City Council - Regular Meeting

The time is 6:00. I will call to order this meeting of the Wooki City Council. We will start with the pledge of allegiance led by Deputy Mayor Bren Oakley. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Uh we will now move on to agenda review. Uh council, any items in the agenda that you would like to change or discuss before we get started? Was there any need to remove consent agendum? Item I

I was going to do that when we got to the consent agenda. We can just do it now. That's fine as you brought it up. Um skipping ahead as usual. There's nothing wrong with that. Um make that the first regular item of the night. Wonderful. Okay. Everybody okay with that? Yes. All right. Um so we will move uh consent agenda item I and make that regular item a uh anything else. Council no no. Do we have to vote on that because I did something? Uh I'm sorry distracted. You just uh move something out of consent. You can just pass consent as it is. Okay. All right.

Uh okay. Perfect. We will move on then to public comment. Uh this is an item area for people to make comment on things that are not uh in today's agenda. If you would like to make public comment on something that is in today's agenda, I'll just ask you to wait until then uh and then I will call public comment on that item. Uh that said, uh we don't have anybody in the room, but is there anybody online who'd like to make public comment? I'll just ask you to raise your hand. Uh Davis, our attorney. Okay. I was wondering if off. All right. Thank you.

Uh there's also nobody online, so we will move on from that item. Um our consent agenda. So I will um on today's consent agenda, what we have uh is approval city council and liquor control board meetings of uh meeting minutes of March 9. Payroll payroll wow I can't speak today. Payroll warrant March 1st to March 14th. accounts payable warrant March 19, subsequent to payout warrant January 2026. A resolution uh for ArabAmerican Heritage Month uh annual financial plan for town highways 111 weaver market rate if sell uh comment housing commission appointment and uh we moved our last item out. Uh any concerns or questions about any of these items council?

No. No. No. Therefore, I will look for a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I. Wonderful. Thank you. Uh council reports. Um let's start with council. The finance commission met on March 10th and continue the discussion of the 2027 comprehensive plan visioning and goal setting. Thank you. And the I will defer the municipal infrastructure commission report out to um councelor Eli. Um and the housing commission will be meeting tomorrow evening at its regular time uh here in city hall 6 p.m. uh safe healthy connected is not meeting until April.

Thank you. downtown Wooki uh commission met on Wednesday, March 18th, and uh we discussed the very successful casino night and how we're gearing up for a I want to say exuberant, but that's not the right word. Um just an extraordinary summer season. So, I would say be on the lookout for that. And um that's all I have to report right now. Uh yeah, so I had my first municipal infrastructure uh meeting as a counselor um on Thursday 3:19. I was kindly joined by deputy mayor uh uh Oakleaf that kindly walked me through all the basics of the meeting and how to run it. So I was I was very pleased and uh thankful for that. Uh the majority of the meeting was reviewing uh the FYE 26 strategies and priorities um as well as the infrastructure plan. Uh we also reviewed the approved bond items from the town meeting day and we debriefed on the main street construction ongoing. Um lastly DPW gave their priorities and their current objectives as well.

Awesome. Thank you. No worries. Um I was not able to attend the last uh planning commission meeting because I was out of town. Um, however, the next planning commission meeting is on the 26th, this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Uh, and you can either come to city hall to participate in that or you can watch uh online and that's it. City updates. Yep.

Uh, so exciting news. The O'Brien Community Center and Wooki Memorial Library renovation will begin this fall with the transfer of day-to-day management of the if all things go according to plan, I should say. With the transfer of day-to-day management of the O'Brien Community Center to the Champlain House Housing Trust, we are preparing for next steps. We announced today that the Wooki Memorial Library and the Community Services Department offices will temporarily relocate from the O'Brien Center on 32 Mallet Bay Avenue to 65 Wooki Falls Way. Uh this is the space that was formerly leased by Commodities Market for those of you who have been here for a few years. To view the important details about this process, please visit wookivt.gov/news. The quick summary, Saturday, May 2nd will be the last day of operations for the library at 32 Malis Bay. All in-person services and programs will be paused for the month of May. Online services such as ebooks can still be obtained at wuskvt.gov/ library. Printing services will be available at Wuski City Hall Monday through Friday 8:00 am to 4 pm. Then between June 1st and June 15th, the library will reopen at the new temporary location at 65 Wooki Falls Way along with the community service department offices. Uh this is temporary while we are um re renovating with our partners the O'Brien Center spaces. Patrons are asked to use paid street parking, paid garage parking, or the many 15minute courtesy spaces located near the new location for new temporary location for the library. Free parking will not be available during this temporary move. And if uh other than in the 15-minute spaces, if you're u fortunate enough to get one, if community members wish to support the redevelopment of the O'Brien Community

