burden that going into doing this kind of endeavor would place on city resources.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2850100" class="thewords">My reason for not supporting this resolution goes beyond the issues that have already been mentioned, and strikes at what I feel is the very heart of the responsibility that I feel, first and foremost, that I have to the City of Burlington as a city councilor, and that is the city&#x27;s fiscal health and stability.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2870900" class="thewords">Five years ago, less than a year after I got on the council, our city&#x27;s fiscal reality was shattered. Over these past few years, and especially in the past two years, this council and administration have worked collaboratively in climbing out of the deep financial hole that we had created for us by Burlington Telecom.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2898300" class="thewords">As our credit rating teetered on the edge of junk bond status. The fiscal stability bond, which we all encourage the voters to support, and rightly so, and the Citibank settlement, which the Public Service Board approved last week, were the result of a great deal of hard work.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2916600" class="thewords">The Citibank settlement will alleviate a great deal of Burlington Telecom&#x27;s debt burden. At our last council meeting, we also heard some very encouraging news regarding our unassigned fund balance, which is positive, and obviously very encouraging. But all of our hard work could potentially disappear with this resolution.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2938600" class="thewords">I can&#x27;t support a resolution that could potentially put our credit rating in peril. I can&#x27;t support a resolution that could potentially erase all of this good work that has been done to address our credit problems. Even the hint of us exploring a competitive business venture would send a message to Moody&#x27;s that I don&#x27;t think any of us really want to send.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2963700" class="thewords">And we know that Moody&#x27;s is watching us. And how do we know this&#x3f; Because they tell us that they are. When I think about this resolution, this is what I think about. I think about a Moody&#x27;s analyst waking up tomorrow morning and looking on their phone or looking on their iPad or looking on their computer, and looking at a story in a Vermont newspaper about how the city council passed a resolution looking into the feasibility of going into yet another competitive business enterprise, and not just a competitive enterprise, but a highly competitive business enterprise.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3005300" class="thewords">Our ability to borrow, and the rate at which we borrow, and be able to do all the necessary city projects that we all want to do, depends a lot on our credit rating. I really appreciate the spirit of this resolution, and I thank the sponsors for bringing it forward. I just can&#x27;t support it. Thank you very much.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3026200" class="thewords">Thank you, Councilor Paul. Councilor Bushor&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="3030300" class="thewords">Thank you. So I&#x27;ve had, like other councilors, several weeks to think about this idea since it came forward. And I do think that our region of the US has a problem, and Vermont has a problem, and Burlington has a problem. And I know it&#x2019;s been traditional that we leave these types of issues to businesspeople.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3065000" class="thewords">But I do applaud Councilor Tracy for coming forward with this, because it&#x2019;s a real issue, and I also am appreciative that we got the report from the Director of Public Works. So I would just like to ask him a question, if that&#x27;s okay, President Shannon.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3088500" class="thewords">The director of Public Works&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="3089500" class="thewords">Yes, if he would come forward, since he submitted this communication.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3095100" class="thewords">Yes. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="3098500" class="thewords">Thank you. So I was informed, and somewhat not surprised by site constraints, I was informed &#x2014; I know Councilor Ayres read this, but with your information in your report about restrictions for accessing fuel and tax breaks that we get from municipalities &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3126700" class="thewords">I said I wasn&#x27;t surprised at the site constraints. You know, I go there and park behind where your maintenance vehicles are, and tried to figure out how this would all work. But one thing that left me wondering was your concluding remarks that said, &#x22;There may be real benefits to providing a public fueling station at some governmental facility, but DPW staff believe that, due to significant site constraints, it would not be advisable to increase public use at our rear yard at 645 Pine Street.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3166400" class="thewords">So is that a...&#x3f; So that&#x27;s a comment coming from the Director of Public Works regarding the issue. Is that a personal comment, or is that... a Public Works Director comment regarding the feasibility of something like this&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Spencer</span><span><a data-m="3188600" class="thewords">Thank you. The intent of that sentence was to make clear that my analysis in the memo was strictly limited to the site constraints and issues before us operationally. I do not want to weigh into the larger policy issue of whether or not it should be done. So that was &#x2014; the phrasing of the sentence may have been awkward, but the desire was to say there may be merit in this, and that it may work well some other place.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3219500" class="thewords">My understanding is that the Somerset, Kentucky facility is separate from the municipal operations of their Public Works and governmental operations. And that, in my mind, was a key piece for me, trying to understand how they accommodated that activity within their existing operations.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3240400" class="thewords">I think that conflict with our existing operations really is the bulk of what I was trying to convey in my memo.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="3248300" class="thewords">Thank you, appreciate that. So based on the comments from the Director of Public Works and other comments that were made around the table, I think this is a good idea that hasn&#x2019;t found its time. I think that this potentially should be postponed. I don&#x27;t really want it to go away because I really need to look at whether or not exploring ventures like this will always put us at risk with Moody&#x27;s, and I&#x27;d like to think that we as a city would be able to explore ideas and not fear where that would bring us, if indeed we go down a path.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3293800" class="thewords">I think that we were successful with BED. Today&#x27;s world would not allow us to have a public utility. We were unsuccessful with BT to this juncture for a number of reasons. But I do think that these kinds of explorations have a purpose, and should come before the community as a whole. And so I thank you. I won&#x27;t be supporting this at this time.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3324800" class="thewords">But I certainly hope that this conversation can continue. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3331900" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Siegel&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Siegel</span><span><a data-m="3338100" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. So I share the belief that it does not appear realistic to have a public municipal gas pump at DPW on Pine Street. And thankfully, no one has said that&#x27;s where the pump would be positioned. I support this resolution.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3358300" class="thewords">And I share, obviously, concerns about the city&#x27;s credit rating. And that&#x27;s part of why I&#x27;m very glad that it was amended to include a resolved clause asking the CAO to provide analysis as to how this might affect our credit rating.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3373100" class="thewords">And I&#x27;ll say, you know, it&#x2019;s very odd for me &#x2014; and I had to think a lot about this, &#x27;cause I am not one who tends to advocate for more access to gasoline. I&#x27;m firmly rooted in conservation and elimination of fossil fuel use. But as it&#x2019;s been said, this resolution is not about using more gas, it&#x2019;s about economic justice.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3395300" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t usually advocate for consumption. I don&#x27;t do a lot of shopping for fun. But I have found myself the director of a business that has a retail store. And I&#x27;m able to do this because what we sell is ethically traded. So I don&#x27;t like gasoline, but I do think it should be sold at a fair price.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3415700" class="thewords">And this might move us closer to that. Perhaps this feasibility study would help bring the prices down, whether or not we end up with a public municipal gas pump. We have seen scenarios in other municipalities where just the thought of this brought the prices down in the private sector.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3436200" class="thewords">So thanks for letting me share, and I hope that people will support this resolution.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3442200" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Wright&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Wright</span><span><a data-m="3446700" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. As others have said, I appreciate the intention behind this resolution, but I will not be supporting it. I&#x27;ll be brief, because I think the others have outlined very well thought out reasoning in regard to this. I will just say that the cost of gasoline is not the only thing that is expensive in the State of Vermont. The cost of living, period, is expensive in Vermont. Property taxes are expensive in Vermont.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3474700" class="thewords">And all these things impact what we pay at the gas pump as well. While this resolution is grounded in good intentions, and I support trying to find ways to reduce the cost of living for Vermonters, period, I think it is really ill&#x2d;advised for the city to consider going into business and becoming competitors to small businesses, even to Jolly and the others.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3500400" class="thewords">People have also mentioned to me they don&#x27;t understand why a store like Cumberland Farm was not mentioned in this resolution, and we singled out three... One of our councilors, who&#x27;s actually employed by one of these businesses.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3514600" class="thewords">So, I mean, again, the cost of living&#x27;s very expensive. Are we at some point going to look at groceries and say, &#x22;Gee, maybe the city ought to go into the grocery business next&#x3f;&#x22; So I think that this is good intentions, but is not the right thing to do. I think the city should stay out of this business. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3533500" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Colburn&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Colburn</span><span><a data-m="3539000" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I just wanted to quickly push back just a little bit on the idea that the very useful memo that we received from Department of Public Works staff is kind of equivalent to the study that&#x27;s being called for. I really appreciate the time that was put into this, and some of the issues that were brought forth &#x2014; there clearly are some real challenges here.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3567700" class="thewords">And this memo does a great job of outlining what some of the impediments might be. But it doesn&#x2019;t go into a more thorough investigation of what some of the ways we could actually accomplish this might be, and look at what some of the real cost analysis might be.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3587500" class="thewords">And so I understand the concerns that people are raising, but these two things to me are not equivalent, and I do support investigating the question in a little more detail. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3600700" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Tracy&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="3607900" class="thewords">So, just to respond to a couple of different things that I&#x27;ve heard around the table tonight, I think that what&#x2019;s apparent is that there is an issue with pricing and with price dynamics in this area, an issue that doesn&#x2019;t really seem to be addressed by some of those who are criticizing it, Councilor Wright aside, recognizing that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3628300" class="thewords">But I think that there is a definite price dynamic issue here that we can&#x27;t get away from and that needs to be addressed. And so I wonder, for those who are opposing this, what alternatives you might propose to this resolution to deal with this. If you have other ideas, other things. Because I don&#x27;t think that it&#x2019;s enough to say, &#x22;Look, we have a real issue here. We&#x27;re not even going to look into solving it, or we&#x27;re not even going to look into it at a city level,&#x22; and then just walk away from the table.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3657700" class="thewords">We have people who are having to make real choices between putting food on the table, as I said, between real basic needs, and in a rural state like Vermont, with public transit that is good, but not as good as it could be, people are going to have to drive. And so I would really hope that we would think about other ways to make this a more affordable city.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3679000" class="thewords">I would also reject the notion that this feasibility has already been done. We need to remember that the Director of Public Works serves at the pleasure of the mayor. So I think that what this really was, given the last line that was highlighted by Councilor Bushor, I think that they were looking for reasons to say no, and highlighting some of the negative aspects, without really highlighting any of the potential benefits.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3700300" class="thewords">We don&#x27;t know really what those benefits were, because really what this memo told us was that these are the reasons why you shouldn&#x2019;t potentially do this. And then the other thing is the credit rating thing &#x2014; and I would really push back against the notion that by looking into things as a city, that our credit rating is immediately going to drop, that they&#x27;re going to look at that and degrade our credit rating.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3725300" class="thewords">Perhaps if we decided to do that, that may be a reality. But we don&#x27;t know that for sure, because we&#x27;re not them, and what we&#x27;ve actually amended to do, as Councilor Colburn said, was to ask for some sort of financial analysis of this. So I really don&#x27;t think that that&#x27;s &#x2014; I think that that&#x27;s sort of a red herring at this point, and one that&#x27;s not really grounded in an actual, real analysis done by our CAO, but rather just kind of a reason, again, to vote against.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3752300" class="thewords">So I don&#x27;t really think that we&#x27;re seeing a coherent addressing of the unfair price dynamics that we&#x27;re seeing.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3760900" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Wright&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Wright</span><span><a data-m="3764200" class="thewords">I&#x27;ll defer to &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3765700" class="thewords">Councilor Ayres&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Ayres</span><span><a data-m="3767300" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. Although it&#x2019;s somewhat outside the purview of this discussion and this specific resolution, I would like to respond to one of Councilor Tracy&#x27;s questions, and that is what are the alternatives, you asked, Councilor Tracy. Councilor Wright made reference to whether we might consider at some point going into the grocery business as a city.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3789900" class="thewords">And I would point out that we have in our midst the most successful cooperative grocery in the country in terms of sales per square inch or square foot, excuse me. And it is owned by its members. And maybe one of the things that we could look at as a city, if there&#x27;s the impetus to do it, is to move into a cooperative gas purchasing option.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3818800" class="thewords">As an alternative to the city going into a competitive business against existing businesses in our community. That might be a model we want to look at, is a City Market of gasoline.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3832600" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Wright&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Wright</span><span><a data-m="3834700" class="thewords">Call the question.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3836700" class="thewords">There&#x27;s a motion to call the question. Is there a second&#x3f; Seconded by Councilor Tracy. All those in favor of calling the question, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="3846600" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3847300" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; Question is called. All those in favor of the resolution, exploration of feasibility of offering municipal sale of gasoline to customers, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="3860700" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3863000" class="thewords">All those opposed.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="3864100" class="thewords">Nay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3866100" class="thewords">The ayes were Councilor Colburn, Tracy, Brennan, Siegel, correct&#x3f; So that is four to seven, and the motion fails.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3880600" class="thewords">Thank you. Did I get it right&#x3f; Okay, good.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3890200" class="thewords">Our next item is an ordinance &#x2014; health smoking... Oh, we switched, right&#x3f; Smoking prohibitions... I&#x27;m confused now. In outdoor places, is that right&#x3f; Okay. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; Smoking in outdoor places prohibited. Councilor Mason&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="3911200" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I&#x27;d like to make a motion to waive the reading, adopt the amendments as presented. And I&#x27;d actually invite Mr. Redmond and Mr. Nick up to the table to speak, if that&#x27;s okay with the council president. After a second, sorry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3927000" class="thewords">After a second, yep. Seconded by Councilor Paul. Councilor Mason, did you want...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="3933900" class="thewords">Sure.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3934000" class="thewords">You may come up, Mr. Nick and Mr. Redmond.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="3941100" class="thewords">And I should&#x27;ve made clear, I didn&#x2019;t talk to you guys, you don&#x27;t have to speak if you... I didn&#x2019;t want to... But I wanted to make the opportunity.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3948000" class="thewords">Apparently, Mr. Nick just wanted to &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; at his seat. It looks like you may be wanted to speak to us. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Nick</span><span><a data-m="3957400" class="thewords">Well, thanks for having us again. I brought the box. Everybody&#x27;s seen this before. Most of the folks spoke to what we were to talk about, is the health effects of the, the negative health consequences of secondhand smoke. So everybody&#x27;s done that already, you know what those are.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3973100" class="thewords">We just want to let you know that the marketplace commission went back, and at your request, rethought the ban, and we asked our commissioners if they support a 24&#x2d;hour ban, which we voted unanimously to support.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3987300" class="thewords">So we&#x27;re all in favor of that. And I think it&#x2019;s important to note as well that this is not an effort to have folks leave the marketplace. This is an effort to ask folks to refrain from smoking while they&#x27;re here, enjoying the marketplace, so that we all can enjoy the marketplace &#x2014; smokers and non&#x2d;smokers alike.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4006100" class="thewords">And we&#x27;re also here to answer any questions you have, and Ron probably has something to say.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Redmond</span><span><a data-m="4009900" class="thewords">I&#x27;m good. I think... yeah. That&#x27;s good.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4012600" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Mason&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="4015300" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. So, I just want to bring the council a little bit up to speed on the process that&#x27;s happened since the last time we were here at a first reading. The ordinance committee held actually three public hearings, at which we invited the public to attend. I will say there were a number of the very eloquent speakers who were here tonight, who also presented before the ordinance committee.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4036300" class="thewords">But the overwhelming majority of those who came were in support of the ban. We did hear one individual who came and spoke in opposition. It&#x2019;s the owner of the tobacco shop on Church Street, so not a big surprise that that individual is opposed to the ban.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4053500" class="thewords">We also heard from the Chief of Police in terms of, you know, on the proposal, from going from a per&#x2d;hour day to a 24&#x2d;hour, and what we heard was that would be easier from an enforcement perspective. You guys obviously didn&#x2019;t touch on, the survey that went back out on the 24&#x2d;hour still showed a majority of owners, both retail as well as bar owners on Church Street, supported the 24&#x2d;hour ban.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4078100" class="thewords">One last change that required a second public hearing: What had been presented at first reading &#x2014; and I want to bring this to the council&#x27;s attention &#x2014; had not been vetted by the city attorney&#x27;s office. So when it went through the city attorney&#x27;s office, they did bring back to the council&#x27;s attention that there was a broader definition of tobacco products, and also tobacco substitutes &#x2014; you know, e&#x2d;cigarettes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4098500" class="thewords">So what&#x2019;s before you tonight now incorporates the state definition of tobacco products, and also bans tobacco substitute, which is an e&#x2d;cigarette. I&#x27;ll speak &#x2014; what I heard overwhelmingly was, from a public health perspective, there was no reason not to do this. And that was, for me personally, one of the big reasons why doing a seven to nine simply made sense. You know, we have a responsibility to those who are on Church Street after nine and before seven.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4127900" class="thewords">And I agree &#x2014; you know, as we&#x27;ve moved successfully, as the commission has moved Church Street to, in essence, an outdoor caf&#x00e9;, we don&#x27;t allow smoking in restaurants &#x2014; you know, this is, a lot of Church Street now is very packed. And I appreciate, some will say there aren&#x27;t many smokers, but when you&#x27;re walking down Church Street and someone&#x27;s smoking, you know it. And I don&#x27;t see any reason that we shouldn&#x2019;t, in essence, as Councilor Hartnett has said, it&#x2019;s simple, this solves some of the infirmities that the last ban that this council dealt with in terms of exceptions and loopholes &#x2014; this is simple.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4163000" class="thewords">Church Street, you know, Main Street to Pearl Street, if you&#x27;re on the bricks, no smoking. So I hope the council will join me in moving this forward. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4171800" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Hartnett.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Hartnett</span><span><a data-m="4174700" class="thewords">Thank you. So this has been before us numerous times. Or at least discussed numerous times. And I&#x27;ve opposed it every time. I think it was a couple years ago someone wanted to write a resolution, and which way the wind was blowing, we could maybe smoke on Church Street, I think I recall that resolution. Someone put that forward. If the wind was blowing, you couldn&#x2019;t smoke, and if it wasn&#x27;t, you could.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4202200" class="thewords">So we&#x27;ve been all over the map with this. But this is why that I&#x27;m in favor of this particular resolution. It is very defined. It is Church Street, it is the brick. The last one in front of us was downtown. That&#x27;s much different. As far as King Street, I believe. Talked about side streets, talked about workers in restaurants not being able to go out back and having a cigarette break. That doesn&#x2019;t apply here.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4234600" class="thewords">They can do so. It talked about, this was an ordinance to keep, you know, maybe the riff&#x2d;raff from Church Street, or people from coming downtown that smoke on Church. Not so. Come downtown, enjoy downtown. You want to have a smoke&#x3f; Step onto Pearl Street, go off to Bank Street.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4253500" class="thewords">So this ordinance isn&#x27;t geared or intended to punish anybody. We have turned Church Street into an outdoor event center. At any given time there&#x27;s two, 3,000 people down there on a summer night. Well past nine o&#x27;clock, well past ten o&#x27;clock. Having dinner.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4273200" class="thewords">And when you have that many people in that close proximity, and you have people smoking, it infringes on their health, there&#x27;s no question about that. So I think this is a good move. I think it will be easily enforced. I think we&#x27;ll have some stumbling blocks out of the gate. But in six months to a year we&#x27;ll look back and we&#x27;ll wonder why we even were debating it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4295500" class="thewords">So I fully support this going forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4300000" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Colburn.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Colburn</span><span><a data-m="4304300" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I will also be supporting this. I actually spent the morning at Fletcher Allen with a family member as she received a diagnosis of a very aggressive form of cancer. And when we asked her doctor if it was caused by secondhand smoke, he said yes, unqualified yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4328500" class="thewords">And then he also volunteered that one of his recent patients was a waitress in the service industry who had never been a smoker. So that hit me pretty hard, just as I knew we&#x27;d be considering this this morning. I think at this point the health risks of secondhand smoke are indisputable. I hope none of us around the table would argue them.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4350400" class="thewords">And there&#x27;s growing evidence that this really is a risk in open air spaces as well. I think there are very legitimate concerns that I&#x27;ve heard both around this table and in the community about this. And chief among them for me is ensuring that we really do our best to enforce this ordinance equitably. And I intend to definitely be a watchdog on that, and see how that unfolds.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4378900" class="thewords">But for me the question of public health really trumps all of those concerns, and that&#x27;s been true for the vast majority of the constituents I&#x27;ve heard from. So I will be fully supporting this tonight.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4391900" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Brennan&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Brennan</span><span><a data-m="4396300" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I as well am co&#x2d;sponsoring this resolution, and I just want to say that today, as part of my daytime job, I spent talking about hazardous waste and handling hazardous waste, and how that we as a society handle that. And we have to recognize that there&#x27;s over 4,000 chemicals that are connected with tobacco products.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4431900" class="thewords">And some of those are cadmium, arsenic, which are heavy metals that, as we look, and as far as a hazardous waste aspect, we end up putting people in white suits, respirators, and trying to clean up those types of activities.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4452100" class="thewords">So having said that, our state is moving towards a single payer system, and part of the cost of a health care system is related to the last two years of life. The last two years of life is where much of the expense is actually coming into play. And when we have toxins of this nature and we&#x27;re exposed to them in a chronic behavior, those last two years of life can be pretty costly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4485400" class="thewords">So also with public health, but an economic aspect of it, I think we all have to recognize. We are looking to drive down our health care costs, and we want to encourage everyone to have a healthier life, so that those last two years of all our lives are not riddled with pain and suffering, and high expense.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4507800" class="thewords">So for those reasons, along with the other reasons stated tonight, I wish that all my fellow counselors would support this resolution.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4521400" class="thewords">Councilor Bushor&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="4525000" class="thewords">So, thank you. I am a member of the ordinance committee, and if you&#x27;ve looked at the minutes, you know that I did not support the ordinance as presented to you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4542500" class="thewords">Just so everyone recalls, it came to us from the marketplace with a nine to nine recommendation. Nine in the morning to nine at night, which I supported. Then it morphed into &#x2014; and then it was amended by the council to be 24 hours, and went to the ordinance committee.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4563700" class="thewords">Somewhere along the lines, it went from nine to nine to six to nine, which was another scenario, which once again I supported. My concern has been&#x00a0;all along to give a voice to the merchants, to make sure that we really were hearing from all of the merchants on the street, and most of those merchants that I was... It&#x2019;s no secret, most of those merchants were the merchants that were restaurant owners and bar owners, and the clientele that comes to their establishments.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4601100" class="thewords">And we&#x27;ve all acknowledged that Church Street has multiple faces. There&#x27;s the morning face, the afternoon face, the early evening face, and the nighttime face. And if you ever look at Two&#x2d;Way Street that was put forward by the University of Vermont, it talks a lot about the after ten, after nine face of Burlington, and how it&#x2019;s just a different breed.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4629500" class="thewords">So I continued to listen, to advocate for what I felt was the right approach, which was to work towards ultimately having a smoke&#x2d;free Church Street. I&#x27;ve never really wanted it anything but that, but I really felt that we should have stepped slowly into this. Two steps, as opposed to one step.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4658100" class="thewords">But I continue to listen. And tonight I heard some more comments, and I actually, for reasons, was awake in the middle of the night, and I was thinking about this. Because I really feel that health does trump everything, and that ultimately, even though I&#x27;ve given that voice to the merchants, and I&#x27;ve talked about, &#x22;No, 24 hours was going too far,&#x22; I&#x27;ve come to decide that I am going to change my position.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4697800" class="thewords">And I am going to support this ultimately as it comes forward. I think I always wanted to be at this juncture. I was trying to weigh people&#x27;s rights versus people&#x27;s health. But I want to thank the people that have taken the time to come to all the meetings, to the ordinance committee meetings, and the people that came to the full council.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4721600" class="thewords">And I want to thank my fellow councilors for making their points to me about how they see the situation. And so I&#x27;m going to support this. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4738100" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Knodell&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="4742400" class="thewords">I want to thank the ordinance committee for all the good work on this. And I still cannot quite get behind this. I think that it does send a message that smokers are not welcome on the Church Street Marketplace. I think it will reduce the diversity of people who feel like the Church Street Marketplace is a place for them too.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4770200" class="thewords">I think that eating and drinking establishments have the option right now of creating no smoking outdoors, and so that would preserve places for all people to go, and the market would kind of sort itself out. And I think that there are lots of serious public health concerns that this council does not take up, such as emissions from automobiles, that we are breathing that air in.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4798800" class="thewords">And I&#x27;m not hearing anybody talking about solutions to that. So at the end of the day I just cannot get comfortable with it, but of course respect the views of those who feel that it is a mandate. I was also a little concerned when I heard the Church Street Marketplace say that their mission is to promote public health. I don&#x27;t think that&#x27;s the mission of the Church Street Marketplace.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4820800" class="thewords">I can see it&#x2019;s the mission of the city council perhaps. Again, I would argue that let&#x27;s do an inventory of all the public health concerns, and we are addressing some of them in the public safety committee with the safe disposal and retrieval of used needles in our community. So I can&#x27;t quite go here. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4843200" class="thewords">Councilor Wright&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Wright</span><span><a data-m="4845500" class="thewords">Thank you. I respect also the views of the people who&#x27;ve worked on this and people that spoke tonight in the audience. There&#x27;s people who want this who I have great respect for. But I am going to come down on the other side of this as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4862100" class="thewords">I think that the marketplace worked great this summer. Every time I went up and down the marketplace, it was hustling, bustling, it was doing great, people were having a good time, people were enjoying themselves. And I don&#x27;t think that we should mess with that too much. I think this is more a solution looking for a problem, and so I will not be able to support it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4890400" class="thewords">Thank you. Attorney Blackwood, I was not planning to speak to this item, but I would like to speak to this item, and I wondered if it is inappropriate for me to pass the gavel at this point in the conversation.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Greenwood</span><span><a data-m="4906600" class="thewords">No. You would need to pass the gavel, but you may do that and take it back when the... But you couldn&#x2019;t come back on this item. You would have to come back at the next item.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4916600" class="thewords">Councilor Paul, would you mind taking the gavel&#x3f; Could I...&#x3f; &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="4927000" class="thewords">President Shannon&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4929100" class="thewords">Thank you. I don&#x27;t believe I have a conflict of interest here, but I do believe I have a personal interest. As probably most of you know, I&#x27;m asthmatic, and I&#x27;m very reactive to cigarette smoke. Probably many of you have been sitting with me at some point in an outdoor caf&#x00e9; when somebody comes up and starts smoking right next to us.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4954200" class="thewords">And it causes me to panic. In that moment it&#x2019;s not necessarily causing me to have an asthma attack, but when you live a life that every day I take asthma medications to manage my asthma, so I have a baseline that isn&#x27;t where everybody else is. You&#x27;ll hear me coughing tonight, and it&#x2019;s not because I have a cold&#x3b; it&#x2019;s because I have a chronic condition.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4982400" class="thewords">And when you add to that &#x2014; and I&#x27;m not &#x2014; you know, I don&#x27;t have some rare chronic condition. I have something that a very large percentage of our community suffers with. There are a number of irritants that unavoidable to me.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5000600" class="thewords">This is one, that with the help of this council, will be a little bit more avoidable to me. I also support our no idling regulations, not only for personal health reasons, but because of the environment. And I supported a smoking ban on Church Street when the businesses did not support it, and I support it when the businesses do support it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5031000" class="thewords">I support it not because I want any particular individual removed from the marketplace. I just want&#x00a0;them to stop smoking in my presence. I want to be able to enjoy the marketplace. And that is oftentimes really difficult for me.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5050000" class="thewords">It is really the behavior, it is not the people. I don&#x27;t think that I should have to be subjected to that. And while I actually think a whole lotta things should be legalized &#x2014; to the extent that somebody wants to do, they have personal choices that don&#x27;t affect me, I actually support that, go right ahead &#x2014; as a child, I went to the hospital and had a shot of epinephrine because of my asthma.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5082900" class="thewords">That&#x27;s something that they give you when you have a heart attack. It&#x2019;s pretty serious. It also can kill you. So I will ask those who have spoken against this to please reconsider. I think that this is a modest step, and I think every step of the way we&#x27;ve had a couple councilors who haven&#x27;t supported efforts to ban smoking at the various stages that we&#x27;ve done it, and I don&#x27;t think they look back on that vote very well, because each step of the way &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5111100" class="thewords">When we banned smoking in airplanes, we thought, &#x22;You&#x27;re gonna put people on airplanes for all those hours&#x3f; They&#x27;re going to, you know, how will they survive without smoking on an overseas flight&#x3f;&#x21;&#x22; They do, they survive.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5127900" class="thewords">But I really would ask that you give consideration to the rights of people to just breathe air without being impacted by other people&#x27;s secondhand smoke. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="5140600" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. Are there any others that would like to speak&#x3f; Councilor Legrand&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Legrand</span><span><a data-m="5148500" class="thewords">Thank you very much. I would like to say that I will support this resolution, and I would like to just extend my comments. I think, from city fellow councilors, we have to careful when we make a statement that somebody&#x27;s not welcome on Church Street. Because there is a whole group of people that could be potentially eliminating with such statement.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5166700" class="thewords">I think everyone is welcomed on the Church Street. We just have to be careful in terms of whether we are being objective or subjective in terms of the issue that we&#x27;re putting out on the table, and what kind of concerns that we have. And I am in full support of what President Shannon has said. We do have some serious health concerns, and whether the behavior or action is a choice, we certainly have to respect that, but we also have to recognize a consequence.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5194500" class="thewords">And each day we look at the different issues and we take small steps to address those issues, and this is one of them. So I will fully support this resolution. And I think we just need to collectively reconsider it, what it&#x2019;s really truly addressing. So, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="5214400" class="thewords">Any others&#x3f; Councilor Tracy&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="5218400" class="thewords">I had a couple of questions. I don&#x27;t know what to call you. Councilor Paul, may I address them to Chair Mason&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="5227200" class="thewords">Sure.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="5230200" class="thewords">So when we heard this for a first reading, I had asked for a couple of questions to be answered, or a couple of issues to be sort of discussed. The first of which was the notion of spillover. This ordinance defines it pretty clearly as Church Street itself, and one of my concerns was the notion of people going off into a more condensed area off the street, the sidewalks, and not being able to avoid that without necessarily crossing the street.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5261000" class="thewords">Can you talk a bit &#x2014; did the committee deliberate on that&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="5265500" class="thewords">It was up for discussion. There were questions posed, there was a concern raised about that, what would be the net effect on Cherry Street in particular&#x3f; Mr. Nick pointed out he happens to own the building. So, I mean it is something that the commission, we asked the Church Street Marketplace Commission to be cognizant of in dealing with. Because we&#x27;re not empowered with dealing with that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5286700" class="thewords">But other than that, no, I mean that was the extent of our discussion and analysis of that issue.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="5293400" class="thewords">And Attorney Blackwood, if I might ask, I had raised issues, just wanting to be sure, given some of the challenges we&#x27;ve seen with other Church Street ordinances, does this fit within sort of a time, place and manner kind of control, kind of restriction under the First Amendment&#x3f; Is this, in your opinion, a sound kind of legal mechanism&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Blackwood</span><span><a data-m="5317200" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t think a ban on smoking implicates the First Amendment.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="5321800" class="thewords">Okay. Is it constitutional in other ways&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Blackwood</span><span><a data-m="5324800" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s purely regulating someone&#x27;s behavior &#x2014; smoking &#x2014; not their opinions about smoking, their speaking about smoking, or another First Amendment concern.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="5334300" class="thewords">Okay. And then another sort of a question that I had that was raised was with regards to selective enforcement, and how selective enforcement is sort of checked by this. One of the concerns was you have a man in a suit smoking a cigar. How is that person going to be treated the same as the homeless person smoking a cigarette&#x3f; Kind of thing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5364500" class="thewords">And so are there tools within this or conversations that you had to present that, that &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="5370300" class="thewords">So the chief has left the building. That is something that did come up. I believe the understanding is enforcement in essence will be self&#x2d;policed for some &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; of time. The marketplace commission, I understand, will be undertaking some type of public education component as this rolls out. But the belief &#x2014; there will be officers who will be empowered to enforce this &#x2014; but I believe, much like the bike ordinance or other Church Street, this will be the public that will be enforcing this until it&#x2019;s generally accepted.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="5407100" class="thewords">Okay, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="5410100" class="thewords">Thank you, Councilor Tracy. Councilor Bushor&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="5412300" class="thewords">Yes. I&#x27;m gonna call you acting President Paul, okay&#x3f; Or interim or whatever. Anyways, so when you asked Councilor Tracy about the side street issue, that was something, as Councilor Mason addressed &#x2014; I was concerned about that too. The congregation of people.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5435900" class="thewords">Someone did mention other communities that have undertaken an initiative like this. And there was a move afoot &#x2014; I just want to be honest &#x2014; that was realized. There was some congregating of people on these side streets. And smoke then became an issue. And so there was a discussion about should we expand the no smoking area&#x3f; So I think that we will learn from this and find out what the reality is here.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5472600" class="thewords">You know, I walked up and down the street many times. I like Church Street anyways. But I walked up and down the street many times, looking at where restaurants were, did my own little research here, and where side streets were and how people could access, whether there was a side door or an alley, or where people would actually be smoking who may want to smoke</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5494400" class="thewords">And I&#x27;m making the assumption that smokers only eat and drink. I mean some people don&#x27;t come down just to eat and drink. And trying to figure out what that impact would be. But we really don&#x27;t know that right now. So I was convinced that our own experience will be Burlington&#x27;s experience, and maybe we won&#x27;t face some of the problems that we think we might face. But we&#x27;ll have to deal with those as they come forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="5526500" class="thewords">Thank you, Councilor Bushor. Seeing no one else, we&#x27;ll go to a vote. Oh, I&#x27;m sorry. Mayor Weinberger.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="5535700" class="thewords">Thank you, Councilor Paul, I appreciate the opportunity. I just wanted to share a few thoughts, from a couple perspectives. One, when I was last campaigning, going door to door, there were few issues that Burlingtonians cared more about than this issue. It was quite memorable to me the number of individuals who wanted that weigh in on this question, based on the actions the council took almost three years ago on this.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5568100" class="thewords">And at the time, that ban was not one that I supported. I did want to share that I am supportive of this action, the proposed action tonight. And my position is really based on several factors. One, I think this is a far narrower ban than the prior one. As Councilor Hartnett articulated clearly &#x2014; and I don&#x27;t think I really need expand on &#x2014; I think this is one that is much more narrowly focused on a specific problem, and much more clearly enforced.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5604300" class="thewords">Secondly, I want to note the way in which the important stakeholders to Church Street have articulated their support for this ban that I think is meaningful and difficult to ignore. The fact that the Church Street Marketplace has unanimously supported this is significant. The fact that the public health groups who we&#x27;ve heard from throughout this debate have so strongly, in such a sustained manner, made the arguments of the public health impacts on this, is significant.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5638500" class="thewords">And then finally, I think another thing that&#x27;s happened in the three years since we last considered this issue is that there are many more precedents around the country for us to look to, where municipalities have taken action to regulate smoking in comparable outdoor spaces, from the very similar Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado, to Times Square in New York City, to a wide variety of outdoor public spaces in Atlanta.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5674400" class="thewords">There are now numerous places we can look to where this action&#x27;s been taken, and has proven to be effective, just in the time since we last considered this, and have proven to be popular. So after struggling with this question for some time, I find myself in the place that President Shannon articulated, in believing that this kind of focused ban will be seen over time, as our society continues to evolve, as being on essentially the right side of this issue, and I think will be well accepted by Burlingtonians and our visitors over time, and I am supportive of the council going forward with this tonight.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="5722700" class="thewords">Thank you, Mayor Weinberger. Seeing no other comments from the council, we&#x27;ll go to a vote. All those in favor of the ordinance &#x2014; health, smoking in outdoor places prohibited, please signify by saying aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="5736600" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="5737800" class="thewords">All those opposed, please say no.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="5740100" class="thewords">No.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="5741800" class="thewords">And the noes are Councilors Wright, Knodell, and Tracy. The motion passes. I&#x27;ll pass the gavel over to council President Shannon.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Redmond&#x2f;Nick</span><span><a data-m="5751800" class="thewords">Thank you very much, thanks for your help.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5753700" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5766300" class="thewords">Our next item is an ordinance, smoking prohibitions at city parks. Councilor Mason&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="5774000" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I&#x27;d like to waive the reading, consider this a first reading, and refer to the ordinance committee, and I do not need the floor back, after a second.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5783900" class="thewords">Seconded by Councilor Ayres. Any comments from the council&#x3f; Councilor Hartnett&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Hartnett</span><span><a data-m="5794700" class="thewords">So, unlike the Church Street Marketplace, this is much more broad, and this does go to the effect of identifying people, and now we are telling groups of people that you&#x27;re not welcome in our parks. That&#x27;s a lot different than Church Street and downtown.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5811500" class="thewords">And that&#x27;s why I supported the one on Church Street, as I said before. You can come downtown and still enjoy &#x2014; if you want to have a smoke, you step off the corner. In our parks, that&#x27;s different. We&#x27;re telling people now that you cannot smoke in our parks, anywhere in our parks, and I&#x27;m not comfortable with that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5830200" class="thewords">I will agree to send this to first reading, but I think this has a long ways to go before we pass this one. So just want to go on the record. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5838600" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Tracy&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="5842600" class="thewords">I also share Councilor Hartnett&#x27;s concerns about this. But I think I would be remiss to ask you all to look into something on one resolution, and then to say that in the context of an ordinance, to say that we shouldn&#x2019;t look into other things. And so I know that on the first reading of the other one, that I did vote against the first reading of the Church Street one.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5866100" class="thewords">I however do feel that this debate and conversation that occurred as a result of that was a really productive one, and I absolutely value the opinions expressed, the hard work done by the ordinance committee. I look forward to hearing more from them. And so I feel okay about that, but at the same time I do have the same skepticism shared by Councilor Hartnett.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5887900" class="thewords">Any further comments&#x3f; All those in favor of the first reading of the ordinance, health, smoking prohibitions at city parks, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="5898100" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5898900" class="thewords">Any of positioned&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="5900100" class="thewords">No.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5901600" class="thewords">Councilor Knodell is opposed. The motion passes 13 to one.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5915700" class="thewords">We now go to committee reports.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5924900" class="thewords">It was removed from the agenda. The last ordinance was removed from the agenda&#x3f; Councilor Knodell&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="5933500" class="thewords">Yes, I&#x27;d like to report for The Community Development And Neighborhood Revitalization Committee. We&#x27;ve been meeting very regularly. We met on November 6th last week, and we had our second, quite extensive discussion of the Foreign Related Individuals Ordinance.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5952000" class="thewords">We had a report from Mr. Ward and from Assistant City Attorney Sturtevant, and we got a lot of testimony from the public. There is a big disagreement about the grandfathering issue, and we are told that an alternative legal memo is on the way, which the committee hopes to receive and to be able to evaluate.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5976400" class="thewords">Because of this disagreement about grandfathering, there are also differing views about whether this ordinance is being unenforced or not. If one takes the view that virtually no property in any of the residential zoning districts are grandfathered, then one sees lots and lots of violations that are not being enforced. If one does not interpret grandfathering that way, one does not see a big enforcement issue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6004500" class="thewords">So suffice to say there&#x27;s no consensus yet about whether we have a problem with non&#x2d;enforcement of grandfathering.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6012300" class="thewords">But we&#x27;re trying to be very data&#x2d;based and kind of driven by legal argument and the evidence. We&#x27;re going to meet on November 20th from six to eight at the Firehouse Gallery for the purpose of discussing the housing plan. I can&#x27;t quite keep up if it&#x2019;s a housing strategy, a housing plan, or a housing strategy plan.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6041600" class="thewords">But we&#x27;re going to get the latest version of it. The mayor released his version today, which is now available on the website of the community and economic development office. We invite members of the public to look at it, to come to our meeting, and share with us your views. And the committee, I think it would be great for the committee to get this back to the council at one of the December meetings, so we can kind of wrap this issue up this year. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6073600" class="thewords">Councilor Colburn&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Colburn</span><span><a data-m="6077200" class="thewords">At the request of Councilor Hartnett, I&#x27;ll give a brief update from the public safety committee. We had, our most recent meeting we spent looking again at the issue of needle retrieval, which we&#x27;re wrapping up. So we had great discussion with many city departments, and got a good sense of some of the improvements that are happening there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6100600" class="thewords">We were also excited to learn that the Burlington Police Department have been working with the Code Enforcement Office to revise their policy a little bit. So currently, if you find a needle in the community, you&#x27;ve only been able to have that retrieved kind of during business hours Monday through Friday, but the police department will now be triaging those calls in the evening and weekends.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6132100" class="thewords">And we will be meeting on November 18th, next week, from six to eight, and looking again at those issues.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6143900" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Tracy&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="6146000" class="thewords">Yeah. So the Transportation, Energy and Utilities Committee will be meeting this Wednesday at 4:45 at DPW, and a couple different updates. We&#x27;re going to be hearing about some of the changes to parking, how that&#x27;s going, some initial feedback that we&#x27;ve gotten. Another thing is that there&#x27;s been some great sidewalks work happening that the city has dedicated some additional resources to sidewalks, and so wanting to understand the real scope of that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6170500" class="thewords">You may have seen the press release that was sent out. It&#x2019;s pretty impressive stuff, really really great progress being made there, and just want to get a full sense of what that is and how we might continue that progress. I was hoping to get a BED update, but I didn&#x2019;t realize that their commission meeting&#x27;s actually that week as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6186200" class="thewords">And then the thing that I&#x27;m probably most excited for is I&#x27;ve been actually working with the Service Learning class up at UVM of students. And given that we&#x27;ve just recently secured funding for a bike master plan, we still have to design that process. And so what I asked the students to do was to do research on other communities that have gone through such a process, and to present to us what they&#x27;ve learned on those things.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6210500" class="thewords">So asked them to keep it short, but just kind of helping us to try and use some of the great power that we have being in a university town. So that&#x27;s what we&#x27;re going to be dealing with. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6222000" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Mason.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="6224700" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. Ordinance Committee will be meeting this Thursday, 5:30, room 12, to consider proposed changes to chapter 18 certificate of compliance, and proposed changes to chapter 18 housing deposits. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6241100" class="thewords">Anyone else&#x3f; Councilor Wright&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Wright</span><span><a data-m="6250500" class="thewords">Thank you. The Parks Committee continues to meet and continues to get updates on a number of issues in regards to the bike path, in regards to the waterfront, and a number of other areas. We also had a surprise issue &#x2014; at least it was a surprise to me that was brought up in our public forum last meeting, where James Lockridge came with a number of other people who raised some concerns about Burlington City Arts.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6276600" class="thewords">And they have been circulating a petition now. And one of the things they&#x27;re talking about is looking at having a commission to oversee BCA. I&#x27;m not sure I think that&#x27;s a good idea, but I think that we will continue to get input from those folks, and we&#x27;ll hear more about that issue. Thanks. And we&#x27;re also &#x2014; I&#x27;ll have to actually check the date. We&#x27;re meeting next... 19th, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6303300" class="thewords">Thank you, Councilor Wright. Councilor Siegel&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Siegel</span><span><a data-m="6306100" class="thewords">Thank you very much. The Charter Change Committee meeting will next convene on Tuesday, November 18th from ten to 11, and we&#x27;re going to be looking at a couple of things. We are still drafting the resolution that was requested of us for a referendum question regarding people living in Burlington who are not citizens of the USA being able to serve on all boards and commissions, and being employed as department heads.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6337400" class="thewords">So we&#x27;ll be looking at that, and then we also are just doing some more expansive looking at boards and commissions that aren&#x27;t necessarily the purview of charter change per se, but since we&#x27;ve been looking at them a lot, there have been some questions that have come up about some parts of the application, some questions about the term lengths for certain appointments, the number of commissioners or board members on a given board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6364200" class="thewords">So we&#x27;ll be discussing some of that, if anyone&#x27;s interested in coming and chiming in or listening. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6371700" class="thewords">Thank you. Anyone else&#x3f; As chair of this board, I wanted to report I was tasked with selecting members to serve on the form&#x2d;based code committee. And I have asked Councilor Tracy and Councilor Paul to serve on that committee. I&#x27;m sorry to say I didn&#x2019;t get all of my first choices, and when that happened, I decided to appoint myself in addition on that committee.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6402500" class="thewords">I had been asked to serve by the mayor on the form&#x2d;based code committee over the course of, I don&#x27;t know, the last year or so, that included developers and architects and people kind of technically involved with the form&#x2d;based code. And so I would like to continue to carry that forward in this committee.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6421800" class="thewords">And so I will be serving along with Councilors Tracy and Councilor Paul. We can now go to our city council general city affairs. Councilor Wright&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Wright</span><span><a data-m="6438200" class="thewords">Beatcha. Thank you, President Shannon. I will just make this quick comment about the elections on Tuesday to say that, in a debate earlier a councilor said that we are moving towards single payer. In light of the governor&#x27;s race, I&#x27;m not so sure.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6462700" class="thewords">Sorry. But I would also like to say we had a public hearing here, I think it was the week before last &#x2014; my memory&#x27;s starting to fade now here &#x2014; but on the permit resolution that we passed, that the council passed. And I think we got a lot of good feedback that night.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6483000" class="thewords">There&#x27;s a lotta people that were not able to come out that called me or emailed me, but we got a lot of good feedback. I do hope in the future that when we have a public hearing, that the council passes, when we&#x27;re hearing from the public about a serious subject that people want to give us feedback on, that we make sure that, when the date is picked, that we make sure that enough councilors can come.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6505600" class="thewords">I was a little disappointed that only eight councilors were able to be here. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6510800" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Bushor&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="6514800" class="thewords">Thank you. I brought the paper from Saturday, and I don&#x27;t always buy the paper. I might look at it online, but I don&#x27;t always buy the paper. But I was so excited about the seven&#x2d;figure surprise. And all the agencies &#x2014; Boys &&#x23&#x3b;x26&#x3b; Girls Club, COTS, Spectrum, Dismas, and Community Health Center getting &#x24;1 million from a family whose name I recognize, and whose name I &#x2014; even though Councilor Wright asked the mayor how to pronounce this family&#x27;s name, I don&#x27;t think I know how to still.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6552000" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s Hoehl&#x3f; It doesn&#x2019;t look like that, though. But anyways, thank you. This was wonderful. And I just can&#x27;t think of agencies that are more deserving. So, anyways, that made my day. And so I just wanted to make sure that people, if people missed getting the paper or missed that announcement, that they know that all these agencies that really serve our community so well got funding that will definitely help everybody in the community.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6588900" class="thewords">The other thing I wanted to say is that in Ward One, as Councilor Knodell talked about, the CD Committee, if you want to meet Ward One residents, go to the CD Committee because they are there in force. And I&#x27;m now a believer, even though I&#x27;m not a member of the committee, I go all the time because they are dealing with hot topics that really are important to my section of the city.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6615000" class="thewords">So I look forward to getting that opinion about grandfathering and understanding this whole issue. It is discouraging to hear people who see the community in a different way say that the impression is that we have an ordinance that is not being enforced. And that&#x27;s very discouraging to me, since a number of us have worked really heard to make this happen, and hopefully it does make a difference in our community.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6645500" class="thewords">The other thing that Ward One residents are passionate about &#x2014; and I&#x27;m giving this information now freely to the mayor, who&#x27;s coming to the Ward One NPA on Wednesday &#x2014; but the other thing that Ward One residents are passionate about is their sidewalks. And the lack of, or disrepair. And although Councilor Tracy referenced something about sidewalks, I didn&#x2019;t get it all, so I don&#x27;t know if there&#x27;s good news or whether this is the inventory that&#x27;s being done.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6676600" class="thewords">So I just wanted to let you know that life in Ward One is, I think, pretty good. But we certainly have our issues, just like other sections of the city. And so I look forward to having the mayor come on Wednesday. Thank you very much.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6694500" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Knodell&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="6698500" class="thewords">Yes. I wanted to &#x2014; I think we all received a letter from Mr. Lee about some irregularities that took place in the conduct of the election&#x00a0;in that legislative district. And I know that the mayor has asked Mr. Rusten for a report, an analysis, and some recommendations.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6720100" class="thewords">And I think it is something that I would like to see come to the council, perhaps the council acting as a board of civil authority. And I just wanted to issue that verbal request at this time.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6732900" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Hartnett&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Hartnett</span><span><a data-m="6736700" class="thewords">Thank you. On Thursday, November 6th was one year ago that William Burnett was tragically shot in the New North End. I went over and spent some time with his mom and dad, Larry and Dottie. We had a great conversation. It&#x2019;s been a tough year for the Burnett Family, but they seem to be getting through it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6759300" class="thewords">They did have a couple wishes for me to pass along. One of them was that they were very appreciative of the changes that we have made here in the city on the way that we handle mental health issue calls in the Burlington Police Department. I think we&#x27;ve had maybe over 400 since that incident, without one incident happening, as a change in protocol.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6780500" class="thewords">I congratulate this city, really, and the police chief, and the Burlington Police Department in that, and I think, although it might&#x2019;ve been too late for them, I think they feel that they had a hand in saving some other lives, and I think that was important.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6795300" class="thewords">They also made mention to me that Wayne&#x27;s issues started when he came back from the war, and Wayne was a veteran, and this Tuesday, tomorrow will be Veteran&#x27;s Day, and asked if we would keep Wayne in our thoughts and prayers on Veteran&#x27;s Day, along with all the other veterans. So I hope we can do so. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6814600" class="thewords">Thank you, Councilor Hartnett. Councilor Siegel&#x3f; I&#x27;m sorry. I meant Councilor Colburn. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Colburn</span><span><a data-m="6825600" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon, and just to follow up on Councilor Hartnett&#x27;s comments, I want to thank Councilor Hartnett too for just the role that he&#x27;s played as an advocate in really working with the police department to make some of those changes in protocol. We&#x27;re very grateful to you for that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6847500" class="thewords">I wanted to also talk about the police briefly. So three of us &#x2014; Councilor Knodell, Councilor Hartnett and I were at an inaugural coffee with the Chief of Police last Friday morning, and it was a really great event, I thought. I just wanted to commend Chief Schirling for moving so question with making that happen, and I really appreciated that he worked very collaboratively with me and with others in setting that up.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6884000" class="thewords">It was a great discussion. It&#x2019;s going to be a monthly event. So I really encourage people to come. It&#x2019;s a great opportunity to meet the chief, to understand more about the role of police in your community, to ask tough questions if you have tough questions too. And I think we have a real opportunity to keep rethinking that event and moving it around to reach different audiences and different communities.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6909100" class="thewords">So that was fantastic. And I also just want to highlight an event that&#x27;s happening in the community next week that I&#x27;m participating in. It&#x2019;s called the Three Squares Vermont Challenge, and I know Mayor Weinberger did it a couple of years ago, which is the first time I did it as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6928600" class="thewords">So the challenge is to eat off of the average Three Squares Vermont benefits, which is &#x24;36 a person, for a week. It&#x2019;s a really eye&#x2d;opening experience to do that. So I invite all of you here to join me. I invite those of you at home to join me, and if you want to &#x2014; it&#x2019;s a really powerful way to raise awareness about food security and hunger issues that so many of our neighbors are facing in this community and across the state.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6958700" class="thewords">So if that&#x27;s something you want to learn more about, visit the Hunger&#x2d;Free Vermont website, and if you want to hear more about it here tonight, feel free to &#x2014; I&#x27;m happy to tell you, and I&#x27;m sure Mayor Weinberger could tell you about his experience as well. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6972600" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Brennan&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Brennan</span><span><a data-m="6974600" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I, like Councilor Bushor, noticed something in the paper this weekend, and I was a little disheartened by the disbandment of the committee between the city council and the school district.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6994600" class="thewords">But also understanding. I just feel that I need the opportunity here to raise some awareness. We should all be concerned about our schools right now. There&#x27;s a lot of things going on at the schools. I know that there&#x27;s a bunch of parents that will be going to the school board meeting tomorrow night regarding the school buses, and the cost of the school buses.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7026600" class="thewords">And the inequity that is actually being played out. And I think there&#x27;s a lotta good things that are happening in the city, and the mayor, the strategic plan, diversity and equity is a great leadership role. And we should acknowledge these positive things that are happening in our city.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7049700" class="thewords">And certainly, as we look at our schools, these are our children, all of our children, that we want to become productive members of our community. And we&#x27;re looking for a new superintendent, and we want to have that opportunity to attract the brightest to lead our schools. And you know, I think that we should all be concerned and we should find ways to do so. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="7081600" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Siegel&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Siegel</span><span><a data-m="7084600" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I Vote Vermont is a community group that&#x27;s organizing an educational campaign regarding the non&#x2d;citizen voting referendum question that we be seeing on the ballot in March. So if you&#x27;re interested in getting involved with I Vote Vermont or learning more about what the question on the ballot means, there&#x27;s a meeting on Monday the 17th from five to six at the Fletcher Free Library.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7116700" class="thewords">So even if you have Board of Finance at six, you can come over for the first 45 minutes, &#x27;cause I know you want three back to back meetings. So again, next Monday from five to six at the library, I Vote Vermont will be talking about the referendum question on non&#x2d;citizen voting.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7133500" class="thewords">And then the other thing I wanted to mention was four weeks ago, October 13th, we had the first of I think three meetings in a row where &#x2014; maybe two meetings in a row &#x2014; where we didn&#x2019;t have time for any councilor comments or committee reports.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7147600" class="thewords">And I had intended to say something that day, because it was Columbus Day, and there is a movement around the country that has been successful in some municipalities to change the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous People&#x27;s Day. And it has come about through an incredible coalition of Italian&#x2d;Americans and indigenous people taking action together.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7173900" class="thewords">And our very own Kay &#x5b;Sharon&#x5d; has a bill that&#x27;s been sitting in committee, H226, an act relating to changing the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous People&#x27;s Day. It had its first reading and has been on the wall since 2011. I think it would be fantastic if that was a statewide change. It could be a first step to make it a city municipal change.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7197800" class="thewords">But obviously that didn&#x2019;t happen this year, and I wanted to at least make note of the fact that there&#x27;s a lot of misinformation about who Christopher Columbus was, and obviously about the history of this country. And so in honor of the indigenous people who are here and who are not here now, and the condition of their lives, those who are still here now, as a result of the imperialism that was started from that era, I think we just need to raise our consciousness and start thinking about different ways of presenting our history and who we commemorate. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="7246300" class="thewords">Thank you. Following up on Councilor Brennan&#x27;s comments, I would just draw people&#x27;s attention to the fact that the financial consultant for the school board did give his report at the last Board of Finance meeting at the school board, which I think was last Tuesday, and it is available on their website now, I believe.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7272200" class="thewords">And that report actually did speak to the work that our joint committee was doing, not directly, but that that work does need to get done, and there should be a committee working on that, and I think that it&#x2019;s really probably more of a question of timing for the school board on when to work on those issues, and kind of the order things, given the crisis, really, that they&#x27;re in.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7298200" class="thewords">And at that meeting, by chance, they also talked about the bussing. Commissioner Shumski actually proposed that they restore the bussing, and unfortunately, at least from my perspective as a parent who sends her child on the bus, they voted in a 3&#x2d;3 tie, the motion failed.