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[Music] thanks for joining us online the program will begin shortly [Music] all right good afternoon to everyone here today um i first of all want to tell you how happy i am to see you all frankly i'm happy to see anyone nowadays but to see those of you here in this final round congratulations to all of you for getting here i'm judge ruben villalobos i've been a mock trial student a coach and i've judged it now for several years i also now serve been a judge for seven years and i'm on the criminal bench um if i could have our attorney scores just take a brief moment to introduce themselves and we will hear from them a little bit later all right and i'm just going to repeat that jeff legero assistant your title is assistant the assistant district attorney stanislaus county thank you miss ratliff deputy county council thank you for being here today and last but certainly not least chief deputy reed wagner public defender's office thank you all for taking time out of your schedules to be here today the court appreciates you and i know the kids do as well the kids the young folk and without further ado uh let's begin with introductions with the prosecution like to begin by introducing themselves yes your honor my name is hannah sahoda and i represent the people's pre-trial motion for today's proceedings please allow my co-counsel to introduce themselves please thank you across the tonight of danny and francis my name is angel please good evening my name is lilly kirk and tonight i'll be portraying deputies here coming here my name is london and today i'll be portraying terry edwards good evening your honor my name is celeste vargas and i'm of two minutes one minute 30 seconds and stop please allow our teachers to introduce themselves please thank you so much for the prosecution any other introductions that i missed thank you so much would the defense like to make their introductions uh yes your honor good afternoon your honor scoring attorneys and opposing counsel my name is jisa akwa and today i will be presenting the pre-trial motion on behalf of my client jamie kobe now may the rest of my team please introduce themselves good afternoon your honor scoring attorneys and opposing counsel my name is joshua schultz and i will be representing my clients jamie cobey good afternoon my name introduce is good evening your honor and scoring attorneys my name is celony bunsel and today i will be portraying jamie kobe now mayor bayless please introduce himself to the court please good afternoon your honor and scoring attorneys my name is brandon and today i will be the courtroom's bailiff your honor at this time man please address the room with the rules of court please may everyone please turn off all the trunk devices and refrain from talking while the trial is in session there will be no food nor any beverage with the exception of water all right and i just turned off my phone go ahead no may our ultimate time keeper please introduce themselves please my name is please introduce themselves and scoring please my name is scott mitchell and i am a teacher coach for team b good afternoon my name is welcome thank you all for being here today any other introductions okay uh i think that i think you were about to say no right council yes okay so before we proceed i know we're going to have the um pre-trial arguments in a moment before we do that do both sides waive formal reading the mock trial rules let me ask the prosecution first yes your honor thank you and defense yes your honor and just give me a moment here i'm going to let you all know that um i'm actually frankly just back from two weeks away i just got over the coronavirus i'm a little short of uh air um if i need you to speak up please realize that i'll ask you to do so i think i'm gonna be fine we're good to go with that i believe the defense it is your motion are you ready to proceed yes your honor all right thank you please proceed good afternoon your honor in october 2020 eric smith received a smart camera from deputy sheriff tony garrett as a condition of receiving this camera smith was required to send all footage directly to the cloud account shared between smith and the sheriff's department smith was given a quote state of the art camera end quote which was set up on the pull on the property had a motion detector and looked directly into jamie kobe's backyard without her consent garrett even instructed smith how to set up the camera onto the pole to look into jamie kobe's backyard by giving smith the camera telling smith where to place the camera and receiving constant access to the footage captured in jamie kobe's backyard office deputy sheriff tony garrett violated my client's fourth amendment rights wow council how your honor by putting up this camera onto the pull on the property and receiving constant access to the footage of jamie kobe's backyard which was on surveillance non-stop for over six months deputy sheriff had a extended access to my client's backyard that they otherwise would not have been able to access without this smart camera okay and the cases that you reviewed any of the cases support your premise yes your honor multiple cases support my premise such as the case of usb romero bustamente and the case of shaffer versus city of boulder okay please proceed with your argument the two-part test used to determine whether an unreasonable search and seizure has occurred is found in cats the u.s and looks at the subjective and objective factors first the court looks at whether the defendant has shown an actual expectation of privacy second the court looks at whether society finds that expectation as reasonable using a high-tech camera that was not easily accessible to the public to look into my client's backyard was beyond hers and anyone else's expectation of privacy without a warrant miss kobe was made uncomfortable by this camera and found it quote creepy and weird end quote she explicitly told eric smith that he did not have permission to film her backyard but this didn't stop the search from continuing thus kobe had a subjective expectation of privacy she would consider her backyard to be the cartilage of her home as she practiced her gardening privately inside the fence that surrounded so what what is curtilage your honor curtilage would be an enclosed space that is adjacent to the home and was this space enclosed yes your honor it was enclosed partially by a six foot tall wooden fence around most of the yard and in one part a four foot tall wire length chain fence so was it enclosed or was it enclosed partially it was enclosed completely okay please proceed furthermore the desert environment provided her with an expectation of privacy as it was rare for people to pass by and she lived far away from her neighbors the average person wouldn't expect the surveillance of their home to be transmitted to the police department every hour of the day especially if they live with a sizeable distance between their home and their neighbor's home certain factors can make surveillance more likely to violate the fourth amendment including the type of technology used and how many hours the surveillance takes place the high-tech camera which was set up by eric smith was in direct connection to the police department therefore making it an agent of the law and making this an illegal search in the case of usv romero bustamente the defendant's backyard was enclosed in part by a brick wall and in another part by a wirelink chain fence just like miss kobe's backyard the court found that because the defendant's backyard was enclosed adjacent to their home and behind their home that the search was a violation of their fourth amendment rights the same ruling should be held today in the case of shaffer versus city of boulder the defendant's backyard was under surveillance from a camera given to their neighbor by a federal agent 24 hours a day for 56 days and the court ruled that this constituted as a search under the fourth amendment similarly the high-tech motion detecting camera provided and set up by sheriff tony garrett was on surveillance non-stop for over six months in the case of people v weaver the courts were concerned that technological advances could lead to abuses of power by law enforcement and thus require judicial oversight and people be weaver the surveillance was for 65 days in the case of bart it was for over 203 days this was an abusive power that the courts were trying to prevent in people's weaver on april 29th 2021 the camera captured sn footage of snake feeding tanks on my client's property as this footage was not preceded by a warrant it was violating the fourth amendment rights of my client and should not be admissible at bar today for this reason the defense kindly asks that you suppress the video surveillance captured on that day or exhibit a from evidence in today's trial thank you your honor thank you very much and on behalf of the prosecution are you ready to proceed yes we are ready to proceed please do so [Music] may begin yes please do so your honor i am here to request the inclusion of exhibit a otherwise known as the picture of snake tongues to be used in court as evidence as it was obtained constitutionally and lawfully by the fourth amendment through the use of eric smith's personal camera located in his residence exhibit a the picture of the snake tongues was located let me let me interrupt you so you say it was his personal camera your opponent said that this was a high-tech camera directly tied to the police your thoughts on that yes this was a camera directly tied to the police but the surveillance was only accessed after may 2 following eric smith's death so it was not under constant surveillance it was provided by law enforcement but law enforcement did not access it until the incident with eric smith happened thank you please proceed exhibit a the picture of the snake tongs was located in kobe's backyard which was near a three four foot tall by three foot wide chain link fence gate in the back of the property that opened to a state park park that abutted the entire parallel thus the evidence was visible to anyone looking in from outside kobe's residence making it reasonable to be obtained after the incident with eric smith occurred as stated in the cats versus u.s case objects activities or statements that a person exposes to the plain view of outsiders are not protected because no intention to keep them to himself has been exhibited therefore making the photograph constitutional as anyone could see through kobe's channeling fence gate and see exhibit a the case versus kyle versus us emphasizes this notion as an investigation was deemed an unreasonable search because was not readily available for general public use and explored and i quote details of a private home that would have previously been unknowable without physical intrusion kobe by this statement did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy because the evidence could have been obtained without eric smith's surveillance camera as any law enforcement officer could have seen through the chain-link fence gate and obscene exhibit a the court took the fourth amendment statement of making a firm line at the entrance to the house which does not apply to kobe as the evidence was partially open to public land rather than being completely enclosed in kobe's residence furthermore in u.s vs caro in california versus cerrollo both federal cases established that both observations and searches were not unconstitutional because they and i quote did not serve any function that police could have not performed visually and had the sole purpose of making the process of the investigation easier with no interference with the defendant's interest and the possessions occurring the us versus the roller case was nearly identical to the kobe vs smith case with the only difference being that it was a warrantless aerial observation whereas the kobe vs myth case exhibit a was obtained through a surveillance camera in eric smith's residence this surveillance camera was placed and provided by the deputy sheriff tony guerrette after eric smith had reported a break-in with kobe being the main suspect due to their previous history on neighborly behavior such as kobe leading coyote feces on smith's yard and even throwing things into eric smith's backyard the camera had probable cause to be there after as after an investigation the sheriff found that kobe had extensive knowledge of handling snakes therefore accessing the surveillance camera and there was a large 24 by 36 inch sign that clearly stated smile you're on camera in bold big letters so that kobe was fully aware of its presence so the camera was very transparent and was in plain view with the consent of the homeowner eric smith in addition law enforcement only accessed the surveillance feed on may 2nd following eric smith's death which meant that kobe's residence was not under any circumstance under constant surveillance and the picture was only used to assist in this investigation kobe's backyard was open to public land that boarded the parel in which kobe's home was located and any law enforcement officer could have seen exhibit a through the fence in addition it was not under constant surveillance as it was accessed after may 2nd and law enforcement could see it clearly making the certs an exception to the warrant requirement therefore your honor it is respectfully submitted that the motion to exclude evidence be denied thank you thank you very much and does the defense have a rebuttal yes your honor your honor council sahoda states the cases of uh california v cerello as almost identical to the case at bar but that simply is not true in the case of california v cereal the police had a glance over a flight flyover of the defendant's backyard and they saw they were looking down from a navigable navigable airspace a thousand feet in the air in the case at bar the high-tech camera that was looking directly into every square inch of jamie kobe's backyard was on surveillance for six months non-stop and was placed on a 10-foot high pole which means council let me ask you a question as to the point that minnesota indicated as far as the sign being they're saying smile you're on camera how does that factor into the analysis of the case and specifically an expectation of privacy well your honor jamie kobe even if she had seen the sign that said smile you're on camera jamie kobe would assume that this surveillance was coming from her neighbor jamie kobe was unaware that office sheriff tony garrett was behind this surveillance so because of that she was not aware that she was being surveilled by law enforcement and might have just chalked it up to the um tense relationship that she had with eric smith okay thank you please proceed so for these reasons the case of california fornia fuserallo is not applicable to the case at bar council also states that um garrett had decided to place the camera over jamie kobe's land after finding that she had broken into earth after a suspection that she had broken in to eric smith's backyard but but officer tony garrett found that he found quote no evidence of that at all and after he had found continued to find no evidence of smith of kobe looking into breaking into smith's home garrett garrett's extensive filming of jamie cobby's backyard would become inadmissible and unreasonable and for these reasons the defense respectfully asks that you that you grant our emotion and find this video surveillance which was not preceded by a warrant in applic inadmissible at bar today thank you your honor thank you very much and does the prosecution have a rebuttal yes your honor please proceed okay the opposition states that all footage was sent to the sheriff's office and was under 24 7 constant surveillance which violated kobe's expectation of privacy however this surveillance did not defend the defendant's right to privacy in her home as it was solely used to make the process of the investigation easier there was a six foot high wooden fencing as the opposition stated but there was a chain-link fence gate which made it partially open to public land and put the snake tongs in clear view the police were very capable looking through this four foot tall by three foot wide chain link transparent fence gate without issue and seeing the snake tongs as shown in exhibit a the snake this chain-link fence gate was very large and made visible virtually anyone passing by kobe's house exhibit a in this case it is not a matter of who could look through the defense but rather the evidence being located in an open area revoking reasonable expectation of privacy as no intention to keep them to himself as stated in u.s versus cats has been exhibited in addition law enforcement only accessed the surveillance on may 2nd following the death of eric smith and by was it only used to assist in this case following the sheriff's investigation finding that kobe had extensive knowledge in handling snakes giving him probable cause to access the surveillance feed in addition kobe never took formal action to remove this camera she simply stated it was creepy and even forgot about it but it was in full view with a 36 by 24 inch sign saying smile you're on camera therefore revoking her right to privacy so therefore this does not need a warrant due to probable cause from the sheriff and kobe had extensive experience with handling snakes and is therefore a suspect the backyard was part of kobe's curtilage but she did virtually nothing to cover up or shield the existence of the snake tongues from anyone on the outside or from the security cameras therefore she did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy it was not enclosed and the snake tongs were able to be viewed by anyone through the chain-link fence gate there thank you very much and so the court has heard from the prosecution and the defense before i rule i'll give the attorneys the opportunity to confer with their attorneys or teachers if they believe that there are any irregularities i'll ask the prosecution ready to proceed yes your honor we are ready to proceed defense yes your honor all right the court is now prepared to rule the court has heard uh frankly some of the best argument i've heard all day from these two attorneys and i was listening to really good real attorneys all day long you both did a great job the court is going to find that the motion is denied the evidence is not suppressed now um with that i think we'll take a moment for you to rearrange your teams at this point is that okay yes thank you your honor excellent and also if i could get a little bit of assistance here i'm going to distance myself a little bit more from the witness can i get some help moving this over a little bit thank you and everyone else can get themselves in line [Music] all right is the prosecution ready to proceed yes john the prosecution is ready to proceed however we have a few preliminary matters we'll get there defense ready to proceed yes your honor thank you you have some preliminary matters let's hear those council the honor of the state wishes to ask that eight that uh items a through e marked for identification and used in tonight's trial thank you any objection no well one let me go back a sec and you say marked for identification and used for today's trial what do you mean by that the the um exhibits be marked for identification and then we can introduce them in tonight's trial okay so they are marked for identification um and there is no objection any other preliminary issues on behalf of the prosecution no your honor the prosecution's ready to proceed thank you very much any preliminary issues for the defense yes your honor please proceed we would like to make sure that everyone participating in the trial tonight has a physical copy of the updated case packet dated january 10 2022.

