City Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah, I am. Yeah, happy to.

Yeah. Thank you, honorable uh Judge Hoer uh for for the swearing in and and welcome everybody to the uh to the organizational meeting of the Oaklair uh city council. Uh the date is Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. And and I I think the clerk needs to call the role. Is that right? Johnson here. Miller here.

Here.

All right. Uh yeah, thanks everybody for being here. Um and yeah, we have a um before we go into the item number two on the agenda, we want to uh recognize uh through a pro proclamation uh former council member Emily Anderson, who's also a former vice president of the city council and and former representative district 2. So we have our vice president uh uh Andrew Worthman uh to read the proclamation. Welcome. reads, "Whereas Emily Anderson was elected to serve on the city council in 2018, has faithfully and honorably served city council over the past eight years. And whereas during this time, Emily has been known as the council's wordsmith, sharing eloquent and thought-provoking comments on issues that our community has grappled with, including topics such as housing, poverty relief, and managing growth. And whereas additionally for less heavy issues, whether those be parking related or the naming of certain city streets, Emily has shared onpoint puns that even rival the reparte skills of our city attorney, which is saying a lot. And whereas Emily has a passion for justice, just justice and a very strong moral compass and has consistently taken action aligned with those values and incorporated resident feedback by never shying away or straying from those values. And whereas Emily has been a supporter of our staff, providing encouragement and appreciation when

staff sometimes receive disheartening scrutiny, even while working very hard to take care of our community. And whereas Emily has a huge heart for welcoming the stranger in our community. And she has played critical roles in making Oaklair a community for all regardless of age of background, perspective, and culture where people can feel connected, included, and have the opportunity to thrive. And whereas true to her passion for engaging and serving all, including people who may be left out, Emily has spearheaded efforts to develop and promote trians campaign as well as securing funding for the equitable development data insights training initiative. And now, let it therefore be resolved that we uh as our fellow community and city organization members do extend our profound appreciation for Emily Anderson and declare that she shall be celebrated with the honorific of the Bard of the Council award as well as the moral compass prize. And additionally, we bestow on Emily the honor of Oaklair's foxia, which is the Greek word for hospitality and means love of the stranger. Thank you from all of us, from the staff, from city council. Um, and yeah, congrats. Thank you. Thank you. I think traditionally people provide comments and then the council

I wanted to grab my notes because I had some words too at some point. So perhaps if people have comments and then if you have reflections as well

maybe I can go first. Thank you Council President Emily. Thank you so much for what you have done to the city. You have been exceptional city council. You are the voice of reason and I don't want to be emotional but what you have done to me personally is I I can't say it. So I want to say thank you and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. Thank you. Thank you and God bless you.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Um I still remember when you called me um letting me know that you were going to be stepping down and my first thought was Emily's calling me. Emily never calls me. This must be this must be exciting and it quickly turned into not so exciting news. Um I was very sad to see that you were going of course excited for you and your future endeavors. But as others have said and I what I liked in the proclamation was this idea of being a wordssmith. And I think it can be difficult even from up here to craft a proper message when trying to convey our opinions or really address the topics that we're discussing. And you did always did that so eloquently. Um and I'll I'll miss that on the council. Uh it was always so helpful to hear your opinion on a subject before crafting um kind of my own opinion and I viewed it as a kind of like a positive um or it kind of reinforced what I was thinking. So I'm going to miss that. I wish you the best of luck. Um, we'll miss you sitting up here with us.

Thank you, Council President. Um, Emily, you have been such a role model for me. Um, so, and like Council Member Johnson said, the proclamation was beautifully written actually because it really for me it really um encompassed so much of what you brought to the role. uh the thoughtfulness and the care uh seriousness and the uh just genuine values-based um uh communication and representation of the city. I I'm so so grateful for you and and I miss you already a lot. So uh anyway, thank you very much. I hope to continue to lean on you for for inputs in in times to come. Thank you, Council President Gregor. Emily, when you first called me to say that you were resigning, my gut instinct was to say, "No, I forbid it." Um, you're not the best listener in that particular regard. But I forgive you because few people know Oaklair as well do as well as you do and few people care about Oaklair as well as you do. And I love the fact that I know you in so many different contexts around the city. And in a way, you're not really leaving cuz I I I'm assuming you're going to stay as active as you are and that's fantastic. So, we're not really losing you. Um, and just thank you uh for for being here.

Yeah, Council Member Sh.

Thank you, Council President Gregor. Um, there's so many things I could say, Emily. I echo everything that has already been said about missing you already, um, and how much you brought to our council. One thing I always appreciated is while the work we do is incredibly important. I don't want to diminish that. It can also often be somewhat mundane and I always appreciated I think you brought so much color to the conversations and I think you had this amazing sense of being able to as others said be a voice of reason and have this incredible moral compass but also having that balance with levity and humor. And I think that's something that's so needed in a group when we're having such con serious conversations and we spend so much time together. Um, and so I think you brought so much to the team in that regard and I appreciate all of that and we'll miss it very much. Thank you so much,

Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President Gregor. Uh, Emily, you're leaving too soon, but um, I respect your decision to leave. We knew you weren't able to be able to serve your role as well as you would like to and allow someone else to fill in that role. And and um, being on council, it's uh, it's enjoyable and hard work and I appreciate the fact that you let someone else step into that role. So, it's probably hard to well for me that'd be a hard decision to make. I don't know if it's for what's for you, but um something I appreciate about having you on the council is that um I'm a very technical-minded person. Um whereas, uh you being the barter of the council, I always appreciated you uh coming in uh to use math and words orthagonally to my viewpoint and uh I be going along and you say, "Yeah, but what about this?" You just be coming from left field like, "Oh, yeah. I didn't think about that one. I just appreciated for me your your total different dimension approaching things and sometimes when I would think into the minutiae and the weeds you'd be like riding to the big like what are we doing here? What's what's our goal? What are we doing here? What's this all about? And I appreciate that clarity that you would bring. Um and also I appreciate you being over there um just often as I was pointing the finger at the state legislator whenever appropriate. So I'll carry that on. Thank you

anytime. Emily. Um, oh, Council President,

thank you. Um, I I feel like the Southside and the residents um were were super well served by by you over the last um seven, eight years. Um, just trying to think back to all the incredibly challenging things that we went through as a council and as a community during the time that you've served in this role and um especially think back to the pandemic. difficult um yeah the difficult decisions that we were called upon to make during that time about safety, about security, about policing, about um how to respond um to just where our nation was, where our community was in that moment. And I felt like you helped our council because of your because of the way that you were grounded that your heart is grounded in in how you see the world and how you make decisions. And I didn't always agree, even though I think politically we're very close, but I didn't always agree, but I always knew that um there was no way to question that you were bringing something that was absolutely authentic and true. Um and that's something that it's just rare in politics. And so, you know, you represented, I think, um, kind of the best of of what it means to be of service in your community and helped our helped our council helped me and and I think helped our community work through some incredibly difficult times and just thank you for for those difficult time, but also for the good times as well. So,

I'm going to speak. Um so yeah, council member or former council member Anderson um you know we were both obviously elected at the same time and that was that was quite um quite an adventure in on its in its own right and um I think you know the serving in district seats um you know I think you had one of the most engaged districts in the city and and uh I one of the opportunities that I enjoyed was actually being able to um you help represent like one neighborhood that kind of over overlapped between our two districts and uh and that was Putinham Heights and just like yeah being able to see like how we could work together on that was really amazing and and uh just how engaged and helpful and how constituent oriented um you you were during your service and and I I think that's probably going to continue. It's one of those things that people know uh who has been helpful in their lives and and uh and so I look forward to seeing what you continue to do uh for Oaklair and and for the world. Um and you know, one of the things that I really have admired is your your focus on on social justice and economic justice and and kind of those principles and and really making sure that Oaklair is for everyone. That was that was really the yeah the big message I think that you helped to send and with the rest of the council and the city and you know I just really look look forward to seeing what you do next and and really want to thank you for your service and and um I'll pass it on to Council Member Brewster.

Thank you Council President Gregor. Um, basically everybody has already said most of the things that I wanted to say, but I just want to say that like, wow, the the amount of time and dedication that you've put in, you know, over those like eight years, right? I mean, that's like I mean, we're we're pretty close to the same age. That's like closing in on a quarter of your life. I know, right?

You know what I mean? Like, that's that's something, right? Um, and I just wanted to to thank you for being able and willing to step up and and do the job with such care and grace. And um, you know, you leave a a Dr. Emily Anderson sized hole on the council. Council member Reid.

