City Council - Regular Meeting

The time is now 6 o'clock. I'm going to call to order this meeting of the liquor control board. Uh we will start with the pledge of allegiance led by deputy mayor Brenn Oakley. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Dr. Mayor. Um, we'll move on to tonight's consent agenda. Jenny, let us know what we need to know. Let me get my glasses.

Good evening. Good evening. Evening. So, um, presented to you are the two entertainment permits. Um, and then the one conditional is pending inspection, but the other ones are all set. Wonderful. Any concerns from yourself for the fire chief or police chief? Concerns from staff. Okay. Any questions from members of council? Yes. Um, has it been communicated to Don Worry our concerns about ensuring ADA access and Yes. Okay. I just want to make sure that because that's that's a tight It is. Yeah. Very tight.

So, I want to make sure that that's either been Yes. communicated maybe even in writing just so that we can point back to it in case we need Yeah, I can do that. Okay. The previous establishment ran into that same situation which is why I'm bringing it up. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Agreed. Uh just hopefully there are no issues. But again, if just in case it might be good to have like as a condition of the permit, we need to make sure and as a reminder for everybody that ADA um access and spacing is adhered to. Okay. Yeah, that would be my only request. Other than that, I don't have any other questions.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Any other counselors? All right. With that, um, I will seek a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda on the local control board. So moved. Second. Second. I think that was Brand first and a second by Council Turkos. All those in favor? I. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. All right. The time is 6:02 p.m. We will move to our Winnie City Council meeting. Um, we start off with agenda review. Uh does anybody have uh anything in the agenda they'd like to talk about or ask to move before we go ahead?

Is there are you going to change that or no? Um sorry. I don't know if I should I don't if it's not needed. I mean you brought it up so we might as well pull it. It won't take long. I did email Angela so she will probably answer here shortly. Okay. And I'm seeing I totally missed an email. So um yeah. Uh, I think it was was it payout warrant February? Uh, consent agenda D. Yeah. Uh, the only questions I had I had questions about uh the credit card transaction is because the dates don't line up with what makes sense. So, did you want to pull that out or did you want it to be put onto the next agenda? And pull it out. It should take Okay.

30 seconds to chat about. All right. So, um, and I also need to pull out as separate items G and H. All right. So, um, a motion to pull out item D to make that our first item after consent. And sorry, go ahead. You because you need to abstain, right? Yeah. You could just not vote. if you it you know if you wanted to save the time that's all um yeah let's do that.

Yeah. Um all right so we'll just pull out D. Um and that will be the become the first item after our consent agenda of our regular items that given. Uh any other questions about reviews or changes? No. Okay. So I will uh seek a motion then to approve the consent agenda with item D removed. So moved, seconded. All those in favor? I I am abstaining. All right. Uh council reports council.

Lovely. Um okay. So, uh, this week's Municipal Infrastructure Commission meeting, uh, was cancelled, uh, in in hopes to encourage attendance at the upcoming bridge meeting happening on Wednesday, April 29th from 5 to 7:00 p.m. at the Wuski School District. Uh, we hope all residents are able to attend and learn more and ask questions about the upcoming bridge project and ask questions about design and timeline for it. Um at our next our next uh municipal structure commission meeting will be held on May 21st where we will welcome our newest member uh Anna Fold. Thanks for commissioner. Awesome. Um sorry I'm in a different screen. Here we go.

There was an inclusion and belonging meeting my first inclusion and belonging meeting last Monday. We had um Simone Bedford from the Shinten County Regional Planning Commission um who did an incredible presentation and we're looking forward to partnering with her more. And then we had Kelly Hamshaw who is a professor at UVM who um presented on the equitable housing needs assessment um and her work with Jasmine which was really wonderful. And I would highly recommend um going back and you on our public meetings website on the Muski um city website, you can pull up both of those presentations because they are I would say riveting. Um and then the other conversation that we had within inclusion and belonging was an update to the unified land use. What is the DR in that? Ur

development regul.

Development. Thank you. Um and so the members of the inclusion and belonging committee um commission are going to be um most likely testifying at the public hearing on the 18th and wanting to just really ensure that there is an equity equity lens to that work. Um there was a safe healthy connected people commission meeting last Tuesday. I was there representing um deputy mayor Brit deputy mayor Oakleaf um and um Ray Coffee presented on the parks and open space master plan. He did a check-in on that. Um that's why we spent the majority of our time um having conversation around that. The downtown Wooki Commission board of directors moved their meeting to this Wednesday and so we will meet on this Wednesday and I will report back there. I will say that the downtown Manuski, their board chair, Laura Wade, has been doing a lot of work to have community roundts. And I've been really grateful to be able to um join members of our business um ownership and sort of um managers of local Wooki businesses. And so I was grateful to join two of those. And um we'll be having our next one with Elaine here at city hall uh next month. And I'll be joining that as well.

Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Sure. Um, Councelor Cheros and I had the opportunity to meet with the Council on World Affairs today and we met with a group of um, lawyers and uh, policy representatives from North Macedonia um, earlier today. It was really lovely meeting. It was brief um, just under an hour. Um, but it was nice to be able to welcome them to Wooki and to share a little bit about our history and our governance structures. Um and they will they went on to meeting uh this afternoon with some folks in Burlington and then we'll be spending the next couple days um in Montpielaria at the state house. So um I did welcome them back and um to hopefully explore some of our businesses uh here as well. So it was really it was really lovely meeting.