how are you going to do that by putting up new buildings that burn gas gas heating not only sets back our city's decarbonization goals but it sets back yours as well by going geothermal you can make this building a real showcase 30 more seconds sir for you and for us and set an example for future projects please consider this again to commission i'm asking you to consider a postponement tonight so that sartorius can do that thank you again if you've joined remotely and would like to participate you can press star nine if you've joined by phone or use the raised hand feature mr leonard caller with the phone number ending with zero three four you have three minutes to address the planning commission hello everyone as we invited me my name is mary garton i live at 3080 cedarbrook road in ann arbor michigan um i would like to address in the public comment i approve this construction in principle i want to echo what ken garber has just said my only concern with this project is that geothermal or some other heat pump based hvac system is not specified if this plan moves forward using natural gas the commission will obligate nearly 600 metric tons yearly of co2 to the ann arbor carbon footprint for the lifespan of the building ann arbor's 820 plan explicitly states the goal of seeing that all new residential and commercial buildings be designed and built to operate without the use of natural gas the u of m in its carbon neutrality plan is moving in that same direction particularly with regard to geothermal the site plan indicates that new construction would have no impact on air and water quality but this doesn't consider the impacts of natural gas production distribution and combustion on both the air we breathe and the water we drink in comparison to an electrified hvac system over their respective lifespans given the large space available and the new construction this appears to be an ideal situation for geothermal or heat pump installation and the immediate cost of this requirement would likely be modest in the scope of a project of this size while the commission may not feel it has the authority to mandate a fight plan change of this nature it clearly has the right and duty to engage with the developer for the good of the community as a whole this developer has stated a corporate goal as ken just said of emissions introductions and should be interested in partnering with us with you if sufficient moral public pressure is applied reluctance on their part should be met with a public appeal on your part to arouse the community to collect collective action if not for this site and with this developer then where and when i urge you to table this and request the developer to return with an explicit plan to install geothermal energy or an analysis of why it cannot be used thanks thank you no other speakers have indicated a desire to address the commission if there are others on the call you can press star 9 or use the raised hand feature none all right then i will close the public hearing and read the motion [Music] the motion reads the ann arbor city planning commission approves the 3874 research park drive site plan dated january 24th 2022 including the revised elevations dated december 21st 2022 i think that should have been 2021 with the following conditions as the site plan complies with all applicable requirements of the unified development code and other applicable laws ordinances standards and regulations the conditions are one all lots comprising the site plan are combined prior to the issue with issuance of permits and two the developer enters into a development agreement with the city substantially in the form of that attached prior to the issuance of permits can i have a commissioner move this moved by commissioner gibb randall seconded by commissioner hammer schmidt discussion or questions go ahead commissioner gibrandal i guess i would be curious to hear the developers response given the public comment that we've had to this point about their own corporate goals and how they might align with our city goals and just what their thoughts are upon hearing um i think this is not a surprise so i'm just curious if they have some comments on that for sure commissioner thank you for uh for pointing uh pointing this out and we we definitely look at uh you know in conjunction with sartorius if if there is a opportunity i would uh direct everybody to their website at sartorius and related to their corporate responsibility uh initiatives that they have and sustainability is one of the pillars of their of their their platform this is a lab building so unfortunately it it is an absorber of energy it it takes a lot to have air changes that are required for safety concerns and also compliance within a lab of this nature of up to 15 times per hour and it in the climate that we're in we looked at this it's just not feasible to be able to do any type of geothermal at this site want one there's a there's a misrepresentation that uh that we have this all this extra land we do not that all that extra land is being set aside for a phase two and possibly three in various configurations so there isn't as much land as there may seem to appear and also the the uh there was a study done related to digging test pits related to infiltration the like that would uh make any type of geothermal in this type of soil condition extremely difficult even if even if it was feasible uh you know to to implement that so you know in in lieu of we are looking at a lot of different solutions related to the buildings uh we are implementing solar to the extent that we can i think we talked about this the uh the last meeting in october is that uh we have a challenge with the amount of mechanical equipment that goes onto the roof that we are limited in the capacity of of the solar array that we can put on the building and we do not have a lot of ground space to do anything uh outside of that uh primarily because we're we're building a very substantial storm water management system that didn't exist at the site in in where the old buildings stood so there there is just not a lot of room to do it but in in lieu of uh you know there's a whole host of sustainable initiatives that we've taken with this building primarily it was a brownfield meaning the building that was there was had environmental contamination it was deemed functionally obsolescent by the city assessor back in 19 when we actually acquired the site and you know in doing so when the building was demolished all of that remediation was completed and it you know in the uh in lieu of where we are going to build this building where we're going to have storm water management if you were to ask any of the neighboring buildings around the area here that there's a substantial problem with with storm water and flooding of basements so um you know outside of that the building is going to be well beyond the capacity of typical code of it with uh with the uh energy conservation we are taking a serious look at a lead pro program it's uh it's not an easy task to to get a leed certification with a building of this nature just because of the things that are going on inside of it so but we are we've been tasked to take a look at that and see if we can potentially implement a a lead program related to the facility and outside of that all of the uh things that ann arbor uh our code requirements such as ev stations are all being implemented to its fullest degree and a lot of community benefit uh infrastructure improvements such as 750 within your feed branding water main that's going to go into the research park drive so um we're we we hear the public comments we've been stretching as much as possible i think it's a misnomer to say that that geothermal is is a small investment on the front end not for a building like this it's enormous even if you were able to do it so uh you know we we have done everything in lieu of trying to take this to a geothermal building and as we progress with for future phases i'm sure that'll be a consideration as the technology for those items gets better so just as a follow-up to that a question that i have is when i asked about solar last time around you had talked about the the lab uses and how there's a lot of venting and things like that that you needed to do and it strikes me when i'm looking at the um at sheet 11 that that front third of the building is office use which does not have the same kind of intensive venting requirements um and so anyway that's something that kind of struck me is that your solar panel area is in your um is in the r d part of the building and um i i realize that um we don't really have jurisdiction to ask you for this but i'm gonna i'm just putting it out there anyway um so and then you know i guess there's just there's opportunities here and there which i know would be small but it still is something like the you know the pavilion that you have out there that's covered um or the entry area that you have that that um outside of the office building that's covered those are all like statements that you can make too about kind of your position with this and i realize you don't want to just do things just for a token but um each bit counts too if geothermal really is difficult to pull off in the soils that you have so i guess i would just i know that at this stage we're not we um those really are later stages in terms of how things get permitted but i just wanted to bring them up at this point um in hopes that you would consider them as you move forward with plans you know just to uh to emphasize that um when this project started uh it has morphed a little bit into that the when we call that front section that sixty thousand feet that's really two thirty thousand foot floors that actually is not resolving itself to be office space it's it's uh it's there's a actually quite a bit of lab that's going in the ground floor of the first floor as well and we've been you know a little bit challenged on how to deal with that two-story environment as well so it's not the office component of this is relatively small on those two floors as it relates to uh you know the lab spaces as we as this this interior of the building gets developed um as it's been kind of progressing uh as we go so it's mostly you know it's been shell development in the in the interior has followed behind where there's a lot of different activities that are going on within this building not only lab space and r d but some manufacturing of high-end laboratory equipment that all has very very sensitive operations related to it so it's been it's been an immense challenge to even implement the the things and the sustainable items that we're trying to squeeze in that's it for now other commissioners with questions or comments i would actually like to follow up on an answer that you uh that came up uh with commissioner gibrandal um i appreciate looking uh and confessed that i don't i don't know as much about geothermal as i ought to know um so this means like enough to be dangerous um my understanding is that there are a couple of different types of geothermal heating and one is kind of horizontal field which i'm not sure of the applicability or the viability of running those you know underneath parking lot um uh but just when you were talking about like additional space that's what came to mind but i also know that there are vertical fields that are deep rather than horizontally and i'm when you said that you explored this i'm curious what technology in particular that you were looking at and if you had looked at kind of the feasibility of um vertical fields here can you can you can you let me take that one if you don't mind please do so hi everybody this is uh joe vig with jsfig construction we're the construction manager uh on the project and um this is a great discussion i'm a big fan of geothermal in fact i i just finished a project with vertical wells for madonna university because this was a very much of an initiative that they were trying to incorporate um in into their priorities as well so early in the design development we did a pretty deep study with our technical consultants on the project um evaluating both vrf heat pumps and geothermal and evaluating them one in the context of potentially getting leed certification also just looking you know fundamentally at what the operating costs were going to be within the building and the way that we ended up with the current design as cam mccoslan had indicated is primarily because the the percentage of building that is allocated to technical high performance technical spaces uh lab research and development manufacturing etc has grown to to over half the building and kind of continues to grow within the building and the those particular mechanical systems that we did a pretty deep study on at the client's request and for our own purposes were just simply from a performance standpoint were not deemed to be adequate to meet the needs of the technical spaces which as pam mccosland had indicated we've got really substantial um levels of humidity control that are required very substantial uh air changes you know resulting in our need to heat and cool the makeup air and so the evolution of the mechanical design um from potentially being you know ground source heat pumps um or uh you know vrf heat pumps or some other alternative which which we as team members are all very uh supportive of um it evolved into this you know kind of package dx system that's very decentralized and very much um the systems the subsystems meet the very specific and high performance needs of those lab spaces so that's how we ended up you know at this point but we also recognized and and emmy engineering the engineers who have been working on this recognize that although we're doing package dx systems we need to provide a level of energy recovery and performance that is the highest available in the context of the systems that we're providing and we we do a lot of work for the university of michigan they're our largest client as as a general contractor in in the work that we do for them um in some of their initiatives from from a sustainability standpoint uh our mechanical system design is very consistent with what they're trying to do you know in in similar uh you know design initiatives so you know kind of going back to the the question at hand um would the development team consider geothermal i would say the development team the client were excited about geothermal we did this evaluation certainly the soils were a consideration no doubt we could have overcome that issue probably the issue that we we most significantly could not overcome and the reason that all of the project technical advisors led us to this outcome related to the performance capabilities that were required um within within the various lab spaces and and technical spaces thanks for providing that additional background in terms of the analysis that has been done in considerations given this i'm curious in light of you know the goals that you have the the company has that sartorius has as a company and also that the city has you know hopefully as you're considering this investment option knowing that you that both the location in which you're citing it and your overall corporate ethos is is intending to be carbon free [Music] how are you anticipating getting there then i'm curious if that's been given some consideration kim do you do you want to take that one or would you want me to answer that you know i i think that uh you know in this in this instance you know where i think we're i i understand we're focused on this this geothermal issue with with gas and it's unfortunate that we can't get there but i i believe that the uh the list of of sustainable items that we have created with this facility and of the replacement of uh you know a totally antiquated building that was an environmental concern certainly you know at some point have to be considered an outweighed with with the with the aspect of uh the geothermal heating work i think we're getting kind of singularly focused on that there's a lot of things going on with this facility that are it most likely will might be the most energy efficient building that ann arbor has at some point here so uh you know that that's to reducing trips off the property with the amenities that we've created uh and uh you know with with the uh sidewalks being able you know to to so uh the entire property and we were very considerate of making sure that we didn't have unnecessary trips uh outside the the uh the park as much as we possibly could so you know and again the building envelope of the you know all the building materials are over and above the typical ask you know for energy code for a building of this nature so um you know it's just you know this type of use is a challenge i mean that's really what it comes down to is that i think if you had an office building that didn't have the uh physical needs of uh the uh of a building of this nature i'm sure that that it would be of a high consideration there is other opportunities in this park to potentially do that or even in the phase two where we might not have labs it's just this use in particular is just incredibly challenged to get there well it's it's worth it's worth noting that the board of directors of sartorius in in the ceo in germany they're challenging us to incorporate as cam had indicated um you know the highest possible level of lead certification to the extent possible but but balancing that against the technical requirements of of the labs and the manufacturing spaces so this this has been for a number of months at least the last four or five months we've been working with all these technical advisors and our lead consultants and other sustainability consultants provided you know by the client to figure out you know you to kind of ask the question what is our pathway to get to our goals well the goal is to make the building as sustainable as it possibly can be but in the context of the performance requirements that that are that exist for the labs and and the certification of those labs so that that design work that evaluation has been in process for months it remains in process that's why that's why it's really impossible for us to sit here today and say the the building's going to be leed certified silver or gold or platinum or whatever it may be because because that is a function there's kind of a balance between the lab design and what we're doing with with the leed certification but those team members are at the table and we're evaluating this on a on a very granular basis area by area almost kind of room by room because if you look at the technical spaces there's dozens of different programs and scientists that exist within those spaces and we're going to do the very best we can to meet not only sartorius's corporate goals but the city of ann arbor's goals because they're they're actually very much aligned they're completely aligned um and and that's you know that's why we're very supportive and encouraged by this conversation and trying to give everybody an understanding of how we've ended up without a geothermal system you know in in the scenario that we're in right now i oh okay i appreciate um i appreciate that and walking us through it and really like i think that this is one of the tricky parts of decarbonizing um that we're going to have to start addressing and kicking i mean all of us none of us like kick in the can down the road right and hoping that there's a solution in the future i think sharing um the steps that you've already taken is really valuable to us as we were talking about and even as many of not just the folks that we heard from tonight but the people who wrote to us acknowledged like this isn't something necessarily that's within our that that's within the code um but having these conversations with those who are making investments in this community i think helps us all understand um kind of the road that's ahead of us um so that we can tackle this challenge and i um appreciate the kind of work that you've put into this when we saw this proposal first in october i was impressed with the sustainability elements i mean i think i remember that being a discussion around the table and so i i don't question that side i'm encouraging like i think it's helpful to talk these things out and not just say oh we it's not in our purview um understanding that you have checked some boxes is important to me the other thing that i want to acknowledge that i'll be honest like i was con well i i want to just verify with staff that the only substantive change in this were those three windows that the in particular one of the changes that happened that we are kind of aware of and i don't want to like let everybody know of our loophole but in moving site plan approval for these things to us right now there's not a requirement for ev parking i want to verify that the ev parking is still if it is shown on the plan if we are told there will be the eevee infrastructure that the petitioner will if this is approved that they will be held to that even though right now that is not a requirement uh that i guess that's for staff i'll take that one yes they are providing the required ev parking and they were it was shown in the previous site plan and that has been extended to this this new site plan before planning commission okay so and um so the same multipliers from what we saw before um and it's shown on the plan so even though it is not in in the current time while we are trying to fill the gap it is now requirement they will be if if we approve this site plan they will be required to provide that infrastructure is that right that is correct okay thank you um that made me i was wondering like if that was one of the reasons that this had come back before us and it sounds like that's not the case um it wasn't to try to skirt that um but instead it was just because getting caught up in this change of um of kind of who has discretion over this i would say that from my end that gives me further comfort that this is a this is a petitioner or a development that's not intending to like skimp on our goals um and i would encourage the petitioner to again we're in if if this gets approved and you all build it which i hope you do um we're in this together and so um thinking through uh how it is that we can take spaces like this like yes i think um this is not the only kind of laboratory space in the world and if we can solve it um hopefully it will be a model for other places so i you know the idea of having lots of air changes i think i can i can imagine how that is challenging for kind of a heating an electrified heating and cooling system at the same time we got to do it and so um i uh i think i just want to acknowledge that other questions or comments commissioner dish i you just uh said really very eloquently some of the things that i wanted to say about um even though this even though we can't require electrification as the planning commission it is i'm really impressed by the the depth and thoughtfulness of the discussion on the part of the commission and on the part of the developer to talk about what they are doing um within the limits of a use that doesn't lend itself to the decarbonization that we would like to see the only thing i think this is possibly more of a question for staff but uh you suggested that or sartorius has just suggested that this may be one of the most energy efficient buildings in ann arbor would there be a way to verify that claim um i don't know but we can look into it if it were leed certified i think there is a registry of lead buildings and those are ranked um um so i i guess in short i'm i'm it's seems plausible i can't tell you i know exactly how to measure that but we'd be happy to look into it commissioner did you have anything else commissioner weich so i want to thank the petitioner for doing this infill project i just wanted to come back to some of the public comments that we've received because we received quite a few probably more than i have received since joining planning in august which means that a lot of residents are paying attention to this development so a couple questions one did the petitioner consider um ground-based solar i know that you are looking at phases two three and potentially four but until those phases are built one way you could potentially offset your natural gas consumption could have been through the use of ground-based solar so i wanted to start there to see if any conversation um occurred with that as a potential energy source we did not primarily is because we have been tasked with uh starting the planning of phase two of this project and uh your engineering uh group is actually working in related to that with uh with the road grant uh that we have requested so we can get the road uh primarily repaved over it over in the park it's in very poor condition and in doing so um you know the phase two project will most likely follow very closely behind this this project so putting solar in place of where a building could be you know very quickly behind it would be extremely cost prohibitive it wouldn't be i don't think it would be to anybody's benefit because ultimately we uh we ultimately will have more roof space if we do that phase two that would augment what what were what we're ultimately doing on on the phase one piece again i'll just go back to saying that you know one of the challenges that we have is we just don't have enough space on the roof this takes uh i believe joe correct me i believe we're at some ridiculous amount of tons of cooling for this which means that there's there's just very substantially large units that have to go on the roof and you know from an engineering perspective you can't put these things too close together because it's a loading problem especially with snow and the like you have to be very cognizant of how these things get pulled off on a roof so we are i will say this we're not necessarily done with the solar array that we have now it was a placeholder but we are looking at potentially upsizing that we don't know we can fit it it's part of our lead uh uh uh investigation that that uh mr big mentioned it's just we we're just not there yet with it and it's all and it's also as as with the community it's a priority of the client the client is they're really pushing us just as you are you know they they certainly don't want to in all the announce we've actually had fairly detailed analysis engineering analyses done of the solar array and you know they don't want to put panels on the roof that are not going to be oriented or placed effectively but they also want to maximize that array but in order to do that we need to complete the placement of all the associated mechanical equipment that's going to support both the heating and cooling of the labs and the manufacturing as well as as as well as the process needs of of the labs and so once that real estate is defined and laid out and as as cam mccoslan had indicated these are these are large units you know that this scale and size of these rooftop units is substantial so once that process is complete um then we'll be able to define possibly some additional placement of solar you know and as as indicated in the in the comments from the community the contribution of power from that solar array is relatively nominal compared to the overall demand but but like you know the initiatives that you're that you're setting forth that client sartorius wants to maximize that to the to the full extent possible uh continuing uh from the comments uh regarding the geothermal i know that you spoke about the veritable refrigerant flow uh heat pumps did you rule those completely out for the office use we you know we we really did for a lot of different reasons now keep in mind there inevitably will be some supplemental heat pumps um vrf heat pumps incorporated into the project but with respect to the over meeting the overall um heating cooling and it's primarily cooling and ventilation needs that are kind of driving the project from a load standpoint it's primarily going to be the the package rooftop units but but also the with respect to the performance of those rooftop units we are trying to exceed the code exceed ashrae requirements as much as we possibly can and again part of that's uh driven by sustainability but the other reason is the client wants to reduce their operating cost to the extent possible so those kind of those goals are aligned um so that you have this massive ventilation requirement which requires us primarily to to heat and cool all this makeup air mostly that the expenses on the on the cooling side and and we're trying with the use of you know energy recovery to to make the system operate in a much more efficient and sustainable manner will we add some some heat pumps some supplemental heat pumps probably but that won't be the the primary design the other thing is that the heating system has um wet heat so for example a really inefficient system the way things used to be done would be like electric reheat boxes you know we've got all hot water uh reheat um to the extent possible and and so we're doing as the system design is being finalized we're trying to put forth the most efficient solution possible not the most cost effective the most efficient from it from a life cycle operating cost perspective and then uh one final question for the petitioner and then i have a question for staff is it uh have you all calculated what your co2 emissions are going to be for the building and are those going to be published or available to the community so that i mean one of the commenters estimates that it will be 574 metric tons of co2 um as a result of heating this space