Center, they can make a gift online at getaome.org. org/donate O'Brien without an apostrophe. Uh ghettoome.org is the Champlne Housing Trust website. They are a development partner on this project. Again, for full details about this process, please visit wookkivt.gov/news. That's all.

Wonderful. Thank you. All right. So, we move on to regular items. Our new regular item A, the development review board appointments. Um and I see that one of the applicants is actually here. Um so as you I think all know on council um we had a few vacancies um on the DRB. So the DRB uh was seeking applications and they received several applications. I was able to be a part of most of the interviews. Uh one of the people who was on here that I wasn't able to be a part of the excuse me the interview I did meet with separately. Um today we're seeing this document where they have uh recommended who they would like appointed into all of the vacant slots. So two full-time members and two alternate members um for 2-year um positions. Um what I do want to give Chris an opportunity if you wanted to say something or if you just wanted to be here just to see us um make our decision. If you did want to just introduce yourself, uh you are here. So, I'd love to give you the opportunity.

Hi, everybody. And I'll just have you come up here, Chris, actually. Sorry. Hi, everybody. My name is Chris Wheeland. I live at 70 Gale Street in Wooki and I've lived here with my partner since 2006. And I saw that there was a need to serve on the committee. And so, um, I felt like it'd be a good time to give back and to, um, you know, free up a night plus some research time and whatever to try to, um, do my part and serve the community. So, I, um, heard that, show up, introduce myself. So, that's all I wanted to do. Well, thank you.

Thank you so much, Chris. And I I was able to be at Chris's um, interview remotely. So, thanks for showing up today. Um, this is great. I appreciate all of the work that the DRB did and staff did uh with these interviews. Uh, the one thing I'd like to change is moving Filipe Hoyos into the full member term for two years and switching Riley Livermore to the alternate term for two years. Um, councilors, any concerns with that change? No. No. No.

All right. Uh, all those in favor of approving Ryan Wade and Philippe Hoyos as members and Chris Wland and Riley Livermore as alternates. Seek a motion for that. So move second. All those in favor? I. Perfect. Thank you. Our next item will be FY26 audit contract award. Angela. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Oh, and sorry, Angela. Chris, you're welcome to stay for the rest of our meeting or if you would like to head on out, you can do that as well. Welcome to the DRB. Yeah, congrats,

Angela. Thank you. Sorry.

That's not a problem. Um, so the auditors are appointed by the city council as per our charter. This is the group that you hire to audit all of our financials to make sure that they are um representing what we are actually doing and they are in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles. In accordance with our purchasing procedure, we are bidding this out. Uh we require a bid out every 3 years um at a minimum. We sent out an RFP in January. We received two responses. one from our current auditor, RHR Smith, and one from a new company that um we've not worked with before, Telling and Hillman. Um we evaluated the contract bids. Um and while in the first year, Telling and Hillman would be slightly more expensive over the course of a three-year contract. They would save um between $10,700 and $11,600. Uh we did check all of their references. Uh we got glowing reviews from city of Platsburg um school districts. Uh and then I believe the I checked with the city of Hinesburg and the town of Manchester. Um, so we are recommending that we go with telling and Hillman for at least a one-year term can and offer two additional years contingent upon the successful completion of the first audit. Um, the previous auditor uh is significantly increasing their prices over the three-year term. In addition, they would require a 75% upfront payment if we were to go with them. Angela, thank you uh for that. Um, you know, I think on this, my question is always just to you, Angela, you're going

to be the person who will be working day and night for a long time with these people. And, you know, I I appreciate the the look into trying to find cost savings for the city, but I would just like to know your thoughts on if you think this is a company that you would work well with. Uh it seems like it's something that would work well for us. Um we have been experiencing some issues with RHRSmith and having people come out on site. Um so maybe moving to a smaller company that's Vermont based, not Maine based, uh might help with that.