Yeah. Um the housing commission will have a joint meeting this Thursday with the planning commission. Um and the primary uh topic for that event is on building typologies. Uh that will be online as well as here in city hall and everyone is encouraged to attend. Wonderful council. Um, the finance commission will next meet on May 12th at 6 PM here at city hall for a review of the proposed procedure for competitive purchasing and solicitation. And a reminder that I will be out of town and unavailable for our next council meeting on uh May 5th.

Wonderful. Thanks for that reminder, Elsie. Um, planning commission did not meet two weeks ago because we are having an extra long meeting this week. uh they will be meeting at 5:30 as opposed to 6:30 so that they can really dive into um starting the work and making the necessary changes for uh what we heard about the other day at council in terms of uh character of the neighborhood. So working on uh those different things uh that Revy had mentioned to us. Uh so they recognized they were going to need a lot of time for that. So opted to do one one big meeting. So, uh again, that will be 5:30 uh at city hall for folks who want to attend. Uh it will also be um available online.

Do you want to mention our meeting next Monday? Sure, I'm happy to mention that. We will have a uh special meeting uh next Monday, uh a city council meeting where we will be discussing uh the commissions um o overall. It's um we haven't discussed the commission makeup in a while. Um, so we want to look at that. Um, we've talked about it for a couple of years now, but especially now that we have, uh, so many new newer faces on council, uh, we thought this would be a really good time to to dive into that work. So, uh, we thought it would be, uh, good to have a special meeting solely dedicated to that so that we could actually spend some time on that. Um, it will be at the regular city council time. Um,

6:30 is the Oh, 6:30. Thank you. Yeah. Is that correct? That's what I recall. It's funny. I have my council calendar here and I have it in my personal calendar. So, just a second. Uh, no. I have it at 6. I have it at 6. Yeah. Okay. Great. I will not be late to my own meeting. So, uh, 6:00 on the 27th if folks are interested in that conversation. Um, Elaine, city updates.

Yes. A reminder that the O'Brien Community Center and Wooki Memorial Library renovation will begin this fall if all goes according to plan. Uh the library will be closed for the month of May and will reopen in June at 65 Wooki Falls Way. That's the space formally leased by Commodities Market. To view the important details about this process, please visit wuskivt.gov/news. To view the important det uh I'm sorry, I just said that. And if community members wish to support the redevelopment of the O'Brien Community Center, you can make a gift online at getahome.org/donate obn for O'Brien. The Burlington Wooki Bridge Project team is excited to announce that it will be hosting an open house on Wednesday, April 29th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Wooki School District. Project staff will share information about the project, answer questions, and gather feedback about park and landscape aesthetics on the Wooki side. Stop by to also learn about efforts to keep local businesses and the broader community informed and engaged as the project moves towards construction. This event is free, of course, and open to all. Light refreshments and kid-friendly activities will be provided. To learn more, visit Burlington Bridge, all one word.com. I'm sorry. Burlington Wookski Bridge.vtranspro.vermont.gov. Uh that announcement is also on the on the uh website at wookkiv2.gov so that you're not having to scribble down that long address. Please join your neighbors for Greenup Day in Wooki on Saturday, May 2nd, 2026. Pitch in and enjoy this annual statewide tradition by cleaning up public spaces in the community. The city, thanks to our community services department, is hosting two opportunities to green up. If you want to green up from the senior center, you can visit there at 123

Barllo Street between 8:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. to pick up bags, gloves, and safety information. Uh, and then green up any littered area in Wooki. Staff are available to pick a spot uh help you pick a spot. And then secondly, the Memorial Park cleanup follows just after. You can join us for a cleanup, cookout, and guided walk even at Memorial Park in partnership with the Wooki Valley Parks District and Friends of the Wooki River. That's from 12:00 p.m. to 2 p.m. And in order to get there, if you haven't been to Memorial Park, you would enter from Elm Elm Street and park behind the long building that's there. And for full event details, you can visit wookivt.gov/greenupday. All one word.

Thank you. Um, all right. We will move on to our regular items. Uh we will start with our new regular item which is the approval subsequent to payout war on February 2026. Yes. So included make the correction that you like. So if you want to approve it with this new enclosure, you can do that. Okay, perfect.

The only difference is the dates were initially 2026 for all of these but the transactions five. Yeah, it was a clerical thing because the Excel document was created after January 1. It automatically assumed the year 2026. Yep, that makes sense. Great. Thank you. All right. Um, all those in favor of approving the document now with the updated changes or a motion I should say. So moved. Seconded. All those in favor? Hi.

Wonderful, Eli. Thanks for pointing that out. All right. Uh our now second regular item. Uh the treasur's report, a discussion of fiscal year 2026, quarter 3. Uh John, welcome. Good evening, John. I think you can actually Does he sit there? Uh he I don't know. It's up to you. I always go here. Yeah, you can just Yeah, that's fine. Just sit there. Okay. was just finishing this up. Good evening, council.

