day I mentioned there's a lot of momentum behind it and I think I just mentioned that schools are asking for help but I think agencies also have a hard time getting into school to navigate it into the school system so using the relationship that Lego has established using this vehicle as a way to get in there's a lot of good things that are coming your way and that if it's not necessarily first Susan I school but to the whole entire district because of this model one thing I didn't mention that's going to be a part of the center will be there will be a call center that will be available to the students after hours and that's a place where there will be referral referrals as well as you know immediate listening a responsiveness helpline kind of responsiveness but I think in terms of your question about homelessness I mean we will be available to the students at during the school day and after school and then we'll help as much as we can through that call center and then after hours I'd like to before we close I'd like to thank both Jose and Ellen for coming here and also in particular give credit to the new superintendent of Lakeville relatively new superintendent Deborah duardo she came in now I think this is her third year and her first year she called a meeting and recall in November of the superintendent's in the area and broke us into small groups and asked us what can let go do to help you and I was like many other people voicing the concern that our kids need supports that aren't available in the community and that it many other supports traditionally have gone to LAUSD because of its size but that there were many other students in many districts throughout the county that had students who just needed just as much support and I appreciate her willingness to to listen to us and to act on that she you know her leadership in touching base with the different departments to get them on board and being willing to work with us and to facilitate that is really to her credit so thank you both Ellen and Jose and please convey to to Debra how much I appreciate her support all right so we'll move on to item nine point four consider approval of consultant Marilyn M Snyder & Associates resolution 1819 129 to make a motion to approve or are we gonna have a presentation okay second there's motion by J by with Vogel second by Adrian Greer any discussion um Linda can you just talk about what what will be happening with you okay sure so one of the things that districts engage in from time to time is really looking carefully at their strategic plan in the direction of the district and this is just did that in 2012 they took a deep dive into thinking about what is laying a hand for our district we did it again with the implement or the beginning of the El Cap the local control accountability plan and developing goals as a board and then again goals tightly focused on the El Cap and in trying to make sure that there was a tight alignment between those this is going to be an opportunity Marilyn Schneider is a california-based consultant who works with school districts and cities as they are analyzing their strategic plan in their strategic direction to facilitate the conversation with school boards with administrators with teachers with classified staff with parents to get a sense of what is the direction in which to which people have a consensus movement forward question yes she will be working with the district and towards the end of June and she comes with an associate and she actually comes for two sessions this the agreement with her will allow us to have a session in June and then again six months later to will in June we'll look at what will be the goals and the and the metrics that we'll use in the six months later we'll gather again to check our progress I shall be facilitating both of those with her associate seeing them please place your vote motion passes 5-0 moving on we have item nine point five the 2018-19 local control and accountability plan April update once again who do you mean for president or members superintendent before we begin the presentation I want to kind of just build a little bit of context the AL cap is approved in the month of June and that sets in motion well what we are doing that following year right and so in the in June last year of 18 even though we didn't approve an L cap we talked about the AL cap and the actions and services that we were taking so we are taking those actions and services we're looking at those metrics we're spending money on our budget we came to you in January and gave you an update and said okay as of as of December this is how we're doing with our metrics is how we're doing with our actions and services this is our how we're doing with our budget today is the second update even though it says April update it's really a February update because that's when we're started collecting data so your position what I'd like to do is only highlight what's different now from January but the reason we we still give the full report is for those who want to write read it a little bit more carefully for our community because this is a public document that that is obviously on our board agenda and also as a reminder this has a sister document that is even bigger and more dense than this and that is also on our website and also in Spanish so this is available as well if if people really really want to dig in so again with your permission I just like to highlight some of the the things that are different from the last time we were up here presenting this to you Oh Kathy I think you're going to have to do it because either the battery's out yep one more one more okay so here will be our first stop I just want to point out that in 1819 when we look at our propylene teachers when we came in January that was ninety nine point six since then that has been rectified and corrected and so we are now at a hundred percent in that area okay here we're going to take a quick quick stop here we have increased the number of students enrolled in an orchestra adding 11 additional students since the last time we were here present to you oops our budget has definitely changed from the last time that we came here and so if you if you look at this almost 75% of this budget has already been expended and remember just as a quick reminder this is as of February so expenditures have happened since since then as well so that that's Bowl 1 which is around soon achievement goal 2 which is really around our English learners we wanted to stop here at our reclassification rate so in 1819 the last time we were here that was 9% since then we have increased the number of Els who have reclassified this is a dynamic number unlike like s back where it's like one-time testing this is a process and something that's continuously moving so this is not the final number but we have had a three percent increase from the last time we were here in January again in regards to our budget we continue to have our expenditures about a million dollars more from the last time that we were here again we continue to expand and we continue to use those funds goal 3 is all around college and career readiness and so for that we want to make a quick stop all the way to our budget this one we have that's kind of thank you we have as of February we have about half of our expenditures done from this budget unlike goal 1 2 4 & 5 susan has been doing an amazing job of securing additional grants particular to college and career readiness and so when possible those grants are used and so that's why we see a little bit of slowdown but again this continues to be a fund and an area that that we continue to do that we continue to expand both forwards are all around parent and student engagement and so if we look at can you lower that a little bit Kathy please yeah so if we look at our engagement indicators we have we do have a change here in the chronic absent absenteeism we do have a 1% uptick so that's something that we're continuously looking at but we do have a downtick in suspensions that to point to the last time that we were here in January so a small a small down take on that I'm not going to speak too much about this because we have a presentation all around the survey and about the survey but we we do see a 61 drop from last year but it's still well over the number of surveys that we mean in regards to a robust sample size in regards to some of the outcomes again I'm not gonna spend too much time we have a whole presentation on this but you do see enough tick from last year's survey to this year's survey in regards to Tucson some of the things specific things that the parents are feeling about our district in regards to safety and participation and engagement and connectedness kind of the same trend here with a goal for roughly about 50% in February and again we continue to expand on those goals and then finally goal 5 is about the learning environment and the school climate and for that one we again same same kind of pattern with about 50% through through February of 2019 I do want to pause just a little bit here because this is important and this is different and we're getting very very close to some some big pieces in regards to the out cap this week we're meeting with the parent advisory committee plus on Thursday then we meet again the following Friday and then we meet again only after that this pack plus this week is to really dive into this update you dive into the survey and really set the stage for next steps because the following week is when we we take for the first time we take a template of proposals for for the outcome and so we go line by line in a in a small you know fashion with lots of opportunity to ask questions and clarification and and we go through a process where they're going to be able to give input or ask Wyatt why are we doing this why is this this whoa what where's this green coming from and so just to kind of talk that the room really keep our ear to the ground in regards to what they are advising so that what we present to the Board of Education we come prepared with that so that you understand kind of that process that that we are that we are going through we will do the same thing with the Board of Education kind of going step by step on on the owl cap and and then from there we produce our annual update which will come to you in June for a public hearing and then finally for an approval questions so I just have one question and we might get to it on the survey portion you talked about the the thousand 50 or whatever it is as as being more than what we need to have a robust sample size do we can you send them do you know or can you send them in what what is that sample size and also the competence and confidence interval is that something that okay thank you all right thank you very much all right nine point six the district annual survey presentation hello again board members and dr.
Kaminsky and this is a great little segue right into our our survey results for the 2018 2019 school year back in January February we instituted our survey all the surveys are done in-house now and so we sent surveys out to our all of our stakeholders our parents our students grades 6 through 12 and our staff members and I have to just pause and thank all of the efforts by so many people who helped to to get this survey out and in the hands of all the people and as many as possible to take it that would be our principals our community liaison it's our communications department Lika and Sam does constant you know Facebook and Twitter and whatever I could talk them into putting it on and just really making sure people were aware that they have an opportunity to have a voice in what we're doing and how we are constantly trying to be better in Azusa Unified School District so thank you directors and department heads as well who all can contribute to collecting the results for us so we as as just like the El Cap update today tonight I'm gonna give you a host night isn't it tonight I'm going to give you really kind of a big overview and I'm gonna do this as a team with some of the directors from our heads services department of some of the results but just like with the El Cap you have and you received in your Friday packet a full written analysis of the survey results and this is also available to the public honor site in English and in Spanish so that everybody can see the results of what we have and what we're using as pieces of data to really drive some decision-making in our district and in our schools as well because principals will also get their site level data that they can use to really analyze what's happening at sites and where the next steps are so the first thing I'd like to do is kind of give you a bit of a snapshot on Kathy next slide this is a snapshot of who the participants are and this first slide gives you a picture of our parents and yes this is about 50 fewer respondents for our parents and so as someone who's always trying to analyze the whys and let's see this year we had more social media we had an incentive based on a donation from a community member with gave away two seventy five dollar gift cards our parent our principals did presentations so we're gonna look at it we obviously we have really good we have enough good sample size but the more people that can take the survey and feel like they're having a voice the better in our district and so I would continue to look at how we can and I'm gonna do that with pact Plus this week what are some ideas that they have for parents in particular how can we better get this this survey out to them and get them completely completing that so with that said you get a pretty good breakdown of where grade levels the higher levels elementary middle and high schools and then by grade and you can see it's a very balanced representation by a great level of the parents that took our survey our students again very balanced we had a big increase this was a thousand more students this year we're able to take our students survey than last year and so again schools doing concerted efforts principals teachers taking time to have students voice their input on the questions on our survey and so again this is great obviously from the chart grades 6 through 12 and and it's very balanced we tended to get just about similar amounts from all grade levels next was our staff and you can see this is about 224 additional staff members this year that we have take the survey and the graph really represents the numbers we do have our largest two groups our teachers and our classified staff so it's to be expected that the percent of respondents were higher in those two areas but this again is you a great snapshot of who's contributing their voice alright next slide thank you so I'd like to give you three slides that give you a very big overall level of satisfaction a couple of the questions on the survey and share these with you tonight in this forum and of course you can get into the big deep the deeper details of those in the written report I've also taken a moment a opportunity here to show you last year's results and I want to just kind of talk about that briefly before we go further you can see at the top we have this year's 1819 survey and we have the strongly agree and strongly disagree and I know you can't see it on the slide can you roll the slide up just a little bit more Kathy there we go you can see that last year we had a middle but it really is an ambivalent response and if you recall we've had conversations about this talked about it within our leadership in its services and decided let's let's take that ambivalence out because it really doesn't give us any good in for me let's let's force a choice let's let's force people to really think through whether they agree or disagree or whether they're satisfied or not satisfied right we've talked about that because we weren't sure if maybe they didn't understand right so that that's great so so I just want you to be aware of that as we look at the results and if you do compare and and from last year you know to keep this in mind and to remember that you know when we look here we go seventy percent of parents are satisfied with experiences at their students school this was last year and then we jump up to this year we have eighty seven percent and you know an initial thought is that's great that's a good improvement and and to really ensure that that is good growth what we want to look at is definitely what changed in this yellow area which tells us where did these people go last year these were are ambivalent people did we see the majority of them move towards agree or did we see them moving towards disagree and so notice here are 13 14 about 1% when they really thought about their satisfaction about their experience in their schools 1% said you know I don't agree I'm not but 16 percent I'm gonna forced to make a choice and you know I am I am so again I just want to make sure that we're looking if we're doing comparisons that we're looking through that lens notice this one this again a very positive B I mean it's different because we have a larger number of our ambivalent folks moving in to disagree and then so the growth here is is that we have what is it about five six five people five percent here moving into the disagree so keep that in mind overall what I do want to say is overall when we look through all of the questions and all of the results as we compare from dear to this year for the most part what we saw was the majority of the ambivalent responders last year were responding in the positive so when we look at that overall view we can say you know we do have some improvement and you'll see later on you can actually there's some real clear clear growth and shrinkage of the strongly disagree and disagree so as we look at parents let me see them let me go on to the I can't do it next next slide let's go on to the students and you can see here as the students overall again overall satisfaction and comparisons between last year and this year we had almost a third of a student's for example doing the ambivalent response here and so while we did see an 11% increase here the majority of them were strongly agreeing that they feel like they have some opportunities for input so is there any way that you put on the strongly disagree why so we know how we could yeah so with with some of the questions there well the very end of it I should say at the very end we do provide an open and did you know what else would you like to tell us but one of the most powerful things as you heard earlier is that I took these results to our student al-kahf committee and I began to have them have discussions and dialogue around them and they looked at the numbers they did the comparison they were thrilled that they were the very first ones in the entire district to see the results of the student survey they said the board hasn't even seen these I said no so and they really dug in deep around what was going on and they give some amazing amazing feedback to us on you know what you do next yeah so again this is our students kind of overall big picture view of some satisfaction levels and and feeling like they have voice I'm excited to see next year as we use this the same measurements with only the four four choices and no longer having an ambivalent response to see that comparison as well and again we're getting some very good data we are continually trying to improve the information that we get and be able to use it in ways that will contribute to improving what we do for students here now these next few slides are going to come up I'm going to bring up my wonderful esteemed colleagues who will share Dana Mitchell will come up and she will share goal one she'll be followed by Norma Camacho who will share goal two and then Susan brochet will come and share goal three followed by Gary Creole who will share goal four and then after that I will come up and close it out with a review of just a few points on each each of these slides around our El Cap goals good evening okay cool one is around our actions and services that serve to improve academic achievement and close achievement gaps and overall we definitely see some very positive indicators from the data one in particular last year in 2017-18 we put in one question for students regarding opportunities that they believe that they had for academic discourse and collaboration and it really as a result of our professional learning and this was the year that we had a the beginning of our professional learning with Callie really focusing on student increasing student engagement opportunities providing students with increased opportunities for academic discourse using rigorous relevant complex text tasks and questioning and so the data show that 93% of student respondents agree that there are opportunities for collaboration and academic dialogue in their classes reflecting an increase of almost eighteen percent from the prior year so it's very exciting data so goal two focuses around the academic achievement and services for our English learners and overall we saw a positive trend an increase of positive perceptions of our ell programs specifically the need for professional learning we saw a decrease from all of our stakeholders in identifying professional learning for English learners as a need due to the concerted efforts and providing professional learning for all of our staff parents in the area of designated eld and as well as integrated ELT and as well as the callee efforts around oral language development and academic discourse ok goal 3 is all students college and career ready and it is very apparent that under perception data the students the staff the parents all in some cases a 50% increase in positive perception the key here and I shared this with the counseling staff because they have a large role in the college and career readiness when I shared this information their biggest concern was that it wasn't a hundred percent and and more importantly that the amount of staff student to parents respondents was about 50 percent so there was about 50% of the people out there they want to do your problem so one of the things that they're committed to doing is in all of the secondary counselors is creating a calendar of activities that identify some specific objectives and outcomes and that at a more frequent basis they actually do the perception surveys immediately that they do some outcome data immediately one so that it can inform their practice and two that they feel a higher confidence that they're actually hearing from everybody about how they really feel and what they actually know and are able to do so that's a that's one of their key objectives good-evening goal four is stakeholder input on parent and student engagement leadership and positive perceptions with this Unified School District and as you can see and has been the case for most of the other data that we've looked at there have been some real significant gains the to the job out to me on here are students feeling safe at school number one and two students feeling connected and I want to start with students feeling safe at school and remind the board and everyone here that feeling safe at school isn't necessarily you know indicative of what's going on at that particular school there are things happening in the community and in the country and whatnot and all of that informs how kids are feeling at school and in my conversations with students about safety at school we didn't really talk about their school we talked about things that were happening and but that's in students heads they think about it it's in their parents minds you know when they send their kids to school so you know we do have things in place at our schools you know the aloes training and different things like that and we're rolling out those those different sort of programs to help teachers you know know better what to do if there were some sort of a crisis the