Um, thank you, uh, Council President Greger. Hi, Emily. Uh, obviously, as I start all of these, I've only been here for a year. Um, but in that year I've been learning a lot and I just want to say thank you for being a good role model for me because uh I'm thankful to have at least been able to to hear your word smithing for a year so I can then at least try to learn from that moving forward. So thank you.

Okay. And uh to wrap it up uh just again uh Emily you are just absolutely have a heart of gold and you feel very deeply. I know we all are aware of that and that can be a burden and a gift. Um, but it it I think the combination makes you pretty fearless in in advocating for what you what you know is right. Um, and I personally have just appreciated your presence. And I also want to say from outgoing um, Council President Bergie, she said this message to convey Emily and I were elected the same year in 2018 and all the events that I list that Emily listed off during my farewell address that our community went through, COVID, Sacred Heart closing, etc. She was by my side. I could always count on her calm demeanor and witty humor. Emily is one of the most caring people I know. Thank you for all of your work, Emily.

Thanks for all these beautiful words. I'm kind of overwhelmed and this is a gorgeous proclamation and I love that it has everyone's signature and staff and counsel on it and it's just so beautifully written and I'm going to frame it and I love it so much. So, thank you for that. Um, I did prepare like a like a few really short uh remarks just trying to trying to decide some words that I wouldn't cry when I was reading. So, keep that in mind. Um, I just want to say like thank you to all of you because I feel so honored because it's a rare and beautiful thing to get to participate in this form of democracy. Uh, there are so many points in time and so many places in the world today where the work that we do here like wouldn't be possible. Uh, we're so fortunate here in Oaklair locally. We are free of corruption. We have a strong democracy, an engaged community, and we have a culture that honors the dignity and equality of all people, and a governing body that is inclusive. And all of those things are what made my experience here even possible. Um, so I know that what I have experienced with all of you over the past eight years, the difficult stuff and the like funny stuff and everything in between was really precious. And I just want to thank every one of my council colleagues and staff for all of us working together to carry forth this precious tradition of democracy even when things feel really hard. Um the work can feel difficult. I sometimes think it can feel like you're, you know, like you're alone. You're trying to carry this like cup of water, but there's an earthquake happening and you're like, how am I going to keep going? Um, but then I was reminded that like what I thought was so powerful about serving with this group of people was that you don't have to balance that cup of water alone. You're with other people. Um, I was thinking about the word deliberation today, which is something that's been really important to me hearing from everybody. Um, and the root of the word to get a

little edetmological, um, comes from Latin, um, the the word libra, which was the weights that they put on scales. So, you're really weighing and when you, you know, when we have a deliberation, somebody's over here, and then somebody's coming over here, and then somebody's changing their mind and coming over here. So, it's kind of like together collectively, we balance, and through that balance, that's how we can carry um, our tradition of democracy forward and carry our community. Um, so to me that was just really powerful to actually get to experience that and really beautiful to see that hey like this can actually work. Um, and I'm just so grateful and honored um to have been a part of that. Um, it's been a really tremendous education that I've received and I've learned from everybody in this room. Uh, and I want to conclude with a short poem. Um, there was once a place called Oaklair. Few understood that it didn't have a mayor. It took 11 to vote and one to take notes and an oath which everyone used to swear.

Thank you so much everybody. Council President, uh, I would like to let um, Dr. Anderson know that I believe members Otto and Emboga have not yet signed that. So, if you want to get their signatur before you leave, you'll have the full Senate.

Yeah. Thank you, former uh, Vice President Anderson for joining us. And yeah, appreciate uh everybody's kind words and appreciate uh uh Reverend David Anderson for joining us as well. Um so I want to move on to the uh message from the city manager.

Thank you very much. Uh, and I appreciate you giving me a chance to just talk for a moment uh, both about what we've been working on and accomplished and also some encouragement as we move ahead to the coming year. Uh, so I'm starting my fifth year as city manager and I'm honored to be sitting here right now. I want to point out that my parents are right here in the audience and my daughter sitting next to them. So my parents have been supporting my Oaklair community efforts since I was about nine years old and organizing kick the can games in Koolage Court. So they've been such great champions. Um with partners throughout the Chipoa Valley, we've accomplished this path a lot this past year and we will continue to work on these efforts in the coming year. To name just a few examples, we're acting with the highest levels of transparency and engagement, and we will keep building new muscles as we test new models of outreach, and roll out a consolidated constituent services center. We are working to protect the present and future of our region by taking steps like expansion of native planting, rethinking solid waste policies and practices, removing forever chemicals from our water, developing values to guide management of our water resources, and promoting sustainable transportation. We are maintaining an incredible incredible quality of life such as through preservation of our parks, neighborhood, streets, and we are protecting the safety and health of our residents and trying to close gaps. And just to note on, as you all know, we have an unprecedented level of homelessness right now. It's at levels that have not been seen since the Great Depression. Um, so we know we're really in an extraordinary time. And I want to share a special thank you to our partners who in the last year have stepped up to make um discussions that had not been possible before to now be possible and to lay out a vision that really could get us to um major

progress. So that's been such a significant um step in the last year and will be a piece that we work on next year. And we're striving to fiscal stability. One of the successes of our community that I'm most proud of is that we have so many um amazing leaders and contributors at each level within city government. And I uh and know for sure that those people throughout city government will be those who are leading our community in decades to come. Um so all of this and much much more is because of you and what you've worked on, what our community has worked on, what our staff has worked on. So really I hope you will um appreciate that your ideas are are coming to life and we'll continue to work at them. Um so now I just if you can bear with me I want to give everybody including myself some encouragement. Uh and this is a newly organized group. Um, so this message is for all of you and for me and also our nearly 700 staff members um who are here to support you as well as the 74,000 plus residents who we support through our service. Um, first I want to thank all the people who ran for office and who put their name in the hat for the appointed position. It takes both courage and humility to take that step and their bravery supports our democracy. For all of us, there may be some days when we wonder, why did we sign up for this role? And um Emily kind of mentioned this. Is government service still an honorable profession? And it's a reasonable question to ask because we know that there's growing anger towards government. There's a historic low trust in government. Uh there's more than a 2,000% increase in threats against elected officials between in the basically the last 10 years. And some of us here at this dis have experienced this just in the last year. Um there's record high partisanship

within the community. There's growing need. There's increases in depression and anxiety. Um the homelessness like we talked about um at record level. And then household income is not matching bills. And as we know, as we talk about endlessly, our municipal government faces a cumulative um and growing structural deficit. So, as we think about these trends for going into the next year, we can ask ourselves again, is this role honorable? Um, and I'll refer us to a quote that within the city we refer to often, um, and Chief Rous, who's so amazing, introduced us to it. Um, it's a speech of Teddy Roosevelt from 1910. And in his speech, he argues against cynicism and and urges us all towards action, even when that action inevitably means making mistakes and being criticized. Roosevelt said, "It's not the critic who counts, not the man or woman who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who's actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errors and comes up short again and again, who spends himself on a worthy cause. I believe and I know all of you do too that determined and principled government leadership is all the more needed, all the more honorable because of the current challenges because we are often bearing the burden of our community's pain and sometimes unmet needs. So trying our hardest in times of uncertainty and struggle is, I think, the highest form of service. And you all have stepped up. And those people who ran for office or put their name in, they stepped up. Our volunteers, our advocates, our staff, they've all

stepped up. Um, local government is unique in that our acts of service allow us to experience hope, heroism, and beauty. On a daily basis, we witness tragedies averted by our police and fire departments. We can watch children play in well-maintained and safe parks or see our library packed on a Saturday afternoon. Change has been occurring and it's likely to accelerate. And even I was just reflecting on this when I came in as city manager. I was the first woman to serve in this role in 154 years of the city existing ever since Hum Graham served as mayor for a one-year term in 1872. So the community has had about 42 um executives and I'm the only one who's been a woman. So that's seems kind of normal now, but it's kind of easy to forget that a lot of change has been happening even in a short time. And we know that change is going to keep coming. Where there's change, there's diff discomfort and there's opportunity. And to use a water metaphor like Emily did, change is like a river current that inevitably will flow, but we hope to shape its direction. Um, for example, technology is making new things possible. Can we use technology to help achieve our values? There's currently a feeling of broken norms and impacted systems. Can we build a new order that better helps everyone and most especially our most vulnerable and people are ready to talk, argue, and act? And can this energy and to put a nice spin on it lead to a new era of engagement and connection or problem solving? So let's all of us and all of those folks and our whole community resolve to meet the changes that we know are coming um head on and see them as opportunities to face them with creativity, honor, hard work and resilience. And also as we do so, let's try let's all of us try to resolve to support one