if the building envelope is at 130 000 square feet and so i guess i'm i'm and i think chair mills attempted uh this question earlier uh it just seems like a disconnect to say the the the company wants to meet these carbon goals while simultaneously building a building that's going to increase its uh production of carbon emissions and so it it just seems just from a novice i mean i i i have a building that i supervise that's about 26 000 square feet and we've been trying our best to convert our heating from electric power so that we can do solar and we looked at heat pumps the the vrfs that you spoke of as a way to accomplish that and so i know that these are not um small undertakings but uh there does seem to be at least from my point in the comments of our community a bit of a disconnect between what is being said and then what is being built and i would love to just allow the petitioner to give us any more insight to respond to the comments that we've received from the community just by just by way of example and we've built a lot of lab projects in in the city of ann arbor and washington county and by way of example like an eight-foot hood so in a in a chemistry lab and you even have these hoods in biology labs um consumes as much power as much energy in a year as a single-family home and so to address that need uh to then there's a ventilation requirement that's a safety requirement that we really can't we can't limit how we ventilate the spaces the lab spaces or the hoods or the workspaces that's that's really governed by osha and the safety is the foremost priority is complying with or exceeding the safety requirements but to offset that because you have such a massive amount of air changes what we can do is we can have highly efficient hoods with operable sashes we can have instead of constant volume systems where they're just running when they're not in use we have variable volume systems that are much more expensive but they are much more energy efficient and they consume a lot less energy and and therefore we have to produce a lot less makeup air that's tempered with heating and cooling things of that nature and so to answer the question about what is our uh total uh consumption going to be what's our co2 footprint going to be the client's going to going you know they are going to study that in depth i i don't know if they're going to choose to release that information as as public information i don't you know cam would know better than i would you know but but i don't think it's their intent to share all that information with with respect to their facilities um however there is there's an extraordinary effort underway to make sure that each one of these technical spaces which there are many in in and they you know in aggregate they make up well over half of the building square footage that each one of these technical spaces performs as efficiently and sustainably as possible and then once we meet the safety requirements and the requirements that that exist for certifying those lab spaces then the immediate priority right behind that is to do it as sustainably as possible and and this is a client we we work for a range of different you know lab clients that are often focused on what is the cost the first cost because lab space is expensive this is really not sartorius's priority right now their priority is first and foremost the functionality of the space to meet their corporate needs and in the programs that are going to exist within the building uh right behind that to meet their sustainability goals because that is cam mccauslan had mentioned that's one of the pillars set forth by the board of directors and the ceo and the chief sustainability officer of sartorius and so all of that when this design is fully completed which will probably occur in a june july time frame for all of these technical spec spaces that sustainability component is very much going to be a priority and to the extent that we can achieve leed certification at a very high level um the client undoubtedly is going to want to do that because they've been pressing this on that issue and and and it was really their push to have us bring a lead consultant on and and a commissioning consultant as early as possible in the design process to make sure that we that we maximize these goals so i know it sounds evasive that we can't give you specific answers right now because the design is the well i would say the interior design not the exterior design but that not the shell of the building has been designed but the interior design will not be completed until you know this summer and at that time um these are these are the objectives that the sartorius is trying to accomplish all right couple questions for you chair mills and you mr leonard so now that we are the approving body not the recommending body um what is our pathway to enacting sort of rules within the udc that allows us to meet our climate goals so this is a conversation that i we've had with you i if you will i'm i'm not asking the question um that results in the education that the a20 plan did not come into the plan i think i understand that pathway but now that we sit with the approval authority a scenario that i am working through in my head would be we postpone the approval of a project like this until we are able to integrate our climate objectives because i think the comments that we receive from the public tonight are correct that once we approve this development it is a 50 to 100 year development and these things don't change i'm in a building that is a 50 year old building so i'm i'm i'm just trying to reconcile the reality of what we are trying to accomplish because we are in a climate emergency uh and what we can actually achieve at this table and so it it's a joint question because as chair mills just noted the ev parking changed when the legislative sort of process changed so that means we're gonna have to take up some activity to put that back in place and that seems like a good opportunity for us to have these kinds of conversations around emissions and i know that at the council table they're having this conversation with dr schultz around sort of building envelopes and their emissions and things like that and as we think about the intersections of that planning and those constructions uh i just don't want to miss an opportunity for us to act because this is a hundred year commitment that we're gonna make tonight and i know it's a buy right and all those good things so i'm not asking that question i'm amazingly just asking is there any process changes that are afforded to us that won't slow the developer down significantly i'm not looking to penalize the developer i'm really looking to figure out how we can achieve our community's goals so if that all makes sense i'd love a comment or two on it sure i'll start and if chairmills wants to jump in after um so uh if i miss anything please don't hesitate um you know i think i think to even make it a step back back from some of your specific questions i think you are expressing a frustration that's experienced by a lot of public commenters that is experienced by the city council i'm presuming by other boards and commissions and a lot of other members of our community in that the city council has really appropriately identified some goals based on some real life concerns we don't have the legislative framework in place to implement those on the speed and pace at which you and i think a lot of others would agree we desire so to be clear to the point of a process of being availed to you to somehow postpone us decisions such as this my advice to you is no the the recent ordinance and previous ordinances set forth that site plans are reviewed as they are measured against our requirements we don't have requirements in these regards so as staff is presented to you it is our recommendation that this proposal meets the requirements of the city code and and it's appropriate to approve that scenario that you're talking you are talking about is um uh in some way trying to stave off the city doing its duty to make those decisions while some changes might be proposed consider considered refined and ultimately adopted and made effective in the city i don't believe that's the right way to go about it i think the right way to go about it is to do the hard work like you were reversing with ev parking which is already underway that's going to be coming back to the planning commission soon and to find other ways that our land use requirements can start reflecting those goals as you already mentioned it's not even as simple as that being part of our community comprehensive plan nonetheless there are a lot of alignment with city comprehensive goals that i think do support that there are also challenges when we start talking about some of the depth of conversation here there are absolutely valid conversations to discuss as to what is appropriately to be regulated through development criteria and what's appropriate to be regulated through building code criteria and those are very distinct despite our frustrations very distinct legislative frameworks in the state of michigan that we have to live within so does that help what i expected it you know does it help but no because what it what it ultimately means is we'll have to accept a development that is going to impede us from actually uh achieving our a20 goals because we will if if mr garber's calculations are correct we're gonna have a building that's contributing 572 metric tons of carbon um as soon as it gets up and running and i mean he the the petitioner even tonight said each one of these hoods represents the energy footprint of a single family home which when he said that i thought then why aren't we doing everything that we can to put that on a climate trajectory that is sustainable like why why aren't we just in in the idea that we're in this shared space like we have to share as chairmail said we're in this together this is not a we get to sit here and you go off and do what you want what you do impacts my quality of life my kids quality life your employees their kids and so i think you know uh mr garner is correct and and saying that this is a reality that we are facing so does it help no is it understandable within the legislative framework yes yeah of course and i would i i guess i would just add that you know the city has made a lot of progress in this regard and and by nature by nature of governance we have to operate within these frameworks as i'm sure you would agree we have made a lot of progress but you know i just want to i just want to appreciate like um public commenters yours like you know of course i i would definitely agree that i wish there were more efficient direct and easy ways we could get to advancing some of those goals um thus we have systems in place to make sure we're doing it properly we're doing it transparently we're doing it within legislative frameworks that do provide some limitations that we wish at times weren't there but um you know i i i i would say that despite the fact that um we are maybe not getting there as quickly and in all the regards that we desire that's not the same as to say that we're not making progress on a lot of fronts so yeah because it was partially to me too i i want to just remind all of us and for those who don't regularly follow that we did have a working session with the office of i'm gonna i always just call it dr stelt's office um the office of sustainability and innovations where we talked about this very issue and trying to understand like because this comes up with us again and again and again and not to push off shirk responsibility but like we had we had a conversation about what it is that we can do i'll talk about this a little bit more and commission proposed business because it is when we hear a20 like and and this particular goal that like i go back and print it off and i did say use one piece of paper for that um to say like what where are we on this but also let's look beyond that like what else is on our work plan like what within a20 that is that is squarely our level of responsibility so i want to come back to that but but also just to say that it this is not just the planning department's determination like um i think the the entire the office that is standing behind like recognizing that is tasked with helping us get to that goal has also said like continuing to ask education right like and the education of us and educating petitioners i think um uh right now i think is the is our framework there's lots of other things that we have to do that we can do too not satisfying i'm not satisfied either go ahead commissioner dish it's possible that i that i misheard or or heard what i wanted to hear but um what i thought i heard from the petitioner was that um what is constraining in this situation is the technology available to heat and cool um a building that the operations that will be contained in this building heat cool ventilate so what we are limited by is actually not first and foremost our lack of regulatory ability to demand a carbon neutral building this petitioner has explored many of the options that we would want them to explore and found that it won't give them the performance they need for the work that they do in this building so i'm not hearing i i think there are two problems that we are confronting as we look at this project and one is the limits of what is within the purview of planning commission to ask but the other is the limits of what we have the technology to do and i i don't want us to leave tonight thinking that there was an easy efficiency solution that got left on the table because someone was recalcitrant that is sometimes the way we leave this room but i don't think it's the way we're leaving this room tonight and i would be happy to be corrected if i've missed something but that is what i take from the conversation commissioner hammerschmidt that sort of sums up what i thought i was hearing as well so i appreciate this conversation i don't even know enough about this to be dangerous so this was this was good this is a good primer and commissioner dish i think that summed up perfectly what's been going through my head it sounds like if if there was a way to do this it would be integrated into these plans i do have one clarification and you can all you can correct commissioner edition i too if we're wrong um but i think i heard you say something about the soil conditions are an issue for geothermal but then you might be considering um considering that for me to that point you know cam mccosman had mentioned that in the evaluation of the geothermal options be it horizontal wells or vertical wells you know what are the obstacles and one thing that was evaluated were uh test fits and the soil conditions on site they're not just to clarify and build on his comment it's not optimal for the wells but it certainly wouldn't prevent us from installing the wells so i i think that's more of a kind of a tangential aside you know the client wasn't in the exploration of geothermal it wasn't dismissed because of the soil conditions on site and even with respect to that to the footprint for sure you know like cam mccoslan had indicated horizontal wells may have present prevented or presented some issues with respect to future development pads but but vertical wells would have been a solution to try to work around that again i think that is an issue that we evaluated for sure um but the the overriding issue is is the technical spaces so you know if this were an office building or a warehouse um using uh heat pumps you know like a vrf heat pump type system or uh using a ground source heat pump system certainly would would be um an option and an objective from a client who's so focused on these sustainable goals but the reason we ended up with this design again there are a lot of contributing discussions but the overriding reason are these technical spaces and and if i could maybe turn a negative into a positive this particular corporate citizen um what they're proposing is really the most efficient building possible for for a life science user that has an intensive research and development requirement with chemistry labs and biology labs and these you know manufacturing spaces and and so forth so there there is a bit of a positive story here in that there's a lot of labs in ann arbor i've built a lot of them that are not very efficient so it would be like having a lot of you know inefficient single family homes and so forth but if the community um is embracing the life science market um which i think it is and it because it's so critical i mean it's certainly if covid has made us all acutely aware of how critical you know the life science industry is um in order to support the life science market you have these really intensively used laboratory buildings but they in it and it becomes very difficult when you have uh you know 10 or 15 air changes that you're going to do that with complete carbon neutrality but that doesn't mean that you can't use every available technology to do it in the most efficient way possible and so i would say you have a corporate um citizen with a lot of resources that really value sustainability you know very much like what the is trying to do by taking this you know very technical building and putting forth an example of how to do it right and hopefully as as this building you know it becomes a catalyst for redevelopment in in this research part this kind of out what i would call kind of an outmoded research part it also becomes a benchmark for how to do the most sustainable type of development for a life science user so there's actually a really positive story but but obviously we all recognize that when you have these lab spaces and you have all these air changes your there's a challenge in that it takes a lot of energy to temper to heat and cool all the makeup air that you're bringing in when you're turning air over at such a high rate for safety reasons commissioner hammerschmidt yeah thanks that was i understood most of that but my clarify my clarification actually when i asked about the soil um in phases two three and four if they are not lab spaces there is the potential to consider geothermal for those phases and i think you guys said you would look into that for those phases i just want to clarify yeah i i think that it's an ongoing process where the client wants us to continue um you know geo exploring geothermal and frankly every every available technology because as as you all know like like you had mentioned or some of the um public comment had mentioned uh you know in in the letters that they wrote uh for today's meeting you know from a from a kind of a seer rating standpoint a lot of the like vrf heat pump systems now are just as efficient um as the ground source uh heat pump systems like we have clients you know like the university of michigan credit union that we've done a dozen projects for and they're using vrf instead of geothermal totally different type of building than the sartorius building but so i would say the client is exploring not just geothermal but every available technology that would make this building more efficient and more sustainable and they're committed to that in each additional phase um just as just as you all are pushing us to make this building as sustainable as possible they're actually doing the same thing that's great i think just to i'm gonna say one more thing and then move on to something else but also as commissioner dish mentioned like we often come away from the table asking these questions and we don't get the responses that we want like i i feel confident that you guys have really been looking into this and this is really an important thing to the company um i think i need a little more education myself on this this has been really helpful but i mean i i'm not i feel like you're doing everything that you can do because this is part of what this company wants you know what i i would even i would even go so far as to say can you go can you um commissioner hammerschmidt go ahead yeah i want to move to i just i want to praise this project for something else for a minute um and then i have a request for consideration um this is filling in huge sidewalk gaps along research whatever the road is called which i think is really exciting um you know it's a 10 minute walk to some of the restaurants that are nearby but also and there will be a sidewalk now to connect in i think um but there's this i'm looking at you know this this plan with the pavilion and the food truck pads and i think you know being able to provide that space for um the employees so that they don't necessarily have to drive um you know 10 minutes might feel too far for people to walk to a restaurant or drive even farther so you know providing those spaces as part of the site for people to gather for people to get food on site i think is great my request um i was yeah i think you said the interiors are going to be designed this summer when i was looking at the plates i was trying to find where the stairs are i think that you know outside of the building with all of the glazing like it looks beautiful it's only two stories like i would love for the entry lobby to not have you know a prominent elevator and to instead if possible have like a nice staircase going up to the second floor so that people have the opportunity to get that little bit of physical activity that they might not otherwise so that's my request that's that's that's part of the design it's like it's a great suggestion that's part of the design i always talk about stairs okay awesome well thank you i think this project looks beautiful um the sustainability elements that you guys are incorporating i think to me are very impressive so i can't wait to see this project by the way we very much appreciate these comments because we you know works we're concerned with the same issues great thank you other planning commission comments oh goodness commissioner lee and then commissioner um gibb randall uh yeah sure um so yeah as as most of the other commissioners have said our planning review is form and use so based on setback use far all of this seems to fit the water county resource the water resource commissioner has signed off on the calcs the 4.3 hour full infiltration and drain time is everything looks good this looks like a good infill development as mr leonard mentioned that the the big rub is going to continue to be that legislative framework between the michigan building energy code what that requires relative to what we have legislation or what we have authority over which is again um form and use so from that standpoint um i think that we will do everything we can but uh this looks to be good infield to me um i would love to see some segmentations with the office so i totally understand you know 1k 10k clean rooms can require extreme amounts of makeup air um but i think it was commissioner weiss that mentioned that um the office building can be segmented from a you know an electrification standpoint all of that said my here's my question for you guys there's no silver bullet environmental change and i think there's going to be a lot of good consolidation and efficiency that comes from this as they make the move here are there any plans to use carbon offsets and programs from dt related to this so is there going to be any efforts towards carbon neutrality towards other offsets it's being looked at and there's an ongoing discussion with dte you know one of the things that we're uh we're doing is that it's really not represented on this uh on this plan is that there is a dt easement that actually bifurcates the site north south that it runs through um we are actively looking at at moving that uh that line that is now most likely we are going to bury that and uh and take it over to the right-of-way easement on the east side of the property so active discussions with dte on that front and then also on on the carbon issues what you're mentioning and potentially buying offsets gotcha thank you um and as you guys said you guys are looking at lead certification which would be great we'd highly encourage it that said we don't control operation i don't think that's within the context of the michigan planning enabling act so please correct me if i'm wrong in that arena no uh it's just again not not in our legislative framework yeah so and i don't i don't profess to be an expert at lead but leed has evolved and to be more operational have more operate ongoing operational aspects in order to meet that criteria from a development perspective we have to take a snapshot of this building at some point and say yeah it meets our requirements and you've you've heard me talk about my concerns when we start adding operational requirements to a physical form that we have to deem to meet our requirements or not meet our requirements so um lead um we do we you will note in our udc we do use it at times for base points for for example for accessing premiums but we typically do not use it as a benchmark of attaining a role because it puts both a property owner in the city in a difficult situation if five years down the road those operational decisions don't attain that then what understood and so uh yeah from that standpoint what we can do is to encourage that environmental sustainability is something that really does impact us all so uh but but i think there's good efficiency gains from consolidations and a lot of good things happening here so um and for my identification how much was the geothermal so i mean on a 20 million dollar project just is there like a ballpark i don't know if that you guys wanted you're saying it like a cost per square foot type of thing yeah or just a range or just a magnitude i suppose um that said oh yeah this is not viable it i i could i could probably if you wanted to discuss that with me offline i could probably you know share some thumbnail figures but i i don't know that i can share right now exactly you know where it fell in the cost comparison because like if you want to talk specifically about geothermal as if anyone's implemented geothermal on a project even for example the vertical wells that we just put in at madonna the challenge with geothermal was always peak heating and peak cooling so generally when the systems get designed you have a a redundant system to heat and cool the building during those times of peak load like january you're in peak heating obviously in july august you're in peak cooling so to say how much is geothermal that would be one component you'd still have to supplement geothermal with other what i would call decentralized systems to meet the needs of those labs during those peak heating and peak cooling times so it's it's really it would be a misleading number if we just kind of gave you that number here today i i will tell you this this system evaluation where we looked at how do we incorporate heat pumps how do we incorporate potentially ground source heat pumps with geothermal or you know more of like a package dx system with with supplemental wet heat like with the direction that we're kind of going um the cost we're pretty comparable on all those options because the big cost driver here is is the is the ventilation requirement and as as we all know geothermal really doesn't have a a mechanism for for ventilation you know i mean that's we're providing the the source of heating and cooling but it's it's really that how how best do we maintain really really tight parameters for temperature uh requirements and humidity requirements in a lab where you have an extraordinary amount of air changes that's what's kind of driving the cost and the geothermal by itself can't solve for that it has to be geothermal plus other supplemental systems so if you compare everything kind of apples to apples with all the technologies that are out there um it really wasn't really a cost decision it's a performance decision totally understood it was predominantly me trying to better understand what that cost um even at the madonna project totally understand that it's got to be supplemental whether it's mini splits or or other mechanisms of localizing air transfer so um i think it's something that you and i can discuss probably yeah and i would be if you ever want to you know just reach out to me please give me a call and i could give you i could give you some references um you know just for your own benefit yeah no i'd like that um i have a completely kind of switching gears i noticed that the proposed 12-inch water main along the frontage is getting installed and the existing eight inch water main is getting abandoned so is that getting just getting capped and left in the ground and maybe this is a question for staff or or tom um yeah it's a question for either mr chang or probably mr covert yeah i think it'll be capped and left in place okay gotcha just it'll be there for a long long time okay understood all right i think that's all i had thank you very much go ahead commissioner brandel thank you um one other thing on on on this train that we've been on and that is that um i've worked alongside a lot of uh leed buildings and living building challenge buildings and um the amount of glazing seems challenging to me in terms of what i'm seeing and i'm wondering if there's ways for us to give them flexibility in terms of how the elevation may change from what we govern from the outside as they are figuring out all of the granular stuff that they're going to need to figure out for the inside and that i know that we can be pretty rigid about what the outside looks like but i just wouldn't be surprised if if i mean again depending on where your priorities are with the way