other thing that I wanted to speak to is the connectedness and I think it's interesting that 86% of the parents felt that their students were engaged in connected at school but only 70% of the students about that seven out of ten isn't bad but we need to remember that there are 30% of students who aren't for whatever reason feeling connected at their school and so we need to do a better job of finding out you know why that is and so goal 5 is around our learning environment and school climates and you know a couple of areas that we saw significant growth was you know just in the repair repair maintenance um timeliness we know that we've been focusing in that area in our maintenance and operations transportation department and we did see a decrease in the amount of dissatisfied or non agreement with that and also an interesting similar to what Gary mentioned an interesting difference between parents and students parents and staff and students when we look at clean and maintain facilities and so one of the things I think as we look at this data that that we can dive into deeper and try to uncover more about and address is you know what is the difference is the student perception is different than the staff and the parents with regard to clean and maintain facilities what are they seeing what are they describing and again this is where we dig in with our students figure out what's going on and that will help inform changes and improvements so this is a very general look it's some of the key results and of course as I said this is this is a public document with much detailed description of every single question and all of the populations that we surveyed but if at any time anybody would like to sit down go through it whether a board member wants to come through and understand things a little bit better and understand what happens with these results I'm happy to do that also with anybody in the public that wants to make sure they understand because this this booklet is really about our transparency and about showing that we're not just asking you to say okay check off we did a survey cuz we're supposed to we really want to know we want that impact we want that feedback because it helps us get better so thank you I want to thank you for the great presentation and I know I know you all work very hard all the whole team too you know everywhere I want I'd see you you know passing out flyers or in panic or question about different locations and parents and it's really good thank you I see a big difference in last year on the participation any other questions or comments it's really nice to see how the data shows the responses and I would like to sit down with you just took just because I love KO'ing data and just to just for kicks yeah thanks thank you moving on we have the consent calendar so all items listed on the consent are considered routine and will be taken in one a single motion so unless anybody wishes to pull an item I will entertain a motion at this point to approve the consent calendar motion by Jerry Bibles logo second by Gabriela Ariana's to approve the consent calendar any discussion no please place your votes motion passes five-0 moving on we have item 12.1 approve attendance and National Alliance on Mental Illness Nami for class in high school is there a motion second motion by Jeff de la Dianna second by Yolanda Rodriguez Pena any discussion please place your boats motion passes 5 0 moving on we have item 13.1 reject all bids for network cabinets and make a motion to approve 13.1 second all right any discussion I have a question I'm since we've rejected these bids in the next item what what happens next the project for network cabinets will be included in a project that we expect a larger project that we expect in the future probably about a year so this is on an advice of our ear a consultant so we won't be getting our cabinets for a while then that is correct what does that mean for the are the needs of the district Marvin would you like to address that please this actually was part of an e-rate bit we had when bob was here he had put into the project to move for ideas with our new group that was decided to keep them in their location so we had about $35,000 we thought I'd be very funny we were trying to recoup by putting cabinets in places that we needed them to replace some of the cabinets it turned out that after our consultant kind of look through the numbers it was actually closer to $20,000 of money we could have used it would have cost us like 60 to 80 thousand dollars our budget to get the additional cabinets within a year we'll have the big great project at that point we're going to go back through and redo all of the cabinets that need to be replaced in the district that's the large money with within a year of tears and the cabinet's that we need it's possible would be part of the modernization does that mean in the decision of right now the phase four Slauson they're gonna have to wait two years for their cabinets No Oh their cabinets will be part of the modernization if we replace any of those we have cabinets everywhere it's just the new switches and equipment is bigger than the old cabinets side so we probably will need to go through and take those out and replace it with bigger cabinets it's we can either like cut the ones out of there and then they become unusable to put a bigger cabinet around it or we can take they put them down move the cabinet and put the equipment back in which is a lot more expensive and we use our consultants or whatever service we use to kind of do that okay so I'm gonna ask for us to go do a vote now there's a motion in a second on the table place your vote motion passes 5-0 moving on we have item 13 point to reject all bids for phase 3 fencing improvements at various sites their motion I'll make a motion to approve is there a second second motion by Jerry Bibles volcko second by Adrian Greer any discussion we have some elaboration on no this is different will have Linda can you give us an update on this in the Friday packet all right so that means mean it was an update what I think they're gonna go go I don't know are they are you glad to rebid with this one it's the next item to go out to read it okay all right so um everyone everyone please place their votes motion passes five-0 moving at we have item 13.3 award bid of 18 one one two for Phase three fencing improvements at various sites it's the Reeb it is their motion make a motion to approve 13.3 motion by Yolanda Rodriguez Pena second by Gabriela Ariana's any discussion seeing none please place your votes motion passes 5-0 moving on we have item 13.4 award a bid 18 1 134 to underground utility replacement at Paramount elementary school is there a motion well should you wish by a drink beer a second by out Gabriela Ariana's any discussion just place your votes motion passes 5-0 moving on we have item 13.5 approved notice of completion for United mechanical contractors for the HVAC and roofing replacement and new fire alarm installation at Charles Lee elementary school I think you should jump route 13 point 5 gabby be chillin cavity Alameda motion second governor I danced me to motion seconded by Yolanda Ortigas benya any discussion please place your votes motion passes by zero moving on we have three informational items about board policies I'm just gonna take them all together does anybody have any any questions and I'm the policies in item fourteen point one what about fourteen point two and then finally fourteen point three no okay all right with that we're going to we're going to close we're not a journey we're closing this can we since we're gonna go ahead and dedicate this okay you can go ahead go ahead close yeah I do want to get about my condolences to to the parents and the grandparents and Hayley's uncle I it's when we lose a student to whatever it is in a school district we take a big hit would take a loss and therefore I am very sorry and I really appreciate how we're getting dedicate this meeting to to her and remember her and her light spirit and thank you so we'll we will close this meeting in honor of Hayley Rance and we're not a journey we have to go we're actually going into closed session to do one more item and that's a superintendent valuation and I just want to make a quick statement about that so we're we're we're meeting because we have two new board members we are out evaluation cycle normally happens in the fall so October November but because we have two board members we want to make sure that they're included there they're brought up to speed on where we are in terms of the goals for the internal goals for the superintendent so that we'll be prepared when we have a strategic planning process in June and Joe in June so that is why we're meeting tonight so with that we will close closed session and open session and then go - closed session
Thursday April 18th and it is 534 I will start with the call to order Commissioner khechari here commissioner young ear Commissioner Parker here commissioner Nemeth here and Commissioner wolf is not here at least as of yet now will approve the agenda for tonight's meeting motion to approve seconded all in favor and we'll open up to our first public commentary limited to agenda items only please speak for three minutes maximum this is a perfect time for the top three artists to move into the three vacant stalls at the market these stalls became available through a very fair process of going through the seniority lists no one picking those stalls at the last stall assignment in July of last year they were not picked because farmers didn't want that third stall so it left the three stalls vacant I think we all know about this right okay I think it would be wonderful if the three top seniority artists that have 25 years and move into those stalls I think that would be in good faith for everything they've contributed in the last quarter of a century at the market and I'd like this to happen now before the stall assignment in July also I would like to see this committee act on the paperwork to match what we do at market every Saturday there are three or four of us annual artists that take two stalls and pay for two and we've done this for 30 years but we're not allowed to pick two at the annual walkout so therefore we don't get two together if we could make the paperwork match what we actually do we could have the security of two stalls together be able to get there in the morning unload after 30 years of coming and then get out of the way of the dailies it would really smooth the process in the morning and I think if we did it even on a temporary let's see what happens basis everyone would see this does not change the artists numbers at all and it wouldn't actually even change the dynamics of the market at all except to make things run smoother in the morning which I think we all agree would be great thank you this first paragraph okay okay so concerning allowing artists to own two annual stalls instead of the one that we can now have the W was just talking about I propose we establish a process for asking for an exception to the rule instead of changing the rule at this time for artists who already take two stalls every day like Debbie does like I do to allow us to own the second stall this could be a segue into blending artists into just being regular members of the market which is the only fair and acceptable solution in the end because it would show it makes no difference to the mix since artists are already in the mix and those who want to stalls already take two stalls just to illustrate I am a daily artist not an annual how many stalls do I take every single Saturday nine months a year for the last 20 years in actual physical reality at the actual market as opposed to on an imaginary paper map of annual stalls I take two stalls I'm just not allowed to pick which stalls I take in a fair order I'm still at market in two stalls every day the way my proposal would work is once an artist gets up to the place where they would normally be skipped over to get the annual stall they could apply to be an exception to the rule and ask to be awarded the second stall if they have already been taking a second stall on a daily basis in reality at the market for years 10 20 30 years they would be told yes and get to own the next available style according to their actual seniority like everyone else if an artist who has always only taken one stall which there's a lot of asked for an exception to get to stalls based on this idea they would be told no at this time this idea can be tweaked in its details but I hope that the basic idea could allow for vendors like Debbie Marx to own a second stall at this time without going full-blown into changing the rule to allow all artists to automatically take to annual stalls again doing show so will show us no harm is done by allowing Debbie to own the two stalls that she already takes every day at the market then we'll be able to see that concept play out in reality and it will help us realize there's no logical reason not to go ahead and blend artists fully into the regular seniority list as that is the only fair and acceptable solution and as it will not change the mix as artists are already in the mix once they are accepted to the market as vendors in the first place thank you thank you now we will approve the minutes from the March meeting motion to approve I was I now we will move on to our market manager report I think this was I guess I was wondering if we are making a vote in my report to give you an update okay so we'll move on to the market manager report all right so there's a couple I'll be filling you in about so if you have any questions or comments while I'm going through this please feel free to interject so parking lots between the market and Carytown building is received this week so that's gonna be done by Saturday to match our other nice smooth parking lot and the gutters are scheduled to be replaced this month so this certificate of insurance since I wrote this has gone through and so hopefully starting that soon maybe next week update on the daily artisans moving to the three extra annual stalls so just as a reminder at our last meeting we agreed to suggest put it out there too the fenders that PMAC would recommend the three artisans at the top of the list move up to three extra stalls that we had left over after stall s event last year and then not change the overall number of stalls normally given artisans which is twelve in the market rules but this be kind of like a one-time thing so for example if an artisan were to retire then the next stall would go to a producer and so on until we got back to that twelve I think we had thought this was kind of the least disruptive and maybe like a good first step to see how that went and also the other part of that recommendation was for this Commission to revisit how we how the artisans do you work within the market at least once every three years to see if it's still good good best practice for us and also looking this commission looking at percentage of each type of food that we have at the market and trying to set goals for that so saying like 15 percent artisan you know thirty percent vegetable that kind of thing so after bringing this back to city staff I think we just want to be careful about how we do this because the market rules do say the stall shall not exceed 12 for the artisans and so we want to especially like legally going forward just make sure that we're doing it correctly so that you know we don't jump try to do something and then it backfires I think it could hurt both artisans if that happened it could hurt us so we're you know just kind of looking at it a little more and up to see do we need to make a rule change do we have the authority to do this you know is this within our authority and if not then we would have to go and actually change the operating rules so that's where we are my goal is to get an answer by next meeting and I really want to know by that how we do the next all assignment this next I'll move up which is gonna be midsummer any Weston's about that so the city is helping you with that that process of figuring out the legalities and things like that yeah so we're gonna have you know we're gonna look over it have legal kind of take a look because it does possibly affect the operating rules so yeah so then my other the other pieces of that however the Commission wanting to set percentages and goals I think we can still move forward with and I it's like to me be put it on the agenda for next month okay market infrastructure update so we are kind of moving along I was able to meet with Kohler architecture they are the ones that designed the building for us and are really familiar with the space and we requested maybe they come up with a very rough sketch draft idea of what it might look like to have the sidewalls on the current structure that that was something we had agreed to look into as the commission and so I think they're gonna go and come up with two of possibilities one being a lighter not fabric maybe like canvas wall type thing and another being something maybe more concrete and heavier like a glass or plastic sidewalls and then I requested it you know can we make about infections along the outside of the market can we make them first a towel so we can open and close them very easily maybe even on a day-by-day basis to get in and get out for loading and then closing down during the day during the market that kind of thing so in the beginning stages but they are able to come up with a draft plan for us we also we're pretty specific we don't want them to get too far down the road before being able to bring it back and really think through it through a lot of people like possibly of course this commission but also you know maybe going back to the vendor and Community Advisory Commission's that we had had for the market building because we don't want to have like a finished design and then bring it to someone we want to have a rough lane so that's kind of where we are now and I guess I would love to hear two thoughts from the Commission on something you would really want to make sure was in that initial proposal one thing that there's windows or some way to let daylight in otherwise it's just going to feel like a giant cave well this is really exciting and thanks Stephanie for initiating that I think something we've talked about over the months is having sort of like a staged rollout plan so that they could come up with a plan that could be done in a section to start and then alert you know based on funding and how we're gonna finance this whole thing if they could come up with something modular maybe or you know that can be done in sections not only for funding but to have as little impact on the vendors that are coming every time every week to the market I also like to say you know I think a reason to you for making this for not going too far with us as we are gonna have to at some point decide how does it fit in with the current building structure once we have a I'd like to first have a budget once we have an idea of how much does it cost I think then we need to have the discussion okay is it possible to do this as an interim how far does the set us off from the building plan and and and compare that to you or is it too much does it take too much away from the building and is the building still the structure we want to pursue or not so I think that that's a big conversation once we have a budget we will have as well and then I don't know I think we talked about the assessment of the foundation being a big cost this what they're coming up with for us would just be putting in new posts to attach the walls to as opposed to putting it on the ceiling in which case we don't need to do a assessment of the foundation or redo that nation so that equates that which is nice so it would be a new set of posts and going a new set of pulses going in to attach the walls to is my understanding when they come up with those plants I'm a real spatial thinker and and so and I don't know if it had help for you guys as vendors if they could just like chalk it out or paint it out there because I'm wondering how much new posts would be in the way for the loading and unloading do you know is it like it's not gonna be one door per stall is it probably one every two or three probably whenever two or three what but I'm not sure they are I mean part of this is they're gonna come up with some very specific renderings for us where we'll be able to look this is what they gave us for the buildings so I can show you but it will be able to look at it like an overhead map of each stall with the style numbers included and see where those posts are going so yeah I will be able to see and I think that's like one thing that we as the mission or a vendor or community Commission would be looking at is how can we supposed not be in the way and then just for thinking about it Alex's idea of doing this modulae the the doors are really needed for winterizing the market and so for thinking about that really cold time of year currently how many vendors I just an estimate of how many vendors do you have clearly if it's winterize there could be many more vendors wanting to come so the right now in the winter we have about 20 vendors that come and then they take up a few more salt than that I would say we asked the machiya come up with an idea that would enclose a proposal that would enclose that whole main aisle from the querido to the office and that I think we can anticipate being able to accommodate more vendors thank you any other no no updates in regard to funding for the market building right now hmm the food truck rallies um bloom Meade works will be participating this year they'll be so they make their own meat and cider and they will be we have a little roped-off area for them to serve so I'm excited about that because you know it gets all our values that highlights know their producer using local honey and local apples to make their product they will be there which is great and then starting in June Michigan theatre will be showing movies on their big blowup movie screens after the rallies end so people can stick around and they can watch movies that's pretty good and we're also making stairways requirement this year for the rally's registration well I haven't now open for City workplace GSA's pick up it's not actually quite open yet I have the registration page almost ready but it's not quite ready to go this is the pilot project will be doing a workplace pick up for CSA boxes from for participating farms we offered it to all vendors and it really kind of just fits those that had CSAs that were boxes and that did drop off at market so we'll be bringing the boxes to City Hall free and upper and place to pick up I just wanted a little update on our partnership with the librarian hundredth birthday the library is going to be doing an exhibit for us in July and August and we'll have a lot of old photos in history up lisa has been helping a lot put together with us information and the pictures they'll be a reception in July and the markets also going to be part of the summer games this year with the library so a lot of people participate and they'll have to come to the market to be able to like fill out their cards just say they've participated in the game I just wanted to say that we asked the archivist at the library how many people participate in those summer games and he said there's like 9,000 active players so it's really great market to shop update yes remember this program we did last year we've combined with Argos they offer very similar to what we were offering an online ordering system sent out to chefs they have pickup at their location on Packard and they are opening it up to any farmers in Arbor farmers market vendor who's a has produced that wants to participate even if they're not in Argos fender and we'll also be sending