Okay, so I'm here to present some key takeaways from the third quarter of the FY26 treasurer's report. So I always start with this part. As a reminder, specific details to support current forecasts for Q3 FY26 can be found within the respective financial report on the city of Wooki website. Please bear in mind that this is a Q quarter 3 report and is guided by financial activities we realized so far and therefore subject to change as we progress through the year. But this is a special one. This is Q3. This is the last one of the year. So this is supposed to be the most accurate technically. So based on the third quarter financial results that the city's general fund is projecting an annual surplus of approximately.3 million resulting in a year-end fund balance of 3.5 million and annual sorry a year-over-year increase of 9%. Since the first quarter, the projected year-end surplus has declined, moving closer to the city's break even point, which typically happens as we move forward throughout the fiscal year. For comparison, the prior fiscal year concluded with a net fund balance of 3.3 million. So, it's started with 3.3 and we're projecting to end with 3.5. Annual general fund revenue is projected to total 12.1 million, exceeding the adopted budget of8 million. The city's primary revenue source, property tax, is expected to generate 8.7 million in line with budgeted projections. This hasn't really changed throughout the year. Revenues above budget are largely attributed to higher than anticipated investment interest earnings. I don't know about now, this past month, but as of March 31st, consistent with FY25 performance as well as proceeds associated with the sale of the O'Brien Community Center to CHT. Um, as the third quarter of FY26, the city's financial condition remained stable, very similar to F since last time I was here since Q2, with most funds projecting positive year-end

balances and a positive cumulative net position across all funds. So, the net of all the all the funds um across the board equal a positive number. The general fund continues to reflect a modest surplus, a healthy and a healthy fund balance. Although the forecast has narrowed as I said before um narrowed since the first quarter as expenditures and capital activity have progressed throughout the year. Cumitively the net balance across all Oh yeah, I just said that sorry was just fixing that part. Um so it remains positive despite the expend expenditure pressures throughout the year due to ongoing investment in major capital projects most notably as you all know the main street revitalization project and the Abanaki garage initiatives. This is evidence that in my opinion the city has proactively managed these pressures through the strategic use of bomb proceeds and investment strategies helping to mitigate their financial impact. I'm also pleased to report that the city has completed its FY25 federal compliance audit, receiving an unmodified opinion with no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies identified. Good job, Angela and team. Um, going forward, I would recommend the city council continue to oversee these large capital projects. Main Street revitalization, which I believe is on track to complete this spring and May, fall, this fall, and the Abenaki garage initiative. in addition to the biggest shift I saw from Q2 to Q3 was the um delay in the sale of the second lot for the parking fund. So that was the biggest difference I'd say. So just making sure that that sale happens um I think in FY27 perhaps. I don't have timing on that but it not happened yet. Um that's all I have. Any questions?

Thank you John Angel. I see you've popped on there. Um, yeah, the agreement with Doug is that he has to pay the final purchase price when he gets the certificate of occupancy for the second lot. Okay. Thank you. Um, I wasn't able to get you this earlier, but um, in the special revenue fund section, it talks about the pressures from overtime demands. Is that still police department?

Corre uh, correct? I believe so. I think there's some the the biggest number from overtime is I believe from police department. Okay. Yeah. And then I know for there's a short period of time where we are fully staffed like I think last month but that's changed since. So it's a little bit in flux. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Um counselors I know that you had sent some questions but you do um address any of those. Can I just add a caveat? It's actually from dispatch for change, not from um not from patrol. Okay. Oh, okay. Is that is that within the police department? Yeah. Okay. I just see the department. Yeah, fair enough.

And and some of our overtime wasn't as a result of a vacancy, but a long-term outage. Okay, great. Thank you. I guess I feel like I am anticipating the response but um I'll ask anyway. Um with the item following this relating to temporary employees, is there any elements that council should be aware of as it relates to um best practices for auditing for specifically for temp employees? temp employee temp employee management um fiscal management

I guess I I wonder what you're looking at specifically in the in the forecast which which particular fund or item um general fund I believe that I don't know too much about that intent general or uh community development probably yeah okay yeah I mean I guess in from my experience I'm assuming you would be hiring through an agency. I'm not sure that that would be the case. Oh, okay. I don't unfortunately know too much about it, but I could find out more.

Okay. Um, yeah, I'm curious from an auditing perspective if that's something you're like, "Oh, I see that you have temp employees. I want to see additional information about how temp employee um financing funding is managed. I think it would depend. It would definitely depend on the contract you have. If you have if you're going through a third party. Okay. What if we're not? And then if we're not then it I don't know too much in that particular area. Okay. Yeah. That would be like an HR more of a HR related question.

So you haven't seen and you're not aware of any instances in financial auditing where that's something that's ever raised as an area of potential concern or potential? I personally I haven't but is there something specifically you're concerned about with temp employees? I'm not concerned. It's new. Oh, okay. It's like a new shift. Gotcha. So, I'm I'm trying I like to think upstream. So, yeah. Uh if a new policy or procedure is being put in place, what are all the factors that we should be considered? Yeah, I would think financial management would be an area we would want to ask if we need to make sure certain protocols are in place for tracking or managing those employees.

I mean, the over my overarching statement would be just make sure it's documented depending on whatever your whatever agreement you're going into and then you just follow through with it. But I don't have enough details specifically on what temp employees are hiring and that the those specific details, but I could find out more if you'd like. Okay. Angela may know more.

We have had temp employees in the past, typically in the parks and uh recreation field referees for some of the basketball leagues. Um we have had basketball coaches that we have hired in the past, but it's been ad hoc. and when we've started to see this pick up in terms of a need for a specialized short-term um service uh so we wanted to develop a formal policy around it. So this is something that we have been doing. We have not been having anything additional from the auditors in terms of requests for this other than all of the same uh procedures that they follow for any other payroll um expense. So they just uh audited the same way they would any of our regular payroll.

Okay. Were you like expecting a ramp up in temp employees? I I have the impression not my

necessarily. Um we have some oneoff things that are anticipated. Um, but we wanted to be able to act a little more quickly um to be able to do this this hiring rather than having individual job descriptions come up for every single potential job that we need done like an ASL interpretation. if we need interpreters of a specific kind at a poll, if we want to do focus groups or um commission stipens, those types of things, rather than having to have a job description for every single one um having them fall under this temporary work agreement.