Um I do our financial statements. We do not rely on the auditors to create those for us. We are an exception in that fact. uh that is not the commonality for municipalities. A lot of auditors have to prepare the financial statements and they are just reviewed and accepted by the municipality. It's one of the reasons why we were able to get an additional bidder um that they were able to take us on because we do that function. Fantastic. Thank you, Angela. By we, she means her. Yeah, I I figured as much, but it's good to note for the record. Um, council, do you have any questions? None at this time. No.

No. All right. Uh, then I'll seek a motion to approve this contract for this award. So move. Seconded. All those in favor? I. Wonderful. I thanks, Angela. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Uh, we are moving into executive sessions. So, uh, let me make sure I pull up the right form here. Okay. So, uh, pursuant to 1 VSA 313F for confidential attorney client communications made for the purpose of providing professional legal services to the body to consider a settlement agreement relating to Champlne Mill and Pedestrian Bridge. I am seeking to enter an executive session. Um, I would ask to bring into that executive session city manager Ela Wong, director of public works John Rouser, finance director Angeli, and city attorney David Posius.

So move seconded. All those in favor? I. Wonderful. We will now enter into executive session to discuss the matters that I laid out uh in the VSA 313 and we will not discuss anything else during that time. Thank you. All right, the time is 6:46. Uh we are back from our executive session. We did not discuss anything outside of what had been warned. Uh we're now move on to our next regular item which is discussion approval. Champlain uh mill bridge settlement agreement. Um Elaine.

Yes. So for some time uh almost since the beginning of the bridge uh to the Champlain Mill, the pedestrian bridge, there's been a dispute over who is responsible for maintaining that. MWG is the entity that owns the Champlne Mill building. They've made they've set stated that they think it's the city's responsibility. The city has considered it to be the uh Champlne Mill building owner's responsibility because it doesn't serve a public purpose otherwise. So uh that has come to a head in recent years and the city and or MWG brought a suit against the city um saying that we have not abided by our obligations by the bridge. Uh fortunately they were willing to go to mediation with the city and we met in December and have come to an agreement that we're that staff and our attorneys are comfortable recommending to city council and u appreciation to MWG for offering the city a settlement that did not require upfront payment which I was not expecting. So, we have presented that to council and the um the big piece that the city is giving up is in um is the development potential for the green space to the northeast of the Champlain Mill building and there are a lot of brown fields on that or there's a lot of environmental contamination in that lot. So, it seemed to us to be like a reasonable trade even though it is a little bit painful to miss out on that um development potential. However, it can be uh removed by mutual agreement between the owner of that lot and the city. So, it's not the door isn't shut forever, but that's where we're at. So, uh with that, then MWG said they would accept responsibility to own, replace, and maintain the pedestrian bridge. The suit will be dismissed. And there's some

other um housekeeping details. Thank you very much. Um yes, as as the city manager had mentioned, this is something that has been go ongoing for a long time. Um and there's been a lot of work on the city side. So, thank you to staff uh for all the work that has been put in uh to bringing uh this recommendation to us today. Uh council, do you have any comments? No. Questions? No. Um Paul, I didn't pull the Zoom back up. Is there anybody in the public for public comment? Possibly. There is none. Okay. Thank you. Uh in that case, uh I will seek a motion to approve the settlement agreement as presented and authorize the city manager to execute all related documents. So moved, seconded. All those in favor?

I. Wonderful. Thank you very much, council. Thank you, staff. All right. Um we will move on to another uh executive session now. Um pursuant to one VSA 313A1E probable civil litigation to which the public body will be a party related to a zoning violation. Um I would seek a motion uh to enter into executive session inviting uh our um director of city planning uh Revy uh Re butcher your last name. I'm so sorry. Vank to Ramen, uh, John Audi, uh, our fire chief, John Spittle, our assistant fire chief, and Ela Wong, our city manager.

So moved. Second. All those in favor? I I thank you. We will enter into executive session now to only discuss the item that has been warned, uh, we will come back out of executive session um, after that. Thank you. We're back. All right, the time is 7:23. We are back from our executive session. and we did not discuss anything outside of what had been warned. Uh we're back to regular items now. Uh discussion, approval, authorization to file a civil complaint. Uh Revie, if you could give a brief, uh summary.