things look and perform with light and and and heating and cooling and all that sort of thing that there wouldn't be some awnings or less glazing or something like that on some of these sides here because you know going to get a lot of dramatic heat swings with two stories of glass there unless you've got triple glazing and things like that which is pretty pretty pricey so i guess what i'm saying is that i would be fine having some flexibility with how this exterior may change knowing that we would be very supportive of the performance of the building increasing as long as it doesn't become a total concrete bunker um to be able to meet the goals i don't want you all making decisions saying oh now we've got to go back to planning commission because we're changing the facade x percentage because we're trying to meet this performance goal that we weren't at the stage to be able to to to do when we're at planning commission stage because you're just you're still just way in the building at this point i mean the site is pretty much you know figured out but the inside of the building i know it's still evolving a lot so i would just like to kind of bring that to the group in terms of how the rest of you all feel about giving them some leeway with since and i truly appreciate the amount of thinking that you all have done which i don't think that we've ever gotten frankly from a practitioner around this stuff in terms of studying this at this stage in the game from where we stand and i guess i would like to be able to leave some flexibility for them to let these facades evolve as they get more understanding of their building performance to be able to give them some leeway to to shift those if they need to in terms of how the building is performing i know you turned it to us but i'm gonna first if it's okay turn it to mr chang or mr leonard to say sure right walk us through what that looks like and is that even something that we can offer such flexibility for i'll start and if mr train wants to add anything i will let him correct me so the draft development agreement that we would use for this and many other developments does include a provision that if that gives me as the planning manager discretion to make a determination that if there are architectural elevation changes that are significant from what was approved they can be routed back to in this case the planning commission for consideration so in short i guess i we could do one of two things we could eliminate that provision and not have any expectation of connection of these architectural elevations to the approval of the site plan it's not my preferred option i think what i would be comfortable doing if it was comfortable with the planning commission is keep that language as it is i will tell you typically when i go through that framework i am thinking very much about glazing the most common examples of those discussions are residential buildings where sort of a glazing percentage is reduced from what was presented at the planning commission and city council to what is being proposed for construction i have often used glazing as a benchmark of glass adding architectural interest to a building and when it starts getting reduced significantly work with petitioner to maybe reconfigure or keep that level substantial in this case if the feedback from the planning commission was that that was less of a concern here i i would be happy to make that judgment that if in doing that process the architectural elevations here were to be modified in this case i might frankly apply a more relaxed sense of judgment which is i just want to be clear it is still a sense of judgment that the changes still seem consistent with what was approved however recognizing the goals of the planning commission is expressed for energy efficiency um so i'd be happy to proceed in that regard and and and just to be clear i would just go into it with perhaps a higher level of flexibility and judgment than i typically would for a project that might have um and and i think that's not inappropriate because this has this does have a much higher percentage of glazing than most of the projects that we do see so a couple of options we could strike that proposed provision from the from the development agreement altogether that would be sort of utmost flexibility without judgment or retain it as it is i would take feedback from the planning commission if i guess i would ask that the planning commission i don't need a motion but that if generally you are in agreement um and then ultimately i would i'd be making that determination if it was modified um you and the community would have to live with that judgment i would prefer the the latter that you have some judgment with that and i trust that you know i just want to see how other people feel about it you know because that's how i feel about it but i don't know how the rest of the commissioners would feel about that thank you for bringing it up knowing some like as having gone through this uh like that process i think that's really helpful i'm similarly comfortable if the trade-off is not just for because we don't want to put the glass but if it is particularly like related to energy efficiency like that makes a whole lot of sense and i think i would feel comfortable applying that in lots of situations throughout the city um but this one in particular other thoughts go ahead commissioner lee i suppose i'd be comfortable with mr leonard's discretionary judgment provided that it's in concert with our city goals so relatively in support do you feel like you heard enough any protests no so um basically by some degree of nodding and quiet um we will keep the provision as it is so there will there will be an expectation that the building is built to this criteria but in applying that i will any changes i will clearly measure against how it's relating to energy efficiency standards before i make a determination on whether or not it's appropriate to come back here okay that's great um two little tiny landscape things that i just want to pick at just a bit um one is that your viburnum dentatum is going to get decimated by viburnum beetle and i suggest that you all change that species out and that your new england aster is never going to survive in the bottom of your um your detention basin uh it's just going to have too much water on top of it and i suggest you switch that guy out to something that can handle more fluctuation of flashy water levels with storm water so those are two things that you know again nothing to hold the project up but i think that you're just going to get better performance out of your landscape if you um look at those two possibilities of making a shift noted commissioner thank you see your hand bless your heart that's like the nicest that's awesome um i have a question about the other phases and this is just uh the process in which they get approved as they move forward so they would have to basically bring an amendment to the site plan um and then go through this basically process for that phase two phase three and go through the same thing is that correct yeah and it would be measured by the ordinances in place at that time gotcha totally understood okay gotcha so what we're approving is this phase one essentially with the five parcels being um essentially combined so or that being the condition precedent to the approval of the site plan okay perfect that's the clarification i need it thank you anything else mr leonard could you have a roll call vote please yes commissioner mills yes commissioner good randall yes commissioner abrams yes commissioner hammerschmidt yes commissioner lee yes commissioner weich yes commissioner clark yes commissioner dish yes site plan is approved all right very good thank you thank you very much thank you all right while there is the movement of people in and out of the zoom room i will announce that this is the second third and final opportunity for public comment persons may speak for up to three minutes about any issue this evening we'll call on first on individuals present here in chambers to address the commission and then call in remote participants if you are joining us remotely this evening and listening by a telephone you can press star 9 on your phone if you've joined through the web link again you can press the raised hand feature button which is and should be in the center bottom of your screen if you're watching us and want to dial in it's 877-853-5247 and then our meeting id is 977-6634-1226 mr leonard we'll call on you by your telephone number or your zoom name please move to a quiet area mute any background sounds and as always please uh state your name and address at the beginning of your comments if you're here in person or if you're uh calling in remotely would anyone present like to provide a public comment go for it please since i'm here i'll just say something i just want to thank you for the very thorough and thoughtful discussion tonight really appreciate it in everything that you do take care thank you do we have any callers mr leonard nobody has yet indicated a desire to address the commission maybe give it another moment here sure and again if you've caught dialed in on your telephone and want to provide a comment you can press star 9 to indicate that if you've joined through the web link you can just use the raised hand button no indication all right then we can move on to item 10 commission proposed business as promised i have notes but does anybody else have any commission proposed business okay again i want to remind us the things that are specifically where we are named as the party responsible for implementation within a20 one is increasing diversity diversity of housing options and by my read the indicators for success are 2 000 new units of residential multi-family or adus that are built in residential neighborhoods by 2030 the in terms of the next steps a lot of it was thinking about how this fits within our comprehensive plan discussions and then reviewing our zoning ordinance i feel like we're probably biting away like nibbling away at the edges um with the existing planning documents that we have but i would imagine that we could i would suggest that we probably could do more um the other is the next item right after that which is talking about mixed-use neighborhoods um again the action and the goal here is that 20 of in-city trips are done by walking and biking um and [Music] it's reducing driving and car ownership in mixed-use neighborhoods like again the action items are kind of reviewing our zoning ordinance by my interpretation like much of what we're doing to add residential into predominantly um commercial and office districts is helping towards that but i think what i really like about the implementation plan is that it's talking about like seeing if it's working so um but i i would use that long intro to say i really look forward to our conversation at the next working session or the next probably the next working session makes sense to talk about what is next in terms of tc one rezoning um i think that that we need to have that conversation there's also things about making sure that we um are thinking about non-motorized transport in the cip process um tiered parking which i we're supposed to be a collaborator there i'm not totally sure what it's not named exactly what that would mean and then resilience hubs were also mentioned yeah i think turret parking is intended to get the policies in place where the city uses sort of flexible or tiered parking rates for its public parking and so as a collaborator i think some of the decisions that our ordinance and development makes about providing private parking probably in the long run has relationships to the success or speed at which a tiered parking program could be utilized great actually because i wrote down what the things were but then i didn't make notes in terms of why this is commission proposed business i would also ask that for the working session it's been a while since the changes to the adu ordinance happened and i'm wondering if it wouldn't be too much effort to pull together how many permits we've had if there's been additional movement a lot of those changes were to try to reduce the barriers towards that and i can't remember exactly when but it feels because of covid but it feels like it's been a while so i would just like to see how we're moving on in that direction any other commission proposed business yes um as part of that discussion i think there are other aspects in the a20 plan that the planning commission might not be listed specifically as an implementing body but we could have a role for example there's a lot of references to solar the development of solar energy and some of that is about sort of community developed solar some of it's about how we open up pathways for people to access solar and other renewable power but another piece of that would be making sure that we are taking a hard look at our ordinances to make sure that we are being as flexible as possible towards that goal so i think we've done some of that recently with providing some site plan review exceptions for adding solar or carports to us sort of modifications where there might be height flexibility if you're adding a certain degree of solar to a building or not counting solar rooftop solar towards height requirements but that's an example i think also of how work and policies and ordinances that we change could impact other aspects of the a20 plan which is just an example it might be worthwhile for us to spend a little time in that discussion going through that plan sort of comprehensively and and thinking about those other intersects where we might not be more explicitly mentioned that is useful and so can because this jarred by memory uh this predates probably many of you that are on planning commission once upon a time we forwarded a recommendation to council dealing with front yard solar panels that was not taken and i wonder if we might revisit that so um great other commission proposed business go ahead commissioner white just a question um when we developed the priority list we had a section on that list for eliminations in the code do those come through the working session or will they come directly from staff to the to the table and then we'll debate and vote on them at the table and then when can we expect those because that could probably get us some way towards some of these goals by eliminating certain things as opposed to because we still what it's like a thousand pages so the we could get to those two thousand houses if we get rid of some of the zones that we have that restrict what kind of housing to come into it so i'm just thinking of intersections unzoning yes yeah i mean i think that's you know that's part of i think it's just part of where we want to put our time i mean um you know parking i think is next up but we've talked about these aspects of of you know how far can we appropriately incorporate the sustainability we've also talked about revisiting premiums we've talked about um street frontage and so um i would actually ask i might suggest at the next ordinance revisions committee meeting if the orc committee would help staff sort of frame that discussion for the next working session so maybe at the next orc we actually help you can be sort of the first test of some of of getting all that stuff formatted and compared and the types of questions so that when it comes to the full commission of the working session and we'll have the benefit of that first review of um maybe it's the intersections i mean um the way you're thinking about it is right on i think that's why tc1 was elevated because it touched on so many of those aspects and part of it's probably going through that list and figuring out what are the highlights that actually touch a lot of those things which brings me to my last one which is can we where is our process for creating more transit uh corridor corridors because that will also address the housing uh units in the a2 zoning plan so is that just a commissioner says hey let's put it let's put a transit corridor here and then we start the process or is that a staff to planning conversation and where does it fit in the working session yeah that's part of that same prioritization how does that relate to unzoning or how does that relate so it's at orc so so what sort of to be clear orc doesn't make any decisions so what i'm thinking is i'd like to use that committee to sort of start okay getting making sure one that i'm presenting all of the possibilities to the planning commission at that working session then i think as the whole commission i think that orc will help me refine and sort of present those questions and maybe maybe even a preliminary prioritization we'll have that conversation at the full planning commission ultimately adopt a work plan and then we'll be off to the races on tackling those in the order that you decide okay thank you i'm imagining once upon a time a long time ago before social distancing we did have like a sticker exercise i think this was very early on and you might have been still with the county maybe i've done lots of sticker exercises go ahead commissionerly um i've heard cookies were a thing once again cookies were once upon a time a thing too yeah i just wanted to make a comment i love the discussions on climate change because and we all are i think well intended here because laws do exist to promote health safety and the general welfare and climate change literally is all three of those things right the health safety and general welfare and i i like the focus of where we as a body can be most effective in in implementing and changing you know form and use um so i like the concept of let's let's really focus on where we can be effective um and again trying to stay out of possibly operational and better you know building codes that may not necessarily be within our purview so i think it'll constantly be a attention um that we have to navigate but that i think we're all fighting the good fight and then really and i actually really look forward to seeing the adus and and what that um utility has hopefully been increased otherwise i'd like to even revisit the concept of short-term rentals being allowed in adus my belief is that if we regulate how people use adus and they're still less likely to build them obviously that's a can of worms that you know i'd like to see the data first to see where we are but um just again the the emphasis on where we can be most effective i think is going to be critical moving forward so that's it thanks working session in march it's going to be fun all right um anything else before we adjourn uh i'll entertain a motion to adjourn moved by commissioner white second advice commissioner dish all in favor raise a hand that is everyone have a good night oh

uh this is a yearly thing those contracts have already been presented the as a backup to the board we give you a list was provided of all the teachers and counselors that are recommended for rehire for the upcoming school year all right any questions regarding that it is just function thing that we have to do to make the function proper so can we have a motion to approve item 3.2 i have a motion from chuck a second from jennifer all in favor and i hi there we go okay item 3.3 recommendation to approve the renewal lease agreement for the church and uh i think we need to open this up for a conversation right now dr wright you want to start that and then we'll you know sure we've been in a partnership with the church i believe we're in our fourth year um and we had talked about offering an extended year lease whether it's two years three years four years five years or some there's a willingness on the church to have a long-term lease i'll add that they've been a wonderful tenant if you recall the paint that was done to that facility four years ago we provided the pain they provided the people power to have it completely painted they also have redone that inside which was an old cafeteria that now is a sanctuary and conference room that we have access to i'll also mention i must have sadly have gone to half a dozen funerals that the church offers for that at no charge what the concerns that i've fielded recently is just the escalated cost of utilities and then just the question with the least price those are the discussion points i think that um my question was haven't this been a year to year it has been year year to year yep it's been re uh renewed every year and renegotiated as we just kind of rolled it over from year to year we have we they've the price has increased over the years and last year we included utilities in that price and so it has been on an annual basis and it's been reviewed just on the basis of you know i think current i think what kind of the concerns that i've heard from the community and whatnot is uh are we subsidizing with with voter and public funds to help the church maintain the presence at that at that location so that that's kind of the bottom line question i have i think we might need to look into that a little bit more how about chuck um yeah i agree with you and also on the length of the lease i guess i guess that doesn't bother me so much as the what we're charging for utilities utilities are going up rapidly and is that rate the same for the whole seven years in the current lease that's the way it's reflected right now yes sir well but if if we lock in those prices on utilities for seven years it could be a lot more expensive down the road i think maybe we ought to have an option to review the utility part at least but maybe with rents going up uh the cost of construction and so forth maybe we need to take a closer look as compared with the going rate in the community uh per square foot for commercial property and so forth not that we have to charge the same as that but i we shouldn't be it would be far below if i might mr president it would be tough to find a comparable property that's leased because it's this is not open to a lot of different businesses it's a very narrow group that could use this nacog an organization like the church that's willing to you know use it during business hours and then to uh you know not and to make it available on the weekends essentially is is the highest use i will address the the gift of public funds is really what it amounts is what the question we do not pay for any of the maintenance or the upkeep on that building unless it's a major thing like the sidewalks trip hazards that's the schools uh they put in i would say conservatively hundreds of thousands of dollars in either roofing and also the inside remodeling of that structure so we're not varying cost of the everyday maintenance of that we don't clean it we don't upkeep it so there's not a there's hard to uh we'd be hard-pressed to find an exact exact comparable but to your point rents have increased everybody knows that real estate everywhere is going up and uh so i could find some i'd do my best to find some comparables that might sort of reflect where we're at more comment concerns margaret yeah somebody has to turn the result off uh i'd just like to mention i think it's very hard for an organization to plan ahead if they only have a one year lease and if there's any way that we can possibly give them a longer lease and then review the costs annually instead of reviewing the whole lease annually because if that building were sitting empty all this time it would look horrible it really would there's nothing that that ages the building faster than not having anybody in it and from the highway you can't tell that that's not part of our campus right i believe the state would come back and that building set empty and we weren't using at the state oh yeah yeah so i think we need to look at a longer lease so that they can plan better everybody needs to be able to plan farther ahead than a year i agree with what margaret said i think maybe one way to do that would be to tie it to the cost of living index or the inflation rate so it's written in there that if inflation goes up four percent in the next year then the rent goes up four percent and so forth um same with utilities or looking at that option then we wouldn't have to renegotiate it each year it would be based on whatever the inflation is or the consumer index thank you i'm kind of go ahead margaret they've also provided a quite uh thing for the whole community that we didn't have before i mean we don't have a place that big in the community really that they can use freely it's been a lot of wind been a lot of good come from that but i do think there's some concerns i think i don't know if somebody objects to this speak up right now i think we'll table this until next month and we'll let ron and dr wright address some of these concerns now that you know what they are and maybe come back next month and vote on this yeah i will visit with ron and the executive they have an executive team in committee and get some ideas i i should add i would say we probably hold a dozen events conservatively a dozen events from the school on and and probably an equal number on an informal basis to share the shared space the conference room is really it's been a nice um jesus via hermosas coming out next month and we're going to use that all day and then into the evening too so i want to point out it is an asset for the the school district as well good deal okay with that ron just just one thing in general i think that what i'm hearing is we love that the church is there they've been an excellent tenant but let's just make sure that we're wise with our taxpayers dollars so there's almost like a break even point is basically what it's coming to because when we have our events they're not charging us utilities right so we just need to take a little bit more time to dive in and then come up with something that's beneficial for all i totally agree that having you know one-term lease is very difficult um to plan but three times propane's three times higher or whatever you know so we just need to make sure the utilities costs are covered well to plan ahead to spend any money on that building why would you want to do it if you're only going to have a year right yeah definitely yeah definitely i agree with that you do yes okay so i think the ideas are out there yes sir i bet we can come to some agreement on that and we'll we'll move forward there so do we need a motion to table that or i can table that no you can i can table that it's stable we'll do it next month okay item um 3.4 this uh just moving to the last part diana i didn't ask you what do you think uh i think that they have been excellent attendance and i am glad that we're looking at it but i think five years there's a long time to try to spread that leap great thank you diana okay okay item 3.4 superintendent's retort dr right we'll turn the basically the balance of this part of the agenda over to you thank you there's a couple of things we want to review real quickly including the upcoming breaks we have on a president's day if you remember we looked to try to find because we reduced the length of the fall break and the spring break from two weeks to one week we look at a couple give backs frankly for teachers to create a little space so friday there's no school the district's closed and and monday's off as well that provides this coming week absolutely and so it'll be very happy presence day and then we have in march we have spring break that is reflected and it's the second week of march it begins on the 14th and it's through the 18th and those are the upcoming uh calendar events that we have i don't i mean is there any other upcoming calendar events oh i know i want to talk about jesus he's coming to 21 20th and 21st the 21st and 22nd jesus v hermosa who has been out here before is going to provide training all day for staff and students and then uh on march 21st will be a community meeting that will hold that is going to be at the church if they're inside the conference center there and that will be on school safety and uh it's a timely it's a timely conversation and i'm really proud of the efforts our principals and directors and supervisors have invested in doing their best to create a safe environment for all and we're challenged weekly with with uh events and we're they're just doing an exceptional job i also want to thank local law enforcement we're very we're very blessed to have a chief of police that works closely with our principals and takes any threat seriously they're not ever downplayed or ignored and we always research any threat to the fullest extent we're also equally blessed to have a number of fbi agents that live here locally and they have a task force here that work closely with local law enforcement that doesn't happen anywhere else so we've uh we've been very fortunate uh to to have that added support the expenditure limit is under review right now it may have been it was considered in the house and it passed 45 to 11 successfully it's now in the senate which is going to be tougher and that's the the funds where the legislature already approved their budget that we're not asking for more money we're asking to spend the money that we were given to begin with and so there's doesn't appear to be a large appetite to undercut that and to put schools in crisis which means we would have to close the date would be we'd have to figure out what that date is it would be late march early april and we'd be done for the rest of the year well no one wants that that's not good for kids and i don't think it uh it's what most adults really want so hopefully the legs that the senate does the right thing follows the house's lead and approves this