another. Um we know that emotions are high and many of those who see us and see people in power hope that somebody can help and that we can do something. Um many people are feeling grief and pain and anger and those feelings can be just below the surface and ready to bubble up and we need to give each other and our community grace when that happens and try as hard as we can to stick together. None of us is perfect, but by working together and complimenting one another's where each of us is weak, we can be stronger together. And I encourage all of us to take care of ourselves and to take care of one another, to offer help and feedback, and to ask for help and feedback. And um just as Emily referenced in our form of government, author authority is dispersed among all of us and whoever sits in that chair. That's why people sometimes ask who's in charge. And um that's both an opportunity and a challenge. And this period of rapid change and opportunity will require us to work together to pursue our big hopes. And I can hope we can continue to learn together and grow stronger by working in close alignment and trust. I encourage us all to embrace what is going to be some chaos, rapid change, and we hope a path emerging to greater stability for our community and our world. And we must simultaneously hold space for chaos, criticism, and suffering. Being the person in the arena while seizing the promise of our shared future, we have the honor of being in these seats today to map out a path to peace and a community where we hope all can thrive. So, Roosevelt's speech had a lot of words. Um, but another way to say it was from my era, uh, the famous band formerly known as the Dixie Chicks, but as the president pointed out to me, they're now goes by the Dicks. The chicks,

sorry, in my book. Thank you. In 1989 their they their song lyrics famous song lyrics said that the less I seek my source for some definitive the closer I am to find or 700 years before that the Persian poet Roomie said in the 1200s don't turn away keep your gaze on the bandaged place that is where the light enters you so I look forward to being continuing to be on this journey with you all and so appreciate you listening to all that and with that we can move on.

Right. Thank you, city manager Hirs. And yeah, that was Yeah, that was a good um you know, kind of introduction to the year coming ahead here with the with the new council and everything. And I I'm going to be a little bit briefer than that partly because I I don't want to lose my voice and I want to make sure that uh we get get through all the business of the meeting. I'm just recovering from a cold here. But um I appreciate um you know everyone's support like throughout the process the last two weeks. Um just getting ready for this new role and u working with the city manager um has been been great. you know, just um you know, I really working together is is clearly the thing that we have to do. Uh so I appreciate that message uh from your from your um remarks and you know I was able to serve for for six years on the council and um you know was elected the same time as you know former vice president uh Anderson as I mentioned but also our outgoing uh president Emily Bergie. And so it's really um kind of exciting to be back after a couple years off um and but and have a bunch of new colleagues, but also colleagues that are that I got to serve with. And really that it's going to end up being kind of 50/50 when it when it's all said and done when when we appoint a new uh district 2 member um that there'll be five folks that I got to serve with and five that I did not. So, so kind of an exciting, you know, transition that I get to very much be a part of that looking that I'm looking forward to kind of a crossroads. Um, and yeah, really looking forward to working with all the staff. Again, there's obviously some new new staff and and probably thousands of new community members uh incl uh to work with. Uh so

I'm excited to kind of be a a bridge to uh to this new chapter and appre appreciate the trust, you know, that the community has bestowed upon me and and really and I appreciate Scott Rogers for running for for council president and getting giving people um two really solid choices uh to to uh to to make, you know, a decision about our future. And I um I actually wanted to uh you know, one of the things I was kind of disappointed about was I missed the the council conversation on Sunday that that council member Brewster uh hosted and I was able to make the first one. But um yeah, I'm excited about like the different ways that we can all engage with our community and find different ways within our own districts perhaps or or just reach different people. So So that's that's really one of the things that I focused on during my campaign and really um I think we we can all find ways to get through tough times and work together by just finding new ways to reach out uh to our neighbors who may be maybe isolated right now or feel like there there's no one really advocating for them. So, so that's kind of going to be my focus and I'm happy to help a lot of anyone else that wants to to dive into that. And um I uh that's pretty much all I have to say for now. I want to save my voice for some exciting uh other topics here, including the election of the council vice president, which uh I see there are actually four names on the uh on the docket for that.

And so we will move on to that. Um the election of the council vice president. And this is something where there is actually this is something that the council elects, you know, by secret ballot. Um, and I'll give each candidate a chance to speak. But first, I want to to see if there's any of the five folks. Uh and they are um Council Member Miller, Council Member uh Shan, Council Member Serrano, and Vice and current Vice President Worthman who are um have expressed interest in that seat. So, there's four council members and I but I want to first ask if anyone would like to add their name to that that list or if anyone would like to remove their name uh from that list before we do a kind of a secret ballot for and before we go into speeches I guess from each of them. All right. So it seems like we have four um and we will do that you know via alphabetical order for just each member having a chance to to speak to their their interest in the council vice president. Um and I will pass it on to council member Miller first. Thank you, uh, Council President Gregor. It's not often that I'm first alphabetically, but that's how this goes today. Um, yeah, so I am interested in being considered for vice president of the council. Um, I was just reading, uh, city ordinances today as one does before the organizational meeting. And, uh,

it's interesting that the the vice presidential role, there's no defined, um, mission of the vice president role. It's just to, uh, serve as president prom in the absence of the president. And um so whoever gets to fill the vice president role kind of gets to define what it does, how they use this role to better the the council as a whole. Um you know I didn't have the honor to chair two of the meetings. I really enjoyed that one but that's not why four people are are interested in this role of this chairing the meetings. That's not what's um you know the gravitas of the vice presidency comes from. Um for me I see the role of vice president um to be a supporting role to the council and to other members. Um, you know, the council president has a lot of responsibilities that come with the office itself. Um, and I see the vice president assisting um, any sort of organizational um, pragmatic uh, assistance that the president might need, but also with everyone on the council. Um, as a council member, I don't see myself much as a visionary. I'm not spearheading a lot of things. Um, I consider myself more of a pragmatist focusing on like feasibility and logistics and, you know, turning the gears, getting stuff done, moving forward. Um, that's why I'm interested in running for vice president. Um, I would like to be a resource for the council president and also any council members who have ideas they want to get forward. Um, I've brought a few ordinances forward, but I've been on more as a co-sponsor of ordinances, working with people, a number of you I've worked with to get certain ordinances to um to council and voted on and approved. And that's how I would use the vice presidential role going forward. Um, also, um, my professional duties, uh, my work, I am, you know, kind of precluded from doing a lot of these, uh, commission with me during the daytime, but as being a vice president, um, I'd be available text, phone call, meetings, after hours, um, to lend my role greater to the council. Um, and then something else with the vice presidency is that the president is elected for a three-year term, and that's fixed. Um, something with the vice president, it does say that the vice president shall be elected um, you know, at each year. So, I also see the

vice presidency as an opportunity for different people in council over the years to get to have this bit of a leadership role. Um, going into this one, I'll be entering my fifth year in council and um, you know, I've been through all the cycles many times and um, uh, I think my experience will will fit this well. And if I were to be elected, I would not run again next year because true to my thought that this would be kind of a role that allows people to have opportunities for leadership and support. um you know, I' I'd serve a one-year term and then, you know, leave it open for somebody next year. So, um that's my thoughts and visions on being vice president. And I thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, uh Council Member Miller. And next, in alphabetical order is Council Member Shan.

Thank you, Council President Gregor. Uh a year ago, I expressed interest in this role. Well, I think everyone including uh our new council president Greger as um I recall was sitting here and heard me say those things. Council president Greger was in the audience but I think was was there. Um and a lot of the reasons that I talked about last year are still true and so I'll be brief about them. But um I feel really strongly that this council has a lot of challenges ahead. I think in the last year those challenges maybe have increased even and grown. Um there's a lot of community engagement needs before us as we face a really challenging budget. There's changing industries in the community. Um there's there's a lot happening as uh city manager Hirs mentioned. We're facing um say unprecedented but uh historically we have that frame of reference from the Great Depression um to draw from with the the challenge around homelessness in the community. And so I really would strive to make sure that our council is best equipped to focus on having uh conversations that include conflict around policy and philosophy and how do we best serve the community and ensure that we are not uh bogged down by process conflict and unnecessary missteps or miscommunication. And so I really think I talked about that last year and I still feel that that would be a focus and a priority for me this year if um you all were to support me in this role. And similar to some of the things that uh Council Member Miller mentioned, I think so I I'll be entering I'm almost into my fourth year on council. Um and I feel really in the last six to 12 months like I've really found my stride as a council member. You know, it takes time to do that and find your voice. Um, but I really do feel ready for that next step and taking on more leadership role within the council and also um obviously ready to support a new incoming council president with all that you know is entailed in you entering that new role.