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7320000" class="thewords">So I don&#x27;t know if that&#x27;ll come up at the full board meeting again tomorrow night, but it was discussed at that last meeting. So that&#x27;s all I have, and I will turn it over to Mayor Weinberger.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="7335900" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. So, as Councilor Bushor noted, I will be at the NPA Ward 1&#x2d;8 now NPA, I think, is the way we&#x27;re &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="7346700" class="thewords">Ward 1&#x2d;8, yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="7348400" class="thewords">To discuss it on Wednesday. And I was at Ward Six last week, and will be going to the other three NPA meetings over the next couple weeks, because there&#x27;s a lot going on in the city right now. I did want to get around to all of them in November to share updates and take input on a number of different items.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7369100" class="thewords">One of the things that has happened recently is we have had a ruling from the Public Service Board with respect to the settlement agreement that we signed with Citibank earlier in the year. And we are pleased with that ruling, it is a unanimous ruling supporting, approving the settlement agreement and related financing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7390900" class="thewords">For councilors, I want to make sure the council is all clear on the plan going forward with respect to BT. We did talk about it in the work session earlier. But to make sure it&#x2019;s clear that we will have a Board of Finance meeting next Monday that will be largely focused, almost entirely focused on Burlington Telecom. And we will then be looking for Board of Finance action on two separate Burlington Telecom&#x2d;related resolutions next Monday.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7423600" class="thewords">Followed by a concurrent action, then, at the full council meeting, so that we can stay on schedule to bring to resolution the lawsuit and that sort of chapter of the city&#x27;s history. So in the interest of next Monday being as productive as possible, we certainly would welcome any questions or requests for additional information that the council might have coming related to the packet of information that you received regarding those two resolutions.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7457300" class="thewords">We also will be &#x2014; there was a request tonight for some sort of additional summary documents. That&#x27;s something we will work to get out quickly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7469000" class="thewords">We did, on November 1st, make a significant change in the city&#x27;s parking policy. And I want to say I&#x27;m really appreciative and pleased with the effort made by &#x5b;Cedar&#x5d; staff and Department of Public Works to make that transition as understandable and as clear as possible.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7489100" class="thewords">We had staff working into the evening hours and on the weekends to explain the changes, and disseminate information about how the new system works. And from my perspective this change is off to a good start, and there are upcoming opportunities for the public to weigh in on that further in the weeks ahead, and then in future months as the parking conversation continues.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7521900" class="thewords">The retirement committee has completed its work, and the report is about to be released, and the council should look for that in the days ahead, and the public should look for that. I really appreciate the work that was done by council members as well as the numerous other members of the retirement committee working since January, and I think we&#x27;ve really &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7552400" class="thewords">The shared understanding of what the problem is and what potential solutions to it might be, I think, has really advanced as a result of that effort. As Councilor Knodell mentioned, a new version of the housing report is out as of today. This is Housing Action Plan.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7572000" class="thewords">And I will say that in response to &#x2014; the public has been quite interested in this plan and we&#x27;ve received significant amounts of public input on the prior drafts in response to that, and as a result of sort of further analysis and thought about how the plan should be written.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7594400" class="thewords">The new draft out is significantly revised since the last release, and I would say it is not necessarily done. The fact, certainly from my perspective, that there were significant revisions from last time &#x2014; I&#x27;m looking forward to what the public reaction will be this time, and working through with Councilor Knodell&#x27;s committee on the final version of that document.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7618700" class="thewords">I think there&#x27;s a lot of consensus of things we need to be moving forward with. There are some controversial items. But overall, I think it&#x2019;s been a very positive discussion. I&#x27;m looking forward to the conclusion of that process.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7631200" class="thewords">It has been noted... Well, it was mentioned that in response to the need to reprint ballots, I have, as a result of errors on the Justice of the Peace section of the ballot, I have asked CAO Rusten to review all of our election protocols to avoid the repeat of this type of error in the future, and really to explore other election&#x2d;related issues that have been raised as concerns by members of the public.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7671200" class="thewords">And he is working on that report. He will deliver it within 30 days of the election. So, 30 days from last Tuesday. And I certainly share the frustration that we should not have to reprint ballots, we should not be making errors of this type, and I&#x27;m looking forward to the findings of CAO Rusten and working to implement changes to avoid that kind of error in the future.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7704200" class="thewords">Couple final things, looking forward: The first meeting of the Mayor&#x27;s Book Group is taking place this Wednesday at 5pm in the Billings Library at UVM. We&#x27;re looking forward to the first of these events, and we&#x27;ll be discussing an idea whose time has come &#x2014; a history of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7731800" class="thewords">And I know several councilors have signed up. You don&#x27;t need to read the book to come and enjoy. The conversation I think will be an interesting one. I think councilors may be interested in &#x2014; I think about 340 pages are about sort of parliamentary procedures and ways to get legislation done.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7754600" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s quite an interesting read. And we&#x27;re looking forward to the discussion on Wednesday. I wanted to note for the council and public, I will be participating in next week&#x27;s two&#x2d;day Green Mountain Imperative Breakthrough Summit, this two&#x2d;day appreciative inquiry summit focused on our education system, ways to improve outcomes for our children while also better utilizing our financial resources.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7789700" class="thewords">I think... This is going to, again, be using this appreciative inquiry method that we just over the weekend had news of Champlain College launching a whole center around this. I&#x27;m quite interested. It&#x2019;ll be first time I&#x27;ve been involved in an appreciative inquiry summit, and I raise it here just so the council knows, it continues to be a high priority in the administration that we make progress on this issue in the upcoming legislative session.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7816300" class="thewords">I&#x27;m hopeful this event will be significant in achieving progress on that front. And finally, I want everyone to know that you have the opportunity to see a city employee, our own, Burlington Telecom&#x27;s own Gillian Wildfire, star in one of the lead roles in the Lyric Theater&#x27;s production of &#x22;The Producers&#x22;, which starts this weekend, runs November 13th through 16th, and should be a...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7848800" class="thewords">If anyone saw the preview on CAX over the weekend, I think it&#x2019;s gonna be a great performance, and I&#x27;m looking forward to it. So with that, President Shannon, thank you, and back to you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="7858500" class="thewords">Thank you. And with no further business, I will adjourn the city council meeting. We now have the council with mayor presiding, and if the mayor wouldn&#x27;t mind a brief two&#x2d; or three&#x2d;minute delay prior to convening that meeting, I&#x27;d just like to have a brief consultation with the city attorney.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7881700" class="thewords">We&#x27;re adjourned.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="7884000" class="thewords">I will call into session the Burlington City Council with mayor presiding. First item on the agenda if the agenda. Are there changes to the agenda&#x3f; And if not, I&#x27;ll accept a motion to accept the agenda as presented.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Councilor</span><span><a data-m="7897600" class="thewords">So moved.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Ayres</span><span><a data-m="7899200" class="thewords">Second.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="7899900" class="thewords">Seconded by Councilor Ayres, thank you. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="7905800" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="7907000" class="thewords">Opposed&#x3f; That passes unanimously. The next item is the consent agenda. Is there a motion to accept the consent agenda and take the action indicated&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Councilor</span><span><a data-m="7914500" class="thewords">So moved.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Councilor</span><span><a data-m="7914900" class="thewords">Second.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="7918200" class="thewords">All those in favor of the motion, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="7920000" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="7920800" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Councilor</span><span><a data-m="7921400" class="thewords">&#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; cigarette on Church Street. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="7932200" class="thewords">All right, I didn&#x2019;t catch that. The next item is in the appointment to the airport... sorry.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7939800" class="thewords">The next item is appointment to the public... &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; Public Works Commission for the term expiring June 30th, 2016. The floor is open for nominations.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7953500" class="thewords">President Shannon&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="7954200" class="thewords">I&#x27;d like to nominate Tom Simon.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="7957600" class="thewords">Do we have any additional nominations&#x3f; Seeing none, I think we&#x27;re ready for a vote. All those in favor of appointing Tom Simon to the Public Works Commission, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="7970000" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="7971700" class="thewords">And it appears he has a majority, and Tom Simon is the next Public Works Commissioner. Congratulations, Tom. Thank you for stepping up. And that brings us to item four, which is the appointment to the Board of Tax Appeals. We&#x27;re going to do two of these tonight. We&#x27;re going to do first the one for the term expiring June 30th, 2016.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7997500" class="thewords">And then hopefully one for, I think the term lasts an additional year, if I understand this correctly. So are there any nominees&#x3f; Councilor Knodell.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="8010400" class="thewords">I&#x27;d like to nominate Ryan Metovsky.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8014300" class="thewords">Are there any other nominations for this position&#x3f; Councilor Mason&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="8025000" class="thewords">Thank you, Mayor Weinberger. I&#x27;d like to nominate Sean Hurley.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8029500" class="thewords">Are there any other nominees&#x3f; President Shannon&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="8032400" class="thewords">I&#x27;d like to speak to...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8034500" class="thewords">Excuse me&#x3f; Okay, go ahead.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="8040600" class="thewords">I was concerned with this appointment because we have had now a series of appointments to the Board of Tax Appeals where we have appointed people who have never had a property transaction of any kind in their lives, and I think that we&#x27;re putting them in a position where we&#x27;re asking them to mediate between a property owner who feels that the City Assessor has incorrectly valued their house, and our professional City Assessor.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8073600" class="thewords">I think somebody who has never had the experience of struggling internally with what the value of a property is to buy a property for yourself is going to have some trouble standing up to a professional city assessor who says, &#x22;This is what the value is.&#x22; And in the interest of the property owners going before this board, I don&#x27;t think that everybody needs to have, I don&#x27;t think really anybody needs to have professional experience on the board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8108500" class="thewords">But if we have one or two people who have never had this experience, I think that&#x27;s probably okay on the board. But when the majority of the board has never had the experience of struggling with the value of a property, I don&#x27;t think that we&#x27;re serving the interests of our community very well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8132700" class="thewords">I called Ryan Metovsky today and asked him if he had had this experience, and he told me he did not. And I told him for that reason that I couldn&#x2019;t support him on this board. And Brian being the really incredible and honorable person that he is, said, &#x22;Well, that makes a lot of sense, and I think maybe I should withdraw my name.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8158200" class="thewords">And I said, &#x22;Well, I don&#x27;t want you to withdraw your name, because I&#x27;m just sharing with you why... I feel I owe it to you to explain my vote. But I don&#x27;t want to speak for the rest of the council, and I think a lot of people around the table may want to vote for you.&#x22; So I did not encourage him to withdraw his name, and he agreed to keep his name in.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8181300" class="thewords">But he said, &#x22;Would you please share with the council what you shared with me&#x3f; Because I only want to serve if it&#x2019;s in the best interest of the city, and I&#x27;m not sure that appointing me is in the best interest of the city.&#x22; And for that reason, I would love to see Ryan serving on a number of boards in our city, but I cannot support him on this board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8203900" class="thewords">And I hope that people will really just consider what&#x2019;s in the best interest of the citizens of Burlington, and I was asked if I don&#x27;t support Ryan, because there are a lot of people at this table who would like to appoint Ryan tonight. And if we don&#x27;t do that, will I recruit somebody to serve on this board&#x3f; It&#x2019;s not easy or get people to serve on this board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8226900" class="thewords">And I will. So I will be supporting Sean Hurley, and we&#x27;ll, I suppose, have another round of votes. I won&#x27;t comment again, but I wanted to bring that to the table, as requested by Mr. Metovsky, and I thank you so much for throwing your name in the hat.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8246700" class="thewords">Councilor Knodell&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="8248700" class="thewords">Yes, thank you, mayor. I have worked closely with Mr. Metovsky on public safety issues, and he works with the Board of Health, and I feel quite strongly that he would make a very good member of the Board of Tax Appeals, which is a board that we have been trying many many times to get fully populated.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8272100" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t think that being a property owner is a requirement for this board. I think one needs to be able to think analytically, to use data, to be fair, and to be independent&#x2d;minded. And Mr. Metovsky has my very strong support, and if he does not win this ballot, I will be nominating him for the next seat, and I certainly hope that we leave here tonight with Mr. Metovsky a member of the Board of Tax Appeals.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8304100" class="thewords">Any further discussion&#x3f; Councilor Tracy&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="8308100" class="thewords">I&#x27;d just like to say that this requirement of property owning is not clarified in any sense in the application process for this individual. So for that person to then be told that is a not qualification after they&#x27;ve applied feels pretty wrong to me. If we want this as a qualification or if we have any sort of skill sets that we need for a particular board, we should do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8331600" class="thewords">I also would just like to comment on how I feel like this is awkward if not embarrassing to have this individual in the room who we all recognize, or at least I haven&#x27;t heard anyone say that this person is not qualified. He&#x27;s stayed the entire meeting, and now we&#x27;re saying that we want him to withdraw, but we don&#x27;t have another alternative.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8348100" class="thewords">That feels wrong, and I won&#x27;t support that. I like Ryan, I&#x27;m gonna vote for him.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8354200" class="thewords">Councilor Ayres.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Ayres</span><span><a data-m="8355900" class="thewords">I would also say that I intend to vote for Ryan Metovsky for the shorter term. While I recognize Councilor Shannon&#x27;s concerns as she&#x2019;s voiced them that Mr. Metovsky has never been a property owner engaged in a real estate transaction, I do want to point out that he holds a certificate from Woodbury in mediation, and that&#x27;s what this is all about.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8385000" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s about mediation. In this case it happens to be over tax appeals, but it&#x2019;s mediation between one point of view and another. And I think the skill set that Mr. Metovsky can bring to the table in that regard gives me confidence that, for the shorter of the two terms that we&#x27;re considering here tonight, that he would be an ideal candidate.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8410900" class="thewords">Councilor Siegel&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Siegel</span><span><a data-m="8413800" class="thewords">Thank you, mayor. I&#x27;m supporting Ryan Metovsky for this, and I wanted to just take a moment and read what it says on our city website for the Board of Tax Appeals. &#x22;The Burlington Board of Tax Appeals &#x28;BTA&#x29; is a seven&#x2d;member quasi&#x2d;judicial board which hears appeals of assessors&#x27; grievance hearing decisions. Members are volunteers trying to ensure that all taxable property is appraised at its equalized fair market value.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8443900" class="thewords">That&#x27;s what you&#x27;re supposed to do. It&#x2019;s analytic. It&#x2019;s not about how many of your own real estate transactions you&#x27;ve had. I&#x27;m finding it really disturbing that that&#x27;s where the conversation started. And if it is a mandate that people have lots of experience with real estate transactions, then there&#x27;s really only one person whose r&#x00e9;sum&#x00e9; mentions that, and he wasn&#x27;t even nominated.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8468000" class="thewords">So it feels like a real... I&#x27;m really concerned with where that appeal was coming from. And you know, honestly, if Ryan ends up with the shorter term length, then maybe he&#x27;ll run for city council sooner, &#x27;cause I think he has a lot to offer to our city. So if that&#x27;s how the votes go, fine, but I would really support him in getting the longer term. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8500100" class="thewords">Councilor Wright&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Wright</span><span><a data-m="8501500" class="thewords">I can&#x27;t believe that we&#x27;re spending this amount of time on this appointment. It&#x2019;s beginning to rival the gasoline debate and the city smoking in downtown debate. Let&#x27;s vote for Metovsky and move on. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8515100" class="thewords">Okay. I do think we are ready for a vote. All those in favor of appointing Ryan Metovsky to the term expiring on June 30th, 2016, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="8529800" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Councilor</span><span><a data-m="8530700" class="thewords">Roll call.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8533000" class="thewords">All those... okay, sorry. So the clerk will call the roll.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8540100" class="thewords">Councilor Ayres.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Ayres</span><span><a data-m="8541800" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8543000" class="thewords">Councilor Blais.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Blais</span><span><a data-m="8544000" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8545900" class="thewords">Councilor Brennan.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Brennan</span><span><a data-m="8546600" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8548600" class="thewords">Councilor Bushor.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="8549600" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8551600" class="thewords">Councilor Colburn.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Colburn</span><span><a data-m="8552600" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8554900" class="thewords">Councilor Hartnett.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Hartnett</span><span><a data-m="8555700" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8557800" class="thewords">Councilor Knodell.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="8559200" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8561000" class="thewords">Councilor Legrand&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Legrand</span><span><a data-m="8562400" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8564200" class="thewords">Councilor Mason&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="8565300" class="thewords">No.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8567800" class="thewords">Councilor Paul.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="8569300" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8571200" class="thewords">Councilor Siegel.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Siegel</span><span><a data-m="8572100" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8573800" class="thewords">Councilor Tracy.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Tracy</span><span><a data-m="8574800" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8576800" class="thewords">Councilor Wright.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Wright</span><span><a data-m="8577700" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8579700" class="thewords">Council President Shannon.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="8582000" class="thewords">I have a question for Attorney Blackwood, which is, we don&#x27;t normally cast &#x22;no&#x22; votes on the nomination, &#x27;cause there are two names in the hat. So if I&#x27;m voting for the other, do I cast a &#x22;no&#x22; vote at this time&#x3f; &#x27;Cause I can&#x27;t vote for both.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Councilor</span><span><a data-m="8598400" class="thewords">That&#x27;s true. We have two nominations on...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Blackwood</span><span><a data-m="8603300" class="thewords">Generally we haven&#x27;t done a roll call vote on these, so we haven&#x27;t had to face this before, but because you&#x27;re on a roll call, I think you have to answer one way or another.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="8614600" class="thewords">No.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8619500" class="thewords">I got a vote too.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8622200" class="thewords">And how are you...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8623500" class="thewords">I&#x27;m voting yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Clerk</span><span><a data-m="8624400" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8627300" class="thewords">Okay. You have the results&#x3f; Okay. Congratulations, Ryan. You&#x27;ve been appointed. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; Thank you for standing up.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8645800" class="thewords">And now I&#x27;ll accept the nominations for the appointment to the Board of Tax Appeals for the term expiring June 30th, 2017. Councilor Ayres.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Ayres</span><span><a data-m="8657200" class="thewords">I would like to nominate Sean Hurley, please.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8660800" class="thewords">Are there any additional nominees&#x3f; I&#x27;ll close the floor to nominees. Any discussion&#x3f; All those in favor of appointing Sean Hurley to the Board of Tax Appeals, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="8676700" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8677700" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; All right. I guess we don&#x27;t have to oppose, but I think, congratulations, Sean. You also have been appointed to the Board of Tax Appeals. Thank you both to Sean and Ryan for agreeing to serve the city in this way. And without objection, the meeting of the city council with mayor presiding is adjourned.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="8701000" class="thewords">We have Board of Civil Authority.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8703600" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8709100" class="thewords">And thank you. Well, thank you, Alan &#x5b;Gerkee&#x5d; for submitting a nomination as well and putting your name forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8719800" class="thewords">All right. One second here.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8741200" class="thewords">All right. Let me call into session Board of Civil Authority meeting. The first item is the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda&#x3f; If not, I&#x27;ll accept a motion to accept it as presented.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Councilor</span><span><a data-m="8756000" class="thewords">So moved.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Councilor</span><span><a data-m="8756800" class="thewords">Second.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8759100" class="thewords">All those in favor of the motion, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="8761000" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8762400" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; It passes unanimously, and that brings us to the next item, is the consent agenda. Is there a motion to accept the consent agenda and take the action indicated&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Councilor</span><span><a data-m="8773700" class="thewords">So moved.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Ayres</span><span><a data-m="8775600" class="thewords">Seconded.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8775800" class="thewords">Seconded from Councilor Ayres. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="8781400" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mayor</span><span><a data-m="8782800" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; That passes unanimously. And without objection, the Board of Civil Authority is now adjourned. I think we&#x27;re done. Have a good night, everyone.</a></span></p>
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<header/>
<p><span><a data-m="3400" class="thewords">&#x5b;Pledge of Allegiance&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="19400" class="thewords">Thanks for everyone coming out this evening. First of all, the board wishes to recognize, welcome and thanks those who are providing language interpretation of the board proceedings. The board&#x27;s commitment that all children receive equitable academic services must ensure that new American parents are welcome and can attend meetings, understand the process and be actively engaged.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="44000" class="thewords">Interpretation of proceedings honors, respects and values our new American parents and students. The board asks the public and media to respect and understand the importance of this &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="55700" class="thewords">I skipped over the roll call. You&#x27;re lucky, Commissioner Kirk. It&#x2019;s in your hand. Do you mind reading it out&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="61500" class="thewords">Absolutely not. Brian Cina&#x3f; Liz Curry&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="65600" class="thewords">Here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="66700" class="thewords">Kyle Dodson&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="67300" class="thewords">Here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="68100" class="thewords">Kevin Garrison&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Garrison</span><span><a data-m="68800" class="thewords">Here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="69800" class="thewords">Charlie Giannoni&#x3f; Patrick Halladay&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="73400" class="thewords">Here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="74000" class="thewords">David Kirk, here. Kat Kleman&#x3f; Alan Matson&#x3f; Mark Porter&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="82400" class="thewords">Here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="83400" class="thewords">Stephanie Seguino&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="84100" class="thewords">Here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="84900" class="thewords">Scott Shumski&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Shumski</span><span><a data-m="85700" class="thewords">Here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="87200" class="thewords">Miriam Stoll&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="87900" class="thewords">Yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="88500" class="thewords">Ben Truman.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="89100" class="thewords">Here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="90100" class="thewords">Xander Long&#x3f; And Georgia &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;&#x3f; Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="99300" class="thewords">And Charlie is now here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="104700" class="thewords">Okay. Commissioner Curry is going to be getting Commissioner Matson on the line. He&#x27;s going to phone in from out of town. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="116500" class="thewords">So moved.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="117600" class="thewords">Commissioner Dodson, seconded by... Commissioner Garrison. Any alterations, amendments to the agenda&#x3f; Hearing none, all in favor of the proposed agenda, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="131100" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="132000" class="thewords">Any opposition&#x3f; Right, we have an agenda. I do want to make a real quick note that we have a eight o&#x27;clock time certain executive session, we have a couple different issues that need to be discussed in executive session this evening. We are going to go ahead and move through the agenda as far as we get until executive session. We may get through public comment, we may get through public comment plus.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="158400" class="thewords">But we&#x27;ll get as far as we can. At eight o&#x27;clock we are going to stop simply because executive session have in the past been taking place at very very late hours, when there are very important decisions that are being made, and we think it&#x2019;s best to do those while fresh and making smarter choices at that point.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="177900" class="thewords">So at this point we have time for public comment. Is there a sign&#x2d;in there&#x3f; Could you pass that around over here&#x3f; There&#x27;ll be time to...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="189900" class="thewords">I want to remind people that we have 20 minutes set aside for public comment, three minutes per person. At the end of public comment, or at the end of that 20 minutes, if we would like to extend, a board member&#x27;s welcome to make a motion, and we can extend that public comment if we would like.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="204900" class="thewords">Commissioner Porter&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="205900" class="thewords">Motion to limit it to two minutes &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; people in the room.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="209500" class="thewords">Do we have a second for the motion&#x3f; Commissioner Kirk. Any discussion&#x3f; Just as a note, this would take a two&#x2d;thirds majority, just because it&#x2019;s changing our rules. I&#x27;m not questioning it, I just want to make sure that that&#x27;s clear. All in favor of the motion from Commissioner Porter to limit to two minutes, due to the number of people here, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="232000" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="232900" class="thewords">Any opposition&#x3f; Two minutes, we will move it to. I&#x27;m gonna leave my computer up here, hopefully where people will be able to see it as it&#x2019;s counting down. Up first is Helen &#x5b;Housley&#x5d;, Becca &#x2014; I&#x27;m sorry, I&#x27;m having a hard time reading that, is it Parros&#x3f; Padnos. Oh, I&#x27;m sorry.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="256000" class="thewords">And Heather Rheimer will be third. Helen&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Housley</span><span><a data-m="263800" class="thewords">Good evening. I&#x27;m Helen Housley, I live in Ward Seven. In regards to the superintendent search, we have hired Ray and Associates for &#x24;14,200 to do a nationwide search. Although I do really appreciate the frugality of the board, I question what we&#x27;re getting for our money. One would anticipate that a nationwide search would cost close to &#x24;30,000 or more.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="284800" class="thewords">But that said, how does it tie in with the interim superintendent&#x3f; Apparently there are many candidates that have magically appeared in the last few weeks that weren&#x27;t available in June. The job description for the interim superintendent is quite extensive for an eight&#x2d;month temporary position. If the interim is selected by a subgroup of commissioners, what was the process that was followed&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="307200" class="thewords">How does it fit with the current process that&#x27;s going on for a permanent superintendent&#x3f; What assurances do we have, the public, that the interim superintendent won&#x27;t be named to the permanent position and bypass the selection process altogether&#x3f; Ignoring processes and policies tend to be a habit of this particular board. In regards to the recommendations that came out of the Ray and Associates survey, I&#x27;m sure that will be discussed later this evening.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="334300" class="thewords">Recommendation number two speaks directly to the ability for us to relate &#x2014; us meaning the board and the superintendent &#x2014; relate to our culturally diverse community. And yet when there&#x27;s a board training from a highly respected trainer on the specific topic of cultural competence, several members of this board did not attend.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="352200" class="thewords">That&#x27;s not only disappointing, especially since Ward Seven wasn&#x27;t represented at all during this training, but demonstrates a lack of commitment, an air of arrogance, and that this board isn&#x27;t committed to working with the administration to advance the goals of the district. I&#x27;ll submit my notes for public comment. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="373200" class="thewords">Thank you. Rebecca Padnos, Heather Rheimer, and Robin, is it Gillian&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Padnos</span><span><a data-m="389000" class="thewords">Hi, everybody. Thanks for having us. I wanted to thank the board and CCTA and the administration for working with us on the bussing. We&#x27;ve got more buses, they&#x27;re less crowded. It&#x2019;s been terrific, and it didn&#x2019;t take that long since the last time we spoke up. Unfortunately, since then we&#x27;ve gotten notice that we have to pay &#x24;150 per student per year now.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="414200" class="thewords">And I really worry what that&#x27;s going to do to the availability of buses, and people&#x27;s ability to pay for it. I&#x27;d really love to see this put away for this year, as Miriam Stoll and Scott Shumski suggested in the financial committee meeting.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="431500" class="thewords">And only reinstate it after you have a special meeting for public input, as they said, and adding an economic hardship clause to the request that people pay. I also just don&#x27;t think it&#x2019;s right that families have to pay based on where they live. We all pay school taxes. I think we all need to share the expenses of getting kids to and from the schools.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="455200" class="thewords">I worry about the kids with the passes, I worry about loss, bullying, theft, and parents being able to pay. We don&#x27;t know what&#x2019;s going on in any individual&#x27;s home, whether they can make it or not, which is why we should definitely have an economic hardship waiver.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="473200" class="thewords">We made our current budget under really dire straits last year. We thought we were over &#x24;1 million in the hole. It&#x2019;s my understanding that is not the case anymore, and with the lease of the Taft Building for &#x24;1.6 million, I think we should be able to take some money for this year&#x27;s, drop the fees for the buses, and then revisit it in a more thoughtful way that&#x27;s not under panic.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="499700" class="thewords">I know we&#x27;re panicked. People did the best they could with that information. So in the couple weeks since we found out we were going to have to pay a lot of money to send our kids to school, we put up a really quick informal &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="516800" class="thewords">I need you to wrap up here real quickly.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Padnos</span><span><a data-m="518000" class="thewords">Okay. A petition on Facebook, and one Front Porch Forum had almost 400 signatures here. I have people lining up to sign it, because I was outside, and college kids were like, &#x22;We had to pay, it was really awful,&#x22; and they went and got their friends at the farmer&#x27;s market, &#x22;Come here&#x21;&#x22; So it wasn&#x27;t as scary to get petitions in person. A lot of them were on the internet.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="537900" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Padnos</span><span><a data-m="538200" class="thewords">So we will submit them.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="539400" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Padnos</span><span><a data-m="539900" class="thewords">Okay, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="541100" class="thewords">Heather, Robin and Vince Brennan&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Rheimer</span><span><a data-m="549800" class="thewords">So, Heather Rheimer. I live in the Old North End. I have a student at Hunt Middle School and a student at the high school. So I came out to speak out against charging students to ride the bus to school. Before kids can learn, they have to get to school in the first place. And there&#x27;s three reasons why I think this policy is misguided. One, it&#x2019;s a fee based on geography.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="575000" class="thewords">Look, we were fortunate enough to be able to walk our kids to school every day during elementary school. At one point the school board decided we should be redistricted to Champlain School. We fought that, we were able to maintain a neighborhood school. But the point, kids are, especially kids from the Old North End, all districted to Hunt now, not walkable. And also the high school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="594800" class="thewords">So I don&#x27;t like it because it&#x2019;s a fee based on geography. Two, it encourages people to drive and not take the bus. I did the calculation. If I was willing to put gas in my car, sunk cost of having a car, it&#x2019;s way cheaper for me to drive my kids to school every single day and pick them up. I&#x27;m not gonna do it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="611700" class="thewords">But it will encourage other folks, because it&#x2019;s cheaper to do that. And I hope I don&#x27;t have to say in this day in age that that&#x27;s a problem in many ways to have more cars on the road instead of a bus that&#x27;s going by. And the third reason, it actually is gonna mean that kids don&#x27;t get to school. So we have been contacted by many parents &#x2014; some, you talked about new American families &#x2014; don&#x27;t qualify for free and reduced lunch, and now they&#x27;re worried about their kids being able to get to and from school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="642800" class="thewords">And even with a pass, if you lose your pass, if you don&#x27;t have it, then you gotta be &#x2014; &#x22;Do I have the 60 cents&#x3f;&#x22; And kids with more resources can probably go home and get a ride with their parents, but not everybody can. And so I think it will mean that we&#x27;ll get kids who don&#x27;t get to school. It&#x2019;s going to be hard to get home. So I think the board should go back to the policy of providing transportation for all students who need a bus to school. Thank you. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="672500" class="thewords">Robin Vince, and then Richard Lisch.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Vince</span><span><a data-m="681700" class="thewords">Hi, my name is Robin Gillian, and I echo the sentiments that have brought the concerned members of this community to talk here tonight about the fee scale, and payments of a ride to school. I was gonna talk, but instead of listening to me, I&#x27;m going to give voice to my son, who wrote a letter. He is a junior at BHS, and he said, &#x22;My name is Zachary Gillian, I&#x27;m a junior at BHS. I use the CCTA bus system, organized and managed with help from the school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="712100" class="thewords">&#x22;After riding the bus for over three years now, I have witnessed some of the flaws that go along with relying on the bus as a source of transportation. But also, the amazing help it is in getting me to school. Soon the free service that delivers students to BHS and back home at the end of the day will finally end. In its place, an unaffordable &#x24;150 will be charged to all students, with the exception of those who receive free lunch, in order to ride CCTA buses.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="736100" class="thewords">&#x22;We near the impending end to a free transportation systems for students in the area, but it seems that aside from the outrageous price, CCTA may not have ever been the right choice as a means for kids to get to school in the morning. During my experience with CCTA, I have seen a number of occasions kids and adults alike being declined service &#x2014; not for reasons of overcapacity or lack of bus pass, but for seemingly no reason at all.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="759600" class="thewords">&#x22;These people are left running alongside the bus, attempting to get the driver&#x27;s attention as he completely ignores not only the person running, but also the several people yelling at him to stop the bus, to let the person on. Above all of this, the Burlington Bus Network is public, and not explicitly bound to transporting school students.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="776100" class="thewords">&#x22;For this reason it makes moving kids and servicing bus users simultaneously very difficult. As you may realize, there are roughly 1,000 students at Burlington High School. Although there are multiple buses dropping students off, each bus still gets very full, leaving little space for other people in need of the bus to make it on. It is vital to understand this issue in preparation for the year&#x2d;end studies program held for two weeks at the end of each school year.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="798300" class="thewords">&#x22;During this time period the school day is slightly shortened, leaving one bus arriving every half hour or more for all the students to utilize to get home. As you can imagine or may have already noticed, this is not a very effective system. You may be thinking the money we&#x27;re charging isn&#x27;t that much in the grand scheme. But it&#x2019;s a lot for a service that is already overtaxed.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="818300" class="thewords">Thank you very much for your time.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="819800" class="thewords">Thank you, Robin. Vince, then Richard.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Brennan</span><span><a data-m="827900" class="thewords">Hello, board. Vince Brennan, Ward Three city councilor, and I&#x27;m here speaking tonight on part from some of my constituents who are gonna be faced with this unintended tax. Many of the things that were echoed before, I totally concur with. Heather had indicated, new Americans in the Old North End having to pay this tax.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="862200" class="thewords">There have been many people that have contacted me, and one in particular who is a custodian with the same employer as me, who does not conform with the free and reduced lunch. Makes too much money between her and her partner as a custodian, does not qualify for free and reduced lunch, but has to have three children to make it to the high school and one to the middle school. It&#x2019;s &#x24;450 on a custodial wage.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="893800" class="thewords">She works days, her husband works second shift. This is an inequity. The words that you spoke at the beginning are just words, unless you put &#x27;em into action. The action that you&#x27;re doing today is creating inequity. This inequity needs to change, and you have the power to make that change. And I encourage you to right the wrong.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="919100" class="thewords">I understand that this decision was made at a point where the budget was in flux. You have the ability to change and make this right. I encourage you to do that. And I would just take a step back and think for a minute of what I just said there. You know, free and reduced lunch, 185&#x25; of the poverty level, is where we&#x27;re talking about.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="945500" class="thewords">There&#x27;s people that are working at the lower end of the scale at the University of Vermont, and they do not qualify for free and reduced lunch. Although your intentions were good at the time, you have the ability to make that inequity right. And I encourage you to do so. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="966200" class="thewords">Thank you, Vince. Richard&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Gleisch</span><span><a data-m="982300" class="thewords">Good evening. Richard Gleisch, a parent of three children who greatly benefited from the Burlington School System. My youngest, he&#x27;s currently junior at high school. Some nine years ago we were &#x2014; we live in the South End, and at the time there was only a very early bus that dropped the kids off at the high school somewhere around 7:10 in the morning. So we fought to get a bus at a more workable hour.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1006800" class="thewords">Once it got accepted, we almost freaked out that no kid would show up. Kids showed up, took that bus, was very successful. Five years later our youngest starts high school, we realize the bus is gone because there were so many kids on that route that CCTA decided to reroute it through Shelburne Road. So it got reinstated back.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1027600" class="thewords">So kids take the bus if the bus is available. And if it&#x2019;s affordable. Everyone talked about that. I have another issue, it&#x2019;s very philosophical: Public school means that the community pays for educating the children. Once we decide transportation is not part of education anymore, and we start charging people individually to attend public school, it&#x2019;s a very dangerous precedent in my opinion, in terms of basically what&#x2019;s next&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1059800" class="thewords">After school programs &#x2014; you want to participate, need to pay&#x3f; The iPad at the high school&#x3f; Incrementally, &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; turned into privatization of public school, meaning that you pay to attend. I think philosophically the community has to really think about, is that the route we want to go&#x3f; And this is, in my view, it&#x2019;s much of a first step.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1083400" class="thewords">It creates a dangerous precedence. When this becomes accepted, every incremental step after that can be justified. And next thing we know, the community stops paying and individual students pay for attending public school. Thank you. I count on you to do the right thing. Thank you very much.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1101400" class="thewords">Thank you, Richard. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1105100" class="thewords">That&#x27;s the end of the list, for people who signed up in advance. Is there anyone else who would like to comment&#x3f; Please come forward and please state your name so we can record it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Sebastiano</span><span><a data-m="1120400" class="thewords">My name is Paul Sebastiano. Nice to meet you tonight. I really don&#x27;t have a whole lot that I can add to what a lot of people have said tonight. I agree with a lot of things that people have been talking about. I do agree that making some people pay and others not pay is divisive in the community&#x3b; it doesn&#x2019;t unify us. It&#x2019;s wrong.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1145200" class="thewords">It seems like the decision to go ahead and start charging was a knee jerk type of reaction. And, uh, what I really do is exhort you to look for other ways to save money. I don&#x27;t know if an exhaustive review has been done of business processes to look for efficiencies, duplication of efforts. But my gut feeling is that if people do look fairly hard, you&#x27;re going to find some money, and it&#x2019;s gonna take some time.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1174800" class="thewords">And it&#x2019;s gonna take a while because it took 10, 11 years to get here to where we are, and it was a perfect storm. So it&#x2019;s gonna take a little while to get out. So what I&#x27;m asking you to do is not rush to judgment. This is the sort of thing that people have become accustomed to. We just had our taxes raised, and to ask us to come along and start paying a bus fare on top of that is basically adding insult to injury.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1200900" class="thewords">A lot of people are just budgeting for the new tax increase, and people aren&#x27;t getting raises like they used to. I mean they&#x27;re getting one percent, two percent, 50 cents an hour. You know, this sort of thing is a little bit here, a little bit there, it all adds up.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1216300" class="thewords">So if you could take another look at this, and at least delay the decision past next, I believe, Monday, so that you&#x27;ll have more time to look at this, and then if you really need to have people pay bus fares, perhaps in the next school year would be a time to do it and bring it up to the voters in March.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1234800" class="thewords">Thank you. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1240600" class="thewords">Is there anyone further who&#x27;d like to comment&#x3f; Yeah, please, come on up. What&#x2019;s your name&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Padnose</span><span><a data-m="1255400" class="thewords">Henry Padnose.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1257000" class="thewords">Go ahead, Henry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Padnose</span><span><a data-m="1257400" class="thewords">I&#x27;m a sixth grader at Hunt, and I don&#x27;t have really much to say, but of what I&#x27;ve heard, the money you pay is &#x24;1.20 every day, which is for two bus rides, and I have two after&#x2d;school programs, which is two bus rides, that, if we were to pay, I&#x27;m paying for a bus ride and my parents are that I haven&#x27;t taken. And if someone misses the bus, then they&#x27;re paying for a bus ride that nobody&#x27;s taking.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1292900" class="thewords">Thank you, Henry. Appreciate it. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; Any further public comment&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1303300" class="thewords">All right. Seeing none, we&#x27;ll go ahead and move forward with our agenda. Next is a time for board reflection. Are there any board members who would like to reflect on public comment&#x3f; Seeing none, we&#x27;ll move down to number six. Oh, I&#x27;m sorry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="1318900" class="thewords">I just wanted to make a really brief comment, is all. Mostly, at the last meeting I spoke out very strongly against the bus, or paying for the bus, which I still disagree with. But I felt that it kind of came across that I was criticizing your hard work and decision, Paul, and I wanted to make sure that that was clear that I really support the work you&#x27;ve done, and want to apologize if it came across as doubting you guys.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1343800" class="thewords">So, and the fact that the board did decide. So... thank you. I&#x27;ll sign that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1352000" class="thewords">Any further...&#x3f; Commissioner Stoll.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1354300" class="thewords">I try and keep my mouth shut, but it&#x2019;s really hard. So I want to thank all of you for coming, and it&#x2019;s really quite poignant, the story, particularly the actual numbers, when you hear what Vince said. And I would like to say that at the finance committee meeting this last week, we did &#x2014; a reflection for everyone, so you know &#x2014; we did put forward a motion to delay the bus change, and it did not go out of the finance committee.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1384200" class="thewords">So it was not voted to go forward, and that&#x27;s why it&#x2019;s not coming here tonight. I would like to just say that part of the discussion that we had, that was had there, was that at this point the decision to change is really something that the administration could choose to do if they determine they can find other funds to make up the difference in the budget. So the board has been very clear that if we overspend in one area, we need to underspend in another.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1419800" class="thewords">So if the decision were made by the administration and brought to the board &#x2014; actually, they don&#x27;t even have to bring it to the board &#x2014; if the decision was made by the administration that change that, and instead change the policy that&#x27;s going to go, was supposed to go into effect, and could find alternate savings somewhere else, that would be sufficient.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1438600" class="thewords">So I want to thank all of you for coming and talking, but I also want to tell you that you&#x27;re not just speaking to the board here&#x3b; you&#x27;re also speaking to the administration. So I thank you, and I hope that it gets heard. Thank you very much.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1457400" class="thewords">Commissioner Dodson.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="1458500" class="thewords">I just had a quick, what I see as a process conversation. I too appreciate everyone coming, and it got me thinking about moving forward &#x2014; we&#x27;re moving into budget planning for budget 2015&#x2d;2016. And if you remember what occurred last March, and you&#x27;re reading what&#x2019;s happening at the state level, money&#x27;s going to be tight.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1480200" class="thewords">We&#x27;re going to be forced to be disciplined, and so I encourage everyone to follow that process, to come to all public opportunities, and to share your input and to share your creative ideas. We, the 14 here, we work really hard to be creative, but we&#x27;re going to need some real creativity in the days ahead, so I encourage everyone to stay engaged and to support us in doing what&#x2019;s going to be difficult work to get the budget to a place where the community can support it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1509900" class="thewords">Commissioner Seguino&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="1511000" class="thewords">So I&#x27;d like to add to that and echo Miriam and Kyle, Commissioner Dodson and Stoll&#x27;s comments about thanking you all for being here. I want to say that I had just joined the board when this decision was made. And I think it just might help to have some context for this, so that we can understand what to do going forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1531800" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t think there&#x27;s a person on this board who feels good about what&#x2019;s happening with bus fares, but we faced other choices that were more costly and more painful than that one. And let me just give you a little bit of context: When the budget failed in March, the finance committee, I wasn&#x27;t a member at that time, but requested that the superintendent go back and see what areas could be cut.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1556500" class="thewords">And one of the areas that she proposed was transportation cost. And here are some of the considerations we faced: We could&#x27;ve increased classroom sizes, we could&#x27;ve laid off more teachers. We wanted to do whatever we could not to lose the teachers we had, and also not to increase class sizes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1577500" class="thewords">So we were really constrained in terms of what could be cut that would protect classrooms. So I hear you, how painful this is. I really get that. But we are still facing a community that does not have the appetite, and many don&#x27;t have the means for the property tax increases that have happened over the last number of years.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1600200" class="thewords">I personally think that in the next year or two, with the new finance director, with the new administration in the district, that we will be able to look at the budget more carefully and find efficiencies that won&#x27;t force us to make such painful cuts.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1617000" class="thewords">But I think we need a little bit of time to do that. And I just want you to see this from the perspective of where we sit that we&#x27;re facing competing pressures, and we really are laser&#x2d;focused on kids K&#x2d;3 and, in general, classroom instruction. And so although this is not at all a palatable cut that was made, that was at least our reasoning behind it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1638700" class="thewords">And hopefully that will help us in the discussions. Because you know, as Commissioner Dodson said, we&#x27;re trying be creative and we want to hear your input as well. But anything that we want to add money for in the budget, we have to cut someplace else, and the question is where is that, right&#x3f; So... thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1657700" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="1658800" class="thewords">I just want to add that the local funds and the local property tax are the only ones we have control over. And they are fewer and fewer every year, and next year it&#x2019;s another &#x24;1.54 million cut. So we&#x27;re up against the wall. I also want to ask and invite you to please participate in the legislature this year, because we have been slaughtered by the cuts &#x2014; in federal funding and state funding.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1699000" class="thewords">And it isn&#x27;t over. It&#x2019;s just getting worse. Government doesn&#x2019;t have any more money. And so the strategy is to put the costs on the local taxpayer and the local municipalities. And the only way that that&#x27;s gonna change is if voices are louder at the state and the federal level. That&#x27;s all we&#x27;ve got.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1721200" class="thewords">We don&#x27;t have any more money here. We went through the budget with fine&#x2d;tooth comb. We looked to the administration to make recommendations. We asked them what the cuts would be. We had an audit for the first time from fiscal year &#x27;13 that showed us having a &#x24;1.2 million deficit.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1740600" class="thewords">That was &#x2014; we just had a consultant put a report up on budget docs that showed the district overspent every year for the past seven years. So we don&#x27;t feel good about this. We don&#x27;t feel like we can do anything else, as Miriam said. The administration, if they can find the savings, we&#x27;ve invited them to try.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1765700" class="thewords">So we know this is difficult. But at this point that&#x27;s what we&#x27;re left with.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1776800" class="thewords">Any further reflection&#x3f; I&#x27;d like to real quickly just have a couple points of clarification. Absolutely, if the administration has another place to find these cuts, that&#x27;s great. But I also want to make sure that the board isn&#x27;t faulting the administration. The board came and asked the administration to come up with a plan to institute the cuts that originated with the board. Whether we agree with them or think it was a good thing or not, the administration really was following a directive from the board in doing that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1810700" class="thewords">And as others said, I don&#x27;t think anyone on the board thinks that this is a fantastic idea, but in a pool of marginal ideas, you sometimes pick out the one that&#x27;s maybe the least onerous or has the... And that was the decision that we had.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1823900" class="thewords">Also, I&#x27;ve heard a couple things &#x2014; I think it&#x2019;s important to understand that this is not an increase in revenue. This isn&#x27;t the schools getting more money from this. It&#x2019;s a decrease in expense. This isn&#x27;t a way for the schools to line its coffers. The money that comes in goes to CCTA for their service, just like any other bus service that would be going on right now.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1846100" class="thewords">Kids, when your child gets on the bus, CCTA rings a 60&#x2d;cent bell, and bills the schools for that. Instead, the payment would be going more directly to CCTA. It&#x2019;s not more money coming into the schools. I just want to make sure, that &#x24;150 is not just the schools collecting it and putting it in their pocket. It&#x2019;s going directly to paying for the pass for CCTA.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1870200" class="thewords">And finally, just as a point of clarification, there&#x27;s been a lot of talk about the &#x24;150 &#x2014; I do want to make sure that everyone recognizes &#x2014; it&#x2019;s certainly come home, the letters to our own house &#x2014; that buying the year&#x2d;long pass is not the only option. Not that the other ones are necessarily great. But you can buy a ten&#x2d;punch pass, you can pay 60 cents a time as you go.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1890900" class="thewords">You can buy a monthly pass. I&#x27;ll use my own family as an example: While the weather&#x27;s nice, my son who&#x27;s at BHS rides his bike up to school. Come February, that&#x27;s not gonna be such a good option. So our own family is not gonna be purchasing that &#x24;150 pass. Instead, we&#x27;re gonna be buying a punch card so that the days that he needs to ride the bus...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1910500" class="thewords">I know this isn&#x27;t the same for everyone, but I just want to make sure that folks understand that the &#x24;150 unlimited ride is not the only option for folks who are saying, &#x22;Well, I have after school programs so many days a week, and I&#x27;m not even gonna be using that.&#x22; There are additional options that exist out there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1931800" class="thewords">Hearing no further reflection from the board, we&#x27;re going to move down to number six on our agenda until we hop back up for board development. I&#x27;m sorry, for the board report. Thank you guys for coming.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1952800" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t have a need to go into this in great detail. I shared with board members some draft thinking around a plan moving forward for more efficiencies for... There&#x27;s a commitment that we all made at our board meeting two weeks ago Sunday, the special board meeting, to have a plan moving forward for better board functioning.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1976900" class="thewords">I do have some, more than just drafty ideas, but some ideas I would welcome response from anyone regarding those. Very quickly, I just want to say that those ideas are broken into two separate spheres &#x2014; the first one is logistical, kind of the functioning of our meetings, the functioning of our committees. And I&#x27;ve asked Commissioners Truman, Curry and Giannoni, who make up the policy committee, to develop some plans around better logistics.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2004900" class="thewords">And secondly, I&#x27;ve laid out a handful of suggestions, including some individual reflections, some reflections of our board as a group. And then I&#x27;ve been in contact, without specifics at this point, in contact with a couple of additional people who do some development work &#x2014; board development work &#x2014; who will be coming to us with some proposals as to what they might be able to bring forward to help us further build those relationships.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2038700" class="thewords">And then a commitment toward moving, as we&#x27;ve had conversations over the course of the last year, actually before most of us have been on the board, but really openly adopting a policy governance model, which is really the model that most boards are using, and suggesting some training through the Vermont School Boards Association to fully understand what policy governance means, and the steps that we&#x27;d need to take towards that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2064900" class="thewords">Happy to entertain any questions. This isn&#x27;t a motion that I&#x27;m bringing forward&#x3b; it&#x2019;s more information that I said I would &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; this back.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2077900" class="thewords">All right. Hearing none, the board members will hear more from me in days to come. I just got back myself. Last Tuesday through Friday I was outside of Boston, in a basement, for four days, for the Partnership For Change Conference, a fantastic conference &#x2014; several people I see out in the audience who were down there as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2101300" class="thewords">And we&#x27;ll be sharing more thinking about our learning from that conference as time goes forward. Gonna talk to Hal Colston in the future about bringing forward the logic model so that the board better understands the logic model that they&#x27;re working under.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2116200" class="thewords">However, we have Beth Brody from the middle school today who&#x27;s going to do a brief presentation for us on the advisory that&#x27;s being proposed to be instituted in the high school for the next school year.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Brody</span><span><a data-m="2129200" class="thewords">I&#x27;m gonna do a very... I want to start... First of all, good evening, everybody. But I&#x27;d like to start with finding out a little bit about what you know and what your questions are for advisory. So if you can just write down something you know about advisory and a question you might have &#x2014; and I know your time is really limited today. You&#x27;ve got some very important decisions to make.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2152900" class="thewords">And so I&#x27;ll be brief. But this will allow me to take your questions, and to maybe funnel that information back to Patrick and let him disseminate it to you, so that if you have questions, we can answer that as well. I&#x27;ve been studying high school advisory in the State of Vermont since 2004, and have seen a lot of changes in the last ten years.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2183000" class="thewords">A week ago, or about ten days ago, Chuck Scranton at the &#x5b;Rowling&#x5d; Conference ended his conference by saying, &#x22;Personalized learning plans in just about every other transformation effort underway in our schools is totally dependent on a meaningful, authentic advisory system.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2200700" class="thewords">And I have found that to be very true as well. But people are wondering, what is advisory&#x3f; The definition that has been decided on by many of the experts in the field is that advisory is a small cohort of students that meets regularly for the purpose of providing every student with an adult that knows them well, and a safe environment as a home base at school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2230000" class="thewords">And a couple words in there are very important. Small cohort &#x2014; cohort being that it follows those students through four years of high school. Meeting regularly. Something that meets, if not on a daily basis, several times a week, so that they really have an opportunity to develop those relationships. An adult that knows them well &#x2014; really, the point person.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2253500" class="thewords">I think, especially as you get into high school, people don&#x27;t know who to call. They&#x27;re like, &#x22;Wow, my kid&#x27;s got like eight different teachers,&#x22; and if they&#x27;re having a problem in biology, you can call the biology teacher. But if they&#x27;re just having an overall general problem, you don&#x27;t know who to call.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2270200" class="thewords">This gives every student a point person in someone that the parents know that they can contact. And the final thing is a home base &#x2014; in my research in advisory, I went into depth with research in four different high school in Vermont, and three of those four schools said that they had had recent tragedies in their school. And it was through the high school advisory program that those students were able to sort of get back into the swing of things.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2303900" class="thewords">And if they needed a break, they could find their advisor or they could go to their advisory, and they had a safe place. So I think that that is, having that home base which is safe for everyone, is really critical.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2315600" class="thewords">There are four functions of advisory, and the first one is administrative. It&#x2019;s like the old home room. But it&#x2019;s great to have that. If you need a survey done, it&#x2019;s done in advisory. If you need to pass out medical forms, it&#x2019;s done in advisory. A lot of people do fire drills by advisory.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2334500" class="thewords">You&#x27;re only looking for 10&#x2d;14 kids. The second one is affective, which, I just mentioned developing those deep relationships between students, advisors, and co&#x2d;advisees. And that has actually become one of the most successful aspects of advisory if you look at the research, that several studies have been done with students that really feel that advisory has connected them to their school, and has connected them to one another.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2362100" class="thewords">Cognitive &#x2014; this is where we&#x27;re really talking about the academic advisor, really helping them with study skills, time management, academic planning, and especially now, the personalized learning plan, and everything that&#x27;s encompassed in &#x5b;Act 77&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2379300" class="thewords">This would be the place where students would sit down with their advisors, create their goals, write their personal learning statements, and the advisor would be one of those people &#x2014; the kids that I interviewed always described their advisor as that gentle kick in the butt that they sometimes need at school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2401300" class="thewords">So that is the cognitive aspect. And now we&#x27;re really coming into sort of the meta&#x2d;cognitive, which is in advisory, it&#x2019;s when kids are really starting to think about how they learn. Not just saying, &#x22;This is my goal,&#x22; but thinking about, &#x22;How do you learn best&#x3f; What are your goals, what are your interests&#x3f;&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2423900" class="thewords">And I did have this all in a great presentation, but I know you&#x27;re busy and I didn&#x2019;t want to take the time to go line it up there. So I&#x27;m going through the short version here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2433500" class="thewords">Is there a presentation that you can share with me that I can share with the board&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Brody</span><span><a data-m="2437000" class="thewords">Absolutely. And I will share resources with you as well. So the question may be, do many schools in Vermont have advisory&#x3f; And in 2013, 53 out of 62 high schools in Vermont had some form of advisory. And they came under a wide array of names. They might&#x2019;ve called it Morning Meeting or they might&#x2019;ve called it advisory or TA. There was just about seven or eight different names that people came up with, but it all had those common elements of having the advisor that knew their students well, it was a small group, they met regularly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2475600" class="thewords">And 51&#x25; of the advisories did meet every day. So people always ask, &#x22;How often should it meet&#x3f;&#x22; 51&#x25; met every day. 63&#x25; of the advisories met from between 15 and 30 minutes a day. Although the overall average length was 18 minutes. But what I will say is, now this was in 2013 that I called every school in the state of Vermont.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2501300" class="thewords">And the administrators in the schools that had 10&#x2d;minute advisories said, &#x22;Yeah, but we&#x27;re really thinking of expanding that.&#x22; And I&#x27;m sure that if I were to ask them again today, with the advent of Act 77 being passed in June of 2013, I am confident that everybody would say, &#x22;Yeah, we&#x27;re really looking at this again.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2525200" class="thewords">One of the roadblocks to a successful advisory is not developing the vision statement and not developing the goals. That is something that is at the core of starting off with a solid program. And that is something that currently the BHS faculty and a multi&#x2d;stakeholder group are working on. They&#x27;ve been meeting regularly since August 19th, and have really made progress, and there will be a presentation on the progress that they have made in January or February to discuss where that has been working.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2566300" class="thewords">But they&#x27;ve been working very hard on this. And that will be made by the BHS faculty. And goals that would be appropriate for advisory &#x2014; some examples are things like all students in the learning community have an advisor who knows them well and is aware of their academic goals, standing, and coaches them academically.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2591000" class="thewords">Or all students in the learning community have an advisor who&#x27;s an integral part of their planning process for their personalized learning plans. Or all students have a communication link between school and family. Once again, once you develop the vision statement, having goal statements that support that are a critical part of developing a solid program.