Regional Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening friends. It's Wednesday, April 15, 2026 at 6 PM. We are here for the CCRPC board of directors meeting. Thank you for joining. Um I'll move to item one. We have started recording calling us to order and uh asking you those in attendance to attend. Um are there any changes to the agenda hearing? And seeing nothing, charging forward to item two, group expectations, which will appear as by magic in front of you right now. Um, please adhere to those as we move forward. Um, any public comments related to items not on this evening's agenda? I am not seeing any. Um, moving on then to item three, staff introductions. Uh, who would like to go first in the staff introductions this evening? It's a choice of two. So,

Brian, you're up.

I'm up. See, I'm first on the agenda. Hi, folks. Good evening. Uh, my name is Brian Davis. I am a senior transportation planner. Uh, and I've been here for 19 years. Um I work on active transportation projects uh related to walking and biking. I'm involved in the transit program. Uh my work includes uh transportation demand management. So this is a behavior change uh getting people to choose other modes besides driving themselves alone. Um I've done some work on official maps with our land use staff. Prior to coming to RPC, I have experience with the United States Forest Service, an affordable land trust profit, affordable housing nonprofit, uh a mountain bike advocacy nonprofit. I went to grad school at UVM. I live in Burlington with my family. Um a lot of familiar faces over the years, thanks to those of you who have continued to serve uh on our board. Um, and I invite any questions for those who may not know me at this point.

Brian, this is Bart, I'd ask you to to say one thing for the uninitiated. Um, your title was described as senior transportation planner planner and project manager. Maybe just mention what the difference is.

Yes. Uh at some point in the last year, the the project manager component got added to our titles because that's what we do when a town requests um project management services from us uh is we end up being the project manager and making sure that we stay on task and on budget. Um and then the the transportation planner aspect of it, that's the professional expertise that we bring to the projects in which we serve. Thank you. Any other questions or comments for Brian? Brian, maybe give an example of a specific project that you have or have worked on or are working on.

Sure. Uh well, since you asked Bard, I will reflect on the Richmond walk, bike trails plan that we completed. Um this is an active transportation plan for the town of Richmond. um looking at ways to make it safer, more connected to choose active modes that is walking, biking, and rolling throughout the town of Richmond. It's kind of the u the playbook for the town to look at uh as they envision a connected active transportation network and then they can come to us as they identify specific projects. For example, Cochran Road uh which my colleague Jason um completed a scoping corridor study for recently. So that's sort of the next step. And then once the scoping study is complete, then we can work with the town to identify and secure funding to bring those projects to reality.

Great example. Thank you. Other questions or comments for Brian? Um, I'll just, I guess, close by saying thank you, Brian, for uh your work and for sticking it out for 19 plus years. If it wasn't good, I would still be here. Excellent. Good to hear. All right, I guess we're ready for our next candidate.

Hello everyone. Good evening. My name is Simone Bedford. I am the economic mobility manager. I just started in December. I work very closely with the four municipalities Shelburn, South Burlington, Essex Junction and Wooki on economic mobility and opportunity. Um we started in December with our vision for this work which is uh being funded through the international uh city managers association and for the region we're focused on attainable housing entrepreneurship and civic participation. Our goals for attainable housing um has to do with supporting our housing trust funds um and working with partner organizations in housing to promote knowledge and participation in their programs and opportunities. And for entrepreneurship, we're really focused on connecting businesses to resources. We want to do uh networking events and um partnerships for business education. Um and so I we're actually starting soon with the Vermont Professionals of Color Network to support a networking series at the South Burlington Public Library. Um, and for civic participation, we're looking at a youth leadership program to encourage volunteerism for them to join boards and get involved in other ways. Yeah. So, those are the three pillars of what I work on. Um, most of my time is spent uh building new partnerships, reaching out to organizations, attending community meetings and events, learning what's important to the community, and

uh sort of prioritizing from there. Um, I I am originally from New York City and I actually came to Vermont from the state of Georgia where I was a regional planner. and I've been living in Vermont since the co era. So I moved here in 2020 actually and um I was the planning director for the town of Milton for over 5 years. Um in my free time I like to go to art events and one really cool interesting thing about me is that I'm a raw vegan. It's really unique. I only eat uncooked fruits and vegetables basically. And um yeah, I love it here. Thank you. If you have any questions, I'm I'm very open.

Awesome. Thank you, Simone. Questions or comments for Simone? Yes, Bruce Wilson. Bruce. Yeah. So, Simone, um thank you for joining um RPC. You know, um he said some key things about um um working with youth and I'm a youth service provider. You know, I opened up five I opened up five youth centers and two art galleries in the state and um so youth are my passion for for many years and uh and you say something about um business development um that you're trying to colle how can you say that? Would you tell me to say that again about some about business development or working with businesses? Yes.

Collaborate send out to be proactive whatever you saying. Go ahead. We want to support entrepreneurship by connecting with state resources and translating them into opportunities for our business communities. Um, and we hope to get the word out about uh existing opportunities through networking events. We're looking at partnering with a local colleagues to offer a business education program, something like how to write a good business plan or um financial planning, things like that, things that could help businesses um become very competitive for financing opportunities and other things as well. So, those are some of the things that we're thinking of. So you go are you is that like LLC liquid liquid liability companies and nonprofit is part of the training that um that you're going to give people who interested in business cuz a nonprofit you got to run like a business you know anyways so are you thinking about doing are you going to do something like that too like let like people understand what a LLC is you know 501c3 things like that.

Yes. Yes indeed. um what the specific education will focus on is going to be decided through a co-design process too. So that's why I'm focused on building partnerships and figuring out the right people to work with so that we can all decide oh what would be relevant, what would be most impactful and from there we're going to design a program or tap into something um and yeah support them in the way that makes sense. Well, let me know in ways I might be able to help you, you know. Um, I'm always there for you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you, Simone. Any other questions for Simone?

Uh, hearing none. Simone, thank you for joining us and for joining us this evening. Thank you. Um, moving forward, item four, minutes of March 18th, 2026 board meeting. Looking for a motion. Also move. This is Garrett with Katherine's Editage, of course. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second. Ethan Lawrence. Thank you. Other comments, Katherine, any comments?

Well, it's interesting. I I wasn't there even though I could speak to the minutes. Um I did not see nothing grabbed jumped out at me when I was going through it just to see what was there. But for me, you know, even though the minutes have more than is absolutely necessary, I I found them wanting when it it said you just discussed something and particularly when it came to uh like the tip amendment, you changed this and that because if somebody from the public just wanted to see something what was happening, they wouldn't know exactly what was changed. But that's just me. So,

well, if they need to, Katherine, they can always go to the recording. That's true. But Bart, yes, Mike. Sorry. I'm not I I I texted or I sent an email to Emma. I was excluded from the list of attendees. I I didn't see if she changed it. I hadn't seen him in the last couple days. So, not yet, but that is recorded on my end, Mike. So, I'll update that when we finalize. Thanks, Emma. Must not been to that memorable, Mike. You know, I just sitting there nice and quiet listening to you, Jeff.

Any other comments related to the minutes? Uh, moving forward with a vote. All in favor of approving the minutes with the correction that Mike made. Any nays? Any abstensions? Yeah, Brad. Brad Holden, I'll abstain. I was not present even though I know you can vote on minutes, but it's not my policy. And Catherine raised her hand to abstain as well. Well, I wasn't at the meeting. Bruce Wilson. I might have to abstain, but I do vote on the minutes because I can. All right. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you.