Sure. Um so, uh code enforcement has been um monitoring this property located at 126 West Spring Street uh for possible violations since uh November. um code enforcement uh connected with me, reached out to me um and I went and in touch with the property um following uh their suggestions and also uh complaints that we both received separately about uh zoning and code violations. Um I documented the violation in uh January, late January uh issued a general warning letter. Uh per statute uh under the general warning letter uh the property owner has seven days to reach out to me uh to talk about how they could um correct the zoning violation, how we could work together to correct the zoning violation potentially. Um this uh letter is sent by certified mail. So with certified mail, if there's a return receipt that is sent back, um I received the return receipt but did not receive any contact from the property owner. Uh and the violation has gone into effect um on February 13th. um having no contact from the property owner and aware of the impacts that the actions um uh by the property owner on this property um on neighboring properties. Uh I recommend that we file a civil suit um a civil complaint uh to the property owner to uh correct the ongoing zoning violations that are on the property.

Great. Thank you very much. Um again, I appreciate the work um that you have been doing as well as the um fire department and their their roles code enforcement. Um I know that you have made every effort to try uh to to communicate with this constituent before uh coming to council with this request. Um council, do you have any questions or comments? No. No. No. All right. In that case, I will seek a motion a motion to approve filing the civil complaint as presented. So moved, seconded. All those in favor? I. Wonderful. That's approved. Thank you. Thank you.

Um before we move on to our next item, I did see uh somebody enter the room who applied for DRB. I'm assuming that's why you got Rob. Rob, you sent me an email sometime this afternoon. I did too. I feel like early. Uh so I decided to stop by to see if uh we move past that agenda item or if uh I'm here. Hello. Um, if you'd like to come up to the table. Um, you we we did do the item already. We did it at the top. Um, you were approved as a fullterm member uh for the 2-year slot, but if you'd like to introduce yourself to council uh to the public, uh, now is a great time.

Sure. My name is Felipe Hoyos. I am a resident uh at 25 Hickok Street. Um and yeah, I mean I've uh participated uh in public comment on um planning commission meetings, some development review board meetings uh and felt like uh it was time to throw my weight uh and sit on the other side um and contribute to our great city. Awesome. Thank you. We're very excited to have you. Thank you. excited to uh participate. I'm just happy to be here.

Um thank you for showing up. You're welcome to say we have one more regular item or if you want to go home, you're also uh welcome to do that, too. Okay. Well, if we've moved past that item, then yeah, we on the DRB. Thank you very much. Awesome. Congrats. Have a great day. Thank you for being here. Um I am also going to just call a 5m minute recess. Uh the time is 7:27. We will be back at 7:33. 32 32 32 I literally was like, "Yep, that sounds great." I was like, "I don't know time." Yeah. Neither do I. I was an English major. Yeah. I was major English, too, of course. Wow.

And then I became a biology philosopher to What's the last um this congratulations

is it also executive session? No. Okay. I was getting really confused how this was going to structure because it looks like it was inside. Oh, yeah.

I feel like I'm very lost. No, I This is one of the reasons I offered to meet you. It took me here. I won. Oh. Oh, I'm so sorry. Um I'm so sorry. He has it in his pocket. Um, are you October? I think maybe October. Okay. So, like I just said six months, but like I'd say like have a good night. Yes. Um,

I'd say like a solid like when I tell you I was my first two motion now. So moved is my favorite thing to say in the world. That's why like for me you'll see like I I say so moved every single thing because I love it. Um I just don't like waiting. Oh same. I just love I've been to too many meetings where it's like Yeah. And yeah. Um, do you need us to sign those or just tell Thomas? Oh, I'm checking to see if I included the audit engagement here.

Okay. Um, but like this is so like I don't understand anything. This is like my head and just like oh, you know, whatever. Um but definitely still the structure of this I think there's not talking about high school you're talking about college. Oh

okay that's far less scandalous like literally in like a Trevor project dropped Bob the drag queen. the classes that I select and I guess yeah it's pretty good so that I'm more interested it's a pretty good approach makes sense to me and I just have the two of them have like joined so recently somebody I mean like all right everyone we're here till false absolutely false and I had a very different understanding of what we were doing with this next item Did Bren think we were going to be here till 10?

He didn't. I did. I thought Bren want some serious discussion. I do, but not tonight. All right, we're almost there. All right, the time is 7:31. We are back from our break. Um, we'll move on to our last regular item of the night. Uh discussion approval of a special council meeting to review commission structure. Uh deputy mayor please.

