City Council

City of Winooski 27 West Allen Street Winooski Vermont 05404 Vermont’s Opportunity City 802 655 6410 winooskivt.gov Winooski City Council - Remote and In-Person Meeting Monday, October 3, 2022, at 6 PM • Attend online: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84364849328 • Attend by phone: 1 646 558 8656 • Webinar ID: 843 6484 9328 • Attend in-person: Winooski City Hall (27 West Allen Street) I. Call to Order II. Agenda Review III. Public Comment IV. Consent Agenda a. Approval: City Council Minutes of 9/19/22 b. Approval: Accounts Payable Warrant 9/29/22 c. Approval: Payroll Warrant 9/4/22-9/17/22 d. Approval: FY23 21C Grant Approval e. Approval: Authorized Official Resolution -NBRC f. Approval: Event Permit- Halloween in Winooski V. Council Updates VI. City Updates VII. Regular Items a. Discussion/Approval: CSWD Bond Vote Presentation – E Wang b. Discussion: TMTV Municipal Update - K Lott c. Discussion/Approval: Reserve Fund Request – J Rauscher d. Discussion: Goal Update: Safe, Healthy Connected People - R Coffey e. Discussion/Approval: Communications Director Position Scope – E Wang f. Discussion/Approval: Hallkeen Request – E Wang g. Discussion: ARPA/TIF for FY24 Budget Goal Setting – E Wang, K Lott h. Discussion/Approval: VLCT Municipal Policy – K Lott VIII. Executive Session – E Wang/J Rauscher/A Aldieri Executive Session Pursuant to 1 V.S.A. Section 313 (E) Pending or Probable Civil Litigation or a Prosecution, to which the Public Body is or may be a Party. IX. Adjourn  MINUTES The Mayor called the meeting to order at 6:20 pm. Members Present: Mayor Kristine Lott Deputy Mayor James Duncan Councilors: Bryn Oakleaf, Aurora Hurd, Thomas Renner Officers Present: Elaine Wang, City Manager; Janet Brouard, Sr Asst City Clerk; Angela Aldieri, Finance Director; Ray Coffey, Community Services Director; Jon Rauscher, Public Works Director; Eric Vorwald, Planning/Zoning Manager; Jenny Willingham, City Clerk Others Present: Kevin Harms, Meghan O’Rourke, Jordan Mitchell, Town Meeting TV; Michele Morris, Beth Parents, Chittenden Solid Waste District; Ted Brady, Vermont League of Cities and Towns; Jeremy Collins, Connor Daley, Rachel, Bill, Marielle M, Parker Silver. Ed Furci, Dylan Lovel, Native East LLC. II. Agenda Review – None III. Public Comment The Mayor said we received a public comment request from Jane Weiss, unfortunately Ms. Weiss is not here tonight. The Mayor read her request regarding the Pledge of Allegiance being said at City Council Meetings but students are not allowed to start their day with the same. The Mayor will reach out to Ms. Weiss and have her contact the school. Parker Silver wanted to address the Council regarding interest in being on the Inclusion and Belonging Commission as well as being appointed ambassador to the Finance Commission. Parker highlighted several interests as well as past work history. The Mayor thanked Parker for attending tonight and hopes to see an appointment at a future meeting. IV. Consent Agenda a. Approval: City Council Minutes of 9/19/22 b. Approval: Accounts Payable Warrant 9/29/22 c. Approval: Payroll Warrant 9/4/22-9/17/22 d. Approval: FY23 21C Grant Approval e. Approval: Authorized Official Resolution -NBRC f. Approval: Event Permit- Halloween in Winooski MOTION by Councilor Renner seconded by Councilor Oakleaf to approve the Consent agenda as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. V. Council Updates Councilor Renner – wanted to give a shout out that Halloween is fast approaching, and we all love the pumpkin display. Each year it takes a lot of volunteers to get, carve and set up the pumpkins. Councilor Renner encourages folks to contact either the Downtown Association or City Hall to get more information. Councilor Duncan – The Housing Commission met focusing on current housing issues. The meeting consisted moistly of questions and inquiries on the eviction policy. They agreed that it would be too soon to bring it to vote in March. Much more work needs to be done first. Mayor Lott – both the City Manager and I met with a team from Comcast to discuss our local internet access. The purpose was to investigate affordable home internet access, especially for our school age students. Councilor Oakleaf – The Municipal Infrastructure Commission met jointly with the Finance Commission. The next meeting will be October 11th. We received a new