Okay, that has been moved, seconded, and uh majority approved. So, thank you for that. Uh, charging forth to item five, draft EOS plan, including a warning of the public hearing for May 20th.

Hi folks. Um, thank you. We are going to talk about the ECOS plan. Um, and I want to make sure that you folks are seeing the presentation mode, not the presenter mode. Excellent. Yes.

All right. Before we start, I just want to remind folks that in March, uh, we did a pretty thorough review of changes to the ECOS plan post first public hearing in January. We talked about changes we made to the plan uh uh in response to LER comments, in response to public comment, um, and talked about the work of the our long range planning committee. So today I'm going to be really brief, talk a bit about process, um see if there's any last questions we want to ask, and then talk about next steps. And so just as a reminder, if you if you want to go back and and see all the changes and iterations of the plan as we've worked on it over the past year, I'd refer you back to our September 2025 board presentation and our March 2026 board presentation. Both presentations are pretty uh uh full and more in depth in terms of the changes that have happened to the plan during uh the past year. This is an older slide, but I I did really want to highlight for the board and remind the board that particularly during the development of the regional future land use map and the municipal housing targets between September 2024 and May 2025, we did a lot of engagement and a lot of engagement specifically with municipalities. Um, these numbers are wolffully out of date, but I think at the end of the day, we're we're well over 140 150 public meetings and events during this less than a year time frame. And so, you know, we've we've heard a lot. We've tried to be as responsive as we can uh during the development of this plan and particularly the map and and the targets. In terms of where we are in the process now, um right now we're at final board review. That was our meeting back in March and that is also the meeting here tonight. Ideally tonight, you guys warn the second uh RPC public hearing. We hold

that hearing at our May 20th board meeting adopt the plan that night. And then in June and July, we'll submit our plan to the land use review board for their approval uh and of what's under their jurisdiction and also to the Vermont Department of uh public service. they have jurisdiction over the enhanced energy plan uh part of our regional plan. Ideally, both entities grant approval sometime in June or July 2026. Quick summary in terms of of changes we've made since uh the first public hearing. A lot of changes in in response to lurb review. um substantial uh uh revisions of our scenic, recreational, historic resources chapter of the plan. Um and then also uh 35 map changes. Um those map changes are all uh recorded and are visible online tomorrow. They'll be posted right next to a link of a public-f facing map viewer with the updated version of of the future land use map. Um, we also made com uh changes to the plan in response to public comment. Um, if you click on the link here, uh, we have a full recording of all the public comments that we received both in writing and at the public hearing itself and then a recording of our response to that comment that have been provided to those individuals. Again, details uh, more details are in the March board meeting with a link to that presentation. There have been a few very small changes that have happened in the past month that I just want to make you aware of. Uh one, if you remember with our municipal housing targets, um the targets specifically for our urban rural municipalities, and I can list those in a second if you want. Um those targets are based on the regional future landings map. Since the map

wasn't fully edited and finalized till about March 19th, we had to go ahead and rerun those housing targets just for that subset of municipalities. And we have revised housing targets um for those municipalities. I'll name them real quick. It's Colchester, Essex, Hinesburg, Jericho, Milton, Richmond, Shelurn, and Williston. Uh we've kept the targets of um we've minimized changes. um in the mid 2050 scenario, less than a 200 unit swing um for each municipality. Um and we can we'll go review those changes on the next slide or the revised targets on the next slide. Um there have been very very small text changes. Um specifically, we added some language to an action 15BI um to talk about shared services and providing municipalities with the opportunity to work with us on shared services. We wanted to be more explicit about that. Uh and then we also uh did some updating to charts and tables throughout the entire document. Uh these changes were made to comply with uh now in place ADA requirements. Some of those requirements may not apply to us as an NPO until next year, but we wanted to get ahead of the curve. Um, and so we've we've made changes to those charts and tables to make them more readable and ADA compliant. In terms of revised housing targets, here they are. Um, I know it's a little bit hard to look at these when we're not compar comparing them to the previous targets. Um, what I'll say here is that rural municipalities have not changed at all since the last version you saw. The urban municipalities, the four cities have not changed at all. And then for the mixed and urban rural municipalities, the target should look relatively uh relatively close to what

was last time, plus or minus 200 or less. Um I think the most uh notable change from my perspective is in Essex and that was really related to LURB required map changes. Um Essex lost a lot of plan growth area because of lurb required changes and so their target has gone down comparably. Um any questions or comments on the targets before we move on? Hearing none, I'll move on uh just to talk about remaining work. Um the first thing actually happened late last night and that was the adoption of the Heinesburg town plan. So now that that is done, the we know for sure that we can have plan growth area and village area in Hinesburg on our regional future land use map. But congrats to Heinesburg for getting that that municipal plan adopted. That's it for additional work we have to do to the plan itself. Unless work comes out of our discussion today, the plan is set and ready for adoption. We do have some work after adoption that I I want to highlight for the board. The first thing is that uh post adoption we want to have uh some sort of afteraction report with a few of our municipalities where you know there was uh I think point of conflict is probably too strong but some sort of friction about the regional future land use map and how the lur may have directed us to change the map. We want to meet with those municipalities, talk about, you know, what the municipality can do to to implement policies and uh goals or map changes in their own municipal plans that will then lead to a regional change in the future that matches their goals and vision. Um that can be approved by the LURB at a later date, likely 2028, perhaps sooner. We'll see. Um I also want to point out that we're going to try to give ourselves the summer off as a staff. Um but pretty soon we are going

to have to start thinking about a a ECOS plan amendment in 2028 about two years from now. Um adopting that um that's because if we want to continue to integrate the comprehensive economic development strategy and the metropolitan transportation plan into the ECOS plan, both of those plans expire in 2028. And so we're going to start working on them this coming fiscal year FY27 and have them be prepared to be integrated into the EOS plan in 2028. And then we'll also be integrating, you know, any other future land use map changes we need to make um based on changes to municipal policy and any other tier one requests, tier 1b requests, excuse me, that come up. That is what I have for tonight. Um, I'll take down the board discussion slides so we can all see each other's faces. Um, but you'll see in your packet you you have a a recommended uh motion to warn your second public hearing uh for the May 20th board meeting. Um, and with that, you know, if if folks have questions or or want to talk about the plan, I'm I'm all ears.

So, before we get to the motion, uh, any content, comments, or questions? Uh, Taylor, one comment I'd make, and hopefully this is both familiar and not wearing, is my suggestion when we make um presentations like this to a diverse audience, potentially including people who are not sort of initiated, is every time we use an acronym is to the first time spell it out. That's just it's more about um you know being inclusive and a low bar if you will.

I don't know if other people agree with that or not. Not grading at all. B. Yes, we can we can be better about that. I appreciate the reminder.

Other content questions. Jeff Taylor, this is just a format question. And I know that we probably dealt with this in the past, but two things with respect to endnotes. Um, I'm a I'm a footnote guy and by the time I got to page 40 and I had to go to the back of the document 24 times to look at endnotes, I got annoyed. Is that intentional? So people don't look at the endnotes? No. No, that's not intentional. Um, Jeff, man, we made that decision. Jeff, that was

Yeah, we made that decision a long time ago and I can't remember why we chose endnotes instead of footnotes to be honest with you.