Sure. Um I have introduced this item um to review city commissions as well as appointed representative. There have been um number of conversations over the past couple years about just process improvements, structural improvements, recruitment, retention, engagement. Um, and it seems like there are always additional things that I'm adding to the list of like, wow, I feel like this would benefit from a more robust discussion that is, um, takes into account some of the other elements of commissions, commissioner appointment, um, council liaison roles and responsibilities and what have you. So, um, I want to just frame this more specifically. This item is um proposing uh for council to um basically approve uh for the scheduling of a special meeting sometime in April. Um so not to go into the detail and discussion of the items within the memo tonight. It's more framing like why would we benefit from having a special meeting where we are focusing on these items and these items alone. Um, it could make the the reason why I'm not anticipating going into that tonight is I do think that there will be some preliminary work that's needed and data collection. There may be some degree of um, city staff support that's needed to pull some of that um, that data that information together

um, for like just background reference. um as well. So, um making sure that council is in agreement that a special meeting would be beneficial is is essentially um the the purpose of the memo. Um and uh I I frame out um a number of different items that um relate to there's the city commissions that have um come from the comprehensive plan and I use the comprehensive plan and master plan here interchangeably a little bit since we're um evolving our jargon. So the acronym SVCP is just strategic vision and comprehensive plan. So

essentially the comprehensive plan um those many of those commissions um the last time the charters

were updated for many of those commissions was 2019. Um, and I think while there might not be a lot of change that's needed, it it may be beneficial to revisit um the charters. And that may also be in tandem with like well what are other things that are considerations um that may need to be incorporated into those charters. And that's why it's like let's let's update the charters. I think there's more to it than than simply just saying is this still accurate? Um but clarification of roles um being an element of that. Um you know I lay out um at least five items and then a six um topic area for uh other discussion items that we could try to cover um at a special meeting. Um just to frame that out u more explicitly. the like council liaison expectations. So, what is the role of the liaison? Um I I think it would be good to revisit that and just make sure we're all in agreement um on what that looks like and allow space for questions and and whatnot. um establishing consistent guidelines um for communication, participating reporting um assuring alignment between commissions uh commission work and council priorities. Um, I think there is an ever evolving conversation that happens just naturally with our priorities and strategies retreats, but also throughout the year um either with work plan updates and and quarterly um report outs from staff, but also opportunities to say like we're at a midyear point. Has anything changed? Do we need to shift? So um so that there's space and opportunity. just like

a budget, there's there are there's your forecast and then there's um adjustments that happen. So, giving space to um and making sure there's some structure for that. Again, having a conversation to um dig into that more. Charter updates, again, some of those are on um getting to be on the older side. And with the comprehensive plan um coming up, maybe we do want to wait until that new comprehensive plan is finalized or maybe there's some changes we want to make sooner than that. Um non-resident participation. So this is um not something that seems to be consistent um across the commissions currently. it seems like there are allowances made um but that it's kind of up to the commission and it may be beneficial for it to just be a council decision of like when it's appropriate and how it's appropriate. So, um just something else to kind of put some consideration into. uh commissioner compensation um is another opportunity or I could see a a big conversation around non-monetary benefits um as well as like expansion of stipens for counselors um that were here. We voted to not extend a commissioner stipend um for FY27. Are there other non nonmonetary stipens that that could be benefits? And you know, what would that look like? Um while it's not a direct like you know check um to the commissioner um there would potentially be some financial impact to the city. So like what would that look like? An agreements process for approving all that sort of thing. Background checks for applicants. This came up this past fall and I have very

strong feelings about this. Um, so I again feel like it it's a very meaty topic that I I don't want to take lightly.

Um, and then kind of getting into other areas of consideration. I mean, there's there's just so much here that we might not even get to it all in one meeting. um you know items you know one through six in here but um standardizing of commission onboarding and trading. I think Mayor Lot has done had done a great amount of work to try and create some onboarding materials and to do some standardizing around that um which was excellent. Um but like maintaining maintaining that ensuring that it happens that kind of thing. um um reviewing attendance expectations and removal for lack of attendance. I've had to do this on infrastructure commission just for folks that have been absent and non-communicative

and it's not a bad thing. It's just freeing up the seat.