application for the open alternate position. The CSWD board met last week, topics included the upcoming Bond Vote, giving the Executive Director the authority to proceed with a rental agreement for new administrative offices to be located in South Burlington. Councilor Hurd – The next SHCP Commission meeting will be on October 11th at which time they will be reviewing the COVD Recovery Grant program requests. The 2nd Inclusion and Belonging meeting will be held on October 13th at 6pm at the O’Brien Community Center. VI. City Updates • COVID wastewater detection trends, masking, tests, and bivalent vaccines o To find a walk-in clinic near you, visit healthvermont.gov/covid-19/vaccine, or call 2-1-1 • Board and Commission seats currently open: Winooski Commission for Inclusion and Belonging, Town Meeting TV Trustee, Finance Commission, Municipal Infrastructure Commission, Safe/Healthy/Connected People Commission – learn more and apply, visit our news updates section at winooskivt.gov • Serve through AmeriCorps in Winooski – Recreation Operations AmeriCorps Member for the 2022 and 2023 service years. Learn more & apply at winooskivt.gov/jobs • November Election around the corner – not yet registered to vote? Visit winooskivt.gov/vote or connect with the City Clerk’s Office: 802 655 6410, clerk@winooskivt.gov, M – F 7:30 AM – 4:30 PM o CSWD Materials Recovery Facility bond vote to be included on ballot, CSWD is looking to replace their 30-year-old processing center. Learn more at cswd.net and tonight • If you are looking to develop affordable housing as a developer, as a homeowner on your own property, or need a bit of extra help with a down payment as in buying your first home and it is in Winooski, please note that the Winooski Housing Trust Fund is available to potentially help you. Go to winooskivt.gov, click on current initiatives, housing resources and initiatives, and then Winooski Housing Trust Fund. Or call 802-655-6410. Applications are available in English, Arabic, Burmese, French, Nepali, Pashto, Somali, Swahili, and Vietnamese. Spoken Language support and application support is available through the loan program administrator, Opportunities Credit Union, you can stop in at their branch in downtown Winooski at 25 Winooski Falls Way VII. Regular Items a. Discussion/Approval: CSWD Bond Vote Presentation – E Wang Michelle Morris of CSWD gave a presentation of how the bond vote came to fruition. She said the current facility was built in 1993 and is currently at maximum capacity. She said they have seen a huge increase in recyclables over the past several years. Their current facility is processing up towards 47,000 tons of material, which is double that for which it was designed. The system is inefficient, no flexibility and limits the amount Vermonters can recycle. The proposed new system will run on optical sorters, eliminating manual sorting and loss of valuable recyclables. The facility’s increased square footage will allow for new conveyors to enable better sorting and obtain a higher quality output. Storage will be maintained within the facility thus limiting the effects of weather to the product. The ability to adapt to high demand, the greater number of recyclables removed from the landfills and waste stream, this new facility will process up to 70,000 tons of recyclables per year and should last for another 30 years. CSWD is asking voters to approve a twenty-two million bond to be paid back over 25 years through operational revenue. It is CSWD’s goal to keep fees as low as possible while continuing to provide maximum recycling efforts. Discussions continued with consensus by Council in favor of the project. The Mayor thanked Ms. Morris for her presentation. Ballots are available at the Clerk’s office, or you can request one to be sent. b. Discussion: TMTV Municipal Update – K Lott Meghan O’Rourke, Channel Director said Town Meeting TV was designed to engage participation in the ongoing work of local governments. It was launched in 1990. It produces live streams, records, distributes and maintains archives storage of municipal meetings, regional events, education programs to promote public awareness and participation. There are currently six communities that use the services provided. TMTV worked with each municipality during the pandemic to install and support a high-quality hybrid meeting system. This insured