Yeah. I mean, and and you know, there's just a couple of the the endnotes. I mean, we make some uh some uh assertions in the document about wealth inequality and stuff like that. Then we then we use a 2020 national uh study and meth methodology of it. I think there are some local stats that the legislative joint fiscal office puts together that may bring it closer to home. Not for this one, but maybe when we do the update in two years and then at some point in time maybe I'd like to push back on the endote versus footnote thing. Um, but I don't want to get Emma mad at me or anybody else because it's going to create a formatting nightmare given the way that we're putting it together. But just reader friendliness, endnotes are, and it may just be me and I realize I'm only one thing, but it just like I pulled my hair out by the time I did it two dozen times, especially in a PDF document, you know, because you can go all the way to the back and then you've got to get on the right hand side and use the the the the blob instead of the arrow because it'll take you forever to go back 150 pages if you don't try to do it all at once. I'm a I'm a history major or was a history major in college. So, I I appreciate the footnote over the endote. Um, but I also appreciate your sensitivity to uh Emma's mental health and so uh we'll we'll stick with the end notes for now. And

yeah, I'm not suggesting anything for the plan now. I'm thinking about two years from now and because we did so much to reformat it this time, maybe we can take a reader friendly step in the next version, but I don't I don't want to I don't want to make it more difficult for people. It's just after all, we are looking for people to read it and some readers put it on the 2022 list. Oh, sorry to interrupt, Jeff. I put it on the 2028 list. There is a list and I've added this. Okay. Thank you. I didn't mean to interrupt you. No, no, no. It's fine. I talked too much anyway. Well, me too. Thank you, Jeff. Other questions or comments?

I have one. Yes, please. Yeah, it's sort of hard to um ignore the news stories about dissatisfaction with Act 181 these days. And I'm wondering um Taylor or any other you know Charlie if you see any red flags about possible amendments that we may have to do um especially with tier three. It's just everyone seems to be up in arms about it and and we've put in a lot of work on compliance with it.

Yeah, thanks for uh bringing that up. I would have tried to uh bring that up before we got done with this topic also. Um so uh for those of you um who are u you not plugged into the online discourse or maybe seeing in media other places uh definitely been a lot of frustration uh and I'll I'll say with generically 181 act 181 um out there across the state um most of it has been focused on tier three and the road rule which thankfully we have not been involved with does not impact the work that we've been doing on our regional plan. Um and yeah in the state house I think yesterday and today it does seem like uh the house is heading towards repeal of the tier three and the road rule uh amongst other changes also that are uh embedded in S325. I don't think the committee's voted on S325. So that um please take note that I said it seems like they are headed that way. They have not actually take a taken action yet. Although I expect action um out of the committee, you know, I don't if it'll be this week, but probably at uh definitely by next week, I'm expecting S325 to come out of House environment with those repeals. Um and then the other changes that are in S325 data to get more specific. Um we haven't seen anything there that would uh cause us to have to change our regional plan yet. Um so um so far so good on our work and but thank you for asking a very important

discussion that's happening in the state house and and and also we are definitely monitoring to make sure that um you know there isn't anything that we need to do uh to in response to what's happening in S325. I I don't know if you saw it, Charlie, but the speaker was on the four o'clock 5:00 news saying that the House was going to repeal the driveway and the rural road parts of Y Act 181. So, tier three and road rule. Yeah. All right, Dana, thanks for the question. Sorry, was there another question there? Tess. Nope. Here we go. Yes, Tess.

Sorry. Do you think it's going to impact the other RPC's a lot that are more rural than we are or

No. And just to be clear, none of the RPCs were mapping tier three and none of them were mapping the road rule. Those were all the responsibility of the land use review board. So there's been kind of a there was a separation of duties if you will uh where the land use review board was dealing with the rural issues and the RPCs were dealing with we yeah we're doing our full county sorry land use mapping but um but really focused uh and really making sure that that what we were doing uh was supported by our towns uh but really focused on the tier 1b eligible areas. So, um I don't anticipate any impact again on the RPC portion of the work at this point that could change over the coming week, but so uh full disclosure, but uh right now we seem okay.

Also a good question. Thank you. Other questions, comments, concerns, complaints? Okay, I'm not seeing or hearing anything. Um, make the motion. This is Garrett. I will second that. All right. So, um, this is to warn the public hearing for May 20th. Any Yeah, Ben.

No, I'm sorry. I was about to just say I. That's all. All right. Uh, all in favor, please say I raise your hand. I. Any nays? Any abstensions? That motion carries apparently unanimously. Uh, moving on to item six, town plan approvals, confirmation of planning process, and determination of energy compliance. A three-parter for each of the three town. Just a just a point of clarification on the last item that we voted for. Normally, we have a time when we warn the public hearing

and I didn't notice one in the motion. Is that important or is that important for the notice, Taylor? Uh, I was going to just put six o'clock like your like your normal meeting time. Okay. Yeah. No, good question. I think we're fine though with the motion has passed. Okay. Thank you for raising the question. Okay. Uh, so town plans, who will lead us through these short conversations?

I will continue to talk and they will be short. Bard, I'm going to combine all I'm going to talk about all three all together and then you will we will need to have three separate motions though um for three separate resolutions. And so you'll see in your packet um memos for Milton, St. George, and Heinesburg um for all three municipalities. We're recommending uh after pack approval of these plans that the board provide regional approval and uh of the plans and then confirm those municipalities planning processes. And then for Heinesburg, they also have an enhanced energy plan. And so the recommendation in your packet is to also provide them with an affirmative determination of energy compliance. Um I can take any questions on individual municipal plans but again reviewed by pack gave feedback to each municipality municipality made the appropriate changes to their plan plans are conform to statute and the regional plan.

Are there any questions about any of the three that we're faced with tonight? Uh so to your point, Taylor, we want to take them one at a time. If I understand correctly, we both want to approve the plan for a town and confirm the planning process for all three and then for Heinesburg, it's just that that energy uh conformance portion too. Mr. Chair, I move we approve the town plan and certify it and confirm Milton's town planning process for their 2026 Milton plan town plan.

Second. Andy a second. All in favor, please say I. Raise your hand. Any nays? Any abstensions? Motion carries. Hinesburg. Move to approve. I'll second. Uh moved and seconded. All in favor of approving Heindberg's plan, please raise your hand or indicate by saying I. I. I. Any nays? Any abstensions? Thank you. Moving on to St. George. Should we do the the process

energy? Oh, yeah. Sorry first. Yeah, the energy plan. Yeah, I'll move then. Thank you, Garrett. I'll second. Chris, is that Chris Shaw? Uh so moved and seconded. All in favor please say I raise your hand. I I Any nays? Any abstensions? That carries as well. And now St. George. I'll move we approve St. George plan. Dan Karen. All right. Thank you, Dan. Um, Taylor, do we have language about um second

the planning process? Yeah. Yeah. I I'm gonna go ahead and take uh Dan's motion to approve the plan and confirm the planning process. Okay. All right. Moved and seconded. All in favor, please raise your hand or say I. I. I. Any nays? Any abstensions? That also carries. Okay, Taylor, any final comments there? No, thank you for your swift action. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Uh, now we're on item seven, the draft language access plan. Um, thanks Bard. That's me.