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2613800" class="thewords">And the roles of the advisors, there&#x27;s really four significant roles of an advisor &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; coach, a point person, an advocate, and a personal advisor. And the advocate is really someone that, if your student &#x2014; and I&#x27;ll give you an anecdote here &#x2014; if your student had a goal that they wanted to become a basketball coach, which actually happened with one of my ex&#x2d;students from long ago &#x2014; and they were looking at eligibility for this student, because academically he had not been as successful as he could&#x27;ve been during his freshman year &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2652700" class="thewords">By going in and discussing with the academic eligibility team, we were able to determine that actually maybe giving this student a shot at being eligible for playing basketball was really in his best interest, because he had had a goal that he wanted to do this in the future. And it wound up being a very successful choice. But I went in as his advocate, and if we had not done that goal&#x2d;setting prior to that, who would&#x27;ve known&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2688700" class="thewords">So there is also evidence and research that supports &#x2014; there was a five&#x2d;year longitudinal study that came out in 2011 that said at&#x2d;risk students how participated in advisory programs, that 84&#x25; of the males felt the personalized aspect of the advisory program helped them in school, and that it was a caring, committed adult that knew the student well, that made the difference.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2716700" class="thewords">And the same study also revealed that there was strong evidence that personalization in the form of an advisor actually contributed to an increase of, a six percent increase in the graduation rate for the program. So there is some academic evidence that would support the advisory program as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2740900" class="thewords">For me, the question is, &#x22;Is it worth it&#x3f;&#x22; and I will once again go to another anecdote where I had a student that had been in my advisory for four years, it was his senior year, it was November. And he had struggled academically somewhat in his earlier years, and he sat there and said, &#x22;I just don&#x27;t think I can do this anymore,&#x22; and he was this close to dropping out in November of his senior year.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2773100" class="thewords">And it wasn&#x27;t I that said, &#x22;Oh no, you&#x27;ve gotta do it,&#x22; although I said that as well. It was the co&#x2d;advisees who, one by one, told him, &#x22;You really need to go ahead and do this, you&#x27;ve gotta finish&#x3b; we&#x27;ll help you. We&#x27;ll help you study, we&#x27;ll help you through this,&#x22; and he walked across the stage in June. So it&#x2019;s those kinds of things that really, for me, is strong evidence above and beyond the empirical evidence that we have out there that advisory is a strong program.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2807300" class="thewords">So with that, I will ask you if you have any questions. If we have time. If not... oh &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2814200" class="thewords">We have time for about three questions, and then if anything further, I ask people to write down on their cards and &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Brody</span><span><a data-m="2818200" class="thewords">Right, and what I can do, what I will do is, I have a pretty in&#x2d;depth website about high school advisory, and I&#x27;ll share that with you, and that can be disseminated as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2828400" class="thewords">That&#x27;d be great. Are there any burning questions that folks want to ask of Beth right now&#x3f; Commissioner Dodson.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="2835000" class="thewords">I was wondering about, how does &#x2014; it seems like it would lend itself &#x2014; how does it lend itself to family engagement&#x3f; Do you find that it enhances, and do we have data to show that it helps us to connect better with families by virtue of the small proportions and whatnot&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Brody</span><span><a data-m="2848700" class="thewords">Well, the smaller proportions, but also, I know in the advisory program that I coordinated down at Twin Valley, it was actually the advisor&#x27;s responsibility twice a year to contact the parents. And you know, I can tell you for sure that parents were pleased that they knew who to contact. And it&#x2019;s not &#x2014; when I say &#x22;point person,&#x22; it is not just the point person for the parent&#x3b; it is also a point person for teachers.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2880100" class="thewords">I had to contact one of my students&#x27; advisees the other day because I was like, &#x22;What&#x2019;s going on here&#x3f;&#x22; and he and I talked about his advisee at Edmonds. And we&#x27;re developing a little plan for him to sort of encourage him to move forward in my class. So it&#x2019;s a point person for the parents, but it&#x2019;s also a point person for the faculty. So you really get that benefit of having somebody who really knows the student.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2907600" class="thewords">But yeah, it absolutely improves parent&#x2d;student connection, or parent&#x2d;teacher connection, sorry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2916400" class="thewords">Commissioner Giannoni.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Giannoni</span><span><a data-m="2918400" class="thewords">Do you have a sense of how teachers feel about this&#x3f; And if you do, do you know of how this has affected teacher contracts&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Brody</span><span><a data-m="2928600" class="thewords">So I will tell you that there are three major roadblocks to effective advisories, and one of them is that it is often not considered part of the contract, and often considered above and beyond. And I guess what I would suggest is that we need to really look at advisory as not being something that is added on to the day. We really need to look at how we do things differently.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2956600" class="thewords">One example is that when I have students in an advisory... When I have a student and I know their advisor, I don&#x27;t have to go to all that student&#x27;s different teachers. I can say to them, &#x22;Wow,&#x22; I can say to the advisor, &#x22;How&#x27;s this kid doing&#x3f;&#x22; and they know the student well enough so that they can give me information. So it&#x2019;s actually saved me time by knowing I can go to one person. I can go to that point person and find out &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Giannoni</span><span><a data-m="2985900" class="thewords">But how do the teachers...&#x3f; Do the teachers accept it at the other schools, or are they resistant to it because it&#x2019;s not something they&#x27;re accustomed to or...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Brody</span><span><a data-m="2993900" class="thewords">So the second roadblock is &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Giannoni</span><span><a data-m="2995800" class="thewords">Oh, I&#x27;m sorry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Brody</span><span><a data-m="2996900" class="thewords">That&#x27;s okay. The second roadblock is &#x2014; it&#x2019;s actually a great point there &#x2014; the second roadblock is training and support. People need to know that they&#x27;re supported in this. And one of the recommendations from Ellen Berrings, who was a Rowland Foundation Fellow this past year, who studied advisory and went to a number of different schools, both in Vermont and in New England &#x2014; one of the things they all came out with is you have to have somebody where part of their job is to coordinate the advisory, so it gives that support to the teachers.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3033800" class="thewords">And to also really focus in on professional development that is gonna give them the tools that they need to have to be effective advisors. And the third roadblock is not having materials, and that once again, having an effective advisory coordinator or co&#x2d;coordinators, that can give that support is just a critical piece of it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3057300" class="thewords">You cannot just throw kids into a room and an advisor into the room and say, &#x22;Do it.&#x22; It&#x2019;s got to be thoughtfully considered, planned, and executed. Perfect question. And I will say that John Painter from South Burlington is sending out a more in&#x2d;depth survey right now to all the schools in Vermont, asking &#x2014; and one of his questions is how advisory is covered in their contract. And as soon as we get that data, he and I will be disseminating that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3094600" class="thewords">Last question, Commissioner Stoll.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="3096100" class="thewords">Do you have an idea, or is there one model school in Vermont that does a particularly good job of advisory&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Brody</span><span><a data-m="3103200" class="thewords">One model school that I think really does a great job of... We&#x27;re all kind of in that continuum, but one school that I would &#x2014; there&#x27;s actually two schools that I would really look at. One is in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, who combines advisory with student&#x2d;led conferences, and personalized learning plans, and proficiency&#x2d;based learning. And those kids, we went down and we interviewed them a year ago, and it was so interesting to see, first of all, how they loved their advisory, but also how, when they discussed their learning, they were able to tell you what proficiencies they needed to recover, and how they needed to do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3145200" class="thewords">And we&#x27;d ask them, we&#x27;d say, &#x22;Gee, where do you find that information&#x3f; How have you thought about that information&#x3f;&#x22; They said, &#x22;We do it all with our advisor.&#x22; So I would suggest that they&#x27;re well ahead of the curve. Casco Bay in Portland, Maine is also well ahead of the curve, but there are an awful lot of schools that are really moving on this continuum. And Vergennes is really making a lot of progress with theirs as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3174100" class="thewords">And if I may just jump in with the last two things that you said there &#x2014; Pittsfield is one of the sites for Partnership For Change, and Portland Public Schools is another one. If you go to the Nellie Mae Foundation website, there&#x27;s actually a great video up there of a student&#x2d;led conference that grows out of the advisory. It&#x2019;s about nine minutes long, and it&#x2019;s a really fun video to look at the type of conversations that come out of there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3197800" class="thewords">Thank you very much for your time.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Brody</span><span><a data-m="3198700" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3203500" class="thewords">So, real quickly, additionally, the next thing on our board report is a note from the city regarding the suspension of the Cost Control Committee. Commissioner Mason has temporarily &#x2014; of course it&#x2019;s temporarily &#x2014; has suspended or postponed the Cost Control Committee as we go through figuring out some of our leadership in making sure that we&#x27;re fully staffed. It&#x2019;s not a canceling of it, but it&#x2019;s a postponement until we have more capacity to engage in that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3242700" class="thewords">And I do want to just point out that a couple of the recommendations from &#x5b;Ed Gomo&#x5d;&#x27;s report really are in line with working with that Cost Control Committee going forward. One thing that he mentioned was looking for joint deficiencies between the city and the school district. He mentioned human resources and payroll as particular places that we may be able to find that &#x2014; and that would certainly be in line with the work of the Cost Control Committee.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3268300" class="thewords">The second thing that came out of Ed&#x27;s report was a coordinated capital plan, and that would also be in line with the work of that committee once it gets reconstituted. At this point I&#x27;m going to ask for a motion to consider an executive session to discuss a personnel issue where premature disclosure could place the school district at a substantial disadvantage.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3300900" class="thewords">Commissioner Kirk, seconded by... Commissioner Giannoni. All in favor of moving to executive session, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="3309000" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3310000" class="thewords">Opposed&#x3f; Thank you, Alan. &#x5b;break&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3314900" class="thewords">All right. Thank you, everybody, for your patience. I&#x27;ve got a couple of things that we need to move on here.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3329900" class="thewords">I believe we have a motion from Commissioner Porter&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="3335200" class="thewords">You do. I&#x27;d like to make a motion to hire Howard Smith as our Interim Superintendent.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3340800" class="thewords">Do we have a second for the motion&#x3f; I&#x27;m gonna give it to Commissioner Seguino because she&#x2019;s done a lot of work on this. Before we have a discussion on this and introduction of Howard Smith, I need to, as board chair, 16 days ago we gave Mark, Stephanie, Commissioners Porter, Seguino and Dodson the task of running an interim superintendent search on an incredibly tight schedule.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3372400" class="thewords">We asked for them to get it back to us, information back to us and make a decision so we could do it by, you know, yesterday, today. And in that amount of time, the hours of work that they put in are remarkable. The number of phone calls, the number of meetings. And they had a great time doing it too. Every time I talked to &#x27;em, they were laughing and having fun, and they really worked very very hard to arrive at a very strong, unanimous recommendation.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3406000" class="thewords">But you made the motion, Commissioner Porter. Yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3408500" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3412900" class="thewords">Would like you to introduce us to Mr. Smith&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="3417500" class="thewords">Certainly. Dr. Smith is a recently retired superintendent out of Tarrytown, New York, the Schools of the Tarrytowns is the union down there. He retired in June. He was there for I think a total of 12 or 13 &#x2014; he has a total of 24 years of superintendency experience, between Tarrytown, New York and Canton, New York, and he was also a principal in Williamstown, Massachusetts.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3447200" class="thewords">Very well&#x2d;published, a good researcher, solid. As you can tell, I passed out a number of r&#x00e9;sum&#x00e9;s around here &#x2014; if anybody else needs &#x27;em, please let me know. He really rose to the top. It was a pleasure talking to him. He meets many of the things that &#x2014; he&#x27;s gone through many of the things that we&#x27;re facing now. And Kyle, do you want to expand on that&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="3469800" class="thewords">Sure. It was a wonderful process, and just for the public, we want to thank the board and the public&#x27;s trust in that process. We had a great opportunity to meet a lot of people, and Howard really rose to the top. What was clear was in the interviewing with him, his ability to be concrete and specific about things that he&#x27;s done over his career that demonstrate his deep respect for and support of teachers, having ongoing professional development to sharpen and hone their skills of developing collaborative processes for decision&#x2d;making, of making difficult decisions when budgets require it&#x3b;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3519300" class="thewords">Of dealing with a rapidly diversifying community and developing the communication tools and the family engagement tools to allow everyone to be a part of the conversation about what happens for children. He&#x27;s got a steady hand. His temperament is very accessible and even&#x2d;keeled, which I think will serve us very well. And I&#x27;m just incredibly excited that we were able to end up where we ended up.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3551100" class="thewords">Commissioner Seguino&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="3552300" class="thewords">So we were focused on a number of qualities, but most importantly, I think that the motto we had was that kids can&#x27;t wait. And that we didn&#x2019;t want there to be a lull in the progress of improving outcomes for kids. And Howard Smith really has demonstrated achievement in this area. He&#x27;s seasoned in terms of difficult budgets. And so all in all, we felt that those goals were really met by this particular candidate.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3581900" class="thewords">I&#x27;m just gonna describe the process a little. There was a comment during public comment that, a question about this, and hopefully this will answer some of the questions: So we started, how many days ago was it, Patrick&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3594900" class="thewords">It was 16 days ago that we met here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="3596700" class="thewords">Oh my God. So we solicited nominations, we posted a job advertisement on School Spring and district&#x2d;wide. We reached far and wide for recommendations. We were in touch virtually on a daily basis with the Agency of Education. We consulted heavily with Steve Dale from the Vermont School Board Association.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3620900" class="thewords">We&#x27;re incredibly grateful for the time he gave us, and for Jeff Francis from the Vermont Superintendents Association. We received about 40 nominations or self&#x2d;nominations. About 60&#x25; of those were from Vermont. 40&#x25; out of state. And we contacted every name we got as a nomination. We invited people to apply to talk to them about the job. And a number of people didn&#x2019;t have the qualifications.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3655400" class="thewords">Either they didn&#x2019;t have superintendent experience or equivalent experience, didn&#x2019;t &#x2014; there are a variety of things that they simply just didn&#x2019;t move forward in our evaluation. But we did ultimately interview ten candidates. Very high&#x2d;quality candidates. We were blown away by the quality of the pool. And I want to just reiterate a comment that was made in one of our discussions, and that is that we all know that we have a gem in Burlington.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3683100" class="thewords">And the caliber of the candidates that we attracted, in particular of Howard Smith, really is an affirmation of the respect and interest and value that people place on Burlington and the Burlington School District. So we were incredibly pleased with that. So as I said, we interviewed these ten people by Skype or in person in Burlington. We were unanimous at every step of the way in terms of our evaluation.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3710600" class="thewords">There are a number of people we talked to that have been highly recommended, we thought a great deal of, but they made a decision to withdraw. They didn&#x2019;t think that this was the right time or the right position for them. So I want to reiterate what Mark had intimated, which is that we were not looking for a caretaker. We really want the district to move forward at every level in terms of dealing with the challenging climate for a number of different reasons, but also the budget, and also simply the ability of an academic leader to really inspire the district.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3740100" class="thewords">And I really look forward to us working with him, and there you have it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3749700" class="thewords">Any discussion&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3752800" class="thewords">All in favor of the proposal, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="3754700" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3756300" class="thewords">All opposed&#x3f; We have a new interim superintendent, Howard Smith. And so a couple of...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3763900" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3767300" class="thewords">I want to just make a couple of kind of housekeeping comments regarding this. First of all, Dr. Smith&#x27;s on a long&#x2d;planned family vacation right now, and he has been incredibly accessible. This is something that I think 24 years in the superintendency allows him to take a vacation with his wife, I believe.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3789900" class="thewords">He will be returning from his vacation in about a week. His first day in Burlington is going to be on the 24th &#x2014; the short week before Thanksgiving. He&#x27;s going to be spending that Monday and Tuesday talking with administrators, talking with the folks in central office, talking with teachers, getting to know the other folks in the community. We&#x27;ll be having a press conference on one of those two days as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3822600" class="thewords">A couple other things: It&#x2019;s not random &#x2014; well, he&#x27;s not someone that&#x27;s out just looking for interim jobs. He has a very real reason to be in Burlington. In fact, he already is in Burlington &#x2014; not physically right now, &#x27;cause he&#x27;s on vacation &#x2014; in that he has an adult child and grandchildren who have relocated or who live in Burlington. So for him, this is a fantastic opportunity. He&#x27;s interested in this job as an interim, he is not interested in this job as a permanent superintendent.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3856600" class="thewords">And my understanding is he, in advance of any discussion around this, already had a condominium that he&#x27;s purchased here in Burlington. So he&#x27;s already a Burlington resident, at least part of the year. And so this is something that, for him, is the confluence of many wonderful things, and I think for us as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3880300" class="thewords">One final thing on this note: Conversations with Stephanie Philips &#x2014; she has agreed to stay on in an acting superintendency role as needed, so we still have someone who&#x27;s monitoring the daily ins and outs that a superintendent position needs to be. And she&#x27;ll be working with our other interim superintendent team to make sure those responsibilities continue to be met until the 24th.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3914200" class="thewords">&#x5b;clears throat&#x5d; All right. Commissioner Seguino, I believe you have a motion to make.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="3920000" class="thewords">I do. So, the motion is to approve a compensation package of &#x24;400 per week per person for the interim leadership team, excluding vacation days, retroactive to July 1st, 2014, and to continue until the installation of the new interim superintendent.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3941500" class="thewords">Do we have a second for the motion&#x3f; Seconded, Commissioner Cina. Would you care to speak to it, Commissioner Seguino&#x3f; Excuse me.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="3950800" class="thewords">This is really to make explicit what&#x2019;s been an implicit contract with the interim superintendent team. Had we &#x2014; our plan, and we were required to hire an interim superintendent as of July 1st. And so this is really in recognition of the work that&#x27;s been done by the interim team since that time, and until the new superintendent arrives.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3976800" class="thewords">Commissioner Cina, you seconded. Did you care to make any additional comment&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="3981300" class="thewords">I just want to thank the interim team for the work that they&#x27;ve done.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3986600" class="thewords">Any further discussion&#x3f; Hearing none, all in favor of the &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="3994600" class="thewords">Did I have a second&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3996100" class="thewords">It was, Commissioner Cina seconded.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4005600" class="thewords">All in favor of the...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="4008400" class="thewords">All in favor of the motion, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="4011400" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="4012800" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4015000" class="thewords">One opposed. All right. Excellent. And we will move forward. There&#x27;s nothing on the superintendent&#x27;s report. Paul, was there anything that needed to be added&#x3f; Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4031700" class="thewords">Approval of the consent agenda, the consent agenda is in front of you, it&#x2019;s a very very short consent agenda. It consists of one item. The motion, Commissioner Truman, seconded by...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="4044300" class="thewords">Curry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4045500" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry. Yeah, it is. Yeah, I&#x27;m sorry, you&#x27;re right.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4054900" class="thewords">All in favor of the consent agenda&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="4056700" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4057900" class="thewords">Any opposition&#x3f; All right. Now we&#x27;re moving. Ad Hoc Search Committee and &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="4065000" class="thewords">Hey, Liz&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="4065800" class="thewords">Yeah&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="4067400" class="thewords">This is the last significant voting item, is that correct&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="4072400" class="thewords">No. There&#x27;s a policy, second reading.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="4078800" class="thewords">Yeah. I think I&#x27;m gonna need to hang up. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; another motion comes on.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4087600" class="thewords">Can I suspend the rules to move to number 14 to allow us to have this vote while we still have Commissioner Matson with us&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="4095000" class="thewords">Okay. I would appreciate that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4097800" class="thewords">Commissioner Truman, you&#x27;re up.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="4099000" class="thewords">Okay, thank you. And thanks for that borderline vote of significance &#x2014; that&#x27;s significant, Commissioner Matson. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="4107100" class="thewords">&#x5b;laughs&#x5d; Sorry, Ben.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="4107900" class="thewords">That&#x27;s all right. What your Policy Committee is bringing to you is the second reading of the revision of Policy B10, committees of the board. We have already &#x2014; and if you, and I&#x27;m sure you have, already read the minutes of the committee, you can see &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4126000" class="thewords">Did you move this policy, Commissioner Truman&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="4127900" class="thewords">I would like to move second reading and final adoption. Well, wait. Before I do that, I&#x27;m not sure how the procedure... What I&#x27;m doing is moving second reading as passed for first reading with a further amendment by the Policy Committee. There we go.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4147400" class="thewords">Seconded by Commissioner Curry. Continue.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="4150500" class="thewords">So what this does is, initially it just reorganizes the scope of the policy committee to include, basically, responsibility for governance. No language was changed from what passed in first reading there. It&#x2019;ll be your governance policy and advocacy committee. What we found in discussions about that was, in the section following the detail of the committees, talks about the naming of committee chairs and members.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4182100" class="thewords">It said, &#x22;Board chairperson will name committee chairpersons and members annually, no later than seven days,&#x22; blah blah blah. And what we found was, because of it being phrased that way, it precluded the chair, or whomever, from naming any members at any point other than annually. So for example, Commissioner Porter joins the board after annual reorganization, technically could not have been appointed to a committee.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4210100" class="thewords">So what we&#x27;re proposing is simply taking out the word &#x22;annually&#x22; and writing in &#x22;and initially,&#x22; so it would read, &#x22;The board chairperson will name committee chairpersons and members, and initially no later than seven days following the board&#x27;s annual organization meeting.&#x22; And that gives, according to Attorney McNeill, the flexibility to be able to be appointed other times during the year, beyond just annually.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4236800" class="thewords">But it still maintains the requirement that annually, and no later than seven days following our annual organization meeting, the committees would be appointed. So that is the one additional change.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4248700" class="thewords">Any further discussion&#x3f; All in favor of the policy B10, committees of the board, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="4262300" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4263100" class="thewords">Opposed&#x3f; Hearing none. All right, passes. Thank you, Alan.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="4269200" class="thewords">Bye. Goodnight.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4272200" class="thewords">Anything further, Commissioner Truman, for the...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="4275600" class="thewords">That&#x27;s it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4276000" class="thewords">All right. Now we can go back up. Commissioner Cina, ad hoc superintendent search committee.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="4283200" class="thewords">So, first I&#x27;d like to remind everyone that next Monday night we&#x27;re having our community input sessions, and we currently have just a few of us who have committed to coming. So I&#x27;m hoping that most of us could come to at least one. There&#x27;ll be one for teachers and staff at BHS from 3:30 to 5:30pm, and then there&#x27;ll be two that are held simultaneously from 6:30 to 8:30pm, one at Sustainability Academy and one at Hunt.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4313300" class="thewords">So if people can get in touch with me outside of the meeting about your interest and availability, and I can make sure we coordinate so that we&#x27;re spread evenly between, that would be great. And also, our &#x5b;SAHC&#x5d; has asked me to ask if you all would &#x2014; or maybe Patrick, if you could put out on Front Porch Forum, the announcement. And then they&#x27;ll send it out but they thought board members should put it out first, since we&#x27;re the leaders.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4337600" class="thewords">So if, in the next few days, people could share, I&#x27;ll send a press release out tomorrow morning to you. If you could pass it on, send it out, and then we&#x27;ll be doing outreach, reach out to your networks, etc. So that was the first thing I wanted to make sure was on the radar screen. A few other quick things.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4354700" class="thewords">Tomorrow our posting will go up. So I&#x27;m going to send everyone a final copy to look at, but it&#x2019;s pretty much finalized, just so you&#x27;re in the loop. And &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4365700" class="thewords">Posting for the permanent position.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="4366900" class="thewords">Yes, I&#x27;m sorry. The posting for the permanent superintendent position will go out tomorrow. So I have a final draft. I&#x27;m going to give some final feedback to the search firm, Ray &#x26; Associates, tomorrow, and then they will get it out. With that being said, we&#x27;re going to launch into the advertising phase. And this is the first significant amount of money we&#x27;re going to be spending.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4390600" class="thewords">We had budgeted &#x24;5,000 for advertising, and Gary Ray&#x27;s initial request for advertising was &#x24;4,800 and... hold on, I&#x27;ll tell you exactly.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4400000" class="thewords">That&#x27;s all right.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="4402100" class="thewords">I&#x27;m obsessed. &#x24;4,809. So we still have &#x24;191 to spend on advertising. That&#x27;s covering what he says we absolutely must do. He&#x27;s also recommending an additional &#x24;2,114. I think the ad hoc can talk about do we need to do that or not&#x3f; It&#x2019;s extra advertising. But the basic advertising is &#x24;4,809. So that being said, that&#x27;s gonna be an expense that we&#x27;re gonna have to incur soon, so I wanted people to be aware of that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4442700" class="thewords">The next thing is &#x2014; so the posting, advertising &#x2014; just an update on the timeline: That the job posting will close on January 9th, and we will start video interviews, the SAHC will start its screening process January 12th.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4463200" class="thewords">Then there will be second rounds the week of the 19th of January. Final rounds the week of the 26th, first week of February.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="4469600" class="thewords">When you say January 12th, it&#x2019;s only video, or some will be&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="4472800" class="thewords">The first round is that the SAHC will view 10&#x2d;12 videos that the search firm generates, and then Ad Hoc will narrow down that pool to five or six. The next week the Ad Hoc will conduct video interviews that go back and forth, and then the last week of January, first week of February, is when we will bring candidates, the finalists, two to three finalists to Burlington to do interviews with the community, with the board, with the SAHC, with the teachers, and with students.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4505700" class="thewords">So I can give more info on that stuff later, but I just wanted you all to know the general timeline, where we&#x27;re at.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4512500" class="thewords">If I might, if people want to see a detailed timeline, it is up on the board docs for last night&#x27;s SAHC meeting. You can pull it up in detail there.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="4523800" class="thewords">And I&#x27;m gonna forward the board members a message, but if the public wants to know, that is where the public can find it. If you check our agendas for the last few SAHC meetings, a lot of these documents will be posted. And next week&#x27;s SAHC meeting, some of these documents will be posted for that meeting.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4544300" class="thewords">I think those are the main things I needed to cover. I&#x27;m just taking a moment to make sure there&#x27;s nothing... Does anyone have any questions for me&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4557500" class="thewords">Thank you, Commissioner Cina. ITC&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="4562400" class="thewords">Wow. I&#x27;m sorry, I&#x27;m not prepared. So, a couple things in our meeting, our last meeting, was, yes, somebody asked me, there was a leak in the Hunt roof. To the best of my knowledge, they are taking care of it, or it is being taken care of by the end of the holiday. I&#x27;m not exactly sure how that&#x27;s playing out.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4587200" class="thewords">My next meeting is next Tuesday night, and I was hoping to get an answer, final on that. I don&#x27;t know if Paul has any update on that leak, the floor at the gym, if there&#x27;s any issue.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="4596600" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s fixed.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Paul</span><span><a data-m="4596900" class="thewords">Harvest festival coming up.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="4600500" class="thewords">The floor...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Paul</span><span><a data-m="4600400" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t think they&#x27;re playing basketball on it quite yet, but they will be soon.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="4604100" class="thewords">Seems to be okay&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="4604600" class="thewords">I think they are.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="4605600" class="thewords">No big games, okay, good. Champlain Lighting for the PCBs is... There was only the library left. So that&#x27;s pretty much done.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4621900" class="thewords">Gotta read my notes, sorry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="4624900" class="thewords">Can I ask a question&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="4625600" class="thewords">Sure, go.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="4626500" class="thewords">It looks like you have a meeting scheduled this Thursday&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="4628800" class="thewords">Yeah, that&#x27;s part of what I... I do have a meeting posted for this Thursday. It&#x2019;s to meet with the Champlain Housing Land Trust to get a feel for what&#x2019;s going on with St. Joe&#x27;s School and how the Burlington School District, Champlain Housing Land Trust, and if we&#x27;re gonna pursue it, they&#x27;re gonna pursue it, or we&#x27;re gonna pursue it together. It&#x2019;s a conversation &#x2014; no action will be taken.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4656900" class="thewords">But it&#x2019;s a conversation so that next Tuesday we can actually discuss it in the ITC meeting. But it is an ITC meeting. We&#x27;re just trying to get a feel for &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; Champlain Housing Land Trust. They&#x27;ve contacted us and they&#x27;d like to know our thoughts. And to be honest, I don&#x27;t know what our thoughts are until we actually sit down and talk to &#x27;em, &#x27;cause I don&#x27;t know what theirs are.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4678400" class="thewords">And we&#x27;re working on a five&#x2d;year capital plan. And that&#x27;s really where the ITC&#x27;s at right now.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4687000" class="thewords">Thank you. Commissioner Cina, you thought of something &#x5b;additional&#x5d;. That&#x27;s fine.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="4689900" class="thewords">There&#x27;s two things that I wanted to say, and I, looking at the list, missed it: One was just that Nathan Lavery had prepared for me a little update on what we&#x27;ve spent so far&#x3b; it&#x2019;s not a lot, but I wanted to let you know that so far, on the search, we have spent &#x24;382.06. And that&#x27;s on food and supplies for meetings, and for our minute taker. So just to keep you in the loop, that&#x27;s how much we&#x27;ve spent so far. And I&#x27;m hoping that in our next meeting, I will give you a more detailed budget report that&#x27;ll reflect our payments that go to Ray &#x26; Associates and to the advertising.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4727100" class="thewords">The second thing is that in order to prepare for the interviewing process, we need to do a little training. So everyone in the district does, everyone who&#x27;s on hiring committee does anti&#x2d;bias training. So I&#x27;ll be in touch with you about ideas about how we might be able to do that training. I have a few, and we don&#x27;t need to get into it now. But you know, I have a few ideas about how we can do it in a way that might be flexible.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4754100" class="thewords">Another thing is I believe that we should have at least one meeting to prepare for interviews. So taking &#x2014; maybe it&#x2019;s an ad hoc meeting that everyone comes to, or a board meeting, a special meeting, where we spend two hours preparing for the interviews. Meaning, familiarizing ourselves with the questioning processes, and the measurement tools that are being used up to the stage of the full board, so that there&#x27;s some integration between all the work that&#x27;s being done before the full board makes its decision.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4781500" class="thewords">And so that could be in January, like right before we do it, but I just want to share that with you, that there&#x27;s two trainings that I would suggest that we do. One is the standard anti&#x2d;bias training, and one is a preparation for the interview process.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4798600" class="thewords">Commissioner Porter&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="4799200" class="thewords">I&#x27;m just curious if, by any chance, any of these trainings are available online or through electronic&#x3f; So that those that can&#x27;t make it, can still get the same training, and it&#x2019;s logged and official.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="4811300" class="thewords">Well, I&#x27;m unaware of that being an option. I know that one way of being flexible with the anti&#x2d;bias training is, I&#x27;ve been talking with Nicky Fuller about how, maybe instead of doing one for the board where everyone has to build into their schedule another training, that she might identify which district trainings we would be welcome to attend. And then you could choose one out of however many that are at different times of the day and different days of the week, so that &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="4835400" class="thewords">That would work out &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="4836100" class="thewords">For the anti&#x2d;bias piece. For the interview training piece, I feel strongly it would benefit us if we all sat down for an hour or two before we did the interviews, and as a group, did some work to prepare for that with our consultants. And that would mean Gary Ray and Bill &#x5b;Bryan&#x5d;. And I don&#x27;t think we could do that online. And I&#x27;m talking about one two&#x2d;hour meeting to prepare for interviewing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4855500" class="thewords">At the very least, to make sure we&#x27;re all on the same page in how we&#x27;re making this decision. And also in terms of public concern about the integrity of the process &#x2014; I think it adds integrity for people to know that we took the time, just a little bit of time, to make sure we&#x27;re on the same page going into the interviews &#x2014; in terms of compliance with law, with the process that was used up to that point in terms of candidate selection.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4880400" class="thewords">So that being said, I hear your concern. Hopefully, maybe the piece we can budge on is the anti&#x2d;bias. But I don&#x27;t know if there&#x27;s an electronic way to do the second piece, because there&#x27;s an element of group dynamic to it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4891600" class="thewords">Thank you. Commissioner Kirk, you had something quickly&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="4894400" class="thewords">Yeah. I forgot one other thing: There&#x27;s a new bargaining group with the ITC that we&#x27;re gonna have to contend with too, as well. I forgot to bring that up. That was it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4904600" class="thewords">Thank you. Diversity and Equity&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="4907600" class="thewords">We met last week, and the district brought forward a strategic diversity plan that they had brought the month before with some revisions. They were very responsive to the changes, some of the things that we asked them to address. It&#x2019;s online. We think it&#x2019;s an excellent plan. It has a timeline, it has measurable outcomes. I think it&#x2019;ll be useful for them to be able to track progress, and it&#x2019;ll help us as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4939500" class="thewords">We also had a diversity training on Sunday, and this is more for the public cameras than others. And I think it was great. I&#x27;m gonna ask if a board member could comment on it. I just want to say that a few board members were not there. I think it&#x2019;s impossible for everybody to be at all of these things. There are a variety of reasons that kept people from being able to be at this meeting.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4964500" class="thewords">I just look forward to us &#x2014; there will be another one. People identified what they thought the focus of the future one would be, and we&#x27;ll see just how many people we can get at the next training. But all in all, I thought it was great. And I don&#x27;t know if anybody here would like to just reflect on the training itself.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4983200" class="thewords">Commissioner Kleman&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="4984600" class="thewords">I thought it was fantastic. And to me, in the field I work in, a lot of it felt very natural and normal to me. But I&#x27;ve realized as I was going through it that I was perceiving things in a different way in terms of how can I bring things that I sort of do in my daily life into school board matters and into the superintendent search&#x3f; And how can I refocus sort of, how can I challenge myself to think differently of my own role as a commissioner&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5020100" class="thewords">It was really useful, and I thought it was fun, but that&#x27;s me. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; So...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5028500" class="thewords">Thank you. Anyone else who&#x27;d like to add a comment to that&#x3f; Commissioner Cina&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5032000" class="thewords">Yeah, I&#x27;ve been through a lot of cultural competency training in my career, and I thought this was an excellent example of cultural competency training. And I felt that our presenter, Sam, did a really good job of talking about a lot of very sensitive issues in a way that was non&#x2d;threatening and inclusive, and meeting people where they were at. And if this is the training that our staff is getting, then I think it&#x2019;s a great opportunity for professional development that we&#x27;re providing our staff.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5062900" class="thewords">So...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="5067300" class="thewords">I also heard from a staff member who&#x27;s been doing the training, and she loved it. She was really excited to go to day two after one full day.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5075700" class="thewords">And those trainings have been yesterday and today, for what, 50 staff members, roughly, I believe&#x3f; Yeah, Commissioner Shumski&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Shumski</span><span><a data-m="5083100" class="thewords">Just Stephanie, you mentioned another training. Do you have a date yet&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="5087200" class="thewords">No, but I was thinking like later in the spring.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Shumski</span><span><a data-m="5091400" class="thewords">Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5093800" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="5095500" class="thewords">Kyle was first.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="5097000" class="thewords">Yeah. Just so, going on, I also, Kat, had heard very many good things from staff. So I asked Sam &#x2014; I guess this is the fifth cohort of Burlington staff and teachers who&#x27;ve gone through, and I&#x27;ve heard a lot of good feedback. I thought he was just an incredibly skilled facilitator, he knew his stuff. It&#x2019;s really hard &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5116300" class="thewords">One thing he did a very good job of, I thought, was made the training about all of us. It&#x2019;s easy in a training like that for it to be about the trainer or their dynamic with us. He got himself out of the way, I thought, and really gave us things to consider, and I thought really framed it. The work is about each individual. How you respond when things go down.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5137400" class="thewords">I love the fact that it&#x2019;s not about me until I&#x27;m triggered by it, then it&#x2019;s about me. And I think that that&#x27;s really powerful. So two big thumbs up, you did a really nice job.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5148300" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="5149000" class="thewords">I just want to mention that the minutes are online, and that we&#x27;re gonna get a PowerPoint &#x2014; as I understand it, the slides that he showed. And those will be... I don&#x27;t mean online, I mean on Board Docs. And to also say that I really enjoyed the training. I thought that what I got out of it was how easy it is for us to focus on our differences rather than to focus on our similarities. And how we can get beyond that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5181500" class="thewords">Kyle, Curriculum Committee&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="5183300" class="thewords">Curriculum Committee. So at our last meeting we finally had the beginning of some data showing spring 2014 &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; data versus fall 2014 &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; data, as we continue to try to hone in on what&#x2019;s really happening in the district as it relates to this framework or assessment tool for measuring elementary school kids&#x27; literacy, is widely respected. It&#x2019;s a gold standard.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5217800" class="thewords">And so you can look at it and there are guidelines for where a young person should be if they&#x27;re on grade level. And so we&#x27;re using that versus where students actually are to identify discrepancies, gaps, if you will. And then we&#x27;re gonna dig a little closer and see what we&#x27;re doing when we see that. A, do we have that data&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5237400" class="thewords">When we see that, do we respond&#x3f; Are there interventions&#x3f; How are those interventions playing in&#x3f; The particulars of spring versus fall &#x2014; is there learning loss over the summer&#x3f; That&#x27;s a national phenomenon, that students have something, learning that goes on in the spring, and then depending on what sort of activities they&#x27;re exposed to over the summer, they&#x27;re able to retain it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5261500" class="thewords">Some, relatively few, grow. Many lose, in terms of where they were in the spring. So we&#x27;re trying that look really closely at that. Once again, this is all about that trying to hone in on third grade literacy outcomes, because there&#x27;s a lot of correlations, a lot of things that research shows us about not good things happening to students who do not achieve that reading proficiency.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5288700" class="thewords">The somewhat glib mantra is K&#x2d;3, learn to read&#x3b; 3&#x2d;beyond, read to learn. Meaning, so much of the curriculum is predicated on that ability to work with text to help you understand what you need to do in Soc Studies, Science, Mathematics, etc. We&#x27;re going to continue conversations. The United Way has a push that&#x27;s also &#x2014; there&#x27;s a big push around early childhood, the city, the state.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5312600" class="thewords">So we&#x27;re trying to loop into that, because that very much connects with the work we&#x27;re trying to do. Make as many alliances as we can. And lastly, we&#x27;re beginning conversations within the board, as are various sub&#x2d;committees, all of whom do work in areas that either impact or would be impacted by budget, to start talking about how our individual committee work plays into our discussions about the budget that we&#x27;re preparing.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5341200" class="thewords">Any questions for Commissioner Dodson or the Curriculum Committee&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="5345300" class="thewords">I&#x27;m just curious about the standards and meeting the standards. Is that information broken down by school as well&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="5352400" class="thewords">It is.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="5353300" class="thewords">And we can get, we can see that somewhere&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="5355100" class="thewords">Yeah, there is. We&#x27;ll make that available. It should be. I asked it to be put on Board Docs, but we&#x27;ll get it up there, because it doesn&#x2019;t identify individual students. So just one quick interesting thing: So what we see is, so we used what the data tells us in letters, the letter. Many of you have kids. It&#x27;d be, &#x22;My kid&#x27;s reading at M, they&#x27;re reading at a J.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5377400" class="thewords">And we moved that to a proficiency &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;, kind of more into the kind of standardized test numbers, what that says. And if we look at what&#x2019;s happening at the higher level, there&#x27;s less change. So at the end of the year the students who test at a high level, the numbers are the same, but the students that test in the middle, there seems to be a switch from...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5404900" class="thewords">So threes, which is at the &#x22;proficient&#x22;, decrease. And there&#x27;s more twos and ones. Fours stay pretty consistent. Now, we don&#x27;t know what happens with cohorts. We don&#x27;t know if all those fours are the same fours, we gotta look more closely. But if you look at it quickly. And that would, intuitively, probably, I bet we would find that a disproportionate number of fours are kids who have privileged experiences, they&#x27;re going to museums, they have books everywhere.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5428900" class="thewords">They&#x27;re having these conversations. And more things happening in the summer that would help them maintain. And some of the others who don&#x27;t maybe have that access. But that&#x27;s a hypothesis, but we&#x27;d have to look closer to understand that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="5440700" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="5446200" class="thewords">A separate conversation, maybe somewhat connected, is, we&#x27;ve been having a conversation about the issue of class rank at the high school. So what Burlington does is we do not have weighted class rank. Scott, maybe you can help me. We&#x27;re not alone in that. There are many other communities that, the same thing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5466100" class="thewords">And what that would mean is that if Kevin and I are taking a curriculum, Kevin has AP, I have the regular class, he gets a B, I get a A&#x2b;, my A&#x2b; counts for more in class rank, because there&#x27;s no weighting to say that he had a more rigorous course schedule, and therefore that B should get some weight that helps him be apples to apples with me.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5487500" class="thewords">And a concern by a parent that that impacts, perhaps negatively, students, particularly with the most selective schools, because class rank is a metric that the most selective schools look at. So we&#x27;re deep in a conversation &#x2014; that conversation has moved. The high school principal, Amy Mellencamp, has been meeting with this parent and doing some work to help that parent and others, who might ask, understand how we got to where we are, what the understanding is about how that plays out, how our students actually do in terms of their admission to highly selective colleges, etc.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5518500" class="thewords">So that&#x27;s an ongoing conversation.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="5522300" class="thewords">I would think also that colleges would recognize the different schools that rank differently, and kind of weight that. Is that &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="5529500" class="thewords">That&#x27;s... The argument would be a much more holistic, that colleges get this, and that at the end of the day they see through. There&#x27;s so many different ways you put yourself in front of a college &#x2014; that&#x27;s the argument. So there&#x27;s ongoing, and providing data to substantiate why the high school is arriving where it is, and why the high school doesn&#x2019;t believe it disadvantages students who take that more &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Shumski</span><span><a data-m="5552000" class="thewords">And if I may, Kat, the reason why the parent brought it up is &#x27;cause, I assume her student, her son is looking towards the Princeton and the Yale. And one of the things that she talked about is that she had some stats &#x2014; it&#x2019;s not exact &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;, like 90&#x25; of the incoming class was in the top five percent. So what happens is, to this parent &#x2014; and again, this parent was extremely careful not to say...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5576500" class="thewords">They like Burlington&#x27;s inclusionary system, and it&#x2019;s not trying to get away from that, but just trying to reconcile that with something that says, some of these institutions put... As much as we don&#x27;t want them to put a tremendous amount of weight &#x2014; and many schools have... Amy Mellencamp came to our committee meeting. She not only met with the parents, she met with us, she told us about what a lot of colleges are doing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5595500" class="thewords">But the reality is there&#x27;s some colleges out there, like the Princetons, who have not moved away from it. So how does that impact our highest achievers in terms of trying to get into those schools&#x3f; That&#x27;s what we&#x27;re looking at.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="5608000" class="thewords">Okay, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5610700" class="thewords">Commissioner Stoll, Finance.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5612700" class="thewords">So I invite people to read the minutes if you want details, but many people were at the last finance meeting. The thing that sort of came through most importantly is that we got a estimate from the administration about what it would be to maintain our current program and staffing levels into next year. So we&#x27;re talking about the fiscal &#x27;16 budget.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5636900" class="thewords">And if we maintain everything at exactly the same rate, it looks like it would be about a 4.4&#x25; increase in the budget, which I think equates to &#x24;2.9 million. I&#x27;m pulling that out. So the finance committee then requested that the administration go back and bring us back a couple of different scenarios. And so they are working on those.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5659500" class="thewords">And one scenario would be to maintain a level budget, all right&#x3f; So require some changes in programming, but maintain a level budget. And the other scenario would be to maintain a level budget minus the expected reduction in pilot funds that we&#x27;re getting. So it&#x2019;s slightly below.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5677900" class="thewords">So there&#x27;s no decision&#x2d;making here&#x3b; we&#x27;re just getting information, and we&#x27;re looking forward to having that come back so that we can see what those scenarios look like. Yes&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Shumski</span><span><a data-m="5688800" class="thewords">And there was one other option, which is based on Ed Gomo&#x27;s report, is that we also, as the finance department, come up with a number that would be a zero percent tax increase. So not having to do with the budget, but having to do with the tax implications, based on where the statewide education funding system is. Until Montpelier makes a decision next spring, we won&#x27;t know for sure, but we can kinda guess.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5711700" class="thewords">And one of Ed Gomo&#x27;s recommendations was, &#x22;You should do a zero percent tax increase for your base.&#x22; So we want to know what does that number look like&#x3f; To be a zero percent increase, what dollar figure do we have to get at&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5723600" class="thewords">Did you want to &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5724800" class="thewords">I did have a question, Miriam. The amount that you said, the first amount with four percent increase, was that including the 1.4&#x25; decrease that we&#x27;re gonna get in pilot funds&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5737700" class="thewords">No.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5738400" class="thewords">So we&#x27;re really looking at a &#x24;3.5 million increase&#x3f; Because we&#x27;re gonna lose that &#x24;1.5 million &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5744000" class="thewords">Right, yes. If you maintain level.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5746900" class="thewords">Yes, okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5747500" class="thewords">That was just a starting point. That was just &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5749100" class="thewords">No, that&#x27;s my only question. I just want to be clear about that loss of that &#x24;1.4 million from the city.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5754600" class="thewords">So the next step in the budget process is that, what we&#x27;re going to be doing in a few minutes tonight, which is to be giving the administration some direction and finalization of our goals for the budget, and then they will be coming back with their estimates, which they will come up with based on looking at our different goals and criteria.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5773800" class="thewords">So they&#x27;re going to be working hard the next 12 days to get that to happen. We met today, and they will try and get that information to us just about a week prior to our finance committee meeting. So I&#x27;d encourage everybody to read that when it&#x2019;s on Board Docs, and to come to the meeting. That would be great.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5791700" class="thewords">And also at the meeting will be...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5794600" class="thewords">Yeah, I&#x27;m getting there.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5795700" class="thewords">Oh, I&#x27;m sorry, I thought you were wrapping up.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5798100" class="thewords">No. And then two more things. One of them is Ed Gomo&#x27;s report did come out. And so it&#x2019;s online, and I&#x27;d encourage everyone who hasn&#x2019;t had a chance to read it, to please look at it. The administration has it, they&#x27;re looking at it. And I am encouraging all of us to also look at it, and what I&#x27;m hoping to do is to set up sort of a workshop. Ed Gomo has said he would come. So any board members who would like to come and talk with Ed Gomo about it &#x2014; administrators too are invited.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5828100" class="thewords">And then that would probably be after our next finance committee meeting. So I&#x27;ll invite everyone to that and hope you can come. Again, it would be not decision&#x2d;making, just a working session so that we can all understand his recommendations a little bit more. And then the final thing is the audit report. So the fiscal &#x27;14 audit report is coming in. And we&#x27;re gonna get a presentation at the next finance committee meeting. So I&#x27;d encourage everyone to come, and it will also be on Board Docs about a week before the meeting.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5856800" class="thewords">Will it be on Board Docs or in hard copy&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Male Voice</span><span><a data-m="5860600" class="thewords">We&#x27;ll certainly post it on Board Docs.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5863400" class="thewords">But we can probably get hard copies too. Okay. Great. So I think that&#x27;s the wrap&#x2d;up. Anyone have any questions about finance&#x3f; Yes&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5873000" class="thewords">Just two. When is the date of the meeting again&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5875900" class="thewords">Two weeks from today.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5876700" class="thewords">Yeah, the fourth Tuesday.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5878200" class="thewords">I can&#x27;t do math... 25th&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5879900" class="thewords">25th.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5880300" class="thewords">Okay, and it&#x2019;s at seven&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5881700" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s at seven.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5883000" class="thewords">And then another question which maybe we shouldn&#x2019;t get into here is &#x2014; but it&#x2019;s a question I have, so I&#x27;ll put it out there, and you can always say, &#x22;Let&#x27;s talk about that at finance or outside of the meeting.&#x22; Is there a reason why we&#x27;re approaching the budget &#x2014; like you mentioned that Ed Gomo suggested this thing about the numbers. I&#x27;m not gonna try to repeat it exactly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5903100" class="thewords">But what I&#x27;m wondering is, is there a reason why we&#x27;re going that way versus building the budget up from the bottom&#x3f; Because my understanding is the direction the board had been going in, or that boards have been going in, is this idea of, you identify the priorities, and then you have the staff build a budget that&#x27;s student&#x2d;centered.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5921800" class="thewords">And it sounds like the way we&#x27;re doing it, instead of being &#x5b;strains&#x5d;&#x2d;based and building it up around our goals, we&#x27;re kind of saying you have to keep it under this number based on what you used to have. So it creates this system where we&#x27;re looking at what exists and we&#x27;re trimming it down, versus building something.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5939700" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s a philosophical thing, and I just wonder if that&#x27;s something we&#x27;re going to talk about more, or if there&#x27;s a reason why we&#x27;re not doing it that way.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="5946600" class="thewords">You know, the finance committee has been talking about this approach for some time. It&#x2019;s been difficult to set up a formal budget creation process, because of all the different things that have been happening this summer. And so what Ed Gomo has suggested to us &#x2014; and I think what the majority of the Finance Committee believes &#x2014; and I don&#x27;t know if this is speaking for everyone &#x2014; is that we are really in something of a transition year, and we&#x27;re in a year where our primary goal, what we&#x27;ve committed to the community, is that we&#x27;re going to try and come in on budget this year, and that we&#x27;re going to use this year to sort of understand more thoroughly so that we can move to the approach that you&#x27;re talking about.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5991100" class="thewords">I think that the sense is that at this point we just simply cannot build it from the bottom up. But our hope is that through this process, we&#x27;re going to be moving to that. Now, that said, we&#x27;re asking the administration to come back with a budget, and they can choose the way that they are going to formulate this budget. And I don&#x27;t know what practice they will use to do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6012800" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s very possible that they could build a budget from the bottom up and bring that to us. So the way it&#x2019;s done, we&#x27;re, at this point, the administration has control of that. But I think really, we were really looking at this as an interim year, and we&#x27;re gonna do the best we can. And unfortunately, I don&#x27;t think this year we can build from the bottom up to the extent that we will be able to next year.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6033600" class="thewords">So that&#x27;s my answer for that. So it&#x2019;s certainly a good goal&#x3b; I don&#x27;t think we&#x27;re quite there yet.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6043800" class="thewords">Actually, your question is a logical flow into the last part of this meeting, in that way back in June, I believe, upstairs, second floor of Burlington College, put together board goals. And those board goals are kind of a value statement that we have. And those board goals are really meant to reflect the large priorities that we as a board seek to guide the education.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6076100" class="thewords">And we had a very very limited number of goals around fiscal responsibility, around resolving the leadership questions that we had, and then around greater communication of what we&#x27;re trying to do. Additionally, each committee created their own goals. And the idea, then, is that these goals that each committee created, and then the larger board goals, provide the skeleton by which the administration builds a budget, to say if you...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6113400" class="thewords">A very simplistic version that I like to use to try to communicate this is, when you have a school like IAA that has defined its goal as integrating the arts right from the title, if you have a limited amount of funds and you want to have a drama teacher and you want to have a Spanish teacher, you choose the drama teacher because you have this goal of integrating the arts. It&#x2019;s not that the Spanish teacher&#x27;s not of value&#x3b; it&#x2019;s just that we have decided this as a school, in the IAA example, that we&#x27;re going to use to drive our budget decisions.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6144700" class="thewords">Likewise, scaling it up to the district as a whole, that these goals should be, when the administration&#x27;s trying to decide between competing priorities, would be to look back at the goals that we&#x27;ve outlined in order to figure out what the best direction to go. I would like to complicate this just a little bit, and I&#x27;m unfortunately not prepared to pull this out right here tonight.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6177000" class="thewords">But I also think that it&#x2019;s worthwhile &#x2014; and I think I have an electronic version of it, so... The district, or the Partnership For Chance has been involved in some very very good work as part of their &#x2014; help me, it&#x2019;s getting too late at night &#x2014; I want to say Theory of Change. It&#x2019;s not the Theory of Change. Logic model. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6206200" class="thewords">Their logic model. And in the logic model, if you can imagine, on the far right end is the outcomes that they&#x27;re trying to see. And that logic model I think really meshes very nicely with what we&#x27;re trying to do here. And it&#x2019;s a larger purpose around student&#x2d;centered learning. It reflects Act 77 that we heard Beth Brody talk about earlier this evening, and it absolutely fits in with what Kyle was talking about by literate by third grade.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6237200" class="thewords">It fits in with the goals of, certainly of the Diversity and Equity Committee, and the like. And so I think that should be an additional piece of information to guide the budget development. And ultimately, a budget is a statement of values. And we&#x27;ve kind of created this framework, and it&#x2019;s up to the district, then, to kind of create a budget that &#x2014; the administration to create a budget that reflects these values that we&#x27;ve laid out.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6273500" class="thewords">So, you know, I guess, return to see if there&#x27;s any particular guidance in terms of these board goals that members of the board would like to add to help in the creation of our budget.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6299300" class="thewords">Yeah, I&#x27;m giving &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="6300400" class="thewords">Are you offering an avenue for people to submit these comments outside of this meeting&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6305400" class="thewords">So this is... Exactly. So there are two things. One, I was using my teacher wait time. I wasn&#x27;t gonna call on anyone for a little bit, because I know that&#x27;s a lot to throw on people, especially at 10:30 at night. And it also may be not the right forum for doing this. You may need some quiet, non&#x2d;industrial lights above you to really reflect, to make sure that the board goals that your committees, and that the board as a whole, really still reflect your thinking, and time for thinking about them further.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6343700" class="thewords">So if anyone wants to make a comment right now regarding those goals, I welcome those. If anyone would just rather have some time to think about it, knowing that the budget is going to be a reflection of those goals, so if you don&#x27;t have a comment on those goals, then you&#x27;ve kind of lost your right to complain about the budget, you know&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6371000" class="thewords">Yeah, Miriam, Commissioner Stoll&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="6372500" class="thewords">So the document that Liz send out to us on Board Docs is the document that you&#x27;re talking about&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6380400" class="thewords">That is the document that we created in here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="6383000" class="thewords">Okay. And so that&#x27;s the document that we would hand over to the administration as the key to their work, their next step in creation of the budget.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6390900" class="thewords">Exactly.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="6393300" class="thewords">So, you know, I think that we should &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="6396500" class="thewords">I&#x27;m sorry. I don&#x27;t think that&#x27;s true. I think, Liz, what you just sent us was just what we did last week.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6404000" class="thewords">The minutes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="6404600" class="thewords">Right.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6405400" class="thewords">Oh, oh.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="6406200" class="thewords">That&#x27;s not, that wasn&#x27;t... That was the board goals for the budget, and as much as it reflected the committee goals that we had chosen back in June. So I just want to make sure that it&#x2019;s &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="6417100" class="thewords">So where are those&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6418900" class="thewords">I can send them to everybody &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="6420700" class="thewords">But was that...&#x3f; There was something that was on a Google Doc that you, a couple &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6425900" class="thewords">Right. That&#x27;s &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6425900" class="thewords">That was the minutes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6427300" class="thewords">Well, there&#x27;s also a Google Doc that came, I think it originated with me, where I took all of the notes from &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6433700" class="thewords">Right. I can make sure that was everyone &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6434500" class="thewords">&#x2014; June and shared it with everybody back in July or something.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6437600" class="thewords">Oh, you already shared it. I can share it again.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="6440400" class="thewords">At the planning meeting &#x2014; may I just ask a question&#x3f; At the planning meeting, you guys worked on something, right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="6447200" class="thewords">That&#x27;s exactly right.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="6447400" class="thewords">So that&#x27;s in the minutes. So is that the document, the working document at this point&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6452500" class="thewords">That&#x27;s the only document that &#x2014; that&#x27;s the only file that documents any discussion of budget priorities from a board level, but that was just the planning committee.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="6464400" class="thewords">So would that make sense, for us to look at that document and talk a little about it now, even though it&#x2019;s 10:30&#x3f; And the reason I &#x2014; I understand, I&#x27;m really tired also &#x2014; but we&#x27;re asking the administration to do an awful lot of work in a short time, and I don&#x27;t think it&#x2019;s really fair for us to give them something, and then to come back in three days and say, &#x22;Whoops, we changed our mind.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6483900" class="thewords">So I just would encourage us to maybe look at that document now and have a discussion about whether we&#x27;re comfortable with that as the starting point.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="6491500" class="thewords">So that was &#x2014; and Liz, catch me if I&#x27;m wrong on this one, but &#x2014; what was discussed in the planning meeting, I think we should actually separate that from June. So June&#x27;s goals really weren&#x27;t reflective of the 2016 budget.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6504700" class="thewords">June&#x27;s goals were how we were gonna operate within this year&#x27;s budget.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6507900" class="thewords">That&#x27;s my understanding.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="6508900" class="thewords">Okay. So what we discussed at the planning meeting was the discussion of the board goals that would be meshed next with the mandates and the priorities of the administration, to give us the point of discussion.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6529200" class="thewords">So certainly, it&#x2019;s &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6530600" class="thewords">So we should look at that document as a board, because so far only the planning committee has looked at that document.