that work of local government would still reach those in the community. The Mayor thanked Ms. O’Rourke for being her tonight. Winooski appreciates all that TMTV does to support our viewers. c. Discussion/Approval: Reserve Fund Request – J Rauscher City Manager Wang said that our City policy allows for assigning reserve funds to a one-time operating costs or capital project. Staff is currently requesting the use of these funds in three separate categories to include line stripping, TIF report and multi-factor authentication. Jon Rauscher, Public Work Director said the FY23 budget includes $12,000 for contracted street painting work. We are looking to increase the scope of work to work with a more durable epoxy paint material. The scope of work will continue to be, Downtown area, Malletts Bay Ave, Main Street and Weaver Street focusing on intersections and crosswalks. Some discussion ensued over the need for such areas, especially the Mayor had a concern over why we were doing the bike lanes on Malletts Bay Ave when they were just done a couple of years ago. Mr. Rauscher said he will investigate the need but when the first assessment was done, he found them in need of repair. The Mayor said the next area for request is for the TIF Report. Ted Brady, Executive Director of the Vermont Leagues of Cities and Towns was present to answer any questions. He said this assessment will be covered by the ten communities to the sum of $40,000. This amount seems to be unequitable given the size of communities involved, therefore City Manager Wang is recommending approval of half of the requested amount, or $2,000. The Mayor thanked Mr. Brady for attending and giving an overview of the TIF assessment need. Th final area is for a multi-factor Authentication. Ms. Aldieri said that in September 2021, the VLCT conducted a cybersecurity review of municipalities information technology infrastructure. Some recommendations have been implemented at no or low cost to the City. However, one was the use of multi-factor authentication for remote and cloud-based systems. The work would be done by our current provider in an amount not to exceed $6,500. MOTION by Councilor Renner seconded by Councilor Oakleaf to approve the Reserve Fund Requests as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. d. Discussion: Goal Update: Safe, Healthy Connected People - R Coffey Mr. Coffey presented the Priorities and Strategies update including a monitoring plan highlighting progress to date. Mr. Coffey stated that every area seems to be on schedule except the Public Health Huddles have not been as often as hoped. He gave an overview of the past summer season. They had a successful pool season, seeing an increase in both resident and non-resident season pass holders. He was excited to report that there were 950 youths that passed the deep- water swim test. That is a huge accomplishment! Councilor Oakleaf gave thanks to Ray and staff for a great summer season. It is nice to see our investment getting well utilized. Some discussion continued in the areas of School Resource Officer. The Winooski School Superintendent began conversations about pivoting from an SRO to public safety liaison plus on-premises staff safety officer model. There are a lot of items to work out and timing of such. e. Discussion/Approval: Communications Director Position Scope – E Wang City Manager Wang said that back in September 2021 City Council approved a title change on the Communications Coordinator position to Communications Manager. This change was primarily due to expanded job responsibilities. City Manager Wang stated that the position is evolving once again. She feels the position is now at a director level in that the responsibilities have been broadened to include playing a greater role on the Leadership Team, playing a key role in the equity and inclusion goals, increased responsibility to interact with the public and other community members. Some discussion ensued with all agreeing that the role if vital to the City’s growth moving forward. MOTION by Councilor Duncan seconded by Councilor Hurd to approve the Communications Director position scope as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. The Mayor called a 5-minute recess. Meeting to reconvene at 8:11pm f. Discussion/Approval: Hallkeen Request – E Wang City Manager met with Andy Burns of Hallkeen Management. They