Thank you. So, I apologize to those of you who have heard this spiel now multiple times. I sound feel like I sound like a broken record in my head, but I know some people here have not seen this draft. So, to give you the high level what's going on, first uh CCRPC, we're in the process of updating our public participation plan. As one part of that, we're creating a language access plan. And so, that's what this is. is you've already reviewed and approved the stipend policy and the community liaison policy which were the first two pieces and now we're on to language access. So, I think the way I'm going to do this is share my screen with the draft plan that's in the packet and go through kind of a highlevel overview of each section and try to not get into too much detail because it's long and then I'll stop sharing and we can dig into sections that you all want to focus in on or have questions about. So,

let me share my screen. is perfect. Okay. Can everybody see that? Do I need to zoom in further or out?

Okay. I'm going to assume that's good. Okay. Thank you. Actually, if you can make it a little bigger, that would be great.

Okay. Let's see if I can do that. Okay. So the overall purpose is um essentially con continuing to find ways to include more people in the regional planning process to make sure that our processes and our outcomes are inclusive and representative of everyone's experiences. Um again this is a part of our broader public participation plan. Um, and it was developed using national best practices, federal guidance, and community input. And the goal is to really just apply um a clear policy and procedures and responsibilities to staff and the organization um so that there's a standard um protocol and expectations around language access. The requirement to provide language access is not new. CCRPC has already been providing language access, but we haven't formalized and kind of standardized across the organization our approach um and expectations. So that's what this policy aims to do. By implementing this policy, we are complying with title six of the Civil Rights Act, the American with Disabilities Act, and guidance from the Vermont Office of Racial Equity. And it also fulfills our MO obligation to provide meaningful access and robust public participation opportunities for all community members. Um that's required by the Federal Highway Administration and the FTA, the Federal Transit Administration. Further, it demonstrates our commitment to inclusive planning consistent with our equity statement and ECOS plan goals. So this just outlines each of those mandates in a little bit more detail. I won't read through them. And then we get to definitions. Some kind of baseline definitions of

terminology used throughout this plan. The only one that I want to draw attention to is this limited English profic proficiency term, which is commonly used in the federal government. The Vermont Office of Racial Equity recommends using people with language access needs instead to kind of uh flip the framing of um from one of deficits to one of assets. So throughout this document, we try to use people with language access needs or communication access needs instead of limited English proficiency. And then a brief section on background research where we just draw attention to other policies, plans or reports um that we leaned heavily on for guidance. And then a summary here. I will spend a little bit of time on this. Throughout the development of this uh policy document, we collaborated closely with CCRPC's community engagement advisory committee to just better understand um their priorities and preferences and recommendations around language access. This is a summary of feedback that we received from them that kind of helps guide uh the approach we take. And I will call attention to just a couple of things. one, a general support for the change in terminology from limited English proficiency to people with language access um needs or communication needs. And then multiple of these points kind of get at this overarching guidance to prioritize funneling resources into um community liaison relationship building um working through partner organizations and uh live interpretation instead of uh or over prioritizing document-based

communication. So, translation of documents that'll come up later in the policy, but I just want to name that that's kind of grounded in this feedback we got from from that committee. Um, the other big piece of feedback was just making it very clear on all of our materials and documents that language services are provided free of charge and make sure that process is easy to access by community members. So then we get into this section um which is an assessment of language access needs in the region and this is federal guidance around conducting a four factor analysis is what they call it. The first factor is how many people are there in your community or in the geographic area who have language access needs. I'm not going to read through this whole thing, but it's a data deep dive into can we figure out what languages are spoken in Chittening County other than English. Um, in order to come out with a list of kind of top six, top 10, top languages spoken. The census data for Chittning County probably, as everybody knows here, is fairly flawed. It's outdated when it comes to actual languages spoken other than English in a household. So, statewide data. If you look at the languages that are most commonly spoken other than English throughout the whole state, most of the languages that show up in census data are Indo-Uropean languages. So, English, French, German, Croatian, Russian, Italian, Portuguese. That doesn't really represent the on the ground uh reality of which populations need the most language access services. Um, so I kind of outlined different uh limitations to census data here and then for these reasons decided to lean a little bit more heavily on school

district data. Most schools have multilingual liaison programs and do a really good job of keeping track of how many students they're serving and how many of their families need language support services. So, I looked at our most populated um municipalities in terms of uh non-English speakers and determined from their data the top languages that were spoken that needed services. And from that list in conjunction with census data um it's most likely that the top six languages in Chin County uh or populations who u may need language supports are Nepali, Somali, Swahili, Arabic, Spanish and French. There's a note that language access also includes communication accessibility beyond spoken language. So this policy also covers um those who might have hearing loss and need audio or um uh auditory support or low vision or blindness and um how we can ensure that they can participate in our programming as well. The next three factors um the second factor is okay now we know who in the region um might need supports now how frequently do they come in contact with our programming. This section is fair fairly brief as of now, not very frequently. They're mostly coming in contact with regional planning through either the community engagement advisory committee or through projectbased outreach. Um importance of our ser of our activities and services to these communities. Um just summarizes that it's important that we ensure that everybody can participate in planning. Um there's a note here that you know emphasizing seek members emphasize that

individuals individuals with language access needs don't typically engage through written documents. So we need to rely more heavily on direct outreach, relationship building and verbal engagement. And then the last factor is does your organization have resources to provide uh language services? And as of now, uh, resources have not been a limiting factor for CCRPC in terms of providing language access. So that kind of frames the general need and context and then we get into some policy language here. I'll read the general statement of policy and then skim through the rest. So the general statement is it's the policy of CCRPC to provide people who speak languages other than English and who have language access needs meaningful access to its programs, services and activities. Ensuring meaningful access means providing accurate, timely and effective language services that are free of charge and consistent with federal law. It is also the policy of CCRPC to provide effective communication to people who are deaf, heart of hearing, blind, deaf, blind, use other modes of communication or are protected by the American with Disabilities Act. CCRPC will provide effective communication at no cost and in a timely manner to allow an equal opportunity to to participate in CCRPC programs, services, and activities. We will provide effective communication in such a way as to protect the privacy and independence of the individual. And then there's policy language on how will we notify people that they have a right to free language services. There's a list here of how we'll do that. There's policy language for providing translation and interpretation services. And then um a specific sentence here about board and committee participation and then project related activities and

what that might look like. Um format may vary depending on the situation and the context. Requests and response uh requests are encouraged at least 5 days in advance, but CCRPC will do our best to respond in a timely manner or provide language services upon shorter notice. Um that includes if somebody shows up to a meeting and you had no idea they were going to come and they need language services. Um making sure that we we're equipping staff with resources to provide on the on demand services. Um and then a section about written translation of vital and high priority documents. Um, again, this is a kind of a piece of the federal mandate for language access is ensuring that we are translating what they call vital documents. I'm gonna actually, this policy section outlines the policy, but I'm going to hold this conversation until the procedures section because it gets a little bit uh more detailed. We commit to using competent uh translators and interpreters. And then some policy language around accessible meetings and materials. So guidance, how do we make sure that our materials are accessible to those who might have communication needs and our meetings are accessible? A policy about staff training and making sure staff are up to date on best practices. And then monitoring and evaluation. So, how will we we as an organization um revisit these policies and procedures to make sure they reflect uh community needs, changing demographics, and also best practices. So, the procedures section essentially takes all of that policy language and tries to get clearer with um staff around what does this look like in practice? Um so, how do we notify people of free language services? Here's how