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="6534400" class="thewords">I thought it was sent out to everybody. I got a copy of it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6538500" class="thewords">No, that was just the minutes from the planning committee, so that went to the planning committee.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="6543200" class="thewords">Which is reflective of these goals that we discussed.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="6547200" class="thewords">I&#x27;m sorry to be obstinate. I&#x27;m philosophically opposed, unless something is an urgent, pressing matter, time&#x2d;sensitive, to be meeting and having extensive discussions beyond 10:30. That&#x27;s how I&#x27;m functioning, and I recognize the importance to staff on this. We&#x27;re fishing around, trying to identify what document we&#x27;re looking for. If there&#x27;s something to be sent out, here&#x27;s the document, here&#x27;s the kind of comments we&#x27;re looking for, here&#x27;s who you send it to. I am happy to invest the time soon to do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6574700" class="thewords">But otherwise, I&#x27;m walking out the door shortly.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6579600" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6580000" class="thewords">I&#x27;d just like to suggest that at the finance committee meeting, we discuss the budget goals, and that if people would like to add feedback, send it to Miriam. Before November 25th.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6598100" class="thewords">Commissioner Cina&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="6599000" class="thewords">I&#x27;d like to second that idea. I was gonna suggest that perhaps we do it at another meeting, whether it&#x2019;s a special board meeting or finance. But I would like to suggest that we make time specifically to look at this. Where we come prepared and clearheaded.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6614800" class="thewords">We do have a time urgency on this, however. I think that having an additional meeting is not practical. Just because we&#x27;re already asking the administration to do a lot of work in a very short amount of time, in putting together those proposed budgets. I&#x27;m not opposed, Brian, or I&#x27;m not opposed, anyone, to saying we have to have this discussion right now. We don&#x27;t have to have this discussion right now.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6645800" class="thewords">What I think the board needs to make a commitment to, however, is saying, &#x22;I am going to look at this, I am going to respond to it, and it needs to be done within 48 hours.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="6656100" class="thewords">And that&#x27;s what I was suggesting.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6656900" class="thewords">No, I know.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="6657500" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s like here&#x27;s the group email, and he&#x27;s the parameters for that. And it&#x2019;s incumbent on us to take that responsibility.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6663700" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6665000" class="thewords">I think there&#x27;s a lack of clarity about what people are actually responding to. So I would just like to request that each committee chair caucus with your committee and develop some kind of consensus of the budget priorities for your committee. Whether that&#x27;s on the phone or one by one, email, I think that people don&#x27;t know, actually, what they&#x27;re responding to. So...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6693100" class="thewords">Yes&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="6693400" class="thewords">I would really like to implore us not to go this route. The Finance Committee in combination with the administration created a timeline for this budget, and I thought in fact that this was going to be a primary part of this particular meeting tonight, and we were going to have a discussion where we would look at the document that Planning came up with and we would walk out of here with a sort of a consensus around what the priorities are, and the administration would have that in hand.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6726500" class="thewords">And I feel, I fear that if we don&#x27;t do that tonight, we&#x27;re basically not going to be able to meet the timeline that was jointly created by the Finance Committee and the administration. And we will be leaving the administration without direction on how to craft budgets that we&#x27;ve asked them to bring to us on the 25th. Or five days before the 25th.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6749800" class="thewords">So I know Nathan is here, and I noticed your hand was up &#x2014; if I could ask him to make the comment. Would you like to...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Nathan</span><span><a data-m="6756000" class="thewords">I think it&#x2019;s been largely covered in there. In short, like the guidance that &#x5b;we&#x5d; provided to the principals and the department heads was to use a combination of the law, education quality standards that the state set, and the board&#x27;s goals in order to develop their list, their budgets. And so absent one of those three pieces, you&#x27;re going to get results that don&#x27;t reflect that. And so I think at this point we&#x27;ve told them that they need to respond to our office with their budgets by a week from yesterday.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6794100" class="thewords">And we told them that they&#x27;d have the guidance from the board today. So again, the board doesn&#x2019;t have to provide that guidance, but folks should just be aware that to the extent it&#x2019;s not provided, it won&#x27;t be incorporated in the budgets that are developed and that come before the finance committee on the 25th.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6820000" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6821100" class="thewords">I&#x27;ll just offer again that the minutes from the planning committee had a fair amount of guidance in them. I&#x27;m just saying procedurally they don&#x27;t reflect any type of discussion at the board level. But they had a collection of priorities from the committee chairs. So I&#x27;m just offering that as a way to try and move the conversation forward. We&#x27;re out of time, we didn&#x2019;t really have a clear framework for this discussion.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6859400" class="thewords">So I think we have to do the best we can. Another email is we all email Patrick or someone authorized to communicate with Nate about, or the superintendent, about the budget priorities.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6874400" class="thewords">So let me ask a question here. I&#x27;m looking at the board goals for budget development from the planning committee. And Nathan, I&#x27;m asking you here &#x2014; beyond what&#x2019;s on that...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6893900" class="thewords">Do you have the document, Nate&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Nathan</span><span><a data-m="6894700" class="thewords">No.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="6897800" class="thewords">Nate, I can send it right to you. You want me to&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Nathan</span><span><a data-m="6899500" class="thewords">Sure.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6902000" class="thewords">You have the minutes, you&#x27;re sending the minutes, right&#x3f; Not the annual &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6905500" class="thewords">The minutes for the planning committee.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="6907400" class="thewords">Yep.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6907700" class="thewords">And the question is what beyond that would be &#x2014; what further guidance would be helpful&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Nathan</span><span><a data-m="6916000" class="thewords">Well, having not seen it, I can just say if the minutes are the guidance that the board wants to provide, then we will use what&#x2019;s in the minutes as our guidance. It sounded like there was potentially concern about folks having not seen what&#x2019;s actually in those minutes here. So if you want to say use those minutes as your guidance for budget development purposes, then we will do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6940300" class="thewords">But if you don&#x27;t want to take any action to kind of endorse a particular set of guidance, then we won&#x27;t have that to work with during our development process. So it&#x2019;s that simple.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="6953600" class="thewords">So it&#x2019;s section four of that document, Nate.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="6963400" class="thewords">Would it be helpful to read these out loud&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="6968900" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t know that it would be helpful to read &#x27;em out loud. I just think it would be hard to follow if we were trying to read that out loud. Commissioner Truman&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="6975600" class="thewords">Can I ask for clarification now&#x3f; I am very serious about it. I recognize the deadline. I am not prepared to have this conversation tonight. I apologize if there was a misunderstanding that there was a productivity arrived at by the end of this meeting. I&#x27;m not gonna have this conversation right now because I don&#x27;t feel I can contribute in a way that&#x27;s to meet the intent of what we&#x27;re trying to do, not at a quarter of 11 at night. If my committee wants to email me their thoughts and reflections about this, and someone give me, whether it should be to Commissioner Stoll or to you, to channel that information as to whether Policy Committee&#x27;s goals should be addressed or amended as such, then I&#x27;m happy to do that for tomorrow or the morning after that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7021700" class="thewords">If we&#x27;re having this conversation tonight, then I&#x27;m stepping out. But I&#x27;m not sure where we&#x27;re going at this particular moment.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7031500" class="thewords">Commissioner Dodson&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="7032800" class="thewords">I would just agree quickly. I mean I understand the urgency, but looking at it here, it&#x2019;s not like an easy up or down. We&#x27;d have to go through it. There&#x27;s 15, 20 sentences of things here that I&#x27;m looking at for the first time. So we&#x27;d have to consider it and discuss it to do it justice. I think it would be a solid conversation, a 45&#x2d;minute kind of weighing in and saying what we think, and distilling it down, which does seem like it would be a difficult conversation to have right now and do it justice.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7062900" class="thewords">I guess the problem that I&#x27;m really having with this is how this conversation is any different than what we did in June.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="7072400" class="thewords">They do look similar.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7074600" class="thewords">Exactly. And we use... I see your hand, Brian. What we did in June was to look at those exact goals and then to filter those into larger board goals. And it&#x2019;s unclear to me how this is a different process.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="7089300" class="thewords">Yeah, I&#x27;ve been processing this while everyone&#x27;s talking, and thinking if we&#x27;re going to talk about it, at least I&#x27;d be ready, and what I see standing out to me is that we summarized four main goals from that retreat. They are financial management, student achievement, infrastructure and climate. So it sounds like we did a lot of work at that time to distill four main goals. And we talk about our overall goals, but that&#x27;s our job description&#x3b; that&#x27;s not necessarily our goals.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7116700" class="thewords">Finding a superintendent, passing a budget. That&#x27;s our job description. That&#x27;s not budget goals. But if we look at the four main goals we came up with from the retreat &#x2014; financial management, student achievement, infrastructure, climate &#x2014; those could be possibly modified and passed on now.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7135500" class="thewords">Commissioner Porter&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7138300" class="thewords">I just want to be clear where we&#x27;re going with this. What we did in June was 2014&#x2d;2015. It&#x2019;s on the meeting minutes, it&#x2019;s our goals, it&#x2019;s the board goals, okay&#x3f; These goals are not reflective of those. These are the goals that have to reflect what are the important pieces, what are the priorities that we have as we go through this tough budget period&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7165300" class="thewords">We&#x27;re not going to have to... In other words, our goals get matched with their mandates, which can&#x27;t get touched. And their priorities &#x2014; I&#x27;m looking at the administration, right&#x3f; And that gets married and says I have X number of dollars. What I look to make sure is in there as much as possible is based on their priorities and mandates and our goals.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7198700" class="thewords">Okay&#x3f; So it would be &#x2014; to give you an idea, a goal that we might say is, &#x22;Really want to get that elevator into Edmunds Elementary,&#x22; that would be a budget goal for 2016.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7212800" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t think that that&#x2019;s a board budget goal.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="7215600" class="thewords">No, ours would be, I think, we want to improve infrastructure, and then staff would say these are the &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7220400" class="thewords">We have to be more specific than that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="7221600" class="thewords">Maybe improve access&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7223200" class="thewords">I think the goal would be for infrastructure or access, and then with that information they would say, &#x22;Here&#x27;s the finite resources, this is the one that we want to be...&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7234900" class="thewords">But again, I think we owe it to them to be as precise as possible, so that they can... I&#x27;m sorry, go ahead, Liz.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="7244500" class="thewords">Well, the document &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7245300" class="thewords">Let me call on you. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="7247000" class="thewords">The document says to ask the administration to use data&#x2d;driven decision&#x2d;making in the budget. And it outlines a couple goals from other committee. So I&#x27;d like to suggest that we ask the administration to go with it and bring back a budget based on what we have here. Each committee chair represented goals, except Commissioner Stoll and Commissioner Dodson.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7276400" class="thewords">So perhaps they could review the document, and get back to Nate by tomorrow. All the other chairs were there and reflected the work of their committees.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="7286300" class="thewords">You&#x27;re talking about what&#x2019;s in the minutes&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="7288500" class="thewords">Mm&#x2d;hm.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="7289100" class="thewords">Yeah, and Mark was there, he reflected our...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7293900" class="thewords">Well, I hope I did, but you know what&#x3f; Take &#x27;til tomorrow and take a look at that and make sure you agree with that, Stephanie.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">I will. I want to take some personal responsibility for this, but I also want to say that I&#x27;m disappointed in how this discussion came about and how it was put at the end, and how there wasn&#x27;t anything for us to look at ahead of time. And perhaps I should&#x27;ve stepped up and done that, but it&#x2019;s been the practice &#x2014; you know, I do the Finance Committee, and this was another step, this was outta there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7325500" class="thewords">So I want to apologize to the administration for not following through on something that we had determined we would do. And I also want to apologize to the public, because I think that this is going to delay our process, because what&#x2019;s gonna happen is we&#x27;re gonna come back with something, and we&#x27;re gonna be hard&#x2d;pressed to be able to understand how decisions were made, because we didn&#x2019;t give a clear document.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7348800" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s easy to say something like, &#x22;We&#x27;re looking at third grade, we want everyone to read by the third grade,&#x22; but that&#x27;s a very hard thing to operationalize. Does that mean if they have a question between paying for a high school class and paying for a reading teacher, they&#x27;re gonna take the reading teacher&#x3f; Well, maybe.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7364400" class="thewords">But maybe not. Because maybe there could be another competing goal that could get in the way of that. So I feel like we&#x27;re doing a disservice, but I feel at this point I would be ready to keep going and to have a good, juicy 45&#x2d;minute discussion to at least give them something to go with. We have had meetings that have lasted longer than this before.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7383900" class="thewords">That said, I don&#x27;t think that there&#x27;s the will to do that. So I guess the second best thing would be for me to, for Kyle to look at it, for me to look at it, for perhaps things to get sent to the chair, and for the chair to document some sort of thing by tomorrow end of day that could be sent to you as a start.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7403200" class="thewords">And hopefully that, if it wasn&#x27;t good enough, you could let us know, and we could work on it at the next Finance Committee meeting.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7412600" class="thewords">Commissioner Porter&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7413400" class="thewords">Question of impact. We&#x27;re striving for the 25th, which is a Tuesday, I believe, right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7423000" class="thewords">Correct.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7424400" class="thewords">To have the administrative team present the first draft budget to the finance committee. Are we gonna have a finance committee meeting the week of Thanksgiving&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="7433200" class="thewords">Yes, we are, and also we&#x27;re striving for them to have it to us a week beforehand, so that we can actually look at it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7437400" class="thewords">Good, yeah. So what&#x2019;s the impact of us not...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="7442500" class="thewords">Well, what the impact is, is it pushes everything back, and we&#x27;re looking at having public hearings on the budget in December. So it really was a fairly tight schedule. I believe, you know, Paul, you and Stephanie Philips put it together, and it really is a fairly tight schedule. There&#x27;s not a lot of wiggle room in there, is there&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Paul</span><span><a data-m="7460100" class="thewords">Well, I think Nathan spoke to, we&#x27;re going to have to proceed as best we can. &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; going on.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7472700" class="thewords">Question, sorry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7476100" class="thewords">No, no, you&#x27;re fine.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7476500" class="thewords">I&#x27;m just trying to get us through this. Would it be out of hand if the finance committee presented, the next day or two, presented, get together and had their goals&#x3f; Expanding on what we already did on the meeting minutes, trying to stay within that realm. And with some things I don&#x27;t think you&#x27;re gonna have a problem with &#x2014; make sure he has all the staff that he needs for the &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="7501500" class="thewords">I feel very confident that the Finance Committee is reflected in here. I feel confident in what you did. So I don&#x27;t feel that finance committee is out of the loop. I was hoping &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7508800" class="thewords">Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="7509000" class="thewords">I think the notion is having something endorsed by the board as a whole is stronger than having something endorsed by the planning committee or having something endorsed by individual people. I feel like that, when the public says to us, &#x22;What priorities did you use&#x3f;&#x22; to have a document that said, &#x22;These were the priorities that we gave to the administration,&#x22; I think is a very strong statement.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7530000" class="thewords">We had the committee meeting. Ben was there, David was there, I was in proxy.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="7538900" class="thewords">Stephanie was there.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7540000" class="thewords">Stephanie was there. And we had actually talked beforehand as to what were some of the important things. So I wonder how far off we really are.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7549700" class="thewords">I guess that&#x27;s what I&#x27;m still struggling with. I&#x27;m looking at these priorities, and it&#x2019;s unclear to me what further information needs to come from these priorities outside what&#x2019;s there to give guidance. Commissioner Seguino&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="7572300" class="thewords">I really see Commissioner Stoll&#x27;s point on this in terms of having the full board. But I do think structurally we do have that, in the sense that this is coming through the committees. But in deference to that, and sort of to shore up the sense that it is the full board, I would simply suggest that we give 24 hours to committee members to give feedback to their committee chairs that will then be channeled to Patrick to incorporate into this.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7598500" class="thewords">And I will make a commitment on early Thursday, if it works for you, Nathan, sometime during the day Thursday to meet with you in person, and make sure that any additional comments are reflected.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Nathan</span><span><a data-m="7615700" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t know that a meeting be required. Again, just so folks understand, we asked our principals and department heads to use a combination of information, including these board goals, and to have something back to our office by, it was a week this past Monday, so this coming Monday. So if folks here want more time, obviously I&#x27;m not going to send this out tonight and expect that there&#x27;ll be any work done on whatever...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7646000" class="thewords">So if you wanted to move into tomorrow, but at a certain point, providing them with information on a Thursday, when they might have done the task or be in the process of wrapping it up, I feel like we run the risk of having them have already done a lot of the work, and either trying to go back and incorporate... I&#x27;m just not sure it will be as meaningful at that point. So certainly, if that&#x27;s the best that folks feel like we can do, then we&#x27;ll take the information.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7673800" class="thewords">I just think that you&#x27;re losing ground.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7675900" class="thewords">I think that this is a good summary, reflecting the goals of the individual committees that would be a filter through which, either at the building level or at the district level, should be guiding the decisions. And kind of a rationale would be helpful from you as to when &#x2014; give us some of those good versus good decisions that you had to make, and how this was helpful or what additional information would be helpful from the board in reaching those.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7707400" class="thewords">I see Commissioner Kirk&#x27;s hand.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="7707900" class="thewords">No, my hands aren&#x27;t up.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7709500" class="thewords">Okay, I thought you were...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="7710600" class="thewords">No, sorry. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7720100" class="thewords">Can we have the will of the board to say, &#x22;Using this as guidance&#x3f;&#x22; If there are specific comments that need to go beyond what&#x2019;s reflected here, get them to me tomorrow. But lacking that, this is not in a pretty form in terms of for publication and the like, but I think it reflects the thinking of the individual committees and, by default, of the board as a whole.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Nathan</span><span><a data-m="7758900" class="thewords">I can pledge to tidy it up before distribution. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7763500" class="thewords">And I can help with that too. Yeah, Commissioner Stoll&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="7770500" class="thewords">I think this is what we have to do. I&#x27;m not happy about it. I think this doesn&#x2019;t give much guidance to a principal, quite frankly, if I look at these things. I can&#x27;t see how any of these are really going to help a principal determine their budget. And I know that it&#x2019;s not really our place to tell principals what to do, but I do think that they&#x27;re looking to us for some general guidance about what&#x2019;s important, and I don&#x27;t think this gets it to them. So I was really hoping that we would have a meaty discussion tonight that would get to that point from where the planning committee started us.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7799800" class="thewords">But if Nathan is willing, feels like this is the best way to go... Another way to go would be to simply say we&#x27;re going to have a delay, and we will have a special board meeting to talk about our goals, and everything will be pushed back two weeks, and we could also make that choice. Go back and update the thing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7822700" class="thewords">But I guess I would ask, if I could, whether you think that&#x27;s a better call, or whether you feel this will be good enough to get us going. And I&#x27;m sorry to add &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; in this point. I just don&#x27;t want to make the call myself.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7843400" class="thewords">While they&#x27;re thinking, go ahead.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="7843900" class="thewords">Yeah, I&#x27;ve got a concrete thing &#x2014; something that would be helpful to me, particularly as one of the people who needs to look at this, is part of this feels to me like a continuation of our movement to a governance role, particularly after coming out of the sort of role that circumstances, I would argue, necessitated that we played moving into the summer. And if someone could articulate, looking at this here, what they think appropriate guidance would be, that isn&#x27;t this, but that gives a principal something more specific.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="7877000" class="thewords">That&#x27;s an honest question. I&#x27;m thinking about what would that something be that&#x27;s more specific than this, but doesn&#x2019;t cross a boundary to where really I&#x27;m acting more like a superintendent or someone who&#x27;s giving a directive around how I want you to perform as a... rather than governance.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="7891100" class="thewords">I agree. That is exactly the conversation I thought we were going to have. Like, what is the level of guidance we want to have, and how does that flow out of our board goals&#x3f; And we&#x27;re not having that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="7900800" class="thewords">We could&#x27;ve if we started 30 minutes ago.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="7902400" class="thewords">Yes, we could&#x27;ve. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Nathan</span><span><a data-m="7915000" class="thewords">We&#x27;re thinking about it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="7915500" class="thewords">Yeah, please.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7917700" class="thewords">May I ask a question, please&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7919600" class="thewords">Yeah, please.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Giannoni</span><span><a data-m="7920600" class="thewords">I think I&#x27;m confused here. So far we received a 4.4&#x25; estimate from the administration. Is that true&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7930400" class="thewords">That&#x27;s if we were to carry forth this year&#x27;s programs into next year &#x2014; it would cost 4.4&#x25; more than fiscal &#x27;15 would be &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Giannoni</span><span><a data-m="7939600" class="thewords">Okay, so we&#x27;ve got that, and we&#x27;ve sent them back with a couple of varieties of zero. So how much guidance do they really need when &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; already going to be challenged &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7951600" class="thewords">Well, I think that&#x27;s exactly &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;. They need this guidance to figure out where the cuts should come from.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="7959600" class="thewords">&#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;&#x00a0;might say, &#x22;Don&#x27;t touch this, because it&#x2019;s such a high priority.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7963400" class="thewords">Can I just...&#x3f; We have to stop discussing whether or not we&#x27;re going to discuss this, and figure out if we&#x27;re going to discuss it or not.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="7972500" class="thewords">We&#x27;re waiting for a response here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="7974000" class="thewords">Okay. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; I mean I don&#x27;t mind pushing it back a couple of days and have another meeting. We&#x27;ve all done that 100 times. But if we&#x27;re gonna discuss it, let&#x27;s discuss it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="7983800" class="thewords">I&#x27;d just like to say, you know, I think most of these schools, most of our principals are getting a lot of feedback from their team within the schools. I think they would know a lot of what they need to do, coming to this point.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Nathan</span><span><a data-m="8019800" class="thewords">I think we don&#x27;t have a compelling conclusion, but I think the concern is, if we delay any more in order to get better guidance, that the rest of the timeline is gonna become so condensed, including the portion for public input and the portion for us to do all the revisions based on the feedback that you folks hear from your constituents and that sort of thing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8044800" class="thewords">So given that and where we are now, I think I feel better moving forward with these, even knowing that they might not provide as much guidance in some area... In some places they&#x27;re really specific and it will be really clear and useful to us, and in other areas there won&#x27;t be... When we&#x27;re explaining the decisions that are made, there won&#x27;t be as much reference to these, because they don&#x27;t speak to some of those areas.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8070500" class="thewords">So I think at this point, given the schedule that we have and the concerns that I personally have about getting it all done, delaying any more in the hopes that we get better goals is probably not time well spent.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="8085700" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="8087400" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="8088900" class="thewords">Could I just ask that as you develop the budget, you also track a list of questions that you have for the board, if there are areas that need clarification from your perspective&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Nathan</span><span><a data-m="8099900" class="thewords">Sure. You mean specifically with the goals, like what did you mean by this, or...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="8102600" class="thewords">Yeah, so when we get to November 25th or whatever, you can bring those questions up.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Nathan</span><span><a data-m="8107900" class="thewords">Yeah. If they&#x27;re forthcoming, we&#x27;ll definitely pass &#x27;em on.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="8115900" class="thewords">Echoing Commissioner Stoll, I need to offer an apology too. I was not at the meeting, I was out of town, and I thought that there was a little bit more clarity that had been reached around the use of these in the planning committee meeting, and I&#x27;m sorry for wasting an extra half&#x2d;hour late in the evening on that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8140500" class="thewords">And I&#x27;m certainly committed to moving forward. Whatever additional guidance you find necessary, let us know immediately, and we can work through our committees to get some clarity around those. Before we adjourn, a reminder that beginning next month we&#x27;re going to be moving these meetings to Contois Auditorium. I would&#x27;ve been tonight, but City Hall is closed because of Veterans Day.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="8177800" class="thewords">Is that just a group meeting, or &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="8180100" class="thewords">So there&#x27;s going to be a schedule that&#x27;s going to be coming out that we&#x27;re going to start circulating committee meetings through the schools. Working on the development of that right now, but the committee meetings are going to be in the schools. Full board meetings will be at Contois.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="8203500" class="thewords">Can we keep search committee meetings here, though&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="8205700" class="thewords">That&#x27;s fine. That&#x27;s up to you, that&#x27;s fine.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="8208800" class="thewords">That&#x27;s so confusing.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="8211000" class="thewords">Seconded by Commissioner Porter. All in favor&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="8213100" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="8214100" class="thewords">Opposed.</a></span></p>
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<p data-name=" Patrick Halladay"><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2500" class="thewords">Okay, we&#x27;re gonna go ahead and call the meeting to order.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="8600" class="thewords">I know there are a couple of board members who are running a couple of minutes late, and one who will be here about a half an hour late, who&#x27;s been down visiting parents. So we&#x27;re going to go ahead and get started, start with the Pledge of Allegiance.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="27500" class="thewords">&#x5b;pledge&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="46600" class="thewords">All right.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="53000" class="thewords">As always, I&#x27;d like to start with a welcome. The board wishes to recognize, welcome and thank those who are providing language interpretation of the board proceedings.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="60700" class="thewords">The board&#x27;s commitment that all children receive equitable academic services must ensure that new American parents are welcome and can attend meetings, understand the process and be actively engaged.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="72600" class="thewords">Interpretation of proceedings honors, respects and values our new American parents and students. The board asks the public to respect and understand the importance of this interpretation.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="82800" class="thewords">Next we have approval of the agenda. If I can get a motion to approve the agenda&#x3f; Commissioner Seguino, seconded by... Commissioner Garrison. Are there any amendments to the agenda, changes&#x3f; Commissioner Curry.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Commissioner Curry"><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="96900" class="thewords">I would like to move to amend the agenda so that the public comment follows our discussion of recent events regarding the resignation.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="106500" class="thewords">Can we get a second for that, please&#x3f; Seconded by Commissioner Seguino. Any other amendments to the agenda&#x3f; Commissioner Stoll&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Commissioner Stoll"><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="115300" class="thewords">I&#x27;d like to add — Brian Cina asked me to add to the end of agenda a item where he&#x27;d just like to update us on some issues about the superintendent search.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="123500" class="thewords">All right. Can we get a second for that&#x3f; Commissioner Kirk, seconded. Any further additions, amendments to the agenda&#x3f; Hearing none, moving forward, all in favor of the amended agenda, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="139200" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="141000" class="thewords">All opposed&#x3f; All right. We have an agenda. So we are going to be moving public comment, kind of incorporating it with some of the — per the change in the agenda, some of the discussion that&#x27;s going to be going on here.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="157300" class="thewords">Oh, and you know what&#x3f; I failed to do a roll call. I&#x27;m going to go ahead and go down, just to make sure we have who&#x27;s here. Commissioner Dodson&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="165100" class="thewords">&#x5b;roll call: Dodson, Porter, Curry, Giannoni, Shumski, Stoll, Seguino, Matson, Kirk, and Garrison are present. Cina, Kleman, Truman are not&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="187200" class="thewords">Why I had you marked down not here... All right.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="192700" class="thewords">So, I want to start by thanking all present for their attendance this evening on short notice. I know that this is far from an ideal location to hold a meeting. But costs for technology and other issues at Burlington High School made that prohibitive.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="213400" class="thewords">Your presence demonstrates the deep value the community places in its public schools. Emotions are high because we all care. It’s important to keep discourse productive, civil and respectful. We are here tonight in part due to at least a perceived lack of civility, so let&#x27;s ensure that we don&#x27;t repeat those mistakes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="231300" class="thewords">As chair of the board I&#x27;d like to make some brief comments to the Burlington School District staff, to our administrators, to our citizens and to the board. On behalf of the board, I first want to thank all of our principals, teachers and staff who are keeping the district operating well in the midst of our leadership challenges.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="246100" class="thewords">We value your contributions and want you to know that we appreciate all that you do every day. Students are being well&#x2d;served by your commitment despite the other issues going on. We understand that we must improve our ability to provide guidance and support for this district if we are to move forward over the long run.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="263400" class="thewords">But tomorrow morning parents will walk with their kids to schools, teachers will have innovative lessons planned to challenge and engage our students. Their schools will remain a source of pride, engagement and safety that they have always been.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="276000" class="thewords">Again, to that we must thank our teachers, including the recently named Vermont Teacher of the Year and alternate, both from Burlington, the principals and students for doing the good work they&#x27;ve always done.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="288400" class="thewords">To our administrators, we want to thank you for your service. I want to thank you for your service. Despite the decision that our senior administrators felt necessary to take, over the course of the past few months there have been several accomplishments that cannot go unnoticed, in particular around putting us in a much more sound financial footing, and hiring new finance and facilities directors.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="308200" class="thewords">I commend you for your hard work and realize that the challenges were immense, made more difficult by the passions of the board members, and the job became more complicated than you had envisioned.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="317000" class="thewords">We accept your resignation. To our citizens, we want you to know that as a board, we are aware that we have a job to do, and we intend to do it. Our obligation is to ensure on your behalf that an excellent education is being provided for all Burlington students, and to ensure Burlington taxpayers are getting good value for the dollars spent.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="337400" class="thewords">In short, we&#x27;re obligated on behalf of the citizens of Burlington and the children of the city to ensure that the Burlington schools are being operated in an effective, efficient and ethical manner. We are responsible for creating and guiding a strong and healthy organization to plan and carry out an exceptional education program, and to create a climate which encourages excellence and respect at all levels.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="359800" class="thewords">We intend to do that. To my fellow board members, we are an exceedingly young board. All of us have joined the board for different reasons, and all of us have different visions of what good education looks like. We also all share a desire to see our district succeed. As such, we must accelerate our learning curve and better understand our role and how to play it effectively.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="382200" class="thewords">We cannot blame or challenges on anyone else. We are the elected officials who have the responsibility to our voters, all of whom will have a say in all of our returns to the board in just five months.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="395100" class="thewords">We must make sure that we are fulfilling our role well, and need to be sure we have an effective superintendent who can run the district with our guidance, our support and strong accountability to the board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="406400" class="thewords">Without better understanding both our role and how to achieve it, we will continue to be sidetracked from our two primary goals: To set the district on a better financial path, a goal in which we&#x27;ve made real and substantive progress, and to successfully recruit, hire and retain a permanent superintendent with vision, passion and an understanding of the strengths and challenges we face as a school and a community.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="429300" class="thewords">To achieve this latter goal, we must get better at fulfilling our responsibilities. Our job is broad oversight for the district. Our job is not to run the school or supervise school employees. Our job is to give general direction, set policy parameters, assure adequate resources, monitor effectiveness and engage the community.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="447800" class="thewords">We hire one employee — the superintendent, who is accountable for running the education system within the parameters that we set. That person is accountable for us for results. We need to have a strong and healthy relationship with that person to ensure he or she understands our expectation, and to assure that we have strong two&#x2d;way communications as we move through a school year.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="469200" class="thewords">This does not mean we have to agree on all things — only that when we do disagree, we disagree on the issues and question the ideas, not the person who brings them forward. We must create an environment which expects excellence and promotes respect for all, that can plan and carry out an exceptional education program with strong community support.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="491800" class="thewords">My proposal for moving forward is as follows. One, to authorize the chair and clerk, myself and Commissioner Curry, to meet with our three senior administrators to address the issues identified. We need to understand the issues and discuss our options for moving forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="506500" class="thewords">We may not be pleased with the manner in which the concerns were shared, but we cannot dismiss them. We need to understand them and make sure we do a better job addressing them.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="516500" class="thewords">Two, we need to empower an ad hoc committee of three. I&#x27;m proposing Commissioners Porter, Seguino and Dodson, all of who have experience in executive hiring, with immediately developing a plan for addressing the need for an interim superintendent and a commitment for the full board to act on names no later than the tenth of November.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="535400" class="thewords">Three, the board needs to commit to further sessions on improving how we function as a board. We will need to be willing to engage intentional sessions to arrive at an understanding of how we&#x27;re going to work together.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="547600" class="thewords">We can disagree on policy decisions, but it’s not acceptable for us to be disagreeable or to be disrespectful of one another or of our administrators. We have to establish a culture of respect while effectively performing our role.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="561800" class="thewords">This is all the more essential as we continue to move forward on our quest for a new permanent superintendent.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="567200" class="thewords">Four, we will continue to proceed with our search for a permanent superintendent, redoubling our efforts to resolve our long&#x2d;term leadership uncertainty. My suggestion going forward for this evening&#x27;s proposal is as follows. I would entertain a motion for the proposal that I&#x27;ve just set forth, the four points.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="588400" class="thewords">I would suggest that each board member have an up to five&#x2d;minute window to state their concerns or reactions to the situation and the proposal. Then I would invite the members of the public to speak. And while I know there&#x27;s a great deal of concern, anxiety and even anger in the community, I believe that the public is most interested in hearing what we are committed to doing going forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="611600" class="thewords">And then finally, after that discussion, I suggest we vote on the motion that&#x27;s being made. So, I would entertain a motion for the four points that I just outlined.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="622400" class="thewords">So moved.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="623400" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry, seconded, Commissioner Seguino.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="629800" class="thewords">Discussion. I will have up to five minutes, and I&#x27;m going to turn my computer, my iPad around here so that people can see the timer.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Matson"><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="640900" class="thewords">Patrick, can I quickly ask a point of —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="642800" class="thewords">Point of order&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="643600" class="thewords">Point of order.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="644000" class="thewords">Sure.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="645400" class="thewords">You&#x27;ve described us having discussion, then allowing the public to speak, and then vote.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="652200" class="thewords">That&#x27;s correct.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="652500" class="thewords">Will there be any discussion after the public&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="655500" class="thewords">What I have proposed is to go from the public discussion to the vote that we will have had a chance for comment on that point. If there would like to be an amendment to the proposal, that&#x27;s something that would be possible.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="668200" class="thewords">I just wanted to know, okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="669300" class="thewords">But that&#x27;s what I&#x27;ve discussed. Commissioner Stoll.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="672300" class="thewords">So this is the first time I&#x27;m hearing this motion, and it’s hard for me to respond quickly when this is the first time. I would appreciate it if there was something in writing that we could have in front of us, or if you could somehow, perhaps we could put the points somewhere. It’s just hard —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="688800" class="thewords">You know what&#x3f; I printed them out, but I got here and I meant to photocopy &#x27;em when I got here, and I didn&#x27;t photocopy them. But I am...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="698600" class="thewords">Oh, we&#x27;ll get them photocopied and bring —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="701100" class="thewords">Okay, I would appreciate that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">Yeah, I appreciate that too, and I apologize. I meant to do that as soon as I walked in the door.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="707500" class="thewords">And I also would like to just follow it up so that people in the room do understand that for many of us — I don&#x27;t know if it’s everyone on the board — this is the first time I&#x27;m hearing this motion. So I&#x27;m thinking just as you are right now. So I&#x27;d appreciate people knowing that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="724500" class="thewords">Without further, is there a board member who would like to comment, speak&#x3f; Commissioner Porter.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Commissioner Porter"><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="731900" class="thewords">Commissioner Halladay, would you just be kind enough to just, can we go through one at a time&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="736900" class="thewords">Go through... Do you want me to just reread the motion&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="738300" class="thewords">No, if you can just give the essence of the statement for each one of the four.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="742600" class="thewords">The first one is that Commissioner Curry and I would meet with the three senior administrators for a discussion.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">Yes, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">The second would be there&#x27;s an ad hoc committee of three who would be charged with coming up with a name to bring forward to full board by the tenth of November.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="757400" class="thewords">The third is a commitment to ongoing sessions for better board functioning, and the fourth is just a statement that we&#x27;re going to continue with our search for a permanent superintendent.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="769400" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="778900" class="thewords">Almost one more point of order, Patrick.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="780500" class="thewords">Yes&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="782600" class="thewords">We&#x27;re all kinda sitting here thinking about this, right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="784300" class="thewords">Yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="784700" class="thewords">You&#x27;ll give us a little bit of time here to think about this.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="786900" class="thewords">Absolutely. So in fact, let&#x27;s do that. While we&#x27;re waiting for the photocopies to come back, take a few minutes to think and gather thoughts and &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="797000" class="thewords">&#x5b;pause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="799900" class="thewords">&#x5b;gavel&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="801300" class="thewords">If there&#x27;s any board member who would like to make a statement, I will... please ask to be addressed. Commissioner Matson&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="815100" class="thewords">Obviously, a lot to take in. I came here tonight thinking one thing was at the forefront, which was to really... There&#x27;s things that are going on, I think there&#x27;s things here that don&#x27;t necessarily need to be said, but I think that&#x27;s fine.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="832800" class="thewords">But point two for me was the piece that I hadn&#x27;t seen — we saw the discussion of recent events, but I think that that is the important piece of seeing what happens when these resignations are effective.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="850000" class="thewords">And my thought as I was sitting here for five minutes was to say, &#x22;Does this seem to be an efficient process&#x3f;&#x22; and I think it has to be something that&#x27;s an efficient process. And I probably, I don&#x27;t know if I can come up with anything else, but this was what I felt like was missing what I saw on the agenda.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="869300" class="thewords">And because point two is there, we have a lot to do, and I think I would love to hear from the public. And so beyond that, without really trying to look too... I don&#x27;t need to be wordsmithing or anything like this. I think I would like to go this direction.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="891200" class="thewords">Commissioner Dodson&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Commissioner Dodson"><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="893500" class="thewords">So, like many others, I&#x27;m sure, I&#x27;ve been giving all this a lot of thought over the last few days. So I&#x27;m thinking, certainly with my board hat, but as a citizen and someone who, like folks in the room, really cares for Burlington, this is not meant to be a defense.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="909500" class="thewords">There&#x27;s an email that went around that said, that quoted from I&#x27;m not sure where, but pointed out that everyone&#x27;s up for reelection in March, and raised a question of, &#x22;Should it be a &#x27;throw the bums out&#x27; scenario&#x3f;&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="922600" class="thewords">I trust the public is going to do what it needs to do. So I&#x27;m not saying to defend, but I do think it’s important that we all step back and think about the complexity of our community. I just personally don&#x27;t feel like there&#x27;s enough time and conversation and reflection to think about that reality.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="943200" class="thewords">This is a unique place in Vermont, but it’s actually a unique place beyond Vermont, because you don&#x27;t often get this kind of mix. The history of the United States has been once the mix happens, it moves pretty quickly to where it’s not so much of a mix, and middle&#x2d;class and upper income, well&#x2d;educated folks don&#x27;t hang around.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="963100" class="thewords">That&#x27;s the history. And the fact that we have all that mixture makes it a pretty — the heterogeneity of our community makes it a unique challenge. And so I just think it’s really important that we keep that in mind as we go forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="975000" class="thewords">It’s unprecedented in Vermont history. So there&#x27;s nothing in Vermont that prepares us to deal with Burlington now moving forward. And that should be humbling and sobering, and just something we think about.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="985800" class="thewords">I also think that, you know, I own all of the things that are going on for this board, but I also, from just spending time — and I&#x27;ve got a lot of connections in different places in the town — there&#x27;s little that I hear outside of this board that I don&#x27;t hear on this board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1000500" class="thewords">There are a lot of perspectives represented on the board, which is part of what makes it challenging, but I think also part of what makes it rich. From what I can see, there&#x27;s no rubber stamp, there&#x27;s no alliance that can&#x27;t shift as people get new information, and I think ultimately that&#x27;s pretty healthy.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1018800" class="thewords">And then lastly, in terms of the proposals, if it is the will of the board, I, like Alan, do think that something streamlined and efficient makes sense. I&#x27;m prepared to serve, but I&#x27;m also prepared to consider other people. But the idea that there&#x27;s some smaller subgroup of us that moves forward efficiently certainly makes sense to me, and I have no qualms with any of the other points on this proposal.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1046500" class="thewords">Thank you, Commissioner Dodson.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1053400" class="thewords">Commissioner Porter&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="1055000" class="thewords">Commissioner Halladay, I also wanted to say I fully support this. I think we have... In very few words, you actually cover broadly the concerns. And I think this is a great place to start in moving forward and doing what we do, which is right now hiring a superintendent and projecting a budget.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1078500" class="thewords">So that&#x27;s what we&#x27;re here for right now. So I&#x27;m in full support of every one of these points on here, as written.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1091400" class="thewords">Commissioner Stoll.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1093800" class="thewords">I also think, in total, this is a good way to go, and I thank you for putting all of these ideas together in the succinct way that you did. I do have a few specific issues. I would like to make a friendly amendment that we add one person to the committee of three. I&#x27;d like to add Commissioner Garrison. I think it would be excellent to have one more voice on the commission, and I think he would be a good voice because he&#x27;s new to the party, so to speak.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1121700" class="thewords">So I would like, if you would accept that as a friendly, or whoever made it, if that would be a possible friendly amendment.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1127800" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="1130300" class="thewords">I&#x27;m not inclined to accept that as a friendly amendment. I can speak to the motion when you&#x27;re done.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1136900" class="thewords">Okay. So that was my first thing. The second thing was that I am concerned about two things here. The first is the second sentence in number one. &#x22;We need to understand the issues and discuss our options for moving forward.&#x22; I think that&#x27;s a vague statement. I would be more inclined to accept that first thing without that sentence. I don&#x27;t think it adds anything. I think you&#x27;re saying that you&#x27;ll meet with the three senior administrators, and we&#x27;ll figure out what the concerns were and move forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1169400" class="thewords">Or we will understand them. I think &#x22;moving forward&#x22; puts in there the notion that there could be some huge change or something different, and that is not comfortable for me. So I would be more comfortable if that sentence were struck.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1183900" class="thewords">And finally, my one concern, again, for those of you who have any understanding of the amount of time that we as a board, and in particular the finance committee has spent, it is very difficult to commit to more time.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1200500" class="thewords">It is important to understand how we function as a board. It is important to have sessions to understand that. But we are a board of 14 members. 14 members is de facto a large board that is difficult to function smoothly, no matter what. I don&#x27;t know if I personally can commit to three or four full days of working as a board to make some change in how we function.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1223000" class="thewords">So honestly, while if that&#x27;s the will of the board, I suppose we can go in that direction, I would hesitate that we don&#x27;t put out something that we can&#x27;t really do. So again, I guess I would be perhaps more inclined to take number three and take that off of the agenda, have us say one, two and four, and then to look at three separately and to talk more specifically about what that means in terms of a time commitment.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1250000" class="thewords">I mean I need to tell some of you, if you don&#x27;t understand, that there are some weeks this summer that I&#x27;ve spent upward of 20 hours a week on this job, as many of my colleagues have. And to ask us to give more time than that is not really feasible or fair.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1267200" class="thewords">So, again, so I&#x27;m not sure the exact way to move forward here, but I would like, I guess, another friendly amendment, if you would be willing to take number three out, and for us to vote on number three separately, and to try and get a little bit more specificity about what we&#x27;re talking about in terms of further sessions and what these would look like.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1289900" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="1291000" class="thewords">I would not accept that. I think the intent of number three is different, it’s a different type of commitment than necessarily more time. I think that&#x27;s a leap, in that we don&#x27;t have a plan yet, we don&#x27;t have a specific proposal yet. I think it’s just making a commitment to be willing to engage in these sessions.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1308800" class="thewords">And how we do that can be resolved.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1313400" class="thewords">Okay. So can you remind me, then, what my options are now, if she doesn’t —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1316900" class="thewords">You could propose an amendment to the motion.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1322500" class="thewords">Okay, and then we vote on that amendment.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1323800" class="thewords">We&#x27;d vote on that amendment.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1324900" class="thewords">Okay. So I would like to vote on, I would like to propose an amendment to take number three out and talk about it separately.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1333600" class="thewords">Do we have a second&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Garrison</span><span><a data-m="1335300" class="thewords">I&#x27;ll second.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1336500" class="thewords">Commissioner Garrison seconds. I&#x27;m going to — before we go any further, I was passed a note that we have folks who are out in the hallway who cannot get in the room, and some concerns about safety in the space. Unfortunately, we don&#x27;t have additional spaces this evening, and I am sensitive to that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1361600" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t have a suggestion other than —</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Cina"><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="1368300" class="thewords">Can they sit in the middle&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1370700" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t know that that addresses the safety issues, though.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="1375600" class="thewords">We can make a pathway out.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1377000" class="thewords">But it’s bringing more people... I think the concern is the number of people in the room. So bringing more people into the room I don&#x27;t think is the solution. I don&#x27;t know what the maximum for the room is.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1392800" class="thewords">I&#x27;m sorry, I don&#x27;t, I don&#x27;t know what the maximum number of people permitted in the room is.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Public</span><span><a data-m="1398600" class="thewords">Are you asking us to leave&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1400300" class="thewords">I&#x27;m not asking anyone to leave. I didn’t make any suggestion on anything. No, no, no. I&#x27;m just...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="1407500" class="thewords">Can we meet in the parking lot&#x3f; I&#x27;m just saying, we can make a big giant circle —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1413500" class="thewords">Commissioner Cina, thank you. That&#x27;s... I&#x27;m uncomfortable with the middle because... moving into the middle, because that doesn’t address the number of people in the room.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="1424500" class="thewords">So their suggestion... So it’s hard to address the number of people, but there&#x27;s a suggestion that we take some tables out and condense the tables, so that this square doesn’t take as much, just to deal with the space. It won&#x27;t deal with the number of people in the room. But we can —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Public</span><span><a data-m="1435400" class="thewords">I think that the people out here are saying it’s okay. There&#x27;s three of them.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="1438700" class="thewords">Oh, there&#x27;s only three&#x3f; &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Public</span><span><a data-m="1442400" class="thewords">Just talk louder, so they can... &#x5b;murmur&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1448500" class="thewords">All right. We will go ahead and move forward. There is a proposal...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1455700" class="thewords">There&#x27;s an amendment on the table to strike number three from the motion. I&#x27;m going to go ahead and read number three, just so people know what they&#x27;re discussing.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1465400" class="thewords">Well, to clarify, it’s not to strike it, but to deal with it separately.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1468800" class="thewords">You&#x27;re asking it to be removed from the proposal.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1471200" class="thewords">Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1471500" class="thewords">And then we would have to... Someone would then have to make a new amendment, a new motion to bring that forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="1478600" class="thewords">Point of order&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1481600" class="thewords">Commissioner Matson.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="1481900" class="thewords">Can we actually just — isn&#x27;t this sort of asking to divide the question&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1486000" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="1486100" class="thewords">And it is a divisible... So it could be an amendment to divide the question, which would actually then make it a new motion, separate.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1494700" class="thewords">That was my intention.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">That is a style of motion.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1498400" class="thewords">Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Public</span><span><a data-m="1499100" class="thewords">So the motion could be so regarded, and you could debate it &#x5b;and go ahead&#x5d;. If the maker believes that the removal, the division destroys the motion as intended, then it needs to be debated separately. So, but it’s a legitimate motion.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1522500" class="thewords">Okay. So the motion would be to divide it into two separate motions. Number three, the new motion would be numbers one, two and four, the second motion being number three. Commissioner Curry, do you view that as something that would be dividing the initial purpose of the proposal, of the motion being made&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="1546700" class="thewords">I would prefer not to, because I think the way it’s worded, it has a specific meaning around making a commitment, showing a willingness, a general statement about how we conduct ourselves. And my concern is that if we divide the question, it becomes a separate motion, we get bogged down in kind of the details of the logistical questions around it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1568200" class="thewords">And I think that at the next meeting, the chair could come back with kind of a logistical plan that we could then discuss. I just don&#x27;t see the language as that substantial that we need to have that conversation tonight. I think the intent is really expressing everybody&#x27;s agreement to do this.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1587700" class="thewords">It’s kind of like making a contract together that we&#x27;re going to do our best.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1594200" class="thewords">Anyone else who would like to speak to it&#x3f; Commissioner Porter&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="1596000" class="thewords">Yes. Commissioner Halladay, while I certainly agree in the intent, we are coming right smack dab into the budget session, where these are going to be, for the next three months this is just going to be — that&#x27;s got to be our concentration. I welcome this training, I welcome it all coming at us, but the priority unfortunately would be getting the budget work done, not accomplishing this.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1623300" class="thewords">And so if we&#x27;re going to be held accountable for this, then if we all say, &#x22;Yes, we agree with this,&#x22; then we&#x27;re going to be held accountable and we can get called to question on it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1635300" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t know where the safe mode is on this, but the budget&#x27;s going to come first, the superintendent search is going to come for, that&#x27;s equal there. And this may not take as high a priority, you might not accomplish it. And then in that case, have we failed&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1648700" class="thewords">Anyone else who&#x27;d like to speak to the amendment&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="1650300" class="thewords">Could we call the question&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1651800" class="thewords">You can call the question.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="1652500" class="thewords">I&#x27;d like to call the question, please.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1654300" class="thewords">All right. Call the question takes a two&#x2d;third vote to stop debate. All in favor of calling the question, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="1661100" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1662800" class="thewords">Opposed&#x3f; Unopposed. Call the question. So the amendment would be to separate number three into a separate motion, and the motion on the floor to discuss at this point would just be numbers one, two and four, as originally discussed.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1683300" class="thewords">All in favor of choosing to separate the motion, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1688000" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1689200" class="thewords">Opposed.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="1689800" class="thewords">Nay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1692000" class="thewords">Let&#x27;s do a hand vote. All in favor, please raise your hand. &#x5b;Stoll raises her hand&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="1695300" class="thewords">Could you clarify the —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1696500" class="thewords">All in favor of splitting this into two separate motions, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="1700700" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1701700" class="thewords">Opposed&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="1703000" class="thewords">I was aye also.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="1705900" class="thewords">So three opposed.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1707200" class="thewords">Three opposed, and one, two, three... I&#x27;m sorry, I spoke... Three in favor. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine opposed to the motion.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1722000" class="thewords">The amendment doesn’t carry. We&#x27;ll continue with debate.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Shumski"><span class="overidecolr">Shumski</span><span><a data-m="1726600" class="thewords">Did you record the student vote&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1728100" class="thewords">I&#x27;m sorry. Nay. I&#x27;m sorry. Thank you very much. All right. Is there anyone else who would like to speak to the...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1736600" class="thewords">I have one more comment, though.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1737600" class="thewords">Yes&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="1738500" class="thewords">So the other thing was my — I would like to talk about amending number one, the wording of number one. It was not accepted as a friendly amendment. I really feel uncomfortable about, &#x22;...discuss our options for moving forward...&#x22; tucked into that number one. So again, I would like to offer a motion that we strike the second sentence from number one.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1760300" class="thewords">So it would read, &#x22;Authorize the chair and clerk to meet our three senior administrators to address the issues identified. We may not be pleased with the manner in which the concerns were shared, but we cannot dismiss them. We need to understand them and be sure we are addressing them.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1774500" class="thewords">Do we have a second for the amendment&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="1776700" class="thewords">Second.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1777600" class="thewords">Commissioner Dodson. Anyone like to speak to the proposed amendment&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Truman"><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="1781900" class="thewords">Mr. Chairman, can you restate the motion&#x3f; It was difficult to hear.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1785900" class="thewords">I&#x27;m sorry. And for those... Commissioner Truman is in transit here from parents weekend at his son&#x27;s college. So he will be here in a few minutes. Yes, Commissioner Truman, it’s to change the wording in point number one of the proposal from &#x22;...authorize the chair and clerk to meet with our three senior administrators to address the issues identified. We may not be pleased with the manner in which the concerns were shared, but we cannot dismiss them. We need to understand them and be sure we are addressing them.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1813500" class="thewords">Struck from that was in the original motion, a sentence that reads, &#x22;We need to understand the issues and to discuss our options for moving forward.&#x22; Commissioner Shumski&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="1826200" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Shumski</span><span><a data-m="1827200" class="thewords">Call the question.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1830500" class="thewords">All in favor of ending debate and call the question&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="1833000" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1834000" class="thewords">Any opposition&#x3f; All in favor of the amended language, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="1840600" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1842000" class="thewords">Raise your hands, please. One, two, three, four, five, six. All opposed to the amended language, please say aye. One, two, three, four, five, six.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="1850800" class="thewords">No.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1852100" class="thewords">Seven, from Commissioner Truman. Opposed, student voice. The amendment does not carry, and anything further, Commissioner Stoll&#x3f; All right. Is there anyone else who&#x27;d like to speak to the original proposal, the original motion&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="1867500" class="thewords">I have an amendment.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1870000" class="thewords">Commissioner Truman&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="1871600" class="thewords">Yes, I&#x27;d like to offer an amendment if I can.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1873500" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="1874600" class="thewords">First of all, thank you, everybody, and I apologize for being in transit. I&#x27;m in Northfield, we&#x27;re coming back, and I&#x27;m in the passenger seat on my cell phone. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="1883200" class="thewords">That was the question I had.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="1886900" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t know the current numerical structure of it, but if it’s appropriate to insert as a new number four, which would make the current number four, number five — and I can email this to you if it ends up carrying — a motion that, going forward, establishes a memorandum of understanding between the board and the administration that sets ground rules for how we interact with the administration, no later than the December board meeting.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1918000" class="thewords">So that&#x27;s my &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1919900" class="thewords">So I&#x27;m going to — people in the room couldn’t hear it, but Commissioner Truman, I&#x27;m going to speak back to you as to what the amendment is. The board establishes a memorandum of understanding for ground rules —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="1936900" class="thewords">Sets ground rules, yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1939200" class="thewords">That sets ground rules — continue.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="1942200" class="thewords">For how we interact with the administration.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1944300" class="thewords">Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="1947000" class="thewords">And such an MOU would be brought to the board for consideration no later than the December board meeting.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1959800" class="thewords">Brought to board... okay. So I&#x27;m going to repeat it for the group. This is a proposed new number four, taking number four, moving it down to number five. Reading, &#x22;The board establishes a memorandum of understanding that sets ground rules for how we will interact with the administration. This memorandum of understanding will be brought to the board at the December board meeting.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1984600" class="thewords">So we have a second for this amendment&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Kleman"><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="1988400" class="thewords">Second.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="1989400" class="thewords">Commissioner Kleman, second. Is there anyone who would like to speak to it&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="1995400" class="thewords">So it’s my opinion that we need to have something in writing on how we relate to the administration. There&#x27;s a lot of moving parts of this. The current state of the district and the board, we have to deal with some underlying issues that got us to this place. It’s my opinion that this is one of them that we need to focus on, and that&#x27;s why I&#x27;m offering the suggestion that we come up and establish in writing an understanding between the board and the administration, as the motion says, set up ground rules on how we interact, and the negotiation establishing that MOU is to work out what happened between now and the December board meeting.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2038200" class="thewords">Can I ask a question of clarification, Commissioner Truman&#x3f; Would you imagine this understanding to be made, then, with the new interim superintendent, or is this something, a discussion that would only be at the board level&#x3f; I&#x27;m just trying to make sure I understand the intent.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="2054500" class="thewords">It would be an understanding between the, I guess &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; would have to better phrase it, the governing bodies of the district. And it’s a memorandum of understanding between the district and the administration. So presumably, whoever is the administrative lead at that time, presumably the interim superintendent, would be the person who would be signing the documents for the administration.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2078000" class="thewords">Okay, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="2079000" class="thewords">So it’s not a purely internal board document.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2081700" class="thewords">Thank you. Anyone else who&#x27;d like to speak to the motion&#x3f; Commissioner Porter&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="2086300" class="thewords">Yes, thank you. I really think that this should be more of a collaborative thing with whoever&#x27;s in the leadership at the time. So if we have an interim, when we have an interim, that would be dealt with them on how they best feel that we should be communicating with them, and the currency, who does it, in what form&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2107200" class="thewords">This is a communication plan that&#x27;s agreed to by parties. And when we get to the full&#x2d;time superintendent, it may be completely different, may not be acceptable to them. So I think it’s more important that we say... I think it’s more important that we recognize that it has to be collaborative with whoever&#x27;s in the leadership.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2126600" class="thewords">It has to be collaborative even as of November 9th, when there is no longer an interim superintendent. So we have three different worlds we&#x27;re about to enter into, and I think we have to work with each one of them individually in order to get this finalized.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2141100" class="thewords">Thank you, Commissioner Porter. Anyone else&#x3f; Commissioner Dodson&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="2143900" class="thewords">So, independent of the timing issue and how it goes about that Mark spoke about, I would love clarification — I don&#x27;t know if Joe can provide us — on three questions. One, are you aware of any precedent for this kind of MOU between boards and super&#x3f; The second would be would such a thing be binding&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2163200" class="thewords">And third, back to Patrick&#x27;s point, I think we need to start conducting our business as if we&#x27;re beyond the uncommon circumstance we&#x27;ve been in. So you stated in the beginning that we hire one person and we supervise and evaluate one person. So under those circumstances, is the appropriate role of the board to deal through that person&#x3f; So we wouldn&#x27;t talk about the administration, we would talk about the leader as the person that any of us would be communicating with, as it relates.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Joe"><span class="overidecolr">Joe</span><span><a data-m="2194500" class="thewords">As to the first point, I am aware, both by, of regulations and also of protocol agreements that relate to the manner of interaction of boards and administrators, not just in schools, but in other respects. So it would not be unprecedented to have such a protocol. Number two, the rule typically is that one board cannot bind another.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2226800" class="thewords">But if an action goes into effect, it remains in effect until it is amended or repealed by a subsequent board. But this board could not say that forever and a day, this would be the relationship. It just doesn’t last that long.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dodson</span><span><a data-m="2248700" class="thewords">And would it be binding on each of us, Joe&#x3f; So if one of us stepped outside of the protocol —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Joe</span><span><a data-m="2252400" class="thewords">Yes. If the board passed a motion, authorized an execution of such agreement, it was negotiated and executed, it would be binding on the board, as a board, and all amendments, for that length of time.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2270700" class="thewords">Commissioner Giannoni&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Commissioner Giannoni"><span class="overidecolr">Giannoni</span><span><a data-m="2271900" class="thewords">So in other words, is it — following up on Kyle — is it any more enforceable than a procedure that we have right now&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Joe</span><span><a data-m="2280200" class="thewords">It would, if you passed it, if you negotiated, if you authorized it, you negotiated it and you executed it, so that it was, in fact it amounted to a contract, it would be binding on this board, without doubt. It would be binding on a subsequent board, unless and until it elected not to be bound by it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Giannoni</span><span><a data-m="2305000" class="thewords">So it’s on the whole board, it’s not on individual board members, is what I&#x27;m saying.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Joe</span><span><a data-m="2309000" class="thewords">But once an action is taken by the board, it represents the will of the board and the collective. So if you passed a motion, for example, to enter into a contract to buy ten widgets, that has been an action of the district governing body, which binds all of you, one commissioner could not say, &#x22;I disagree, I&#x27;m not following the will of the body.&#x22; That would be impermissible once that process had been completed, if I&#x27;m being clear enough.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2346900" class="thewords">Commissioner Seguino&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Commissioner Seguino"><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="2348300" class="thewords">I support the sentiment of Commissioner Truman&#x27;s motion, but I don&#x27;t think this is the right time to discuss it. I think that we have to be very clear about what we need to get done tonight and the steps that we need to take moving forward. I&#x27;d like to move that we table this motion and that we take it up at our regular board meeting in October. It still would allow us to address the issue of our relationship with the superintendent at that time.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2378500" class="thewords">So I think without a huge loss, we could do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2381700" class="thewords">And just for clarification, you said October, I&#x27;m assuming you meant the November board meeting.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Seguino</span><span><a data-m="2385100" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2386600" class="thewords">Okay. Do we have a second for a motion to table&#x3f; Commissioner Matson. This is not something debatable. All in favor of tabling the amendment, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="2397400" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2398700" class="thewords">Opposed&#x3f; Great. Thank you, the motion has been tabled. Anything further that you would like to add, Commissioner Truman&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="2412700" class="thewords">No. Thank you. I appreciate the consideration, I think it’s an important issue for us to pursue, so we&#x27;ll talk about it — I&#x27;ll catch up with everybody because I wasn&#x27;t able to hear some of those comments, and I do want to hear the input the other members have. So thank you very much.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2425300" class="thewords">Thank you. Anyone else who&#x27;d like to speak to the motion on the table&#x3f; Commissioner Curry&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="2435500" class="thewords">I&#x27;d just like to support the motion, because I think that there is, especially in terms of number one, I think there&#x27;s reparative work that we need to do with the administration. And I think it’s important for us to understand more about how they got to where they are. And also to give them an opportunity to give us some conversation about transitions.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2464400" class="thewords">And so I think that&#x27;s an important step. I think the committee that, I would support the committee that is being recommended to recommend another acting superintendent. All three people have experience, and a diversity of viewpoints. And then as we&#x27;ve discussed before with Commissioner Stoll, I think that the commitment is important that we all make to take on some training, and I think Commissioner Truman&#x27;s motion had the same intention — that there&#x27;s a lot of training and skill&#x2d;building that we need to do as a board, being a very new board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2506900" class="thewords">And I think it’s important to take the time to do that. A lot of the budget work will happen at the finance committee meeting, and I think the board will have some time if we could lay out a very tight plan. &#x5b;her computer speakers, laughter&#x5d; Now that we have no viruses here. Continue to health.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2526700" class="thewords">So I just wanted to speak to why I made the motion.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2533600" class="thewords">I&#x27;m going to allow anyone else to speak a first time. We actually had set the ground rules for five minutes for each person to have to talk.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="2539600" class="thewords">I&#x27;ll only speak if no one else wants to.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2545600" class="thewords">Hearing no other comment from anyone regarding the events of the weekend and the proposal... Do you have something very quick to say, Commissioner Stoll&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Stoll</span><span><a data-m="2554000" class="thewords">Yeah, I&#x27;d just like to say that I will be voting against this motion. However, it’s not because I don&#x27;t very much agree with parts of it. So the parts of it that I very much agree with are number two and number four. And so please know that — and the other, number one and number three, I don&#x27;t fully disagree with, but I don&#x27;t feel comfortable voting for them, but please know that I do feel very comfortable with some of this. To explain it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2578600" class="thewords">Give one more chance for board members to speak, either to the motion or to the events of the last several days&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2592000" class="thewords">All right. Hearing none, then we will turn this over to public comment. I believe the public comment sheet... I believe the public comment sheet has been passed around.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2607800" class="thewords">We&#x27;ll pass it up here. We can always add as we go on. Can you just pass it up here, Don&#x3f; We can add on as we go.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2625700" class="thewords">Okay. I just want to make, for clarification, if you give me... if you would allow just a second...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2637800" class="thewords">&#x5b;murmur&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2664000" class="thewords">So I just am going to read from our, I&#x27;m going to read from our policy, and I read this not to be, to dismiss public comment, but just to make sure that it’s clear that what we&#x27;re trying to do is follow policy, and also we&#x27;ll give some guidance as to other things that could be done to alter the form of the meeting.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2684400" class="thewords">At each regular board meeting a period of 20 minutes will be set aside as a public forum to permit members of the public to address the board concerning any subject relating to public education in general, and the operations of the Burlington School District in particular.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2697100" class="thewords">Individual presentations will be limited to three minutes. So we have, according to policy, 20 minutes for public comment. If it is the will of the board, at the end of that 20 minutes, to vote to extend the public comment session, we would be allowed to take a vote. It would be a two&#x2d;thirds&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Joe</span><span><a data-m="2715500" class="thewords">No, that&#x27;s just a simple —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2717700" class="thewords">Okay, simple majority to extend the public comment session. But I do want to make sure that I&#x27;m going to stick by that 20 minutes, simply because I want to follow policy, and if the board decides to extend that, because we obviously have a lot of people here tonight, we will take up that question at 20 minutes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2733700" class="thewords">Commissioner Kirk, did you have something&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Kirk"><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="2735000" class="thewords">Just because of the number of people and time, I would think that pre&#x2d;doing this might be a better idea, if we could take a poll of the board and see if we should limit it to two minutes per person, and extend it another 20 minutes to 40 minutes total.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2752300" class="thewords">Before we have —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="2754000" class="thewords">Just a thought.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2754900" class="thewords">Okay, before we do that, I just want to make sure, if we change from three to two, does that...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Joe</span><span><a data-m="2760500" class="thewords">If you change your protocol from three to two, that&#x27;s amending your rules. That would require two&#x2d;thirds.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2768700" class="thewords">Okay, I just, I only say that for clarification —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="2769800" class="thewords">No, that&#x27;s fine. I want to be clear and open. I want to get more people —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2773200" class="thewords">All right. So the proposal that we have on the table from Commissioner Kirk is to extend from 20 to 40 minutes, and limit comments to two minutes. Do we have a second for that change of the rules&#x3f; Commissioner Porter, thank you. Anyone that would like to speak to this&#x3f; Commissioner Shumski&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Shumski</span><span><a data-m="2790800" class="thewords">I&#x27;d like to make a friendly amendment to extend it to 60 minutes. I haven&#x27;t seen the sign&#x2d;up, but I assume there&#x27;s... I mean, two times 30 —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2797600" class="thewords">At this point we don&#x27;t have that many people, but that doesn’t mean that there wouldn&#x27;t... We would also have the ability to extend it at 40 minutes, if we would like to do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Shumski</span><span><a data-m="2806100" class="thewords">Do you have a rough estimate, Patrick, on the —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2807400" class="thewords">Right now, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten... Right now it’s about 15 people who are on there, but there is still stuff circulating around.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Shumski</span><span><a data-m="2816800" class="thewords">Then I guess the friendly amendment would be —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2818000" class="thewords">Friendly amendment was being made —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Shumski</span><span><a data-m="2818800" class="thewords">— to 60 minutes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2819800" class="thewords">Do you accept that as friendly&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="2820600" class="thewords">I would accept that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2821000" class="thewords">Okay. Do we have...&#x3f; And who seconded the...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="2825600" class="thewords">I agree.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2826200" class="thewords">Okay. Anyone else who&#x27;d like to speak to it&#x3f; Commissioner Cina&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="2829900" class="thewords">I&#x27;d like to give everyone a chance to speak, if possible. So I&#x27;m just wondering if we can assess how many people want to speak before we start deciding how long and how many minutes they have.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2844700" class="thewords">We could amend at 60 minutes, that would be the other option.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2847300" class="thewords">&#x5b;murmur&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Curry</span><span><a data-m="2854300" class="thewords">Call the question.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2860800" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry just called the question. All in favor of the proposal to extend... to close debate, I&#x27;m sorry. Thank you. To close debate, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="2870700" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2871500" class="thewords">Any opposition&#x3f; None. The motion to extend public comment to 60 minutes, limiting comment to two minutes per person, all in favor please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="2885600" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2887200" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; &#x5b;Matson raises his hand&#x5d; One opposed. So that would be one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 in favor. Commissioner Truman, how did you vote&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2899100" class="thewords">Didn’t hear him. I think we may have lost him. He may have been lost.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2909200" class="thewords">One opposed. All right. The motion passes. I&#x27;m seeing 7:25 on the clock right now. I&#x27;m again going to set this timer up here for two minutes. Hold on... And I&#x27;ll move it to 7:26, just because I&#x27;m sure I&#x27;m taking an extra minute. First up we have Dawn Moskowitz. Second, Robert Gristo Johnson.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2932800" class="thewords">Third, I believe it says Jared Hood, but I&#x27;m not positive that&#x27;s an H.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="George Wood"><span class="overidecolr">Wood</span><span><a data-m="2937200" class="thewords">Could you take my name off&#x3f; George Wood. Take it off&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="2939800" class="thewords">Oh, it’s Wood, I&#x27;m sorry. All right. Kathy Chasen would be third speaking.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2947000" class="thewords">Don&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Dawn Moskowitz"><span class="overidecolr">Moskowitz</span><span><a data-m="2948800" class="thewords">My name is Dawn Moskowitz. I am a parent of a ninth grader in the district, and have been involved in working with the schools for a number of years. I appreciate the commitment of this board and the proposed motion put forth tonight.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2963400" class="thewords">I come to you with a petition signed by 150 people as of 5pm, seeking the board&#x27;s commitment to work closely with Secretary of Education Holcombe. I have for you a print copy of the signatures, as well as the comments submitted.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2978100" class="thewords">These individuals want to ensure that Burlington can find and hire a highly qualified interim and permanent superintendent. We need the knowledge, experience and leadership of the Vermont Secretary of Education.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2992100" class="thewords">We seek a strong public commitment from the board to work very closely with the Secretary of Education to attract, retain and vet highly qualified interim and permanent superintendent candidates. Burlington students, families, teachers and residents need information about how the Secretary of Education can be involved, as well as clear and consistent communication and a timeline outlining how the board is partnering with the agency.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3020000" class="thewords">This must go beyond assurances that the board is talking with the Secretary of Education. We need to know if and how the secretary and the state can help us with our immediate priorities of appointing an interim superintendent and developing the school project.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3035200" class="thewords">While I respect the motion to appoint the three board members mentioned, I still believe that we need to partner actively with the secretary to get the best candidate we can for interim superintendent.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3050200" class="thewords">Our community is hungry for this leadership. In 32 hours, 150 people supported this request, and many thoughtful comments were posted. Public comments, timelines and communication are needed. The motion put forth tonight is definitely a step in the right direction.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3068600" class="thewords">The board&#x27;s process and decisions must align with best practices for superintendent searches. I would like to see the board vote publicly on a motion to work closely with the Secretary of Education and to outline and share her recommendations. Thank you. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3089700" class="thewords">Next up, Robert Gristo Johnson, followed by Kathy Chasen, then Sharon Weltman would be &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Robert Gristo Johnson"><span class="overidecolr">Johnson</span><span><a data-m="3095200" class="thewords">So I&#x27;m Robert Bristol Johnson, I live up in the New North End. I&#x27;m a blue dot in the red end of town. I&#x27;m quite aware of politically what has been going on from town meeting day since, when we have a failed budget, and then the replaced budget had even a higher dollar amount.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3111200" class="thewords">Usually when a budget fails, it’s because it’s, the voters tend to think that it’s too high for them to want to pay. So I understand the tough nut that you guys have to crack regarding that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3124700" class="thewords">But again, we have to not be pennywise and pound foolish about this. We all have kids. I have two kids in the system. Turns out one kid is taking school choice as a big picture in South Burlington. So my family gets to deal with both the teacher&#x27;s strike and whatever this mess is.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3145900" class="thewords">So that&#x27;s just kind of a weird coincidence. Anyway, you have a right as board members to ask hard questions. You have a right, in my opinion, to ask for line item budgets. You have a right to scrutinize spending.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3161100" class="thewords">But you have to accept, you have to deal with the tough answers that come back. You might see stuff that you don&#x27;t like, and we have to live with it, because there are federal mandates, there are state mandates. They&#x27;re just the fact of how a large organization is run.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3185000" class="thewords">And so in that regard, just like if this was a corporate board and we&#x27;re talking about a CEO, which it’s kinda odd that you only get to hire the CEO, and you don&#x27;t get to hire the CFO or other persons like that — you might want to consider that — you might want to consider hiring an auditor.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3204100" class="thewords">You have to accept the bad news. But demand the information, but be able to deal with the consequences. And telling voters that, &#x22;What we&#x27;re going to do is take this cruft we found in the budget, and we&#x27;re going to refund it to you as a lower tax base,&#x22; that might not be the same as accepting the bad news for what it is.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3226200" class="thewords">Because we still have a school district to run.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3229200" class="thewords">Time is running low.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Johnson</span><span><a data-m="3230100" class="thewords">Okay, I&#x27;m gonna say one thing. We have to accept humility and that we don&#x27;t know... We&#x27;re not all school administrators here, we&#x27;re not all educators here, and you have to understand what it is that you don&#x27;t know, in order to be able to do your job the best. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3250600" class="thewords">Next up we have Kathy Chasen, followed by Sharon Weltman, then Terry Buhner.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Kathy Chasen"><span class="overidecolr">Chasen</span><span><a data-m="3262800" class="thewords">I would like to thank — and they&#x27;re not here tonight — Stephanie, Paul and Nicky, for writing the letter to Patrick that spelled out so clearly what members of the public have been saying and thinking, but we haven&#x27;t had the authority to really do anything.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3276800" class="thewords">I&#x27;m disappointed before tonight&#x27;s meeting — but this discussion was interesting — in the response from the board, the chair and the clerk and the mayor, who I read online. None of you three mentioned the actual problems that caused Stephanie and Paul and Nicky to write the letter.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3295500" class="thewords">The responses avoided mentioning board behavior at all. Your responses were off&#x2d;topic, and that didn’t really move the situation forward like you were discussing tonight.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3308500" class="thewords">So I just wanted to say thank you, Stephanie, Nicky and Paul. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3318500" class="thewords">Sharon Weltman, followed by Terry Buhner, followed by...</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Sharon Weltman"><span class="overidecolr">Weltman</span><span><a data-m="3324600" class="thewords">Hello. I&#x27;m a here&#x27;s teacher at Burlington High School. I&#x27;m very disappointed in the board. In the last year this board has taken from me many things both as an educator and a resident. You&#x27;ve robbed me of working with a great vice principal. Nick Molander was a dedicated, sincere, hardworking and caring vice principal at BHS.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3347000" class="thewords">He did all of this under an interim basis. When time came to put the best person in the job, the board voted unanimously to sever his service. He&#x27;s what that did to me: Lowered my morale, made it impossible for my principal to both finish last year and start this year with a strong administrative team. Why&#x3f; Why, school board, did you do this&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3368100" class="thewords">Jeannie Collins was forced out of her contract to the tune of a quarter million dollars. Why, school board, did you burden the taxpayers with this&#x3f; Why, school board, were some of you creating such an unpleasant work environment that three caring, dedicated professionals would choose to quit their interim positions rather than continuing to work with you&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3390300" class="thewords">Some of you are on the board solely because you feel the taxes are too high. You cannot have one focus, not on a board when so many souls are at stake. You must open your eyes and see what your one focus is doing. It is crumbling the very human infrastructure around the professionals who work at BSD.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3410200" class="thewords">Why, school board&#x3f; You say the last board rubber stamped everything. What are your credentials that make you feel that you know more about education than the people who have years of experience, Bachelor&#x27;s Degrees, Master&#x27;s Degrees and Ph.D.s in education do&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3427300" class="thewords">I am disheartened and disappointed. Before we lose another expert educator, I call on you, school board, to look at the situation you have created, and ask why, school board, why&#x3f; &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3448500" class="thewords">Terry Buhner, Anne Toukesberry&#x2d;Frye, followed by Jim Holloway.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Terry Buhner"><span class="overidecolr">Buhner</span><span><a data-m="3454500" class="thewords">Sharon, that was excellent. Kathy, that was excellent. Okay, and I have to join with saying that I can only say that when I read the letter from Stephanie, Nicky and Paul, that I felt that it was a tremendous, courageous step. One that I haven&#x27;t seen in quite a while.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3485900" class="thewords">I actually emailed them and said that, and also stated that I hope that it would make a difference. Your words tonight give me a little bit of hope that, maybe, but the rest of the words tonight do not. I sat before the school board over a month ago, and talked about a conversation and how a conversation is conducted, and that you shouldn’t get involved in a conversation so that the person you&#x27;re talking with, you shut &#x27;em down.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3526500" class="thewords">&#x27;Cause then you don&#x27;t have a conversation anymore. Now, I don&#x27;t know exactly what kind of behavior caused these three professionals to resign. But they&#x27;re very smart people. And I think I know and believe that they know what they&#x27;re talking about.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3546000" class="thewords">It is time that respect returns. You take a pledge of ethics before you even sit around this table. Think about that. And as we move forward, let&#x27;s truly make a commitment to move forward. Think about that ethics pledge, respect, and the whole idea of a conversation.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3575100" class="thewords">Takes two people. Thank you. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3584200" class="thewords">Anne Toukesberry&#x2d;Frye, Jim Holloway, followed by Martha Lange.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Anne Toukesberry"><span class="overidecolr">Toukesberry&#x2d;Frye</span><span><a data-m="3595300" class="thewords">Hi, I&#x27;m Anne Toukesberry&#x2d;Frye. I&#x27;m recently retired Sustainability Academy coach, and I&#x27;ve taught in Burlington for 26 years. The first minute I want to speak about my incredible dismay at the board&#x27;s action that would cause three brilliant educators to step down from their position that they had stepped up to help the city of Burlington for, and to step back to their positions, due to a lot of controversies that none of us in the city are really well aware of.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3626800" class="thewords">I think that that was a big mistake. I have great respect for those educators, as well as for Nick Molander, as well as for Jeannie Collins, because I&#x27;ve taught for your district for so many years. The second piece that I wanted to address is, from this document here, the commitment to further sessions on improving how we function as a board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3648300" class="thewords">I really have a lot of respect for what Miriam said about the countless hours that the board has put in, particularly the financial folks. But when teachers get together for meetings and work what their colleagues or negotiate, they spend hours and hours and days and weeks and months of their career learning how to do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3668700" class="thewords">We learn how to talk, how to be respectful, how to listen — a huge, huge skill — how to listen, because having a conversation is more than just speaking your mind. And I would urge the board to do exactly that — to take the training that they need, and I know there&#x27;s no time, I know there&#x27;s a budget. I know that there&#x27;s no interim and no real and no everything. I know what a crisis it is, because I live it every day in watching what everybody is doing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3697300" class="thewords">But if you don&#x27;t know how to do what you&#x27;re doing, you first have to learn how to do it before you can do anything. Thank you. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3711100" class="thewords">Jim Holloway, Martha Lange, Jason &#x5b;Lequier&#x5d;. Thank you, Jason.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Public</span><span><a data-m="3717900" class="thewords">I&#x27;m actually just going to move my name to the end, just as there&#x27;s so many other comments, I don&#x27;t want to repeat...</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Martha Lange"><span class="overidecolr">Lange</span><span><a data-m="3729800" class="thewords">All right. My name is Martha Lange, and I just want to say that I&#x27;ve been following the school board for almost a year and a half, and I have never seen a school board work harder, give more of themselves to their appointments than I have this school board. A year and a half ago, I saw school boards that were just quiet.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3748300" class="thewords">I will guarantee these people are knocking themselves out. Maybe there are a few bumps in the road — nothing comes easily — but you can&#x27;t give up. When you make mistakes, then you know you&#x27;re working hard. You just don&#x27;t want to make the same ones again. I have watched the school board give endlessly, and I say, &#x22;Who doesn’t make mistakes&#x3f;&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3766700" class="thewords">And I&#x27;m not saying you made any, but let&#x27;s move ahead. And I appreciate all your hard work and your dedicated hours. Thank you very very much. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3780500" class="thewords">Jason, then Jennifer Wilsner&#x3f; And followed by Bob &#x5b;Audi&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Jason Lequier"><span class="overidecolr">Lequier</span><span><a data-m="3791300" class="thewords">Hello, my name&#x27;s Jason Lequier. I&#x27;ll tell ya, I had something really eloquent to say, but my battery died on my computer. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; So I will say that I have kids that are 10 and 13, and my overwhelming message is knock it off. Three people resigned. I mean, if one person resigned, it can be a personality problem.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3816300" class="thewords">But three people, come on. There&#x27;s an underlying issue here. It’s not us against them. So I also want to say that for the first time in my life, I voted no for a school budget my last time. So that tells you my history.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3834200" class="thewords">I did that because things were out of control with spending, we didn’t understand where our money was going, and I voted to get new people in to get it fixed. With that said, I think nine new people are in there — six, and then three resigned, so we have nine new ones.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3856000" class="thewords">And then we have the bigger deficit, and then we found a buncha money by an accounting thing. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; And then all of a sudden I see in the paper that three people resigned, and now middle&#x2d;class people have a tax increase by having to bus their kids to school and spend money for it. That&#x27;s unacceptable.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3875500" class="thewords">By the way, I&#x27;m not affected by that, so I&#x27;m not saying it from a bias. I just think it’s ridiculous. And then just, you know, you didn’t know anything about this. It’s just a lot of dysfunction. Knock it off, it needs to be fixed. Thank you. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3896600" class="thewords">Jennifer, Bob Abbey, then Dan Fry.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Willingham</span><span><a data-m="3906700" class="thewords">Did you say Willingham&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="3907700" class="thewords">Willing — yeah, is it Willing...&#x3f; I&#x27;m sorry.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Jennifer Willingham"><span class="overidecolr">Willingham</span><span><a data-m="3918400" class="thewords">So good evening. I am here — sorry, I don&#x27;t have a prepared speech in front of me — but just to talk about the transportation issue as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3927500" class="thewords">I feel that transportation is a vital part, is a vital expense to a school district. We have the obligation to provide transportation free of charge, I believe, to all of our students, regardless of their distance that they live, and regardless of their income aspects of it. I mean not everybody — I read in the article — not everybody does qualify for free and reduced hot lunch, so they would not be able to receive a free pass.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3956800" class="thewords">Some people maybe don&#x27;t apply, or some people are just above the income thresholds. But I would urge everybody, as you as the board members, to provide that transportation. I don&#x27;t know what our attendance rate was when the bus strike happened — I don&#x27;t know if that has affected it tremendously, but I think it’s important. We want our kids to be able to get to school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3981400" class="thewords">And if... A lot of people, that&#x27;s their only way. They don&#x27;t have their parents to walk &#x27;em to school for elementary school. They just have a way to get to school. And I would just encourage that, to reinstate that, so we have kids, that we provide them an opportunity to get to school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3998500" class="thewords">Maybe November 18th, the Tuesday after, might be a snowstorm. The sidewalks aren&#x27;t plowed. How are these kids safely going to get to school&#x3f; That&#x27;s all I have to say. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4015200" class="thewords">Bob Abbey, Dan Fry, &#x5b;Pam Guardy&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Bob Abbey"><span class="overidecolr">Abbey</span><span><a data-m="4027900" class="thewords">Good evening. My name is Bob Abbey. I am the president of the BEA and I represent about 400 teachers and about 180 para&#x2d;educators. For many months, Burlington educators have been deeply trouble by the practices of the current school board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4045000" class="thewords">What we have witnessed is that this board is plagued by the following: Unprofessional behavior during public and private meetings, questionable decisions around personnel decisions, a continued lack of transparency, and a simple lack of understanding for the work that we do.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4063700" class="thewords">Most alarming is the school board&#x27;s relentless campaign to silence the experts. Administrators, principals, teachers and staff feel defeated by the culture of fear and intimidation that this school board has created.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4088400" class="thewords">Therefore, Burlington educators stand with our district administrators, who have courageously spoken out against this school board. Burlington educators believe that your failure to listen and to trust in our expertise is the center of this problem.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4108300" class="thewords">We also believe, we know that listening and trust are the solution. I&#x27;m here to assure you, Burlington children and families, that your teachers are hard at work tonight preparing to give our students another week of high&#x2d;quality education and learning.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4129200" class="thewords">I now ask the board to join the principals, the teachers, the para&#x2d;educators and the administrators, to become part of the solution.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4144000" class="thewords">And to the whole Burlington community, please become engaged. Ask questions, and set high expectations for our school board. Our students, our kids, your kids are too important to continue on this current path. Thank you. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4175000" class="thewords">Dan Fry, Rich, and then Deirdre Dunham.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Deirdre Dunham"><span class="overidecolr">Dunham</span><span><a data-m="4178000" class="thewords">Patrick, I can remove my name, because I&#x27;m just supporting Dawn Moskowitz and &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; the AOE.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4184100" class="thewords">Thank you, Deirdre.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Dan Fry"><span class="overidecolr">Fry</span><span><a data-m="4186200" class="thewords">Hello, my name&#x27;s Dan Fry. I live in ward four. I&#x27;ve been a resident of the New North End for almost 30 years, been married to a teacher for 30 years, and I&#x27;ve had my children matriculate through the school system quite successfully.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4201400" class="thewords">I have a grandchild in the school system today. This is a catastrophic failure of the school board to comprehend their duty to the children in the school district of Burlington. Therefore, I&#x27;m calling for the immediate removal and resignation of David Kirk, Patrick Halladay and Scott Shumski. &#x5b;light applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4230700" class="thewords">Rich, then, I&#x27;m sorry, Beck Holt and Rita &#x5b;Markwell&#x5d;. Mark Lee, I&#x27;m sorry.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Rich Nadworny"><span class="overidecolr">Nadworny</span><span><a data-m="4245100" class="thewords">Hello, I&#x27;m Rich Nadworny. I live in the New North End. I have a student at BHS and one at Hunt, and I&#x27;m watching again as the school board and the schools go through yet another crisis. Patrick, I really appreciate your amendment, or number three, of putting time in around the board and its relationship, and even board governance, and I think that&#x27;s something that the board should pay attention to, because this isn&#x27;t the first time we&#x27;ve ended up in crisis.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4272800" class="thewords">We&#x27;ve been having this actually for a number of years. And it points to not just the personalities on the board. It points to how the board functions as a group. So I would recommend that you either accept this amendment or revise it to ask for outside help on board governance, school board governance, perhaps from the Agency of Education or others.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4292800" class="thewords">Winooski has just gone through this, and as a Winooski teacher said to me this weekend, &#x22;I can&#x27;t believe it feels like Winooski is so far ahead of Burlington at this point.&#x22; &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; And that made me pay attention. So I think you need outside help in learning how to be a board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4311900" class="thewords">I agree with you, Miriam. We&#x27;re not asking you to do 20 or 40 hours more a week. I mean, I can&#x27;t believe the amount of time you put in anyway. So I think it would behoove the board to find that help of how to function as a school board in the most effective manner. Thank you. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4335200" class="thewords">Becky Holt, Rita &#x5b;Marklee&#x5d; and &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Becky Holt"><span class="overidecolr">Holt</span><span><a data-m="4343100" class="thewords">Hi, my name is Becky Holt and my daughter is a Hunt Middle School eighth grader. I am speaking today because I just want to express my disappointment with the Front Porch Forum post that was posted just before this meeting by Scott Shumski and David Kirk and Kevin Garrison.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4359600" class="thewords">I thought that it was inappropriate and premature before this meeting. I felt like it slammed the administration. I was disappointed with the negative tone of saying they weren&#x27;t up to the task. I think that was very snide and snarky, and that&#x27;s not appropriate. And if that reflects the kind of communication that&#x27;s been going on, then perhaps that gives you insight into some of the issues.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4382800" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve read the Free Press stories and I followed the news, and I would like to say I saw the release of the &#x5b;led&#x5d; of the emails, the emails from the administration had been released, but the responses back from the school board had not.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4394700" class="thewords">So in the issue of transparency and freedom of information, I would like to understand who&#x27;s to blame. Not to say that the blame is the most important part. But I would like to understand what happened. And I think as a taxpayer, I want to understand why we have this problem, and what we can do to resolve it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4415300" class="thewords">I would like to thank the board members for the hard work on the finance, and to try to resolve that. I know many of you are dedicated — this is a volunteer position, and I want to thank you for that hard work. And I appreciate what you have done, and I have a lot of respect for many of you, and know you in other aspects in the city.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4433300" class="thewords">So thank you for your time. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4444400" class="thewords">&#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; followed by &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Rita"><span class="overidecolr">Rita</span><span><a data-m="4447700" class="thewords">I think I like &#x5b;Marco&#x5d; better. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; Okay. So my name is Rita. I have three kids in the Burlington schools. And I want to thank all of you for your service, because I know how hard it is to do a job like this that is thankless at such a difficult time. So I want to start with that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4476200" class="thewords">But I want to say that I have not been that involved, tracking the school board. I know that I need to get more engaged. So I have no idea what the underlying dynamics are right now. But it is clear to me that things are devolving, and it’s gotten ugly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4496800" class="thewords">And whatever your position, in my mind there is no occasion that justifies or merits being ugly. And I think three people resigning speaks a lot. I agree. One person, you know, it could be a personality.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4515100" class="thewords">So one, I understand that there is a board training, there&#x27;s a training for school board members, and I&#x27;m just curious if any of you have taken it. It’s put on by the Association of School Boards or whatever. And it would be helpful to know if anybody of the new members have taken it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="4534100" class="thewords">Some of us have done it twice.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Holt</span><span><a data-m="4534800" class="thewords">Okay. Has everybody&#x3f; Okay. Well, then I don&#x27;t know what they&#x27;re training. But, so here&#x27;s my point, then. &#x5b;laughter, applause&#x5d; Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4547100" class="thewords">So I assume they would be going over, you know, board role, staff role, communication. But I&#x27;m looking down the road, and I think if we want to attract to this community really talented potential candidates for a superintendent, reading what has happened is going to repel people.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4573300" class="thewords">And they have no reason to believe or trust it will be different, I don&#x27;t think, if whoever is responsible for the rude comments or whatever it said in the paper — I don&#x27;t know that there were disrespectful comments publicly or badgering people, in a way —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4591700" class="thewords">Rita, I need to ask you to wrap up —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Rita</span><span><a data-m="4592900" class="thewords">— that they felt diminished. Okay. So one, I think that there should be a public apology from the people responsible, so there&#x27;s a message that says, &#x22;We own it, we&#x27;re sorry, this is what we&#x27;re going to do to get it right.&#x22; And I think you can have, without an MOU, your own ground rules for conduct, and hold yourselves accountable.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4612400" class="thewords">Don&#x27;t make it an MOU with the interim transition. Make it with each other. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4625500" class="thewords">Clara &#x5b;Wolfney&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Clara Wolfney"><span class="overidecolr">Clara</span><span><a data-m="4628900" class="thewords">Hi. I am a parent of three children in the district. I want to thank you as citizens of Burlington for serving on the school board. I appreciate all the time that was dedicated to listen to all the finance and budget meetings that you all spend a tremendous amount of time and long hours.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4647600" class="thewords">So my ultimate goal here is, though, to ask for the board and the ad hoc committee for the interim, and I know Brian&#x27;s committee for the search of the superintendent, is to seek the advice of professionals, especially the Department of Education, Secretary Holcombe.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4667800" class="thewords">After speaking also with the Superintendents&#x27; Association, Jeff Francis. We have a wealth of people in this state, we pride ourselves on education. I appreciate that you are all citizens dedicated to working on this board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4681000" class="thewords">But there are resources that we need to look to to guide us in this very important interim role and superintendent search. Thank you. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4697200" class="thewords">Those are all the people who have signed up for public comment. We still do have time available if there&#x27;s anyone else who would like to make a public comment.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4721200" class="thewords">While we&#x27;re waiting for Jim to come up, on just a side note, one of our student members, I&#x27;d like to congratulate the girls&#x27; BHS cross country team, who qualified for the New England championships yesterday. &#x5b;cheers, applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Joe"><span class="overidecolr">Joe</span><span><a data-m="4744800" class="thewords">To be brief, I echo many of the well stated comments here. There&#x27;s a lot of frustration in the community. There&#x27;s a lot of — where there&#x27;s smoke, there&#x27;s fire.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4759200" class="thewords">I was hoping that tonight we would talk about what we&#x27;re hearing from outside the board, from the media and other conversations. I don&#x27;t know who&#x27;s doing what. But I read that and say if someone said that about the feeling that was going on with my child, investigation, very fast. I want to know answers.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4781900" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t see that. I heard something different. And I can appreciate it — and I want to say there&#x27;s one thing to work many long hours, and I know everyone, as you stood up knowing you&#x27;d be putting in long hours.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4796700" class="thewords">So that in and of itself is appreciated. But you can work 20 hours digging a ditch or you can work 20 hours moving the train forward. And you certainly aren&#x27;t going to have a whole lot of moving forward if some are digging a ditch and some are moving forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4816500" class="thewords">How you guys work, the behavior is what I want answers on. You know, I want to have a positive, constructive dialogue, and I think that to a certain extent there are three strikes. We hear — and I don&#x27;t want to put blame — we hear about financial problems, we see burned bridges before solutions.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4842100" class="thewords">And third, things like the school bus thing, suddenly, at a time where, you know, such short notice, people are forced to make some tough decisions.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4855300" class="thewords">So I just want to point out, there are, as I heard, nine of 14 new board members, some of which, this is, how much experience do you have&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4867500" class="thewords">To finish off, if you guys aren&#x27;t going to publicly talk about the way the board functions, behaves, right now that&#x27;s telling me that... I&#x27;m wondering if there&#x27;s no change, where&#x27;s the trust in what you will come up with, whether it’s budget or anything else&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4893300" class="thewords">So it’s not meant to be a lecture. I think that, echoing so many of the good, solid comments, I hope you guys are listening and taking that advice. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Alison Sega"><span class="overidecolr">Alison</span><span><a data-m="4915700" class="thewords">Hi, my name&#x27;s Alison &#x5b;Sega&#x5d;, I live in ward five, and I don&#x27;t want to talk about what’s going on, this crisis. I just want to talk about the bus issue. I feel really really really concerned about the bus issue, really concerned for working families who don&#x27;t have free&#x2f;reduced school lunches.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4937300" class="thewords">My taxes went up &#x24;600 this year. Another &#x24;150 is a lot of money to find to pay for my kid to go to school every day. I&#x27;ll find it, but there&#x27;s a lot of families that aren&#x27;t going to find it, and I feel really concerned that, amidst this big crisis that&#x27;s going on, that this other thing is just gonna slip through and it’s gonna happen.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4956300" class="thewords">It’s going to affect a lot of families. And I really really hope that you guys reconsider. I&#x27;ve been told that it was either buses or music. I know that there&#x27;s got to be another way. There has to be another way.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4968700" class="thewords">And I really would urge you to consider relooking to see where you can find the money so that all our children can get to school, and that it’s not going to cost them any money. Thank you. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="4989000" class="thewords">Can you state your name, please&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Len Whitehouse"><span class="overidecolr">Len</span><span><a data-m="4990100" class="thewords">Len Whitehouse. I live in the New North End. I&#x27;d just like to say thank you, I&#x27;d like to finish on a positive note. Thank you very much for the hard work you have done, and the holes that you have filled in. I appreciate it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5002700" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve been to a lot of school board meetings. I&#x27;ve seen what you&#x27;ve done, and I appreciate it greatly. So thank you very much. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5017600" class="thewords">Any further public comment&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5021900" class="thewords">All right. Hearing none, close that. Okay. So on the ground rules we set at the outset, we were going to go straight to a vote on the proposal that was made by Commissioner Curry, seconded by Commissioner Seguino.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5043500" class="thewords">And somehow or another, my copy has disappeared. But is there anyone that need — everyone should have a copy in front of them. Does it need to be reread&#x3f; So at this point, all in favor of the proposal as written, please, let&#x27;s do a hand vote. You have a question.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Commissioner</span><span><a data-m="5060800" class="thewords">Yeah. We didn’t change any words —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5062700" class="thewords">There have been no changes at all. Yup.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5068400" class="thewords">I&#x27;m going to do a hand vote. So all in favor of the proposal, please raise their hand. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12. 12 in favor. All opposed&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5081500" class="thewords">One opposed. And in favor as well. So we have a 12 to one vote, student vote in favor as well. All right. Next on our agenda for this evening... Well, we don&#x27;t need to consider an executive session. That was put on there in case we needed to, which we don&#x27;t.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5101600" class="thewords">Would be the amendment to the agenda for Commissioner Cina to give an update on the superintendent search and the implications for the superintendent search.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5113000" class="thewords">Wow. I didn’t expect that to happen so quickly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5118900" class="thewords">So after the events of Friday, I got in touch with our consultant from CSSR, which is the Center for Secondary School Reform &#x5b;sic&#x5d;, which is the group helping with the position analysis process. And I also got in touch with Gary &#x5b;Ray&#x5d;, our consultant from Rand Associates, who&#x27;s helping us with the job posting, and application screening, and interviewing process.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5145500" class="thewords">And shared with them what was going on, and got their feedback about how this impacts the search. Bill Brian from CSSR has suggested that he postpone CSSR&#x27;s involvement in the community input process this week, because he feels that his process isn&#x27;t going to work under these conditions.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5169200" class="thewords">However, he supports us doing something to reach out to the community and continue to gather community input. And he&#x27;s willing to, maybe in a few weeks, consider doing those community input sessions.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5182400" class="thewords">I spoke with Gary Ray. He said that he&#x27;s seen situations like this happen in other districts during the search process, but that the most important thing is that we keep moving forward, and that he thinks we need to stay on track with gathering community input and getting job posting up on our timeline.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5200000" class="thewords">So that being said, I come to you tonight with sort of a proposal about how we should proceed, considering that CSSR is not willing to do the community input sessions this week, but we have three community input sessions scheduled. So what I&#x27;d like to propose is that the ad hoc committee meet on Wednesday night, and that we invite members of the SSAC, which is the Superintendent Search Advisory Committee, to join the meeting, and that together we plan community input sessions for this week.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5228400" class="thewords">The focus being on the search and on what people are looking for in a superintendent. It’ll be a chance to introduce the community to come of the work we&#x27;ve been doing on position analysis, and maybe see if there&#x27;s questions people have that we could then follow up with our consultant.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5245600" class="thewords">And then when he comes in a few weeks, he&#x27;s better prepared to work with the community on that piece.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5251400" class="thewords">And that&#x27;s really what I&#x27;d like to propose for today, is that we need to keep moving on the search. We can&#x27;t let this setback interfere with what’s a really important job for our community right now.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5262600" class="thewords">So I&#x27;m hoping that the ad hoc committee would be willing to convene Wednesday night, and I&#x27;m hoping that some members of the SSAC would be willing to volunteer a little extra time and join us, so that we can do some kind of community input process on Thursday.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5275200" class="thewords">And then I think the ad hoc committee needs to look at, in the next few weeks, how do we support the SSAC in the work they have to do to design elements of the interview process, and just keep plugging ahead.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5287400" class="thewords">I also think we need to continue some of the good things we&#x27;ve been doing. And I can talk more about that on Wednesday night, when we all meet. I don&#x27;t think I need to review all that tonight. But that&#x27;s really what I wanted to present to the board, and also just letting the community know that it’s important that we stay on track with this.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5305500" class="thewords">But it’s also important that we respect the feedback of our consultants, you know&#x3f; So...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5312900" class="thewords">Any questions for Commissioner Cina&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5316200" class="thewords">Commissioner Truman&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Truman</span><span><a data-m="5318400" class="thewords">I guess if you can clarify for me more, because it may be the nature of the phrasing, but the consultant position is what&#x3f; We want to postpone doing the outreach right now, or, &#x22;I don&#x27;t want to do it, and maybe I&#x27;ll do it later&#x3f;&#x22; Or are we just talking about, given the immediacy of what’s going on, we&#x27;re postponing things for, essentially, a time certain down the road a couple of weeks&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5342300" class="thewords">I just want to make sure that I&#x27;m clear on what —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5343400" class="thewords">Yeah. Well, what he specifically said is that the way he&#x27;s going to approach it will not work under the current conditions, and that he would want to wait a few weeks and let us do our own work on this before we bring him in.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5357200" class="thewords">When I spoke with our other consultant, Gary Ray, he said that he&#x27;s willing to come out here and help us if we need him, and he thinks at some point soon he should come out and visit with us. But he did not suggest that he should be running these.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5370600" class="thewords">I think his suggestion was we as a community need to figure this out. And so that&#x27;s why I&#x27;m proposing that the ad hoc committee and the SSAC, which is our community advisors and staff advisors, work together to do some kind of community input and engage the community this week.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5387300" class="thewords">And in the meantime, when we meet Wednesday, the ad hoc committee and the SSAC together, or the members of the SSAC who join that night, can talk about, in the next few weeks what do we need to do extra&#x3f; What have we been doing that&#x27;s right&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5398900" class="thewords">What have we been doing that we might want to adjust right now to make sure we stay on track and make this a meaningful process with integrity that involves the community&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5407800" class="thewords">Commissioner Kirk, then Commissioner Kleman. Is this a question for Commissioner Cina&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Commissioner Kirk"><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5414300" class="thewords">I&#x27;d like to echo what you said, Brian, about the urgency, continuing to move forward. My question is, is the CSSR, they&#x27;re actually helping us build the job description for the superintendent —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">Yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">Is he, is Bill Brian, is he stopping that process&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5432900" class="thewords">No.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5433200" class="thewords">Is he gonna try...&#x3f; I mean, you understand my question.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5436400" class="thewords">Let me explain, actually, let me give you some detail about that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5438500" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5439300" class="thewords">You know, I&#x27;m doing my best to kind of cover everything. There are a lot of details. So CSSR has worked with us now — we did a community workshop September 27th, I believe the date was — 26th, 27th&#x3f; Yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5454500" class="thewords">And we said we had a first draft, and then over the last few weeks our advisory committee has vetted, had questions for that draft, and has come, made a bunch of edits, it went back to CSSR, and tomorrow morning me and Hal Colston from the Partnership For Change have a meeting on phone with the consultant to review and make sure that their changes reflect our understanding of the edits, at which time that document&#x27;s going to be posted publicly as part of our minutes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5483800" class="thewords">So we have a 90&#x25; finished product at this point. So what Bill Brian&#x27;s saying is he doesn’t think his process is going to work under these conditions this week to get it to 100&#x25;. But that he thinks we could take that document and we can look at it as a community without using his process, and that that document can actually be used by the search firm.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5508700" class="thewords">The search firm&#x27;s doing their own survey right now. If anyone wants to take the survey, there&#x27;s a link posted on our website for it. And that the survey is giving the community a chance to weigh in on the criteria you&#x27;re looking for in a superintendent.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5519300" class="thewords">So the idea is that we would give this 90&#x25; finished job description to the search firm, they would use that with their own data from their survey to create a job posting so that we can get a job posting up, even though CSSR&#x27;s project is 90&#x25; done.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5535100" class="thewords">So while the job is posted, then CSSR would come in and help us just do final edits and get community feedback on the final product. Does that make sense&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5544400" class="thewords">No, it does, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5544800" class="thewords">So it’s not an ideal process. I was really looking forward to us doing it this week, and it’s frustrating to have to modify our plan. But we&#x27;re working with — people say trust the experts. This expert&#x27;s saying, &#x22;Right now you need to do your own work before I can come in.&#x22; So we need to step up and do our own work.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5559500" class="thewords">Absolutely.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5560000" class="thewords">And if I might just add one thing to that, Brian — that Rand Associates and Brill Brian, all along it felt that, with the 90&#x25; that &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; completed position analysis, that would be sufficient in order to create the job description. So that actually would not be —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5575600" class="thewords">Right.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5576200" class="thewords">— different. So the position description versus job description, there&#x27;s a little bit of a, there&#x27;s a nuance difference that I think is important.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5582100" class="thewords">&#x27;Cause we want to get this job posted as soon as we possibly can.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5586100" class="thewords">And I think it was — we, in the spirit of trying to be as involved a community as possible, we were trying to get in before we did the posting. You know&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5595200" class="thewords">Understood, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5596300" class="thewords">Commissioner Kleman&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Commissioner Kleman"><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="5597700" class="thewords">So this might’ve just been answered, but are we still scheduled for these community meetings&#x3f; I think one was Thursday&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5606800" class="thewords">They&#x27;re scheduled, but the problem is that the consultant who was going to facilitate them has said no. So what I&#x27;m proposing is that —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="5613100" class="thewords">— is that we do it ourselves.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">&#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; and we do something with the community on Thursday —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="5616800" class="thewords">So we&#x27;ll have to come up with something that we can do as a group, and a way to gather input, I don&#x27;t know, on Thursday —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5624300" class="thewords">Well, the initial round. This is one layer. Mind you that there&#x27;s also a survey open to gather feedback, and later CSSR can come in. I honestly am in favor as much community involvement as possible. So if we do extra, then let&#x27;s... why not&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kleman</span><span><a data-m="5639500" class="thewords">Cool, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5641000" class="thewords">Commissioner Kirk, then Commissioner Matson.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kirk</span><span><a data-m="5647300" class="thewords">Not me.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5647600" class="thewords">Oh, I&#x27;m sorry. Porter. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; It’s the hair. Commissioner Porter&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Porter</span><span><a data-m="5657000" class="thewords">You know, I don&#x27;t even think this has to... I can appreciate Brian&#x27;s tenaciousness. There&#x27;s no doubt about it. But I think this is really just a discussion for the ad hoc committee. I don&#x27;t think there&#x27;s any...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5667700" class="thewords">It’s more informative to the school board, if I&#x27;m correct, and I&#x27;ve always appreciated him running with this kind of stuff, and not letting anything — that bulldog attitude really has put us in a good place on the superintendent search, to move forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5682900" class="thewords">So, I just want to say, I appreciate the informative side, but I don&#x27;t think we have to take any kind of direction from the school board. Am I correct&#x3f; It’s all the ad hoc —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5690800" class="thewords">Yeah, I wasn&#x27;t asking the school board as a whole. I was informing you. And more importantly, to be honest with you all, for the community, I think that you all — I can email you and say something, but I want people to understand that this is an urgent process, it’s important to get through it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5704200" class="thewords">And just that we&#x27;re going to go forward with these sessions to engage the community in this process. And so that&#x27;s really why I wanted to bring it up tonight. And also, just to get the commitment of the ad hoc committee that you can at least meet on Wednesday, or at least a quorum can meet.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5718300" class="thewords">I see one thumbs up.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5721500" class="thewords">If everyone can&#x27;t, that&#x27;s fine. But if we have the majority. And then hopefully some SSAC members will. I don&#x27;t know yet. But I&#x27;m looking at &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; and smiling. Hopefully, some of you... okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5732100" class="thewords">So maybe we can talk about the schedule. But hopefully we can get... That really was informative, yes. You don&#x27;t need to make a decision. Well, you could tell me no, you could say, I guess people could say, &#x22;Cancel the community input.&#x22; But I don&#x27;t know if that&#x27;s what you want to do.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5742900" class="thewords">Commissioner Matson&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="5744000" class="thewords">Yeah, Brian, just possible suggestion: CSSR&#x27;s already done a certain amount of work with us.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5749700" class="thewords">Yeah.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="5750100" class="thewords">You could reach out and ask what approach you would take for a meeting like this first meeting for facilitation. And we could design something similar.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5756300" class="thewords">I&#x27;m talking to him tomorrow morning. So I&#x27;m going to let him know that that&#x27;s what we&#x27;re doing, and then hopefully he can give me some advice at that time.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Matson</span><span><a data-m="5761200" class="thewords">Right.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5764100" class="thewords">Any further questions for Commissioner Cina&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cina</span><span><a data-m="5768500" class="thewords">Yeah, well, I just want to say one more thing. I know there&#x27;s no questions. But just to what, Alan, what you were just saying — that we do plan on talking with Gary Ray and with Bill tomorrow, so that by Wednesday I&#x27;ve talked to both. And I&#x27;m even thinking — I know Patrick&#x27;s been talking to the Secretary of Education.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5783400" class="thewords">Well, you know, maybe Patrick, you and I should talk about, do we need to consult with the secretary further before that, or not, in terms of the community&#x27;s concerns, you know&#x3f; So...</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5798200" class="thewords">So I just want to recap some discussions here tonight before we move for adjournment. And to understand that everyone on the board has made some commitments here this evening.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5810700" class="thewords">Commissioner Curry and I have made commitments to go back to the three senior administrators and hear their concerns that felt that they needed to precipitate the action they took on Friday. We&#x27;re committed to doing that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5824600" class="thewords">Second, Commissioners Porter, Seguino and Dodson have a huge responsibility. They need to be beating the bushes, listening to the wider community, listening to folks throughout the state and the region for names of a potential interim superintendent.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5844100" class="thewords">And I&#x27;d like to add on to that too that the board needs to understand that what we look for in an interim superintendent and our expectations for an interim superintendent are not the same in our permanent superintendent search.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5855600" class="thewords">And to keep that in mind as we continue to move forward. Those three will be in conversation with us regularly, with the whole board, but that&#x27;ll also be shared, their progress, with the wider community, although I ask the wider community to understand when names can&#x27;t necessarily be thrown around that are being discussed, just to protect the individuals who might’ve done that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5884000" class="thewords">And that as a board we&#x27;ve made a commitment that no later than the 10th of November, that we will be reconvening in order to go forward with a new interim superintendent for the district. We&#x27;ve also made a commitment to have additional sessions in how we function as a board.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5901800" class="thewords">We have taken some of these additional steps. We met with the Vermont School Board Association back in the beginning of September, all of us, although, were you with us at that point, Commissioner Garrison&#x3f; You may have... Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5914300" class="thewords">And additional — the design of those would be forthcoming, but that we have made a commitment to further conversations, and to better understand our role and what our rights and responsibilities as a board are, and what our commitments to the larger community are.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5933400" class="thewords">And finally, I want to just say again the fourth thing, &#x5b;summed&#x5d; by Commissioner Cina, is that we do need — this makes the permanent superintendent search all the more urgent. And that our healthy functioning on a board is in direct relation to the quality of the candidates that we&#x27;re going to be able to attract.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5956200" class="thewords">And a quality superintendent is going to be asking questions of how his or her board is working together. And if he or she sees a board that&#x27;s working at cross purposes, a smart superintendent is probably not going to be looking for Burlington.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5972500" class="thewords">So I ask you all to keep that in mind as we continue to move forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5979100" class="thewords">With that, we&#x27;ve reached the end of our agenda. I&#x27;ll entertain a motion to adjourn. Commissioner Cina, seconded by &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; Commissioner Kirk. All in favor of adjournment, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="5991400" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Halladay</span><span><a data-m="5992100" class="thewords">Any opposition&#x3f; We&#x27;re adjourned.</a></span></p>