currently manage the property at 85 Winooski Falls Way known as Keen’s Crossing. The buildings consist of 213 housing units. In 2020 Keen’s crossing experienced two major sprinkler pipe breaks that caused significant water damage. To eliminate the chance of future breaks, the entire sprinkler system must be replaced. Hallkeen has secured financing but is now asking the City for help by approving the modification of the repayment terms on their two loans held by the City of Winooski. This will include extending the interest only payment period by three years. According to our Finance Director this impact would result in a reduction of $45,364 over the three year period, however the interest- only payments would increase over the life of the notes by $194,773.60. MOTION by Councilor Renner seconded by Councilor Duncan to approve the Hallkeen request as presented. Voted and passed 3-0. Councilor Oakleaf abstained. g. Discussion: ARPA/TIF for FY24 Budget Goal Setting – E Wang, K Lott Finance Director Angela Aldieri said we are coming into budget season and at the next Council meeting you will need to consider the FY24 budget goals to include, funding priorities, areas of service increases/reductions, any new programs or initiatives. There are a few areas of known increases already, COLA, Health insurance costs, SRO position, non-union pay plan up for review. She said we should have the full amount of ARPA monies in FY23 and will be able to start using the TIF revenue in FY25. She said there is a broad list of how the monies can be used. She created an excel spreadsheet to show impacts to the General Fund based on each key points of consideration. Lengthy discussions ensued. The Mayor said this is a great exercise to perform so that we spend the funds in the wisest way possible. h. Discussion/Approval: VLCT Municipal Policy – K Lott Each year the Vermont Leagues of Cities and Towns set their Municipal Policy. A draft is sent out to each municipality for review. The Policy will be voted upon at this year’s Town Fair during the annual business meeting. City Manager Wang will be Winooski’s voting delegate. Councilor Duncan said he would abstain from voting on this item due to a conflict of interest. There were some concerns regarding the item on page 4 under 2.0 Transportation, VLCT opposes, #3 “using transportation fund money to pay for projects required by the Agency of Natural Resources such as Stormwater mitigation projects mandated to comply with stormwater regulations” There were some concerns over the intent. The Mayor asked City Manager Wang to reach out to the League for further clarification. MOTION by Councilor Renner seconded by Councilor Oakleaf to direct the Voting Delegate to ask for clarification on opposition position #2 from the Transportation topic, using Transportation Fund money to pay for non-transportation purposes, and, if it would inhibit Winooski’s spending in a way the City has done previously, for the Voting Delegate to vote against that opposition position. Voted and passed 3-0 Councilor Duncan abstained. MOTION by Councilor Oakleaf seconded by Councilor Renner “if the opposition #2 from the Transportation topic was not struck, to direct the Voting Delegate to offer the amendment ‘VLCT opposes using Transportation Fund money to pay for non-transportation purposes unless the municipality that is impacted has a say on that use.’” Voted and passed 3-0. Councilor Duncan abstained. MOTION by Councilor Renner seconded by Councilor Hurd Pursuant to 1 V.S.A. (1) (E) Pending or Probable Civil Litigation or a Prosecution, to which the Public Body is or may be a Party, feel that further discussions should be held in Executive Session. Voted and passed 4-0. VIII. Executive Session – E Wang/J Rauscher/A Aldieri Pursuant to 1 V.S.A. (1) (E) Pending or Probable Civil Litigation or a Prosecution, to which the Public Body is or may be a Party MOTION by Councilor Duncan seconded by Councilor Oakleaf to enter Executive Session and invite City Manager Elaine Wang and Finance Director Angela Aldieri. Voted and passed 4-0. MOTION by Councilor Oakleaf seconded by Councilor Renner to adjourn the Executive Session at 9:40 pm Voted and passed 4-0. IX. Adjourn MOTION by Councilor Oakleaf seconded by Councilor Hurd to adjourn the meeting at 9:41 pm. Voted and passed 4-0. ATTEST: ___________________________________ Sr Asst City Clerk