we'll do so. On our website, we have these standard language access statements that we've updated that will be included in all meeting announcements, outreach documents, agendas, and vital documents. Hopefully, with a really uh easy way for community members to click on something and go to a a page on our website to request services, an abbreviated statement for documents or materials that might not have as much space. Um, going to skim through that. How to provide translation and interpretation. Kind of outlined a step-by-step process here around how to identify needs, how do you select the appropriate service based on that need, and then arrange for that service and prepare for effective communication, and then how to conduct meetings and engagement activities when you have multiple languages in one space um or communication access needs in one space. There's a call out box here around proactive translation of project materials. This is a question that comes up. When is it worth it to proactively translate outreach materials say and when does it make more sense to wait for a request? And so with guidance from the seek again just some guidance for staff here outlined on how to think about uh that decision point and then vital documents. So, as I said, this is a federal requirement for organizations who receive federal funding. And typically, uh, the guidance is to use what's called a safe harbor analysis for determining what documents you should proactively translate. And I guess I'll share first that a vital document is defined as a public-f facing non-confidential material that's crucial for individuals to access

programs or services or exercise rights. A document is vital if one or more of the following apply. If it's critical to legal or civil rights process, critical to accessing uh a program or decision-m without it misunderstanding might cause financial, physical safety or other harm, or it provides emergency or public safety information. Given that CCRPC is not providing direct services uh to residents on the ground, at least not normally, we don't have many documents that would immediately be flagged as vital. We consulted with legal counsel to make sure we understood uh this threshold appropriately. Um and based on that conversation and conversations with the community engagement advisory committee, the following list was developed as kind of a preliminary. Um these documents seem high priority, potentially vital and should be proactively translated. Um so the stipen opt-in and acknowledgement form that is goes along with that stipen policy. um we will proactively translate that into the top six languages identified in the region. Project outreach materials will be based on project location and target populations. Key materials might be translated as appropriate. Title six and ADA complaint forms will we'll make sure that those are accessible on CCRPC's website and available in those top six languages and make sure they know that we will provide interpretation upon request for that complaint form as well. And then regional plans came up and we decided that instead of pouring a ton of resources into translating the entire entire regional plan that I that I don't

even think anybody reads in English, um it would make more sense to develop one-page plain language summaries describing what it is and then again make sure folks know that language services are available if they're interested in learning more about it. Um, this piece is important to pair with outreach and engagement and general education around what regional planning is and why it matters. Um, very few people I would imagine are going to go digging on our website looking for documents to read in other languages. And then the last thing that came up was funding opportunities specifically open to community members. So, this is not something CCRPC does regularly, but sometimes we have um funding opportunities come through us that are open to community organizations and making sure that this information is translated into the top six languages since it um has money behind it. And then um the safe harbor standard again is just figuring out which languages to translate those vital documents into. It's not super applicable to Chitten County because our populations are so low. Um long story short, the only languages that meet the federal safe harbor threshold in Chittening County are likely Spanish and Nepali, though the data is pretty hard to measure this clearly. Uh since we have a kind of clearer top six languages, we've decided it makes more sense if we're going to proactively translate something to do it in those top six languages and not just Spanish and Apoll. And then the last section is just procedures, some more details for staff around how to make meetings and materials accessible to everyone. So there's a plain language resource here. um making sure that public

communications are at a grade eight reading level or lower and a resource to use when doing so. Meeting accessibility, how do we provide live captioning, um aids and services, so on and so forth. We don't need to dig into this too much. And then procedures for monitoring and evaluation. And so this just gets into some more detail about how internally we'll make sure we're keeping this policy up to date um and that it reflects community needs and feedback. A section on filing complaints around language based services. This information is all on our website and it it has lived there. And then I'll just note that the appendix here is um the idea is that the appendex outlines very detailed instructions for staff on how to access specific language services. The hope is that the appendex can be updated more frequently than the policy document without um needing to go through you all for approval, which is why I moved it to an appendix. Um, but we're in the process right now of getting set up with these language services, some of which are through State of Vermont contracts. Um, and then there'll be some staff training on how to access these services. So, what do you do if you need um on demand interpretation? Here are your services and exactly how to access them. If you are planning in-person interpretation that you're scheduling in advance, here are the resources we have available to us and here's how to access them. And if you need to translate documents or presentations or materials, again, here are the resources and how to go through that process. And then lastly, video translation. Um, if that's something you need for project outreach,

uh, here are resources that we have. And then I'm almost done. This um, last appendix is just an it's called an I speak card. I actually took this from the Agency of Natural Resources that recently created this print out that you can fold. Um, and they have staff carry it around to in-person events. And it's a really easy way to have uh folks identify what language they might need in a meeting or uh what communication services they might need. Um, and there will eventually be details here, just like quick onthe-go details for how staff can access those resources last minute. Okay, I'm going to stop sharing and see if anyone has thoughts, questions, did any of that not make sense? Um, feedback. And again, the purpose of tonight's discussion is just review this draft and then hopefully uh we'll make necessary updates over the next month and you all will see this again next month for a vote.

Ben, you have your hand up.

Yes, I do. Thank you. And thank you uh and uh Miss Stoner. Uh it um tremendous work has been done here and uh I appreciate the thoroughess. Um I was asked if I would take a look at it. I'm afraid my calendar when I was asked was a little bit heavy but um I did put in a a bit of time to look at it and I have just a few uh items that I wanted to perhaps share some ideas thoughts quickly. Um one um whatever document uh we're producing if um I just have the question if we're going to be always putting in tandem any translation with English. So in fact will help people who are primarily uh dependent on another language um so that they have a reference and they can over time perhaps uh also show that they're being included and not just um you know in their language but it's kind of a synthesis and integration um to of inclusiveness. Um so I I can go through I have just a couple of items like that. Um, and if you want me to just run through them quickly, I can do that. Or if you wanted to comment on them,

I think run through them and I'm going to take

Super and I can provide you notes. It's just, uh, I didn't have time to kind of formalize it. Uh so uh one of the things is um on step three you talk about um prior there and I quote prioritize translation and primarily I guess it's uh in I would say in brackets for flyers and notices of meetings and like uh when the goal is to broaden participation. Well, I uh this uh is repeated a number of times and I'm wondering if you might just find uh save some time in ink just to kind of put a global uh statement a and b that generally I would I want to believe that we when wouldn't it be the idea to include uh be as inclusive and broaden um the uh participation as possible. But I I do get it when the the need is uh we don't know who's showing up for the meetings. Um and we want to be able to get a better idea of um of what to provide, what services to provide at a meeting. Um and I I'm wondering if there's not a mechanism or some sort of recordkeeping to be able to um keep a track of who's showing up for some of the meetings. not to identify individuals of course but simply to be responsive. Okay, we have more Spanish speakers this time or we have more uh Arabic speakers. We can tailor uh the response. Um and then thirdly, um uh step four, when working with interpreters, uh I would posit that an idea is in advance of any meeting, having been a translator for a number of years, um one thing that's extremely helpful and I would say inclusive for populations is to uh define and write out the acronyms and the professional terminology that we use uh for any program and to translate those. have a