uh spending limit if they haven't already done so i i'm pretty confident in the discussions we have that that's the direction it's going and as we get information on that i'll inform the community just recently a 1.5 million dollar grant from the state facility board was granted to finally fix the gem so chuck and and jeff and i have been working in roger for about three years on this and so thank you roger for your effort and jeff for yours and chuck uh chuck and i had a phone call with jack smith who is the the the new director of the state facilities board he was very accommodating and true to his word they the funding was approved and that's a 1.5 million dollar project that it does not come out of lower uh local taxpayer funds so i'm proud of the team for getting that done we appreciate your help too chuck we're now working and turning all of our attention to the elementary we have roofing that needs to be repaired there and redone we have sidewalk issues we have excuse me flooring issues if you remember in 2017 when the bond was passed we put in 2.5 million in civil engineering it did its job when that foundation is no longer being under eroded or undermined by water but now that it's settled the floors are shifted in some areas two or three inches so the state's gonna need to come in take all that flooring out smooth it out probably just put a finished concrete on it and we're working also to weatherproof or paint it needs to be done as well it's a 12 year old facility and so that's our next thing that we're continuing to press on in april we'll form a committee and by statute if you're going to teach sex ed that curriculum has to be approved by a community committee and so that'll be formed in april and we'll review with the principals and the people that want to participate right here in this room it'll start in april and we'll review what we're doing now i believe it starts at is that the grade five or six is is where it starts principles five or six six and so we'll uh we'll have that underway it the wrap up needs to be by the end of may and so we'll we'll uh report back on that as it comes in barbara symington is not here right now but barb simonton and through her efforts and her team efforts she secured essentially a forty thousand dollar grant for our programs and for her program for the food service if you remember it's now it's operating at a profit and they've done a a very good job of leveraging federal resources getting those food stuffs out to the entire community we slowed down the past six weeks because we needed to make sure we had enough to feed the kids here at school if those supply chain things are corrected we'll start distributing again community-wide and that federal program is throughout the whole year the kids at school get free lunches now irrespective of income for the entire school year current school year and we also just want to i want to commend brenda and barb working hard to make sure we're maximizing those grants we're getting kids fed and feeding families we are well over 700 000 meals served since 2020 that's a lot of a lot of food the district affirms its commitment also to its uh protection of teachers and students and staff members we won't tolerate threats or abuse of its of their teachers or coaches or anyone and we've been working really hard uh to ensure our employees know that they are safe and they are uh we work really hard to make sure that uh any any threat is brought to light and we research it right to the end and uh the conduct of our athletes we expect it to be exemplary and we expect them to re respect their coaches as well and will continue to have that that's not that hasn't started with me seven years ago that's a blue horse br standard it's been here for you know since the beginning of this 1963 of the district and i'm very proud of our kids and coaches and students and teachers i think all of them do an exceptional job but where mistakes are made we hold folks accountable and that's just a message we wanted to reinform or reaffirm with the board are there any questions on any of these items that i need to provide i don't do you have anything diana no nothing thank you thank you board any other questions nothing there next item on the agenda is item number four it's call to the public we'd invite anybody that's here that would like to speak to the board to come up tell us who you are tell us where you live tell us what your concerns are we might not be able to act on that at this time we can definitely direct staff to address that but we'd invite anybody to do that that's here that would like to do that we'd like to limit you to like three minutes if we could come on up there should be a microphone there for you so we can all hear good evening thank you so much uh it's great to be here my name is janelle and a common drug concern i have or would like to know is with kids that the easy merit i believe that was taken last year how would the public be able to get information on the students that did not meet or exceed the test like what was the percentage and then what is the ramification of how you're going to go ahead with um increasing the knowledge of those students that did not pass so if that's something you guys can get back with me i can leave my email i would greatly appreciate it thank you dr wright i'll let you take care of that because i don't know absolutely and i'll say statewide for the most part it did kids horribly we were no different and so we expect that this spring will be somewhat of an improvement but still well below average learning loss is not going to be made up in a semester but we could provide that data and what we'll do is we'll if it's acceptable to the board we'll do a report of last year's arizona merit by school and grade levels and just present that data the principals will review it and then we'll talk about our learning loss plans that we have in place and some of the measures we have taken and we'll are in the plans to address if that's acceptable so can we put that on the agenda then yes sir mary yes sir we'll do great anything else nothing further and we have a motion to adjourn i have a motion for margaret second from chuck all in favor of a german diana we're adjourned

so during that summer of 2021 we spent uh time uh days and days within each of the facilities looking at each of the components of your buildings again it was done by architects from our office and then our our consulting engineers millie's associates they sent out electrical plumbing uh mechanical contractors to take a look at those systems as well and to assemble uh findings we also had tremco roofing is a partner that we used at different times to assess roofs they we asked them to provide a thorough assessment of the roofs at the district to get their opinion of those so those those findings are also included in each of these books so what you'll find is there's a kind of a a written narrative for each of the buildings that kind of goes through and defines the different components it starts with kind of just a general introduction we get into kind of a building and site overview of each of the buildings we kind of get more involved in the site components of the building with the the paving and the landscaping and the sidewalks [Music] the report then moves into the building envelope where we talk about the foundations and the exterior walls and again the roofing windows doors even lentils that are over those doors and windows again i mentioned that there's a separate section on roofing that has a bunch of photographs of each of the the buildings and the roofing systems that are out there we get into interior construction we talking we talk about ceilings and walls and floors doors frames and hardware some of the glass that you use in the building for fire reasons uh and then the the last pages of the of each of the reports for each of the schools is uh talks about the mechanical electrical and plumbing systems for those buildings and again they go into depth on each of the the systems and the components that are currently in your building this this approach we've used in the past but it's it for us it's kind of a static assessment of what we saw in the summer of 2021 it kind of gives them suggestions on what you should do moving forward we've actually taken this [Music] the information here and kind of put it in more of a digital format with a giant spreadsheet format for each of the buildings and again when we're when we're doing that we we went through and we we actually did a kind of a con assigned a condition number to each of the the components of a building so you know doors for instance or windows they had a condition reading we we estimated what we felt was the remaining life expectancy on those components in your building so we had some idea of when you might be in a position to replace those we assigned a [Music] a category factor for each of those components so certain things you know we looked at safety and security is probably a number one priority in your schools the exterior envelope general maintenance of your building is probably high uh probably down the down that list would be like for instance aesthetics uh if you know just you know like the color of the carpet in a room so you want to have it replaced well that's you know that might be a a reason to replace it but it's there's probably a lot of other issues relating to the building envelope and safety and security that you probably would want to do first before you get to replacing carpeting so this this uh the review of the the condition the category and we also looked at the the impact if something were to fail on that building and if it would impact multiple people in that building so again for instance like a boiler if a boiler were to fail you may have to close school and it would certainly impact that building for potentially you know a while until a replacement was put in there so those kinds of things kind of drive when we started looking at when you might want to be replacing um different components in a building so that's where that that 15-year spreadsheet kind of starts to move things in different categories it's really based upon those different factors we also assign dollars to those so we can kind of track that this is something that we will be working with keith and his crew kind of on a on a regular basis trying to keep that up to date you know if he goes through for instance we're doing obviously a bunch of work at the schools you know last summer and this summer and you know summers beyond we want to make sure that those um those components are being updated realizing that you know if we were to put a new boiler in it you know it'll be 40 years before you would have to replace it again we want that documented in this plan so we can see you know that it's way down the road before you start having to look at having to spend money on those components moving forward so it's a this the spreadsheet approach is just a something that we've used with other districts it's just a it's a tool to help the district kind of prioritize different needs from a deferred maintenance point of view and uh i think it's something that you know i know ken's kind of excited about it and he has been working with the bng department to make sure that they're using this kind of as a guideline moving forward and so we can serve the the district for years to come so i think what you'll see up on the screen is is the spreadsheet that's at the end of the balmoral written section and i know it's it's really tough to read i understand that because of all the data that's on here but there are categories that are here from mechanical playground areas uh concrete work all of that there's two pages of this actually uh that you will see we also go into security devices fire alarms lighting all of that so our process right now and and dave and i and b and g leadership have met already on this plan and so keith's job right now is to go through this and is there anything we want to add into this plan from a capital project standpoint i'll give you an example i shared with the board last week about electronic signs in our buildings that's a capital project we're going to put that into this plan so that this is the document that we're going to use so this in combination with our short-term facility plan that we have are the two documents that we're going to look at for all of our facilities then so again as david mentioned this becomes a breathing living document so what will happen let's just say at the end of this summer so in september of 22 keith and i and dave and keith's leadership team will meet and we'll go through this and say okay what did we do this summer in the list and that's when we're going to start moving things around and you'll see all of these things all these numbers here well there may be something out here that we were able to do in this fiscal year so that'll just kind of everything will start moving around so that then we get an idea of what's left on the plan and then we start planning for the next summer what we're going to do now the next summer you know we're pretty well set with our short-term facility plan but again we'll do the same thing every year so every year you go through this plan and you update it as you go and that what i've shared with keith and he knows this because you know i get very direct there shouldn't be anything that we do that isn't on this plan you know unless it's an emergency i should say but you know this is now becomes the bible of our long-range plan and this is a 15-year plan that goes out is it adjustable yes is it movable yes is it life is it breathing yes so it's something that is that is just constant amen so questions from the board or yeah i have one so the 15 years that you have here listed that's not including anything from the short-term facility plan it does there are things on the short-term facility plan that are in here i was going to say because this high school has two big ones you know 7.7 and 8.9 million yeah i i it with it being only 14 years old am i assuming that's part of the addition or is that like a roof or no the addition isn't in here uh we'd have to look maybe parking lot paving work yeah i don't remember okay you have a lot of you have a lot of square footage of paving and it's it's in pretty bad shape yeah there may be you know some roofing in there too and some mechanical things in there we'd have to look at the section in there you know the specific spreadsheet to see what is in there so 122 you have you know 29.4 million i would imagine some of that is part of the short term but yes okay i mean i was going to say yes yes so that's why you know again i you know this is easy for me to say don't don't really panic at the numbers here i mean because things are going to be moving around now you know you have to imagine i think we're going to be spending about 20 million dollars this summer all together i think off top my head i think that's what i think so again there are a lot of items when you look at the small spreadsheet or the spreadsheet at the end but it looks like we're gonna do that over the next three years or whatever the time frame so if you look it's heavy loaded in the front yeah but the numbers get really really good as you go meaning right and i would say maintaining preventative maintenance is in in this too right i mean yes maintaining absolutely yes everything roof structure talk point whatever it is yes all of that is all exploring doors it's pretty comprehensive so yeah when you look at this dollar number here this 111 million dollars you know figure on we're spending about 60 million there's about 60s i think it's 67 or something like that that money is in the short-term facility plan and that's kind of all in here and that so you know it doesn't look that shocking especially when you're talking about eight or nine buildings you know and that is that so so again you know it's just something that again is a working document for us it gives us some template is that we start moving forward here uh that i think is is a is a really cool document i've done this in another district where you know dave has worked dave and i have worked together and we've done this in another district and it really is a neat tool to use yeah i was going to see what is that seven if you divide it out it's like what seven million a year seven and a half million a year that's yeah so so can if you went back to that balmoral exam the spreadsheet that nobody can read the numbers on yes [Laughter] yeah he does that on purpose you know i do yeah there you go so i know nobody watching at home but i mean i can since i have the book and sure it's still small print but but if i look at a line for example roofing restoration for balmoral yes so the first two columns are are the lifespan min and max so that's saying a roof should last 20 to 25 years right and then you across and it says the rating currently it's in fair condition and with a remaining life span of five years is so as you're planning you know now that balmoral's roof needs to be addressed in the next five years is that and that's how you'll prioritize the work that's exactly that's exactly what that's used for and you know we're looking actually looking at some different options with roofing where we can maybe restore the current roof rather than a complete tariff and replacement just because it's a the cost is much less and it can still provide a 20-year warranty going forward so and then as you go across the weighted total there's it's color-coded so that would be in red so that's kind of what it i'm assuming red is uh you should address it probably in the next five years right okay i i have a couple questions when we it looked like this is dated october of last year so i guess the referendum had failed in april of last year was it yeah april of last year all right so when we came up with this plan this physical assessment did we take into consideration it sounds like we probably did not because the borrowing and the selling of bonds for installing new hvac systems and adjusting all of that was later on it was after this october date so did we take into consideration the possibility of going back and revisiting a referendum to build new schools because no okay that's what i thought not at all okay because if that was the case i believe the president asked the question about future boards having the opportunity without having some borrowing power to revisit that the building of new schools and if that's the case this plan again we have addressed over the next couple over the next year so life safety issues these big guns out there piping and all of that coupled with hvacs yes right i see you've got upgrades of electrical we're doing that right for hbx right yes so we have our life safety survey our next one in 20 in 2023 right life safety i believe so yeah 2023 yes so if we go and implement i know we have to stay up on maintenance we do we have to catch it before it fell best we could which we haven't been doing in this district for years so i'm glad to see there's a robust plan up there but my i guess my big question is and you did answered i guess you didn't take into consideration a possibility of a future referendum to build a couple schools to replace these aging schools and it sounds like if you go forward with this that's completely out the picture well because again what i will say mr brown is that a board can make a decision to do right what they want i agree i agree but i agree for this assessment our assessment was about our current buildings not looking at any future type of buildings or anything like that i agree i just want to put that out there yes because if we get you know get caught up and say oh you know we're going to put a roof on for three million dollars or whatever right and we just continue to bleed the district right i mean we have looking to expand millions and millions and millions of dollars and again i don't want to go back in a path but i'm moving forward here so taking this plan and a possibility of still building new schools and how much do we want to continue to spend on these old schools well yeah and again you only you only got the hand you know play the hand that you're dealt with that's it that's what we're here to say and again as i i think i shared this maybe last meeting is that the district is is in a good position right to get some additional revenue coming in when that short-term facility plan ends yeah that you can pick this up and you can go with it yes and i'll be i'll be able to share that when probably in august when i present the next budget because i'm going to share that with the board as we look into the future and all that stuff as we prepare for that but right now we're okay in the next couple years of getting our short-term facility plan is we just closed the yeah crazy anything because we just closed the financing on uh the last set of bonds that we sold that was today was a closing day so we got all that taken care of today so the money is there for the short-term facility plan and that's what's going to carry us for the next you know two summers and then after that this is going to go into effect now again there are a lot of things like you said mr brown there are a lot of things on here that are in the short-term facility so those things will be falling off but then again when we probably get out to fiscal year probably around 25 here you know we won't have the short-term facility plan that'll be all done and then we'll be going into this okay now dave when you conducted the last physical assessment when you conducted dave the last physical assessment for the district i believe it was 2013 they're about with the life safety they're about right so you categorize the physical assessment it wasn't the life safety issues you categorized it as renovation i believe enhancements right so when this is all said and done would this be considered a renovation enhancements are included in this or what i'm trying or just p.m just looking at things that need it's it's more of a preventative maintenance okay okay so the aesthetics per se is not we're not looking to do any robust spending on aesthetics here those comments are in the reports the written reports and again that'll be something that we'll have to work with the district but it's really intended to uh track the components of your buildings and and realize that you know they don't last forever so you have to plan to replace them when they're at the end of their life and sure that's really what this is doing and you know it just takes into account different other other factors like i mentioned the risk so again you might not want to put boilers off to the bitter end because again if they fail you're in a position where you may have to cancel school oh absolutely we did that in bone marrow we have to spend 250 000 per boiler over there a few years back so but nonetheless i i just want to make sure i understand it you're going to bring some monetary value some dollar amounts the next time uh well i mean again you've got dollar amounts here but yeah but but in august i'll we'll talk about funding this okay that's okay as far as funny yes okay and again you know again i don't want to go back but i'm just using it for the sake of trying to have a better understanding of what you're presenting today is that when you're talking about building new abilities and here's the reason why it was going to cost x amount of dollars to bring this building up to snuff so on and so forth and i want to know at the end of the day we're going to see those values which you do have i just haven't had a chance to dissect it sure okay so okay i'm good thank you oh one more time i'm always thinking about dollars how much did we expend on this assessment the physical assessment how much you do to get it done yeah completed uh i think it's about 90 000.

we had an increase in cases when they came back from this vacation i know that's the show i think i agree 100 in the middle of the moment there were more i'm not arguing with them i'm saying the nurses track the data so they're using food data as opposed to whatever's happening in the community and sometimes there is a lie so i mean i i know for a fact that it was increased on december that i looked at it so i don't know except for what i mean also last year in february we were in a hybrid model so only half the kids were coming back to school and monday tuesday school was closed wednesday and then everybody but april we were trying to stabilize 60 percent after which is different than february because cases in general were probably lower than they are right now right yeah but it's hard to compare year over year i think and i agree with adam as well that's hard to compare december break to this break because again cases in general in the state um but i guess two questions i'm posing to the other members of the committee or other people here um one should we you know i'm not saying something we have to do tonight but moving forward so it's not always this off the cuff okay what do we do now should we maybe define some black and white parameters you know and again i'm not saying we do it maybe we work with the nurses or we have an expert somebody you know the board of health i don't i don't know how to go about doing this but maybe we define okay when cases hit this amount masks become strongly recommended when cases hit this amount that's become required so it's not always you know oh we have to do a vote because cases are through the roof and the nurses are freaking out i don't know i'm asking does that make sense it seems like that is what 70 of the community according to this survey is asking for i would just add that i love surveys but we have to be careful with surveys too because 70 of the community it's not right whatever percentage it happens to be the number one survey isn't that right i mean are we not planning to use this survey well if you think the survey is important i mean it was pointed out that people could vote multiple times which makes it not necessarily 100 reliable but if the information is there it is helpful um as far as the parameters going i'm not sure how we would mark that um [Music] yeah i mean i don't think it's something that any of us has the expertise to do i think it would be something that the nurses would have to do but i think moving forward it might be helpful so that people in the community would know if cases start to go up we're gonna have to require them but if they stay down and maybe it's in schools right i don't know i don't know what the parameters are all i know is we set the survey out we had everyone do it before the meeting i think we should at least discuss it before we take a vote and i think i looked at this and you know most people want masks gone i'll be honest i voted yes i don't want my passing for the rest of the year do i think the day after break is the right day no i i think maybe wait a week and the nurses recommended that i think that's a safe way to go i know people are chomping at the bit they want the kids out of the masks if i could have a say i'd say let's get the masks off for sports like this weekend i don't know if we can even do that um you know because i feel for those kids playing basketball in there um so i guess um i guess i i guess i'm posing three questions hey can we remove masses for the sport effective immediately b how do people feel about you know one week seven days per the nurse's recommendations if it's just in the classroom and see do we think the committee should be responsible to define some parameters as far as when masking comes back and while masking doesn't come back or are we just saying definitively well i think the answer to number one is actually i think that lies in the hands of the miaa so that we can't even discuss so even if we drop masters in schools they might still have to wear the basketball game and during the press conference if i remember correctly they had hinted at the fact that the m.i.a was meeting and they would have some kindness that would be coming out soon so that is that's something that we you know it's not in our jurisdiction to tackle right now um how do members feel about waiting a week so i i have an opinion on that so the last few weeks the few meetings we've had here everybody said follow dc paul dc don't go against the science qualities casey has now looked at the signs and decided that the 28th is the day they've got the state department held involved um a panel of experts that they call their health experts they say that's the date i don't think we should not go against a few weeks ago and then go against them this week if they're saying the 28th of the day i'd like to do it today as well i'd like to do it for sports but um so um and again i'm going by so there was an email thread through masc and i understand that masc is not desi but it was clarified that desi is not actually giving any formal guidance on whether a community should mask or not jesse is saying we no longer have a mandate you make the guidance localities so technically if we extend it by one week we're not going against a desi recommendation we're just we're gonna remove it we're just doing it you know i don't know that every district in the state has break on the same week i don't know the answer to that i don't know public schools so i'm just reading from the memorandum that we were given from the department of elementary and secondary education center after consulting with medical experts and state health officials the commissioner will not renew the state mass plan uh state mass requirement after it expires on february 28 2022.