Sorry, I couldn't better answer your question. No, I I'm glad I asked because I actually didn't get an answer that I anticipated. Um

I do know if you go through an agency and I'm not saying that Wooki should do this but they you're you're more covered because then payroll and everything happens through that agency and won't necessarily be I mean from my experience. Y yeah I I'm not aware I don't have the depth of knowledge to say like well what about these instances that I can point to that have happened in other uh municipalities or you know government entities with the government entities um just brings up my spidey sense a little bit I guess for sure any any change or shift right Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. So given that like not having a policy limited ad hoc use, now having a policy giving room for greater use, thinking about what are areas of risk that we may want to just be cognizant of or make sure that we remember to ask questions about for sure in the future. I would just say number one, documentation, but I I know Angela's good at that. Yes. So, I'm pretty sure on her wall she has a sign that says documented. Hopefully, Angela retires at very old age with the city of Wooki. Not close to retirement here. No, that's what I'm saying.

So hopefully uh there no changes in that rule anytime soon. Thank you. Do you want John to look more into it? Oh yeah, happy to if you'd like. I I I don't know that uh nobody else seems to be as concerned as I do. So perhaps it's not uh worth your time. I don't know. No, it's definitely definitely a good question. And if you're something feels off, it's it's good to I agree with you. Like your spidey sense. Yeah. Yeah. It's just those are the areas leading to more questions. And like Angela said, if it makes you I've never been involved in an audit where they were specifically looking at temp employees.

Yeah. I think for me, I always regret uh the I wish we would have thought of this earlier. experience. So I try to do more due diligence on the early side of things. Yeah. Rather than having regret on the other end. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Um our investment income that's primarily held in like mutual stocks and things like that or is it in the competitive stock market? I know. Well, we hold a bunch of CDs, deposits. Yeah. CDs only. CDs. Yeah. CDs only. Yeah. Angela, thanks Angela. I haven't seen that expression very often.

Our our investment policy is very strict. We we have zero risk tolerance in our investment policy. That's what I believe which is probably good this past month. Yeah. when when that's why when I was writing this and then that happened with the market recently it was like okay we we have guaranteed return but it's not necessarily going to generate as much of return um as if it was in stocks or something like that. Um but the rates have been done very well. The rates have been high though. I think the rates have been pretty for CDs which has been good more than we would earn just having it sit in our bank account. Right. Yeah. Which is the old system. Yes. Yeah.

Counselors. Any other questions? I have a Yeah. Followup question. Um the I just kind of new coming into this, so I'm curious to hear what you would think. Uh so we're running a surplus. Sounds like a majority of these. Actually, it looks like all of these uh funds, not all of them, just the net. The net. Yeah. If you added them all together, I think there's a on that last page, the report page, there's a total there and they're all netted together, I think it's like 04. So, the total net we have a surplus of. Yeah. So, what Yes.

For our estimates, what is too close to comfort for the budget for a surplus? And like what is too much I guess if you what you've seen? I mean I would say in terms of city government getting as close as you can to it to balance um and not having too much of a surplus per se because you want to you know you want to balance that but then the way things are going with all our capital projects we don't want to get too close. Yeah. I didn't know if it was like a I don't think there's I don't think there's a specific objective of trying to get plus or minus 3% or like a plus or minus 1% or something like that. Okay. Maybe I mean management might have a better idea of what their goal is, but it could vary.

Yeah. Another comment about that is um if we were to get it right given labor trends uh it might mean that we were budgeting for vacancies which we don't want to do. that happened in Wooki before and it result and then we were really fortunate to actually fill all the positions and but then we were in a pickle. So uh there's that's generally absolutely true of course but just that little asterisk about when some often are when some of it is due to vacancy savings you don't actually want that. Gotcha.

And you and you should be budging for full full staffing. Angela, is our does our policy have something for a target for surplus? We have a targeted um reserve balance. It's basically our operating reserve. Um, we have a goal of 30 days cash on hand and a stretch goal of 45 days cash on hand, which we met and exceeded long ago. Anything above that 45 days cash on hand is eligible for assignment by council to one time in capital costs,

right? So that's that's at any given point we should have that much as opposed to every year we would want to aim for a percentage. we would that's not yeah we we generally use 45 days as our benchmark because that's when our first big income for the city comes in after the start of the fiscal year. Um so by August 15th we'll start seeing tax revenue come in and we'll be able to we just want to be able to float ourselves until that first revenue comes in. Okay. Thank you. Any questions? All right. This is just time for discussion. So, thank you, John. Thanks, guys. Have a good night. Yeah, you too. Thank you.

All right. Our next item, also a discussion uh overview of temporary work agreement policy. Is Jesse online? I am here. Good evening, everyone. Almost evening. Good evening.

All right. So, we we touched on it already and kind of got into it. Um, but I'm just here to present the policy we're putting forward. The city has and will continue to need a temporary employees for tasks that make these positions unlike regular employees and not like contractors. Some of these examples include providing American Sign Language interpretation for a participant in the community services program where the interpreter already has a relationship with the participant and the interpreter does not provide these services to other people as a contracted service. Other examples are focus group participants who have been identified as important and are needed voices from the community. These are unlike regular employees because the attributes of the individual are what is needed whereas regular employees are filling an identified role needed by the city. They're also unlike contractors because they do not do this work for other organization. The policy we're putting forth defines temporary employment as at will and limited in duration. Establishes consistent documentation and onboarding requirements. Clarifies compensation and employment classification and also reduces risk by outlining legal protections and expectations.