a newsletter along with those communications with chefs but what we have brushed up the market with lots of pictures also trying to encourage couples to come to market just a little easier than us using an Excel document to take orders yeah and an artist also can offer payment and invoices and receipt and refrigeration which shows key so sorry the change in that is just that you guys won't have to be doing all that management of and coordinating we won't be creating the list the ordering list and the availability from farmers and sending it to the chef's Argos we'll be doing that part of the market 100th birthday will be offering a communal like farm-to-table dinner in the market space hopefully for the fall using vendor products and chefs that are local so planning is starting for that soon we have a new staff member starting Jermaine Smith she's great she has a background and you know doing a lot of work with minority communities and outreach to like POC communities she used to work with the Wow I'm blanking on the name senator she now she works for the county and she does like conflict resolution so she'll be a great and Becky is actually being promoted to assistant farmers market manager and outreach coordinator so she'll be paid a little more and hopefully have some more hours and be able to work out more in our community outreach and and getting those community groups and people into the market and those relationships are really strengthening though it's like I think with the schools and with the camps and there's just a lot more we can do to bring them to us and us to them and well Becky will be on that so this suggests the city's putting a little more getting a little more staffing at the market if well it's the same number of staff but I think Becky will have more hours so yeah that's great and then finally I just included this article that all about Ann Arbor wrote about the market and it's 100 here it has a lot of cool history and photos and so just included that for if you hadn't seen it yet same it's a great article that's all I have unless there are any comments or questions on anything I went over now we will open up to our second public comment period and looking at the approach for the sides at the market and the radiates heat and the sensible approach that we've really needed for a long time I think if we keep those sides light and make it like canvas with clear windows like you said job and maybe even on the east side have something that could be shaded only really would be needed on that east side and then the other side have the clear open and it could be in Toledo we saw the roll-ups where they could roll up partway you know be up high for a breeze or whatever and you could control it that way and then the work the weight is light that way also I'd like to make a comment on the entertainment that was there at the market last Saturday it was most annoying I hope that never happens again ok yeah ok oh she wants me to brush that to the site ok it's nice when we have things at the market but you have them right in the middle is not good and then to take over the speaker system was quite offensive now we know that works nicely though we could have good music thank you very much see you at the farmers market I missed that one of the entertainments so I want to talk about the winterizing building plans - I liked Nancy Willoughby's idea you know we've always said why don't we just do that put a same roof over and if we could have it flush to the ground and still use that for parking because parking is so real for us it really is people are buying flats of flowers they're buying their weekly groceries they're not a 65 year old lady's not gonna and I love everything Stephanie's looking at the sides the heat the radiant heat so just going forward I ask and you guys have already mentioned a bunch of this but that you considered plans that will that include the whole market or could eventually cover the whole market think about the vendors who would not get to go into the winterized area would be affected the market stuff in the winter think about how much tougher it will be for those next two but left out of the building or warmed area either because they can't fit their goods in a six-foot space like the building would be or because they've been unfairly left out of the seniority system and they can't be in the building they'll get you know B or because you know they don't have enough family members or employees to have one stall inside the building and two stalls outside or even because they don't qualify because they don't have enough need like a vegetable that must not freeze in the warm area will attract the customers and leave the other vendors out more in the cold than ever and when we talk about winter since this very first started its like January February March well come sit at the market for 10 hours in December and tell me that's not winter and there's a lot more than 20 vendors in December and if we're there in December which it is a proven fact that December is a busy shopping time in the United States of America if you go in the carry town building or if you go to Target or Best Buy on the way home from market you cry because you've been sitting out there in the freezing cold with this virus amount of customers and you go inside and it's just you can't even move through a store so if we have this small little warmed area that people can go in and Chris and then we have twice as many vendors outside it's gonna be painful for those vendors who get stuck outside so I hope that whatever I hope we can come up with something that will cover that will be fair to all vendors and leave a portion of vendors out in the cold outside that area even if maybe it's something that will take a little while to roll out to the whole market I hope it is something that can eventually be rolled out to the whole market hi I'm Darren Otis I'm a 30 year vendor at the farmers market and I made notes because I get real nervous in January Stephanie and I looked at the question how can we get more customers to the markets and we're talking about not only the farmers market but we have our Sunday market and the Northfield farmers market was included in the conversation initially also I send out a monthly newsletter to 650 customers so in my January newsletter I posed some open-ended questions like what do you like best about the market you attend what do you like the worst I had asked customers to phone me and I just let them talk I don't like pre-done forms because they limit your your answers if somebody might have something on their mind that isn't on your form and you don't hear it so I took notes the results were really surprising about 30 people called me so I grant you it's not a significant huge significant number but these are customers who are very loyal to the market no one that I talked to said that events are live performances would make any difference in their desire to come to the market once they're there they might enjoy music I don't know but nobody said they would come because something was going to be going on but the number one thing that Ann Arbor customers talked about was parking some of them even yelled at me they said they cited how the market area has changed over the years one person said I have to get up at 6:30 just to get there and get a parking space another one said I can't farm right I can't find parking close by and I have problems walking so I can no longer come that's really serious these are good loyal customers of the market who are coming less often or have stopped coming altogether because of the lack of parking I also realized in doing my own survey that when you conduct surveys at the market your results are skewed because who you're serving are people who are already there people who have trouble getting there or get discouraged and leave or have come once and stopped coming which I also heard you know we came once and it was so horrible that we never came back or people who have stopped coming all together you're not hearing from those people and I think those numbers are significant you say that people can park in the structure and walk to the market but customers cannot walk with several pounds of produce a small loading zone would be very much needed I think it would simply take some signage a designated area and perhaps a volunteer we have to remember that there are many other places besides our market where customers can go to buy fresh produce yes some customers find ways to overcome the obstacles they encounter but many are finding alternatives and once a customer finds those alternatives they're gone my second concern is the lack of space where vendors can unload the space Ilan v now the reek the construction that's been finished along v the space along the curb which used to be I think three spaces is now one large space so only one vehicle can unload there and last year one of our vendors got a ticket there it's 6:30 in the morning while they were unloading the northern part of Detroit Street along the curve or Detroit Street funnels into fifth is no longer feasible we used to be able to park three or four vehicles along there but that's not feasible because of all the concrete barriers now the short walls that have been put in place the northern part of Detroit Street is not available because other vendors are using that to unload and as far as I can see the spaces on 4th are pretty much handicapped or designated no parking so when the market is full again probably in May I think the only vendors who are going to find unloading convenient are the ones whose spaces come with parking of a hundred and forty four spaces in the market at least seventy five of them do not come with parking the market area has become more congested over the past five years when and if you move forward with the building the congestion and parking problems will become impossible this is my opinion there will be less parking for customers and vendors alike and much less space where vendors can unload as vendors encounter more stress and inconvenience they also might find alternatives the Ann Arbor farmers market is not the only market in southeastern Michigan vendors can and will and our finding of their markets last December the market was only half full I think we have three Saturdays and my perception was the market was half full five or six years ago there were vendors on the sidewalk what's happening do you know I think it's worth asking I encourage you to look at the logistical problems and take them very seriously things are changing and the customers you survey at the market are not giving you a complete picture of customer satisfaction let's get ideas from customers and vendors I think there is a trend that is not being addressed let's look at it head-on before it gets worse and please reconsider the building you are losing customers and vendors now if you continue to lose customers and vendors if my perception is correct the building will be a moot point and the building also if it's built worries was resolved and a lot more congestion in the Carey town area thank you for listening before we close I think there were Darrin had some and they all had some great points maybe putting ways to look at the problem of loading and unloading and parking as an agenda on my next meeting could be a good thing to review and even if this commission doesn't have any ideas maybe like I just for how we can reach out to get ideas from vendors or something is there a map with a new configuration with the street construction and things like that that's finished that shows the loading and unloading zones yeah yeah we can yes vendor unloading from let's say 5:30 to 7:00 a.m.
call this meeting to order here here commissioner parson commissioner sim here commissioner Trudeau yeah sergeant they'll clock here commissioner Dolan here commissioner house Commissioner Lazarus yeah Commissioner Margolis commissioner Webb we have a quorum great thank you we have a consent agenda to approve the agenda and a motion to approve okay seconded by Trudeau all those in favor any opposed any abstentions all right then we have an agenda and the first item on the agenda would be public comment and so you have three minutes to speak Kayla will keep the time if there's anybody here that'd like to speak Thanks Clark charnetski my remarks tonight concerned the proposal to amend and arbors crosswalk ordinance that change would require pedestrians wishing to cross the street or roadway to place themselves at risk in order to have drivers yield to them and uncivilized crosswalks including those with flashing yellow lights I am a member of the Executive Committee of the local advisory council of the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority and represent the Area Agency on Aging the local advisory council advises the board of directors on matters concerning services for seniors and passengers with disabilities we discussed the proposed changes in the crosswalk ordinance at our monthly meeting last week we were not able to vote for a recommendation on this proposal because of concerns for separation of public bodies however during our discussion no member of the council that has about 10 or 12 people thought that the proposed change was a good idea they expressed fear over the requirement that they place her bodies or their wheelchairs into the roadway rather than at the curb or crosswalk ramp in order to have drivers yield to them some indicated that they would not try to cross streets as this change were made in 2017 the city of Ann Arbor Country contracted with the atul Design Group to provide a an independent engineering review of Ann Arbor's crosswalk ordinance the memorandum regarding this review dated November 13 2017 is in your meeting packet and a Prichard certified public or certified professional traffic operations engineer with the 11 years years of traffic engineering experience summarized her organization's review given the disparity in sight and I'm quoting given the disparity in size and inertia between pedestrians and more vehicles expecting the pedestrian to fully enter the roadway before drivers are required to yield would put pedestrians at unnecessary risk by defining driver yielding requirements at crosswalks in a clear and explicit manner that allows pedestrians to safely make use of their right-of-way and arbors crosswalk ordinance provides a reasonable contribution for ten arbors efforts to advance walkability and pedestrian safety an arbor has more pedestrians in most cities in Michigan so it is reasonable to expect the city to fine-tune his traffic ordinances to meet its responsibilities those who are concerned that the state rule is different from that in Ann Arbor should work to change the state rule to be like that of Ann Arbor which is better for both pedestrians and drivers thank you thank you anybody else would like to speak yes Jim Mogensen so my rule is that the laws of physics override the laws of people and I remember I was the first person to yield for anyone under the crosswalk law and I know this because I was at the City Council where is passed and I was the only member of the public still there and I then on the way out yielded for them councilman Mike angle right and my concern was that nobody knows about this and indeed I used to live on Northeast Ann Arbor the next week someone rear-ended the police chief and in fact my mother a delivery person who didn't know about the rule yet was intentionally rear-ended by a delivery person who was angry that she was not moving and a bus driver had to stop a bus and get out and tell him yes indeed she is supposed to yield I now live on Packard Street it was an interesting trip here and when I leave it's like yet another interesting I'm in favor of pedestrian safety and my concern is one time I sometimes come here at CNN there's Episcopal Church and I was at the crosswalk at a division and an Street it's a real tricky thing and it was a police officer behind me I didn't want to get $140 ticket so I yield it the police officer didn't it was close but he didn't hit her it's amazing to me that more people don't get hit in armor I'm in favor of figuring that out but we have to find a way we assume because in my a little circle like my mother everybody knows what the rules are but the reality is most people don't we're in this connected society where we think everybody knows when I come into town I know if I come into special time if I'm gonna play rehearsal or something I come at the same time I know which students are gonna my only rule is you need to look I will yield for you but not everybody knows that people come from Brighton people come from Dexter people come from right all over the place and they drive in and they don't know what those rules are remember when we had the parking enforcement challenge and even people on Nixon Road and probably what most of that was regular local people didn't really understand the rules yet and we had been pretty far into that so I'm concerned about this I understand on both sides what the deal is and I think we just need to figure out how to make sure people are safe pedestrians aren't supposed to walk in front of cars right it's part of the ordinance to protect the people in cars so if there is an accident both people didn't do what they were supposed to do that says if you're not supposed to walk in front if someone is not able to stop it's a real challenge even coming here today at the corner of Packard and division a real tricky out that's another tricky intersection there where you're supposed to yield with the pedestrians but then the light changes and it's very very complicated and not everybody knows what's going around people go around you when you're you it's amazing so I hope we just can figure out a way to make it safe for everyone thank you thanks it's anyone else you'd like to speak alright then public commentary is ended we have a presentation about get downtown welcome and I'll just update that Commissioner Klieman is present so that will be reflected in the roll call thank you great so thanks for having me back on a completely different topic from when I was here in November I'm Chris Simmons I am the Business Services program manager for triple ata which also means I get the privilege of being the program director for the get downtown program I've been asked to do kind of a smorgasbord of projects here but mostly talking about our program survey of downtown employers and employees and hopefully provide the highest of the highlights to help you as you examine the transportation issues for specifically downtown Ann Arbor for those who don't know the program was actually co-created back in 1999 by the Downtown Development Authority the ride the city and the Chamber of Commerce but today remains a partnership between the DDA the city and the ride and we're continuing to focus on multimodal approaches to look at both the employers and their needs as well as the employees and their needs there has been some confusion over time as to whether or not since we're now housed within the ride as to whether it's just a bus program it is not we are just as interested in biking and walking and telecommuting as we are about transit ridership and as we are about carpool and vanpool usage so our goal is truly to encourage the use of all the transportation options for employees to meet the needs and for their employers to be able to have the level of talent and and diverse workforce that they are choosing to have so periodically we conduct a program survey and you can see there the years that we have conducted that survey and we call it a survey technically it's actually two done pretty much concurrently one is to the business decision-makers so there can be a manager or an owner talking about what their business needs are and that is regardless of whether they are participant in the go pass program or not as well as downtown employees again we've got about a 5,000 person mailing list which includes employees from all different modes and it doesn't matter again whether they have a go past or not so our 2018 version included responses from 77 decision-makers and 380 employees pretty representative group of what we know to be downtown the statisticians will come back and quibble about statistical validity let's not get into that the the baseline is that this is pretty pretty valid for what we're able to get for voluntary responses for both downtown employees and decision-makers so we're testing for a number of pieces from the decision-makers one are you aware of the program's existence are you aware of the program's benefits and then trying to get a better sense of the business needs of what those businesses are looking for form our program much of our funding goes into marketing and outreach and frankly one-to-one consulting with businesses so it helps us to know exactly what they're looking for so we can help fine-tune what our program offers them from a general standpoint folks are pretty aware of what we do the the carpool parking piece that that we indicated at the bottom of this is not as well known and I think that's because we don't have a very robust awareness of carpool parking in downtown period I'll get in a little bit of that when we get into the employee section you know we generally ask the is the program a benefit to your business in general you know that's a fairly hefty response that decision-makers do think we are of benefit to them and what the professional surveyors will tell you is the fact that nobody said and it realized there's a double negative here but nobody said that there is no benefit to the program at all is actually remarkable you'd expect at least somebody to say that the program has no benefit to them but you did not get that response in the survey at all so regardless of how well they are using their services or how much they're using our services they see the program as being of benefit to them in downtown and again we take a look and trying to fine tune the needs of the organization what type of organization are you are you a traditional eight to five type of business are you providing open business hours at all sorts of different times and the answer is we've got a very large mix of businesses in downtown which is great from a viability standpoint for downtown but can also make it challenging as you're trying to dial in transportation solutions that meet everybody's needs in the process and then since this has been coming up quite a bit recently we we asked the question this time about how important it was that their business was offering some version of a commuter benefit whether it's just the go past or something else as as a way to recruit and retain those employees we've especially been hearing a lot of this out of the hospitality industry and you can see the responses there they range from helpful to critical and if you're a wonk like me and Wade all the way into the eighty page report with its its graphs and statistics you'll also get more information about why that's important to them and how that did impact their choice to remain in downtown if they had a choice put in front of them in general the fact that these employers have this option being offered to them is at minimum helpful and it maximum critical for their operations so then we flip to the the commuter side of this and one of our questions we ask all the time is what is your usual mode to get to work and most people when looking at this graph will focus on 42% who are driving alone to work everyday and go what do we do about that 42% I choose to focus actually on the 58% who are doing something else other than driving alone to work you look at standard census statistics for journey to work and what people use for their mode to work and this is a remarkable number already for the number of people who are not driving alone doesn't mean we don't have work to do but it does