Um, and along that, I guess I would just say I I hope that I've um demonstrated to all of you as my colleagues that I'm really hard worker and um would strive to make sure that I'm supporting all of you as best as I was able in the role. Thank you for your consideration. Yeah. Thank you, uh, Council Member Shan. And we'll, uh, move on to, uh, Council Member Serrano.

Thank you, Council President Gregor. Um, as with all uh situations where multiple people put their names in the head, I want to thank everybody for con uh putting themselves forward as a potential uh vice president um council members. Um, my main reason for putting me Well, first of all, I really want to say that I hope out of this that our whole council really gets the sense that there's a lot of people who want to help and that that we and and regardless we're going to pick one vice president, but we're all like we've got extra energy to bring to the to the table. And uh so I I I urge our council president and the rest of the council to lean on that and let's let's use this this new energy that um you know everybody's kind of bringing to the table uh because as council member Shan said we've got big challenges coming up ahead. Um personally for me my interest in the role of uh council v vice president has to do it's pretty pretty narrow my interest. So, it's a little bit unconventional uh because I know vice president could be very broad. My interest is really I I I don't have a full-time job. So, I have time available to really dedicate more focus to our I'm going to call it lobbying efforts uh at the state capital and uh working with our not only our local uh delegation to our Madison capital, but really across the state to get meaningful legislation passed at the state level that affects our community and and affects our municipalities. we really need to get a whole whole lot of legislators across the state uh to to um support us and to really know what Oaklair needs and to and to be a strong voice across the state. So my interest is quite narrow in

in that. I think that could be a pretty substantial role and a pretty substantial job to really just be focusing on um bringing the needs of Oaklair to to the rest of the state to advance um you know some relief for us both financially and and regulatory and many other things that uh that we know as as a council and I would love to see us kind of really synthesize what that agenda might be. So, with regard to the vote for vice president, I'm going to kind of say to everybody, you don't really need to vote for me. Um, because I would like to do this anyway, but I just wanted to use this as a platform uh for just making this speech. I really want to, you know, I just I just can't emphasize enough how important it is for all of us. We don't have a mayor. It's it's unique. We are in a unique situation. We don't have like our one I mean we are we have a city council president and even that can be you know how that voice gets used it's going to be pulled in many different directions. So um you know we can all step up to perform different aspects of that leadership role. Again, I I don't really I'm kind of excusing everybody from voting for me, but I just really wanna um I just want to make that case that um I I'm volunteering to step up and and support our council. Um again, as my as my time allows to to, you know, bring to me um you know, an an agenda that we can all be coalesed on. It's it's unusual for a single person on council to go lobby for something. It's it's really important that we have a collective agenda for the city of Oaklair.

Yeah. Thank you, uh, Council Member Serrano, and pass it on to, uh, our current vice president, Worthman.

Thank you, Council President Grager. Um, I kind of see this role as a few things and the reason I'm running. Um, I think first and foremost is to offer my support to a new and incoming council president Greg. Um as someone who has had the opportunity to sit in the chair's role um for uh nearly a year um I got to see kind of the inner workings of what is needed to run effective meetings to think about strategically how to uh do agenda setting um to think about like how do we do community input in some of those bigger things that kind of controversial uh type things that we're we're likely to So, I've already reached out to council me um council president Gagard and offered my uh support to him if he would like uh to help with some of those very nuts andbolts things beyond just running a meeting, but helping him through this role as a as a new uh person as as council president. Um, I think secondly is I one of the things that I feel I have a strength on is helping to bring legislation and ideas forward on the council. And I've worked with a lot of you in different capacities um to to help kind of spearhead legislation. Um, and I want to kind of ramp that up and continue to do that. I'm looking around and noticing a couple council members I have not had a chance to work with yet on their uh passions, things they want to get done. I'd love to work um a little more with with council member Otto um and just to make sure that you know kind I think as a especially as a new council member it's it's sometimes a little daunting to bring forward legislation especially big legislation that can really um create some change. So if I'm council vice president I would like to offer that uh support to all of

you to help you bring forward ideas. And I think lastly is um I'm someone who has uh through my years on the council 17 years seen a number of very challenging budgets. That is the number one issue we're about to to go into to in the next six months. Um I'd like to kind of bring my expertise. I think I've probably made the most budget amendments out of any council member um uh over the last decade. um I want to work with you to help kind of figure out and and positively support uh our city manager as we are going into this very tough budget cycle. So think of me in that role. And then the second thing is is I think the next six months we're going to be talking a lot about AI data centers. It's going to probably be if not the most controversial the second most controversial thing that we are discussing at council. And this is something that um through our committee work, I've steeped myself in um kind of understanding, but then also um through my organizing work and advocacy work um feel ready and prepared to work with all of you to address what's what's likely to be a big deal. So um if you vote for me, those are kind of some of the things I want to work on with you. And I think first and foremost is support a new incoming council president.

Yeah. Thank you, uh council vice president Worthman. Um, and thank you all for for stepping up to this uh or half stepping up at least for one uh to this uh opportunity and and really it's yeah, it's great to know that that there's so many uh folks and really all all the council that really wants to to make sure that you know our city has the best leadership it can have and uh want to get into the meat of it I guess in terms of the the way that this is going to work. Um so that this is a secret ballot. So our um assist assistant city clerk

deputy city clerk um has ballots that have all four of the names on them. Um, and so we will just have them pass them around and um, and give maybe a a minute to decide and then I'll come back and pick them up. So, just vote for your one choice for um, for vice president. Thank you. Is there a question? Uh, council member.

Yeah, thank you, Council President. I want to ask the city at Tony a question. City Attorney Nick, if there's This is a Yeah, we'll wait just a second here. My question is do we need is it eight for four do we need eight votes or we need six votes? We need two votes. Well, city attorney Nick,

the uh the requirement for this in all appointments is six. So needs to be six, but it also well it need needs to be at least six. I mean so six or more. And um we didn't discuss it first. So you can choose ultimately up to the chair. Um but typically if there's a low vote getter sort of a tied low vote getter that drops off um at each and every election to try to narrow it. But ultimately that's that's up to the chair and the body's discretion of how you want to proceed. But you need six. Uh and since there's only one vice president here, you're hopefully all just voting once. There will be votes in the future where you get a couple of them or even three. Uh but just one at a time for this one.

Okay. Thank you, city attorney Nick, and thank you for that question, Council Member Bogot. Just give a minute for tabulation here. We have five votes for Worthman, four for shown and one for Miller.

Okay. So, thank you, um, city clerk. Uh, so we have, so the just to repeat it, we have five votes, uh, for Worthman, four for shown, and one for Miller. Uh, and I and I think it makes sense to move forward with uh the city attorney's suggestion that the the lowest vote vote getter be not considered in this next round. Um, and we will need to do another round because we haven't had um I haven't reached six yet. Um, so I guess we'll be down to to three or or is that for this or should we drop the next lowest one? I don't know. Uh, yeah. Council member uh Miller, would you like to speak?

Yes, I think Council uh President, I'll withdraw my name for consideration. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Miller, and thank you for for uh you know, putting your putting your hat in the ring for this. Um, so this time it seems agreeable to move forward with just the names uh Worthman and Shown for the next round. Um, and so yeah, we'll just pass the uh secret ballots around once once more. Thank you.

There were five votes for shown and five votes for Worth. All right, just to re repeat the result, it's five votes for for uh Shon and five votes for Worthman. Um, so are there any further speeches that might be in order here? Um, well, I see I think um, Council Member Show was first, I believe. Thank you, Council Member.

Thank you, Council President. I this is also for our siton. When it's tied, what do you do? We go back to the drawing board or we have a a cone to throw a cone. Decision is ultimately up to the body. You need six votes. You can continue to ballot on that for as long as you care to. Uh uh but uh elections are sometimes decided by chance uh coin flips, card drawings, number of things including you know elect public elections. Uh so that is an available means and what you would do if the body decides to uh agree to that at some point. U then by unanimous consent you would accept the uh result of of the coin flip. But it was only tied once. You certainly can take another vote. You can take 10 more votes. It's it's all it's up to you.

Thank you, city Attorney Nick. Um, council member Sh. Uh, I have a question about process. Um, so this time in prior organizational meetings, my understanding when there were tie votes, typically each of the interested parties would speak again, but I see other council members had their lights on. So I don't know, should we let I mean, do you want uh council vice president Worthman and I to speak again, or is the body interested in hearing from other council members? Thank you. Um, yeah, I'm fine with hearing from other council members personally, but I'm not sure what other I

think we've got two excellent quality candidates and I would be in favor of a coin toss. Maybe I'm a little bit shy of our repeated votes last night. Uh, but for those reasons, I would support a coin toss. Council member Miller.