Didn't know if you were done there. Thanks. Um awesome. Um so yeah under understand those reasonings. Uh I just thought of a question that I had when we had spoken about this um for interpreters. So for example when I worked at the hospital and obviously it's a little different cuz there's medical terminology that you have to use somebody who is you know sort of qual I forgot what the term was but like a certified interpreter.

Yeah. Yeah. so that you could make sure that that person had the proficiency in both languages to talk about medical terminology. Obviously, we don't have this here. probably in community services. It may not be necessary either. I'm thinking if somebody needed maybe to talk about like a tax situation with the clerk's office. I wonder how would we know that that person that somebody's had a relationship with with would fully understand the complexities of like a tax system to explain that to them. And in that case, would we actually want to hire out an interpreter through a third party organization? So, so that Go ahead, Jesse. Sorry.

No, you go ahead. You've got it. Well, that would be actually covered. That specific scenario, which I'm not saying isn't generalizable in a way that I'm not thinking right now, but that specific scenario would fall under a language access procedure. So, we have a vetted service for that. So, we wouldn't be hiring a temporary play for that. Yeah. Okay. I'm trying to imagine where that where it would be generalizable. Jesse, are you thinking of something? I don't have anything that comes to mind that would come for that because I know we typically use AALB for the interpretation services we need. Yeah.

Right. If it's like uh like at the polls for example, if we just need someone on there available Yeah. or like in an event, then we are we are hiring. I mean, we're contracting for that, not hiring for that. Yeah. this ASL situation is unique and really what drove this particular policy. But as you can see, we've been talking about the focus group stuff because that's actually been simmering in the background as well. In my experience, at least for context here, those who are doing interpretation services do do it for other communities, other municipalities, and so they would come under a contractor. So, this wouldn't apply to that.

Great. Okay. That is good to hear. Thank you. Um, other than that, I didn't have any questions. Um, I understand why the city wants to move into this, um, way of creating these agreements so that we have more documentation and more backing. Um, but Bren, I know that you had some questions. Um, I think I literally had 20 20 questions if there any highlights that you'd like to ask the public forum.

Um, I work in state government. um before I moved to my current job and there is a great deal of legislative oversight relating to temp employees and um part-time employees and um and like duration, how long um is a temporary employee allowed um before it should then move into a permanent um role, a part-time or or more formal um part-time full-time role. Part of that is like union related concerns and then I think also is like the equity of the person who's on the temp status

um to ensure like if if this is a per if this is looking like a more permanent need then let's make sure that they're getting the benefits um that that role should be eligible to have. Um so it's like also puts pressure on like the legislative body to you know the council in this case to say like are you going to budget for it or not and if not like what other conversations we need to have. So that was one thing is duration and wanting to make sure like policy has some parameters around what duration thresholds there are. Yeah. Um,

so we we have it set up so that it is set for a limited duration tied to either the specific program or the specific project need and it can't extend the set um duration that we have already established without further um conversation and that would be you know f that would go on with the department head, myself and the city manager to make sure that we are still in compliance with everything that's needed. Right. Um to me that still sounds like there's no maximum. That's true. I And actually that context you gave me is really helpful because I understand that context. It's like in state I've had friends in that situation where they were just extended indefinitely and it wasn't fair to them. So

I'm thinking if it's um it's like we know what we mean but same thing if we all get abducted by aliens tomorrow like you know somebody could find a loophole, right? Y so I wonder if we could list um list the use cases and then say other examples would need to be approved by the city manager. Okay, that would make me feel a little bit more comfortable. I'm just like the bridge project's gonna be three to four years like you know is it is it project based or is it like okay well we shouldn't we really shouldn't be thinking more than two years out type of thing like max yeah it's just um

regardless so this is an introduction today so um maybe we can work on some language testing me and then run it through council this Friday, get some early comments and then maybe that revision can make it into the version that you consider next time. Okay. I just think that can be depending on like what we're talking about. Yeah. Oh, we'll we'll think about that some more because we are trying to make it so that it's not ownorous. Um but it could be that if we just pick a time that we've never seen exceed that that would be, you know, not ownorous. then say within reason, not like 10 years.

I mean, I think everything's been under a year. So that's your point about two years is well taken. Yeah.

Okay. Um, and the only other thing that ties into that as having some degree of oversight is, um, again, just thinking of my experience when I worked in state government is I I would ask support from council to have staff have a line item in budget reporting for what um, what number of temps have been used throughout the here and in what departments. Um again, so that that helps with budget planning and being like, oh wow, you know, we started like when we adopted this policy, we were thinking of focus groups and now we're utilizing it in this way and maybe rather than using three or four attempts, we should actually dedicate funds to one full-time

employee type thing. So, it's just the ability to have the data to help inform future budgetary decisions. So, that's where I would be. And hopefully that would add uh if there's concerns about labor um demand and ability to meet that request, then I'd say bring that that sense of what that would how ownorous that would be so that we could have that discussion. Um otherwise uh I don't think you've addressed like conflicts of interest um supervision um any potential need for um separation um questions that I've asked there. Uh I think it's always going from no policy to having a policy is wonderful. So I in that regards I'm on board. So otherwise thank you um for doing such an excellent job as always to address the myriad of questions I offer less than 24 hours ahead of time.

Thanks Jesse and Angela as well. Yeah. Thank you all. They will be city's um employees of the city, temporary employees of the city, correct? Yeah. Do you all as employees of the city have to fill out or any conflict of interest? Jesse, what do you mean fill out a conflict?