mean that there is a pretty good awareness out there of people and their options for being able to get to and from work without driving alone the next piece I ask because this helps dial in what sort of services are needed for what people is how far is it to and from work what we actually found in this survey is that this actually kind of break neatly breaks down into quartiles and they're all highlighted there and that means you have to pitch different options based on how far somebody is coming in to and from work I would not expect somebody to make a 20-mile walking trip to be able to get to their job to be able to turn around and make their 20-mile walking trip back home because they're probably not going to make it to work so when we look at our services we have to look at it in terms of distance and who is that market that we're trying to serve with what service our advantage as a program is we at least have a service that meets it meets each one of those quartiles the issue is finding those people and being able to match them with the right information to get them there dialing in when we start getting into the people who drive alone every day because obviously that's still focus of the program can you get them to change if not fully at least partially into using another mode you know if they're not interested it's not worth anyone's time to try and get them to change their mind they're probably not going to listen to you in the first place so how do you get at the you know 25 percent or 23 percent that's very interested and the 15 percent that's just under that that's a pretty significant percentage of that 42 percent who reported driving alone saying yeah I'd love another option talk to me about it how do I get there but then we get into which alternatives they're interested in and this is where I want to call you back also to that quartile piece on how far people are what we found in this survey is that there's a lot of interest in being able to use the bus to be able to get to work and a lot of interest in biking both of those we think are pretty good given the overall quartiles but making sure that people have the right information to overcome some barriers or perceived barriers to be able to transition into those modes that's more of a challenge and that's where we're trying to set our marketing up as we move forward how do you help people overcome those barriers and so we asked what the barriers specifically the the part here that we get a lot of in these survey responses oh yeah I'd love to take the bus all the time but a kid do it cuz they have to get kids or I'd love to bike in but I have to get groceries every day on my way home well there might be other ways to go around doing some of that so you get a lot of I'd love to but we're trying to get at the buts as we do this diss arguments as well argument but also a conversion as well the folks who just prefer to drive that nine percent they're always going to be there doesn't matter what city in the country you're in there's just people who like driving and that's fine they have options already it's how do we help the other folks be able to take advantage of their full options moving forward so from our next steps what we're looking to take the survey towards driving - next is really how do we take this distance to work and the perceived barriers and match that up with our program marketing specifically what we're interested in targeting is the folks who are living for miles and in and how can we help them use a combination of walking biking and transit to be able to make that journey to work and journey home for those 10 miles and out our focus is truly on how do we help them find carpool partners and vanpool partners to the van ride program to be able to make that trip more affordable and more accessible for them and specifically doing more of a networking push on our car pool matching app that we partnered with SEMCOG on for a commuter connect mi comm and then for those who are in the the middle you know continue to use the and promote the go pass the awareness is very high the ridership is very steady so it's really just a matter of making sure that those employers are taking care of and managing their their individual employer programs with those additionally the first go pass was issued in 2000 so we're going to figure out a way that we're celebrating 20 years of go pass next year I have yet to get creative on that because it's the rides 50th anniversary and so I can't celebrate too many anniversaries at the same time it just gets confusing so we're gonna figure that out and you can expect some message in the run that for 2020 and then we're gonna try and figure out how we get people to overcome those perceived barriers that need to drive can we promote other options for mid day trips can we show folks how people can take advantage of the car sharing opportunities that are already in downtown to be able to make that trip so that they don't have to do the their own vehicles and there are some of the downtown co-working spaces that are already trying to find ways for their participants to be able to take advantage of that how can we encourage more of that sort of thinking Arbor bike is that relaunches is certainly an opportunity for folks to take a mid day trip without bringing their car in and then you know transit is certainly an option especially if you're in downtown you've got 15 minutes service too much of the rest of the community in one way or another maybe you're not driving in but you can use that go pass to be able to make those mid day trips and at least leave your car parked so these are the sorts of things we're going to be exploring with downtown employers as well as our partners with the city and the DDA these are the sorts of efforts that we look at as being collaborative it not one person can do it all or in the case of our program not two people can do it all we have to work with everybody in the community and our community in this case is those folks who live work and on businesses downtown which is why I would be remiss if I didn't remind the Commission that the commuter challenge is coming up very shortly if your employer has not bombarded you with messaging yet on participating in the commuter challenge you should become a team captain and go to commute and win and sign up the spring challenge is the team challenge as I know mr.
where nobody else needs to park there anyway where vendors would be worried about giving a ticket because right now you know I park there in the morning but it's handicapped and I think so the suggestion I'm just gonna repeat in the microphone was to designate parking on 4th for loading only for vendors maybe from 5:00 to 7:00 in the morning and all those spaces so no one gets ticketed and it's not the only handicap parking at the market no there's antique a park and a trade straight and 4th Street do you know when is it republic parking that does the meters on 4th or 7 and so when do they start coming around I don't know yeah can you guys just speaking in the microphone so one problem with the construction with and it was a problem before because they have that loading zone it used to be it used to be commercial it used to be commercial vehicles only and now it's non commercial vehicles only but we have both we have commercial vehicles and non commercial vehicles that need to unload in the one purchase spot one unloading zone I think the change was made on that loading zone because of the new median so it's about you know maneuverability for humor shal commercial truck in there anymore yeah and I have asked if we could if there's any flexibility there and it doesn't sound like there is so it's I mean it's going to remain designated the way it is I don't think it's enforced at 6:30 in the morning all I know is Maxine used to call somebody and just yell at him I think it's more of a concern for packing up at the end of the day but yeah and in the morning at least as of yet I have not heard I mean first of all you don't have really a deadline no packing up is easier because people leave in a staggered way and so but in the morning we're all trying to unload at the exact same time so it's more jammed up yeah I understand as I know it's it's a big issue it's always been an issue I don't think we have a perfect solution for it I think it's worth talking about I think loading zones we tried those last year we didn't advertise them well though so maybe doing that better would be something but again we can talk about it I think next meeting and put it as an agenda item one big difference with loading and unloading when the market was full 25 30 years ago honestly all the young people in the dailies would help the annuals we help Florence we helped everybody I would hand my baby to somebody and we would jump on the back of those trucks and we would unload do you remember that theorem and we would say we're doing this and someday someone's gonna do this for us this is how we did back thirty years ago the young we were in our 20s in our 30s okay 30s those trucks and load those big for these elderly people and this is what people did back then it was really more community and that's why I'm glad Becky's bringing the community into this because we do need volunteers we do need young people to help carry the produce to the structure for those people where science have little they could work by donations they could make money it is good to get the whole community involved and unloading is the hard part to get out of the way for the next person so yeah if we all work together and remember that and kind of do you don't see people helping each other too much with that anymore but yeah the good old days thanks you guys um I just have a question that other city parks my during events must have something and I'm wondering if there's like tags for vehicles if there's already some City protocol on loading and unload that sense the farmers market is part of city parks I don't know but I just wanted to say maybe there is some protocol already out there especially for street parking to have some changes at the Natural History Museum if I had to be there temporarily they would give me or like when I go up to the Bentley library I get a little tag that says I can park in there a lot for a while one thing we discussed once in the past was considering changing the sign in and set up times for you know like maybe even moving things up earlier in the morning to sort of alleviate that pressure like that rush of unloading in the morning and maybe freeing up some of the congestion with people needing to use loading and unloading zone so maybe that's something we could talk about but I feel like there are two different issues there's parking and then there's unloading those are - yeah there's customers and there's vendor pender parking and there's vendor I think it would be really helpful for us to have sort of a breakdown of that let's call them unintended consequences of some of the changes and maybe some options that you know have been identified as things that we could consider for for each of these and I love the idea of considering what other urban markets have done I mean we can't you've got to imagine like San Francisco and Seattle and other places have even more of an issue with dealing with loading and unloading of vendors and in downtown area markets so there might be some comparison that we could do even Eastern Market at Eastern Market though the vendors know the night before where they're going to be setting up right yeah yeah okay good yeah I think this is there's a lot of ideas and yeah definitely worth looking into mark yeah I don't think vendors knowing ahead of time is much of the answer for one reason at the Sunday market we had a couple times we had events and so we decided it would be really helpful to have everybody commit in advance either they're coming or they're not we had sign-up sheets and it was so funny because as the day came and went what happened was what I expected to happen which is that a lot of the vendors who said they were coming didn't come but they didn't want to lose their space so they had said they'd be there the end these were annuals they would they said they would be there so they could have their space and then they didn't show up and so it didn't really make that much difference whether we knew they were coming I think what would help is if the annuals who have spaces without parking like like the Amish if they so a couple two weeks ago I didn't take the space I wanted because they pulled in right at 7:00 like five minutes before 7:00 and I said I'm probably going to take that space and they said well well unload I think they can unload that quickly and so if the annuals who know where they're gonna be could get in and out well before now it's 7:00 but soon it's going to be six you know well before that time it would free up it would free up some space but our parking lot is just so tight that unfortunately Stephanie can't be out there because she's in the office to see what actually goes on a couple years ago I was threatened with expulsion from the market because when I pulled in one of the big growers trucks was I'm alive and I said to the managers assistant I have to get in and she said I can't help you right now because I've got take care of assigning the dailies and I said but once you assign the dailies there will be even more people behind me and that truck will not be able to get out and I will not be able to get in because there will be more congestion and she was new she didn't understand it and the following week Sarah emailed me and said if you ever do that again you will be expelled from the market and it was just like one truck there that hadn't pulled out yet kept everything at a standstill and it's just it's the nature of that parking lot you know if you want to stagger it you're gonna have to start getting people to come in at you know 5:00 to 4:30 in the morning which some of them I think do that's exactly the new parking lot and the corner there by Kerry Town where I go especially bad I have no parking with my stalls I pay for parking all year just in case but it's nothing I make an issue of I get their ridiculous o'clock so that I can unload in my one stall that I know I'm going to have get the heck out of Dodge because every other week we have patty come in she also is in that corner has no parking that's four stalls in that corner with no parking that we have to unload so we just get there ridiculously early as a respect to our neighbors and our make it as easy on ourselves as possible and for people that come after it's what you do especially when you've come this long you want to get in and get out you want to park and be gone and be out of the way and maybe a little reminder to everyone this time of year to keep that in mind and do that you know not to pull in the lot and wait to you know you see it all the time we yell at people don't hurt their you know so you don't have to but anyway it's that time we have to remind people yeah come early unload in your stall go and try to go in your stall that helps you know and then of course the two stalls furnace would help then I could unload oh no then and then get out okay thanks yeah I would just go one step beyond what you're saying duh because I think you no you're you are thinking of other vendors and you're being mindful of the bigger picture but not everyone is gonna think that way so rather than reminding vendors that it might be nice to come a little earlier I think we should think about formalizing a policy around staggered staggered set up for annual vendors because and you know if you if you don't make it a rule not everyone's gonna follow it so this will give me a good something to add to the outline like Holly requested for next meeting maybe breaking down problems and then some potential solutions we can work it there awesome if there's no other business we're ready to call an adjournment motion to adjourn second all in favor aye hi we haven't turned the meeting at 6:22 you
Lazarus is painfully aware of given his history of winning in this competition but this is we we try and base this off of different sizes and different types of companies so that everyone's got a shot there's a number of random prizes and it's really not to make sure that everybody and their brother is doing the same thing they've done every day but really give an excuse for people to maybe try that bike trip into downtown that they hadn't thought of before or actually reach out to that co-worker that lives maybe on the other side of Brighton from them and be able to carpool in that's the sort of thing we try and do with the challenge less about overall numbers and more about hey you really do have options this is an excuse to try it and you know if they sign up and at least complete one of these commutes they've got a free cup coupon to wash not dairy so you know it's not like this isn't the win-win for everybody involved here and then because I was here in November we figured we'd better talk a little bit about our bure bike just very briefly the equipment has all been reviewed for sturdiness and stress tested and it appears other than some minor edits are ready to go we are anticipating a launch date to be coming later this spring TBD on exactly what that dates going to be we've still got some pieces in the pipeline that we need to get final dates back from in terms of future planning we're actually not taking that part on through the the partnership behind the operations for our bure bike we've actually left that to watts which has its own grant for studying this and they've brought in experts and from outside the community who dunno bike-share quite well to be able to start looking at what a future expansion or edit to the system might look like and if you're interested in that I'd encourage you to check out their website at arbor bike-share playing comm they're hoping to publish their results sometime in July if I have that right I think that's right to be able to talk about what might be able to come next but in terms of program updates in terms of launch date and announcements we'd encourage all of you to check out the new website for the program at Arbor bike net it right now says coming soon because we haven't given you a launch date but there's there's a date in the back of my head that I'm hoping we hit I just don't want to announce it so that if it moves I'm not disappointed but we do expect to be up the spring so with that I would be happy to answer any questions that the Commission might have it's a lot of information you know it's trying to distill it in something understandable and compact but happy to answer questions now or commissioners have questions later happy to take those too thanks very much when I was reading the report I just wanted to highlight a couple things when I was reading the report I found it fascinating that that 5:00 p.m.
rush hour really is a 5:00 p.m. rush hour like it's nothing and then all of a sudden it's everything and then it's nothing I think that's gonna be you know one of those challenges that we have to think about if if we're designing for 45 minutes of traffic or are we designing for 24 hours of movement anyway what I wanted to focus on was the bikes that 36% of people interested in biking is really interesting to me I'd suggest that you move beyond the four mile and the reason I suggest that for encouragement is that the south side of Ann Arbor I think there's a five mile write in and once you get into Pittsfield and epsy Township it's about a five six mile right in it's flat relatively speaking and ebikes are a game changer and they're getting less expensive so any way that you could bring that encouragement out to those ranks and from that standpoint that's why we try and partner a lot with the BWC the bike alliance and common cycle I don't consider myself a bike expert but I like to coordinate with the people who are and to the extent that we can find those those pathways and make those of more interest the piece I'd also recommend on the biking side is if you go to the car pool matching app and I probably should have given you a screen shot but if you go to commuter connect mi comm it's not just about matching for carpools and vanpools it's actually an entire multimodal trip planning effort that also includes options for individuals to show themselves as bike mentors or walking mentors for people who are interested in perhaps taking that same trip but aren't confident in figuring out how to do so so it's a really interesting tool that we haven't fully developed the the marketing behind but I think as we look at that you know what do you do for four miles what do you do for six miles or from where I'm hoping to use that tool a little bit more and maybe create some of those options for some of the mentors to encourage folks who would not otherwise take that trip I really like that idea I had a similar thought when I was listening to this presentation about the bikes in particular and how they changed the game a bit we just converted our cargo bike this year and are doing the kindergarten commute every day with our kid on the back and it's been fantastic where before that but he'll going to the west side was a big mental barrier and now it's no big deal and and so one thought I had while listening that as we there at the University of Michigan program that does the trap like the driver behavior research did a program where they lent out ebikes to do sort of incorporate cyclist behavior I don't know what they would be a partner or something like that could be something that we could like look at like will loan you any bike for a week so you can just try it and just like have a queue of people are interested like in the technology but it's an expensive commitment so they might not want to commit and just taking it for a test drive doesn't you know at the shop isn't really enough to give you a sense of what it feels like to actually do the commute so that could be a really cool I don't know how to make that happen but like if I talk to people and I have some ideas I'll send them your way but uh and I hope other people might too but that I think would be like they really sell themselves isn't like the first time I rode one from you know maple all the way downtown with my daughter went borrowed it from a friend and like it completely changed my perspective and I was like oh yeah we're dope we're doing this and I think a lot of people would make the switch if they had the opportunity and so there's an opportunity a big opportunity there I think I completely agree with you I think it is a game-changer and it's one that we're trying to figure out how we help people into that game by but not be necessarily the thought leader on that because our focus is those those downtown employees and that's more system-wide but how do you make that connection into the process and how are we helpful with that let's just say I got some things in the works that aren't quite ready for primetime that we're working on to help do that too and I'll say I've appreciated the expansion of the covered parking downtown when you know the DD has been really responsible listening to cyclists as parking bases have been getting filled up to adding capacity locked bike rooms everything else isn't it great to see so and I've noticed it filling up more and more so it's great much easier than reading the whole study all right we have a report from the micro mobility committee briefly I believe very briefly we haven't met since the last meeting they there is a draft ordinance that we've discussed previously that is waiting for review from the city's legal department so as soon as we get that feedback we'll take one more pass I think before it comes back to this table seeking recommendation and do you want to say anything about the contract that the city I don't know anything about that but if mr.