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<p><span><a data-m="1700" class="thewords">Thank you. Mr. President, Mr. President pro tem, Mr. Speaker, members of the General Assembly, Mr. Chief Justice, distinguished guests, fellow Vermonters &#x2014;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="17400" class="thewords">As I stated here a week ago, we have many challenges and opportunities ahead. Today, as I deliver the toughest budget that I&#x27;ve put together, I&#x27;ll present to you part two of my plan for how we can better secure a better future for all of us.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="37600" class="thewords">When I listen to the voices of Vermonters from every corner of our state, from every background, and from every political persuasion, they&#x27;re frustrated and uncertain about their futures. And the frustration is clear: They play by the rules, they work hard, sometimes at more than one job, but their bills keep piling up faster than they can bring in the money to pay them.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="67800" class="thewords">At a time when the gap of wealth between the people at the top and everyone else is more extreme than since before the Great Depression, Vermonters hear about the recovery both in Vermont and nationally&#x3b; they hear about our state&#x27;s low unemployment numbers, and they wonder, &#x22;Why aren&#x27;t I seeing it&#x3f; Why is my family being held back&#x3f;&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="94400" class="thewords">We know many of the drivers of this unease: Rising health care costs and rising property taxes, among others, with no corresponding rise in incomes and property values. Many hardworking Vermonters who would be proud to call themselves members of the middle class are left with a feeling that they&#x27;re treading water, or worse, dipping below the surface.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="123200" class="thewords">Like a family trying to adjust its budget to meet its reality, it&#x2019;s our responsibility as state leaders to match opportunity for all of us, to fill our potential as citizens, family members, workers, and business owners.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="141000" class="thewords">Though many Vermonters are struggling with affordability, all the news isn&#x27;t bad news. Our state economy is doing much better now than when I became governor four years ago. Unemployment is down, jobs are up, and foreclosures and bankruptcies have dropped sharply.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="162800" class="thewords">General fund revenues grew &#x24;175 million &#x2014; &#x24;175 million &#x2014; from FY &#x27;11 to FY &#x27;14. Contrast that with 2008 and &#x27;09, when state revenues fell by more than &#x24;97 million, and Vermonters were losing jobs left and right. Nevertheless, when I gave this speech last year, the official revenue forecast for &#x27;16 was &#x24;40 million higher &#x2014; higher &#x2014; than it is today.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="196400" class="thewords">A year ago the consensus economic forecast was that our state revenues would go up by five percent in this budget year, enabling us to grow our way back &#x2014; grow our way back &#x2014; to a balanced budget. But that hasn&#x2019;t happened. We now know that revenue this year will, at best, grow by only three percent, and we continue to expect a downgrade in projected growth when our economists release an update later this month.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="228200" class="thewords">So looking ahead, the general fund is expected to grow around 3.5&#x25; for the next five years &#x2014; for the next five years. Now, we&#x27;ve already made some tough decisions together and reduced the FY &#x27;15 budget by &#x24;34 million. Many of these ongoing spending reductions were carried forward into our &#x27;16 budget.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="254400" class="thewords">Over the past four years we&#x27;ve also been weaning the state off the significant one&#x2d;time federal stimulus dollars that helped pull Vermont and so many other states through the downturn without completely eviscerating state government. We&#x27;ve reduced our reliance from a high &#x2014; a high of &#x24;59 million in fiscal &#x27;12, to the &#x27;16 proposal that I&#x27;m putting forward today, which includes only &#x24;11 million of non&#x2d;recurring revenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="288800" class="thewords">Reduced growth rates in Vermont and across the country, dried up federal funds, the need to promote affordability for all Vermonters &#x2014; these realities lead to a single, challenging conclusion: Working together, we must take a different approach by curbing state spending to bring the cost of state services back in line with our growth.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="315500" class="thewords">While it will take more than one year to adjust to this new reality, my F &#x27;16 budget makes a strong start.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="325100" class="thewords">Now, to those who would call upon us to solve our &#x24;94 million budget gap by raising it in taxes. I&#x27;m here to tell you that it won&#x27;t work. Even if we could somehow magically afford it. Because our economy is growing more slowly than our state spending.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="346400" class="thewords">Simple math tells us that we would have to raise revenue year after year after year if we fail to match our spending rate with our growth rate. That&#x27;s just the hard reality. With all this in mind, I&#x27;m presenting a balanced budget, knowing that it&#x2019;s the beginning of a conversation &#x2014; the beginning of a conversation &#x2014; regarding how to structure state government sustainably to meet the needs of all Vermonters.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="375600" class="thewords">You can expect me to engage deeply with you in how best to do this. I want to share the five principles &#x2014; five principles that guided our work. First, I won&#x27;t charge our budget challenges that we have today to our kids and grandkids tomorrow.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="399100" class="thewords">My budget fully funds our retirement contributions to debt obligations. I&#x27;m proud that we&#x27;ve maintained one of the strongest bond ratings in the country. With Vermonters struggling to pay their property tax bills, I&#x27;ve also fully funded the general fund transfer to the education fund.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="418000" class="thewords">Second, state government must address ways to be more efficient. Therefore, I propose more than &#x24;15 million &#x2014; &#x24;15 million of ongoing savings, driven by this principle. These include streamlining and consolidating government services and restructuring some programs. It&#x2019;s a necessary job of all good organizations &#x2014; public and private &#x2014; to continually look at what they do and ask this question:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="450300" class="thewords">&#x22;Is what we&#x27;re doing meeting our core principles&#x3f; And are we doing it in the best way that we possibly can&#x3f;&#x22; These choices are rarely popular or without critics. Change is always hard. All these cuts and others detailed in the budget have been proposed because I believe that we can offer them while still providing core state services.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="478600" class="thewords">But let me be clear: They&#x27;re real. I know each matters deeply. And they&#x27;re tough. In addition to personnel or labor cost savings, I&#x27;m proposing consolidation of some state libraries, public safety call centers, the on&#x2d;site septic program, and the Community High School of Vermont. I propose that we not include state LIHEAP in the base budget this year, relying instead on our past practice of stretching our &#x24;18 million of federal appropriation as far as we can.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="519000" class="thewords">While we cannot fill all the holes left by federal cuts, we will use the budget adjustment to make necessary enhancements year by year, as we have in the past. My budget counts &#x24;125 of Social Security income towards Reach Up eligibility to make it consistent with some other state programs.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="540300" class="thewords">This reduces total Reach Up spending while preserving all other aspects of the program, including those that were added last year when we went to fix the benefit cliffs, the good work that you did there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="554400" class="thewords">My budget also presents a net reduction of funding for 11 state employee positions, and requests additional savings of approximately &#x24;9 million, &#x24;9 million, in personnel costs. This will require the Vermont State Employees Association to support some of the choices that our budget will present, to reduce salaries and expenses in other ways, to avoid even larger problems if we fail.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="583800" class="thewords">I know that we&#x27;ll debate these and other parts of the budget throughout the session, but I ask critics of my proposals for restructuring to follow one simple rule &#x2014; one simple rule:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="597600" class="thewords">If you don&#x27;t like my recommendations, propose your own to achieve equal, ongoing savings. Equal, ongoing savings.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="608700" class="thewords">Our third principle is this: Wherever possible, make smart choices, by not cutting programs that deliver more to Vermonters in economic opportunity and support than they cost us.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="624700" class="thewords">You&#x27;ll see that we retain investment in the Vermont Rental Subsidy, the Vermont Family Supportive Housing Initiative, and the Emergency Solutions Grant, that have a proven record of avoiding temporary motel shelters and helping homeless move into stable housing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="643500" class="thewords">For programs that help sustain our most vulnerable, we&#x27;ve held spending wherever possible &#x2014; wherever possible &#x2014; at last year&#x27;s levels.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="655000" class="thewords">The fourth principle underlying our budget proposal is that we should not cut state programs if it will do more harm than good down the road, as we saw in the depths of the recession with cuts that eroded our ability to adequately protect Vermonters, including &#x2014; including vulnerable children.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="677000" class="thewords">My budget does not cut one dime from Child Protection Services. In fact, it supports the increased staffing and other progress that we&#x27;ve made in response to the tragedies of last year. While we may never entirely prevent people with empty hearts from committing horrible crimes &#x2014; horrible crimes against those they should love and protect, the state must do everything it can to help our most vulnerable children, and we will.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="709800" class="thewords">We&#x27;ll present a proposal to you this year to strengthen communications, transparency, enforcement and protection in our child safety work. We also use the Position Pilot that you wisely authorized last year to allow DCF to better manage workload within its existing appropriation by adding social workers as well as other child protection staff within its present budget authority.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="738200" class="thewords">While this is necessary and a substantial start, more is needed. I want to thank the department and its hardworking staff for the improvements they&#x27;ve already made to further the work, and we&#x27;ll do further work with Senator Sears and Ayer, Representatives Lippert and Pugh, and all of you &#x2014; all of you &#x2014; to better protect our children.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="761400" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="777800" class="thewords">One truth that we should acknowledge, the horrible tragedies inflicted upon innocent children across our state this year &#x2014; DCF custody and non&#x2d;DCF custody &#x2014; were all driven by one thing: addiction. Addiction.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="796800" class="thewords">In their memory, in the memory of those children, we must continue our work to prevent opiate and heroin abuse. The budget I propose continues support for treatment centers, recovery centers, and our statewide Criminal Justice Rapid Intervention Program, and increases by 16&#x25; overall drug treatment spending, to make sure that last year&#x27;s progress is more than a one&#x2d;time success.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="826400" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="835300" class="thewords">Together, together, Vermonters are facing the ravages of heroin and opiate addiction in our families, friends and communities, and we must continue the fight.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="846900" class="thewords">Finally, my budget relies on the principle of balance &#x2014; balance. We cannot just restructure and close our &#x24;94 million hole without inflicting significant damage upon Vermonters who desperately need us.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="869600" class="thewords">You&#x27;ve heard many times over the past four years my opposition &#x2014; my opposition to raising income, sales and rooms and meals tax rates to fund government. I remain convinced that our tax rates are already high enough, and as I travel across our state, Vermonters echo that view.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="894700" class="thewords">Nevertheless, to meet a portion of our budget gap, I&#x27;m proposing that we close an income tax loophole that we partially fixed in 2009, by eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes paid from state tax returns.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="913000" class="thewords">Vermont is in the minority of income tax states that still allows taxpayers who itemize to use this loophole to deduct from this year&#x27;s state taxes the taxes they paid last year.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="927700" class="thewords">The average benefit for those who use this deduction is &#x24;175. Eliminating it raises &#x24;15.5 million towards our budget gap. This is progressive and principled approach. It&#x2019;s the right thing to do. It&#x2019;s timely and sensible.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="946500" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="954500" class="thewords">Now, I hope that we can return to these five principles as we debate this year&#x27;s tough budget together. I don&#x27;t insist that I have all the answers. I do know that we must work together to fund state government and deliver services affordably to Vermonters. That&#x27;s our job&#x3b; let&#x27;s do it together.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="979100" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="987400" class="thewords">Balancing our budget is only a part of our responsibility this year. The key to our future is growing a vibrant, entrepreneurial economy that supports jobs and better wages. Last week I urged all of us to seize our advantage to power Vermont forward in energy innovation, to grow more jobs and lower energy bills for Vermonters.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1015800" class="thewords">I urged us to take the anger and frustration we feel when we see and smell algae blooms in our lakes, to do more to protect our waters that are so vital to our economy and our quality of life.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1028200" class="thewords">We also know that the future of our working families and job creators depends upon improving access and affordability of health care by getting control of the unsustainable increases in health care spending.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1043200" class="thewords">The future of our children depends upon finding solutions to the high cost of public education while improving quality and moving more of our kids beyond high school. The future of our state depends upon offering greater access to higher education and job training, and providing better support for our employers, who drive economic development and job creation across our state.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1069500" class="thewords">Let me tell you my proposals in each of these areas:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1075700" class="thewords">I have pursued health care reform for nearly two decades now because I know how much the ever&#x2d;rising cost of health care hurts family and businesses. The US health care system is unsustainable, unfair, and unaffordable for too many.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1094400" class="thewords">I know perhaps better than anyone else in this room just how hard it is to change our health care system. Yet it&#x2019;s absolutely critical &#x2014; absolutely critical that we do so, or it will destroy the rest of our economy and the ability of Vermonters to pay their bills &#x2014; the big challenge they&#x27;re having right now.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1116600" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1125800" class="thewords">That&#x27;s why, that&#x27;s why, despite the challenges and recent setbacks, I remain absolutely committed to continuing improvements to our health care system so that we can fulfill the vision set forth by Act 48.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1141300" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1149900" class="thewords">Let&#x27;s make real progress together, by moving to payment for quality outcomes instead of the number of procedures, by fixing the state&#x27;s chronic underpayment of Medicaid, which shift costs and artificially inflates private insurance premiums, and by increasing health care access and affordability for all Vermonters. Let&#x27;s do it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1174200" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1180700" class="thewords">Here are five ways that I propose to accomplish these goals: First, we need to accelerate the hard work we&#x27;ve begun on cost containment and move to a more rational way to pay our providers. It doesn&#x2019;t make any sense that doctors in hospitals receive different amounts of money for the same procedures, depending upon who pays.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1207600" class="thewords">I all, it also doesn&#x2019;t make any sense that our providers get paid for the number of procedures they perform, not the results. Not the results. Our current payment system does not reward healthy outcomes&#x3b; it creates administrative headache for our providers. It underpays our primary care community, which threatens their survival &#x2014; their survival &#x2014; and it isn&#x27;t fair because some of us &#x2014; usually our businesses that offer health insurance, and those of us that have private insurance &#x2014; end up paying more than our share to support the cost of the health care for the entire system.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1247300" class="thewords">That&#x27;s why we must push full steam ahead to become the first state to move from the current fee for service payment system to one that pays providers for the quality outcomes they produce, by pursuing our all&#x2d;payer waiver with the federal government with all vigor.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1266500" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1274900" class="thewords">The Green Mountain Care Board is working closely with my health care team to submit a waiver application that will allow us to align how we pay our providers across private insurance and public programs, to ensure that providers have the right incentives for improving quality while bending the unsustainable cost curve.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1294600" class="thewords">This should be achievable by January 2017 if we all work together, and I ask for your support.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1303600" class="thewords">Second, to aid in these efforts, I propose that we strengthen the Green Mountain Care Board &#x2014; strengthen &#x27;em. The board is already successfully containing cost and moving the state steadily to a new, more rational payment system. In the past two budget years, the board has held hospital spending growth at just three percent &#x2014; less than half the growth rate that we&#x27;ve seen over the previous seven years, and the lowest hospital growth rate in over 30 years &#x2014; 30 years.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1338900" class="thewords">To make sure that the board institutionalizes its early containment cost successes, I&#x27;m gonna ask the legislature to enhance the board&#x27;s role as the central regulator of health care, so that it can treat health care like the public good that it is. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1364000" class="thewords">The Green Mountain Care Board, which was created by you in part based upon the well&#x2d;established regulatory model of our Public Service Board, should also have the ability to open investigations into pressing issues and other acts where needed. It needs the a by to align health care technology investments with a more unified system statewide by having budgetary and programmatic oversight over the Vermont Information Technology Leader, VITL.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1393800" class="thewords">The board should also have the power to approve innovative payment and delivery models promoted by our accountable care organizations, physicians and clinics.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1404600" class="thewords">Make no mistake: The board faces significant challenges, since national health care costs are expected to grow over six percent annually, six percent annually, by 2019. While many of the other 49 states might sit back and continue health care business as usual, Vermonters cannot afford to do so.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1430100" class="thewords">In order to continue our cost containment progress, we must strengthen our board&#x3b; it&#x2019;s that simple. I ask for your help. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1444300" class="thewords">Third, third, we need additional investments in Vermont&#x27;s Blueprint For Health to build on the early successes in reducing costs while improving quality.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1457200" class="thewords">This has been central to our reform efforts. Our job now is to position the blueprint for a strong future. Our Blueprint Medical Homes and Community Health teams have effectively increased social services for the sickest and most needy Vermonters on Medicaid, and have reduced the medical needs of those with private insurance, while saving about &#x24;550 per person every single year.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1485200" class="thewords">Today, its future is at risk because participating providers haven&#x27;t seen an increase in pay since the blueprint launched &#x2014; no increase. My budget fixes this by more than doubling payments to Medicaid&#x27;s Blueprint providers with a new &#x24;4.5 million appropriation, including increasing Medicaid&#x27;s Community Health Team payments by &#x24;1 million, and adding &#x24;3.5 million to medical home payments.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1518400" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d; It&#x2019;s long overdue. My budget also supports our hardworking home health organizations with an additional &#x24;1.25 million to help them move forward with payment reform.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1535700" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve also proposed that we expand to more Vermonters the good work done by the home and community providers like Support Services at Home, SSAH, that program, and Vermont Care Alliance, by supporting my request for an additional &#x24;500,000 that will draw down &#x24;5 million in federal match.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1557400" class="thewords">Programs like these, they keep Vermonters with chronic conditions healthier by managing their needs before &#x2014; before they get sick. It saves money and improves quality of life, and we should make this model more widely available to more Vermonters. This investment makes sense. I ask for your support.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1580200" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1587200" class="thewords">Fourth, fourth: In order to make sure Vermonters have access to the care they need, we need to fix the state&#x27;s broken Medicaid reimbursement rates. We gotta fix it. Anybody in business will tell you that when you get paid as little as 40 to 60 cents on a dollar of cost, you can&#x27;t stay in business. This isn&#x27;t tough math. This puts our independent rural providers with high numbers of Medicaid patients at the greatest risk.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1622000" class="thewords">All across Vermont, providers who treat Medicaid patients have two choices to limit their losses &#x2014; two choices: Charge patients with private insurance a higher rate, or turn away Medicaid patients who desperately need care. Current Medicaid reimbursements drive up private insurance cost for businesses and individuals, acting as a hidden tax cost shift.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1652500" class="thewords">This amounts to an astounding &#x24;150 million in private premium inflation in Vermont every single year. Our failure to fix this by increasing state Medicaid reimbursements also means that we&#x27;re failing to draw down on tens of millions of dollars in available federal matching funds. Now, that&#x27;s just foolish.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1675300" class="thewords">Therefore, my budget invests &#x24;25 million starting January 1st of &#x27;16, providing a 50&#x25; increase to our primary care providers, and reducing the current Medicaid cost shift by half &#x2014; cutting it in half. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1703000" class="thewords">My budget will also commit nearly &#x24;30 million in &#x27;16 to cover nearly 20,000 people &#x2014; 20,000 people &#x2014; who now have insurance coverage, thanks to Vermont Health Connect and our Medicaid expansion. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1723800" class="thewords">Every dollar, every dollar of this increased payment in Medicaid reimbursements will be used to reduce the cost shift and bring down private insurance rates. My budget proposal includes language that requires, that requires the Green Mountain Care Board, through its hospital budget rate review process, to return the savings created by these increased payments, reducing premiums for businesses and individuals by up to five percent from what they otherwise would have charged.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1755700" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1762100" class="thewords">Fifth, fifth, we should better address health care access and affordability for Vermonters. We all should be very proud that as a result of implementation of the Affordable Care Act, we&#x27;ve now cut in half &#x2014; in half &#x2014; the number of Vermonters without health insurance. We cut it in half. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; It&#x2019;s worth celebrating.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1793400" class="thewords">Can tell there&#x27;s a doctor in the legislature. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; Now, Vermont is one of the two states in the country that now offers enhanced financial help beyond the Affordable Care Act to those struggling to pay their insurance costs in the health care system.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1809200" class="thewords">Yet we know from the recent household insurance survey that the biggest obstacle to care continues to be one thing: Cost. Some of these individuals have insurance, but struggle mightily to meet their out of pocket costs, deductibles and co&#x2d;pays when they get sick.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1830400" class="thewords">Others refuse to sign up for insurance in the first place because exactly the same concerns. That&#x27;s why I recommend an additional &#x24;2 million to double the state&#x27;s current funding that helps families with incomes of between &#x24;48&#x2d;72,000 afford to go to the doctor when they&#x27;re sick or pick up their prescriptions when they need &#x27;em.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1855500" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1859600" class="thewords">Now, I know that some of you have other ideas on how to increase health care affordability, increase coverage or provide a backstop care for our few remaining uninsured, and I welcome all good ideas.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1879100" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1883300" class="thewords">Now, a few of you might be asking, &#x22;How are you gonna pay for all this&#x3f; How are you gonna pay for it&#x3f;&#x22; I propose to pay for all of the investments that I just outlined with a seven&#x2d;tenths of one percent &#x2014; seven&#x2d;tenths of one percent &#x2014; payroll tax.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1904300" class="thewords">The money raised from this tax will go into the state health care resource fund, and it will be dedicated to reducing the cost shift and improving health care quality and delivery. Now, why, you might ask, is a very small payroll tax actually a sensible choice for the businesses who will be asked to pay it&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1929800" class="thewords">Why is it the right move for Vermont&#x3f; Every dollar &#x2014; every dollar that the state collects allows us to draw down &#x24;1.10 of federal funds, more than doubling our money. Doubling our money. In FY &#x27;16 my proposal would raise &#x24;41 million in state funds, matched with an additional &#x24;45 million in federal funds.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1957700" class="thewords">This proposal makes sense for businesses that provide health insurance because we can reduce the cost shift overall by more money than the taxes raised, by drawing down the federal match and lowering in private insurance premiums. It benefits all Vermonters because the combined state and federal dollars raised increase payments to providers and increase access for Vermonters while making commercial insurance more affordable for individuals and businesses. &#x5b;applause&#x5d; That&#x27;s what it does.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1999800" class="thewords">Now, it will also leverage cost shift reduction for businesses that offer insurance today by asking for a small contribution, a small contribution through the payroll tax from all businesses, including those that don&#x27;t currently pay for insurance, but the businesses who pay, pay for them.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2023200" class="thewords">Many of you share my disappointment that we will not achieve at this time the grand vision of Green Mountain Care. I know that you, like me, want to ensure Vermont continues to make great strides &#x2014; great strides &#x2014; on health care reform. Let me assure you that if we adopt the package that I&#x27;ve just outlined, we will have achieved a significant and meaningful part of the goal we set for ourselves in Act 48 &#x2014; real cost containment, a more rational delivery and payment system, a high&#x2d;quality integrated health care system with better access and affordability for all Vermonters.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2064500" class="thewords">These are huge accomplishments, critical to our economy, to putting more dollars in Vermonters&#x27; pockets, and improving our quality of life. I ask you for your support this session.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2076400" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2090200" class="thewords">There may be nothing more important to our future prosperity than providing a quality education for our children. Yet today Vermonters feel tapped out trying to meet that goal. There&#x27;s no mystery why. While the number of students in our schools plummets, our property taxes skyrocket, and our property values and incomes remain stagnant.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2121900" class="thewords">You&#x27;ve heard it, and I&#x27;ve heard it from Vermonters all over the state these past months: They&#x27;re frustrated at rising costs that they struggle to control, and they want action.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2134100" class="thewords">Adding to their frustration is unease that we&#x27;re not buying better outcomes &#x2014; we&#x27;re not buying better outcomes with all the money that we&#x27;re spending. While our public schools receive and deserve lots of praise, the quality of education &#x2014; the quality of education varies greatly across our state, and we&#x27;re not making progress where we need it the most: Engaging our kids living in poverty to excel in school and seek education beyond high school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2170800" class="thewords">Some seek precipitous changes that would fundamentally alter the way we deliver education in Vermont. To roll back the more than &#x24;230 million in increased education spending added in the past decade all at once would require us to immediately eliminate at least 2,500 of our teachers or close dozens and dozens of our schools.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2198400" class="thewords">So drastic a move would obviously harm our ability to deliver high&#x2d;quality, equitable education. But let there be no doubt that Vermonters want action, and they want real change.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2214600" class="thewords">If you think tax rates, property tax rates look bad now, let me share some really bad news: If we do nothing &#x2014; if we do nothing &#x2014; projections for the next five years are worse, and projections for the next ten years or even worse than that. In fact, the numbers become eye&#x2d;popping.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2239600" class="thewords">Complacency &#x2014; complacency is not an option. The status quo is not an option. Never in my life as a public servant have I seen more will across parties and across interests to improve quality and lower costs.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2262500" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2271900" class="thewords">Now, let&#x27;s remember the facts as we act, because facts matter. Since 1998, Vermont has seen student enrolment decline by 24,000, a whopping 20&#x25; statewide, and some communities have lost over 50&#x25;. They&#x27;ve lost half of their students. There is no end to the decline presently in sight because our aging population.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2301100" class="thewords">Despite this decline, we employ more teachers and paraprofessionals than ever, with a statewide student to staff ratio of 4.7 to one. We have the lowest class sizes in America. Due to declining enrollment, 20&#x25; &#x2014; 20&#x25; of our elementary classrooms have between two and nine students in &#x27;em.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2332600" class="thewords">The question is are we getting quality education for our higher price in these micro&#x2d;classrooms&#x3f; You know what&#x3f; You got it: The answer is no.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2348200" class="thewords">We buy those very small classes at the expense of foreign languages, tech classes, the arts, sports, and other critical offerings. Our kids suffer as quality declines, and it&#x2019;s their future that takes the hit. Their future that takes the hit.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2371300" class="thewords">Some of our schools are so small that the scores can&#x27;t even be reported in statistically significant ways, meaning we have zero data to measure their progress.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2384400" class="thewords">We have one of the highest high school graduation rates in the country, and we should be really proud of that, but our students pursue post&#x2d;secondary education at one of the lowest rates in the country, with students living in poverty the least likely &#x2014; the least likely &#x2014; to move beyond high school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2406300" class="thewords">Our complex and archaic governance structure has principals and superintendents voting with their feet &#x2014; with their feet. An astounding 30&#x25; of our principals and superintendents leave their jobs every single year, destabilizing critical leadership.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2428600" class="thewords">Property taxes rise&#x3b; student counts drop, and quality doesn&#x2019;t improve appreciably despite the enormous amount of money we keep spending. We have to ask ourselves, given all of these facts, are we spending money wisely&#x3f; Targeting limited dollars where they&#x27;ll make the biggest difference for our children &#x2014; for our children&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2455200" class="thewords">This is not a problem that we can pretend to fix by changing the way that we collect revenue. We pay for education through the property tax, income tax, sales tax, vehicle purchase tax, and of course the lottery.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2474100" class="thewords">To those who believe that the answer to our education spending problem is to ask for more money from any of Vermonters&#x27; pockets, you&#x27;ve missed the point. You&#x27;re missing the point. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2496400" class="thewords">Vermonters understand it: We have a spending problem, and we need to fix it. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2511000" class="thewords">Now, they expect better outcomes for our students at a lower cost&#x3b; it&#x2019;s not complicated. That should be our goal. In doing so, we must not compromise our constitutional obligation to ensure that every child has access to each educational opportunity.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2532200" class="thewords">Let&#x27;s not return to the pre&#x2d;Act 60, 68 system, where the quality of our kids&#x27; education depended upon the wealth of the community that they happen to live in. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2550600" class="thewords">Across, across Vermont, parents, teachers, school board members, students and voters are asking for help. I believe that when you give Vermonters the facts with good data, they will do the right thing every single time.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2569100" class="thewords">To support them, I&#x27;ve made it a top priority to develop a partnership with schools and communities to give them the information that they need to chart a better future for their children and their taxpayers. This past summer I asked my Education Secretary, Rebecca Holcombe, to begin this work.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2589200" class="thewords">Impressively, she&#x2019;s already met directly with members of almost every single school board in Vermont, and has shared data which every district in the state needs. The data&#x27;s compelling&#x3b; it uses facts, not emotion, to demonstrate the need for partnership and for change.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2608200" class="thewords">Now, we know there&#x27;s a will to act at the local level. With overwhelming support, &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; voters in six participating school districts approved a new merged district into a single board. Working together, they&#x27;ll now have the power to provide superior and affordable education to their kids, and I applaud them for taking on change. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2638700" class="thewords">Now, other communities &#x2014; and I know you represent many of them &#x2014; are engaged in similar conversations right now. Vermont schools are built upon a long tradition of local control. But we have to ask, what does that really mean today&#x3f; What does it really mean&#x3f; For many communities where student counts have dropped precipitously, local control means board members finding themselves no longer in a position of deciding what opportunities to provide for their students, but instead deciding what opportunities they can take away.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2680900" class="thewords">That&#x27;s the truth. Do we cut foreign languages&#x3f; Arts&#x3f; Sports teams&#x3f; Technology&#x3f; Computer classes that are critical to the kids futures&#x3f; Meanwhile, even if one town makes the cuts, makes the tough decisions, the town next door often doesn&#x2019;t, thereby driving up costs for everyone else, and making local control more like local not in control.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2709900" class="thewords">That&#x27;s what&#x2019;s happened. But if you really want to make a mess out of our school system &#x2014; I mean a real mess &#x2014; ask Montpelier to come up with a one size fits all solution of central control.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2725800" class="thewords">Every time we try to solve the big problems in education by ourselves under the golden dome, we run into a reality roadblock. Every school, every district, and every community and region in our state is different and faces unique challenges that require unique solutions. That&#x27;s the truth.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2749500" class="thewords">That&#x27;s why I&#x27;m so convinced that partnership is the answer &#x2014; the partnership of local communities with my agency and state Board of Education, and all of us in this room, driven by real data about quality and cost, will result in more affordable systems with better outcomes for our kids.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2772100" class="thewords">This will make local control, real control, partnered with the state. Now, just in case you&#x27;re wondering what you&#x27;re gonna do this winter, Montpelier has a critical role to play in this partnership.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2787800" class="thewords">We&#x27;re fortunate that so many have come forward with ideas to help, but no one is sure exactly which solution may work. So here&#x27;s my plea, and I mean it: Let&#x27;s all commit ourselves to an environment where we listen to all ideas, and do not judge them too quickly.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2813300" class="thewords">Let&#x27;s investigate them, challenge each other respectfully, and be open to change &#x2014; be open to change. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2834000" class="thewords">Here are my proposals: First, we need to provide even more data to help people answer questions that they have at the local level and other places about rising spending.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2846100" class="thewords">My Agency of Education has today launched online tools right on our website to help communities understand their education spending, phantom students, tax rates, enrollment and staffing. Please encourage your communities to check it out as they review local budgets.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2864600" class="thewords">Second, let&#x27;s commit to a moratorium, a moratorium on new mandates from Montpelier that adds costs to districts. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2882700" class="thewords">Third, third, we must phase out or eliminate contradictory incentives built into the funding formula, like small school grants and the phantom student provision&#x3b; it just makes common sense.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2898500" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2902400" class="thewords">Fourth, fourth, we will target construction aid for districts that are actively trying to right&#x2d;size through a merger. My capital budget proposes &#x24;3 million for this purpose&#x3b; we gotta do it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2921000" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2924500" class="thewords">Fifth, fifth, we should pass legislation prohibiting both teacher strikes and board&#x2d;imposed contracts while we require both sides to resolve their differences through third&#x2d;party decision&#x2d;making when negotiations fail. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2948300" class="thewords">Sixth, we should consider giving enhanced redistricting authority to the State Board of Education, or another entity if you choose, when schools are orphaned and need to be part of a bigger union&#x3b;&#x00a0;we can&#x27;t just leave them out there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2964800" class="thewords">Seventh, we should make sure decisions such as principal hiring, health care contracting and other significant spending takes place at the supervisory union level, and we should empower principals to hire all staff in their schools.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2983000" class="thewords">These proposals will help, but a bigger transformation is required to truly bend our cost curve and shore up our challenging and challenged schools. So here is our big idea: Last year you appropriated &#x24;5.3 million to the Agency of Education to help evaluate what we&#x27;re buying with our education fund dollars.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3014800" class="thewords">Let&#x27;s find out what we&#x27;re buying. I have asked Secretary Holcombe to use this significant commitment to broaden and deepen our education quality review program, to help communities get a clearer picture of how effectively they&#x27;re serving students, and how effectively they&#x27;re spending their money. The agency will go into schools with evaluation teams of colleagues and state experts.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3040600" class="thewords">They&#x27;ll use data to set educational and fiscal targets involving student performance, school climate, per&#x2d;pupil spending, and spending increases, and staff and student&#x2d;teacher ratios, among others. They will then help school districts achieve the goals.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3064000" class="thewords">Take the evaluations, make the changes. We&#x27;ll partner with them to do it. We&#x27;ll work with our most vulnerable districts first, and our goal will be to support improvement.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3077900" class="thewords">A partnership means working together, but we must be prepared to act when necessary. We will give districts time to make progress, but if they don&#x27;t make improvements in their fiscal or educational results, we should either adjust the funding formula to ensure that other taxpayers don&#x27;t support continued bad choices, or, when absolutely necessary, find ways to exercise authority to close those schools.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3114100" class="thewords">I propose we work this session to structure this enhanced review system to improve quality and cut costs. Now, I know that my proposal will not be welcome by everyone. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3131000" class="thewords">But I do hope that you will consider them thoroughly and review them with an open mind, realizing that even more drastic solutions will be demanded by Vermonters, and they will if we fail to act &#x2014; if we fail to act.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3152400" class="thewords">It will take time, hard work, courage for sure, and partnership in Montpelier and in our schools and our communities, to see progress. But it&#x2019;s critical, it&#x2019;s critical that we start right now. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3181600" class="thewords">Let&#x27;s not forget the reasons that we&#x27;re striving every day to improve our education system: It&#x2019;s the right thing to do for our kids &#x2014; that&#x27;s priority number one. But it also prepares them for good jobs, drives economic development, and attracts families to our state, which desperately needs younger workers.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3205300" class="thewords">We&#x27;ve had many successes. I&#x27;m proud that my administration secured two highly competitive early childhood grants, attracting &#x24;70 million in federal funds to help give our youngest Vermonters a strong start &#x2014; &#x24;70 million. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3226800" class="thewords">And Ali Richards gets the gold star on that one from my team. Thank you, Ali. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3241000" class="thewords">I&#x27;ll pay for that later. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; We&#x27;re also better preparing our students for the higher&#x2d;skill, high&#x2d;wage jobs that are increasingly part of Vermont&#x27;s innovative jobs landscape. Nearly 1,300 juniors and seniors are taking college courses right now through our dual enrollment program that you so smartly authorized.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3264200" class="thewords">Last year, 148 high school seniors took advantage of early college program at six Vermont colleges, making higher education more affordable by earning a whole first year of college for free. They did it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3280800" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3284900" class="thewords">Meanwhile, more than 4,200 first&#x2d;generation students, first&#x2d;gen students, participated in VSAC&#x27;s GEAR UP and Talent Search programs to help prepare for college. This program matters. It matters to the parents of these young Vermonters, who understand the importance of providing their children opportunity to move beyond high school, but struggle to afford it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3311800" class="thewords">It matters to our employers, who need qualified applicants to fill the many job openings that they have. It matters to all of us, because the future of these students means the future success of our entire state.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3328100" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3334600" class="thewords">Now, listen for a sec to our next step: We&#x27;re gonna partner with businesses in Vermont Tech to create a free associate&#x27;s degree in engineering technology, and it can be done with no additional cost to the education fund.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3353800" class="thewords">This is how it&#x2019;ll work: Our agency will recruit employers who need high&#x2d;skilled workers &#x2014; and I can&#x27;t tell you how many times a week I have employers say to me, &#x22;If you could find me the high&#x2d;skilled workers, I could hire 90 people, 10 people, 20 people right now, today.&#x22; Vermont Tech and these participating employees will work together to find motivated high school seniors. So we&#x27;ll go out and find &#x27;em.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3381300" class="thewords">The students who sign up for VAST Early College will get their first year of college credit free while finishing high school, followed by a guaranteed, a guaranteed summer internship at the partnering employers to gain these critical job skills. When they return to Vermont Tech for their second year, the employer will pay for their first semester&#x27;s tuition &#x2014; about &#x24;5,000 &#x2014; and the Vermont Strong Scholars Program will then pay back loans for their final semester, if they stay and work in Vermont after graduation for one of the employers that needs &#x27;em.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3417100" class="thewords">This partnership... &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3427300" class="thewords">This partnership is a four&#x2d;way win. Vermont Tech increases enrollment, our students get degrees, our businesses get the trained employees they so desperately need, and our young people stay in Vermont. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3452800" class="thewords">We know that our businesses&#x27; success also means success for working Vermonters. In addition to our high school and higher education programs like VAST, we&#x27;ve expanded our targeted job training programs to ensure that Vermonters starting out or looking to move up in the workplace have the training that they so badly require.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3475500" class="thewords">This year we&#x27;re going to increase our job training efforts with more than &#x24;3.3 million in next&#x2d;generation and other funds for our workforce training programs. They&#x27;ll also benefit from &#x24;6.6 million in a recent federal grant for workforce training to help the long&#x2d;term unemployed in partnership with UVM, our state colleges and Vermont HITEC. That&#x27;s tremendously good news.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3505800" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3511300" class="thewords">Now, I bet some of you wouldn&#x27;t have predicted this a decade ago, but today our advanced manufacturers are on the come back, employing more than 11&#x25; of our entire workforce. We&#x27;re seeing innovative companies such as Mack Molding down in Arlington &#x2014; Sears&#x27;s way&#x3b; he finally woke up &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; &#x2014; GW Plastics in Bethel, GW Plastics in Bethel, successfully expanding into growing markets like medical devices. Vermont Precision Tool in Swanton has hired some of the very capable workforce from Kennametal in Lyndonville.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3548300" class="thewords">In Bennington, car parts fabricator NSK is adding jobs and has employed some of Plasan&#x27;s former workforce. Cabot Hosiery has seen orders for its Darn Tough, Made in Vermont, best in the world socks, double &#x2014; double &#x2014; as they expand their physical plant and add manufacturing jobs.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3570300" class="thewords">The list of manufacturers going strong and creating jobs is incredibly impressive. We expect our newest advanced manufacturing company, and our biggest, will build on the foundation on one of our oldest. When IBM announced that it would sell its chip manufacturing division to Global Foundries, we entered into a new era of advanced manufacturing in Vermont.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3600000" class="thewords">In Global Foundries, we will have a partner who will see Vermont&#x27;s successes as its successes. The company is, in essence, a very large startup. If the IBM sale is approved, Global Foundries will essentially double, double its US workforce in one fell swoop.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3626800" class="thewords">It will gain a foothold through its strategic acquisition of the Vermont operations in providing state of the art chips that nearly every wireless device, from your smartphone to your tablet, relies upon today.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3643200" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3649700" class="thewords">Global Foundries will also gain our highly skilled, innovative workforce, the best you can find anywhere, and it&#x2019;s offered jobs to every single employee who is not being retained by IBM&#x3b; every single one of &#x27;em. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3673100" class="thewords">Meanwhile, IBM will maintain &#x2014; and this is news to some &#x2014; a presence in Vermont, with continued R&#x26;D work at the Essex campus, for hundreds, hundreds of current IBM employees, which is also very good news for Vermont.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3689900" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3692900" class="thewords">Now, we&#x27;re partnering with Global Foundries to help ensure its Vermont success. I&#x27;m incredibly grateful to the productive meetings that I&#x27;ve had with CEO Sanjay Jha and his team, and have asked my Commerce Secretary, Pat Moulton, to work closely with Global Foundries to support this new company&#x27;s growth and investment in Vermont. We will continue to be accessible, nimble, supportive, innovative, as we build this really critical relationship.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3728400" class="thewords">The spirit of innovation, it&#x2019;s alive and well all around our state. Burlington was named one of the top emerging tech hubs in the country last year.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3738800" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d; It was.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3745400" class="thewords">In addition to Dealer.com, MyWebGrocers, that are both growing, there&#x27;s a new wave of high&#x2d;tech startups, like our Launch Vermont Pitch Contest winner, IrisVR, online game designer Game Theory, Designbook, a new groundsourcing and startup platform, and the new ad&#x2d;free social media site Ello, which had as many as 40,000 users sign up in one hour this past September.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3775800" class="thewords">That growth isn&#x27;t just in Burlington. Pwnie Express in Barre has been recognized by Wired Magazine for its cybersecurity devices. Global&#x2d;Z down in Bennington has quietly become a global leader in data management. Yonder, the app that Backpacker Magazine described as &#x2014; and I quote &#x2014; &#x22;what happens when Instagram and Foursquare meet at REI and have a baby together&#x22; &#x2014; is growing in Woodstock &#x2014; growing in Woodstock.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3808800" class="thewords">Our economic development programs, including the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive, VEGI, the Entrepreneurial Lending Fund, the Vermont Small Business Offerings Exemption, and others, are nurturing businesses at all stages, and helping to foster this job growth.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3827300" class="thewords">In its most recent awards rounds, the Vermont Economic Progress Council used VEGI to leverage &#x24;21.4 million &#x2014; &#x24;21.4 million &#x2014; in new full&#x2d;time payroll, and over &#x24;37 million in qualifying capital investments in the recipient companies over the next five years. That&#x27;s a lot of investment. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3856100" class="thewords">Now, these investments are spread throughout the state, from National Hanger Company in North Bennington to Vermont Packing House in Springfield, Blodgett Ovens in Essex, with their awards, these companies will create now more than 550 new jobs with an average yearly salary of more than &#x24;50,000 each &#x2014; &#x24;50,000 each.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3881800" class="thewords">VEGI has been an important, successful economic development tool, and it&#x2019;s the one that we must continue to help sharpen, to help improve our economy. Therefore I&#x27;m gonna ask you to make the following three improvements to the program:</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3899300" class="thewords">First, we&#x27;ll present a proposal to remove the &#x24;1 million cap for special projects outside of Chittenden County. Second, we&#x27;ll work with you to change the qualifying wage rate, to recognize regional economic differences, increasing the number of companies around the state that qualify for job creation support.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3924500" class="thewords">And third, we&#x27;ll also enable companies to use VEGI dollars earlier so they can train new hires. All of this will help us to grow jobs and economic opportunity. I ask for your support. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3948200" class="thewords">Now, another of our economic drivers continues to be tourism. We&#x27;re within a day&#x27;s drive of more than 80 million people starving &#x2014; starving &#x2014; for what Vermont offers: Our quality of life, our ski slopes, bike trails, hiking trails, our beautiful downtowns, our award&#x2d;winning beer, our award&#x2d;winning cheeses, our local foods, and so much more.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3976600" class="thewords">They come to experience all the things that we love about Vermont. Growing tourism grows our economy, and it supports more than 30,000 jobs in Vermont. That&#x27;s why I will partner with the Vermont Chamber of Commerce on a plan to use increased revenue from the rooms and meals tax to boost our tourism and marketing efforts.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4003300" class="thewords">In 2014 visitors to Vermont spent more than &#x24;2.5 billion. &#x24;2.5 billion. I propose that we take 15&#x25; of future growth from our rooms and meals tax receipts, above budgeted projections, and invest it in tourism and marketing support and promotion, capping it at &#x24;750,000.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4027500" class="thewords">This budget&#x2d;neutral proposal will grow jobs and promote Vermont. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4043300" class="thewords">We also need to shout from the rooftops &#x2014; shout from the rooftops &#x2014; what a great place Vermont is for technology businesses, manufacturing businesses, and startup businesses.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4057200" class="thewords">We need to do a better job of telling the story of our remarkable entrepreneurs, because they show that Vermont&#x27;s a great place to work and to do business, and they know that more than anyone. We launched our Great Jobs Vermont campaign because we know that when folks visit Vermont, they fall in love with Vermont, and they want to come back to work and start up businesses, as so many of our currently successful entrepreneurs did before they got here.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4085500" class="thewords">So we want others to learn what we already know: Vermont is the best place &#x2014; the best place &#x2014; to live, to work, to raise a family&#x3b; let&#x27;s spread the word. &#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4116100" class="thewords">It&#x2019;s an extraordinary privilege &#x2014; an extraordinary privilege &#x2014; to govern a state where we all know each other, where our citizen legislature shows the country how to take on the biggest challenges we face, and where we really put aside partisan differences that can paralyze democracy.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4138300" class="thewords">Each of us comes to elected office filled with the intention to do good for our community and for our state. Every election is an opportunity to remind ourselves of our purpose, and renew our commitment to help Vermonters through our service.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4157900" class="thewords">Vermonters expect nothing less from us, and I believe they deserve even more. I hope the proposals that I&#x27;ve presented today, and last week, will help tackle the big problems we currently face, and leave Vermonters with a feeling that their state government can make their lives and our state better. I look forward to the opportunity to debate, shape and implement these proposals with you this session, and beyond, to make lasting progress for jobs, affordability, our kids, our quality of life, and our environment.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4196800" class="thewords">Thank you so much.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4198200" class="thewords">&#x5b;applause&#x5d;</a></span></p>
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<p data-name="President Shannon"><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="9700" class="thewords">Welcome, everyone. Excellent turnout tonight. I&#x27;d like to ask you all to stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="25000" class="thewords">&#x5b;pledge&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="62000" class="thewords">Thank you all for coming. We will begin our city council meeting at 7:05, and the first item on the agenda is the agenda. Councilor Mason&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Councilor Mason"><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Mason</span><span><a data-m="73800" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I&#x27;d like to move the agenda as presented with the following amendments.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="78600" class="thewords">No proposed amendment add to the consent agenda item 4.32, communication Bob Rusten, Chief Administrative Officer, re: plan regarding city&#x27;s billing system&#x27;s compliance with City of Burlington ordinances, charter budgets and enacted resolutions, with a consent action to waive the reading, accept the communication and place it on file per CAO Rusten,</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="96500" class="thewords">add updated amendments per Councilor Wright and add amendment per Councilor Ayres for agenda item 5.02, resolution North Avenue Corridor Plan, &#x5b;TEUC&#x5d;, add consolidated proposed North Avenue Corridor amendments for agenda item 5.02 per Brian Lowe, Mayor&#x27;s Office.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="112200" class="thewords">Change &#x22;commission&#x22; to &#x22;committee&#x22; for agenda item 4.32, line 45, per Democratic staff person Judy Stephanie &#x5b;Ahern&#x5d;, add Jeff Nick&#x27;s communication to agenda item 5.03, add Kelly Devine&#x27;s communication to agenda item 5.03,</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="126300" class="thewords">remove from the consent agenda item 4.27, approval of MOU. Eileen M. Blackwood, Esq., city attorney, re: &#x5b;Tasqua&#x5d; lease, and place it on the deliberative agenda as agenda item 5.08, per Councilor Bushor.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="142000" class="thewords">Thank you, Councilor Mason. Is there a second&#x3f; Seconded by Councilor Bushor.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="148300" class="thewords">Any further amendments to the agenda&#x3f; Councilor...&#x3f; Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="155700" class="thewords">All those in favor of the agenda as amended, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="158700" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="159400" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; That&#x27;s unanimous.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="163200" class="thewords">Next item on our agenda is our annual report from the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="173400" class="thewords">Welcome, Commissioner Montroll.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Commissioner Montroll"><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><span><a data-m="177900" class="thewords">Good evening, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="178300" class="thewords">Welcome back.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><span><a data-m="179300" class="thewords">Thank you. Pleasure to be here. So I&#x27;m Andy Montroll, I&#x27;m your representative to the Regional Planning Commission.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="187600" class="thewords">I was hoping our alternate rep was going to be here also, but I understand he&#x27;s not able to make it &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="195600" class="thewords">He had been planning on coming, so apologize for his not being here. But you have our annual report. It’s been a very exciting year at the Regional Planning Commission.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="204000" class="thewords">There&#x27;s been a lot of activity that&#x27;s been happening. In our report we break it down into activities that are going on here in Burlington and regional activities. Beyond what’s here, what you see in the activities that are going on in Burlington, there are similar type of activities, although probably not as many, going on in all of the other member municipalities in the county.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="226400" class="thewords">So it’s been very active. When I was here last year, and in other times, I think, we&#x27;ve talked about the ECOS Project, which is essentially the regional plan. It incorporates the regional plan plus the transportation plan, plus other plans. And that was done about two years ago.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="246600" class="thewords">And a lot of the work that we&#x27;ve been doing since then really focuses on that and builds off of that, and starts to implement some of the programs that that was recommending.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="257100" class="thewords">I also just want to let you know I was elected as the chair of the Regional Planning Commission last spring. So I&#x27;m pleased to serve in that capacity.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="267000" class="thewords">I was also the chair of, essentially it’s the budget committee for coming up with the budget for this next year, and it was very helpful hearing from folks at Public Works and others who let me know what the priorities for the city were, so I can make sure that those were being incorporated into the work plan for this year that we&#x27;re in right now.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="286500" class="thewords">And one other piece that&#x27;s been important to us and, and to me, is really trying to help promote communications with the Regional Planning Commission.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="295600" class="thewords">And promote better outreach. And hopefully you&#x27;ve all been getting, like, monthly updates from the Regional Planning Commission.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="302900" class="thewords">There are newsletters are emailed to everybody. If you&#x27;re not getting that, let me know, but they go into quite a bit of depth over what we&#x27;re doing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="309600" class="thewords">The website also makes sure it’s kept up&#x2d;to&#x2d;date with all the different meetings that are going on, the different projects that are going on. So if you ever want to know what’s happening, first feel free to contact me, but also look at the website. There&#x27;s a whole wealth of information there. And with that, I&#x27;d be happy to answer any questions that you have.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="327900" class="thewords">Thank you, Commissioner Montroll. Do we have any questions&#x3f; Councilor Bushor&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Councilor Bushor"><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Bushor</span><span><a data-m="334800" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t have questions, but first of all I want to congratulate you on being elected chair. I think regional planning is in good hands.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="345100" class="thewords">The other thing is I just wanted to let you know that every time you reach out to a community and partner with them to work on a plan, a complete street, I feel that your staff, the staff there are so professional and really help get everyone around the table, and help to bring to closure a plan or a pilot project that is representative of input from the community.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="378700" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve been very impressed with that process, and I just want you to know that as a commissioner, that I think this organization serves Chittenden County very well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="392500" class="thewords">And I had reservations when there was the merger of transportation and planning together. But I think it’s been a very good uniting of those two issues, which really are intertwined anyway. So I just wanted to give you that positive feedback. Thank you very much.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="410900" class="thewords">And the report was, I really liked the way you divided into Burlington and then the rest of the region. It was very readable. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><span><a data-m="417500" class="thewords">Good, thank you, and I&#x27;ll bring those comments back.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="422000" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Wright&#x3f; Before you speak, let me just make a brief announcement. We have a lot of people to speak here at public forum, and I know we also have some young kids in the room.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="434000" class="thewords">So Mike is trying to collect names of people who have young kids here or other urgent reasons that they might need to speak sooner rather than later.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="445300" class="thewords">If you give your name to Mike, I&#x27;ll do what I can to move you to... Mike, can you raise your hand and wave&#x3f; Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="454400" class="thewords">We&#x27;ll do what we can to facilitate that. So, sorry, Councilor Wright.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Councilor Wright"><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Wright</span><span><a data-m="457900" class="thewords">That&#x27;s all right, President Shannon, thank you. Really no question. Andy, just wanted to sort of echo what Councilor Bushor said.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="465100" class="thewords">Thank you for your service, great job, and it’s always good to see you back here in Contois where you spent so many years. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><span><a data-m="472500" class="thewords">Well, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="475900" class="thewords">Thank you, Councilor Wright. Councilor Siegel.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Councilor Siegel"><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Siegel</span><span><a data-m="478200" class="thewords">Thank you very much, President Shannon, and thank you for coming, and thank you to those who had to amend the agenda and change this to tonight.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="484700" class="thewords">That was at my request, and I really do appreciate the opportunity to speak to you directly and to recognize the work that&#x27;s been done. To folks in the public or watching on channel 17, what we&#x27;re talking about might not be clear.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="497300" class="thewords">CCRPC is a pretty big mouthful. It’s the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. And to a lot of people that sounds like roads and buildings and infrastructure. But it’s also about people, and the ECOS Project really exemplifies that. And I was just so excited when I heard about the diversity and equity efforts that are happening within it, and in particular, the Leadership Training For People of Color Program that was piloted last year.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="530800" class="thewords">And I was at one of the commemorative events at the end of it, and know some of the folks who participated. And it was very valuable. Not just for those individuals, but it in the end will be valuable for all of us, who will get more leadership from people who we don&#x27;t always see in leadership positions.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="554300" class="thewords">So I had two questions regarding what you put in the report about the diversity and equity. One is that it mentions that you&#x27;re updating the Public Participation Plan, and a public hearing is expected in September of 2014.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="571400" class="thewords">I&#x27;m curious if that happened and I missed it, or if it’s coming.</a></span></span></p>
<p><p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><span><a data-m="574700" class="thewords">It didn’t happen yet. I had prepared the report in I think early August, and the hope was it was going to be on our agenda in September. It wasn&#x27;t finished yet, and so we put if off.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="586800" class="thewords">It’s supposed to be on our agenda on the third Wednesday this month in October. I&#x27;m still optimistic it’s going to be. I think they still need to have a final meeting of the group that&#x27;s working on that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="599900" class="thewords">Assuming they&#x27;re able to complete their work, it will be on our agenda, and I&#x27;m hopeful that&#x27;s going to happen, because we want to move forward with it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="607600" class="thewords">We would see the public hearing on the agenda for the upcoming meeting&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><span><a data-m="610900" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="611200" class="thewords">Of how to find out&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><span><a data-m="612000" class="thewords">Yes. It’s the third Wednesday of the month.