Thank you, Counc. Um, I would prefer to wait until we have a full body of 11 people before going to a coin toss. that way. Um I know it would be a lot of pressure on the incoming person, but um at least it would be decided by votes of council members and not by a random coin toss. So um I am not also thinking we should um I do think that perhaps the two remaining candidates could speak once more to their position. Um you know, we could vote again and then um Yes. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Miller. Um yeah, I think you know another round of remarks would be in order. I from my perspective would and we could do that in alphabetical order again. Um so let's go to uh Council Member Shonne, please.

Thank you, Council President Gregor. Uh I would just offer in addition to the remarks I made previously that um I do agree that the the role of council vice president is sort of a blank slate. It's what you make of it. Um, and it is an opportunity in that regard for somebody to step up and have an opportunity to grow their leadership skills. Um, I absolutely respect Council Vice President Worthman um, who has been in the role for a year, but I do see it as an opportunity for somebody new to step into the role and, uh, do something new and help counsel in a new way. Um, and so I I see that growth opportunity and a way for for somebody new to the position to expand their leadership skills. Um, and so again, in addition to all the things I do have a vision and things I would like to do, I would really honor the role and support council members and our new council president. Um, and would welcome the opportunity to take on that new leadership opportunity. Thank you, Council Member Shonne. Uh, Vice President Worman.

Thank you, Council President. Um, I'd like to withdraw my name for consideration. Okay. Thank you, um, Vice President Worthman for that sacrifice at this point. Um, so we still need to have it. I guess we don't necessarily need to have a vote now that we've we're just down to one candidate. Is that correct? Um, Attorney Nick,

you still need a vote. Someone needs six. But on this and on all the others as you come up and there's no longer a contest. You have in this case one council member seeking one open position, but in others you'll have two or three seeking that same number of openings. The phrase you can use as chair is by unanimous consent council member so you know in this case council member showing is appointed to the position of vice president. Hit the gavvel and it is so. Okay. All right. Well, thank you city attorney Nick. Do I actually need to use the gavvel for such you don't have to but it's kind of fun.

It'll be my first use of it. Uh so yeah I guess without objection by unanimous consent the city council uh council member uh Shonen I'll be appointed to vice president. Congratulations. All right. Congratulations uh Council Member Shone and thanks to everybody for working through that. Um the next item on the agenda is uh determination of of the council chamber seating arrangements. So this is going to be the real shakeup of the of the evening. Um

shake up. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. I mean, what are the chances it would be the same? I don't know. Um, so, um,

it's believable coming from council member Miller, but, uh, so we have, do we have a ceremonial hat for the random randomization? Okay, there we go. Um, so our deputy city clerk will uh pass around a hat. So, we have a a I think seat one is council member Otto. Is that right? Okay. Yeah. And council members will once we all have our numbers, we will do the switching and I will try to stay out of the way.

Am I big too? Did he dip and dip again? I can't see. Oh my gosh. So excited.

Oh my gosh. So Yeah, you are. I started

I was here.

My first Okay. Well, that was pretty pretty smooth. Uh, so we have one spot reserved for our future district 2 members. So, that's very exciting. Um, So the next item on the agenda is a consideration of appointments of council members to boards, commissions, and committees. And just so the public and every everybody knows to um each council member was asked to complete a form expressing interest in specific boards, uh commissions and committees. Um and now it was up to the council to decide which ones our colleagues will serve on. So, um, in some cases, uh, well, basically each council member should have a sheet that has the, um, the list of council members that have expressed interest. It lists the number of slots available and, uh, they're kind of categorized into different types. So, there's advisory ones we'll go through first. Then there's council subcommittees and then there's external uh opportunities and there's governance and then quasi judicial and so for each one of them. Yeah, we'll just go through each one um that that council me that council members have expressed interest in and

we'll we'll give an opportunity for council members to add their name or remove their name uh for each of them as we go through and we'll vote by a show of hands. So, it'll be like a public vote for each one. Um if ultimately like on once I get through you know whether people want to add their name or remove their name and there's just the same number of of seats available as there are council members expressing interest we can do the unanimous consent option um and yeah I just uh city manager

yeah thank you I just wanted to um point out that the council president serves by virtue of his position for some of these and in some cases he decided elected not to serve. The council vice president also serves um by virtue of her position. So if there are any that you don't want to serve that are designated for the vice president um then you can let us know so that others can but I'm just telling you this so you can have some chance to ponder. Yeah. Thank you uh city manager Hersh and and council member Serrano. Do you have

Yes. I have Thank you, Council President. I have a question. Um, so we have many positions and I would if we had a fully seated council, we would all chip in to fill all of those positions as we have a vacancy. Um, I I guess I'm just putting out the question, how do we want to think about um leaving some open positions for our new person or how how would how would we want to um approach that? I'm just putting that out as a question. That's a great question, Council Member Serrano. Council member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. I will notice that there are, I believe, five committees that do not have the full number of people signed up for all the spots. So, those would be great spots. Uh, fiscal stability, punent park, board review, visit Oak Tourism, and utilities board. Not some of the not they're not quite uh monthly, but they are um probably good introductory one. So, those are available still. Yeah, that's great. Uh, council member Serrano, do you want to follow up on that?

Yeah, my my followup was um I see that there's openings, but I think normally we would maybe, you know, jump in to fill in. So, I guess I'm just still wanting to understand what approach we want to take uh in terms of this vacancy. Yeah, thank you. Uh, Council Member Brewster, unless it's unrelated to that question. do. Yeah. Go ahead.

Thank you, Council President. Um, I would propose that um we if there are if there are openings, we have people uh council members that are here uh agree to be backups in case the um incoming council person is not interested. So, we don't have to do this again. But, you know, for some of these positions that are open on the are currently open that we don't have enough um fill that to whatever capacity we need with the expectation that you know some person be the person that will hold that seat if the incoming person doesn't like it or doesn't want that particular one or it doesn't work with their schedule or something.

Okay. So, you'd like to designate alternate people basically. Okay. Yeah. Um, yeah, I think we can kind of see how it plays out too in terms of the, you know, just naturally keeping, um, just being conscious of, you know, it's okay to leave a couple open right now as well. That's just kind of my thought, too. But not sure if there's an opinion anywhere else. Council Vice President, uh, Sean,

thank you, Council President Gregor. Um I just wanted to offer to council that when I was appointed to council I started shortly after the organizational meeting and uh just for consideration when I started there was maybe two I think uh committee assignments left open for me to fill. Um I did not get a choice in saying which committees I wanted to be on. It ended up working out well and I did you know enjoy the committee assignments I was on. Um, I think appointment periods are for a shorter period of time than a full term, you know, elected term. And so, um, getting a couple to get your feet wet while you're learning a lot in a very short amount of time, I think is appropriate. And I also think there it's not unprecedented that, uh, council members have been appointed to committees and maybe serve for a few months before they have some type of conflict outside of their control. and then we can, you know, reassign if that is the case with uh whoever may be appointed to fill the district 2 seat in the future. So, I just wanted to offer that.

Yeah, thank you. Um, Vice President Shon, yeah, I I sort of I feel like just leaving some spots open is probably the best way rather than creating like a, you know, alternate position if folks are okay with that. All right. Um so the other detail I'd like to share is that you know if there are if any council member would like to speak to their you know particularly in the case of like contested positions if any council members would like to speak to why they would like to be appointed or their relevant experience I want to give that opportunity. So remind me if it feels like I'm not doing that. Um but for from the interest of time I would prefer that if it's an uncontested one we would not have speeches. So um so the first one on the list and this is under the advisory side of things is um the housing authority and there is one spot available and council member Brewster has expressed interest. Would anyone else like to add their name for consideration? And would anyone like to remove their name? Okay, maybe I shouldn't give this option. So um so without objection by unanimous consent, council member uh Aaron Brewster has been selected for the housing authority. Congratulations. Uh next is waterways and parks commission. Oh waterways parks urban forestry and urban forestry commission. very uh savily renamed and updated. Uh

two spots available. We have two council members Otto and council council member Worthman who have expressed interest. Would anyone like to add their name for consideration? And there are two spots available. So would anyone like to remove their name? Okay. Well, so uh without objection by unanimous consent, council member council council president council member Worthman,

if I could speak to this, I I like waterways parks and especially the urban forestry commission. Um but I have a lot of requests on this list. So, if there is a point depending on how this meeting goes, I may also offer this seat to the new district 2 person because um I don't know. I think I might I'm like on six or seven different things, right? I've requested to be on six or seven different commissions. So, I'll I'll stick firm with this now, but in the future, this this is something where I I think a new council member would really love to be in this role because this is a great commission. Uh, Council Member Worthman and Council Member Otto.