Hester mr. Lazarus have any any information about spin or what happened with bird yeah so back in November I think many of you are well back in September bird came to town and kind of caught us by surprise and we John Fournier the assistant city administrator contact the lead in drafting with legal department uh kind of operator agreement for the scooters in town and during the course of that three months in the contract was for three months so for bird it went from November to February and we found that bird wasn't really holding up to all the parts of the agreement that they had agreed to and so staff was prepared to not give a favorable recommendation for the renewal of that agreement in the meantime there were other scooter providers that had approached the city that were a little bit more cooperative in terms of how to develop the program to share data and you know make sure that there's a system in place for you know mitigating scooters that aren't parked appropriately especially if they're on the sidewalk and places where they shouldn't be and so right now it looks like you know spin is kind of the operator that was just approved by a council and so again it'll be a similar it's pretty much the same terms as the other agreement with bird so it's three years but I think there's an opportunity to extend if they're meeting the terms of that agreement I'm sorry three months did I say three years I'm sorry three months sorry yeah three months but there's an extension or there is a possibility for extension built into the contracts do you know whether the draft language like because I think some of what's in the draft language is different from what would be in a in an agreement with spin you know what the how that'll be dealt with if by draft language eventually gets adopted I think probably to be determined but I one of the reasons why we are doing them in kind of these short durations as it gives us the ability to you know make adjustments to both that operator agreement reflective of anything that comes out of that ordinance so I think there's that opportunity to do that Thanks thank you and Brad do you want to talk about the CIP committee sure Syrus is very much miss committee and and this list actually reflects probably the last time that he was here I think he put together the list Forrest drafted that list the only thing I'll draw attention to is that the CIP committee has requested to see the plans for Platt Road that run from Washtenaw to Glenwood we're asking to see actual detailed engineering rather than the concept just because it's such a potential high Destry and cycling destination with County Farm Park very good recreation center all the retail there there's a bookstore across Washington to Whole Foods as well as a school and a lot of folks also use that intersection into Schaeffler Park to get across and then cut into a neighborhood so this is gonna be a tricky but interesting project I think all right thanks thanks for carrying the weight in the committee so with the Commission then like to make a motion to accept that list of projects that I requested for review that's what you've done in the past years make we should do that yes okay seconded by that's a member as well any comments or questions about so somebody say they're presented and we had presentations on that what does accepting this mean actually I'm a little confused like okay we've had the presentation does that mean it's gonna come back to us again my understanding is it's likely not gonna come back to us again when it was presented there wasn't any yeah you know the stone school for instance the plan looks great to me you know I I don't know if we need to see detailed engineering like we do on the more complicated sections yeah I'm just a little confused as to what this vote means because it's accepting the committee's recommendation the committee may also see these things again and bring it to Commission as needed and I think there are a couple that the Commission has not yet seen and so this there was a committee that was appointed by the king to look at the CIP and to say these are the ones that we think are important for the Transportation Commission to look at and so this motion even though some of these presentations have already come it's the Commission's opportunity to as a body say that the work of the committee is supported and if there are commissioners that feel otherwise that this would be the opportunity it's establishing buy-in and what the committee's work that has been done and those presentations coming that have come already sort of needed to come because of where those projects were in the process and we didn't want to miss the opportunity so we didn't want to wait for this formality to happen to hold up those presentations we knew they were going to be requested so we brought them at a more appropriate time any other questions or comments I guess I'm wondering why there isn't any recommendations why it's just a list here like just I think if you look at the committee charge the committee doesn't make those decisions but but highlights them for the Commission is that right yeah that would be why okay committee does have opinions on things okay shall we vote all in favor say aye all right and he opposed any abstentions seems it's unanimous great the next agenda item is to talk about the the e exercise and some of that material you've got in advance with the agenda and some of it trickled in including another piece for tonight I think that it's not entirely clear what the next step will be because we had to look at this material in order to know what those next steps are if there are things that jump out at you that you can comment on or in general we can discuss this for 20 to 30 minutes but I think that part of this is for Kayla and I to have time to look at it integrate it into future agendas but certainly if there are priorities or issues that pop up then this is a great time to to say that but we haven't had a whole lot of chance to look at it either so but thank you for doing the work those of you yes a little bit more about going forward I mean we cyrus actually sent me this I think we got it in a meeting but there was a mmm part of the charge was to come up with some action steps or follow-up requests and I mean is these are these things that we would discuss as a committee and potentially adopt or I'm not sure as a commission yes a commission yeah yes I think particularly we have agenda items for the future and I want to make sure that these pieces are integrated into those agenda items and that we're looking at it more holistically rather than piecemeal yeah no I agree I think I found it hard to just think about engineering as a isolated thing and not think about the other pieces no I really like the idea of integrating them yes in terms of evaluation I looked at a number of things but one that that's really troubling is pedestrian crash data and the more I look at it the more questions come up so I'm pleading for some help and for example in the first three months of this year we've had 23 pedestrian crashes and of those 11 were from left turns on the vehicle was making a left-hand turn and hit a pedestrian so I hope to get some help and look at this and maybe there are some more short-term immediate actions that we can take based on this they don't know what they would be and they'd probably be engineering but it's just really troubling the number of left turn pedestrian crashes okay so that's an item that we could highlight for looking at in the near future yes to go along with that comment I was really interested in the bullet point on the one of the equity summaries that mentioned disparity and pedestrian fatality rates based on race and social class so I would like to get more background on that and statistics and information I think that'd be helpful okay so you're taking note of this gala thank you yeah I think in my report it was generally I guess we kind of have these two equity reports but they both serve different purposes because there's equity in like modes and equity among like people like and I was kind of thinking more from the modes and I guess my point was just the way we treat like as far as like what we're gonna do with roads like whether we're gonna widen or make it make it more narrower or whatnot like the equity of how we deal with like the effects on like like vehicular travel versus non vehicular travel and how I mean know we have these like level of service things but I don't know how we take into account non vehicular travel and just the other thing is also and land use the way we have like parking minimums but we don't have requirements for other kinds of access I know I don't know I mean it seems like we don't necessarily emphasize those as much and just how we can essentially encourage better like a better balance there that takes all people into account regardless of mode and I know a lot of established metrics and like design tends to favor automobiles and look at vehicular travel and which I would say it's an outmoded concept yeah yeah partly because vehicles are going to shift in their role so much yeah yeah I'm very concerned about what I'd call demographic equity and as a school board member I tried to focus on that just looking at the quality of our schools and we provide safety busing when it's not safe for children to walk when they're within a mile and now I think it's a mile and a half and I saw much more of that in the wealthier communities than the schools that had a greater number of free and reduced lunch programs and one of the problems was that parents would come and say well if we don't get what we need then we're going to go to a private school so you had that force going and I think that that equity for pedestrian safety is really important I was talking to a Detroit City Council member and they put many bike paths in downtown Detroit and so the impression is a lot more wealthy young people are riding their bikes in Detroit but what he said is a person more the group of people most likely to be killed with a pedestrian crash is an african-american male over 55 years old riding in his neighborhood and so these tend to be people who are rioting because of necessity and so they're not benefiting yet from all these new bike lanes that are being put in the downtown area in in the areas that are attracting wealthier young people so I don't know if that makes sense but yeah we definitely have to be aware of it I had actually another comment it was about it was kind of demographic but it was a little different as far as like demographics like traveling like as far as like transit like right now we have a lot like overnight there's no bus service and all is nitride which is more expensive and inconvenient and also like really depending on what areas like our bus system is heavily oriented around downtown so if you're not traveling to or from downtown it can be a lot less convenient and I feel like there perhaps needs to be like more look at how the transit system serves and like yeah I feel like the network they've developed it and yeah there needs to be more outreach as far as like because I know like like the RTA they're doing these citizens advisory committee where as a triple-a ta I mean aside from when they've done like their whole 2014 expansion it's been more limited as far as that and I feel like we need to look at that more because I think there's certain like commuter Peaks in downtown tends to be favored in the transit whereas yeah the others and also there's things like the participant people with disabilities a ride and how that works compared to the fixed route bus system and so is there a current report or evaluation on that topic for triple 88 well I mentioned that my report are you asking about I don't know so that's that's something to follow up on to find out what is the existing information and how much work would be involved in in finding out yeah and my understanding is the triple a ta is going to be updating kind of their long-range plan as well in the coming well starting in the coming months so there is some opportunity for you know having the transportation plan update for the city be complementary to the the one from the ride and vice versa so we've been having some initial discussions with triple-a ta staff just making sure that there's some opportunity for coordination you know one thing that what we've said at the staff level is you no it's not for the city to necessarily plan the rides system or the ride to plan the city system but if there's a way for the two plans to be complementary to one another then in you know in theory we can kind of achieve that so I think you know identifying some of the goals that Commissioner hull just mentioned could be reflected in either plan or both yeah I'd be curious about that so we have about ten minutes left in this discussion yeah um as I was reviewing these a couple of things came to mind one is it's sort of short-term where do we go next and I think Julie's engineering piece is a perfect example of the smaller asks that we could ask staff to help us with for instance how do we get system-wide data going right and understanding networks and connectivity and that kind of thing instead of looking at just at crash reports additionally and this came up in two of the reports how do we account for near misses or perceptions of not feeling safe and then the fourth one the speed reduction task force the question is if there's obstacles in implementing you know what are those obstacles that would be good to identify those those seem like they're fairly I don't want to say straightforward but they can be near-term sort of asked the the longer bigger piece I think so I drafted the equity piece that I basically summarized the Federal Highway Administration because as you probably saw the other one there's a whole list of resources like I spent a lot of years in grad school and this felt like that again it is a huge topic it's new there's not really standards here yet there are really great examples but you got a dig you got a search and you got a think and I think that this is really important and it's really promising so I'm I can invest some time in this but I need help and I think I need somebody who's paid to do these sorts of things to help this commission so that might be part of the the zero of project zero vision zero sorry that might be part of the vision zero plan stepping forward right have some sort of subgroup really tackled and try to come up with the best examples from various communities because one two three commissioners aren't going to be able to to really do it justice and it's really exciting and it's I think that people are gonna be passionate about pursuing it so it's the one thing that tickles my brain about that is that we don't want to sort of randomly say well the staff should give us this or that information but actually do it in a more coherent and unified fashion and so a future resolution request that we could draft that said this is the kind of information that we need in this kind of forum in this frequency would probably actually be what would be helpful yeah so I'm not sure how to write that at this point but we can do that yeah and if I made a Commissioner Parsons point um you know I think that point is well-taken that really where I think there's an opportunity here as if the Transportation Commission gives kind of some direction that can be incorporated into the transportation plan and that direction can be several different things right it could be best practice it could be you know metrics benchmarks goals related to any of these things I I had a my expectation this is just Raymond speaking wasn't necessarily to have of you know you do all the number crunching and all that I think the idea is give us some direction and staff and/or the consultant can see how this plugs into either that plan or you know a separate document for example or you know find out kind of the best pieces so so yeah I think really what we're looking maybe at least what I'm thinking of is in a point us in a direction on each of these ease and one of the things we should be kind of what should be on the radar and then we can kind of continue to refine that over time and and figure out how to plug it into like the transportation plan in particular so that we can identify benchmarks goals metrics whatever the case may be so just a few minutes more remaining other comments or suggestions yeah another thing I came across and we've been using it in Ann Arbor as well as Pittsfield Township is the electronic radar speed signs and what I found on the internet and there were a lot of references on Wikipedia that looked like they were reputable sources although I didn't look at all of them showing a definite reduction in speed especially for people who are driving ten or more miles above the speed limit and the price of these devices are going down and they not only immediately provide feedback so that drivers reduce their speed but they also capture the speeds that are overt they capture that data over time so you know what speed people are driving different hours of the day say so I would be inclined to say let's look at this in more detail and this might be something that the Transportation Commission wants to recommend as a short-term action for reducing speed limits not speed limits but reducing speeds alright I'll just briefly confess to being the person who didn't do their homework and apologizing for that but this is helping me understand much better what I should be doing for enforcement so I will plan to have my report for a next month great life happens sure does oh sorry just as a reminder staff is available you know if you'd like to reach out to me and my team we'd be happy to assist with that I know Commissioner Boland had asked for help from staff and so she coordinated with Cyrus on that so so feel free to contact me and we can try to talk through this to the extent that we can be of assistance so I think we've got a good amount to move forward on so in terms of next steps does the do the commissioners that have worked on draft reports and those that haven't yet worked on draft reports want to prepare a second draft to bring for the next meeting incorporating some of what you heard in the discussion tonight or where do I just wanna be clear on where we stand with next steps recognizing that you're not going to we're not expecting that these issues are going to be solved or the all of the recommendations identified but having something to hand off for the Commission to take action on perhaps at the next meeting is that the goal would you want to talk more about where you're going from here I need some time to sit with it and see what's what we've got putting it together especially Kathy I'd also like the opportunity to talk to other members about engineering because there was some overlap and then also with equity because some of the evaluation showed gaps in you know in inequitable delivery so would we be able to do that and then maybe bring back something at the next meeting or do you want us to wait until you've had a chance to look at the report no so don't wait okay if there's it's gonna be a real discussion then let's do it out in public with the open meetings but just contacting individual people you know like if I wanted to make a contact with enforcement or equity that should be fine but if you have any doubts or questions and Kayla can help you out right sharing resources with each other is fine if you feel that you're looking to have discussions that are deliberation elaborations that would inform potential recommendations that you might make in your report then I think we could schedule some type of a meeting that would be open to the public and it would allow all of the commissioners working on reports to come together so let me know if that's something that you like great I'll just say real quickly this feels more like fact-finding right now than putting together recommendations and deliberating so if there are people who want to reach out I would encourage it and we'll just keep it to the fact-finding and try to get the best description of each thing together so that we can move forward next crosswalk okay moving on to the next item we were asked by City Council to review a suggestion to amendment the crosswalk ordinance and you have a copy of that proposed amendment and I don't know if there's a status update given that yeah yes I wanted to withdraw that language