handout sheet so that uh one it makes the translators you know we have a stock list of terminology andor acronyms and the like so that uh it's always available for translators. It makes their job a lot easier and that reduces the amount of time we have to pay them uh on an hourly wage to be uh to be translating. It also provides um inclusiveness uh to so that people in the audience who may be unfamiliar both English speakers and others um to be able to expand their horizons and to understand um the terminology and therefore thereby be more integrated. Um the um uh yeah and I would make sure that any uh committee chair would be providing such a document a list of the the terminology the jargon and the acronyms and the like ahead of time and explaining them. Um, I have to say there are those uh in the community uh or in the federal community uh of trying to meet the standards uh um that would sometimes take exception to limiting the level or suggesting that the level be only to a grade eight. Now I understand there are immigrant populations who because they've spent years in refugee camps haven't had a lot of education granted but uh the idea of limiting it to an eighth grade level is I would pause it and there's a lot of literature out there uh a little paternalistic and so we have to be I would suggest we have to I would urge perhaps or ask that we be a little more sensitive um and you know not the proverbial talking down to and just to ensure that that's not the message uh because it certainly given all the work you've done here is not the message uh of what's trying to be done. Um and I'm

just curious in the age of AI and uh I have a few other items but I'll wrap it up there. In the age of AI, it's very possible that we could run some of our basic documents even if it's like the Echos uh plan and which I would hope that uh even if it is in English that people would read because I've certainly encouraged people in in Westford to read it because it's critical. It will impact on every municipality's uh uh future. But uh perhaps with AI to run it through a translation program and then have of course the Echos plan is a an an extreme example, but more manageable uh documents, run it through AI and then have a translator quickly go review it to see if to check it for accuracy. again looking at that bottom line because what kind of a budget do we have and is this the best uh can we get the best bang for our buck. So, thank you very much. Just some thoughts and again in appreciation for all the work that's been done.

Thank you, Ben. And if you do have other comments or suggestions, of course, feel free to email them or communicate them to Ann Nelson. Uh I think next was Garrett. Thank you. Um Benjamin, thank you for your comments. You had some very good ones. Although I'll have to say that there are certain people in our government who probably can't handle anything over an eighth grade. But anyway, um and Nelson, you obviously put a tremendous amount of work into this and it's much appreciated. I particularly liked that you didn't go the easy route and just do the top two or what the Fed said that you went with the top six by really digging deep and getting the extra languages that might be a little bit lower threshold. But I just wanted to say that was uh very thoughtful and I thought a really good piece of it. That was all. Thank you.

Thank you, Garrett. Uh I'm not sure who was next. Dan, I think

um just quick I just wanted to echo what uh Benjamin had said in his comments at the end about AI. Um I found it very helpful in my travels in different countries just using uh Google translate and have been able to have conversations. It's depend on your your whether you download the language. It's almost instantaneous and you can actually use your phone to hold your camera up to a document or a sign or what have you and it'll interpret whatever language it is to the language you prefer. So, you know, from Russian to English or English to Japanese or what have you, and there's almost every language out there is it is on Google Translate, which is amazing. So, no, I agree with the whole thing of I think this is great, and I think we should really focus on reaching out to our uh members of our community who don't speak fluently our language, their the English language. But, very good. Thank you.

Thank you, Dan. Ethan, hi. and I just want to say thank you for all of your hard work. I had the pleasure of reading this for the first time today. Um, minor comment. I don't know if it's significant, but when I was reading through on page six for the school districts, um, it may be important to some to have that listed as Essex, Essex Junction, and Westford or just EWSD instead of Essex Junction. But everything else looks great and I'm uh excited to see a solid form of this and maybe see this passed down to the to the select board level where it can be implemented um, across the board, across the state. I think that's a great thing. Thank you.

Thank you, Ethan. Tess,

I'm curious about the summary document part of it. So once the summary documents are out there, which I think is a great solution to not translating it six times, but once they're out there and there's just sort of like the information at the bottom, what is it that we're promising to people who want to learn more? If they don't speak English and they've read that summary document and they're like, "Okay, I want to understand the whole document." Are we committing to then translating the entire document into whatever language they need? I think that proc Yeah, good question. I think that process would be to first have I think it would be more effective to have a one-on-one conversation with a live interpreter to kind of walk through content in that document versus and community feedback has definitely echoed this versus spending all of the time and resources into saying, "Okay, great. You want to learn more about the ECOS plan? We're going to get the entire thing translated into your language." um and just share it with you. Maybe we actually just sit down and have a series of conversations even about it first and then if from there there's still interest in digging into maybe certain pieces or parts of it, it might make sense to do further translation. Uh but I think the live interpretation is is a more effective strategy um as a followup if somebody wants to learn more about something. Yeah. Do you think those should be somehow recorded just for like quick reference later? Like if somebody's just stumbling upon the site, if we've already done that process for that language once, maybe I don't know, like is there something that then we could put up later out of that?

Yeah, we've been thinking about this too because we've received a lot of community feedback that videos are a really effective way to get information out into the community. And I know that like Vermont Legal Aid created a series of videos that they posted on their website in the top six or even maybe even more languages that just describe like here's who we are, here's what we do, here are the services we provide. Um, and they're kind of front and center on that website. And so you could imagine maybe we do something similar for the regional plan or vital information or high priority documents or for the organization as a whole. I think it would be a great strategy and maybe that's something we continue to think about as we start to document more where these needs arise. you know, if we can get the if we can get it out there that we provide language services and actually kind of cultivate a more inclusive culture around regional planning, will that need or the demand for language services go up? And then can we start to reinvent strategies that might be more uh more effective? So, I think it's a good point.

Awesome. Thank you. Any other questions, comments, suggestions related to the draft language access plan? I'm inclined to make one comment. It's an observation from um my experience in state government. Um, when we were producing documents for the general public, our website, and in fact for legislators, we were often aspiring to an eighth grade level for everybody. And I don't mean that as anything amusing about the legislature. It was just in as an attempt to reach as broad an audience as possible for what that's worth. Okay. Nothing else. and Nelson, thanks so much for your continued work on the draft language access plan. There's a lot to it.

Um, moving on to item eight, board development committee. Is there an action item for this uh draft language? Do we need any action on that board or Charlie? This is still kind of in play. Um, I would describe this more as maybe a um it's a long game as opposed to a short game.

No problem. And great work. Thank you, Ann Nelson. Uh, yes. And thank you, Bart. For agenda item uh eight, the board development committee, we convened our yearly session. We approved the minutes from last year and had our session this past week. Uh normally it's pro- fora in so far as we tend to work on two-year uh terms and we would recommend the same slate as we've had so far with Bard Hill as chair uh Jackie Murphy as vice chair secretary treasurer uh has been Karen Peterson large municipalities Andy Montrol small municipalities Joe Sagali and past chair myself Chris Shaw however um Karen Peterson has a schedule change and she is wanted uh for her many talents uh at a time that dovetales when we often meet as the executive committee. So, uh, for the second year of a term, uh, we're going to be, uh, looking to substitute a new name that we came up with a slate that includes all the names I just, um, gave you, and we're going to, uh, substitute out for Karen Peterson. Thank her for her service in this year. And, uh, Dana Hanley has of Charlotte has volunteered to have her name put in for nomination. So, those the nomination slate uh you'll see in June when you vote on it. Uh this is not a lock. If you guys want to agitate and get a writing campaign and come on board, you're welcome to do so before our June 17th allimportant vote as a board. Uh when we meet where, Charlie, are we back to the Wooki? Uh it's not too far in advance now. Only two months away.