okay if there were any email communication sent between and the board or whatever but nothing as as john mentioned as of as today okay interesting right and that was emailed to you by um mr savage and saint hilaire on on thursday yeah we were um i i forgot you know we passed information back on different things all the time i it was something different we were emailing about and he he said oh i saw your your budget i we must have posted on the website um and he thought we were starting from too low of a number okay all right so i you know the way i left it i said you know we want to talk to you about this um but i'm just i'm not ready yet uh to say you know my my own feeling is uh you know it it's the city that um come to comes up with the sources of money you know if if we you know demonstrate a need of 139 million um you know how they finance that is up to them yeah they're the okay we'll be [Music] okay so those are that's what we have to report tonight all right i know we have another committee meeting at 6 30.

okay if there were any email communication sent between city in the board or whatever but nothing as as john mentioned as of as today okay interesting right that was emailed to you by um mr savage and saint hilaire on on thursday yeah we were um i forgot you know we passed information back on different things all the time i it was something different we were emailing about and he he said oh i saw your your budget i we must have posted on the website and he thought we were starting from too low of a number okay all right so i you know the way i left it i said you know we want to talk to you about this but i'm just i'm not ready yet uh to say you know my my own feeling is uh you know it it's the city that um come to comes up with the sources of money you know if if we you know demonstrate a need of 139 million um you know how they finance that is up to them um yeah they're the okay we'll be [Music] okay so those are that's what we have to report tonight all right i know we have another committee meeting at 6 30.

which will move us to 14.3 which is the approval of the azusa unified school district sunshine proposal for the 2021 2022 fiscal year negotiations with the azusa federation of adult educators is there a motion on the board i make a motion um to approve 14.3 second four point three move by board member rodriguez pena second by board member iannis any discussion hearing none let's move to a vote the motion passes five to zero which brings us to [Music] 15.0 adjournment and specifically 15.1 adjournment is there a motion to adjourn [Music] to adjourn 15.1 second move by board member alliance seconded by board member rodriguez pena and i do want to remind that this evening we will be closing our board meeting in honor of lydia sanchez as well as elvis shawira let's go ahead and go this concludes our regularly scheduled board meeting at 8

thank you i'll leave it to the parties to have the appropriate documentation thank you your honor and we'd also like to establish that witnesses be constructively excluded from the courtroom and although they may be present during the trial they may not testify as though they are thank you any comments on behalf of the prosecution no your honor not at this time that will be the order of the court thank you anything further for the defense nothing further your honor thank you all right thank you both so i have a couple of questions i think we've addressed the presentation of evidence for inspection uh do both sides waive uh formal reading of the charges on behalf of the defense yes your honor and on behalf of the prosecution yes your honor uh with that are we ready to proceed with opening statements the prosecution's ready your honor and you'll be ready yes your honor all right we'll start with the prosecution you have the floor and before we proceed i want everyone to understand the attorneys that from my perspective even though this is my courtroom it is your courtroom and feel free to use it as you see fit you don't have to ask my permission to approach or do anything i trust you to do what's appropriate please proceed thank your honor may proceed with my opening statement you most certainly can thank you over the course of the coven 19 pandemic business is shut economies faltered and people were evicted from their homes however one of the most tragic examples of the effects of this pandemic is the death of eric smith erisburg is a landlord who owned a property in which jamie kobe resided it the relationship between the two can only be described as toxic with continued minded fighting driving their relationship towards a down right hatred during one of these fights jamie koby's mother passed away due to a lack of oxygen because of a power outage at kobe's residence which could be blamed on eric smith over the course of this trial tonight the prosecution will tell you a story a story of revenge jimmy kobe is charged with murder in the first degree as well as voluntary manslaughter over the course of this trial the evidence will outline to you how the testimony findings of numerous witnesses will eventually lead to the conviction of jimmy kobe on the charge of murder in the first degree jimmy kobe was without a doubt a person with a fixation on the knowledge of rattlesnakes jamie kobe even knew so much about these rattlesnakes that kobe possessed tools to safely handle rattlesnakes such as snake traps snake tongs snake handling cages and even snake rattles as late are found and will be explained to you in sheriff garrett's testimony you will also hear how the relationship between jamie kobe and eric smith continue to evolve with calls to their department through the testimony of dr dunn you will hear how how the death of eric smith was solely as a result of the bite of the muhammad mojave desert rattlesnake you will also hear from dr dunn how the snake had to have been placed in the mailbox by a third party due to historical trends with the mojave desert rattlesnake the expertise of dr dundee will come to an understanding of how her autopsy of the victim eric smith corroborates with the testimony of angel russell who saw the event transpire on the morning of the attack angel angel russell witnessed a figure carrying a medium-sized wire cage tool bag and a humane animal trap to the mailbox of eric smith angel russell then witnessed this figure steer out the mailbox for a long time before leaving shortly after this air eric smith was bitten by the mojave desert rattlesnake which was placed in the mailbox by this figure the testimony of terry edwards you will come to an understanding of how jamie kobe had planned calculated and premeditated the murder through all listed evidence the state will prove that the defendant jamie kobe utilized their knowledge of rattlesnakes to knock revenge upon the victim for their property disputes and the death of kobe's mother the defendant was the figure who was seen by angel russell and upon examination of the mailbox placed a snake into the mailbox with the intent that it would put an end to the life of eric smith this aspiration the defendant came to fruition when eric smith was found dead the day following the attack as discovered by sheriff tony garrett the evidence in this case will tell you a story it will tell you the story of a tenant in a landlord who feuded over multiple property disputes and his detention continued to heighten and increase until the defendant finally ended the conflict by taking the life of the victim eric smith to announce vengeance for the death of his mother throughout the entirety of tonight's trial the evidence will show beyond a reasonable doubt that eric smith was murdered by jamie kobe thank your honor thank you very much would the defense like to proceed with their opening now or defer no your honor all right please proceed a tragic accident this is the only accurate way to describe the events of april 30th 2021.

i think something yeah we talked about i think that's what you said okay you came you came under budget i think you said a hundred thousand yeah yeah i think i think there's around 90 000. i was checking you guys he builds me already so okay he already built good job thank you i mean i mean you you as a district you have over nine you have about 900 000 square feet of buildings so you know you think about that that's like 20 acres of buildings so the realization that you have a you know a lot of dollars here it shouldn't you know it really shouldn't be surprising did that include 116 000 square feet for the old high school and eighty three thousand no square feet that's your current your current stock and and i think this will change slightly if we decide to move forward with decommissioning nbc yes that will change those figures right because that's coming out of there and whatever dollars we've allocated for that could go somewhere else you're correct right yes because we do have mec in here right yeah i saw that in there yeah so that isn't so yes and what we heard tonight we better may want to keep mec ken first of all is this on the website or is it going on the website we are going to be putting on a website the whole thing yes i can put the whole thing on there we have it as one big pdf so we can put it on the website yes your facilities and i just want to confirm something i think i heard but i want to make sure we still continue to get comments from the public that we never maintained our buildings and are we maintaining them now my understanding from a couple years ago was that there were specific plans for each building that the janitorial was responsible for this different things had to be checked the filters and the in the yes furnaces things do we still have those plans are we still checking them religiously are we making sure that the things that need to be done are being done those and i'm just going to kind of call those everyday preventative maintenance things things whatever the filters and you know making sure the soap dispensers are you know all of those type of things are done on a regular basis and continue to be maintained by our custodial and maintenance staff these type of things are what i would call capital project maintenance right that's what these things are but i want to make sure that every day is because we took a big hit when i came on the board there there were no every day no no of continuing to maintain that um you know even i mean i'll give you another example even the hepa filters that we have in classrooms you know he has a plan and where they they're changed out every i think four to six months and someone is checking to make sure we're really doing it correct that's how i want to make sure that the public hears that they know that we have changed our ways yes thank you so to jump jump on that a little bit do you have an i didn't if this is not the right place i'll bring it up under old business is this have you have any updates on that invoicing or work order system which helps uh what ms galbraith is saying that it will help double check that that someone's actually doing that i do i do and again keith and i and his administrative team meet on a weekly basis so that is up and running and we're utilizing that in order to monitor now again i will tell you this i've been last giving that information but i'll get that information to the board on a regular basis so that you have that so you can see that but yes we have that they have inputted all the life safety projects into there we won't be doing this there's actually another module that they have for capital forecasting i think it's called keith is what it is there's a capital forecasting that you can put capital projects in but we could use the current system to put some of the projects in i just don't want to mix it up too much you know another but yes we are utilizing that um we have a system in place for it and it is working really well so is there any possibility by march you could have like a report just to see what the average time a work order takes stuff like that outstanding stuff that's outstanding okay yes so and within this where does the athletic field i haven't inputted that into there yet uh and i'll tell you dr hall one of the reasons not i have not yet is i want to have a conversation with bond council on when we could borrow to do that because we're going to have to borrow to do that facility a lot of this i don't think we're going to have to borrow i'll just tell you that right now i don't think we will but i want to have a conversation with bond council on that the uh with borrowing before i give you an idea when we can put this put that into play i actually thought it was 2024.

effective monday february 28th the dusty mass requirement will be lifted statewide the common the commonwealth's high vaccination rates and widespread availability of coping 19 testing for school personnel and students to support this decision and i believe in the press release they also mentioned that they had met with the local boards of health um and other you know people in the medical field so i know this decision didn't come lightly it involved you know the commissioner and involved the governor even the lieutenant governor spoke about it so my feeling is that as mike pointed out we've been told that we were supposed to you know follow what jesse said in your rights giving it global control we have very high vaccination rates in our schools and they felt that the 28th was the date that it would be safe during the mass candidate so that's just that's just my feeling and no and that's why i'm throwing it out there i mean i know we all have different opinions and i think that's what makes us a great committee so that we can all bring it out and hopefully you know we're each representing an aspect of the community um the other thing i was going to say in response well you just said lori was desi is also strongly recommending individuals that are not vaccinated to be masked um so i think somebody spoke tonight about the preschool i mean the vaccination rate within the preschool is probably extremely low if anything i know the elementary school is only at about 54 i don't know if that rose um it'll be probably not much but you know is that something we're going to say you know since we're sticking to strict dusty guidelines we're strongly recommending individuals that are unvaccinated and still ask just to your original question about when it um is second question though around future fountains and you know as you pointed out with the survey question the seventy percent who who supported us doing so i also point out that in the same way and lowering coding it specified that the commissioner of desi will continue to monitor public health data consultant while emergency state health officials being issued further guidance into our requirements so i'm working under an expectation that as time goes on betsy and other public health organizations may begin to provide us with a more clear [Music] metric yep upon what should we consider whether an amount of acceptance we're going to be my hope is that either we as a world or we would say health officials will continue to resist because i don't think the conversation goes up for a period of time for us to continue thinking about what some of the most threshold might be or other things [Music] what sorry okay pushing it out a week versus not um well i'm going so the nurses sent us a letter yeah and i think i would be curious well i think their concern is that people are traveling and like what jeff was kind of saying i think jeff kind of summarized their concern if people are so we're going to disney world um people are going to be here there and everywhere they're coming back if they choose not to wear a mask they might not have symptoms of code yet and there's a bunch of people that are coming in we're trying this out it's new we're not going to wear our masks is it going to create a spike um you know that first week like jeff said how are we going to know if it's because we dropped the mask or if it's just it was going to happen anyway because it's a week after vacation and you know we're not at summer weather yet the winters are so close it's still chilly and people are still getting sick so i guess that's the rationale behind and or at least that's my understanding of what the nurses asked was um in in saying can you push it away but i mean again we're gonna we can vote i agree with that it sounds like mike laurie and adam to john i'm far from convinced that a week is going to do anything and far from the days that cope with spreading whatever vacation week in february yeah and i mean i have no idea so we could come back and there would be their money there might be you know no surprise themselves if they're afraid if they can't get over that vacation they make the choice of what they want to do if they want to go on that you won't ask if they don't they don't get home i mean apparently each individual for equity's sake needs to make their own decision i mean equity is not forcing one thing on everyone just letting everybody make their own choice so i don't i'm good at them i'm not convinced the week is going to do anything other than upset majority of people so if parents want to make the decision that they need a certain health decision for the week after every vacation that's on them i don't think i'm not a health expert you know i'm not a health benefit parents when it comes to their own children are pretty good health experts the nurses and children so just for clarity the nurses are i believe it's two weeks march 14th yeah they said a week or two i mean i was hoping two weeks is two weeks right yes i mean i think a week would be sufficient if you're going to get covered from february occasionally you're going to get the week after mike's point one thing that just kind of occurred to me as he was saying that it was you know i expect that the first week that named afternoon we were only required that we're going to see most percentages of students still wear a mask as weeks go on throughout the course of the year once they're required [Music] giving people that choice to decide whether to send their travel to school and i i hear you on giving the choice because i do think parents know their children best but there's two things i worry about and one is certain children and i don't know how many we have in the district that might be high risk where it might you know i'm not convinced that wearing a mask i think wearing a mask does stop the spread so you know and again i'm not an expert that's just what i think based on what i've read and what i've seen so i guess i worry about children that you know hey have a hard time wearing a mask you know potentially special needs kids that might also be high risk um and then there's going to be a bunch of other people not wearing masks right after february so that's one thing i think about the other thing i think about is teachers that are high risk um and how they feel about this i know we have the union come on february 1st and they stated they weren't ready i don't know how they feel now we haven't heard anything from them all i know is we've heard from the nurses i have not so i'm just recognizing what time is i know we started a little bit yeah let's vote i i think we're clear no no seriously because i i can go on and we're never gonna so let's just let's bring it off okay so there's a motion on the floor right now to accept the industry guidelines for the removal of the mass mandate which means that it would we would remove them at 1201 am on february 28th meaning kids could come to school on monday morning if their parents if their parents consent wearing a mask or not once they get off the bus they have to wear it on the bus so at this point i'm going to take a vote all in favor of accepting dusty guidelines for the removal of the mass mandate on february 28th all right as well opposed no one opposed the motion to accept the updated jesse guidelines passes this means that on february 28th which is the monday following february vacation masking will be optional in school buildings left up to parental choice it will however still be mandated on school buses if they fall under federal mandates at this time i'd like to entertain a motion to accept provisions to policy [Music] yeah there's two um the that's a good question we have two two versions of this that have been presented to the community one of them is that was drafted by them and i also offered them to submit an alternative version of that [Music] i'll make a motion to accept the masc policy is it ebcfa yes as stated second i'll second i was on the policy subcommittee when we originally invented the evc um [Music] masc is not dc it's a separate group that we actually paid money to become members of that group i think of it as more of a lobbying group or advocacy groups or like board of realtors or the national board of currency or something like that they do provide a lot of policies to us and we look at those policies we go through all policy books we have a lot of their policies on our books we have some policies that they don't have that they don't make recommendations on some of our policies don't follow the similar policies so this policy is just a recommendation by them you do not have to accept it we can make our own i'd like to say this policy whoever wrote this should be fired the way they've written this is fairly slanted it mentions the best way to stop the spread of toronto viruses masking when dc has just come out with public health more than said no that's not the case they've switched to vaccinations so it's actually incorrect if we accept this all css um so that's what i want to say about that i like the amendments or the other changes um if we were to catapult the other policy that was recommended there that game might need to be beefed up a little bit with a few things but the policy here is ms masc presented it i think it should be thrown trash well i mean can we just remove that paragraph i don't know if that's true or not i did not research that i think cc is still saying you're saying cdc is saying i think when dc made their announcement asking they said uh vaccination is the way to go in the state being one of the highest stakes investigation rates uh i have the question is here i mean we can delete the paragraph i think it's important to know the masks are still required in the school health offices so i mean you need to put that in there people need to understand that if their kid falls down and gets a cut you need to have a mask because the nurses express a concern that they have to hand out masks that's going to cost us money yeah well we already do that i mean we already end up with a mess my dog comes in the mask every day so they aren't in love i mean if we're only worried about the small percentage they go to the nurse's office in a given day i think we're probably actually going to save one because we won't need as many masks to be handed up uh so the press release says um the decision was being consultation infectious disease physician department public health developmental experts vaccinations are the best protection against coded whereas the policy says masking facilities that's a little disagreement the other part here is where they try to segregate kids based on health choices by wanting to masculine vaccinated and saying that vaccinated don't need anything i don't think we should be separating our kids based on anything like that i think that's a terrible way to go out that's equity and i think that water is our bullying mike are you suggesting we get rid of paragraph two which is according to the felt so that's experts the spring sun spread face the second one the face covering covers the nose and mouth and then the individuals who are vaccinated are not required to wear a mask remains desired are you suggesting me to get rid of that part of this move forward oh god yes i believe this version of it is [Music] is that a requirement based on the medical requirement that exists in the state today it's stated here when you require the non-health offices where's that requirement it's from it's public law yeah so can we but can we do we have to sit here and make the policy or can we switch over to budget and have or can we do the policy for the next time or this policy needs to be done before february 28th so you guys so we can vote this down down and about the policy ebcfa if you are in favor all in favor opposed and i'm in a as well the policy does not pass now we're going to look at the other one in the drive which moved the i'll just read that for everybody to see what we're starting with here at the beginning of this policy we'll get it wearing the wearing the face mask is optional in those schools effectively one am on monday february 20th 2022 individuals are not required to wear face covering on school property but may do so if desired by the federal public health aware all students and staff are currently required to face covering the school buses get the federal public health order requiring the pace coverage to be more on school bus and that requirement would also immediately end in the district and at that time i'd like to offer an amendment to my motion there to add a sentence from the other religion that being the sentence that says mass will be required in all school health obviously and insert that into this policy after reception what about the quarantine if you have covered and you come back days five through ten this is this policy is specifically starting all right that's another policy i think it's fine i don't think you need to strongly recommend it for individuals who remain unvaccinated for immunocompromised i think that's kind of legal jargon that's just trying to cya all right if you have any more discussions um i just want to ask if we should there was a question the nurse was talking about this question of the staff having to enforce parent decisions about that smart holiday which they should be learning so maybe we want to have something that's the effect of uh teachers and staff should not be enforcing the mass marriage parents um i also think based on recent events we should probably have something in there that says there shouldn't be any disciplinary action taken against the student staff member or visitor based on wearing an offering mask or vaccination status that's important to put in there if anybody feels the same way make a motion from them i don't think that's a good idea what so the first thing why would somebody take a disciplinary action against somebody for not being vaccinated [Music] i mean that's almost something that doesn't need to be said you would think the question of teachers um is both primal choice yeah so somebody came in on the mask they have massive they don't have a mask they don't there's no there was a point the nurses brought up um uh are the teachers is there an expectation that the teachers are going to have parents yeah it's going to happen you want them to teach right i don't think we should say this policy because what about special needs kids i mean they're at some point or four preschoolers i mean there's a lot of things that you know we also send our kids to school in underwear and preschool like they pee their pants the teachers gotta change them or they gotta stand home so i mean at some point there's a and i guess we're trying to do a blanket policy for the whole district but when you're talking about little kids versus high school kids you know and even in the elementary school i think it should be fine but i i mean i guess it's almost better here to not say anything at all i mean you know some of these special needs teachers might have to so jeff just made an excellent confession which i appreciate i think to move on to the budget what we should do is take a vote on this and then we should also we should send it on to the policy committee for further review to bring that for next time yeah so just take another vote after this one all right fine all you can right on this one so that'll be the policy then then you both just said that this policy policy subcommittee okay so i'd like to um just i'd like to take the vote on accepting the amended eb cm and healthsuit all in favor aye aye and i as well and you post okay promotion we will upset we will accept the policy ebc has written now i i'd like to entertain a motion to send the our new policy ecfa to the policy committee for any revision [Music] our new policy evcfa as as amended will be sent over to the policy um so i would like to um as well this concludes our meeting please stay tuned for the garden here all right good evening i pledge allegiance [Music] before um [Music] to accept any discussion okay all in favor aye aye as well opposed any communications all right we're going to move on to our report section which will be mr zhang and mr kleiner presentation is that visible people [Music] so um [Music] we're gonna go over we never decided to talk about the budget talk about um some of the things we need to look at in terms of savings [Music] so to start off our goals haven't changed it's to design this to maintain our existing programming what we saw as level services to support the district improvement plan and implement the other priorities so that would be above global services that we talked about and then to provide that additional support that we're going to need and we um [Music] this is just a high level overview of the budget process um you know we basically got to be with the preliminary budget in december um one thing i want to point out is when we get some feedback from towns we get information from the state that helps us make decisions but this part of the process will go on beyond uh tonight the towns tonight is the first time you see what the actual assessments are as we're unable to provide that until we get the state data we've also made provisions to the budget so that feedback was going to continue after tonight's meeting we meet with the towns one time tomorrow night and one i think in two weeks so we included this slide this is a part of the uh the enrollment piece that we did uh last i think last month i think it was last week right yeah um so i wanted to show you because this question came up i think both adam and mike uh sort of talked about this this goes out to 2031.

