Remarks by Tyller Williamson
119 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 5
Please. All right. We're going to make this the last one, and then we're going to call the question.
Okay. Okay. All right. So I'm going to go ahead and call. Please, please.
I'm sorry, I got distracted by the phone. Say it again.
So the item in front of us is not for us to decide the establishment of the task force. Staff has the opportunity, ability to do that on their own. The item in front of us is to appoint a council member. So that's the item in front of us.
I'm just going to clarify. Item 13 is to appoint a council member to serve on an ad hoc community cost of living reduction task force. That's what the exact item is. There's no confusion around what it is that we're voting on.
Perfect. All right. And with that, we'll go ahead and call the question. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No.
Okay, motion passes 3-1-1. And with that, we'll move to item 14 to receive an update on the roadmap to resilient six concurrent navigation points to strengthen the city of Monterey's financial future. And with that, I'll pass it to Dante for staff presentation.
I'm okay with that. Is the council okay with that?
Is anybody opposed to that on the council?
Well, I don't think we can really engage with the public on that, unfortunately, so. So it's to hear the item earlier. So let's go ahead and move forward with item 15, which is my request to agendize a discussion regarding a resolution declaring Monterey a welcoming city for transgender and gender diverse people in recognizing Transgender Day of Remembrance. It says to hand to Dante, but do I need to, or should I just take it? I mean, it's identified in the title. In short, how this came to be is Monterey Peninsula Pride approached me around the opportunity to mirror what has been happening…
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
What did you mean? From what I understand, there's no city funding that's used towards it. It's really just our policies and how we go about handling it. And, in fact, what I would argue is that a lot of the things we are already doing, so it's just affirming those statements. And it was provided ‑‑ I did provide a draft resolution to staff. I understand why they didn't include it, because our ‑‑ when we request items be agendized, they have to be limited to ‑‑ the 300 words or whatever they are. So that would be included in the agenda report at the next council meeting.
OK. And with that, we'll go ahead and open it up for public comments. I'm going to limit this also to a minute and a half, because we do have another item to get to. And I know that there are some folks here for that. So with that, I'll go ahead and ask folks that are on Zoom to use the Raise Hand feature. While you're navigating your way there, I will check in the chamber for folks in the chamber, if you wouldn't mind standing up to the left of the podium, or if you choose to remain seated, to go ahead and identify yourself by raising your hand. Is there anybody still seated that wants to…
All right, with that, we'll go to our public commenters on Zoom.
Hello, can you hear me? We can hear you.
All right, thank you all those for providing public comment. Bring it back to the council. There's already a motion on the table to agendize this. Any discussion on the motion?
I think, so for sake of this not being able to be seen by the public, I think I'll provide this to staff for consideration. This resolution is specifically declaring Transgender Day of Visibility, which is in March. But I think we can use this as a base model for Trans Day of Remembrance, which would be held in November. Right. A little bit of a different meaning, so I think the language would reflect that. But maybe what I would offer or suggest is if possible, if staff could share the draft resolution with council prior to, just in case if there's any feedback, that might be helpful to make…
Thank you. Thank you for it. I'm going to go ahead and call the question. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. Motion passes 4-1. With that, we'll go to council comments.
Oh, I apologize. This is what happens when you change the order of things. You know, it's like, ugh. You know what? Let's take a Monterey 5. Let's just take a break real quick.
And continue the meeting here. So our last item is going back to 14 to receive an update on the roadmap to resilience, current navigation points to strengthen the city of Monterey's financial future. And with that, I'll pass it to Dante for staff presentation.
Thank you, Dante, for the presentation. I'll be up to council for questions only at this time. Please.
I'd also share that I've been sharing it along the campaign trail. So whether it's the candidate forums or as I'm going canvassing door to door. So hopefully that's helped contribute towards getting more folks to at least be aware, but more ideally show up to share their voice. Other questions? Please, Council Member Smith.
Good. Any other questions at this time? All right, with that, we'll go ahead and open for public comment. For folks on Zoom, you can use the raise hand function. While you're navigating your way there, I'll check in the chamber. Anybody in the chamber wish to speak on this item? All right, I'm not seeing any takers. We'll go ahead and close it off in the chamber. I'll do a countdown for folks on Zoom to five, four, three, two, one. There's one on Zoom. We'll go ahead and take that caller.
So I think it's important to continue reflecting on how we got here, because one of the things that I've continued to hear over the course of this election season is that this council is the reason why we're in a $12 million structural budget deficit. And maybe even more specifically me, like I alone caused it. And it's important to just do some research. You can go back and look at the budget book back from 2014, 2015 fiscal year, and it identifies a structural budget deficit at that time. And if we didn't start addressing it, it was going to get worse. And that's where we're at today. And I…
It doesn't matter. I mean, the point in the exercise is that it was really quick. It was like less than five minutes. Everybody got their sticker up there and it was like, whoop, these are my priorities. But when it came time to talk about the cuts, You heard people grumbling, oh, this is so hard. I can't do this. It's so difficult. It is difficult. And I think that's kind of why we're here. And again, I think it takes moments like this when the rubber meets the road and really having to do the hard work and figuring it out. So I wanna thank Dante, I wanna thank staff for all the work that's…