as a local ordinance and councilmember Nelson wanted me to wait until the disability Commission met today to talk about it but there is action on a state crosswalk law that would negate the need for a discussion about any local ordinance amendments and I will withdraw that at the next I'll bring forward a resolution to withdraw that at the next council meeting so does that withdraw council asking us for no I can't speak on behalf of colleagues also if this is gonna perhaps come back once the state has a crosswalk law if it is differ from our existing law and if they would want us to possibly adopt what the state has and there might be some concerns there depending on what the state has right so far what I've heard is that this commission would like to speak again you have in your packet the information about our little crosswalk history which includes the resolution that we made on November 15th which was short and sweet but I'll read it the transportation commission recommends that City Council maintains the crosswalk ordinance in its current iteration based on the review and discussion of the ordinance that the Commission has had and the research that has been done by staff and that's what we passed unanimously back in November so we can affirm that if we wanted to I've seen lots of head nodding we can also say something stronger if we wanted to what what's your pleasure I was prepared to talk a lot about this but our first speaker stole my thunder so thank you thank you for pointing out your excellent points particularly that different cities and municipalities need to adjust for the types of users that they have and what makes sense so I will be affirm reaffirm our current language or make it stronger and I don't know how much more I need to weigh in unless others not yet so is there any other path any other option that people would like to consider other than affirming our previous motion I don't see any little I think we just decided to not weigh in until the state come came back with any changes actually that's not what I heard no I would like to reaffirm the current language and address the state issues that may potentially arise but this was about changing the sidewalk law independent of what's going on at the state yeah and I don't think we weighed in like officially we didn't pass anything saying anything about the current language we just we did in November yes no I was saying the disability Commission oh oh okay I'm sorry yeah and we don't have the language or the information about the state law at this point so yes or the uniform traffic code we have adopted those by reference so as far as a new existing ordinance if it's comparable to what we have now or stricter or whatever thank you okay so we might add to this motion that we would like to look into the the state law the state I'm not sure exactly how to word this but this the any in the draft state language of being consistent with Ann Arbor crosswalk that could be so bold so you're saying we'd like to find out more about that and talk about it here or more about the state what the state is planning to do that's another option I mean I would like so I would like to find out what the state is planning but also strongly reaffirm the language that we okay no I don't think we need to wait but it'd be nice to be prepared going forward maybe putting it on an agenda in the future is that so would we still be timely if we had that as an agenda item for next month so May meeting we would look at the state proposal and I think we can pull that together I don't I'm not involved firsthand with the state crosswalk ordinance revision I'm not sure who at this city might be but I can reach out and see if we can get someone lined up but we can work towards that for them may our meeting in May is May 15th that comes a little soon but we can try to get that together okay so two separate motions although actually the agenda item for May doesn't have to be in motion but I must suggest we do that anyway everyone I have a question which depending on the answer I'll make some suggestions in this I think probably goes to staff so if if the state passes a new ordinance do we know if it will preclude us from having our own standards or is that dependent on how the state drafts that particular ordinance do we know that's what was just mentioned well not exactly you so I think certain clocks point was that if the state passes the ordinance it will it will be immediately part of our code by reference so it will be adopted automatically but if we also have our own ordinance what our own ordinance also apply or would it be obliterated it's through this sort of a quiet and I don't I don't and I cuz I know in some cases like the state regulates things and we can't change it and in other things we can so I don't know if we know or I can anticipate what that will look like you know I think that depends on the form of what the state legislature passes okay then my I mean my preference would be and I think this isn't where maybe we're going is that we should just reaffirm the language for the local ordinance and that and the preference to keep it the way it is whether or not anything happens at the state and we can also have a conversation about what the impact is on with the state ordinance when it comes so I'll take a motion to affirm they said basically the exact same language as we had previously and the second motion after that will address the future agenda item I would move to have our current language reaffirmed seconded by all right any other discussion a bill to unified state crosswalk laws was introduced last session but it didn't go anywhere I cannot predict what will happen this year but nothing has been introduced yet so there's no reason for me to believe that in May that there will be any kind of crosswalk bill I see what you're spaced on a search in Michigan I just got your site for the word crosswalk there isn't a bill in there there isn't approved language but there is language that was approved by MDOT and it's in legislative services right now and so no one really knows when it'll come out of legislative services because it's sort of a first in first out sometimes it takes budgets for the service bureau a couple of days sometimes takes them a couple of months right okay any other discussion or should we vote all those in favor say aye any opposed all right one opposition any abstentions all right in his past and I'll take a motion to have this be on the May agenda for the addressing the state law that language makes sense to Kayla emotion to discuss the state crosswalk law at the may 15th Transportation Commission meeting and to take action and to take action it's that we can still comment where it is Kathy you had you're seconding that or a second okay I missed who made the motion so it was Klieman and Chris okay any discussion on that motion all right all those in favor aye any opposed any abstentions we have that unanimously great and now we'll talk about the budget thank you good evening and thank you for the opportunity to talk a little bit about the allocation of the resources humanity will entrust with us and for the coming year on Monday at the opportunity to present my budget recommendation to Council I do apologize I was supposed to do this last month and I was detained in Lansing due to forces beyond my control but the advantage of doing it this evening is the budget is much better formed and you still have the opportunity to weigh in both by making a recommendation to Council including those things you might like to see changed if any this is a very comprehensive approach we are fortunate this year to be able to have sources of funds that we didn't have in the past and use those responsibly not only to advance items of concern to our community but also to look with an eye to the future and that in a very fiscally responsible manner as we know good times don't last forever so I'll give you fair warning while these slides are very wordy they're meant to be as much of a reference as they are presentation I'm not going to read every one but you do have that for your reference as you discuss and even after this evening if you want to bring things up separately to your elected officials this can provide a base for you to do that as well so when you look at the budget for next year the total budgeted expenditures are about four hundred and thirty million dollars total 111 million of that is in the city's general fund that is actually about an 8% increase in expenditures much of that is driven by salaries and personnel cost many of which are governed by Union but there are some new funding opportunities in there as well I'll talk about that all of our fund balances will remain within the city's policy goals the general fund balance at the end of the two-year fiscal plan will be at 17.4% which is midway in the 15 to 20 percent call that the city has all of our general obligation bond rating is at a very healthy double a-plus from Standard and Poor's and you can see the increase impacts to our residential rate and taxpayers 12 about $11 a month I do note that the actual property tax rate under Headley went down this is a total funding by priority and I broke it down by areas of interest I combine both Street repair and maintenance and active transportation as one and that funding went up by 4.3 percent as you look down the list there are some things where council has made the decision to really put some of in priorities that may have language Tinh the past those include climate action and sustainability affordable housing and community mental health as I mentioned at the start it's a very robust budget in terms of putting money aside for things that are important but as I talked about additional funding I want you to bear in mind that of almost 40% of that new funding that is in the budget goes towards reserve accounts so it is responsible in that way also there's some capital improvements that we need to do that we need to start putting money into sinking funds for as well but this gives you an idea of where the city's priorities are and how much we've been able to adjust each one of those new funding in the budget is about four point two five million dollars you can see where the funding goes in the right hand column the safe drinking water water and sewer infrastructure really that money goes towards needed dam repairs that are a general fund obligation and all this funding you see here is in the general fund so as you look at that the two that I've highlighted in red are items of specific interest to the Transportation Commission both street resurfacing and repair and pedestrian safety projects the footnote on the on the bottom references other which is a when we looked at the survey the city didn't for which we got the results back on the 25th of March there are other things that people had mentioned the areas you see up here we're specifically called out in that survey every one of these areas meets the proportional amount based on what was in the survey or it exceeds it based upon both funding from the county military bait and other sources and top it shows that there's 2.2 million in County millage rebate funds about 1.9 million from general fund sources and then an additional dedication of 140,000 from the street millage fund for a specific project this year also we're paying attention in detail to performance measures for the past several years we've included metrics in the budget book but we haven't really reported on them because we've been validating the numbers and we report on them from year to year this year we're going to start posting those on a quarterly basis following internal quarterly reviews those measures relate the expenditures to the outcomes we hope to get we're going to start with fourth quarter FY 19 year end results and then report on them quarterly putting them on the city's website in addition to that we've also developed a set of performance measures key performance measures KPIs that are shown in storyboard format an example of wages on the right for the police department and those will also be published externally the intent there is to answer the public's question how do you know or how do we know that you as a city government are doing a good job this will be updated continuously as we get the data it'll be populated automatically somehow through the mysteries of our data collection and IT system but you'll see it continually as we can get them we've done this for fire police finance we're finalizing it for our community services group and the last and perhaps most complicated is public services we hope to have all those also posted and available by the end of the current fiscal year it certainly supports those who want us to be more data-driven in our decision-making within the new funding I'm going to trace where the money goes so I talked about $350,000 for streets it goes into public services engineering and it gets put into the pot with street repair and resurfacing of note is that we have experienced increases in costs some due to materials some to to demand for services but everyone around the area has noticed a particular increase I think somewhere around 12 to 15 percent and our cost for resurfacing that's not correct Raymond please correct me on the next couple on this on this slide counsel was asked for these new funding up options that we provide some outcome base goals so you've seen the lists of work we want to do our goal is to do 80% of what we report on that gives us an aggressive target but also recognizes that sometimes things don't work out we still have the goal of having all of our pavements in good or better condition which is a rating of 7 or more by 2025 it's going to be a it's going to be a sprint to get there but you don't lower your standards you raise your efforts on pedestrian safety we have $750,000 in a new funding in addition to what we were allocating before the $140,000 for the fuller crosswalk comes out of the millage or the street millage monies and that is a specific project that council has asked us to do in FY 2008 of various forms of active transportation improvements mostly crosswalk improvements but also bicycle facilities and again these are the the goals supported the scope the partners and then the the outcomes so take a look at that as well and again this these slides are really provided for your reference but we do have an ambitious plan also this year to address lighting improvements both maintaining the existing lighting we have and then adding Lighting's based on a priority basis to the highest priority intersections and crosswalks based on staffs evaluation these are the map shows tentative surface treatments we did provide the street work plan to Council on Monday along with the budget this the map on the right shows all the different types of treatments were going to use the funding comes from a street millage act 51 funds grants and other sources and the work you see is a result of some in-depth coordination with our utilities work and University DTE and others you'll note some of the areas in blue where we're doing resurfacing rehabilitation we are starting to focus as we did last year on neighborhoods so that we can come in destroy the peace and harmony in a neighborhood one time and then you won't see us again for quite some time after that rather we also get better pricing when we crypt the work geographically what's shown in yellow is a continuation of what we started last year as well which is capital preventative maintenance we follow all laws but the ones we follow the most or the laws of thermodynamics which means things tend to deteriorate so we do preventative maintenance to preserve the pavements so that what is in good shape doesn't deteriorate and we extend that life as well I talked about lighting and markings you can see the map here shows the priorities were where we're going to be working we do have an allocation from the county military bate and you can see how it's spread out for new streetlights existing streetlights and paid crossings and then on pavement markings there's six hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars as well and that gives us 37 miles of long line marking basically center line 14 miles of bike lane and then during 75 intersections so the level of activity over the last couple years has certainly stepped up mr.
Hutchinson mr. Hess and all the crew deserve a lot of credit for being able to push workout and make our roads better and safer some other items of interest and I'll touch on these lightly I'm sure at the time we have allocated you may want to talk about some of those some council members have asked me to update you on the north side safe routes to school project Monday council set the date for the public hearing on May 20th I have been in contact with people with sources at MDOT to look and see if there are ways to adjust the scope before Cass council has asked me to do as well we have added a senior transportation engineer to the FY 2008 with the idea of that person will have expertise and non-motorized active transportation DDA has presented a lot of the work they're doing you will see through personal and painful experience that you're on street will go down to two lanes for most of the summer partially because the DDA's work partially because we're taking advantage of piggybacking on a DTE project to replace gas lines that produces our net cost savings to us as well since DT will pay for a partial Street restoration v and Detroit project can be done this summer as you remember last year we ran into some delays due to the labor disputes that occurred and then the early onset of winter but you'll see the cones out there this week as well the and Ashley garage just gets for this year and my favorite on that list is the William Street cycle track which is also scheduled for this year again working with EDA on that project the city actually transferred 65% of the cost of the pavement in fact it DVA for that work that there's also a water main that's part of that project we talked briefly before about scooters pedestrian beacon and your on fair and engels in Pioneer high school I went to Pioneer high school after a long period of time and much concern from the community was installed this spring and we have gotten word from MDOT that the crossing at your on between Theron ingles is on their program for next year we are trying to work with them to accelerate it so we can do it this year that's tied to the intersection of 3rd and Euron because MDOT has approved a hawk signal as opposed to an RR FB for the your on it there and a full signal at 3rd and your on so we're trying to get them to let us move the signal for one place to another and try to do it faster so he'll push it MDOT for allow us to work in their right of way to get that done there's public meetings going on now about a four to two lane reduction on Earhart some of you have involved in that the really good news is the Allen Creek berm opening we have all the easements everything is done we should start construction on that this year we're hoping for it to be in the June contract letting from MDOT got some exciting things on pothole technology which I am technologically ill-equipped to discuss but it is basically a spray technology that allow us to repair them faster and my favorite thing on this slide is we are buying our first hybrid Police Interceptor Council approve that on Monday so police department is leading the way in green fleets procurements as well so that's kind of a very quick rundown hopefully whatever I didn't talk about Raymond well in his update but there are a lot of exciting things in the budget we're certainly going to get to see firsthand what as the governor calls FTD our looks like in an around town so as you are inconvenience to remember the outcome are better roadways and with that whatever questions you may have that I can answer I'd be happy to entertain thank you no questions yeah so can you just help me interpret the numbers so like the 224 pedestrian crosswalk improvements I have no idea whether I think that's enough or not enough because I don't know what that buys us so there is $750,000 that we put aside for pedestrian safety that is new funding when you add that into the 2.2 million I'm sorry to 3.4 million that's a pretty large increase over the previous year about 55 percent so it buys us crosswalk improvements striping lighting signage some we talked about electronic signals that's in there mr.