Yeah, thank you. And I've got a year under my belt with this commission and I'd be happy to, you know, mentor the new person about how how it works and I'm sure Vice President Sean would be able to do the same.

Thank you. Um so I will by unanimous consent declare that we have two council members Otto and Worthman appointed to waterways parks and urban forestry commission. So thank you very very much and congratulations. Uh the next under the advisory type of service is the sustainability advisory committee. Uh there is one spot available for a council member. We have one member, council member Worthman, who has expressed interest. Would there would anyone like to add their name for consideration? Would anyone like to remove their name? Okay. Okay, without hearing any others, uh, by unanimous consent, the city council selects council member Worthman to the sustainability advisory committee and congratulations. Uh, next is housing opportunities commission where there is one spot available for a council member. We have uh one member uh, vice president Shonen who has expressed interest. Would anyone like to add their name for consideration? Would anyone like to remove their name? All right. Uh with uh by unanimous consent, the city council selects uh Vice President Shonen to the housing opportunities commission. Congratulations. Uh and the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee. There's one spot available for a council member. Council member Joshua Miller has expressed interest. Would any other council member like to be considered for this position?

Would anyone like to remove their name? Okay. Uh without objection by unanimous consent, the city council selects uh council member Worthman to or sorry council member Miller to the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee. Congratulations. Uh and the equity, diversity, and inclusion commission is next. There's one uh spot for a council member. Council member Embogga has expressed interest. And would anyone other council member like to express interest in this uh commission? Would anyone like to remove their name uh from consideration? All right. By unanimous consent, the city council selects uh council member Emboga to the equity, diversity, and inclusion commission. Congratulations.

Yeah. And finally among the advisory uh commissions there's transit commission and there is one spot available for council member and myself the president of the city council has expressed interest and I'm the only one would any any other council member like to uh be considered for transit commission. Okay. And I will not be removing my name. So, and I will not give a speech as much as I would love to, but um so by unanimous consent, the city council selects uh President Gregor uh to serve on the transit commission. Um congratulations to myself. Uh and now we're into another category uh of our board's committees and commissions. We have council subcommittees, the advisory committee on appointments of which uh the president serves along with two other council members. So, so I will be an automatic on that. And we have listed four council members with interest. Uh those are council members Brewster, Reed, uh Shon, and Worthman. And would anyone like to add their name uh for consideration to the well and yeah to the advisory committee on appointments? Uh vice president show.

Uh thank you council president Greger. I am not interested in adding my name. My name is on the list but I would like to uh remove myself from consideration. Okay. Thank you council vice president uh shown. Uh so now we're down to three for two seats. Um, Council Member Brewster, Reed, and Worthman. Um, Council Member, I don't remember who was first, but I'll go to C. You can start with me. Okay, we'll start with I'm uh removing my name from consideration. Okay. Thank you, council member. Well, by alphabetical order,

you should do it. This is a good one. You should do it. Okay. Yeah. I'll I'd like to add my name back here for Okay. So, so we have

So, Council Member Worthman, would you like to remove your name? Okay. So, Council Member Worthman has removed his name for consideration. There are two names. Council member Brewster and Reed. Uh, yeah. Is there those? So, there's no one else I would like to add or remove. So we will by unanimous consent the city council will select council members Brewster and Reed to the advisory committee on appointments. Congratulations. Okay. There's a ad hoc committee on strategic planning and community engagement where there are two uh spots for council members. And my understanding is that the council president automatically serves but also the vice president. So does that mean there's a total of four seats or is there just three? Okay.

Yeah. So I as I understand it the council vice president would say if she wants to serve and if she does then there'd be one spot. Okay. Thank you for that. City Manager Hirsch and uh Council Vice President Shown do Thank you, Council President. I I would have interest in serving on this committee.

Okay. Thank you. So that so with Council Vice President Shown interested in serving in in their capacity as vice president, they're automatically on this uh on this ad hoc committee and I will be as well. So therefore there is one opportunity and there are two council members interested. Those are council members Brewster and Worthman. Uh we have Brewster. Would you like to Thank you, council president. I would like to withdraw my name from consideration.

Okay. Thank you council member Brewster. So for the ad hoc committee on strategic planning and community engagement, we have one council member up for appointment along with the automatic members and that's council member Worthman. Um and by unanimous consent, the city council selects council member Worthman for that seat. Thank you. Congratulations. All right, a couple more in this category. this fiscal stability committee which has had five council members and I believe this is kind of a newer ad hoc committee but um or subcommittee I should say uh and there are two council members that have thus far selected interest and that is council member Brewster and council member Serrano and this could be a good one to leave a spot open on If I can just comment on this. Um, we haven't quite figured out the role that this committee will play and so um it might not be a big time commitment. Uh we we've talked about having an external fiscal stability task force with like residents. So this might set the framework for that or maybe like um council member Srano's um point. So I I think probably another option would be to um bring this back to the council when it is more fully formed or or or go ahead and appoint people and then um revise as needed.

Yeah, I think it'd be fine to appoint at least a couple people to it and and uh so would any council members like to add their name uh for consideration? Council member Reid. Yeah, I'll add my name for consideration. Okay. Thank you.

I would actually like to add my name for consideration as well. And then we'll perhaps this could be one that we leave a spot open. All right. Um so there are five seats available for members. Um so that are interested. So, by unanimous consent, the city council selects council members Brewster, Serrano, Reed, and then uh council president Greger and leaving one spot open for the fiscal stability committee. Congratulations to all. Uh the city manager city manager evaluation committee is next and the president and vice the president automatically serves and I'm taking up that opportunity and then the vice president has a has the opportunity to automatically serve if they wish. Um so this is a three member total committee. The members that have expressed interest are uh Council Member Brewster, Council Member Miller, Council Member Serrano, Vice President Shown, and Council Member Worthman. So, would anyone like to add their name uh for consideration or or or remove their name? Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. I'll remove my name for consideration. Okay. Thank you. Uh, Council Council Vice President Sh. Thank you, Council President. I was just going to confirm that I am interested in serving on this committee. Okay. Thank you. And then, um, Council Member Serrano. Yes. Thank you, Council President. I So, because Vice President wants to serve, so there'll be just really one position, one open slot for this now. Yeah. Right. That's right. Uh, I will remove my name for consideration.

Okay. Um, and I don't remember the order exactly, but I think it was Council Member Johnson that Oh. turned his light on. Oh, okay. Um, Council Member Worth. Thank you, Council President. I'd like to remove my name as well.

Okay. So, so it is a so the city city manager evaluation committee has three total slots. One of them is automatic for me as the president and then one of them is going to council vice president shown and then therefore there is one additional opportunity and council member Brewster is the only additional person. Therefore, uh, by unanimous consent, the city council selects, uh, Council Member Brewster, Council Vice President Shonne, and and Council President Greger, uh, for the city manager evaluation committee. Uh, congratulations. So, now we turn the the page uh to external opportunities. The first of which is the Chipoa St. Prey Rail Commission where there is one spot and one council member thus far interested in serving um and that is council member Serrano. Would any council member like to add or remove their name um for consideration? Okay. Um then uh by unanimous consent the city council selects uh council member Serrano. Congratulations. All right. Um next is the just kind of an automatic one metropolitan planning organization. So I will be serving in that position as council president. So there's no decision point on that. Uh there's downtown Oaklair Incorporated

board where there's one position available and one council member that has I don't know maybe I don't maybe I should officially uh by by unanimous consent say that the city council selects council president Greger to the MO board before I go on. Congratulations to myself. Uh so we go to uh downtown Oaklair Incorporated uh to to Council Member Brewster as the one person putting his hat in the ring for that. Um is there would you like to

uh Yeah. I just want to say I'm currently vice president of Decki and so it would be really weird to not get reappointed but not maybe not unprecedented but not unprecedented but I would feel real bad. Any other council members interested in downtown Oaklair incorporated?

All right. Uh so by unanimous consent the city council selects council uh member Brewster to the downtown Oaklair Incorporated board. Congratulations vice president of the decki board. Uh next is Oaklair Confluence Arts Incorporated Board of Directors. We have there's one opportunity for council member and one council member has expressed interest and that's council member Johnson. Uh would anyone like else like to put their interest toward that or remove their name? All right. Well, by unanimous consent, the city council selects uh Council Member Johnson to the board of directors for the Oaklair Confluence Arts Incorporated. Congratulations. Next is Putinham Park Commission. There are two spots for council members. Uh, and council member Reid is the one council member that has so far expressed interest. Council member Otto.