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="616000" class="thewords">Okay, that&#x27;s great. I didn’t mean to criticize at all. That stuff happens. It’s hard, you know, hard to know.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="620700" class="thewords">And then my question, my other question is about the leadership training. And it was a pilot program, it was successful, and there&#x27;s no reference as to whether it’s going to continue. And I know that Sarah Osaba, who led it and really, I think, created it in a lot of ways, made it happen, is now out of state.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="642100" class="thewords">And so without her being there, will somebody else fill that gap&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><span><a data-m="648600" class="thewords">I hope so. As you were pointing out, it was a really successful program last year that ended in June, and there was a kind of a graduation ceremony at our annual meeting in June, where a number of folks who participate in it were recognized. And I don&#x27;t know exactly yet what form it’s going to take on, because as you pointed out, Sarah has gone.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="671400" class="thewords">But I&#x27;m hopeful that we&#x27;ll be able to continue with something, either with the same program or something like it. I think it’s something that we&#x27;ve targeted as being really important to be able to reach out to a broader community, and it’s more than just reaching out. It’s helping to make sure that people in all different parts of our community have the background to really be able to fully participate, and that&#x27;s what that program was all about, was helping give people the groundwork and the base so that they could participate more actively in other things.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="702500" class="thewords">And I know you partnered with quite a number of community organizations to make that happen financially and logistically, and I am assuming that they all are still interested and were happy with how it went. So I hope that you&#x27;ll let Charlie know and let the rest of the commission know that we all are rootin&#x27; for you to do it again.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><span><a data-m="724300" class="thewords">Great, absolutely, I&#x27;ll pass that on.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="725900" class="thewords">Yeah, thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="728200" class="thewords">Thank you. Anyone else&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="733500" class="thewords">Well, thank you very much for your service, Commissioner Montroll, and for coming here tonight. And I know everybody knows that they can contact Andy if you have any questions or concerns. So, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cmr. Montroll</span><span><a data-m="746200" class="thewords">Great. Thank you very much.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="750300" class="thewords">I think normally we wouldn&#x27;t go to public forum until 7:30, but given that I have maybe 50 people who want to speak, I think we can get right to that. And anybody who comes at 7:30 won&#x27;t have missed it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="768400" class="thewords">So if there&#x27;s no objection, we&#x27;ll just go directly to that. And I only have, I have two people...</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="782500" class="thewords">I have two speakers with children that I&#x27;m going to put at the top of the pile, and otherwise take them in the order I receive them.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="789800" class="thewords">The first — so I&#x27;ll just remind people, you&#x27;ll have two minutes to speak, and the lights at the table will go on. When you start talking, the green light will go on. When you need to wrap up your comments, the yellow light will go on.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="802600" class="thewords">And when you need to end your comments, the red light would go on. And I&#x27;d appreciate it if people would really tightly respect the lights tonight, &#x27;cause we do have so many speakers and we want to hear from everybody.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="815700" class="thewords">Please address your comments to me. We try to not make anything personal. We want to hear from you about the issues.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="822500" class="thewords">It’s easier for us to hear your comments if you can address in a respectful way. We really appreciate that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="832800" class="thewords">And I will let you know both who the speaker is and who is on deck. So our first speaker is Sarah Goodrich, followed by Jenny &#x5b;Cathcart&#x5d;. Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="842200" class="thewords">And also if you can pull the mike right up — not you, silly. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="849400" class="thewords">That&#x27;s for mom.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Jenny Cathcart"><span class="overidecolr">Cathcart</span><span><a data-m="853000" class="thewords">Hi, I&#x27;m sorry I&#x27;m going out of order, as I was the number two speaker, but I got the motion. Is that okay&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="857000" class="thewords">Oh, okay, so you are Jenny Cathcart.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cathcart</span><span><a data-m="858900" class="thewords">Yes. Hi, I&#x27;m Jenny Cathcart —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="859800" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cathcart</span><span><a data-m="862800" class="thewords">And I live at 37 Laurel Court. So we&#x27;re in the Crescent Beach neighborhood, and I&#x27;m here with my three kiddos. Five, three and one. Two of whom already ride their bikes without training wheels.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="873500" class="thewords">So we moved to Burlington two and a half years ago from Madison, Wisconsin, where I was previously the Director of Marketing for Schwinn Bicycles, and a board member for the Wisconsin Bicycle Federation.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="884500" class="thewords">So biking is near and dear to my heart, and having livable, walkable, Complete Streets is very dear to my heart. But now that... Hey, Emma.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="892700" class="thewords">Now, as a mom, it’s even more important to me, because as I looked at the plan, the very well thought out plan that you guys have conceived, I see that there are numerous intersections that my family uses regularly, as we go to Ethan Allen Park, as we go to Hannaford&#x27;s Plaza.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="906700" class="thewords">And we&#x27;re a family that walks and bikes and does a lot of errands. And so the work that you guys are proposing is very important and very near and dear to my heart, and to those in... Shh, thank you. And those in our neighborhood.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="919200" class="thewords">And I truly hope that you stay strong and vote yes to move forward with the proposed changes. Thank you so much for listening, and thank you so much for all the hard work you&#x27;ve done on this issue.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="931200" class="thewords">Thank you for making the effort to come out and talk to us. Thank you all.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Cathcart</span><span><a data-m="934500" class="thewords">&#x5b;laughs&#x5d; Okay, sh.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="937100" class="thewords">Sarah Goodrich. Oh. Is Sarah here&#x3f; If she comes back... is Sarah here&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="950100" class="thewords">No. Okay, if she comes back, just wave to me and hopefully I&#x27;ll recognize you and we can still hear from Sarah.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="957900" class="thewords">Next we have Chuck Norris Brown followed by Martha Lange.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Chuck Norris Brown"><span class="overidecolr">Brown</span><span><a data-m="975400" class="thewords">Hello. Chuck Norris Brown from Burlington.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="978700" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Brown</span><span><a data-m="979700" class="thewords">Thank you. First of all, I wish to thank the Burlington City Council for allowing public input such as this as well as for listening. We know you listen. In my case, I&#x27;m referring to the support you showed the CCTA drivers during the strike.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="991600" class="thewords">Your involvement has led to constructive changes at CCTA, even as we speak, and I am sure the drivers who are here and the staff also, and the Board of Commissioner people who are here would agree.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1003000" class="thewords">I am sure they all want to work with you to continue to make the Burlington region a model for public transportation.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1009200" class="thewords">In this connection I want to refer to, among other things, Plan BTV, which clearly states among its goals environmental quality, social equity, and energy efficiency in transportation choices. And I&#x27;m sure we can join hands with our bicycle colleagues here this evening, plus those who support public transportation here tonight and watching us across the airwaves to emphasize three reasons why Burlington cannot afford to drop the ball on the downtown transit center.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1034400" class="thewords">The downtown transit center will have highly improved driver room and facilities as well as shelter and better security for passengers. It will also allow for better transfer protocol and ease bus crossings at Church Street. Finally, Burlington is a city choked by cars. In a way, the DTC symbolizes Burlington&#x27;s commitment to taking steps forward for public transportation and the livable city mentioned in Plan BTV.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1057300" class="thewords">We&#x27;re all on this bus together. Please make the decision this evening that will provide the easement necessary to allow CCTA to move forward in building its downtown transit center. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1066800" class="thewords">Thank you. Martha Lange, followed by Greg Roy. You&#x27;re also welcome to come up and sit at the table if you like, if you&#x27;re the next in the queue. Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Lange</span><span><a data-m="1079300" class="thewords">It’s two minutes, correct&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1080500" class="thewords">It’s two minutes, yes.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Martha Lange"><span class="overidecolr">Lange</span><span><a data-m="1082200" class="thewords">My name&#x27;s Martha Lange and I&#x27;m here to talk regarding the Taft School Lease. I am opposed to the 160&#x2d;year lease of Taft School. This deal is not in the best interest of the schoolchildren of Burlington, the taxpayers or Ward One residents.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1096800" class="thewords">Ward One will now be the only ward in Burlington without a school. And the students at Taft, a group of the most neediest, vulnerable children in the city, are being displaced without any public information on where they&#x27;re going to be educated.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1112900" class="thewords">This sale does not honor the intent of Mr. Taft&#x27;s last will. And I go on to discuss why. The &#x24;1.6 million from this lease will be under the control of the Burlington School District, a group who recently took &#x24;210,000 from school maintenance money to buy 59 Murray Street, a building they are being forced to sell because they violated zoning regs.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1140400" class="thewords">This group, when they found out there was a &#x24;2.3 million school deficit, debated whether or not the taxpayer would even be told about it. Eventually there will be a change in school commissioners. What guarantees do we have that the &#x24;1.6 million from Taft School won&#x27;t be as horribly disrespected as the intent of Mr. Taft&#x27;s will and testament&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1168400" class="thewords">And what’s &#x24;1.6 million compared to &#x24;14 million that the city misappropriated for Burlington Telecom under the advice of the same law firm representing the school district&#x3f; Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1182100" class="thewords">Thank you. I would like to... Is Sarah Goodrich here&#x3f; She did. Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1193100" class="thewords">If she comes back, let me know. Mr. Roy&#x3f; Welcome. Followed by RJ &#x5b;La Lumiere&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Greg Roy"><span class="overidecolr">Roy</span><span><a data-m="1205500" class="thewords">Thank you very much, Madam President, for allowing me to address the council. My name is Greg Roy, I live on Dale Road in North End.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1213300" class="thewords">First of all, I think we probably should&#x27;ve brought in some tubular police barriers so that we&#x27;d have a place for all the extra bikes that showed up tonight. If everybody leaves at once, it’s gonna look like Beijing out there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1225700" class="thewords">On the subject of the North Avenue Corridor Study and Project now, I would hope that this gets treated like the pilot project that it is. Personally, I wasn&#x27;t in favor of it from the beginning, and I didn’t really like the end product. I don&#x27;t think that roundabouts are going to be safe for &#x5b;stop&#x5d; control and crosswalks, lights.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1246300" class="thewords">And I don&#x27;t think reducing the width is going to help, either. Road diets work some places, like on Colchester Avenue. It seems to be the fix for there, but I&#x27;ve heard people complaining in South Burlington about the Shelburne Road road diet, and they don&#x27;t like it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1263200" class="thewords">So I would just hope that you would adopt Councilor Wright&#x27;s amendment to bring this back to the people and check in after the project, &#x22;pilot project&#x22;, is in force. Let&#x27;s just have a word back from the people, if they like it, if they don&#x27;t like it, and let&#x27;s fix it from there. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1281100" class="thewords">Thank you. RJ La Lumiere, followed by Paul Kemptner. Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="RJ La Lumiere"><span class="overidecolr">La Lumiere</span><span><a data-m="1296500" class="thewords">Hi. I&#x27;m from Ward Seven, I&#x27;m a homeowner up there. And I&#x27;d just like to say that I support the proposal as it is with no amendments. Maintaining any on&#x2d;street parking seriously compromises the safety of cyclists, and we like to ride our bikes, we like to walk a lot. We walk down to Hannaford&#x27;s because it’s not safe for her to ride there, although it should be — it’s very close.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1326900" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve heard some effort to frame this as just a New North End issue, but that&#x27;s not the case. It’s imperative that we have a full network across the whole city, so that we can go to school, so we can go to the library, so that we can go to the store and church. And disconnected pieces of intimidating infrastructure don&#x27;t make that possible for us.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1354300" class="thewords">And so I would just ask also that we let the pilot project run long enough that we can collect meaningful data, let people get used to the new configuration, and don&#x27;t prejudge it. Thank you very much.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1371400" class="thewords">Thank you. I should&#x27;ve noted at the beginning of the meeting that we have Councilor Legrand on the phone. So she has been participating through the whole meeting and she is hearing the public comment right now. Councilor Legrand, you&#x27;re there, right&#x3f; Probably on mute. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Coucilor Legrand"><span><a data-m="1393600" class="thewords">Councilor Legrand&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Legrand</span><span><a data-m="1394400" class="thewords">Yes, I&#x27;m here, I&#x27;m here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1395700" class="thewords">Okay, thank you. Just confirming.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Paul Kemptner"><span class="overidecolr">Kemptner</span><span><a data-m="1398400" class="thewords">My name is Paul Kemptner. I live in the New North End on Cumberland Road, and I want to say that I want to speak in favor of the amendment as it stands without any amendments. I have lived there for quite some time, and starting when I was about 50, I started bike commuting year&#x2d;round to downtown Burlington.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1420400" class="thewords">My wife still bike commutes. She works out at Fanny Allen, and often has to return quite late at night. And in the winter there are no options. Options imply that you have choices. But in the winter there are no options for commuting. There&#x27;s North Avenue or North Avenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1441400" class="thewords">So, and I&#x27;ve ridden that throughout the winter, and it’s difficult and dangerous. One of the arguments that I&#x27;ve heard that people have said that they would not support it, is that it might make their commutes longer. But there&#x27;s never been any discussion that if more people were riding their bike, there&#x27;d be less cars.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1463500" class="thewords">So I would offer that to you as for something to think about. I&#x27;ve often heard it suggested the bike path be plowed, but often got the response that it would put too much salt near the lake. And so in the winter the bike path is not an option.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1486300" class="thewords">North Avenue is the only way to go. So, I want to speak in favor of this.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1493800" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Kemptner</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1496400" class="thewords">Andrea, followed by Mike Walden. Andrea did not give me a last name. But wanted to speak to bike safety&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1515200" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Andrea Todd"><span class="overidecolr">Todd</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">Sorry about that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1516600" class="thewords">I&#x27;m Andrea Todd, is my last name.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1517800" class="thewords">You were probably here before it was really really crowded —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Todd</span><span><a data-m="1520200" class="thewords">Yes. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1520400" class="thewords">— and thought &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;. Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Todd</span><span><a data-m="1522600" class="thewords">Thank you. Thank you for letting me speak about this issue. I&#x27;m a bike commuter year&#x2d;round, with studs in the winter, and with my t&#x2d;shirt in the summer.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1534400" class="thewords">I think this is a really appropriate time to speak about bike safety, in lieu of last week&#x27;s pedestrian and bicycle accidents that happened in the city. So I think that really puts a good framework of discussion of safety of the people who are trying to live in Burlington and commute through Burlington&#x27;s streets.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1556500" class="thewords">This project and proposal, I&#x27;m in strong support of because of its ability to allow more people to get on bikes and drive through the city. It’s not a one or the other option. This solution allows both to work together.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1572300" class="thewords">And as someone who is in traffic day in and day out, the idea of a buffer area of something that can protect me from traffic and cars that might hit me is really appealing. This has an opportunity to actually make Burlington a truly bikeable and truly livable city that it is often espoused to be. So please support and put your money really behind the promise of a livable, bikeable Burlington.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1603400" class="thewords">Thank you. And I&#x27;m going to go to somebody who has small children here. Kate Whitman, followed by Mike Walden.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1623400" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Kate Whitman"><span class="overidecolr">Whitman</span><span><a data-m="1624000" class="thewords">Hi, thanks. Thanks for taking us. And, Kate Whitman — this is Ezra. I live in the New North End —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1630300" class="thewords">If you can try to speak into the microphone — I realize you have other challenges —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Whitman</span><span><a data-m="1633800" class="thewords">Hello. Kate Whitman — this is Ezra. I live in the New North End. And I used to be a 12&#x2d;month bike commuter when I lived in a place where I felt safe. This was before kids.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1647800" class="thewords">I hope to be at some point, but the realistic short term for me is being able to ride my bike to get groceries, go to the post office, go to UVM, go to work, and I wholeheartedly support the proposal as it’s written now.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1663400" class="thewords">I think the comments about bike safety, I agree with. The comments about having a good option in the wintertime — I tried it a couple times and I didn’t feel safe, especially at night. So it’s my hope that a protected bike lane would allow me to be safer. So thanks for giving me the time.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1683200" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Whitman</span><span><a data-m="1685700" class="thewords">Oh, and I would take him with me sometimes. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1689700" class="thewords">Mike Walden, followed... Walker&#x3f; Yeah, that could be it. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; Followed by Rich Nadworthy. Thanks for being patient.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Mike Walker"><span class="overidecolr">Walker</span><span><a data-m="1703300" class="thewords">Hi, my name&#x27;s Mike Walker, I live out in the Burlington North End. I guess you&#x27;re asking for a bike path down North Avenue&#x3f; To me, if you want something for safety and riding in the winter and whatever, I suggest we have a bus that goes out there. North Avenue is narrow enough as it is.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1726000" class="thewords">You have children riding in the roads, you have people riding in the roads, and none of &#x27;em follow the rules of the road. As a bus driver, I find it very dangerous to be asking people be in the road. There&#x27;s other ways that they can get around, and I don&#x27;t support the bike path out on North Avenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1745700" class="thewords">Also, I was asked about the bus terminal. I was told it was too late to say anything. But I don&#x27;t feel that that bus terminal is in the right position. That should be out on Pine Street, where the old bus, Vermont Transit Terminal was. And to me that would make a better position than where it is now, because being located on St. Paul Street, it’s not taking care of any of the safety issues or whatever.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1775700" class="thewords">Like I said, we still have bicycles passing us on the right and whatever. We have delivery trucks and whatever. &#x27;Course, I guess that&#x27;s already been voted on. But I just figured I&#x27;d say my piece on it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1788000" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Walker</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Whitman</span><span><a data-m="1790000" class="thewords">Rich Nadworthy followed by John Black.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1798000" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Rich Nadworny"><span class="overidecolr">Nadworny</span><span><a data-m="1798700" class="thewords">Hello. I&#x27;m Rich Nadworny, Joan, and I live in the New North End, and I&#x27;m here to ask for your support for the North Avenue Corridor pilot. You know as well as I there are a lot of exciting things happening in Burlington. The amazing Pine Street Corridor is about to receive even more investment through the South End Connector.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1821400" class="thewords">Our great downtown and waterfronts are starting new, exciting projects this year and next year. And the Old North End continues to renew itself, making it into one of the most interesting and diverse communities in Vermont.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1836600" class="thewords">And yet all of that creativity and innovation and investment seems to stop dead in its tracks as soon as you get north of the high school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1848500" class="thewords">Through workshops that I arrange and meetings that I attend and conversations that I have, I find an overwhelming desire from New North End residents to be better connected to and more integrated with the rest of the city.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1865500" class="thewords">But to do that, we&#x27;re going to need your help to start putting the &#x22;new&#x22; back in the New North End.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1873300" class="thewords">And that&#x27;s why, as a small step, I want you to support the North Avenue Corridor pilot and do your best to resist the last&#x2d;minute amendments, and to respect all of the hard work being done by our citizens and experts over the past 18 months.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1892000" class="thewords">But we&#x27;re gonna need your support to put that creativity and innovation and investment into the North End in the same way that you&#x27;ve done to support that in the rest of the city. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1906500" class="thewords">Thank you, Mr. Nadworny.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1910000" class="thewords">I understand Sarah Goodrich is with us. Is that...&#x3f; Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Sarah Goodrich"><span class="overidecolr">Goodrich</span><span><a data-m="1917900" class="thewords">Thank you very much. I&#x27;m Sarah Goodrich. Trying to manage tonight with my toddler here. But... I just wanted to come and give my full support for a complete street on North Avenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1928700" class="thewords">I live in the New North End. I have an almost three&#x2d;year&#x2d;old, and as it is now, I don&#x27;t feel safe biking on North Avenue. But with buffered bike lanes on both sides for the entire avenue, I would feel safe riding my bicycle into downtown, which would be fantastic for us. So I would just like to see North Avenue serve pedestrians and bicyclists as well as motorists.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1954100" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Goodrich</span><span><a data-m="1954600" class="thewords">That&#x27;s about it.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="1956300" class="thewords">John Black, followed by Eric Brown&#x2d;&#x5b;Brauts&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="John Black"><span class="overidecolr">Black</span><span><a data-m="1964000" class="thewords">Good evening. I live right on, kind of right across from Burlington College, and I&#x27;m kind of somewhere in between, I feel like Hannaford&#x27;s and City Market. And it would mean kinda the world to me to be able to feel safe, just to bike to Hannaford&#x27;s. As kind of a less expensive option for me, as well as kinda healthier option than the Mobil just down the street.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="1993800" class="thewords">It would mean a better quality of life, I think, for myself. Not only spending less money, but also just that kind of peace of mind. The only reason I don&#x27;t go down that way is just because the Burlington Bike Path is just a little bit too far out of the way. Also, as other people have mentioned, impassable in the winter.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2017500" class="thewords">But I definitely enjoy really kind of just having that peace of mind, biking on North Ave. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2026800" class="thewords">Thank you. Eric Brown&#x2d;Brauts, followed by Gary &#x5b;Dion&#x5d;. Okay, thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2039300" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Eric Brown"><span class="overidecolr">Brown&#x2d;Brauts</span><span><a data-m="2040700" class="thewords">Hi, thank you. My name&#x27;s Eric Brown&#x2d;Brauts. I live in the South End. I&#x27;m the chair of the Burlington Walk&#x2f;Bike Council.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2047500" class="thewords">And I would like to ask for your support for the North Avenue Study recommendations without amendment. This is an important upgrade, both short&#x2d;term and long&#x2d;term. And won&#x27;t talk about everything that all the other people are talking about. I want to specifically address — well, first I want to acknowledge the long&#x2d;term vision of a complete street, cycle &#x5b;track&#x5d;, intersection improvements, roundabouts, all of which, the details of which will be worked out in the future.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2079700" class="thewords">But it’s important to set the vision today for where that could go. I particularly want to address some of the particulars of the North Avenue recommendations.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2092000" class="thewords">The four&#x2d;to&#x2d;three&#x2d;lane conversion is critical to allow any biking at all in that section and improve safety and ridership in the North End.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2104200" class="thewords">The removal of on&#x2d;street parking — I understand there&#x27;s an amendment proposed to allow parking still on one side of the street. Bike lanes, as RJ was saying, next to parking are dangerous, with the possible of &#x22;dooring.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2124300" class="thewords">Someone was killed not too long ago in New Hampshire, I believe, by being &#x22;doored.&#x22; And in addition, having sparsely populated parking along the corridor as it is now will encourage people to weave in and out, which again makes for unpredictable behavior, and reduces safety both for cars and bikers.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2149600" class="thewords">And I&#x27;m losing time. I particularly want to make sure that we preserve a protected bike lane between — if it can&#x27;t be in the section currently proposed — to Washington Street and Institute Road. &#x5b;beep&#x5d; Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2166900" class="thewords">Thank you. Gary Dion followed by Patrick Johnson.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Gary Dion"><span class="overidecolr">Dion</span><span><a data-m="2175700" class="thewords">My name&#x27;s Gary Dion and I&#x27;m from Ward Seven.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2178000" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dion</span><span><a data-m="2178700" class="thewords">And first of all, I&#x27;d like to thank the mayor for an outstanding job in reference to many, many issues that should&#x27;ve been taken care of years ago, and also the city council, for your participation and working with the mayor. And especially on the F&#x2d;35. That was an outstanding job that you all did, and I appreciate it, and I know the City of Burlington and the State of Vermont cares for what you did.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2213600" class="thewords">But one thing I would like to say on reference to the North Avenue Corridor, at the present time right now, I take my granddaughter to school, roughly around eight, to Hunt School. There&#x27;s bumper to bumper traffic from Merola&#x27;s store all the way to Heineberg.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2230400" class="thewords">And as I make my left&#x2d;hand turn and I look down the road, it opens up to the four lanes, and there&#x27;s a bus down the road, and there&#x27;s another backup of traffic. What I&#x27;m saying is you make it two lanes, when service vehicles, including the bus and other modes of transportation try to make a turn, and if you&#x27;re behind &#x27;em, and there&#x27;s only one other lane to go into, you&#x27;re backed up.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2265600" class="thewords">Today I was on Riverside Avenue and I was heading back home, and there was a bus that was letting people off.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2275500" class="thewords">And it was at the Salmon Run. The bus — I went ahead. There were 20, my wife counted 28 cars that were delayed because the bus stopped and let people off.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2291400" class="thewords">If we have that issue right now, what is it going to be like when you convert the road over and put two bike lanes in there&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2300500" class="thewords">And there&#x27;s also been made &#x5b;beep&#x5d; references about the sidewalks and the kids not being able to walk —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2306100" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dion</span><span><a data-m="2306200" class="thewords">It’s not true, because there are school guards at each intersection, for each school, and there&#x27;s about six or eight of &#x27;em that —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2313700" class="thewords">Thank you, Mr. Dion.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dion</span><span><a data-m="2314000" class="thewords">— facilitate for the kids to cross the road. And the sidewalks are not unsafe. The roads are.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2321800" class="thewords">Thank you, Mr. Dion.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Dion</span><span><a data-m="2322800" class="thewords">Okay, thank you. &#x5b;one person applauds&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2324100" class="thewords">If you could, if you want to express your support for a speaker, we appreciate it if you could use silent applause, and we&#x27;ll check, we&#x27;ll look for you. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2335100" class="thewords">Patrick Johnson followed by Pam &#x5b;Scanlon&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Patrick Johnson"><span class="overidecolr">Johnson</span><span><a data-m="2340300" class="thewords">I hate traffic too. That&#x27;s why I bike. And hopefully it will encourage more people to bike with bike lanes. There is a concern of mine, which is the current bike lane situation we have in the city is two white lines, which does not encumber drivers from crossing.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2361600" class="thewords">All the time you see it as a biker — they&#x27;ll pull over to turn right, and then you&#x27;re over on the side. The amendment this evening to strike out wording, starting on line 72, to eliminate protected bike lanes and flexible posts, is completely unacceptable.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2383400" class="thewords">I have the right to be protected, like cars have the right for traffic stop signs, yield signs and the other basic necessities of travel.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2394200" class="thewords">You probably already all have had this debate, I&#x27;m sure. I&#x27;ve been hit three times. I don&#x27;t wish to be hit again.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2402000" class="thewords">There&#x27;s a lotta other people here that have been hit as well. I know for a fact, striking protected bike lanes from this project will encourage drivers to drift. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2414800" class="thewords">Thank you. Pam Scanlon, followed by Muffy &#x5b;Mylins&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Pam Scanlon"><span class="overidecolr">Scanlon</span><span><a data-m="2422000" class="thewords">Hi, my name&#x27;s Pam Scanlon. This is about the transit center. Am I in this...&#x3f; &#x5b;clears throat&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2426900" class="thewords">You&#x27;re good.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Scanlon</span><span><a data-m="2427600" class="thewords">I&#x27;m a resident of Pearl Street on the side that, the south side, I guess it is, where the easements are. I&#x27;m also a business owner there, as a lot of you know. I&#x27;m here, I&#x27;ve been through every iteration of this bus thing. I&#x27;ve been — transit center, sorry — living there over ten years.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2446600" class="thewords">I know we need a transit center. This is the best possible location as far as all the iterations that have come to do it in the core. My concerns are the easements on Pearl Street, and how it will affect the residents, especially the people who are in wheelchairs. I would like to see at least one handicapped&#x2d;accessible spot there, because currently the spots that they&#x27;re going for the easements on are where people park who are in wheelchairs, who come to my businesses.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2472600" class="thewords">And also they have asked me, &#x27;cause they can&#x27;t get here at night, to express their concern about that. I don&#x27;t know if the crosswalks are going to change. I&#x27;d like to know that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2482500" class="thewords">I&#x27;m kinda concerned that we just spent a lot of money doing a lot of improvements to these streets, and it seems like they&#x27;re going to be, the improvements are going to be taken out.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2492100" class="thewords">And mainly, it looks like there will be six spaces left on the south side of Pearl Street. I would like to ensure that those don&#x27;t get fed by meter feeders who sit there all day.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2505800" class="thewords">And just concerned for everybody in the neighborhood. And that&#x27;s it. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2510800" class="thewords">Thank you. Muffy Mylins followed by Joe &#x5b;Harrig&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2519900" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Muffy Mylins"><span class="overidecolr">Mylins</span><span><a data-m="2520600" class="thewords">Hi. I&#x27;m Muffy Mylins, I live at 129 Claire Point. We&#x27;re out at the far North End off North Avenue, next to North Shore, and I&#x27;m —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2529400" class="thewords">If you could speak up a little bit, and into the microphone, we could hear you better.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Mylins</span><span><a data-m="2535200" class="thewords">I work in the center of Burlington, and am very familiar with the many ways to commute in — by bus, car, biking, and yes, walking as well. I do them all. Like many others, I also make many short trips along North Avenue, again, by car, bike and&#x2f;or on foot on a pretty frequent basis.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2553600" class="thewords">The posts in Front Porch Forum have too frequently seemed to be drivers versus cyclists. I think we have lost sight of what the goals should be. To quote a recent posting to Front Porch Forum, &#x22;The real issue here is what is the best way for cars, bicycles, buses and pedestrians to share North Avenue&#x3f;&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2574000" class="thewords">I urge the council to support the plan that addresses these issues this evening. Cars will have dedicated lanes, cyclists will have dedicated lanes, a pilot project to test the viability of going from four lanes to three, improved crossings for pedestrians, i.e. more crossings.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2592700" class="thewords">The pilot project of going from four to three lanes should be designed with specific measurements and&#x2f;or data collection in order to properly assess the impact and effectiveness of the north&#x2f;south lanes and a middle turn lane.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2605900" class="thewords">The implementations of many of the recommended changes will take time. I believe that a lot of work has gone into this project over the past few months.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2614900" class="thewords">Let&#x27;s work to make the North Avenue Corridor safer for all of us, whether we be drivers, cyclists, walkers and&#x2f;or bus riders, or some combination thereof. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2624700" class="thewords">Thank you. Joe Harig followed by Paulette &#x5b;Saufin&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Joe Harig"><span class="overidecolr">Harig</span><span><a data-m="2632100" class="thewords">Hello, my name is Joe Harig. My wife and I purchased our home on Borestone Lane in Ward Seven two years ago. We are a committed one&#x2d;car family.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2646500" class="thewords">My wife works downtown. I work in Williston. So we both often sometimes use public transportation as well as riding our bikes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2656000" class="thewords">I would ask you to support the North Ave. Corridor plan as it has been put forward, and to just ignore the two proposals, for the reasons that have been put forth already.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2670000" class="thewords">And just to speak on the two bike paths, neither the 127 or the waterfront bike path are lit. So they&#x27;re kinda unusable at nighttime, and both of them both have large hills at the end of them. There are many people who are not strong riders that couldn’t make it up that hill.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2688100" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve previously been struck by a motorist as well, and I have firsthand experience of the repercussions of that, and I can tell you it was not fun.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2695600" class="thewords">I was out of work for two months, and still suffer from hip pain.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2701700" class="thewords">Since we&#x27;ve moved to the New North End, my wife and I have had numerous experiences cycling on North Avenue in which motorists failed to give a reasonable amount of space while passing. That&#x27;s to say nothing about the three feet that is supposedly state law that they&#x27;re supposed to be giving us.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2719900" class="thewords">Also, Riverside Avenue has kind of a protected cycle track, and I&#x27;ve ridden on that several times and felt completely, like just completely safe riding on that. It’s just way better than being on the street.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2735400" class="thewords">So I would also just like to express my gratitude to the TEUC and all the volunteers that have put in all the work to get us to where we are today. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2746500" class="thewords">Thank you. Paulette Soufin followed by Glen &#x5b;Eames&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Paulette Soufin"><span class="overidecolr">Soufin</span><span><a data-m="2753600" class="thewords">Hi, my name is Paulette Soufin. I have a unique perspective. I live on North Avenue. My kitchen window faces North Avenue. And I can tell you the five years I&#x27;ve lived there, I have seen such a change in the number of pedestrians and bicyclers and weird contraptions of things that go by my window every morning, starting about seven o&#x27;clock. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2773500" class="thewords">The scariest thing I&#x27;ve seen is teenagers on skateboards going down North Avenue while texting. If I was their mama, ooh, you know&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2782100" class="thewords">It’s terrifying. So what we&#x27;ve done, we have four parking spaces off&#x2d;street for our duplex. We&#x27;ve taken out the lilac bushes. We back into our parking spaces. We&#x27;re trying not to hit the children. We&#x27;re trying not to hit the people getting off the bus.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2799200" class="thewords">And I will be inconvenienced if you take away the street parking, but that&#x27;s okay with me. I would prefer to see the children, the bikers, the runners, the joggers, who jog in the street because the sidewalks are so crooked, you know, and they have puddles in them.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2817300" class="thewords">They jog in the road all winter long. I would prefer to see them safe. And I will give up my parking. I would ask you, if you come up with an alternative parking area, we&#x27;d love it, love to know where it is.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2827900" class="thewords">Does that mean I&#x27;m done&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2828500" class="thewords">No.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Soufin</span><span><a data-m="2828700" class="thewords">Okay. The other thing is I&#x27;ve noticed that North Avenue Alliance Church and the Elks both have large parking areas. They take care of their constituencies. They have green spaces.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2839500" class="thewords">Most of my neighbors have driveways and green space, and they don&#x27;t park in the street. Between the &#x5b;inner belt&#x5d; and the big rock wall that goes to the high school, I can see the whole two&#x2d;block area.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2852500" class="thewords">In the last month, one car has been parked on the street consistently. One. In the whole area. Unless the high school has an event. Then we have overflow parking. You have to think about something to do with that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2864600" class="thewords">But like I said, I&#x27;ll be inconvenienced. Please take away our parking and make the street safe. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2871300" class="thewords">Thank you. Thank you all. We really appreciate that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2878200" class="thewords">And I&#x27;ll just remind everybody again that the yellow light comes on when it’s time to wrap up your comments. The red light comes on when it’s time to stop. Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Glen Eames"><span class="overidecolr">Eames</span><span><a data-m="2887400" class="thewords">Good evening. Thank you, council, for giving me an opportunity to speak. My name is Glen Eames. I&#x27;m a resident of Burlington.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2894700" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve lived here for almost 30 years, and for 29 of those years we&#x27;ve been trying to address some of these issues.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2903700" class="thewords">I urge you to accept the North Ave. proposal as written, and not with the amendments. This is a major corridor into the city, and we&#x27;ve recently gone on to a &#x22;Go For Gold&#x22; campaign in the city, where we&#x27;re trying to improve transportation.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2923000" class="thewords">One of the goals is to improve all of the entrance corridors to our city. I think that North Avenue as a main artery into the city is ripe for this sort of project. People are going to be on North Avenue, and they are on North Avenue now, on bicycles.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2948300" class="thewords">So I urge you to accommodate all forms of transportation here. I&#x27;m a motorist. I own two automobiles. And I&#x27;m also a cyclist. Most people look at me and know me from cycling, but I drive quite a bit in the city too.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2964400" class="thewords">I can certainly appreciate the problems that one of the former speakers spoke of, of bumper to bumper traffic, and I really feel as though this could be part of the solution the problems of North Avenue, allowing people a safer place to ride.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="2982300" class="thewords">So I really urge you at this point to approve the project as&#x2d;is without the amendments. Thanks for giving me a chance to speak.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="2990100" class="thewords">Thank you. John &#x5b;Blakeney&#x5d;, followed by &#x5b;Shanta&#x5d; Eastman.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3006600" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Ian Blakeney"><span class="overidecolr">Blakeney</span><span><a data-m="3007200" class="thewords">Hi, council. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak. My name is Ian Blakeney, I live in Ward Four. This is my wife, Shanta.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Shanta Eastman"><span class="overidecolr">Eastman</span><span><a data-m="3014100" class="thewords">We live on Apple Tree Point Road.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Blakeney</span><span><a data-m="3017600" class="thewords">Ward Four. I really want to urge the council to pass the North Avenue Corridor Study, or Plan, as&#x2d;is without the amendments. I am a, we&#x27;re a one&#x2d;car family. We both bike all over Burlington, downtown, around the New North End.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3032100" class="thewords">And frankly, it’s really not that safe to bike on North Avenue, although I do it. I&#x27;ve had a few close calls myself. And the bike path, we&#x27;ve talked about some of the drawbacks to the bike path at night, and in the winter. And more importantly, I&#x27;m also a teacher, I teach in the Burlington schools, and I&#x27;m thinking about the kids in the New North... Well, the kids all over Burlington.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3051800" class="thewords">I really wouldn&#x27;t feel safe letting my children ride their bikes on North Avenue right now. My kids are going to be going to Hunt and to Burlington High School.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3058200" class="thewords">I want them to be able to get to school on their bicycles, and to their friends&#x27; house, and when they want to go out and have fun and go to the parks. Right now that&#x27;s really not an option.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3066200" class="thewords">So I really urge you to allow the protected bike lanes to be installed in the pilot project, and allow all the kids in Burlington, and the parents, to feel safe with their kids riding on the streets. Do you want to add anything&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Eastman</span><span><a data-m="3080300" class="thewords">Well, I just know that we&#x27;re some of the few year&#x2d;round bikers that we know. A lot of our friends would be bikers, but — and they think we&#x27;re kind of crazy, because when we bike on the avenue, there&#x27;s no shoulder in the winter, &#x27;cause there&#x27;s so much snow piled up.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3101000" class="thewords">You know, the roads are more narrow in the winter. So I would just, I think many more people... If we&#x27;re moving toward a greener economy and thinking about my kids&#x27; future, we need to encourage bicycling as much as we possibly can, and make it more comfortable for parents and families.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Blakeney</span><span><a data-m="3121800" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3122200" class="thewords">Thank you. Mrs. Blakeney, could you give us your name&#x3f; Because we only have Ian —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Eastman</span><span><a data-m="3125700" class="thewords">Oh, it’s Shanta Eastman.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3126900" class="thewords">Shanta Eastman. Oh, you&#x27;re the next...&#x3f; Oh. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3134200" class="thewords">Jason &#x5b;von Dreische&#x5d; followed by Connie Pressman.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Jason von Dreische"><span class="overidecolr">von Dreische</span><span><a data-m="3146900" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I&#x27;m here speaking for Local Motion tonight. Thank you for consideration of tonight&#x27;s resolution that outlines a series of common sense changes to North Avenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3159900" class="thewords">Taken together, these improvements will make Burlington&#x27;s longest street work better for everyone, whether you&#x27;re walking, biking, driving or taking the bus.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3169100" class="thewords">As you&#x27;ve heard tonight, there&#x27;s strong support across the community as a whole, and in the New North End in particular, for a safer, more orderly design for North Avenue. One that discourages excessive speed, makes it easier to cross the street on foot, reduces the risk of being rear&#x2d;ended when you&#x27;re waiting to make a turn, and provides separated and protected space for bikes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3191500" class="thewords">Local Motion applauds the hard work and the dedication of the North Avenue Advisory Committee that laid the foundation for this change, of the city staff that mapped out what it would take to make that change happen, and of the TEUC for endorsing that vision for change as the desired direction for our city.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3208600" class="thewords">We call on the city council to adopt the resolution as presented. It’s an excellent plan. Unfortunately, we can&#x27;t applaud the amendments as presented to the council.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3217900" class="thewords">In particular, we&#x27;d like to call your attention to one specific impact of Councilor Ayres&#x27;s amendment — the fact that it strips from the resolution any mention of protected bike lanes. In a city that&#x27;s committed to equity, to quality of life, and to active transportation, this is really unfortunate. Communities of all kinds are installing protected bike lanes with a barrier between cars and bikes, because they make it safer for kids, seniors, new bike riders, and all kinds of people to ride a bike.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3247500" class="thewords">And the truth is Burlington&#x27;s falling behind when it comes to making it safe and easy for everyone to walk and bike. The inclusion of protected bike lanes in the pilot was a solid first step in reversing that trend. I urge you in the strongest possible terms to include a protected bike lane in the pilot by any procedural measure that you deem appropriate. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3266100" class="thewords">Thank you. Well&#x2d;timed. And thank you all. Connie Pressman, followed by Janet Paterson.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3283100" class="thewords">Janet Paterson. If Connie comes back, let me know.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3290100" class="thewords">And followed by Arthur &#x5b;Vento&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Janet Paterson"><span class="overidecolr">Paterson</span><span><a data-m="3293700" class="thewords">My name&#x27;s Janet Paterson. I live at 24 Bennington Court, and that&#x27;s right off of Saratoga and right off North Avenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3303500" class="thewords">I&#x27;m a so&#x2d;called senior citizen who have been living in Burlington in the New North End about 40 years. I&#x27;ve been driving the 40 years, but have also enjoyed bicycling. But I refuse to bicycle on North Avenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3318100" class="thewords">I have two neighbors who ride bicycles, and one reads books to the people in the residence area, and she rides on the sidewalk to get to Reading For Seniors.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3334400" class="thewords">I really want to thank you all for putting together the pilot study. It will make North Avenue much better. And I have two major concerns. One is safe way for seniors to get across. Much like the Pine Street. Because there&#x27;s places right there in the Thayer House that they&#x27;re long stretches that you can&#x27;t get across the street.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3359300" class="thewords">So having those yellow flashing lights would be really great, because it gives you time to get across. Secondly, I have a concern about protected bicycle paths. If I&#x27;m going to ride the bicycle in the new plan, I want some of those orange stakes protecting me along the way.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3379500" class="thewords">I think that amendment calls that they wouldn&#x27;t be there. And the other thing is the pilot study should be just continued. I don&#x27;t think we need any more input.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3391100" class="thewords">The people who put the program together have worked long and hard in this plan, and it’s the best thing for New North End. Thank you very much.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3399900" class="thewords">Thank you. Arthur Vento followed by Liam Griffin.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3413200" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Arthur Vento"><span class="overidecolr">Vento</span><span><a data-m="3413900" class="thewords">Hello, again. Nice to see you. My name is Arthur Vento. I live on Dodds Court in the New North End.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3420600" class="thewords">First, I find it really interesting that there are three helmets to advertise part of your bias for your own plan.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3431800" class="thewords">Mr. Vento, could you speak more directly into the microphone&#x3f; &#x27;Cause Channel 17 will pick it up better.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Vento</span><span><a data-m="3435100" class="thewords">Oh, well, that&#x27;s great. Okay. I find it interesting that I see three helmets from council members, showing bias for your own plan.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3443400" class="thewords">That I find offensive right at the start. And there&#x27;s all kinds of stuff I could talk about. I could talk about, I see one bicycle every once in a great while that actually obeys the rules of the road.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3455500" class="thewords">I see a pedestrian from time to time that obeys the rules of the road. You want to change things for 100&#x25; of the people who live in Burlington for less than five percent of the people who live in Burlington.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3469500" class="thewords">What I really want to address is, I don&#x27;t believe there has been any public input about doing away with the parking spaces from St. Mark&#x27;s Church to Burlington High School.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3479000" class="thewords">And with no public input about that, you have no right to do anything.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3485600" class="thewords">Your plan is already dead in the water. Until you discuss it with me — I&#x27;m a part of the public — and with the rest of the people in the public, you can&#x27;t go forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3498900" class="thewords">Really simple, really straight&#x2d;forward. You&#x27;ve got a great plan, except you didn’t lay the groundwork for it. And by the way, if anybody wanted you riding on that bike path in the winter, it would be passable in the winter. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3512200" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3513900" class="thewords">Liam Griffin, followed by Jeff Comstock.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Liam Griffin"><span class="overidecolr">Griffin</span><span><a data-m="3526400" class="thewords">All righty. My name&#x27;s Liam Griffin, I live in Ward Seven. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3532700" class="thewords">One of the amendments proposed this evening adds back&#x2d;in parking along one side of North Ave., as referenced by a few previous people,</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3539900" class="thewords">between 127 and Institute and Shore Road and Plattsburgh Ave. I&#x27;ve been helping survey parking in both those areas over the past few months, and I have a copy of a report that I would like entered into the public record that contains photos and data on both those areas.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3554500" class="thewords">The average number of cars parked between Institute and 127 on average is less than one car, as noted. Why would we add back&#x2d;in parking and eliminate protected bike lanes in this section so one person can park in the street instead of in their driveway&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3567800" class="thewords">There&#x27;s plenty of off&#x2d;street parking in that segment, and the protected bike lanes proposed there would provide the safest access to the high school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3574800" class="thewords">The average number of cars parked between Shore Road and Plattsburgh Ave. is also less than one, with the exception of parking counts done church services at St. Mark&#x27;s.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3583900" class="thewords">On average, 15 cars park on North Ave. during church. That said, at the same time there are an average of 10&#x2d;12 empty spots in the church parking lot, another five spots in the church driveway, and room for many additional cars on Shore Road and other side streets.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3599000" class="thewords">Why would we eliminate the buffered bike lanes through this section so a small number of people can park in front of the church for a few hours on weekends when there is so much unused parking lot behind the church in their own lot&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3612000" class="thewords">North Ave. is a public street, not a private parking lot, last time I checked. So much of this discussion always seems to come back to a basic fear of change.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3621800" class="thewords">People feel comfortable with the status quo and it can be really difficult for people to imagine how a change that might inconvenience them a little bit personally could also be game&#x2d;changing in a really positive way for the broader community.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3634300" class="thewords">I strongly suggest you reject this amendment, look at the flawed logic of what is being presented. And it seems like we&#x27;re making a lot of compromises on a great plan that works for everybody who uses North Ave. for transportation, for the sake of a few people who insist that it needs to be used as a parking lot. &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3651100" class="thewords">Thank you. Thank you. Jeff Comstock, followed by Tad Cook. Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Jeff Comstock"><span class="overidecolr">Comstock</span><span><a data-m="3656700" class="thewords">Yes. Good evening. Jeff Comstock, Ward Seven.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3660000" class="thewords">I want to focus my comments on the idea that just because you can doesn’t make it a good idea. In this case I&#x27;m talking about the &#x22;bicycles may use full lane&#x22; rule currently in effect on city streets. For example, just because you can ride your bicycle down the middle of North Avenue during rush hour traffic doesn’t make it a good idea.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3683300" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve wanted to share these comments with the council for a long time, but now that the North Avenue Corridor Study is on the agenda, my request is even more urgent.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3693500" class="thewords">As the redesign of North Avenue becomes a reality, I&#x27;m asking the council and the Transportation, Energy and Utilities Committee to eliminate the &#x22;bicycles may use full lane rule.&#x22; I too am a runner and a cyclist. I support the principle of &#x22;share the road.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3710900" class="thewords">However, I don&#x27;t have respect for strident bike riders who obstruct traffic just because they&#x27;re entitled to.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3719400" class="thewords">If Burlington really wants to promote itself as a bicycle&#x2d;friendly city through the Complete Streets model, then it must make a real commitment to create bike lanes and not aggravate the conflict between bike and auto traffic.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3732900" class="thewords">The &#x22;bicycles may use full lane&#x22; concept is a failed policy. In fact, I consider it an abdication of the city&#x27;s public safety responsibility.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3742400" class="thewords">Rather than create a bicycle&#x2d;friendly city, it has created bike chaos and is fostering a self&#x2d;entitled, irresponsible bike culture.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3754100" class="thewords">For one, I&#x27;m neither foolish enough or selfish enough to ride my bike down the middle of North Avenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3759300" class="thewords">Those who do are a traffic hazard, and a threat to their own personal safety.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3764200" class="thewords">I also believe the current emerging biking culture in Burlington — and that&#x27;s not a compliment — should anger quality, responsible cyclists because they too will suffer the consequences of deteriorating driver sentiment.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3779900" class="thewords">It’s time for the cycling community to protect its own reputation and not frame this as only a car versus bicycle debate. &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3789000" class="thewords">So please, now is the time to eliminate &#x22;bicycles may use the full lane&#x22; concept from —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3794500" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Comstock</span><span><a data-m="3794900" class="thewords">— Burlington&#x27;s transportation playbook. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3797900" class="thewords">Thank you. Tad Cook followed by Steve Norman.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3807700" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Tad Cook"><span class="overidecolr">Cook</span><span><a data-m="3808400" class="thewords">Thank you. Thanks for the chance to speak. I joined the North Avenue Steering Committee 18 months ago, representing Ward Three.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3817700" class="thewords">I previously had worked on North Ave. and I biked between Ward Three, down North Ave. to Institute every day.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3825700" class="thewords">And so I joined because I personally was concerned about what the experience is like between those two points, and along the rest of North Ave.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3833600" class="thewords">And so during the steering committee process, I both biked and drove through the winter, and when it was warmer, to the meetings over the last 18 months.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3843800" class="thewords">And I would urge the council and ask you to support the amendment, or the proposal as&#x2d;is, and not with the proposed amendments.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3853200" class="thewords">It’s a plan that represents a lot of work by members of the community and by staff in the city, and by great consultants. And I think it represents a vision for North Ave. that can be replicated across Burlington.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3869400" class="thewords">And if we don&#x27;t put out a vision now that is the best possible scenario, then we&#x27;re never going to get there down the road.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3877200" class="thewords">You have to start with a big vision and then make it realistic from there. So thank you, I appreciate the chance to speak, and I appreciate the chance to serve on the committee, and thanks for your consideration.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="3889200" class="thewords">Thank you. Steve Norman followed by Phil &#x5b;Hammersaw&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Steve Norman"><span class="overidecolr">Norman</span><span><a data-m="3896600" class="thewords">Hi, I&#x27;m Steve Norman, and I live just off of North Avenue on Staniford Road between North Avenue and the bike path. In the year 2000, with much advanced deliberation, the city adopted its legacy plan, which looked ahead 30 years., and envisioned a city of perhaps as many as 65,000 people, believe it or not.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3918500" class="thewords">It’s good to be ambitious, I guess, but we are growing already. We&#x27;re not there yet, but we&#x27;re growing, and the North End is growing. And our visitors are growing. And anyone who thinks we&#x27;re going to maintain past speeds of car travel while we grow larger, perhaps hasn’t been driving anywhere else but here.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3939200" class="thewords">&#x5b;laughter&#x5d; That&#x27;s not what we learned from the 20th century. It doesn’t happen that way. To the contrary, our own public policy has already wisely shifted away from higher car speeds to other options — more public transportation, more active transportation, and infrastructure, to empower those choices.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3958900" class="thewords">Complete Streets is the law. Act 250 was amended this year to lower the minimum traffic flows through the downtowns in Vermont.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3967900" class="thewords">Transportation planners are expanding our bus routes, and commuters are taking advantage of those routes.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3974300" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve lived just off of North Avenue for 25 years. It’s taken me most of that time to calm myself down and my driving habits to meet the 30 mile an hour speed limit.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="3986900" class="thewords">But I do, and most others fly past me on one side or the other, depending on which lane I&#x27;m in in that part of the street, because it was designed and built for 40 mile an hour speeds, and people tend to go what feels right on the highway.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4001900" class="thewords">So that was a mistake. Remember the interstate&#x2d;type overhead signs we used to have at the beltline interchange&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4008700" class="thewords">Those came down. We really don&#x27;t want our neighborhood to look like exit 14 and to grow like that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4016500" class="thewords">Four&#x2d;to&#x2d;three&#x2d;lane diets do work on Colchester Avenue and Williston Road. &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4024600" class="thewords">They work fine. Use that lane for your left&#x2d;hand turn and to pass the bus, and we&#x27;ll all be safer. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4029700" class="thewords">Thank you. Phil Hammersaw, followed by Susan &#x5b;Moncrese&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4039500" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Phil Hammersaw"><span class="overidecolr">Hammersaw</span><span><a data-m="4040200" class="thewords">Thank you. I want to speak in favor of not adopting the amendments, but taking the recommendations that were worked so hard on by our citizens, DPW, the TEUC, all of us.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4057600" class="thewords">And I want to see that recommended. And I&#x27;ll start off by saying it’s the economy, stupid. This is not a war between bikes and cars, pedestrians and buses.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4069300" class="thewords">This is about real estate. North Avenue is real estate. And as real estate, it predominantly is designed for cars.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4078400" class="thewords">That&#x27;s not its highest and best use. Its highest and best use is for multiple modes of transportation. Bikes, cars, walkers, public transportation, which is essential.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4093000" class="thewords">And when this is done in cities all over the United States and the world, what happens is real estate value increases, residential and commercial.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4103900" class="thewords">Who has ever seen an ad that says, &#x22;House for sale, close to the bike path and close to public transportation, not close to the main road&#x3f;&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4114300" class="thewords">When this is done in areas, corridors, when we add bike paths and we add good pedestrian walkways, businesses increase in that zone by 40&#x2d;60&#x25;. That&#x27;s money in the local economy.