griswold talked about the electronic speed signs that tend to slow people down there's several of those in the budget there are some electronic school zone signs in the budget as well for that we started last year so it's a lot of work I've provided to Council a more detailed work plan and that all that information is posted in ledges star as part of administrators communications also on the public services website it is a lot it will be it will be pressed to get all that work done this year but it is a I think a visible commitment that your elected body has taken seriously the importance of non motorized transportation and is challenging us to deliver a very active program so I think the real answer is a lot of this stuff in the details you're gonna have to look up and if I may add to that commissionable and one of the reports that was provided to council that howard is referencing was looking at what are kind of typical costs for different types of design and crosswalk treatments now it's kind of a range right because until we get into a specific design and engineering for a crosswalk we don't know if a pedestrian refuge island is part of the process we don't know if they're bump-outs as part of it if it's RFP but you may recall some of the past discussions we've had about the crosswalk design guidelines the idea is if it's standards standard Plus or high-risk depending upon the roadway type it would get different different types of treatments may be applied to that crosswalk and so we looked historically at what those costs were to kind of come up with ranges for each of those and so there is a link actually in your packet that if you want me to come back at a future meeting kind of go into more detail on that I can do that but it I think that in a roundabout way answers your directly your question about how you know how much do these things cost is this enough and kind of helps tease out what some of the low-end estimates are and what some of the high-end estimates are other questions yes so thank you this was really helpful am i my understanding from what you've presented in the slides is that in terms of cycle infrastructure specifically bike infrastructure most of that is in the remarking of the of the roads that when we're talking about aside from the William cycle track that most of the bike infrastructure is painting bike lanes is that that that's correct okay one of the challenges that I've laid out for for Raymond also is where we can squeeze down the lane width and put some more buffers in between the travel lanes and the bike lanes we're going to do that wherever we can last year every significant road project we took on had a bicycle lane component to it so a lot of that work is shown as part of the CIP program and doesn't come out of that particular funding but our goal is to make it people feel safe cycling and not just to plot you know appeal to the hardcore do-or-die cyclists but those who fall into that general category of interested but have concerns the other thing that also that I pointed out as part of the William Street project we are purchasing some smaller equipment to keep those lanes clear even in the wintertime and that they'll have application in 2020 when DDA also does the one way to two-way conversions on first and Ashley and they'll be buffered lanes there as well so if we're gonna be serious about encouraging people to cycle all year round we're going to have to make sure we clean lanes clear all year round and not store snow in them any other comments or questions yes the spending on streets didn't go up very much but I'm assuming that if we're going to improve the surface of the bike lanes that's coming out of the street funding is that true it depends when we're doing when we do major street work it's included in as part of the work sometimes it's just a striping project as well one of the reasons that the street repair and maintenance has stayed a little bit flat part of that is funding that goes towards capital improvements and that varies from year to year and part of that also is from on a yearly basis in the past we haven't spent all the money that's in the budget so it rolls from one year to another when we look at doing major repair work it's not it's not just a funding it's coordinating it with water and sewer utility work and that funding doesn't show up in them and in that amount they're also we have availability of contractors and as much as we'd like to do as much work as fast as we can people still have to get around so you have to be wary that we've got a you know there's so much you can bite one one year right and my point was that we have a total for active transportation but it's probably even more because some of the street fund spending is to improve the bike lane surface would that be true well this number includes up more than just your own fund I mean this is more than just the general fund monies this is the CIB as well right I was just looking at this street repair and maintenance and and so some of those dollars are going to go to repair and maintain the street surface that's actually in the bike lane all right so the the capital repair and maintenance program puts on a smooth surface it seals the roadway and weari stripe including including bike lanes I had a question here on street the DDA project do you know if they're putting positive contrast lighting at the crosswalks on Huron I don't know I will Oh or I can ask them and I just want to make a statement I voted on Monday night against the DDA project and it wasn't because I'm against protected bike lanes it's because I would really like to have more centralized control of all of our projects and I know that the DD at right now the DDA has money that we don't have and so we have to be appreciative in my answer to that is all that money eventually comes from the same place yes right so that the advantages of having a DDA is that they do maintain an operator parking system they do help us fund downtown infrastructure and promote business and it does come from parking revenues which really is a user fee but eventually it still same way so I think on a broader scale we all recognize it's all public money it all belongs to all of us and you have the fact that we can work together to use that leverage that funding for the best benefit of the public is important so just as a personal perspective it's all public money and we're respectful of all of it I totally agree with what you said thank you any other that's good I just wanted to say I appreciate the the establishment of the KPIs and those dashboards to make those data based goals and measurements digestible to the public I think having been able to be on this you know on these Commission's and work with city staff and see how decisions get made I personally like to see like you you all do use data and your expertise and all these other things and feeding in the decision but decisions that we're making but making that stuff accessible to the public invisible I think will go a long way to helping build that trust and and open up that transparency so I think that's great to see and using this as an opportunity to call back to the Cixi's and particularly the evaluation component I'm really hoping we can establish similar sorts of metrics and goals for vision zero as we move forward with our plan and wrestle with what that looks like because I think as people have already highlighted crash data is important but it's far from ideal in terms of really assessing how our streets are working and and even places that have sort of really had a look great feel of success with visions you are looking at beyond vision zero kinds of metrics recognizing that mode shift not only keeps people safe but it increases Public Health and health and general and happiness and sorts climate change bowls and other things so like there's there's other big benefits to these kinds of things beyond just the safety but Safety's sort of like the bread and butter and getting that right is great is the first step so well I appreciate the comment one thing I did forget to mention is we're also going to start with this quarter posting the quarterly project updates on CIP efforts so that'll be another source of information and data I think we all expect that the parameters will change and they'll evolve over time based on what we really need to talk to our to our public about but there's an awful lot of effort that staff put into making sure we understand where the data comes from what's the math to make the calculations so that those numbers are both repeatable and reliable please challenge we face is establishing benchmarks because there are no regional or national benchmarks so much of what we do I know with the 15 Circuit Court this for district court this afternoon and they have a very nice set of metrics but most of them are either set or set internally to achieve high levels of customer service so we'll continue to seek out best practices and see how other people do things but I would suspect the suite that we've developed will be used and modeled by others as well any other pressing comments or questions oh I saw the inner bur station on there I'm just wondering what's like the status of that I know they're going back and forth with the Fr a and there's different things being said and yeah just wondering what's going on there because it seems like it's been a while since we've heard and I agree with you and we are currently we were working on hopefully the last set of review comments we've got from fr a I think we'd all know that this project has had something of a tortuous past to get to where we are over the last year we've had two government shutdowns that have extended the process as well but we all hope that the finish line is in sight and the goal really there is to protect the work that we've done today to get an approved environmental assessment document so as we look at what makes sense for us to go for it in the future we're protecting the value of the work that's been done to date and get that get that EA finished get the preliminary engineering that goes with it finished so we can then start to make plans for the future both scheduling and financial right we have a resolution and response to this presentation which was included in the packet so I wonder if we are ready to make a motion concerning that resolution anyone interested all right seconded by all right motion Griswald and Trudeau thank you any comments on the resolution itself which is to support the budget moving forward through the budget process the transportation portions of it all right then all those in favor say aye any opposed any abstentions it's unanimous then thank you all right I believe we have transportation updates yes madam chair you'll note that the transportation update monthly progress report that we give is starting to ramp up right we kind of laid dormant during the winter and now spring is sprung and all of a sudden you start to see a lot of updates creep up on this report so I will try to quickly go through and highlight the changes from last month to this month the first is sigh Oh church mentions that work is scheduled to resume this week and end in early June we are going to hold a public information session about which alternatives are going to be advanced for both sigh Oh church as well as seventh and stadium Ida meeting on April 25th at Dickon elementary school the Fifth Avenue project which we talked a little bit about just a moment ago is going to resume this week as well the annual street resurfacing project is anticipated to begin in May of next month of 2019 sidewalk repair program I believe just launched this week so that is up and running as well North 7th streets here onto Miller we had reported on this late last year I believe and striping for this project is anticipated to occur late summer and we're gonna get that into the striping schedule crosswalk improvements commissioner Boland this is where I mentioned the link is included kind of embedded there but we you know we had several deliverables to report to City Council as part of the resolution that they passed one of them is you know progress that's being made on a monthly basis and we're going to share those progress updates with you and then one of them was also you know high level cost estimates and so that is included in there as well so some of the improvements that were identified for this quarter which will turn into monthly this was just the first report Howard mentioned some of these already but the crosswalk signage in front Pioneer High School was completely rebuilt and now includes overhead rectangular rapid flashing beacon signs school zone signs were installed on fuller road and here on Parkway around here on high school school zone signs on Platte Road south of Redwood Avenue were replaced and upgraded and preventive maintenance was done on all RF B's in the city that's tasks that the signs and signal crew goes out to make sure that the batteries are operational and that you know those systems are reliable throughout the course of the year I will note there are some changes to the rectangular rapid flashing beacon list or RFP list there are a couple things that have shifted around a little bit south maple was added between Benz and Russell Street there were several South industrial locations and added and South Main at field crest was added as well the one thing I will note is there were a couple locations on here on Parkway that are actually 2020 projects because they're being funded through a Highway Safety Improvement Program funding that the funding is not going to be available until late fall so that would be you know after October 1st so those will probably get installed in spring of 2020 Allen Creek berm opening Howard give you an update on that already but there is updated language we are expecting to hit June MDOT soon bid letting there is a new section about the Southside interceptor sanitary sewer project it's not really a transportation project but it is going to have an impact on traffic due to lane closures on fuller Street and Glen Avenue so it's really just kind of a heads-up that coming in May there's going to be some interesting travel patterns through an area that's already fairly congested so keep an eye out on that and if any commuters go through that corridor please plan your commute accordingly the DDA provided updates on their parking their bike parking installations and it looks like there are about a half dozen or so that are up several on 4th Avenue Liberty couple on Maine State so those are up and going and it looks like they're looking to even expand that program as well we are in continued negotiations with the triple-a ta about a new traffic signal at the intersection of Ellsworth and research Park Drive we kind of moving forward with that and it looks like it's hopefully going to be constructed in fiscal year 2020 but we're working through the design phase now there is a little bit we reported on this at the last meeting so I'm not gonna go into much detail but there's updated language related to the fuller Road crosswalk sidewalk extension pursuant to the action that council took last month so the progress report just reflects that Howard mentioned some of in the budget under the speed reduction committee recommendations on page 9 of the report there is talk of you know the additional staffing levels the the new senior transportation engineer that's being proposed as part of the budget that language is included in the update as well and that concludes the highlights of changes from last month to this month thank you thanks any quick questions or comments I don't know how quick this is gonna be it is only two topics one is that the train noise when we might be seeing survey results from that and there's some people on Facebook that are apparently antsy because it seems to be proceeding forward but it only got like 25 percent of the people supported it I don't know that so and when we might expect that and then I'll do the longer one so let me get back to you with an answer on that but we can I'll include updated language in the next progress report at a minimum and then give you an update at the next meeting cool cool and then I was gonna bring it up but it wasn't part of mr.
Lazarus's budget stuff it was after the the a to steam grant comes up multiple times in our packets and it sounds like there's now discussion with MDOT I assume that's to allow single side sidewalks or something I don't know I'm just trying to glean whatever I can but counsel apparently has made action I think an update would be really nice to have yes so my understanding is council did approve for a public hearing on this to take to occur on May 20th so that's I believe step three in the process so right now that you're right they're still kind of discussion about different design elements but my understanding is you know the design is submitted design at the point where council approved the second resolution that was in late December there been some asks by members of the community to see if we hit approval for sidewalks on one side of the street so on behalf of council members I've asked the director of MDOT to talk to the folks at the Michigan Fitness Foundation to see if there was some way to get a singular one-time exception to their policy normally they only allow a policy exception for topographic reasons or some land use reasons and while we've reported back to council the deaths announce we've gotten from MMMF who administers the program for MDOT we have good relationships with MDOT so I asked if there were other avenues to have an exception provided if that comes back as that's the case we'll probably have to delay the project do some redesign if that's the action that council chooses to take in fairness staff has some concerns about sidewalks on one side of the street but in trying to be responsive to the requests from yeah from the elected body who is responsive to concerns of the residents on the street I went back and asked see if there were any other ways to at least present that as an option thank you thank you when we do hear back from them dot if there is a redesign I don't know if we could do it but I love the model that we did on silo Church where we had multiple meetings gave people options and that kind of thing I know this is a different funding source and it's safe routes and all of those sort of hurdles but any way that we can facilitate conversations and more input I think on this section would help I've had multiple personal conversations with people that I don't know from this road calling me based on somebody knowing them call you know I it's a controversial one and without being cavalier about this when you seek money from other sources you do have to follow rules that they establish as well as trying to be consistent with Complete Streets aspirations vision zero aspirations being respectful of property owners concerns as well as making sure that we protect mature trees that are very strong characteristic of our urban forests so you know putting sidewalks in an existing mature neighborhood an old neighborhood is a difficult thing to do and I know that staff has really pushed back in terms of the design process which initially would have required removal a lot more trees so we hope as I hope from the start that there's a good answer you know that we can find that that's out there thank you anything else all right thank you very much and we'll move on to the next item which it's not clear what what action you're asking for I think it's just an informational item and so we received it in our packet is there any future action that we want to take or questions at this time this is the resolution regarding community engagement an approval process for City related improvement projects this was approved last council meeting so it's too late we're going to do much about it I didn't like it at the time and I still don't like it but I see we could do anything about it okay we could say something a later time as far as a commission if you wanted to bring it up it's also possible to address it in a more generic form for any future types of items like this resolution the Council passed specifically addresses the current council approval for lane reductions and that's the item so in other words council doesn't want engineers to do it they want to do it themselves so we're not going to discuss the merits of the resolution right now but definitely could do that in the future yeah I see Kathy yeah for some reason there's been a lot of miscommunication regarding this and a lot of emotion and the way it was explained to me and so maybe we need to get all the facts out there is this is just stating that we're going to follow a procedure that existed for many years and only recently wasn't followed so now I don't know if that's 100% true so I think that before we have a discussion we need to make sure that we do have all the facts so I'm going to encourage us to have a discussion based upon some actions or requests rather than just generally reacting to it is there a request to do that in the future or just put aside some time next next meeting to share feedback on this I'm sorry yeah I think I think it would be worth putting an spot on the agenda to have the ability for Commission to have the opportunity to provide feedback if we can all agree on feedback we want to send so that would give of commissioners times to prepare what's the word I'm looking for we could we could discuss it and potentially pass okay and assemble some accurate information yes I just think we need to be careful and make sure that we're using the correct information before we move forward and my preference would be to focus more on something that's actually going to significantly improve pedestrian safety like looking at street lighting needs okay I think that this is important for all kinds of safety and I think it's worth are talking about all right so I will under the category of future agenda items Kayla and I will do that and my preference will be that we have a resolution or something to react to and to take action on so if anybody has any input on that within the next 3 2 or 3 weeks let us know you know I think it'll be helpful if you have ideas about what type of motion you think you might want to make if you can submit those to me then that will give Linda Diane and I something to look at when we do agenda setting ok thank you the next item is follow-up to outstanding Commission questions Commissioner questions which seems like a report that's fairly complete in and of itself so unless there are any clarifying questions on that thank you for that report and for the staff follow up and I'll move along to the snow buddy communication this this communication includes some specific requests for action items and I don't remember if we did it in public here or just Kayla and I discussed the possibility of having somebody from snow buddy come and talk to us and I think the beginning of summer is a great time to do that so this may be a great way to start that process so again on the on the subject of future agenda items we can set aside some time to respond to their request for action is that agreeable yes I see lots of nodding okay with that then we would move into the liaison reports and we do have a and our public schools update and unfortunately liz is not here again to highlight that but any questions or discussion about that report briefly it's great to have it each month are there any other reports from people who serve as liaisons to organizations yes since our last meeting I've attended meetings first with a subcommittee of the Energy Commission working for an ordinance to enhance electric vehicle infrastructure in Ann Arbor specifically what we want to do right now comparing language from different cities to have this force new homes that are constructed or heavily revised for instance they were gutted in a fire something like that to have level 2 charging equipment available in their garages great the other one is a County meeting which is much less structured an ad hoc that meets quarterly and the big issue for this particular meeting is and it's outside the city of Ann Arbor proposed bridge over i-94 in downtown epsilon T so but where they wouldn't pertain to this committee but thanks for being a representative any other liaisons yes if two dates to announce for public comment on the Washington Avenue bus rapid transit the AAA is looking for people to come and give comments on the reimagine Washington our future investments next week Tuesday April 23rd from 4 to 7 at the transit transit center and Wednesday April 24th from 7:00 a.m.