Sorry, I'm just I'm hearing in in in the question from the deputy mayor, right? So Britain is indicating that there's no conflict of interest mentioned, but if they're technically a an employee, while it will be a temporary employee status for the city of Wooki, I am operating under the assumption, I may be wrong, that they will have to go through some hiring process that many of you do, they will not obviously get the benefits, etc., etc., but if you all have to complete a conflict of interest form, I would operate under the assumption that temporary employees would have to as well. So right now it's not that specific because we have people assign the personnel policy and then as appropriate to the position then they they would be exposed to other policies like the financial responsibility policy that was referenced in the email Q&A earlier today.

Um Jesse, did you have supplement to that? No, you pretty much hit it. What was I going to say is that they're still subject to the policies and procedures outlined in the personnel policy manual. they received a copy of it and then we have an acknowledgement form that they understand that they are um responsible to read and become familiar with the contents of the manual and to comply with the policy procedures outlined as a condition of employment whether it's temporary or not. Thank you.

Yeah. Um so are temporary employees defined by project or by time? It sounds like it's by time based off of the rules. the it so it's all it's in the policy. Jesse, do you want to answer that from it? Sure. Uh the way it's written, it's it's defined by what the project is and what the need is. So the time is depending on what the what the project or the specific need for the community is. So it's more based on that than the time itself. So it's more based on So I guess so it's based off project then in that case it's not based on

Yeah. For example, the the ASL interpreter is going to be for a specific um participant in community service program. How long that community service program runs would be the time of the um agreement. So, I guess maybe the easiest way is like do we have examples of who would be a temporary employee? Maybe that's the way I could answer my own questions. Like give me some couple examples of who would be hired as a temporary employee. Go ahead, Jess. We don't I don't have any currently. We have one that we have lined up to be and it is that ASL interpreter. But I'm I just want to have a to have a framework here to make sure that if we do encounter this when we inevitably do in the future, we have something already established. So do life guards get defined as those are seasonal employees and they're covered under

Okay. And we do have two examples in the memo. So, the ASL interpreter, but then also the focus group people, which it is ridiculous that they would have to be employees or contractors, but there's literally no le no good third option. Gotcha. Um, and then the other one that actually Angela brought up in the last agenda item was like coaches and referees, which we hadn't covered in the memo in the cover sheet. Okay. And those wouldn't be considered seasonal. Those would be considered temporary. I think it's because it would be by program and they don't actually I don't know. Angela, do you want to speak to why you included those?

They're more ad hoc. We do not routinely employ them. We just occasionally need to hire them depending on what we're seeing. Um oftentimes we'll get volunteers for some of those things. Um but in the lack of volunteers sometimes they have had to seek out somebody to pay to do those things but they are independent contractors. They do don't do that work elsewhere and so therefore they have to be employees. Okay. And we also talked about like in the past we came up we talked about co-ops and internships. Would that fall underneath seasonal or would that also fall underneath temp? I don't think those would be regular employees. Regular employees. Okay. Three internship. Jesse.

Okay. I'm just learning. be regular employees. The minimum they would be seasonal, but they wouldn't be considered temporary. Okay. All right. This is fun. Thank you. It has been a brain exercise. Any other questions? Um, yes. So, commissioners um some commissioners are currently treated as employees. Is there any um plan to move them to be temporary employees to to modify that in the in the future? I don't think that would make sense. Um bec I'm Jesse. I'm going to take that one because um as I don't know if you saw it in the Q&A there um the subject to open meeting law.

Sorry, what? Subject to open meeting law. Yeah. Well, no. That's why I explained why focus groups aren't like commissioners, right? They're appointed. They are appointed. I guess it there isn't anything about the current system for them that doesn't work. So, I don't see why we would move them. Okay. It it also wouldn't change how we treat them for the way that they're paid. Okay.

Everything would remain the same. The temporary workers are going to be paid the same way as any other city employee. It's just the how they're on boarded that we don't necessarily have job descriptions for every potential temporary employee that we would need and rather than having to come to city council and go through an extended process to create a position to be able to hire it. Um it it'll a bridge that process quite a bit.

Okay. So, not looking to to reinvent the wheel if if that's what's currently working, but I'm wondering if a commissioner is appointed for a set purpose for a limited amount of time for their term, how is that different than a temporary employee. I think that is the reason because um we generally you want what's the word you want policies to be uh to be minimalist like you don't want to introduce something where you don't need it. So if we don't need it for commissioners there isn't any reason to go through an administrative process to change that. It's not that there's a hu a great argument that why they wouldn't be treated that way. It's just that like that's working. Don't mess with it.

Okay. I feel like it might That's what's coming to mind anyway. Yeah. I I feel like it just might create an inconsistency there if if we're looking at defining a temporary employee and and honing in what that time period is and what the parameters of that is. How how are commissions distinct enough that they are being excluded? I guess I would say that I mean that's fair, right? So what's coming to mind is that a program is not a commission. Like that's would be the distinction. Okay.

The commissions also have that um potential perpetuity because of the reappointment process. So we'd be essentially renewing it over and over if they continued to reup for their seat on the commission. I guess the other way that they're different is that council comm appoints the commissioners whereas these employees are appointed by me. So that another distinction I was thinking. Thank you. Anyone else? I do appreciate the questions because as a new policy like sometimes when we're creating new things, we inadvertently do things that we didn't want to do. So as said, better to handle it now than later. Yeah, it's helpful of a brainstorm.

All right, great. Well, Jesse, thank you again. Just one for discussion. So we'll see this again once you've incorporated all those things we discussed. Yeah, look we'll discuss reporting on with staff and then uh max duration andor examples. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. On to our final item of the evening. Uh goal updates crosscutting economic fatality.