Um assessing uh like the commission structure. I know that this has come up I think when I was stuck trying to get home for three days in January that there was some conversation about maybe um dissolving some of the commissions. I also feel very strongly about this. Um so a whole conversation could be had about that alone um process for considering subcommittee work. Um so like housing is kind of a subcommittee to the planning in a way. Um tree commission and tree committee is sort of a subcommittee to infrastructure but it's not really formalized. Um there's no real like solicitation of part participants to that as like at least the tree committee as a result.

Um there's ever there's a growing interest in public art. Should that be another commission? So like just having more conversation like when is it appropriate for like an ad hoc committee? How should members be solicited? What framework should be had? Um, language access. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Um, and then just kind of going back to the ne the point just above is looking at language access needs. So, we know that the pro the procedure process guidelines

um is in place and is um been finalized. We know there's a budget. So what um do we want to do to ensure uh increased access and equitable um participation with um use utilizing those funds and planning and structure around when those funds are used. Um and that uh kind of brings me to one of the last bullet items um in uh additional topics is appointed representatives. So we have the city commission where we have more engagement as a liaison, but then there are all these other commissions um that and committees regionally that we may appoint a rep a city representative to. Um airport commission being one of them for example. Um like how do we want to make sure that we are staying engaged with those folks that um they're understanding and reporting back to us on um how they're the decisions are flowing with those groups any potential impacts to the city you know opportunities for partnership what have you. So needless to say like there's so many different directions to go um and having uh some dedicated time to talk about commission structure um management uh engagement retention recruitment um benefits um and I I present this only as like I I'm not presenting solutions I have ideas but Um, I'm really at this point in time only recommending that um, it may be beneficial rather than tacking it on to the end of a council meeting to have some dedicated time to tackle one or more of these topics during a special meeting. Um, and that would allow some

time for some research. Um, and hopefully, you know, department heads would be invited. Um, and then seated commissioners I would hope would be invited and encouraged to attend and participate because I don't I don't think it's beneficial for us to just talk amongst ourselves um when when having these conversations or proposing um pathways uh to improvement. So I'll leave it at that. Um mayor you likely want to add some more.

Yeah. So, conversations around commissions have probably been happening for a long time, but Mayor Lot and I had lots of conversations about the commission structure when I was deputy mayor. I've now had these conversations with our deputy mayor. Um, and I think that, you know, a lot of the reason why Bin put this memo together is I think there have been lots of different little tidbits that we have been discussing and considering. you know, I'll I'll write a memo for this thing and we'll talk about at our next meeting. And I think there was a realization that, you know, we can write individual memos and talk about them at individual meetings probably for the next year and a half or we can try to schedule one meeting where we hopefully power through all of this, which is why I was kind of saying we're going to be here till 10:30 tonight. Um, you know, there's there's there's some things on here, um, you know, that I have had, you know, pressing questions about, you know, particularly item six, reviewing an appointment of representatives to regional and statewide groups. uh Aline and I have had to have some conversations about um these these appointments that we that we do on this board as well as I've been approached um about additional boards where we are able to appoint people to uh through VLCT. Um so that's a conversation um if we do do this meeting I might move that to the top because I I really want to answer those questions. Um, but you know, to the deputy mayor's point, you know, there's have been conversations uh that mayor law brought up frequently about just in general commission structure and do we have the right commissions? Do we I don't know if she ever mentioned that anymore, but I'm happy to have that conversation of are there other commissions that should be a play or do they become ad hoc committees? And um I I like your idea of bringing in commission members. I I want to caveat that by I think that this is a

conversation that we should start and then maybe we have a separate another special meeting with commission members. But I think that a lot of this work is at the council level and just frankly like we have to make the decision. It's what we're elected to do. Um, and then we can as we get into maybe some of these more broader topics, you know, especially um things like uh commissioner orientation, like I think that would be we wouldn't want to have that conversation without commissioners. Um, but I think we can start the conversation uh just us. I think uh two of us have served on a commission before. I forget if you had Bren I've been on

but you've you've you've done multiple things at this point. Um so I think we could have that conversation just as a council first. Um, you know, I I do I'd at least want to make sure that the city manager could be there, so I'd like to consult with their schedule. Um, and then I I I like the idea of um department heads being available. I know that that adds to the complexity of trying to schedule another meeting. Yeah, I would not obligate them to be there. I would invite them to attend. Okay. Um, I do wonder depending on how much research you'd like to see before this on when we would look to schedule this in April. I'm seeing something later in April would be April.