to 10:00 a.m. at the Blake transit center three of the specific items that will be discussed at these meetings are integrating Express stop services along Washington Avenue signal priority prioritization for transit and enhancing corridor station so this is there's been public sessions before but ramping it up again in wanting more input great thank you any other liaison reports yes a couple things going on at the University you talked a lot about scooters here and City Council passing the agreement with spin we had also passed an agreement with spin so we're pretty well coordinated with with the city on the scooters and I've been working closely with Raymond and his team and John Tornillo so it just really didn't make sense for each of us to be thinking about this differently because they cross between campus and and in the city quite a bit so so we'll be launching at about the exact same times so so that's that's happening we continue to work on alternative transportation for parking for staff at the hospital we've really enhanced some in addition to what exists with the 4,000 staff a day that ride buses in from remote areas we're doing even more with more frequent smaller shuttles out to East Ann Arbor and things like that trying to reduce the congestion and the need to bring your cars in closer to campus continue to work on those kind of things and hot topics lots of lots of information or lots of folks reaching out to me in my office about finger lis and what we're doing with this especially around football a lot of people want to know so we're working on that right now quite a bit so thank you sure all right any communications from commission members real quick just real quick I'm gonna thanks for the the email responses that they sent out those were really comprehensive and and showed a lot of care and time and I appreciate it the second thing is to remind everybody that may is Bike Month and there's a lot of great things happening in the community some to get downtown some through local groups so just Google and Arbor Bike Month and you're gonna find a whole bunch of stuff including some calendars and that kind of thing so hope to see you guys and I'll mention on a personal note that my father is was a city planner here in Ann Arbor teaching city planning at the University of Michigan and he was professor emeritus and he passed away at the end of February February 27th and he's also a former chair and I think he was either a four or five year member of the Planning Commission and I just wanted to note his passing and certainly I would not be involved at this level or have some of the secret planning knowledge that I have without growing up under his tutelage every evening around the dinner table especially but that's something that has been quite a loss for our family and his memorial service was this last weekend so I'm hoping that it will be easier to focus and also have additional inspiration for me the next couple months as I process that that lost for us so I just wanted to mention that that's that's something that's important to me yeah I just want to thank staff for the work that they've started to do on getting pedestrian crash data and we haven't even talked yet about how we might capture close calls but I think that it's sort of changing the mindset as well as we collect this data and it's really hard to compare it to what's happening in terms of national trends because we know that pedestrian fatalities about 35% over the last ten years and some of that's due to the greater use of SUVs but anyway it's it's something that we need to do it's extremely complex but I think it's going to help us improve pedestrian safety in the long run all right any other communications yeah I just want to mention that I was appointed to the RTA citizens advisory committee and yeah I know we have an RTA board I think representative here but I just just want to let you know I'm surfing on that and they just started meaning it's really just like about four times a year at this point its quarterly so yeah we'll see what happens with that they the main thing I've heard that's going on is that DDOT and smart are you doing like a new unified by a new fair system where they can transfer between them without having to pay for a transfer and you can get a day pass and all right the next item is agenda item is for next time we loaded up a whole bunch of them wondering get an update on the train station because I don't know if anything is scheduled I think we're waiting for there to be a more substantial update I thought I remember seeing that as like a future topic I thought like we can check into that yeah well we'll continue to keep you posted on that any other future agenda items other than what we've gone into yeah we did a lot so yeah I can share what's on the work plan and I think that one Diana and I will need to balance between what was on the work plan and all of the items that have been discussed tonight to see what we end up with um but just to give you a preview what we had anticipated was a North Main Street stakeholder update about the MDOT project I'm not sure there's an update ready to give but that's a placeholder that we have quiet zone update requested and was scheduled actually to come in May North University crosswalk project for U of M so I'll check with Steve and we'll see if that's ready and we were going to have our representative from RTI actually present to provide an update on their work so I'll see if that's ready and if there's time in the agenda or if we push that out further great if there are no objections I will call the meeting adjourned thank you you
one good morning they come up today's April 20 2009 - it is the 145th day of school this is whe minutes I am cable and I'm today for lunch today will be not Joseph Lee and brown rice refried beans corn mush pail and milk tomorrow breakfast will be circus bar animal crackers fresh apples smoothie mmm we have some fun celebrating birthdays okay let's see hey Eve oh boy tea Jane oi and celebrate birthday December sale RW and join us please go to the off please go to the office to pick out a birthday book such miss come back my friend was what energy is measured in watts the answer is electricity there will know when as better luck Jamal tip today's fun fact question is in the movie Madagascar what is the name of the hippo please remember to write your hands immediately your name in class and now we would observe a brief period of silence to reflect on their dissipated activities of the day please stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance 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 have a chocolate cold Tuesday and remember kindness counts mva everywhere thanks for watching
good morning Michaela today is April 22nd 20 million years it is love 143 day of school this is w this is WB AG news I'm have been I'm Sofia today full undo there will be mozzarella sticks steamed broccoli sliced red peppers strawberries and milk tomorrow for breakfast there will be french toast breakfast sandwich pears printables and milk we have some friends already birthdays scratch that we have nobody celebrating where these birthdays this summer breeze with Reese and Gavin F Samuel G Oh Ali K Bob and please go to the office to be know your birthday work yesterday's fourth I question was in the periodic table what gas does a chief Stanford and it's used to inflate balloons the answer is helium the winner is Brody team Connelly come to the office to pick out your prize today's from that question is what energy is measured in watts remember to write your answer neatly and include your name class we have a special announcement the winners of the special seating in the yet effort area are paler team Strickler rosy team Toledo's got Lexington the colloidal Scott Brooke team Lucas Connor team in saline team Glover Nathan Dean Winchester Gabrielle team Boulder Bella team stumped winners get one week seating at the picnic table the cafeteria for a forum and now we'll observe a period of silence to reflect on the anticipated activities of the day we have the three regions I agents 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 have a magical one day and remember kindness counts every day everywhere thanks for watching bye e
[Music] [Applause] I think so I can't you I can't you Saturday the photograph and hope for the best [Music] good evening a quorum of 100 voters being present this meeting will now come to order I am town moderator Mary Wolfe and I welcome you to sherburn's 240 second annual Town Meeting there are assistive listening devices available if you would like to use one of these devices please see Pat Cassell at the rear of the auditorium and I remind everyone who will address the assembly to speak directly into whatever microphone you are using Town Clerk Carol Marple has confirmed that the warrant has been properly posted by the constable and that the tellers for this meeting have been properly sworn in if you wish to leave the room for any reason you must do so through the doors in the rear of the auditorium and you must leave your ballot and electronic handset with one of the officials there if you plan to return to the meeting you must ask for a pass as you leave so that you can reclaim your ballot and handset please set your cell phones to curtesy mode and if you must take a call please leave the room as unobtrusively as possible please do not stand or sit in the aisles and please do not block access to any of the microphones to be used by speakers from the floor we always welcome non voters to our Town Meeting if you are a non voter you should have received a nametag to wear and you must sit in the non voter section located in the upper right of the balcony there finally and perhaps most importantly please keep in mind the importance of civility in all public discourse particularly in the small towns such as ours let us all assume in others the same good intentions we hold ourselves and therefore let us one another with the respect and goodwill with which each of us would like to be treated the motions this evening will be initiated by the advisory committee seated here on the stage to my right as follows beginning to my right Steve Leahy Jane monterosso Susan on Aronian Brendan Daley Peter Gallatin Oh Dhruv kachelle Steve psy and Jeff Waldron to my left are Town Council Darren Klein and town clerk Carol Marple to their left is the Board of Selectmen Chairman Chuck Yan Mike GMO Paul George Morel Paul de rensis and Eric Johnson down front directly beneath the stage our town administrator David Williams assistant town administrator Dianne Moore's town finance director Sharon McPherson and town treasurer Heidi Doyle the tellers are seated in the first rows to my far left and the head teller is Janet Walsh before continuing with this evenings business will hear a brief report from mr.
Yan as chair of the board of selectmen and from mr. lahey as chair of the advisory committee thanks on behalf of the select board like to welcome you all to the annual Town Meeting I'd like to begin by thanking all those who have volunteered in Sherman this year whether serving on town committees and boards or in the many civic groups in Sherbourne volunteers have contributed their expertise time and energy to make sure than a special place to live we all benefit from the work of volunteers and the select board would like to recognize the extraordinary level of volunteerism in Sherbourne and we thank every volunteer for his or her contribution to our common good I'd also like to thank our town employees who perform their duties faithfully sponsible and carefully and conceits consistently meet the required professional standards I'd like to highlight several achievements of the past year as well as areas of continuing concern future development in Sherbourne is one of the most significant issues facing the town we all owe a special debt of gratitude to the planning board and the middie citizens who provided input and helped draft and finalize the 2019 master plan for the town I don't know how many of you have seen this the link is on the planning board website it is a remarkable document it's written beautifully it represents five years of work and for us data junkies there's an incredible amount of data and cross links it is a wonderful piece of work and John Higley and Marion Newton Nitra in particular have done extraordinary work over the last five years drafting and completing this comprehensive planning document the 2019 master plan provides a wealth of data and offers a balanced vision for the town's future I urge everyone to use the link on the planning board website to read and study this excellent plan the Committee on the structure of town government also known as the governance task force to completed its year-long study of the organization and best financial management and human resource practices for the town and they have proposed several changes for our consideration tonight the library construction project continues to have significant challenges and the library trustees library building committee select board cm and D director Shaun Killeen and building inspector Chris Chaney continue to devote significant in time and energy managing this process while there has been some progress recently the project is more than a year behind schedule it's way over budget and has serious contractor performance issues marry more Jim Kolbe Shawn Killeen Eric Johnson and Jeff Waldron are working extraordinarily hard to resolve these problems and bring this project to a successful conclusion on another library issue hi Doyle our town treasurer worked with the library trustees especially with Hank Roush and Jim Murphy to comply with state statutory requirements for custody of funds donated for the library as a result of a severe gypsy moth infestation and a two-year long drought the town has an extraordinary number of trees that are dead and dying and they create a safety hazard throughout Sherbourne the cost to trim and cut down these dead trees is extremely high and as we will discuss later tonight the town has worked hard to coordinate efforts with Verizon town employees and town contractors thanks again to Shawn Killeen for his leadership on this issue finally the Select board planning board Board of Health and conservation committee have held multiple meetings including joint informational meetings to discuss and review a large development proposal for 41 North Main Street at this time no Town Board has endorsed a proposal for consideration or a vote at a town meeting finally I'd like to end by recognizing and honoring a member of the Select board Mike G amo for his more than 26 years of service on 11 different committees including the Planning Board zba the Zoning Board of Appeals our prior incarnation Board of Selectmen and the current select board Paul de rensis and I have had the privilege and honor to serve with Mike on multiple terms on this board Mike exemplifies the ideal of public service with this thoughtful informed fair honest and intelligent analysis his civility and rational debate set a standard for all of us to meet please join me in thanking Mike for his invaluable contributions to our town over the last quarter century [Music] i-i-i noticed that Mike is not joining in that applause I think he's looking forward to his retirement but hopefully he's blush so thank you Mary mr.
Lahey thank you madam moderator just a few words similar to what Chuck said I wanted to welcome everyone to 2019 annual Town Meeting here for sure born of the many aspects of this town that I really like and enjoy about this town our form of small town local government is one of the things I most enjoy not necessarily every Monday Wednesday night at 11:30 for the last three months but in general I enjoy I would also like to somebody talked to say thank you to a number of people out there to all the department heads and the budget makers who worked hard on the fiscal year 2020 budgets I appreciate your hard work and your engaging with us on the advisory committee to go through the many iterations to the town administration officers and staff thank you very much for always being there helping us out always being willing to stay with us late on Monday Wednesday evenings thank you very much to my fellow si si members of whom we've seen a heck of a lot of each other in the last three months thank you very much and finally to the staff here this evening handling the voting thank you very much for being here and ensuring that we assure BER nights get to use this form of town government that I find so appealing just a few comments on tonight's warrant and all the articles that you'll that we'll be voting on one the overall operating budget as we noted in our letter is only increasing by about point six six percent which is kudos to the tremendous work of the budget makers and department heads to keep their budgets as efficient as possible I'll note that that overall increase of just point six six percent was helped greatly by his large reduction in debt service I don't know that that level of super efficient spending can continue on ad infinitum I think that a town such as ours town any town is going to be growing and there are cost to running a healthy town that will continue to grow so I don't expect that this small increase in the proposed fiscal year 2020 budget will be repeated in future years when the primary focus is for serve and advisor committee is the budget and the taxes and tax rate in town as was written well the tax revenues that is proposed to be collected are increasing at just 0.66% the tax rate is actually a ratio your numerator is the taxes raised to fund the operating budget and capital budgets and the denominator is the assess the total assessed value of properties in town and as in any ratio when your denominator decreases your or even remains flat you're gonna have a tough time keeping your overall ratio number low and that is something that we an advisory are very wary of and are concerned about here in town I would note that even in today's news cycle I think it was Bloomberg comm I saw once again that housing sales in the US have slowed once again and specifically here in the Northeast we were affected by slowing home sales the next statistic I'd like to point out from the Assessors part of the server in town website if you compare the average home values noting that averages is a mean not necessary a median the average home value for our town in ten years has increased a mere eight percent yet the average taxes paid per home is up 28% that's a trend heading in the wrong direction and we've noted in past years and we know it again in our in our statement that the town can take as many tactical the town can make tactical changes budgets operating budget cap a request how we fund certain things but on a strategic and long-term basis the town needs to make some hard decisions and have a reckoning I appreciate the work of the Planning Board and the work that they have done and proposed ideas for how we should hope for town to look in years in the future and so the last thing I will say is that what someone wise told me recently is that the cost of running a healthy town is going to be increasing on a yearly basis costs just keep going up if we as a town do not find a way to increase the number of taxpaying entities in this town we will therefore all be paying more to subsidize the increasing needs of our town thank you very much thank you a few words on procedures although many of you are aware of the parliamentary procedures we will follow during the meeting I will review them for anyone new to town meeting and so that everyone understands the way we will together conduct tonight's business in a fair orderly and predictable manner that will allow all to be heard while ensuring that the meeting moves along expeditiously and without unnecessary delays a town meeting is a
good morning mcholland today's April 25th 2019 it is the 147th day of school this is WPA key news I'm race and I'll today for lunch therapy pepperoni pizza carrots celery sticks blueberries and milk tomorrow for breakfast Arab a cottage cheese strawberries fruit bowls and we have some friends we don't have any friends over any birthday today if we missed yours happy birthday and come to the office and pick out your birthday yesterday sponge my question was it's now the butter I'm a well-earned if he climbs up two feet a day how many the days before he reaches the top the answer is 15 days the winner is eventing Davichi come to the office to pick out your prize today's fun fact question is april showers bring may what remember to write your name neatly and include your name in class and now we observe a brief period of silence to respond to let's explain activities of the allegiance to the flag of the United States of America one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music]
when you leave there will be poll workers at each exit from the auditorium please hand one of them your handset as you exit you will receive immediate feedback when your vote is recorded a successful yes vote will show a green light and one egg on the LCD screen a successful no vote will show a green light and to be on the LCD screen if your vote does not register you will see a red light and a circle with a line through it on the LCD screen if you get a red light or no light at all please raise your hand and a poll worker will bring you a new handset and will collect the non-functioning won from you you may begin voting as soon as a closed discussion on an article or the motion sorry okay but when I announce please vote now a countdown clock will appear on the screen and you will have 10 seconds to finalize your vote during that time you may change your vote simply by pressing the other button from your original choice so as I stated earlier if you push the wrong button that's okay the last button you push before voting is closed is is the vote that will register in case I will also point out in case anyone is having going to have trouble seeing the screen this magic cube code frontier will indicate that the countdown clock of 10 seconds is running okay it will be green when the when you may vote and it will be red when voting is closed that if everybody can see either that or that or both we're good let's see when the countdown clock reaches zero all votes are locked in and the results will appear on the screen for articles where a two-thirds vote is required the results will show first as numbers and then it will toggle to percentages so that you will be assured that the call by the moderator is correct and I won't have to do a lot of math on the fly one final note as has always been the case only votes cast are counted so adding the yes votes and no votes may produce different totals from article to article this does not mean that there is something wrong it means only that some voters chose to abstain on a particular article again if your handset fails in some way please raise your hand and a poll worker will bring you a new one and collect the non-functioning one since we learn best by doing let's try a couple of sample votes the question here is about how the town of Sherbourne got its name you should assume that my yammering here is a discussion about the question and that discussion is now closed so I ask you to please vote now [Music] have we got it at all I mean have we got a countdown clock here oh sorry right my mistake okay so a hundred seventeen people said that said yes this was the answer and 71 said no I believe the answer is actually correct although you know whatever so I guess the moderator I don't take a position on articles so well all of your votes are correct as far as I am concerned right so the the motion passes because the next question kind of afraid of this one will the Sox win the World Series okay we're having a discussion now and pretending that we have been debating the question and that debate is now closed I asked you to please vote now now now okay if that was a positive motion that the Sox would win I guess the motion fails okay so I think that we are I'm sorry we have someone with a faulty clicker yeah Joe can you can you go to the end of the aisle soda okay article 1 annual reports this is a majority vote mr.
Leahy I move that the reports of the town officers and committees as contained in the annual report be accepted second okay I will open discussion now yes mrs. Lincoln moved that the motion to accept be amended by adding the following after the word accepted quote and that the governance task force to is to continue until it completes its final report period is there a second for that moved and seconded is there any debate on the amendment okay then I am closing debate on the amendment and please get ready we are voting on the amendment the addition of the words suggested by mrs.