Okay. Um, so I'm just going to take this time and give you two highlights that are from the equity update. So I review the cross cutting um goals and progress and then the economic vitality goals and progress and then uh usually under cross cutting there's an equity aspect. So I take that opportunity uh in my report outs for cross cutting to review what staff have done on the equity angle. So, I just wanted to highlight something that uh most of if not all of you experience for yourself firsthand, which is the community winter supper. We It was just Yeah, that was my feeling, too. Um it was just so wonderful to see so many com people come out and just have a great time and also ask questions about the budget. That was the one little question mark. It's like, are people actually going to ask? But they definitely engaged. Angela and uh Jesse were at a table talking about the budget and our job opportunities. fire department was there and of course school district was there too and they all got questions and engagement. So it was great to see that that way of connecting with the community was effective and there was a real cross-section of folks there as far as I can tell and a lot of attendance. So that was really satisfying to me like the metric is if we can get amount of participation that's visually similar in terms of volume and diversity as the community if like we're doing really good and I felt like we were not there but close to community level. So pretty great.

I appreciate council turning out for that too. And then uh the other thing I want to mention, so the career the flexible pathways and work-based learning coordinator at the school district, Jess Hendrick, is just a dynamo of enthusiasm and good ideas and just is really out there looking out for students and even their like their adult parents uh in terms of like job opportunities and like thinking about what's possible. and she's really developed relationships with different businesses to either bring them there or have their students go out to visit and do job shadows and internships and informational interviews, the whole nine. So, she and I have been um collaborating for some time. She's tried it, we've tried a different few different models and the thing that seems to have been working is that now she puts on our calendars like three or four times a semester starting with this semester uh a group of up to five students because that's her limit for not having a CDL to be able to drive here and then some number of city department heads usually will come out and just do a Q&A with them and uh we have lunch together from a local business and then we do a tour from to two places that they pick out themselves. So, two city facilities and yeah, the I've just been really impressed with the students that come, they ask really good questions, really put us on the spot sometimes, which is great. And it's our opportunity twofold. One is like we work for them, you know, and so it's great to for them to have that level of access. I'll always remember I was in a meeting with one of the mosque community leaders and he didn't know where city wall was and he grew up here. It's like that isn't good that we have some now how not connected with you that you don't even know where city hall is your own city hall.

So it's good to have that kind of exposure and then of course we all are you know nerds about our jobs. We love our jobs and we think it's a good career path. So we like that opportunity kind of expose them to it. I always tell people like I didn't even know a planner was a thing until I was in my mid20s. So it's good to give that early exposure. Yeah. And there's no wrong path though to uh local government. I had a very unconventional path and it worked out just fine and others on team have too. So, but it's good to let people know that it's a fun career and uh meaningful. So, yeah, that's it for me.

That's great. Thank you. Um, you know, on that um not a policy discussion, but I know that we've it's kind of been floated people have reached out, you know, wanting internships in the city and I know sometimes having interns is harder. it makes makes things a lot harder. But, um, you know, I I think it could be such a a great opportunity to have an intern in the clerk's office or with you or something like that. And again, I know it's a lot of work, but it I think you you've all got a lot to share and and like you just said, it's it's hard to know that you can be a DPW director if you have no idea that there's a DPW. So,

just floating that out there. So yeah, I I was just looking through my email because I think you were copied on on one recently from Razan. Yeah. And yeah, actually we that's I don't this community is magical because we've last year we had a student a college student who graduated from Wooki High who reached out out of the blue uh for an internship and I asked her why and she said I saw your picture on the website and you looked friendly. I was like that is on you for being that brave cuz you know it's not the average person be like I'm going to go ask if I can get an internship there

anyway. So and that was great. She was our community engagement intern for a semester and this person that contacted you and Jenny. She's actually we're bringing her on for this summer too. Great. So yeah, it's fantastic. It's been great because I would love to have an b budget allocated to this meaningful work, but we haven't and we haven't asked for that. And then they come, but neither of them have needed money. So that's been um useful for our ability to be like, "Yeah, come on and let's talk about what might be interesting to you." That's great. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Yeah, I'm excited about this one, too. Yeah. No, I mean, I think it's great. I mean, it is a lot of work. You know, I'm sure many of us have been interns, but it and overseen interns

and overseen interns. Um, but yeah, I I know you're not so beneficial. So, anything else? We learn from them as much as they learned from us. 100%. Probably more of them. Brand fresh new eyes to the whole process, right? Actually, we're our annual report looks as clean as it does now because of last year's intern. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

All right. Well, it seems uh too good to be true, but uh it is 6:56. Um oh, I'll make a note. Um there hasn't been any public in attendance, so that's why I have not called for any public comment. Um but if you're watching on YouTube, which I know that some people do, um you can always send your public comment uh via email to any member of council or uh to the city manager as well if it's more operational. So with that, oh, can we ask some questions about the updates? Oh, well, I said that questions. I didn't There wasn't really I wish you like this. I I I missed. Go ahead. Go ahead. I said it was too good to be true. Go for it.

We got four three minutes. So, three minutes before seven. Um I was curious about this update in the over overarching um council updates crosscutting updates um CC6 about um parking and the efforts that you've undertaken there um and what next efforts look like to publicize parking spaces to anyone that might have interest.

Yeah. So, we are going to do a social media push, but it is a little awkward because we might get some irrelevant things and then and I haven't done that mailing yet to the proper to the landlords, which is the the main next step. Is it something that could be delegated to the housing director? I mean, she's already filling up her time card as it is. So, thinking landlords, housing Just a question. Fair enough. Just a question.