Um, yeah, that's that's what I have to add. Um, right now counselors, do you have any questions for the deputy mayor or for myself and Elaine also if you have questions as well. Um, this was this was council led, so you hadn't seen this before. was in the packet. I have no questions. I'm just excited for the conversation. Awesome.

Um, I'm excited for the conversation. I I want, however we proceed, I want to be mindful that a lot of the commissions have put in a lot of work on refining their goals for the new comprehensive plan. So, I I don't know if it's possible like I think I believe most of those are still in draft. I don't know if it's possible to take that draft in consideration, but just I would want to proceed with the cognizance that some work may be being done in tandem in each of those commissions. I see that's a good point. I think we if they have any drafts that they put together or at least the meeting minutes from the meeting that they discuss the comprehensive plan should be included in the research that we have ahead of this meeting. Yeah.

No comment. Okay. Yeah, I'll just comment that no questions particular. I'm supportive actually of this effort because it the as Thomas knows the commissions have been sort of like a have been challenging for staff to part to um help with for some time. So actually I think a lot of the questions that Bren put in there like staff would the staff would also like to see clarified and given that so many of you are new a majority of you are new it's actually a good opportunity. There's never like an ideal time, you know, kind of to Elsie's point, there's stuff in play and the plan is underway, but it's it's a it feels like a a better time than some, so why not at least start the conversation.

Yeah. And I do think the staff leans would have some useful additional input as well. So giving some time for that I think will be um that will be useful for council and yeah it'll just be down to the details of whether it's manageable in late April unfortunately.

Um you know my thought for scheduling is to say Mondays are probably easiest for you all given your commission schedules and things like that and also the availability of this room. Um the we don't have a uh that's not true. Sorry. We don't have a meeting on the 27th of April. Uh it's the last week. I wonder if that would then Elena I looked to you for this if that would give staff who would like to attend enough time to be able to plan in order to do that.

Yeah, I'm not sure. I'd want to check with them. I did send I appreciated the early look, Bren, of the memo. I did send it out and I had I think one person said, "Yeah, looks good." But that doesn't mean the other people have looked at it, right? So, I I wouldn't want to commit yet because I'm not actually sure what they think. But we'll, like always, we have our leadership team meeting the Wednesday after the council meeting. So, I'll have a chance to pull folks then. Um, if you want to if you're willing to hold off on actually setting a date until at least then. Okay.

That if you can. So, I'd like I want I want to give them as much lead time as possible. Our next meeting will obviously be the 6 will then be in April. If you could see if the 27th would work for staff on your meeting on Wednesday and then we can kind of know ahead of time or if they can propose other dates if that doesn't work. We can do some scheduling on and then on the 6th we can look at setting um setting a date for this. I'm holding the 27th.

You're soft holding the 27th. I'm I'm also going to soft the 27th just in case it does work for staff. Um, so this item was warned for discussion approval primarily just to say does everyone agree about moving forward with setting a a date in in April and what that date is doesn't have to be decided right now. Yeah, I think that makes sense. Agreed. Um, that's awesome. Yeah, it's it's I thank you for for writing that memo because it's one of those things where um we've just been talking about it for so long and it it just had to just had to be done. So, thank you.

Um wonderful. In that case, um our we'll leave this I think on approval. Sorry, on just discussion that and Elaine, do you need a vote that you're going to talk to staff at your meeting on Wednesday? Uh I don't need one but you could you could just decide that you will have one schedule.

Let's do that. So um council has uh approved of uh this memo provided by the deputy mayor. Uh the city manager will be uh speaking with city leadership uh at their next upcoming uh leadership meeting uh to see if April 27th will work as a day to hold a special meeting where we can discuss um commission work. Um, if that date doesn't work, the city manager will let me know and we will uh try to find another date. Um, do I have an approval uh for moving that plan I just mentioned forward? So moved. Second. All those in favor? I I.

Wonderful. Well, with that uh the time is 7:51 and that uh brings uh today's meeting of the Wooks City Council to an end. Uh do I have a motion to end our meeting? So moved. Second. All those in favor? Hi. Wonderful. Thank you so much everybody. Thank you.