can we are there any other board members on board that would like to ask a quick question i know we've we've held it to committee members at this point madam chair yeah i just want to say i don't recall anything about that that 2.4 in the non-lapsing funds you know any other agreement with that um i just so when you built the budget for next year you assume the 139. that's right and in his inference was we should have started from 137. yeah yeah and yeah but you know we built it kind of on a zero not kind of we built it on a zero base basis as you saw with transportation we just said here are the buses we need and here's what it costs the same thing with teachers we never rolled forward any lines like by adding we just we every line was looked at we said here's what we're doing now what will it cost next year kind of not not did we budget right or wrong okay so technically we're 4 million in a hole john well there's 2.4 million right there i mean that's that was what you voted we have the 2.4 for this year next was the concern where do we go up an extra 2.4 of what we're asking you know we're asking for 12.7 do we ask for 15.1 that's you know well exhibit 2189 we can dig through the emails and dig through the files and come up with that exhibit we can probably add a little clarity to that um if i recall um and this may not be completely accurate so i even hesitate to say anything but my understanding of those non-lapsing funds were that there were certain grants that were carried over because we didn't utilize those dollars due to the schools being closed the grants are all very specific and for specific purposes you've probably heard us say you can't um supplant your budget with grants you have to supplement they're for additional things like special ed or title one or school readiness but the 2.4 was basically a carryover from the previous year i think is that what you're saying kate that's what i that's what i remember discussing that there were certain grants we just you know didn't make use of and so that that money was being carried over i don't know if it was at the state level or what we also had what 2.4 2.5 and in insurance monies right that's all maybe creating some confusion well at the end of any year um what you don't spend goes back to the city there's there's no um budgets are only 12 months you can't you you can't perpetuate them they're they're over the money goes back into the city surplus say but they made an exception that year is that possible to make an exception i think that i mean recall well yeah if they again how they finance our schools if they want to take money from that we just put into the surplus or they want to use state aid or uh reserves or the tax levy that's really up to them so regardless we where really what we need to decide is i don't know if we can decide because it's already passed and brought to the city but having known that before all of that would have increased our our request so i i don't know that we can i don't know if there's anything that we can do beyond what's already been done right because correct me if i'm wrong rachel the numbers we've seen are 139 million and this is our first exposure to 137.1 right i mean unless there can be discussions with the city that you know that's how we built the budget and [Music] any decrease to that request is just yeah well what what i'm curious about is it you know in the mayor's budget book there's a message it's called the the budget message or something that's two or three pages and in that he says uh there is an agreement to use he calls it 3.5 million but i i just i i haven't been able to find the agreement that he's talking about he's writing about so that i assume that if there was a correspondence between the city and the the superintendent's office or the the board that we would have something in central office right because i don't remember seeing any kind of communication at least at the board level all right there had to have been something that happened for this to get into the motion uh wouldn't it i don't think it just would have come on without something it was reliable so i just want to clarify john in essence you're saying we don't really fully know where that two points uh for in funds that were you know can't carry over funds what their origin was well i i i believed they were the unspent funds from the 2019-20 budget that was the year we closed in march and a lot of leftover money i think i think it's the same amount but i didn't think there were any strings attached to that that that they were one time or they wouldn't be we couldn't use them it doesn't feel like we couldn't use them to make for and there it is okay thank you ed that's the mayor's message and there yes he says the remaining phrase so he says pursuant to a mutual understanding between the city and the board of ed the border was permitted to specifically designate the remaining fy 20 surplus of 3.5 million to be used for future budgetary needs as it turned out it was 2.4 million but if it's for future budgetary needs that's what we did with it in the motion so once again i'm trying to find that mutual understanding or the the match of the 3.5 to the 2.4 yeah anything at all i think that warrants a discussion i mean in my opinion um right i mean i don't know how else to investigate this a little further and come back to us with it with a resolution or additional information john yeah yeah i i plan to keep digging and and find out um but exactly perhaps david himself has something of email he sent us or um the former mayor uh may have something yeah mr cabo would be i would reach out to him yeah cause he wrote this right okay well time marches on and so we get a resolution the sooner we know that where we actually stand right and uh if you should come up with some communications that did hit the central office uh please surprised because anyone else anyone answer the question okay is that it ladies and gentlemen if we have no further questions i'll conclude to entertain a motion to adjourn so we can move on to our next meeting and uh certainly um john eddie kevin please uh yeah we we need a resolution we need to know what's going on i mean it's a big difference but it sounds like possibly last year's on it last year for the funds that are gonna probably it's gonna be reused back in the budget but we don't know i'm just filling this with a broad stroke gladys anything you had man um thank you just looking at that document i do remember when we passed that motion and i was very clear to dr sale how he had that motion very specific we had a discussion and i said to him is this the way that you want this motion to be read tonight and he said yeah it comes a sort of uh we can't find the information but if i could get the date that that agenda was passed i have it here at my house so i don't understand trying to understand uh what the city is saying and what we use as for as the uh information that we had in the uh motion so i'm a little sort of confusing mr russo we're wrong join the crowd gladys so mine it's on june 9th but i remember i you know no information came through to me as board chair at that particular time from the city but i was very clear okay let me see the date on that june 9th june the night okay let me i have it here somewhere in my house because i keep everything june tonight okay okay it's fine i'll try thank you all right ladies and gentlemen we've had had everything we can handle this here tonight and we will all dig deeper i know june tonight i'm pretty sure i may be able to dig that up in an email um john thank you for your input eddie thank you for your work sir thank you guys thank you all right i'm going to journey oh yes we're adjourned thank you you

can we are there any other board members on board that would like to ask a quick question i know we've we've held it to committee members at this point madam chair yeah i just want to say i don't recall anything about that that 2.4 in the non-lapsing funds you know any other agreement with that um i just so when you built the budget for next year you assume the 139 that's right and his inference was we should have started from 137 yeah yeah and yeah you know we built it kind of on a zero not kind of we built it on a zero base basis as you saw with transportation we just said here are the buses we need and here's what it cost we did the same thing with teachers we never rolled forward any lines uh like by adding we just we every line was looked at we said here's what we're doing now what will it cost next year kind of not not did we budget right or wrong okay so technically we're four million in a hole john well there's 2.4 million right there i mean that's that was what you voted we have the 2.4 for this year next was the concern where do we go up an extra 2.4 of what we're asking you know we're asking for 12.7 do we ask for 15.1 that's you know well exhibit 2189 we can dig through the emails and dig through the files and come up with that exhibit we can probably add a little clarity to that um if i recall um and this may not be completely accurate so i even hesitate to say anything but my understanding of those non-lapsing funds were that there were certain grants that were carried over because we didn't utilize those dollars due to the schools being closed the grants are all very specific and for specific purposes you've probably heard us say you can't supplant your budget with grants you have to supplement they're for additional things like special ed or title one or school readiness but the 2.4 was basically a carryover from the previous year i think is that what you're saying kate that's what i that's what i remember discussing that there were certain grants we just you know didn't make use of and so that that money was being carried over i don't know if it was at the state level or what we also had what 2.4 2.5 and unused insurance monies right that's all maybe creating some confusion well at the end of any year um what you don't spend goes back to the city there's there's no um budgets are only 12 months you can't you you can't perpetuate them they're they're over now the money goes back into the city surplus say but they made an exception that year is that possible to make an exception i think that i mean recall yeah if they again how they finance our schools if they want to take money from that we just put into the surplus or they want to use state aid or uh reserves or the tax levy that's really up to them so regardless we where really what we need to decide is i don't know if we can decide because it's already passed and brought to the city but having known that before all of that would have increased our our request so i i don't know that we can i don't know if there's anything that we can do beyond what's already been done right because correct me if i'm wrong rachel the numbers we've seen are 139 million and this is our first exposure to 137.1 right i mean unless there can be discussions with the city that you know that's how we built the budget and [Music] any decrease to that request is just yeah the what what i'm curious about is it you know in the mayor's budget book there's a message it's called the the budget message or something that's two or three pages and in that he says uh there is an agreement to use he calls it 3.5 million but i i just i i haven't been able to find the agreement that he's talking about he's writing about so that i assume that if there was a correspondence between the city and the the superintendent's office or the the board that we would have something in central office right because i don't remember seeing any kind of communication at least from at the board level right there had to have been something that happened for this to get into the motion uh wouldn't it i don't think it just would have come on without something it was reliable so i just want to clarify john in essence you're saying we don't really fully know where that 2.4 uh for in funds that were you know carry over funds what their origin was well i i i believed they were the unspent funds from the 2019-20 budget that was the year we closed in march been a lot of leftover money i think i think it's the same amount but i didn't think there were any strings attached to that that that they were one time or they wouldn't be we couldn't use them it doesn't feel like we couldn't use them to make for and there it is okay thank you ed that's the mayor's message and there yes he says the remaining phrase so it says pursuant to a mutual understanding between the city and the board of ed the board of ed was permitted to specifically designate the remaining fy 20 surplus of 3.5 million to be used for future budgetary needs as it turned out it was 2.4 million but if it's for future budgetary needs that's what we did with it in the motion so once again i'm trying to find that mutual understanding or the the match of the 3.5 to the 2.4 yeah anything anything at all i think that warrants the discussion i mean in my opinion um right i mean i don't know how else to investigate this a little further and come back to us with it with a resolution or additional information john yeah yeah i i i plan to keep digging and and find out um but exactly perhaps david himself has something of email he sent us or um the former mayor uh may have something yeah mr cabo would be i would reach out to him yeah because he wrote this right okay well time marches on and and so we get a resolution the sooner we know that where we actually stand and uh if you should come up with some communications that did hit the central office uh please be surprised because anyone else anyone answer the question okay is that it ladies and gentlemen if we have no further questions i'll conclude to entertain a motion to adjourn so we can move on to our next meeting and uh certainly um john eddie kevin please uh yeah we do we need a resolution we need to know what's going on i mean it's a big difference but it sounds like possibly last year's on last year's are the funds that are gonna probably just gonna be reused back in the budget but we don't know i'm just filling this with a broad stroke glass anything you had man um thank you uh [Music] just looking at that document i do remember when we passed that motion and i was very clear to dr sale how he had that motion very specific we had a discussion and i said to him is this the way that you want this motion to be read tonight and he said yeah it comes a sort of uh we can't find the information but if i could get the date that that agenda was passed i have it here at my house so i don't understand trying to understand uh what the city is saying and what we use as for as the uh information that we had in the uh motion so i'm a little sort of confusing mr russo we're all trying to join the crowd gladys so am it's on june 9th but i remember i you know no information came through to me as board chair at that particular time from the city but i was very clear okay let me see the date on that june 9th june tonight okay let me i have it here somewhere in my house because i keep everything june the night okay okay that's fine i'll try okay thank you all right ladies and gentlemen we've had had everything we can handle is here tonight and we will all dig deeper i know june tonight i'm pretty sure i may be able to dig that up in an email um john thank you for your input eddie thank you for your work sir thank you guys thank you all right i'm going to journey oh yes no wait we're adjourned

today the people will try to create some elaborate story about jamie kobe and that's all that it is a story on the morning of april 30th eric smith was found dead lying face down in the dirt of his front yard after being bitten by a mojave rattlesnake the previous day the sheriff was called immediately and when the sheriff arrived they performed a careless investigation which consisted of a quick glance at eric smith's body and a hasty visual search of the surrounding area before making a beeline straight to jamie kobe's house after a very brief conversation with jamie the sheriff suspected jaime may have killed eric through their history now don't get me wrong jamie and eric were certainly not the best of friends in fact eric wasn't on good terms with a lot of people in bernsley county being well known for being rude and selling drugs to children if having a bad relationship with eric smith is enough to suspect someone of murder a vast majority of the residents of burnsley county would be in the exact same place jaime is in right now jamie and eric had disputes over cars being the wrong driveway or loud music but jamie kobe who's described by her friends as a calm gentle person would certainly not resort to murder over some loud music today the people have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that jamie kobe killed eric smith in a manner that was willful deliberate and premeditated the people will not be able to prove their burden leaving the only option to find jamie kobe not guilty you're on our chair you'll hear from four witnesses first danny emiling a neighbor of jaime's and one of erickson's tenants will take the stand and explain that this whole thing is a mistake and that jamie colby has absolutely nothing to do with eric's death second francis yazzie a close personal friend of jamie's will explain that jaime is not capable of doing anything like this third dr tyler clay an expert in herpetology or more specifically snakes will explain that snakes squeezing to tight dark spaces like mailboxes on their own during the day is not an unusual occurrence in that most people who live in the desert are aware of this and thus wary of opening their mailboxes she will also testify that it is extremely rare to die from a rattlesnake bite due to widely available anti-venom making a snake in odd choice for a murder weapon if someone truly wanted to kill someone lastly jamie kobe herself will take the stand and explain that she did not kill eric smith nor did she put a snake in his mailbox she will testify that she's merely a gardener who loved her mother and has absolutely nothing to hide now after reviewing the evidence right in today's case it will be clear that the people's case is filled to the brim with reasonable doubt and the only reasonable decision will be to find jamie kobe not guilty please don't let this horrible tragedy destroy any more lives than it already has thank you your honor thank you very much council give me one moment to finish my notes here is the prosecution ready to call the first witness yes your honor the prosecution likes to call angel russell to the stand all right please proceed [Music] please raise your right angel russell r u s s e l l thank you council please proceed good evening miss russell good evening please provide the court with some background information about yourself i've been a line worker in burnsley county for 15 years i've worked on just about every line in the town of burnsley and know many of the residents do you know the victim eric smith i recognize smith and have seen him around town as well as on april 29th and 30th when i was working on the power lines 100 feet down from his home thank you and now i'd like to direct the court's attention to exhibit c um miss russell please approach the exhibit yes and are you familiar with this exhibit yes i am and what is exhibit c exhibit c is an aerial photographic diagram showing the location of where i was working on raptor road on april 29th and 30th and are is this an accidentation of the area in the surrounding properties yes it is one moment while we get the exhibit don't think exhibit c is here thank you your honor the prosecution requests that exhibit cb and into evidence any objection objection your honor lack of foundation um your honor my witness just went through we didn't have the exhibit up at the time but she did answer the questions showing that she has knowledge of the area and where she was working at that time thank you submitted thank you your honor no hold on i didn't rule yet submitted means nothing more to say on that yes nothing more yes nothing more submitted um maybe heard your honor what was that maybe heard your honor you may this witness would have no idea about the placement of the camera or other the gate objection sustained you want to ask some more questions um maybe heard real quick your honor no okay well can um miss russell can you please describe what you're doing on the lines of april 29th 2021 at 8 30 a.m i just climbed the power line pool and i looked at the houses nearest to me which were 46601 and 46603 i saw someone emerge from 46603 which is kobe's residence and walked toward smith's mailbox which was 46601 with a medium-sized wired cage i later identified this person as jamie kobe and what did you notice next i noticed that they were also carrying gardening tools and they kept glancing at the cage i looked away and then saw them in front of smith's mailbox and miss russell who was the person you saw emerged from the mailbox of 46601 um they're here with us today in the blue blazer at the end of the table thank you mr russell uh your honor made the record reflect that the witnesses identified the defendant jamie colby the record will so reflect thank you your honor and now mr russell please describe the interaction you had with smith on april 29th at 12 p.m i saw someone emerge from 46601 i waved and then went back to work turning around when i heard a loud scream come from smith smith was stepping away from the mailbox with a snake attached to smith's arm thank you so so you may return back to your seat and what kind of snake attacked smith it appeared to be a rattlesnake but didn't have a rattle and what happened next smith walked away from the mailbox in a daze and screamed jamie objection your honor hearsay you're on i may be heard yes this would be an exception to the heresy rules this would be excited utterance this was just moments after the victim eric smith was bitten by rattlesnake thank you objections overruled thank you honor miss also did you get to finish no i did not um i told smith to stay still and smith just sat on the ground near the mailbox and what actions did after the attack did you take to help smith i hit the snake with a breaker bar for my truck and it died and what did the both of you do next smith stood up and insisted he was fine despite my suggestion to go see a doctor he said he would tough it out by putting eyes on his wrist so i packed up for the day and left and he went back inside of his home and thank you and when you returned to work the next morning what did you observe when i returned for work the next morning i was shocked to see smith lying face down in pajamas in the front of his home the front door was wide open as if he'd walked out in a hurry and then just fell over i went over and checked for a pulse but got nothing i then called 9-1-1 but got no response miss russell did the police ever arrive on scene yes at 8 40 am and what did you tell the deputy once they arrived i told the deputy that i saw someone emerge from 46603 kobe's residence the day before in the morning and that they stood in front of smith's mailbox thank you mr russell no further questions your honor well thank you cross-examination yes your honor please proceed good afternoon you've been working as a line worker in berlin county for 15 years correct yes and on the morning of april 29 2021 you were working on a power line on raptor road correct i was working there yeah you saw someone exit 4603 raptor road correct i did they appeared to be carrying a wired cage right yeah that's what i saw and you don't recall if there was anything in this cage correct like i've mentioned before i was a hundred feet down from where i was seeing this so i didn't really get a good look but i