Um, so it sounds like you may even open it up to like beyond um landlords through social media postings. Yeah. I mean, it's anyone who needs a needs more parking and would find the garage convenient. Yep. Yeah. Just trying to do bang for the buck sort of thing.

Yep. Have has there been any thoughts of exploring any overflow parking either uh with the airport per se or um other partners UVM that often like UVM uses a shuttle system often for their MC. Um, could this could this be closer than Pine Street, for example? Um, or would they need more than what they have available at Pine Street? Um, I mean, there's there's shuttle systems all the time running to and from the medical center and just again trying to think broadly about what what stones have we not turned over.

That's a good point about UVM. I'm not I haven't thought that hadn't occurred to me. I'm happy to ask them. Maybe. Maybe. At this point, I've got nothing. Exactly. You don't know until you ask. That's great. Yeah. The medical center was a customer of the parking garage when it originally opened back when it was Fletcher Allen. Um, so we could always approach them again. They did use this as a a a transit location. They had a shuttle that picked up here to bring up to the hospital. So, there's some precedent to know. Yeah, indeed.

Wonderful. One of the things that came up during um a Dentonki meeting recently was that potentially employees could um I think it was Mattie at Howell Beer who brought up that you could get like a monthly parking pass. Um I don't know if and so he was saying that maybe one of the things that we could look into is business owners or employees using the garage versus using spaces. Um and so I just sent you an email so that I don't forget. Um, but so we could pass that off to or just share that information with business owners to say that rather than because obviously employees want to have particularly if you're working at night, you want to have your car as close as possible. But may maybe that they could either do like a monthly or a yearly parking pass um to utilize the space and also then to open um the parking spots up for um visitors to the city. Yeah, that's uh interesting because I did give it to Redstone and Hawen um retail, what's it called? Yeah, Hawin Retail. So, between the two, so um Redstone manage owns Wooki Block and then of course King Retail is around Spinner Place.

Uh and they were like, "We'll pass along. We'll let you know if anyone's interested." But it's I didn't give it to the business owner, so it might be Yeah. Yeah. Be a little careful. Um, yeah, Paul Keen Retail actually has a contract with us for their commercial customers. So, anybody that is in their space is currently technically covered by that contract. Um, and if additional spaces are needed, it would have to be either added to that Hawkeeen contract or um they would have to give written permission to allow that person to contract with us directly. Right. Uh but redstone doesn't isn't correct does not have so anything would be good to approach there y

um and anything down um restaurant row right you're thinking something I don't know I don't know the background of all this so I'm just going to ask questions so how is the cascades garage currently structured in terms of lease spaces and I'm assuming there's temporary spaces and there's free-for-all spaces like I I'm curious how it is structured is it 211? Yeah. So, we have a certain amount that are paid for by um MWG which is the owner for the Champlne Mill building and CCV and um VSAC and Hen um

retail and residential and the residential. Yeah.

So, between those and then CCV is actually going to move to Oh, spinner. Yep. And then CCV is actually going to move to Abanaki once that's done because it's closer for them for them. So that those le those agreements don't cover all the spaces because you wouldn't want that obviously. Uh but it's underutilized and so the whole parking system relies now relies on us being able to me being able to lease out 210 or 11 more spaces in order for the financing to work out for the new garage because the all of the parking system so that's on street parking uh paid and then the two garages are in one fund to subsidize the Abnaki garage construction. So that's why for many years it was like it was fine cascade. It was managed very well in terms of the capital fund. Uh but then and it was it gave got a big goo boost because it was paid for initially from uh

the tiff. Yeah. The tiff. Yeah. But now that we're doing Abanaki kind of on our own, it's uh it's a little bit more precarious. So and it is since Yeah. people who have been on council and the business community will talk about how like the current garage feels scary. So, you know, we've talked a lot about what we might do to make it feel more inviting. Uh but in the mean in the meantime, more usage can make it feel better. So, we're hoping that just getting more people in there will help with that perception while we're working on funding the security perception improvements. So, it's not

I do want to make it very clear that this is anticipated. We knew that we were going to have to sell these spaces. This was not something that came up late. This was always in the proarma that we knew we were going to have to sell these spaces. So, just the clock's ticking down now. Yeah. One other potential um opportunity. What about uh UVM student life? Uh what about them? Just reaching out. Have you thought about asking them or could

especially for the Trinity campus? I would assume. So there are students that are um underass and are may be living or you know not local to Vermont or even local to Vermont that are not able to have cars on campus and they may have an interest in having a car accessible to them but have no place to safely store it. My understanding of that is UVM doesn't want them to have cars because of congestion issues. But we want them to have cars. We do want to have cars. I just I I they might not co-promote is what you're saying.

Feel free to reach out. I think they will tell you no. But there are other channels at this point. I am in I am in rock turning over mode. So I will turn over that rock. And if it's no, then it's no worse than we are now. But there are student newspapers and student social media accounts that we might be able to leverage. Appreciate that. Yep. Appreciate the brainstorm. Okay, that was that was what I had about that topic. I don't have appreciate it.

Um, if you're not able to get to that email and Jasmine is too full, I can also send that email. Uh it would take as little work as me actually getting to it. So I just need Yeah. Okay. I will get to it. Maybe tomorrow for some of our our meeting we we can do the email together. Just body doubling. Yeah, I'm good. Anything else? I'm good. Mayor Hunter Deputy Mayor, please. Um, in that case, the time is 7:06. I need to I will call to adjourn this meeting. All those in favor? I

I have a wonderful night everybody. I did appreciate the new ideas because Hey. Hey. Hey.