Yeah. Uh Waterworks. Waterworks. Yep. uh which is noted on the second page of your agenda there or the second page of your packet. Yep. Okay. So, there's the update from the board development committee and thank Karen and thank Dana. I hope Dana is still with us and just wave if you're still Hi sign. Yes, thank you. You'll be on board hopefully with our vote in June. Okay, any questions? All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. Um, if somebody were interested in pursuing a position, Chris, what comment or suggestion would you make to them? Uh, certainly uh let us know uh so that we're not going to uh find the stockholders proxy battle at the uh meeting uh and uh we'll take it from there. They can contact me, they can contact Charlie, they can contact you, Bard, and pass it along to all of us. Awesome. Does that help? Thank you very much, Chris. Yeah,

Bard and and Chris, there's one other method. There is always an opportunity for someone to be nominated from the floor during the that agenda item in the June uh meeting. So, there will also be an opportunity for anybody to make a nomination from the floor. generally isn't done, but it's nothing against doing it. Thank you. That's a good point. Fair enough. And thank you, Jeff. I appreciate the institutional knowledge. It's always helpful.

And the parliamentarian part of uh Jeff's personality perhaps. Um, moving on to item nine then. FY2027 UPWP and budget. Another public hearing. Yeah. Uh, we'll lead us through it.

I'll take this bar. Um, thank you. Um, and apologies for the acronym. Uh, UPWP is our unified planning work program and um, is a federal requirement. You'll see in the last page of your packet is a memo from staff um with a request for a motion to uh warrant a public hearing for the May 20th meeting to uh for the for the work program and the budget. Um so that's the action item and then just u by way of briefing um the UPWP committee uh aly led by your vice chair Jackie Murphy. Thank you, Jackie, for your work there. Um, and I'm sure there were a couple other board members that were on that committee who uh I'm regretfully missing at the moment, but uh Oh, Benjamin, thank you. Um, and um it also uh you have a recommendation from the transportation advisory committee uh to approve the UPWP. Um and in the packet or attach or attached to the packet was the long UPWP uh document um which always carries with it apologies for the very small font size. Um but it's um it was kind of developed as kind of a a two-pager side by side document. Um now that we're doing it electronically I don't think it works too well for everyone but um I'm hoping you can make enough sense of that. Um there's some color coding in the work program uh table. Green projects are new transportation projects. Um blue projects are new non-transportation projects. If you see a yellow task, uh that means it may be pending. In other words, we have like a grant application out there that is uh we're waiting to hear if it will be

funded. And there are I think a couple rows that may be shaded pink um that you know may even still in the next month you know we may find out if uh they will get completed this fiscal year and we can delete them. Uh so those are potential deletions. Um any questions on the work program itself? Kind of that that long document with the tasks. Um, we were able to include all of the requests that were made by municipalities and partners, maybe not in exactly the way they requested. So, we had some conversations with uh towns and partners about either uh reducing the budget or phasing the project um or some other ways to make it fit, but we were able to accommodate all the requests. Any questions on the work pro program before I turn to the budget? I'm not seeing any.

Okay. Um then I will turn to the budget. Um and and Bart, is it okay if I share? Of course, please do.

Um I'm sharing in the hopes that this makes it easier. I don't know if it does. Uh so members, please please let me know. Um but for those of you that are newer to uh our board um we we operate kind of like a public sector consulting agency. So um on the first side here is all of our revenues and these are all you know grant agreements um either with the state or the federal government or with our municipalities and they're in some groupings. So we have just kind of municipal regional grouping here at the beginning. Um line four is our regional planning grant that comes through the agency of commerce uh which is a big number that kind of funds a lot of our land use work. Um we did get um a little um a little increase is proposed in the FY27 budget which is baked in here. Um even though it looks like a decrease that's really because we have some more money um the from the regional planning grant that is in row 23. So last this current fiscal year we used 50,000 of those funds to match no work. Uh this next year we're proposing to use 75,000. Uh so that's the reason for the difference there. Um the other big difference is the communications union district. Uh we had a a project to fund fiber installation of about it was over $2 million in total. Uh there was like $1.7 million and that's gone. So that's that's a big swing in our budget which was just mostly pass through money. Um MO the transportation work um is pretty much the same. Uh it looks like a significant increase in staff funding. Um but that is actually a shift in

funding. In this current fiscal year, there was about 124,000 on row 29 that uh we were able to fund some staff through an an additional grant. Um that grant is very much less in FY27. Um so there was an uptake in staff time on NO funding. And please interrupt me if you have any questions. Um, you can see a little reduction in transportation consultants on row 25. We went from 4.1 million this year to 3.4 million next year. Um, and I think that is just us kind of getting some bigger projects done. Um, so it's not not that there's less money available, it's just uh getting more done and so next year has less in it. National Resources and Energy side. You'll see a lot of pink things. Um, and these are really water quality or energy projects that were funded last year that are not in the budget this year. Um, thinking about anything notable there. Not too much notable. Um, and then emergency management and health down at the bottom here. Uh, is just notable because there's a lot of yellow. So, this is really kind of hung up in u what's going on in DC uh where the Department of Homeland Security is not yet fully funded and so there's a lot of u funding that would normally come through FEMA to the state that is in limbo. Um bottom line u you know our budget is coming in at about 7.9 uh which is a about a 3.43.5 4 $3.5 million decrease from FY26 and most of that is that broadband project and there was also another federal grant of money that flowed through us to consultants um that got

finished this year. So, it's not in next year's budget. An even uh split between staff and consultant money for next year about four million each. Any questions on the revenue side of the budget? Sorry, that was a mouthful I just gave you. Okay, turning the page, uh we move over to the expense side. You again see the 3.8 million of direct project expenses here on row 76. Um some uh small increases in salary and benefits. Um and and then we uh Force and I kind of went through this and made some adjustments trying to rightsize the rest of the direct expenditures. Um, so this is uh hopefully a little closer to accurate. Uh, one notable thing here on row 88 is a a pretty significant jump in our communications PR line is we're um partly for ADA reasons, but we are also looking to just do a little refresh on our website. Um, so there's some extra money budgeted for that. Um, and yeah, any other any questions on ex the expense side of the budget? All right, Foresting.

Oh, sorry. I just saw Forest eyebrow raise. I was wondering if you had a question. No, I'm good. Okay. Oh, that's good because you made me nervous. Um Oh, there is Ben has his Oh, Ben. Sorry. Yeah, I'm impressed that you've got the telephone and internet cost down $4,000. How did you manage that? We over overbudgeted this year. Well, congratulations. All right.