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4128900" class="thewords">Every dollar gained in the local economy generates seven dollars more for the whole community. When we go out to the box stores, what happens is you get five percent return on a dollar.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4142800" class="thewords">It’s the economy, stupid. What’s going to make Burlington grow, what’s bringing us to the 21st century, is not a fight about narrowing the roads or streets. It’s about facing reality, it’s a changing world, we need to do it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4157300" class="thewords">These bike lanes and pedestrian walkways are essential to the growth of the community. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4164100" class="thewords">Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Susan Monkrese, followed by Matthew &#x5b;Tchabat&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Susan Monkrese"><span class="overidecolr">Monkrese</span><span><a data-m="4172100" class="thewords">Good evening. I&#x27;m Susan Monkrese. I am a mom and a bicyclist, and I live in the South End of Burlington. I would like to urge the council to support the resolution un&#x2d;amended.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4183800" class="thewords">On the issue of protected bike lanes, I&#x27;m a mom who listens to all the other moms at school saying they wish they could pick their kids up by bike or on foot.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4194200" class="thewords">And they do not feel able to ride to schools and take their kids to and from school. Protected bike lanes make a major difference in the safety of children.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4204000" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve been a bike commuter for 20 years, and I&#x27;m willing to take risks for myself, but I will not take risks for my children that they have no say over.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4211900" class="thewords">They&#x27;ll get to make their own risky decisions come 13 or 14.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4217100" class="thewords">I would also like to speak to the issue of an amendment which appears to privilege the opinions of people in the New North End over others in determining the future of the pilot study.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4228400" class="thewords">As I understand it, streets are public, and as a taxpayer I want access to the high school that I hope my daughter will ride to on a bicycle, and I hope that we would recognize that these are a shared resource that belong to all of us.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4243300" class="thewords">This point came home to me very forcefully in the last time I spoke in front of a body here in Burlington, which was the parks commission.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4250200" class="thewords">I was active in establishing a new community garden. We held outreach forums, we did neighborhood discussions, we had groups of neighborhoods from surrounding the garden.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4260600" class="thewords">And at one of those open forums, someone stood up and yelled at me that this garden was being rammed down their throats, that there was no opportunity for feedback, and it was a done deal.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4270800" class="thewords">And at that point I luckily remembered that community gardens have been approved by the city council, where appropriate, as a use on city land, and so I informed this person that community gardens are an allowed and approved use of city park land when they are deemed appropriate.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4289100" class="thewords">My understanding is that bike lanes &#x5b;beep&#x5d; are part of Complete Streets, and therefore are an approved use, and I&#x27;d like to see them treated as such.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4295800" class="thewords">Thank you. Matthew Tchabat, followed by John &#x5b;Halvey&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Matthew Tchabat"><span class="overidecolr">Chabot</span><span><a data-m="4306400" class="thewords">Thank you. Good evening. My name is Matthew Chabot, I&#x27;m the general manager of Burlington Town Center. I am also a member of the Church Street Marketplace Commission.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4314300" class="thewords">I&#x27;m here this evening to voice my support for the relocation of the CCTA bus station from its current location at Church and Cherry over to St. Paul and request that the city council provide the easement that&#x27;ll allow that to take place.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4330300" class="thewords">Over two years ago I was approached by the CCTA regarding different proposed alternatives to its current location, and we did feel strongly and continue to feel strongly that maintaining the bus hub in the downtown corridor, with a close proximity to Church Street, does serve the best needs of all involved — certainly those that utilize the services in the downtown corridor, and the bus station as well.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4361200" class="thewords">Church and Cherry does create a chokepoint for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic based on the location of the current bus station. And again, I would just simply ask that the city council grant the easement request of the CCTA. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4378700" class="thewords">Thank you, Mr. Chabot. Councilor Blais, you are the keeper of silent consonants. I hope you&#x27;ll remind me next time.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4388200" class="thewords">John Halbey, followed by Lee &#x5b;Trehune&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="John Halbey"><span class="overidecolr">Halbey</span><span><a data-m="4397300" class="thewords">President Shannon and town council, thanks for taking the time to listen. And my hat&#x27;s off to everybody that&#x27;s worked on this project. I know there&#x27;s a lotta people involved in it. I&#x27;ve been reading about it on the Front Porch Forum for quite some time.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4415200" class="thewords">Cars and bikes don&#x27;t mix physically. There&#x27;s danger involved. And I don&#x27;t have any children, but I&#x27;d be really scared if they went on the avenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4425000" class="thewords">I would recommend they grow up learning how to ride on the bike path. The bike path is beautiful, something we should all be proud of. It brings a lot of tourists to the area.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4434600" class="thewords">We have a couple of bike paths. We have the one to the Intervale as well as the one on the lake.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4444900" class="thewords">If you enter North Avenue from the north, Plattsburg Avenue, and there&#x27;s a bicycle on your right, and you want to take a right on Tracy Drive, we signal our — I&#x27;m driving a car, the bike&#x27;s on the right — I signal to turn a right on Tracy Drive, the bike wants to pass me on the right at the same time. I don&#x27;t see the bicycle.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4465600" class="thewords">I have poor peripheral vision, might be a touch of glaucoma. Can&#x27;t see the bike. Keep it in mind. We&#x27;ve got 65 aprons and entrances between 127 and Shore Road.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4478700" class="thewords">65 aprons &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d;. Can&#x27;t see the bike passing on the right, okay&#x3f; So you got one lane of cars, there&#x27;s no way for the right&#x2d;hand turn people to slow down.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4490500" class="thewords">If you&#x27;re taking a right&#x2d;hand turn, the bike&#x27;s passing you on the right. It’s scary. The center left lane — you go down the Williston Road, you&#x27;re going to the airport, get in the center left lane to take a left to the airport, the shortcut road — I don&#x27;t know the name of it, everyone knows it’s there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4505500" class="thewords">The same time, a car coming towards Burlington, headed west, wants to turn left. We&#x27;re playing chicken in the center left lane. Who was there first&#x3f; No, I just bailed out, get to the right... &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4519600" class="thewords">Sorry. Thanks for listening to me.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4521200" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Comstock</span><span><a data-m="4521800" class="thewords">Go, bicycles.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4523500" class="thewords">Thank you. Lee, Trehune, followed by Russ Ellis.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4537800" class="thewords">Councilor Ellis, welcome back.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Councilor Ellis"><span class="overidecolr">Ellis</span><span><a data-m="4546400" class="thewords">I take it Lee is not here.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4548500" class="thewords">That&#x27;s what I am told.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Comstock</span><span><a data-m="4549500" class="thewords">Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4550100" class="thewords">If she should come back before we&#x27;re done, she will —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Comstock</span><span><a data-m="4552700" class="thewords">Okay.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4552800" class="thewords">— be given another chance.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ellis</span><span><a data-m="4556300" class="thewords">Well, there is something familiar about sitting here, I&#x27;ll have to admit that. Thank you. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4560800" class="thewords">Good to see you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ellis</span><span><a data-m="4561600" class="thewords">You know, I&#x27;ve lived here — Nancy and I have lived in Ward Four for 45 years, and it’s always been a neighborhood to me.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4571500" class="thewords">We raised four children here. We were fortunate enough to have some of those children grow up and then move into Ward Four themselves and raise their own children.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4580800" class="thewords">So we&#x27;ve had the benefit of children and grandchildren, and it’s been fun.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4585700" class="thewords">Ward Four to me is a neighborhood. And when I think of a neighborhood, what I think of — I made a little list here — I think of bicycles, I think of children, I think of senior citizens — a strange thing that happens to middle&#x2d;aged people &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;,</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4603400" class="thewords">I think of parks, and we have many of them, or several of them, anyhow, in the New North End. And they&#x27;re on both sides of North Avenue, so that half the people, to get to one set of parks, has to cross.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4619400" class="thewords">And the other half has to cross this way if they want to get to those parks. So the parks are there, but there is North Avenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4631300" class="thewords">I think of skateboarding, and I&#x27;ve seen my kids do that. I think of front yard soccer, another thing, and the ball frequently goes off the yard, into the road.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4646300" class="thewords">I think that of all the things that they do, and they go to school. And I just checked some of the data on schools.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4653900" class="thewords">You know, we have four schools, three schools. These are grade schools, first through eighth grade. C.P. Smith, Flynn and Hunt.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4665000" class="thewords">Together, those three schools have about 1,000 students in them. And they serve both sides of North Avenue. &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4678500" class="thewords">I know you&#x27;re not accustomed to having the timer on you, are you, Councilor Ellis&#x3f; &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ellis</span><span><a data-m="4681100" class="thewords">Yeah, I&#x27;ve got about 15 more minutes. But anyhow, they all have to cross. And I think that&#x27;s a shame. I&#x27;m in favor of the motion that&#x27;s put forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4690000" class="thewords">I&#x27;m not in favor of the amendments. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4693000" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4695900" class="thewords">Nathaniel Burns followed by Don McDonald.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Nathaniel Burns"><span class="overidecolr">Burns</span><span><a data-m="4705800" class="thewords">Hello, councilors, my name is Nathaniel Burns. I&#x27;m a resident of the New North End, specifically on North Avenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4713600" class="thewords">And I&#x27;m in support of this thing that&#x27;s in front of us, with any amendments.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4722300" class="thewords">And I&#x27;d like to speak about those amendments.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4725100" class="thewords">To sum up one amendment, it says basically if public input from the New North End does not support its continuation, the city will restore the 4&#x2d;3&#x2d;lane pilot area to its current configuration.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4738900" class="thewords">And I assume that is taking into consideration the people who live in that region and what they want, because they have to live there and deal with it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4749000" class="thewords">So I also assume that if we&#x27;re going to have that in there, maybe we could add another amendment, a little bit of pork, and say that after the F&#x2d;35s are put at the airport, everybody who lives over there in that area, after a few months, can decide whether or not they want to keep them.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4768800" class="thewords">And if they decide against it, then we&#x27;ll just take them outta there. Obviously, I&#x27;m kidding.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4775600" class="thewords">My logic is flawed, and so is this amendment. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4780800" class="thewords">The second amendment I&#x27;d like to speak about is about between Institute Road and Vermont 127, is what I know best — that&#x27;s closer to me. I don&#x27;t know as much about further north on North Ave.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4792800" class="thewords">But I go past there all the time in a car and on a bike, and I rarely see cars parked there. A few here and there. That&#x27;s right north of the high school.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4803000" class="thewords">And I looked on Zillow the other day at the size of the lots there, and they&#x27;re pretty big lots. They&#x27;re like quarter acre, half acre.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4812900" class="thewords">There&#x27;s only a couple that are multi&#x2d;unit, and so I don&#x27;t know why they need all that parking on the street for their personal use. We&#x27;re not talking about apartment complexes that have no parking lot for them to park all the people who live there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4826100" class="thewords">So I don&#x27;t support that amendment either. And I also want to thank everybody for all the time you put in, for everything you do to make this city so great, and we appreciate it. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4836000" class="thewords">Thank you. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4839700" class="thewords">Don McDonald followed by Andrew Crawford.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Don McDonald"><span class="overidecolr">McDonald</span><span><a data-m="4845800" class="thewords">My name&#x27;s Don McDonald, and I reside at Fern Hill up on North Prospect Street.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4852100" class="thewords">I&#x27;m involved with the Vermont Community Alliance For Public Transportation, which is an advocacy group for improved public transportation in Chittenden County and throughout the state of Vermont.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4863800" class="thewords">We&#x27;re at the point now of starting construction of a long overdue CCTA terminal in the Church Street area on St. Paul Street. We&#x27;re basically debating the paint scheme of the trash cans and whatever else can be thrown in to delay this terminal.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4880400" class="thewords">We need this terminal, we need it now. We needed it 20 years ago. Is it the end all and be all&#x3f; No.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4888400" class="thewords">An intermodal terminal also needs to come in the city — intermodal being down by the railroad station.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4894800" class="thewords">Many businesspeople believe that nobody takes the bus, and I&#x27;d like to invite the merchants on Church Street to visit the Church Street Terminal any Saturday and check the number 76 bus from Middlebury and the students that come from Middlebury College to spend a lot of money in Burlington.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4917100" class="thewords">We need this terminal, we need it now. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="4920500" class="thewords">Thank you. Andrew Crawford followed by Tom &#x5b;Morley&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Andrew Crawford"><span class="overidecolr">Crawford</span><span><a data-m="4929100" class="thewords">Hello, my name&#x27;s Andrew Crawford, and I&#x27;m a resident of the New North End on Laurie Lane.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4935700" class="thewords">I am a father of three, and our entire family uses both vehicles, buses and bikes to get to school, to get to work and to do local shopping.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4950700" class="thewords">I just want to say that a lot of people have mentioned safety issues on North Avenue. I have many experiences on North Avenue that would corroborate some of the concerns that they have.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4960900" class="thewords">I think that it’s imperative for the New North End to open the corridor to people who are on bicycles, and I think that there are substantial economic possibilities that would happen if that were to go forward.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4974800" class="thewords">So I want to say I support the vision for a Complete Street on North Avenue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="4980900" class="thewords">I also support the North Avenue Corridor as&#x2d;is, the pilot project as&#x2d;is with any amendments. In addition to that, I have to say that while we also use the 127 bike path and the waterfront bike path occasionally to come into town, more for recreational purposes, both of those, as has been said, are not plowed in the winter, and also they are not lighted at night.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5007900" class="thewords">We are a one&#x2d;car family, and we cannot afford another car. So the bicycles and the buses are the ways we get into town.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5016100" class="thewords">If that car&#x27;s going somewhere else. Thank you very much for your time.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5020100" class="thewords">Thank you. Tom Morley, followed by Robert &#x5b;Herandine&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Tom Morley"><span class="overidecolr">Morley</span><span><a data-m="5028600" class="thewords">Hi. My name is Tom Morley. I live just off Ethan Allen Parkway. I drive on North Avenue almost every day. I&#x27;m an avid biker. I do use the bike paths, but they&#x27;re crowded or not lit or not plowed. The Intervale&#x27;s got a fairly nasty hill at the end of it.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5049800" class="thewords">It’s not really a practical means of getting into town. And if I want to go to the shopping center or I want to go down to Battery Park, that&#x27;s not a practical way to get there.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5064100" class="thewords">I agree with the person who said in another meeting that while I&#x27;m driving, I hate the bikers, and while I&#x27;m biking, I hate the drivers. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; Because we&#x27;re all thrown in the same street and we sort of make up our own rules.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5078700" class="thewords">I note the person who said, who mentioned the &#x22;bikers may take the whole lane&#x22;, and when I use North Avenue, yeah, I&#x27;m an experienced biker, I take the lane, I pedal like hell so I don&#x27;t hold up too many people behind me. As I&#x27;m going north on 127, I suddenly find people on my right, merging at high speed.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5104400" class="thewords">So you&#x27;re sorta taking your life in your hands there. And I will not go to the shopping center, which is about three&#x2d;quarters of a mile from my house, because you have to make a left turn, which is just clearly dangerous.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5120300" class="thewords">Or you can go up on the sidewalks, and if there&#x27;s people on the sidewalks, the sidewalks are in poor shape and narrow, so there&#x27;s really no way to get to the shopping center. And I would be doing a heck of a lot more errands there if there was a discrete bike path.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5137800" class="thewords">So I like the idea of taking the four lanes and going to three. I think that&#x27;s a proven design. We&#x27;ve got a lot of experience with that. &#x5b;beep&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5149700" class="thewords">It’s simple. And for that reason, I urge the council to adopt the recommendations without the amendments, as stated. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5159400" class="thewords">Thank you. Robert Herandine &#x5b;clears throat&#x5d;, followed by Nancy Berger.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Robert Herandine"><span class="overidecolr">Herandine</span><span><a data-m="5172000" class="thewords">Hi, I&#x27;m Bob Herandine, I live in the North End. I&#x27;m over 70, and I&#x27;m a year&#x2d;round bicyclist. Since I&#x27;ve come to Burlington eight years ago I estimate I&#x27;ve biked to downtown from the North End 800 to 1,000 times, year&#x2d;round.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5191500" class="thewords">I support the proposed pilot. I do not support the amendments because I think each one kills off an important part of a reasonable test.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5203600" class="thewords">If we put those amendments in, the test will be a weak test. The first one is the separation of bicyclists and cars.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5212800" class="thewords">Vermonters aren&#x27;t afraid of the cold and dark, but they are afraid about being run over by a Mack truck. Therefore, we must have separation, or the test is weak.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5224700" class="thewords">Second, we need a test that runs year&#x2d;round. When people talk about how much fun it is to bicycle, they show a picture of somebody going along in a tank top and shorts in July, but as a year&#x2d;rounder I also know what it feels like at 5pm in February.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5239100" class="thewords">We need a test that runs throughout the entire year. If the amendment allows us to cut the test off after just a few months, we don&#x27;t do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5247200" class="thewords">Therefore, I do not support either amendment, but I do support the pilot. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5253000" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5254500" class="thewords">Nancy Berger followed by Dan Fry.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Nancy Berger"><span class="overidecolr">Berger</span><span><a data-m="5260700" class="thewords">Hi, there, I&#x27;m Nancy Berger, I live in the North End, the New North End. I&#x27;m a cyclist, and I&#x27;m a runner and a pedestrian. I came to oppose the North Avenue Corridor, because we have the bike path, and I felt it was redundant to be spending more tax dollars on yet another way to get downtown.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5281300" class="thewords">But I&#x27;ve heard a lot of eloquence here tonight, and a lot of reason. And I&#x27;ve changed my mind. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5290700" class="thewords">Okay. Thank you for sharing that.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Dan Fry"><span><a data-m="5294000" class="thewords">Dan Fry, followed by Jim &#x5b;Hallway&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Fry</span><span><a data-m="5299100" class="thewords">Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I just came to speak in favor of the North Avenue Corridor Plan. I think it’s well thought out. It’s been well&#x2d;planned, and I think it’ll work.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5315400" class="thewords">One only needs to drive on North Avenue once or twice and encounter a bicycle or a pedestrian crossing the road at the wrong place to understand that there&#x27;s two issues involved here.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5327900" class="thewords">And I think the main issue is public safety.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5333200" class="thewords">I actually have been to the website where the plans have been laid out, and I&#x27;ve studied them, I&#x27;ve looked at &#x27;em. I&#x27;m in favor of the three&#x2d;lane and the two&#x2d;bike lane plan.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5346500" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve also, on Channel 17, watched the NPA wards four and seven proposal of the plan, and I listened to it carefully.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5360600" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t know how many people are aware that over the last four years there have been 76 car crashes on North Avenue. 76.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5368100" class="thewords">It seems excessive to me. I&#x27;m not an expert, but it seems a lot.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5374700" class="thewords">The other issue is quality of life. I don&#x27;t know if you notice that when a street is paved or a sidewalk is improved or new curbing comes in, people try to kind of improve their property, they mow the lawn a little bit more, they might, you know, grow some flowers, try to make their property look better.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5403000" class="thewords">You know, an upgrade on North Avenue is just going to make our neighborhood look more attractive. And I think it’s going to attract more commerce to the area. And I think that the North Avenue has been stagnant for a long time, and it needs to kind of walk into the 21st &#x5b;beep&#x5d; century.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5421900" class="thewords">If I&#x27;m allowed, I&#x27;ll just say one more thing. I&#x27;m getting a little tired of hearing the drumbeat of negativity that comes out of the New North End.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5431400" class="thewords">I don&#x27;t think it’s representative of most residents.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5434700" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Fry</span><span><a data-m="5434800" class="thewords">&#x22;I can&#x27;t support the school budget, I can&#x27;t support the school budget.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5438800" class="thewords">Your time is up.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Fry</span><span><a data-m="5440400" class="thewords">I&#x27;m sorry. I don&#x27;t think it’s a good idea, and I&#x27;m not in favor of it. We need to stop that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5444300" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Fry</span><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5447600" class="thewords">Jim Hallway followed by Michael &#x5b;McGargen&#x5d;.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5453500" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Jim Hallway"><span class="overidecolr">Hallway</span><span><a data-m="5454400" class="thewords">Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to speak, and I want to say thanks to the mayor and the city councilors who have also been listening carefully along this process. And mostly to all the people here who have voiced their opinion. It’s a great community engagement.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5477200" class="thewords">&#x5b;beep&#x5d; That was quick. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5478300" class="thewords">Happens sometimes. Actually, buys you extra time.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Hallway</span><span><a data-m="5481500" class="thewords">Oh, I&#x27;ll try not to take it. As a representative on the Corridor Study Committee over the last 18 months, I&#x27;ve heard a lot of these comments, and I hope that you guys listen to them carefully.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5498500" class="thewords">I think that the plan that is out there is a good one. Of course, as we, you know, you might think... But it really did weigh on, put into consideration as many of the comments as possible. It’s hard to get something that&#x27;s perfect.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5516400" class="thewords">For that reason, I&#x27;m very supportive of doing the pilot. I think that&#x27;s the way to take it from an academic process to a reality, doing it cautiously to be sure that we do it right. There&#x27;s time to make the New North End even more of a sense of community, and having it a race track doesn’t really do that.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5540200" class="thewords">So I do also want to say that I&#x27;m not in support of all the amendments, but I do think that it’s a good idea that an ad hoc committee be paying attention during the pilot study.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5555600" class="thewords">So I think that&#x27;s a good idea that there is one. I understand that&#x27;s part of the thought. I think the parking, especially at St. Mark&#x27;s and a few other places, there wasn&#x27;t enough discussion to necessarily put that in the pilot study now. So I support kind of leaving that alone.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5578400" class="thewords">And again, I really applaud this community for engaging so spiritedly. And lastly, I agree with what the last gentleman said. The negativity, I&#x27;d like to see it disappear. I think a lot of people have seen some of that lately, and that&#x27;s not what a good community does. What we&#x27;re doing here is. Thanks.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5597100" class="thewords">Thank you. &#x5b;beep&#x5d; Michael McGargen, followed by Nancy Elis.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5614300" class="thewords">Welcome. That&#x27;s it.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Michael McGargen"><span class="overidecolr">McGargen</span><span><a data-m="5616400" class="thewords">Hi.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5619800" class="thewords">So, I just wanted to mention a few things fast here. Since I had a few pages of quick bullet points here.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5630600" class="thewords">So quickly, since I&#x27;ve been on North Avenue, since 1971 — you can do the math — I feel, since I changed from ward four to ward seven, where I&#x27;m living now, I had a vested interest on this North Ave. Corridor study.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5653400" class="thewords">And one is, you know, you can&#x27;t legislate common sense, manners, patience and individual responsibilities. No matter what you try to do with these plans. The studies with the roads and the productive things out here. We have bike paths, we had an original bike path, which was the one that was the train tracks, and then we had the one that was on the other side of 127, which doesn’t get a whole lotta use.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5689100" class="thewords">You know, but to sit there and try to take over lanes of traffic on North Avenue now, we haven&#x27;t seen any discussion and heard any discussion from the fire department and the police department weighed in out of any of these things out here, which is glaringly obvious, silent, whatever you want to say.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5712300" class="thewords">Everybody wants to talk about the merits of the bicycles, but you know, what’s going to happen when somebody wants to say, &#x22;What if I want to ride my horse out here&#x3f; Where&#x27;s my horse gonna go&#x3f;&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5723600" class="thewords">That hasn’t been discussed yet. Are we gonna make a special allowance for that&#x3f; &#x5b;beep&#x5d; Oh geez, that&#x27;s awfully fast.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5731000" class="thewords">You know, there&#x27;s a whole lotta things that can be talked about here, but the right thing to be brought up is there&#x27;s a whole lot of people who want to say they have rights, but there&#x27;s a lotta people like myself that say we have rights, and the city council shouldn’t just be making a decision out here that the voters and the residents of the New North End who are most affected shouldn’t, they should have a say in the process.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5756700" class="thewords">Thank you. Nancy Ellis, followed by Genevieve Jacobs.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Nancy Ellis"><span class="overidecolr">Ellis</span><span><a data-m="5767800" class="thewords">My name is Nancy Ellis, and I live on the New North End. And I want to say I appreciate the many improvements the city has made to accommodate automobile traffic along North Avenue since I first moved to Burlington in 1969. That&#x27;s 45 years, according to my husband — he does the math.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5790100" class="thewords">One of the major improvements was the Intervale Beltline. The beltline is an alternative, fast route dedicated to automobiles, with no bikes allowed.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5805600" class="thewords">I&#x27;m a bicyclist, believe it or not, and walker, pedestrian and a driver. I do support a protected bike lane along North Avenue now, and improvements to the pedestrian traffic access. I have noticed that the City of Montreal has well used protected bike lanes throughout the city, and those bike lanes don&#x27;t seem to inhibit the flow of traffic there, with a much larger population than Burlington.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5840000" class="thewords">So I support the protected bike lane resolution tonight, without the amendments that might dilute the purpose of that resolution. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5853900" class="thewords">Thank you. Genevieve Jacobs is our last speaker.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5860000" class="thewords">Welcome.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Genevieve Jacobs"><span class="overidecolr">Jacobs</span><span><a data-m="5861600" class="thewords">Thank you so much.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5862600" class="thewords">You get the last word.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Jacobs</span><span><a data-m="5863600" class="thewords">Oh boy, whoo.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5864400" class="thewords">Almost.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Jacobs</span><span><a data-m="5864900" class="thewords">Don&#x27;t know if I can live up to that. Thank you, everybody —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5868200" class="thewords">Just except us.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Jacobs</span><span><a data-m="5868500" class="thewords">— it’s very impressive to see how involved all of the citizens of Burlington are. In smooth flow of commerce, traffic, community, thank you to everyone for that. Bikers, walkers, drivers.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5883900" class="thewords">I&#x27;ve been living on North Champlaign Street since 2001, and on Front Street since 1998. Raised my son here, used all modes of transportation, plan to continue.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5898700" class="thewords">But I had a big surprise — and I&#x27;m sure it’s a surprise to most of you as well — when, in the process of repaving North Champlaign Street, which is also known as Route 127 North, sister to Park Street, 127 South, to discover that the speed bumps which had been four inches high, and 100&#x25; successful in keeping vehicular traffic under 25 miles per hour, had been replaced without any consultation, comment, notice of any kind, to conform to some new federal guideline, to be under two inches.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5943600" class="thewords">They are now speed suggestions, at best. And so puny as to, why even bother&#x3f; Now, that is also a protected bike lane, and it seems to me that given the amount of concern and consciousness in this room, somebody made a bad call with that decision, and it is not acceptable.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5968700" class="thewords">It’s going against what everybody has agreed upon we want to see for our city. So I&#x27;d like to see that rectified as soon as possible, while they&#x27;re still paving. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="5979300" class="thewords">Thank you. So thank you all for your comments, and for your utterly civil behavior and silent applause. We really appreciate that. &#x5b;beep&#x5d; &#x5b;laughter&#x5d; Okay. Move to adjourn. &#x5b;laughter&#x5d;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="5998600" class="thewords">We will now go to our consent agenda, right, Councilor Bushor&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6003100" class="thewords">That&#x27;s correct.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6004700" class="thewords">Councilor Bushor.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="" class="thewords">So I would like to move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6010000" class="thewords">Seconded by Counselor Ayres. Any amendments or...&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6018600" class="thewords">Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting the consent agenda and taking the actions indicated, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="6024700" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6027300" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; That&#x27;s unanimous.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6035300" class="thewords">We now have a resolution recognition of John Dewey Day, and annual John Dewey Parade and children&#x27;s event. Councilor Paul.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Councilor Paul"><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="6044700" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon. I&#x27;d like to move this resolution, ask the floor back after a second, and with the council&#x27;s indulgence, would ask for a reading of this resolution by Councilor Blais prior to the vote.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6059800" class="thewords">And is there a second&#x3f; Councilor Blais. Councilor Paul&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="6063400" class="thewords">Thank you very much. This resolution is a recognition of John Dewey, a philosopher and educator who was born in Burlington on October 20th, 1859. John Dewey was a proud graduate of the University of Vermont, and he had a long career in the philosophy of education, living to the age of 92.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6085900" class="thewords">Professor Dewey was not only an American philosopher, he was a psychologist and an educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and in social reform.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6098700" class="thewords">He was a well&#x2d;known public intellectual, and a major voice in progressive education and liberalism. He was also known for his advocacy for democracy, and he considered the two fundamental elements, schools and civil society, to be major topics needing attention and reconstruction to encourage experimental intelligence and plurality.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6125700" class="thewords">He advocated that complete democracy was to be obtained not just by extending voting rights, and if you&#x27;ll recall when he was talking about this, at least for some point, at that point women did not have the right to vote.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6141000" class="thewords">But he spoke extensively about voting rights, but also about ensuring that there exists to be a well formed public opinion accomplished by effective communication among citizens, experts and politicians, and with the latter, being accountable policies that they adopt.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6163100" class="thewords">I&#x27;m pleased to bring forward this resolution and would ask that Frank Gonzalez, a man who has been instrumental in keeping the heritage of John Dewey alive and well in Burlington, be able to come forward and speak to this resolution, and after his remarks, I would yield the floor to Councilor Blais or whomever you deem. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6185300" class="thewords">If Mr. Gonzalez can be very brief —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Paul</span><span><a data-m="6187400" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6188100" class="thewords">You may come up.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6195100" class="thewords">Welcome, Mr. Gonzalez.</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Mr. Gonzalez"><span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><span><a data-m="6201000" class="thewords">I&#x27;m here on behalf of the John Dewey committee, and I have to share with you a deep concern that I have. After having been born here, he was known throughout China, Japan, Europe. And when I speak to people on the street, &#x22;Are you aware of John Dewey&#x3f;&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6225300" class="thewords">&#x22;Oh yes, the decimal Dewey.&#x22; No, that&#x27;s Melville Dewey, and he left a legacy. But John Dewey is known throughout, and if more people could know about his legacy, they would say, &#x22;This is so timely.&#x22; And we need to beat that creative drum like never before.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6248000" class="thewords">Because we are in a situation now where we need to build community, and understand that each individual is unique. And that&#x27;s what I learned in the program when I was in a John Dewey program in Pasadena, California for three and a half years, and discovered that he was born here in Burlington, and began to read his works.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6273100" class="thewords">And I realized I owe you, John Dewey. So on behalf of the John Dewey Committee, we want you all to be aware of his writings as well, and I brought some of his quotes that I would like to pass on to you.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6296600" class="thewords">And if I may just read this one, &#x22;In Vermont, perhaps more than elsewhere, there was embodied into the spirit of the people the conviction that governments were like the houses we live in. Made to contribute to human welfare, and those who lived in them were as free to change and develop the needs of the human family called for such alterations and modifications.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6327800" class="thewords">&#x22;So deeply bred in Vermonters was this conviction that I still think that one is more loyally patriotic to the ideal of America when one maintains this view than when one conceives of patriotism as rigid attachment to a form of the state alleged to be fixed forever.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6349600" class="thewords">&#x22;So that one should heed the claims of a common human society as superior to those of any particular political form.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6363100" class="thewords">So with that, I would like to pass these on to you folks, and share them, please, with your family, your neighbors, and friends.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6376300" class="thewords">And are there any questions about John Dewey&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6382300" class="thewords">Councilors, did you have any questions for Mr. Gonzalez&#x3f; No&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><span><a data-m="6388000" class="thewords">I might add one thing.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6389700" class="thewords">Councilor Knodell&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Councilor Knodell"><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="6393000" class="thewords">Mr. Gonzalez, are you familiar with the place where John Dewey is buried&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><span><a data-m="6399700" class="thewords">I&#x27;m sorry, say —</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="6400900" class="thewords">Are you familiar with the place where John Dewey is buried&#x3f; On the University of Vermont campus.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><span><a data-m="6410400" class="thewords">Oh, at the University of Vermont.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="6412200" class="thewords">Yes.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><span><a data-m="6412900" class="thewords">Well, he was born here on Willard Street, and when I walk by there, I always stop and salute. And when you see the house, you&#x27;ll see there&#x27;s — you can&#x27;t see the entrance, but you see a window where the fireplace is, the chimney. That&#x27;s the room he was born in.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6434700" class="thewords">And the family that owns the house, they&#x27;re very welcoming, and they have allowed us to go in and visit where John Dewey was born. Very, very touching.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6447600" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Knodell, go ahead.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Knodell</span><span><a data-m="6451200" class="thewords">I just — while we&#x27;re on the subject of Mr. Dewey, I just wanted to urge everyone to visit the gravesite, which is on the north side of the chapel. And it’s a very quiet, private place. And it has a quite important inscription on the tomb.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><span><a data-m="6471800" class="thewords">And one of the quotes that I want to share with you is on his tombstone. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6477900" class="thewords">Councilor Brennan.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Brennan</span><span><a data-m="6481800" class="thewords">Thank you, President Shannon, and thank you, Mr. Gonzalez, for coming and sharing. I wasn&#x27;t going to speak, but I felt the need to share with you, six years ago I was on the school board, and there was many talks of dismantling the schools in the Old North End, and bussing kids out of the community.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6510100" class="thewords">And a committee was formed — well, maybe, it was more than six years ago — but a committee was formed, and there was many of us that were on the committee, and there was a professor, Charlie Rathbone that was on there. And he indicated many of the things that we were doing to save our schools in the Old North End and make them magnet schools would&#x27;ve made John Dewey proud.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6539700" class="thewords">And I think that it’s a testament of what we actually have at the Integrated Arts and the Sustainability Academy, there&#x27;s some dedication to John Dewey in that.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Gonzalez</span><span><a data-m="6550800" class="thewords">Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6551100" class="thewords">Thank you. Councilor Blais&#x3f;</a></span></p>
<p data-name="Councilor Blais"><span class="overidecolr">Ccr. Blais</span><span><a data-m="6553400" class="thewords">President Shannon, thank you. If I may, be it resolved by the city council of the city of Burlington as follows, that whereas John Dewey, philosopher and educator, who was born on October 20th, 1889 in Burlington, Vermont, and studied philosophy, graduating from the University of Vermont in 1879 before going on to teach at Columbia and the University of Chicago, and whereas John Dewey&#x27;s distinguished career included a particular interest in and substantial work on the philosophy of education,</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6587100" class="thewords">and whereas one of John Dewey&#x27;s enduring contributions to the discourse on education was to remind us that, &#x22;The child and the adult learn in identical ways,&#x22; and that we should, &#x22;encourage the child to think creatively and independently in solving a problem.&#x22;</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6608300" class="thewords">And to, &#x22;Test his ideas in actual practice and to profit from experience.&#x22; And whereas John Dewey&#x27;s educational theories were based on an acknowledgement of and respect for the uniqueness of each individual, which would, in his opinion, promote tolerance and understanding between people.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6628900" class="thewords">And whereas John Dewey understood that education is necessary to preserve the values of a democratic society, and whereas honoring John Dewey by acknowledging the date of his birth provides an opportunity to celebrate, reflect, learn from each other, have fun and discuss the value of education.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6652000" class="thewords">Now, therefore be it resolved that October 20th, 2014 be declared John Dewey Day, and be it further resolved that the current John Dewey Parade be held on the Church Street Marketplace, and that a mask making event open to all people occur at the Fletcher Free Library prior to the parade. Thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6674700" class="thewords">Thank you, Councilor Blais.</a></span></p>
<p><span><a data-m="6678300" class="thewords">If there&#x27;s no further comment, I&#x27;ll go for a vote. All those in favor of the resolution, recognition of John Dewey Day and annual John Dewey Parade and children&#x27;s event, please say aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Various</span><span><a data-m="6691400" class="thewords">Aye.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6692600" class="thewords">Any opposed&#x3f; That is unanimous. Thank you very much. We appreciate all of your efforts.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">&#x5b;Plough&#x5d;</span><span><a data-m="6700500" class="thewords">And if I may say something, my name is Jean Plough, I&#x27;m a long&#x2d;time resident of Burlington. And I&#x27;ve worked with Frank for over 30 years, in working in art classes in schools. He&#x27;s, I would say, world&#x2d;renowned himself as an art educator. So I want to, on behalf of the John Dewey Committee, thank the council and the mayor, and Ron &#x5b;Redmond&#x5d; for his efforts to bring this proclamation forward. So thank you.</a></span></p>
<p><span class="overidecolr">Pr. Shannon</span><span><a data-m="6738300" class="thewords">And I thank you on behalf of my daughter, who&#x27;s been a mask maker at your event. Thank you.</a></span></p>
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<span class="overidecolr">Remi</span><p data-name="Remi"><a data-m="0" class="">I decided to ditch the stilts and just go on foot from here. It’s just a lot easier. I&#x27;m a lot more stealthy, I&#x27;m a lot more mobile. But what I have noticed is the stilts kind of gave me this idea of getting up higher. And I noticed now when I&#x27;m walking, it’s hard to see when I&#x27;m water level. I&#x27;m trying to get as high as I can. I&#x27;m getting on my tiptoes, and I came up, climbed up in this little tree, and I have a much better view. I&#x27;ve seen herons sit up in trees and overlook or, uh, or on tall banks.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="33200" class="">And what I&#x27;ve come to realize is the heron&#x27;s life is about one thing: Perspective. His perspective on the world is looking down on everything that he&#x27;s hunting. It’s so much easier to be up higher and to look down on these fish and see in the water. It’s hard for me to do without the stilts, because the stilts gave me an extreme advantage over everything below me. So I guess walking around, what I&#x27;m doing is I&#x27;m just trying to get as high as I can.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="60300" class="">If I can stand even two feet higher than I can walk, it makes a huge difference. Getting up in a little tree, getting up on a bank, even being on my tiptoes in the water, just trying to get, or even getting in shallower water. Being above everything below me makes it a lot easier.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="94700" class="">I&#x27;ve noticed in this area the fish are few and far between, but I have seen a few other types of animals, like turtles and snakes and frogs. Uh, there&#x27;s a few carp, a few suckers. But being up high allows me to spot the fish and find &#x27;em where they&#x27;re at. I could spend all day in one short area if I can&#x27;t see it, thinking that there might be fish in an area where there is no fish. It’s been pretty tough because there&#x27;s not a lot of fish to spear here. But this heighth advantage did allow me to see what was around.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="129900" class="">I&#x27;d say that the stilts gave me an advantage of that perspective a lot like a heron would have. But for me it just isn&#x27;t functional. It’s not easy to move, it’s cumbersome, and it’s really hard to stay balanced. So moving on my feet might be a little better strategy today, and still hunting like that heron. It’s so much more natural to be walking around. I really feel like I&#x27;m moving and hunting as the heron would, and that just desire to get up higher and look around, it’s so natural. That’s exactly the heron&#x27;s world, is that it’s a world of perspective.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="163200" class="">He gets up higher, he looks down on everything that he&#x27;s preying on, and then he makes his move.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="210400" class="">&#x5b;cutaways — Remi&#x27;s feet standing on a log, panning up to his face&#x5d; Walking around, I feel much more like a ninja, a ninja great blue heron. Stilts gave me that added perspective, and that’s really the heron&#x27;s world. Just the view from the top. He looks down on everything, and it’s such an advantage. The heighth, just getting up in a little tree or getting above the water a foot or two gives me an advantage that I don&#x27;t get when I&#x27;m lower. Trouble with the stilts is the disadvantage — hard to balance, really hard to walk around.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="251700" class="">So now I&#x27;m kinda gonna balance out what I did on the stilts by walking around and seeing if I can&#x27;t still hunt like a heron, get up above the water, and look for fish. Minnow.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="268400" class="">&#x5b;throws spear, retrieves&#x5d; &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; I might even fall without the stilts. Hey.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="299900" class="">Little froggy. There&#x27;s still plenty of heron snacks around. Oh, you be lucky I&#x27;m not a bird, my friend. Ooh, there he go. &#x5b;retrieves the frog&#x5d; All right. Be free, my little frog friend. Lots of frogs back here, holy cow. &#x5b;stalking&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="352200" class="">There&#x27;s quite a few frogs around. I should probably show Owen this spot. He&#x27;d like it.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="357900" class="">If we could find a little pond, if we could find a little pond back here, where there&#x27;s maybe some fish trapped in it or something, that would be my best bet. The water&#x27;s a little bit lower, but definitely see there&#x27;s channels where the river used to flow. So sometimes carp or whatever will actually get trapped in little spots, and herons and other birds will... Sometimes carp and other fish will get, uh, trapped in these little ponds, and great blue herons will just surround it and fish, because like it’s literally like fishing in a barrel. It’s a great place to find food.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="393300" class="">Quicksand. No more water. Let&#x27;s go back. &#x5b;smacks lips&#x5d; Worth checking out.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="441400" class="">— view and try to catch. Fucking mosquitos. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; I think we&#x27;d do all right. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; That one we would have a high success rate on.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="451100" class="">&#x5b;Holding a snake, putting it in his pocket.&#x5d; Once they get their head down, then they feel comfortable. Oh, no, stop biting. &#x5b;trying again, putting in his pocket&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="501200" class="">After last night, putting a fish in my pocket, I&#x27;ve created a new game. It’s called what’s in my pocket&#x3f; &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; I&#x27;m here on this beautiful river in Minnesota.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="527500" class="">After last night I caught a fish and had nowhere to put it but my pocket. Gave me an idea. A new game. Apex predators, what’s in your pocket&#x3f; &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; All right. What’s in my pocket&#x3f; If you guessed snake...</a></p>
<p><a data-m="557900" class="">What’s in my pocket&#x3f; &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="563900" class="">What’s in my pocket&#x3f;&#x21; What’s in my pocket&#x3f;&#x21; &#x5b;pan down to very ambiguous bulge in his pocket&#x5d; If you guessed snake, you&#x27;re correct.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="577000" class="">&#x5b;pulls snake out&#x5d; It was a snake in my pocket&#x21; &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="586100" class="">&#x5b;putting stilts on&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="595400" class="">&#x5b;&#x22;bro&#x22; voice&#x5d; So you got a snake in his pocket. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; Whoa, dude&#x21; Snake pocket, dude, holy shit&#x21; Whoo&#x21;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="604800" class="">Ugh. Now, if there&#x27;s fish here, this would be perfect. This is pretty &#x5b;unintelligible&#x5d; walking. &#x5b;walking on stilts&#x5d; Spoke too soon. Over&#x2d;confidence.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="615700" class="">&#x5b;focus on feet, walking on stilts&#x5d; Actually, I&#x27;m gonna see if I can&#x27;t find that carp that was up here.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="621000" class="">I&#x27;ll tell you what: This would be really good if there were fish like in an area like this, then the stilt thing, be money. It really would. &#x27;Cause I can see so well.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="642900" class="">Yeah, it smell good. &#x5b;fish on a stick&#x5d; This may be the best fish I ever eat.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="647900" class="">&#x5b;in front of tent and campfire&#x5d; Coming outta here, I pretty much had one goal. That was to learn from the great blue heron how it lives its life, and see if there&#x27;s anything that translates to my own. I went out with Greg and I was able to observe the blue heron in its natural environment, hunting and fishing and carrying on, and one thing that really struck me is the way that they move, the way that they hold their bodies before they strike. The way that they&#x27;re so well adapted for being above the water, and the type of view that they get.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="679700" class="">I then keh, went out and started trying to hunt like a heron with Owen, someone that spears frogs and catches crayfish for fun around his house. And while doing that, what really struck me was how natural moving like the heron was. It just kind of came to me naturally. Now, I got this crazy idea that I needed to see what it looked like from the heron&#x27;s point of view, to have legs way longer than my own. And to be honest, the view is great.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="711900" class="">For this type of aquatic environment hunting, it’s almost necessary. But being human and doing this in a river is extremely difficult for me to get around. What I did learn is that the heron&#x27;s world is about perspective. It’s about looking down on to the water. And I also learned that as a hunter, the way that they, the heron moves, the way that the heron does things almost feels completely natural.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="737500" class="">There&#x27;s something in all of us that’s a lot like the great blue heron. Ooh, smoky.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="743900" class="">One thing I noticed about the great... One thing I noticed about the great blue heron while watching him with Greg was that it was moving around and it wasn&#x27;t just looking for big fish. It was looking for anything it could get its mouth on. It was an opportunistic hunter. And coming out here I had these grand expectations of walking around on tall stilts and spearing giant fish. The trouble was the big fish weren&#x27;t here. It was seasonal, and it just didn’t happen. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t learn from the heron.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="777200" class="">The heron has to take every opportunity it can because that’s its world. Its world isn&#x27;t always go out and find a big fish. I was able to find a small fish and take it. It looks like a meager meal for a human, but this is the heron&#x27;s life. That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to learn from the bird. I wanted to immerse myself in its world and see what it could teach me. I&#x27;ve always seen the great blue heron as an amazing hunter, especially in an aquatic environment.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="803200" class="">I remember as a kid watching the heron hunt the shoreline, thinking, &#x22;Man, that would be really awesome if I could hunt like that.&#x22;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="810600" class="">As a kid, as a kid I always saw herons hunting along the shoreline while fishing and thought that they were just amazing animals. I really thought that their lives were pretty easy. They walk around and they spear fish. How hard could that be&#x3f; Well, I learned the life of a heron can be pretty hard, and there&#x27;s a lotta small snacks in between those big fish.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="832200" class="">They have to take every opportunity they can. They&#x27;re a big animal, and it’s really hard for those type of birds to actually get a single meal per day. They have to take every opportunity they have.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="850900" class="">While I was out here there was plenty of small snacks for me to make a meal out of. Little frogs, little turtles. Small fish. Snakes. There&#x27;s plenty of food, but I just had to look for it. I couldn’t be picky. I couldn’t just think, &#x22;Oh, I&#x27;m gonna come out and spear a large fish.&#x22; If I wanted to live like the heron, I had to do what the heron does, and that’s scrounge for food.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="874400" class="">While scrounging for food, I found out how well adapted it is and how well...</a></p>
<p><a data-m="881100" class="">While scrounging for food, I tried something completely crazy. I decided to put some stilts on and walk through the river. I got the heron&#x27;s eye view, and believe me, it was the best view I had of this water. The heron is so well adapted by being up above the water, it’s perfectly... it’s perfectly made for its environment.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="903700" class="">I figured out why you only see stilts in the circus. It’s because it’s ridiculous. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; The thought of walking around in a river, hunting on stilts, was pretty funny in my mind. But I had a good time doing it and I learned a lot. That view taught me exactly what the heron sees when he&#x27;s looking into the water. There&#x27;s something to be said for this little fish. It’s not a giant carp. It’s not a big meal. But it’s exactly what a heron would probably have for dinner.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="933100" class="">This for a heron would be a great score.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="936300" class="">What more is there about great blue&#x3f; &#x5b;fish is cooking over fire on a stick&#x5d; The old GBH.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="941800" class="">I mean the heron&#x27;s life is about opportunity, it’s about perspective. And it’s about... being the master of its environment.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="956700" class="">The heron&#x27;s life is basically all about perspective. When I got up on those stilts, I had a view that I would not have had just walking around on my regular legs.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="970700" class="">Old great blue taught me a lot. Immersing myself in the life of the great blue heron, I learned what it means to have a good perspective. The great blue heron&#x27;s life is all about perspective. It sits above the water, it’s perfectly adapted for its environment, and it takes what it can get. There&#x27;s no being picky as a heron. While he&#x27;s hunting, while he&#x27;s fishing, he takes his opportunities. Out here I had a lotta opportunities, but I wanted to try to spear a bigger fish, just to see if I could.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1001600" class="">I ended up with this tiny little suckerfish.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1005500" class="">I don&#x27;t know what I was thinking. I really don&#x27;t. Walking in a river on stilts, nah, not my best idea I&#x27;ve ever had. But it was a lot of fun, and I really don&#x27;t think that I could&#x27;ve learned from the heron had I not done it. To be honest, when I was up there I was thinking this is a pretty sweet view. I got to look down on the water, I could see fish that I couldn’t see while I was just walking through the water. And look, I got a little meal. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; It’s a snack, but it’ll do. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; I like my little fish. My little fish on stilts. This may be the first and last fish ever speared...</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1045700" class="">This may be the first and last fish ever speared while standing on stilts in a river. I&#x27;m not gonna recommend it for anyone. The heron, you can keep your long legs.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1059600" class="">The coolest thing about doing this was the fact that I was pretty much sight fishing. I was looking from the air, through the water, and just being able to see the underwater world from an elevated platform is a pretty cool view. I don&#x27;t think that, uh, I could&#x27;ve got that view any other way but to get up on those stilts and walk around. I&#x27;m really glad I had that weird idea to try it, because I don&#x27;t think that I would&#x27;ve had the same experience had I just crept around.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1084800" class="">One thing that I do know is when I was walking around in the water, hunting, it was very natural to move like the heron. It’s almost something that every person&#x27;s born with — this ability to kind of hunt and stalk around, just like a heron would. I don&#x27;t think anyone teaches the heron how to hunt. When I got in the water it was like nobody had to teach me. When I got up on those stilts, completely different ballgame. It was super awkward, it was really uncomfortable, but my view was so good, I didn’t want to give it up. I thought about giving it up, I swore it off, and then I found myself back up on the stilts again at dark.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1119600" class="">I&#x27;m glad I did, because I got this great suckerfish that, uh, is a trophy in my book. You might be a awesome fisherman, but you probably haven&#x27;t speared a suckerfish on stilts in the dark.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1132900" class="">In the future, if I wanted to be real successful spearing fish, I&#x27;d probably either use a boat or my paddleboard. I had a great view of the water from there, but I don&#x27;t think it woulda taught me the same thing as walking around, being patient, not moving, and just jumping into the heron&#x27;s world. I wanted to essentially become the great blue heron the best I could. Doing that involved getting up on stilts, walking in the river, being uncomfortable, feeling unnatural, but having an amazing view the entire time.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1165300" class="">And I got to be... I am now auditioning for the Blue Man Group. Gotta wear blue all day, blue stilts. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; I feel like this could be a Vegas show, baby. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1185300" class="">This is my one&#x2d;man show. My true passion is walking around the marsh in death traps. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1201900" class="">I liked falling in the water. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; As opposed to falling on those stilts on the ground, that’s not bad.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1211400" class="">Yeah, I think he, she’s smoked up. Uh, it needs a little bit more, just needs a little more juice. I don&#x27;t want to get... I don&#x27;t want to get the old... Well, mom, I got chlamydia from a suckerfish. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; There I was, right&#x3f; &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1250000" class="">&#x5b;close on fish over fire&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1259200" class="">I just wanted to come out here and do a couple things. One, see what life was like as a great blue heron, and then have a good time. It was... a pretty good time. I think I had fun. You know how I mark fun on my calendar of success&#x3f; If I can end up at the end of the day, if I can put a fish in my pocket. I did just that, I put a fish in my pocket. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; If you&#x27;re a great blue heron, you&#x27;re walking around on stilts, you spear a fish, I didn’t even think what am I gonna do with this fish after I spear it&#x3f; Until I realized that’s what pockets are for. Storing your fish while on stilts in the middle of a river.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1303000" class="">That’s all this boils down to. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; If I had to do this over again, would I do anything different&#x3f; Absolutely not. I learned from the heron by realizing that walking around in this environment is just completely natural. I felt like, nah, I coulda done this without watching a heron. It almost felt instinctual. But then getting up on the stilts, I realized that it has perspective over its environment. The perspective is what gives it such an advantage and makes it such a good hunter.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1334400" class="">Now, of course the heron is pretty opportunistic, and I had to be too. It wasn&#x27;t like come out here and see a buncha big fish, and then just spear to my heart&#x27;s content. It was tough, but it was pretty fun. I got above the water, I was able to get a monster suckerfish that I skewered on the end of this stick, and am now gonna probably eat whole. I think I could do it in two bites. Heron would do it in one, so that means it’s a big fish.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1363200" class="">Ooh, smoky. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; I&#x27;m gonna let it cool down. I think hot, like the, I&#x27;ve heard of hot dog on a stick. This is, this is sucker on a stick. This is, this might be a new thing.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1377000" class="">&#x5b;mimics eating the fish whole, makes pterodactyl noise&#x5d; Call to the heron.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1384700" class="">Smoky. I don&#x27;t know if it’s better than a crayfish, but not bad. I don&#x27;t know why people don&#x27;t eat these all the time. I kinda like it. I mean I really like it, I think it’s good. It’s actually not that... Small ones are the ones you want, then you don&#x27;t have to worry about the bones.</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1400200" class="">Such is the life of the great blue. Sitting on a river, snacking on a fish. That’s what it’s all about. I have to take my stilts and walk on outta here. &#x5b;laughs&#x5d;</a></p>
<p><a data-m="1413600" class="">That right there is what it’s all about. Mm. Down the hatch this last little bit. Pretty good meal. &#x5b;sighs&#x5d; &#x5b;laughs&#x5d; One for me, one for my blue heron homies. &#x5b;eats the last of the fish&#x5d;</a></p>
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