Yeah, I'll throw my name on there. Um, because I'm part of Friends of Putnham Park. Uh, open to yielding to the new member if they're interested.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Otto. Anyone else like to express interest in Putnham Park Commission or would like to remove their name? All right. Uh, so by unanimous consent, the city council selects council members Reed and Otto for Putnham Park Commission. Congratulations. Next is visit Oclair Board. There are two positions and three council members who have thus far select se selected this as an interest and those are council members Johnson and Boga and Serrano. Um council member Johnson.

Yeah I um I intend to maintain interest in a future visit Oclair but I've had a good four years on the board of Visit Oclair and I'll think I'll let someone someone else experience it for themselves. So, I'll remove my name for the visitor clear board.

Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Johnson, and thanks for your years of service on that board. Um, so that leaves council members Emboga and Sorrano. Any anyone else interested in adding their name or removing their name? Okay. Uh well, by unanimous consent, the city council selects council members Imbogga and Serrano for the visit Oclair board. Congratulations to you both. Uh and then we have Visit Oclair Tourism and Cultural Arts Grant Program Committee where there are two slots for council members and one council member has expressed interest and that is council member Embogga. Uh, would anyone like to add their name for consideration? Would anyone like to remove their name for consideration? Okay. Well, this could be another one that we leave open at this juncture. Uh so by unanimous consent uh the city council selects uh council member Emboga for the visit Oclair Tourism and Cultural Arts Grants Program Committee. Congratulations. And finally in this category is visit Oaklair destination master plan steering committee. And there is one spot for a council member. And there are three council members who have thus far selected this as an interest and those are council members Johnson Embogga and Serrano. Uh council member Emboga.

Thank you. I will to control my Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Emboga. So, now we're down to two council members, uh, Johnson and Serrano, who have an interest in the visit Oclair destination master plan steering committee. And would it be helpful maybe to have a little bit of background on this one too from our city manager?

Uh, sure. So the as part of the visit clair contract between the city and visit clair um there was an agreement made to develop a um a guiding document for our um like trying to expand tourism and also it would guide what the city makes investments in that would support tourism as well as residents life like experience and quality of life. And so it's a really important committee in my opinion. It has a lot of intersections with a lot of the stuff that the city is doing. Um and it will kind of map out over the next 5 10 years um where we're going to invest in um and hopefully it'll also intersect with our comprehensive plan.

Okay. It's a small committee of like seven people. All right. Thank you for that. and uh council member Serrano.

Well, I'm uh thank you, Council President. Um it seems because I don't see his light on that council member Johnson would still like to would like to be on that steering committee and I feel like the experience that he's had with the visit Oclair board would really be valuable on that steering committee. So, I guess I'm imagining if I'm the visit Oclair board representative and um and council member Johnson would be the steering committee uh for the master plan that we would communicate frequently and and work closely together on on that function. Um so I I'm happy to remove my name if that sounds amunable to everybody that that that's how we would work that out.

Okay. Well, thank you, uh, Council Member Serrano. So, Council Member Serrano has removed their name, uh, for consideration. So, therefore, we are down to Council Member Johnson. So, by uh, unanimous consent, the city council selects Council Member Johnson to the Visit Oclair Destination Master Plan Steering Committee. Congratulations. All right. Uh, so that so there's a couple more categories to go through here. Uh there's two under governance. Um so the first of which is city county board of health and one council position being available and one council member interested and that is council member Miller. Are is there any anyone else interested in serving on the board of health or would like to remove their name? All right. Well, uh, by unanimous consent, the city council selects Council Member Miller, uh, for the city county board of health. Congratulations. I believe that's quite a few years of service on that as well. So, thank you. Uh, and then library board is next with one council member position, two council members being interested thus far, and those are Otto and Miller. Uh, would anyone like to add or remove their name for consideration for the library board?

Uh, Council Member Miller. Thank you, Council President. I will remove my name from consideration. Okay. Thank you. So, we were down to Council Member Otto for the one position on the library board. Uh by unanimous consent, the city council selects uh council member Otto to the library board. Congratulations. All right.

All right. Now, now we're going down to the quasi judicial uh type of boards, committees, and commissions. There's the redevelopment authority. One council position available. One council member being council member Brewster expressing interest thus far. Is anyone else interested in serving or would like to remove their name on the redevelopment authority?

Time to char. All right. So by unanimous consent, the city council selects uh council member Brewster to the redevelopment authority. Congratulations. Next is board of review. In this case, there are three total positions, but one of them is an alternate. Uh and so far, Council Member Reid has expressed interest presumably as a permanent member. Um, so thank you. Uh, anyone else like to add their name for board review? Uh, Council Member Brewster.

Uh, thank you, Council President. I was told by the city clerk that I have no choice but to put my name back in, so I will be doing that.

Well, I will Okay, I I will listen to the last half of that. Um, so, so Council Member Brewster has put his name in and and this is for the non-alternate position presumably. Okay. All right. Well, this, you know, we could leave the alternate as a another opportunity for a district 2 member unless anyone else is really interested in being an alternate for board of review. Okay. Um so by unanimous consent the city council selects uh council members Reed and Brewster for the board of review and leaving what the alternate open. Uh congratulations to both of you. And next we have landmarks commission or there's one spot available for a council member and one council member who has so far expressed interest and that is council member Brewster. Anyone else interested or would like to remove their name from consideration? All right. So, we by unanimous consent, the city council selects council member Brewster for Landmarks Commission. Congratulations. And then we have the loan administration board where there is one spot available and one council member that being council member Embogga interested in serving. Anyone else interested in serving or would like to remove their name for consideration? All right. Well, we will by unanimous consent um declare that the city council selects Larry Embogga, council member Emboga to L administration board. Congratulations. And then we have plan commission

which has two spots available. And thus far there are four council members that have expressed interest. Those are council members Brewster, Miller, Otto, and Reed. Uh would anyone like to add or remove their name? And I think I saw Council Member Otto first. Thank you, Council President Gregor. I wish to remove my name from consider consideration. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Otto, and Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. I will do likewise. Okay, thank you. Would anyone like to add their name uh for consideration or anyone else thinking about removing their name? Okay, so we have two two uh council members, Brewster and Reed, for two slots on the plan commission. And by unanimous consent, the city council selects council members Brewster and Reed uh to the plan commission. Congratulations. And finally, we have the utility appeals board, which has one opportunity for a council member to serve. Um, and thus far, we have no council members having expressed interest. This could be another one that we leave open, or there could be an ambitious member out there that would be welcomed to express interest at this moment. I see that the crowd has kind of cleared out a little bit since since we got down to the the utility appeals board. I'm sorry if I haven't been keeping it as exciting as I could, but um so we will you know

I mean like I council member I'm willing to take it if we but also we can leave it open. It's not really that big of a deal to me. So it's whatever we want. Yeah. Council member Worth. Thank you, Council President. I'd like to nominate uh Council Member Reid for this. I'll second that. Okay. Would you Sounds like you accept Council Member Reed. Would you accept the opportunity to have your name? Uh yes, Council President. I accept the nomination. Okay.

All right. So, by unanimous consent, uh the city council selects Council Member Reid for the utility appeals board. Congratulations. All right. So, um not too much for contested uh board committee and commission uh positions there, but um but we do have some open spots and we can and I think that's important for the new member coming in and it also sounded like there were some members that were, you know, kind of tentative in their um commitment to their to their positions uh just in case there's interest from the new member. So, So I think that strikes a decent balance going forward. Um so the seventh item on the agenda is welcome an introduction of municipal and local public official legal matters which could be quite interesting. So is that our uh city attorney Nick who's going to be presenting on that?

Thank you.