And actually, uh, sorry that was that was maybe too flippant of an answer, but also um, you know, some number of years ago, we had, you know, gotten like updated phones on everybody's desk. Um, and we did a little a right sizing. Not everybody really was using the phones on their desks. And, um, we still have their phone numbers. are just maybe transferring to an app on their cell phone now instead of uh needing a hardline. So, we were able to actually reduce some of our costs there. Um, okay. So, here's the getting to the bottom here. Um, just a couple notes. This budget is a negative budget um of minus 49,000. Um, I expect as in previous years that this is a little conservative and that we will end up better than that. Um, just like in this year we're minus 57,000. I expect we'll end up better than that. Um, I expect we'll probably be in positive territory until Forest tells me differently. Um, but um, the reason this year the FY27 is negative has more to do with uh, what happened in FY25. And so I'm down here on row 121. And if you can see my cursor, note that um we had an approved indirect rate of 93%. Our actual indirect rate was closer to 89%. So we overcolcted indirect costs in FY25. And then the way we um handle that per federal policy is we we have a lower indirect rate for FY27 um and uh which is right now in vrans awaiting approval. Uh but so it's kind of formulaed into our budget that we're going to underolct on indirect rate which is um a negative factor in our

budget. um probably around a negative60,000 or so,000 factor in our budget. So again, I don't think it'll turn out that negative, but that's that's what is driving it towards negative. Any questions about that? Okay. And then just at the bottom here, just to note, uh we also just um someone told us cash is king one time. Just kind of note for you that uh the cash balances of where we are just to give you a little reassurance. even if our budget's looking a little negative, we are in a a healthy cash position. Any questions on any of those details, Mr. Carr?

Just um just for everybody's benefit who hasn't maybe been through this, um this is the budget. We always have a mid-year course correction. And if all of you, some of you may recall that last year we had a similar negative budget, maybe for different reasons, not for the indirect rate necessarily, but because we had some uh staff le extended leave and we weren't putting through as much throughput as we were. Um I I personally as member of the finance committee don't like negative numbers even when they're explained by the indirect rate. So, I'm hopeful that with Charlie's expert management that maybe we can figure out a way to have more throughoot go through when we get ECOS off our plate. Um, and maybe we can turn this around and maybe the mid-year adjustment is going to give us a positive number because even though I'm the author of Cash is King, we want to add to our cash bottom line every year, we do not want to dig into it. I I'll second all those emotions and um and actually one final note I should know is that um this is Forest has done a really good job with this. Um we are going to just give it a couple more sweeps before uh we bring it to you for vote in May. So u we'll see if we can get this looking a little more positive even before the next time you see it. And and to just follow up if you don't mind on an item that we had last month when we accepted the draft audit. The final audit came in and there were no major changes in it. Um and the finance committee and the executive committee looked at it last Tuesday night and it looks good. Um and our auditors gave us a clean management letter again which again I want to thank the staff and

particularly Forest and Amy and everybody in that shop. um you know the business management it's it's good to keep getting those clean management letters and for those of us that have been around for 20 years it wasn't always that way thanks Jeeoff appreciate that um and thanks for the context as well Jeff um yeah with that Mr. Cherry. Yeah, I'd look like to Yeah. ask if we can get a motion to warn the public hearing for for May. So, I move we warn the public hearing um on the up uh 2027 UPWP for May 20th, 2026 at 6 p.m. to our budget.

And I second. And uh just for the record, I'm noting uh a question from Garrett about whether this is an NO vote. Uh this warning of the public hearing is not an NO vote. Uh but Garrett is uh noting that uh when we vote on the work program, we'll actually have two votes, an NO vote and an RPC vote uh per our bylaws. So that will come in next month and I second that motion. and and we are trying to do a good job on our agenda Garrett as we you and I have been sticklers for to make sure that we identify no and CCRPC only business or combined MO and CCRPC business. Thank you.

Nobody is perfect. However, so we have a motion moved and seconded for warning of public hearing. Any further discussion? hearing question. Yes. I'm sorry, babe. This is my sec or my first meeting for this. Um Charlie, does that mean that I don't vote or do I vote on this one? Oh, yeah. You can you can vote. Absolutely. You're representing Vrans. They have a vote. Yep. Thank you.

Thank you. Anything else? Ready for a vote? All in favor of approving the motion, please raise your hand or say I. I. I. Any nays? Any abstensions? That passes. Thank you very much. And I just want to note that that's Elani's swansong on the transportation part. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for noting that.

All right. On to chair executive director updates. I don't think I have any updates as chair. Um

yeah. Um yeah, so uh just to follow up from Jeff's, uh comment, uh we are uh in the interview process for uh trying our best to figure out how to replace Elany. Um and uh I think we finished our second round of interviews today and I think stay tuned at your next meeting. Hopefully we'll have some news about decisions. So, uh, but yeah, we got a good crop of candidates and so far so good, but some things to figure out. So, um, and thank you as always to Elani. Um, also just to let you know, we did have that municipal elected official forum on March 30th. Um, just a couple quick, you know, uh, comments to let you know some of the discussion there. Um, of the two hours, uh, I'm going to say a good almost half of the conversation, uh, got devoted to the ICE event in South Burlington and the role of local police departments, uh, which was still pretty fresh on, uh, you know, those, uh, particularly those those towns involved, uh, mines and and others. Um, so that was that. And then the second most uh longest discussion, sorry, not that it's funny, was on vicious dog attacks and how town select boards uh deal with those. So um anyway, I hope uh was a good conversation. I think we had about 15 select board members there. Um and uh every time we do one of these, I ask if they want to do it again and and there was interest in doing another one. So we'll we've got another one scheduled for the end of June. um legislative update. Um I kind of gave you the big news. Uh thank you Dana for asking about um what's going on in legislature around Act 181. Um so I do expect some significant movement in the next uh week or so. Um what I'm hearing is, you know,

it's likely to get voted out of the House by the end of next week. I think the legislature wants to take some definitive action on this sooner rather than later. um other I don't know everything is kind of pald in comparison in terms of what I've been engaged with down there but happy to uh take any questions or if there's anything that uh you think we should be paying more attention to that's going on there happy to bart Charlie just any comments on budget um well um with respect to the RPC uh big picture I was thinking but

uh yeah big picture. No comments. Um, I don't know. I don't know how they're going to pull everything together. Um, I guess slightly less big picture. You know, it's um concerning uh in our jobs to see the um the the transportation budget situation uh and the u you know inability to have the match dollars, state and local funds to bring in all the federal funds. So that's um I think I'm I'm kind of concerned about that big picture in terms of maintenance of our transportation system. Um, and then, uh, yeah, and then for the small picture, I already kind of mentioned that, um, the RPC funding that is a is a line item in the budget, uh, did see a little increase, um, I think like a couple percent or something somewhat similar to what they're doing for agencies. So, um, so that was good on on that small front. Is that is that helpful, Barb? Sorry. Sorry.

Yeah, it's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Other questions for Charlie regarding legislature? More to follow. Um, other items. Anything else from you, Charlie? All right. Uh, I don't see any questions.

Uh, moving on then to item 11. just draw your attention to the committee liaison activities and reports. Um, for those of you who are not used to looking at this, I'm struck that there's is parallel to town entities where it's not a single group or board or commission that keeps things moving forward. Uh, beyond staff, there also these other committees. Um, so draw your attention to that. then ask if there are any members items. Seeing none, um, Mr. Chair, I move we journ.

Thank you, Jeff. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All in favor of adjourning. I I Any nays? Any abstensions? Thank you very much. Have a great evening. Have a great