I will and thank you for terming it uh potentially quite interesting. just pass those around. I'm just pass around the presentation uh both in interest of time and as a continuing resource for you. This has always been nothing more than a a quick summary of what is a much larger issue. Uh but important as you start to renew your responsibilities as local public officials that you at least have these sort of uh initial foundation documents. And again on the front page, know how to get in touch with us and who's in our legal department. Um and also encourage you to make sure that that also includes our our city clerk and it always includes our city manager. Uh all that can help you on these sort of issues. So uh the broad overview are things such as the open meetings law. uh you know the the the broadest concept of it is is remembering that in public service you are doing the public's business and that we're called upon not only by state law but kind of our our obligation and oath to do that publicly. Uh there are certain exceptions but that's the number one issue is uh make sure that that we recognize that when we when we do public business it is uh presumed to be uh in the public uh purview closely related is the public records law. Uh so understanding that anything that you put in documentary form when you're working on behalf of the city, whether it's with your city email, and we certainly encourage you to use that as as often as possible, but on any other device, whether email or increasingly by text, those are all public records. uh if you run them through your city email account, they'll be preserved

automatically, but if they are on your own device, you have an obligation to maintain them and and on occasion, we will get record requests. And uh we're here to assist you as as is u Nick and the clerk's office. Uh next um again a huge topic that uh would be a substantial discussion on its own but our code of conduct uh that you've adopted for yourself. you recently updated that with a code of conduct uh for our board committee and commissions and also state conflicts of interest and certainly something that's uh worthy of of a quick comment uh right up front because it it can include uh personal liability um up through and including criminal liability. So just again the biggest broadest concept of it is is do your work in the per the public interest and if there's an occasion where you feel that your personal interest is is rising up to a level that you're uncertain exactly where that distinction is know that um that I and our office can help you with that. And while we represent the city of Oaklair as an organization overall, this is the one area that we can provide confidential direct legal advice to you and then it is a defense to any type of uh claim. So definitely ask if you feel close on that. Key concepts under the state ethics law, you can't take action uh for personal gain through use of office. you can't accept anything of substantial value and the advice on that remains uh just $20 from a long-standing attorney general opinion. But then I noted in that parenthetically even things lower just think about whether that's worth it because again nobody knows if they see you out and you're accepting that cup of coffee or a beer that somebody else is picking up whether that's a one-time thing or the first one or the you know

uh a series. So just keep that in mind. um may not take action in which you or a member of the family or an organization with which you're substantially involved. And that's the one that I get asked the most over the years, but that's typically a managing partner. Uh something you have an equity interest in or that you're um even if you're not personally financially involved, it's say you're on the board of directors of something and you're not serving on it because like you were just doing today, appointed as a representative of the city. uh but in your personal capacity. Those are situations where you might be so closely aligned uh that you should likely abstain. And again, any areas of uncertainty or questions, please just ask us in advance and we can help you through that. And again, confidentially. Uh next, and uh just use of uh our attorney uh attorney's office. We're of course an available legal office. Uh we represent the city as a whole, not individual members. But uh we're here to assist whether it's on u drafting of an ordinance or uh again an ethics question or anything in between. Try to involve us early on those issues. So uh we can help know that uh the more you share espec you know in terms of your purpose and objectives the better we can provide alternatives uh that lawfully meet those objectives. We are uh legal uh adviserss and expert in the field of of municipal and related legal uh matters. Uh we are not the final policy decision makers. You are. But often times those issues intersect closely and just know that when they do uh we'll tell you what is our legal uh opinion and where our matters of uh policy advice and certainly ask us if if you have any uncertainty about it. And here's the the

summary again. Conduct the city's business uh in public in an open transparent manner. Uh most meetings are open to the public. Most records are also open to the public. And uh if records um like text or emails are started moving along in a chain, they can also create a meeting. So just watch out. It's so easy to transfer forward emails or become part of a a text group. Um and uh if a majority of you do that, it is presumed to be a meeting. Uh even if it's one to the next to the next and u again it things you've all heard but points of emphasis because again it it can happen so quickly and easily. Hold fair and effective meetings. I'm here to help whoever is sitting in that chair on parliamentary procedure matters. The big issue, the big point on that is you're working through the substance in a way that's fair and open, transparent to all of you. It's a good example of that uh today. But again, at any time there's any uncertainty, either the chair can ask or any member can. It's called RA rise to a point of order. Just raise your hand, ask a point of order. Once the chair recognizes you, happy to help you through that. Um if uh uh parl parliamentarian pro Tim Miller can't answer it first. Um and um uh and again uh as was very eloquently said earlier uh by uh former council member Anderson and also commented on again very eloquently by um our city manager. Uh it is a a rare and beautiful thing to to represent uh our city. Uh I know you all feel very strongly about Oaklair. I do as well. I've been proud to serve uh it for uh 26 years and 25 years as city attorney. And so I I it's meant a lot to

me. It continues to mean a lot to me. I know it means a lot to you. So So thank you for doing that difficult service. Uh it is uh as uh city manager Hirs quoting Teddy Roosevelt indicated, it is very much a worthy cause and worth the time and effort and and at times challenges to do uh this good and important work. So, thank you much for uh for doing it. And again, I and and my office is here as a resource. So, don't hesitate to ask. Um, and the the the last point that I leave you with, and we're we'll we're continuing uh doing videos uh on Thursday, but we have we've uh done one training uh video and hope to do a series of them that uh you certainly are very welcome to watch, but are geared especially towards our board, committee, and commission members who um don't get these sort of quick se sessions or have, you know, quite the the the frequent training. uh that you all do. So, uh we are giving this a try. We're going to try to meet uh sort of I think the emerging trend of wanting fairly short sessions. So, they're they're all going to be in that sort of five to 10 minute uh time frame and hit on with a little greater detail really these same core foundational elements of what it means to be a local public official. So again, thank you for serving in that capacity and uh I don't want to stand in the way of you and pizza any longer. So thank you.

I wanted to ask a question. Yeah, council member Worthman. Thank you, Council President. Um thank you, city attorney. Um on this close session item, I see you you have highlighted here one point which is about information obtained in closed sessions remains confidential. It's a really important point. you often go over it in our closed sessions, but I think it's important for the entire council to remember that the other piece of close session is about the decision and the vote. And I don't know exactly

how to even phrase this question, but it's around sort of each council member making a determination about going into close session. We've had this come up in the past and you might just kind of relay to the council um the importance of making the the the decision as a council member that we're going into close session how that vote goes.

Certainly. So close session is the the exception to the rule of open u uh you know public meetings. There are a set defined limited number of reasons that you can consider close session under state law. You will always have a memo signed uh by me or someone else in our office reviewing it and finding that it in our opinion is lawful to go into close session. The decision of whether to do so like any vote is with each of you individually. So we will take that vote if there are any questions. It is like any of your other actions something that's subject to question and and consideration and debate. not typical, but it is open to that if you have any uncertainty. And then um again, we we take that vote and we move into close session. Uh and items uh discussed in close session do continue to remain confidential at least so long as the purpose of that close session uh remains. So it's often for bargaining uh parameters and direction. Obviously once say that development agreement then comes back before you and is voted on publicly uh that confidentiality uh for the most part uh will u uh be removed. Uh certain matters that doesn't apply to you know financial or or personnel matters re may remain confidential even uh beyond a public vote. uh any uncertainty on that definitely uh ask our our office. But the important thing somewhat like my representation when you take those votes and that one and really all of them you are then making a decision as a board and it becomes a joint decision. So as an individual member you don't have the ability to undo it. uh even if you voted against the closed session, for example, if the council as a whole voted to go

into close session and you elect to participate in that closed session, you're still bound by the rules of confidentially confidentiality and to follow it just like an open session vote. You may disagree with it, but it's it's sort of the group decision, the corporate ending, and that's what uh what continues to carry forward. And u you know, I and our attorneys are all bound by that same thing. We we follow the direction of the majority um and um assist uh minority decisions but you know are bound by what uh the city overall uh is directing us to do. Thank you.

Hope that helps. Thank you question city attorney Nick and thank you for your I mean 25 plus years is amazing. So yeah so keep it going. Yes. One of my one of my younger colleagues was kind enough to point out that I've now served the city for over a tenth of the existence of our country. That's the sort of thing that both is honorific and makes you feel kind of a little old. Thank you. Well, um so we have now an an agenda item for announcements. Uh, Council Member Brewster, do you have an announcement?

Yeah, thank you, Council President. Um, the third of four uh, council conversations is coming up this Sunday at the plus from 3 to 5. Uh, hope you can make it. Okay. Thank you so much. The cleanup is this weekend and we'll have we meet um well we'll have to get back to you but we have done prior years we've gone around in the uh BOGO mobile and visited different um sites and it's been fun. So if you want to join us that'd be great and we'll have to figure out where to meet.

So that's the amazing Elclair cleanup this Saturday 9:00 a.m. Um yeah any other announcements? Obviously, we do have a appreciation party uh that is immediately after this over at the plus. Um and that and I believe all the the people in the community that are serving as volunteers on our boards, committees, and commissions are invited. And sounded like former council member Anderson will be there, too. And it sounds like they're over there already. So,

yeah. Well, um I guess without objection, uh this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. I thought you were just telling me that.