just saw the cage you also saw them carrying some sort of tool bag correct yes but you couldn't identify the items in this tool bag either correct because of the distance right i didn't see what was in it you this person you saw exit 4603 raptor road you didn't see them even touch smith's mailbox at all correct well i was looking away at the time because i was doing my job so i didn't get to see what they were doing i just looked away at that time now after smith was spent by mojave rattlesnake he screamed out the name jamie correct yes that's what happened and do you know why he did this no i don't that's just what i heard could it be that eric was merely asking for help objection you're on our calls for speculation maybe you heard your honor yes i'm merely asking the perspective the only eyewitness at the scene okay could it be that is calling for suspect speculation objection is sustained thank you your honor now when you were working on the power line of raptor road about how far away were you from since house um 100 feet but those were the nearest houses and i had a clear view from where they were you were busy working at the same time right yes that's what was happening so it's possible that someone else could approach the mailbox when you weren't looking correct objection your honor calls for speculation overworld that is true but from what i saw there's only one person and i can identify them objection your honor non-responsive everything after but overruled the answer stance you weren't watching the mailbox the entire time you were working correct i wasn't but i did glance at it a few times because of the spot where i was working at thank you your honor no further questions thank you very much any redirect no redirect john i made this witness excuse yes thank you very much uh you are excused next witness please [Music] you're on earth this time the state calls sheriff tony garrett to the stand tony garrett please raise your right hand do you solemnly affirm the testimony you're about to give will faithfully and truthfully conform to the facts and rules of the mock drug competition yes please be seated please take your full name then spell your last for the court my name is tony garrett or my name is tony garrett g-a-r-r-e-t-t thank you thank you council please appreciate sheriff gary can you please state your name and occupation for the court my name is tony garrett and i've been a sheriff in bernsley county for 20 years thank you have you ever received any calls regarding a conflict between jamie kobe and eric smith yes i received multiple calls she brought me to their apartment complex and what did you how many times you see to call regarding the coffin between the defendant and the victim i have received and responded to about a half a dozen calls there was eventually a call in october where smith had accused kobe of breaking and entering into their house and what did you do following this accusation i decided to supply smith with the video camera in order to film kobe's backyard thank you what did you find when responding to your call on april 30th when i responded to a call i found smith lying face down i conducted an inspection of the body and found bottle snake bite marks on smith smith's left wrist the ambulance arrived shortly after i did and smith was soon pronounced dead and what did you do after eric's was pronounced dead i decided to return to the scene of the crime to further investigate it and question any potential witnesses what did you do upon arriving back at the scene i immediately questioned danger russell and what did you learn from angel russell i learned that smith had been bitten around 12 p.m the day prior russell had also seen a person holding a medium-sized wire cage ghost stand near smith's mailbox i think i now should direct the court's attention to exhibit b sheriff gary can please approach the exhibits thank you sheriff garrett can you see what has been marked as exhibit b yes i can what is exhibit b exhibit b is a photograph is a photograph that i took of smith's mailbox the slot opening at the top of the mailbox it is located in front of smith's residence of 46601 is this photo a fair and accurate representation of eric smith's mailbox yes it is either signed the prosecution request for exhibit b to be admitted into the evidence record okay thank you uh would the defense like to be heard any objection no objections received into evidence thank you what did you do after questioning angel russell i decided to investigate smith's mailbox and what did you learn upon examining smith's mailbox i dusted the mailbox for any potential evidence of latent fingerprints thank you please return your seat what did you do after examination of the mailbox i decided to search smith's home and i found envelopes that contained rent checks from smith's renters jamie cobis was not found amongst these what did you do after learning about these checks i decided to question all of smith's renters and what were your conclusions as a result of these interviews that none had anything to do with the death of eric smith with the exception of jamie kobe in your interview with jamie kobe what new information did you learn from her i learned that smith or i learned that kobe had been garning the morning of the attack kobe was also in possession of a humane animal trap which they had with them when they went to drop off their event check and dismiss mailbox thank you and now i should direct the court's attention to exhibit e sheriff garrett please approach the exhibit sheriff garrett can you see this has been marked as exhibit e yes i can what is exhibit e exhibit e is a photograph that i obtained from kobe during my first interview with them and it shows kobe's humane animal trap thank you is this photo fear and accurate representation of jamie kobe's mean animal trap yes it is at this time the prosecution request winner exhibit e into the evidence record thank you any objection no objections your honor thank you received into evidence thank you sheriff here what did you do after your examination of jamie kobe i remember the video camera that i helped smith set up so i decided to search that for any potential evidence i noticed to direct the court's attention to exhibit a sheriff gary can you see it's been marked as exhibit a yes what is exhibit a exhibit a is a vid is a photograph that i took from every a video recording of kobe's backyard and it shows snake tongs as well as a smaller item which i could identify as a potential rattle of a rattlesnake thank you at this time the prostitute's request went to exhibit a under the evidence record any objection no objections your honor thank you exhibit a is received in dividends sheriff garrett what information did you learn from your investigation of eric smith's camera i learned that kobe had snake tongs as well as a potential rattlesnake rattle in their backyard thank you please return your seat what did you do after reviewing the video evidence i decided to question kobe again and what was your result of this interview kobe did not provide me with any new information but they did permit me to take a look around their house and what was your what did you find in your investigation of jamie kobe's house from my investigation i obtained knowledge regarding books uh regarding venomous venomous snakes a bottle of anti-venom collected snake rattles from the hobby desert rattlesnakes animal handling gloves snake proof boots a large canvas tool bag and a long sleeve t-shirt thank you sheriff here whose fingerprints were found to have been on eric smith's mailbox danny emlings jamie kobies and eric smith's fingerprints were found on eric smith's mailbox well why was danny emily not mentioned as a potential suspect danny emling had an alibi and was not in town when murder occurred this removed them from being a suspect sure i just have one final question what were the end findings and conclusions of your investigation i'd come to the determination that jamie kobe was the sole suspect in the murder of eric smith and obtained a warrant for their arrest which was served on june 3rd 2021 charging the defendant with murder thank your honor no further questions at this time thank you very much cross examination you knew eric smith for 20 years correct correct eric smith was known throughout town for being rude to others correct yes and the fact that it was on the town council you believe that smith's only likable quality for those in town were the business policies that he promoted correct yes last october you responded to a call about a suspected break-in correct that is accurate and this is when you provided smith with a security camera to gather evidence based on the accusation that kobe was the culprit correct yes given their history i thought it was a necessary action to take kobe has made calls to your department regarding smith correct yes and so kobe is smith has also done the same however kobe was never provided a complimentary security camera to gather evidence on smith correct that is accurate but the the allegations weren't as severe as breaking into someone's house it was mostly noise complaints you lifted latent fingerprints off of eric smith's mailbox correct yes and whose prints were found danny m ling's eric smith and jamie kobe's fingerprints were found on eric smith's mailbox there is no method to determine the precise time when fingerprints were left at a scene correct that is accurate kobe gave you permission to search their home on may 2nd correct yes now during the search you conducted a glance into kobe's garage correct yes angel russell never saw kobe place a snake in smith's mailbox correct no but they were working at the time so they weren't paying complete attention to what was going on objection your honor non-responsive have you heard your honor yes you honor the question by opposing counsel acts ask for the witness to elaborate further more than a simple yes or no answer as there's more than a simple confirmation or denial to the question at hand thank you the court believes that the answer beyond no was non-responsive the objection is sustained you can ask more questions and of course counsel you can address it on redirect your honor the defense moves to strike testimony everything after no i think i just said that after no was stricken thank you your honor please proceed in fact all angel russell saw was kobe in the vicinity of the mailbox correct yes no further questions thank you very much any redirect yes your honor briefly please proceed sheriff garrett whose fingerprints were found to have been on eric smith's mailbox eric smith's jamie cobis and danny emiling's fingerprints were found on eric smith's mailbox could eric smith have any suspect in this case no could danny emling have any suspect in this case no she had an alibi so who is the only person who whose fingerprints were found on the mailbox who could have possibly been a suspect in this case jamie kobe thank your honor no further questions at this time uh thank you very much is this witness excused that's the excuse yes you are excused and you can call your next witness your honor the prosecution would like to call terry edwards to the stand my name is terry edwards spelled e-d-w-a thank you and before you proceed i should have said this to the other witnesses could you be so kind as to kind of turn your little tent there towards the attorney scores it might help them a little bit absolutely thank you so much uh council please proceed thank you good evening miss edwards good evening please uh provide the course on background information about yourself well i'm a retired lawyer and i moved to the desert just a few years ago you know to get away from it all and do you know the victim eric smith yes do you know the defendant jamie kobe yes and how long have you known jamie and eric for well i've known jamie and eric for a long time since we all live near each other and i've lived down raptor road from eric for about 10 years now eric and i were friends and i've been there since jaime and jamie's mom moved in thank you and what you observed how would you describe jamie and eric's relationship well from what i observed jamie could be a real pain but eric was also not the easiest to get along with and can you recall any certain instances that show the strain between jamie and eric's relationship well i saw jamie throw animal droppings on eric's porch once or twice thank you and now please describe your own personal relationship with jamie well i had jamie do some gardening for me about a year ago but jamie never finished planting and i'd see jamie around town but jamie always avoided me and now miss edwards how did you find out about the death of jamie's mother well i ran into jamie at the grocery store just a couple of days after jamie's mom passed and i decided i'd stop by the funeral and set aside our differences thank you and at the funeral did you overhear jamie say anything i heard jamie telling people that this was it and that jamie jackson your honor hearsay your honor may i be heard yes you may this would be an admission to the hearsay rules this would be admission by a party as this is what jamie kobe is saying himself here's what i'm going to do i'm going to take your objection under advisement we're going to hear the answer in full then make your objection okay can you ask the question let's get the answer yes your honor miss edwards can you please just um did you overhear jamie kobe say anything i heard jamie telling people that this was it and that jamie was finally going to do it your objection is hearsay your response was this would be admission to the hearsay was this admission by a party because this is what jamie kobe is saying thank you did you want to be heard on that objection withdraw on your own all right then the answer stands thank you next question and miss edwards did you see anybody else at the funeral i saw eric there as well and now please describe the commotion you saw and heard at the funeral i saw jamie round outside the church and yell at eric saying leave you weren't invited here my mother hated you and what happened next well i was concerned the situation would escalate into violence so i stepped in and suggested they discuss it at another time jamie said never and hurried off into jaime's car eric also drove off and that was the last time i saw eric and now miss edwards what did you do after the funeral i was concerned about jamie so i drove to jaime's residence to check up on jamie and i was surprised to find her gardening at dusk and what did you notice when checking up on jamie i noticed jamie standing in the front yard so i rolled down my window to talk to jamie when i heard jamie yell i am going to kill him i ignored the comment and suggested jaime get some rest but jamie said she'd head to bed only after she finished something important she was working on thank you miss edwards no further questions your honor thank you cross examination yes your honor you had a close relationship with eric correct yes eric and i were friends you believe that eric was a hard person to get along with correct yes he certainly had his ways about him and eric often expressed their dislike towards jamie kobe correct yes that's correct you were present at jamie's mother's funeral is that right yes i was in attendance now at this funeral you and multiple others in attendance witness an argument between kobe and eric correct yes i saw the confrontation occur after this funeral you went to check up on jaime correct yes i was concerned for jamie upon your arrival at the kobe residence you found them in their garden which you thought was odd correct yes i did find it odd to find jamie gardening at dusk you were aware of kobe's reputation as a gardener first hand due to the work that they had done on your own yard correct yes although jamie never finished planting i found it suspicious because well snakes are more active at dusk being myself objection your honor non-responsive sustained would you like me to re-ask the question um yeah you were aware of kobe's reputation as a gardener firsthand due to the work that they had done on your yard correct objection your honor relevance your honor this is relevant it is setting foundation and is going to prove that jamie kobe gardening at dusk was not an unusual occurrence thank you overruled the witness can answer although jamie had never finished planting yes i was aware jamie was a gardener you believe that jamie was gardening at this time as a way to possibly recuperate after an emotionally trying day well yes i was certainly trying to rationalize jamie's behavior so that's a yes yes you did not hear kobe say that they were going to kill smith specifically correct no just that jamie was going to kill quote him i have no further questions your honor thank you any redirect no redirect your honor made this witness to be excused yes and you have one more witness to call yes um yes at this time the prosecution would like to call dr charlie dunn to this stand at this time the prosecution would like to request a time check hold on one second let's do what we're doing here and then we'll do that next faith thank you now you want a time check yes at this time the prosecution would like to request a time check wonderful let's do that thank you thank you ready to proceed with your witness yes please do so good evening dr dunn please state your name for the court and provide some background information about yourself my name is dr charlie dunn i earned a bachelor's degree in biology at the university of central california and through this i became familiar with venomous and poisonous animals thank you can you please elaborate on your forensic toxicology interest yes being a desert resident myself and around the animals i became the current chief medical examiner for bernstein county i have seen three deaths due to venomous bites thank you and when you on may 31st when you performed an autopsy on eric smith what were your findings i observed that smith had two visible puncture wounds on smith's left wrist the area was red and swollen and it was clear that smith had been bitten by a snake at this site i also found that smith had acute tubular necrosis and epicardial hemorrhaging both of which are a direct byproduct of the snake's venom that bit smith were you able to examine the snake that bit smith yes i was given the body of the snake to examine please turn your attention to exhibit d permission for the witness to approach the exhibit please thank you are you able to identify exhibit d yes i am is it a fair and accurate description yes the snake is two feet long and two inches wide at its widest point thank you at this time the prosecution would like to request that exhibit d be admitted into evidence any objection no objections your honor all right will be received into evidence were you able to observe from what were you able to observe from the dead rattlesnake from the dead rattlesnake i observed again that it was two feet long and two inches wide at its widest point as well as the snake was missing its rattle this snake's venom is 16 times more potent than any other animal venom and is it normal for a rattlesnake to be in the desert without its rattle based on my studies it is extremely unlikely for rattlesnake to be without its rattle it would take an extreme amount of pressure to cause this thank you dr dunn you may return to your seat where is the mojave rattlesnake usually found the mojave rattlesnake can usually be found in a cool accessible area such as a rock or crevice is it possible that smith died from factual just one second does that say stop no oh okay i saw stop i i got that wrong no that's okay please proceed my apologies cancel yeah it's all right is it possible that smith died from factors outside of the snake fight no no underlying health conditions would have changed the fact that the smith that smith's bite was lethal without immediate access to the anti-venom thank you and dr dunn in your professional opinion what was the cause of smith's death smith died from the bite directly from itself um the bite in the venom caused by the snake bite is what killed smith thank you your honor no further questions at this time thank you very much cross-examination yes your honor on may 31st you began eric smith's autopsy correct yes and when performing this autopsy you discovered the wound on the wrist and immediately determined it was a snake bite correct that's correct and i'd like to direct your attention to what has been entered into evidence as exhibit d deputy sheriff tony garrett informed you that this snake was inside eric smith's mailbox correct that would be correct and in your witness statement you mentioned that it is possible for snakes to squeeze into tight shaded spaces correct i do mention that i also mentioned that it is extremely unlikely for a snake to actually crawl into a mailbox on its own however however you do believe that it could be possible for a snake to squeeze into a mailbox correct that is incorrect as i've just stated that is i believe that that's not possible now you're familiar with tools such as the wire humane animal trap correct that is correct and you believe that jamie kobe could have been capable of using this tool to lure the snake out of the trap into the mailbox using a combination of tools accompanied by the usage of food correct yes i do mention that luring food with a snake is a possible way to get in a new email box yes yet in your witness statement you mentioned only ever seeing professionals such as reptile specialists perform such an act successfully correct correct with the help of other tools such as gloves snake tongs and animal traps all of which kobe had access to would you consider a small town gardener on the same level of expertise this question is speculation i didn't hear your objection um objection this question is speculation overruled thank you your honor would you consider someone who is a small town gardener on the same level of expertise as a reptile specialist i mean i feel like i would have to speculate on that however um i would say that jamie kobe had access to all of the tools that reptile objections uh sustained move to strike testimony stricken would you like me to re-ask the question sure would you consider someone who is a small town gardener on the same level of expertise as a reptile specialist no now you have no snake specific experience correct that would be correct but i am familiar with them and you've only ever seen one case where someone has died from a snake bite correct yes would that case happen to be today's case no i've mentioned that i have seen one snake bite not a specifically rattlesnake bite and you've never studied herpetology like dr tyler clay has correct i have not i have my degree in biology so that's a yes it is a yes to i have my degree in biology not in herpetology so this would make you about as experienced with snakes as a small town gardener collecting rattles in the desert correct jamie kobe has his degree in biology as well and i have my degree in biology so sure now you have no specific professional experience analyzing snake behaviors that would make your objectives this question is argumentative as was the last one sustained next question and you have no professional experience analyzing snake behaviors correct no i am a desert resident and i have seen multiple snakes and there are objections are non-responsive well let me get the answer first of all can you give me can you ask the question one more time very specifically and you have no professional experience analyzing snake behaviors correct analyzing snake behaviors no but i am familiar with snakes is there an objection um no there is no objection thank you next question that'll be all your honor thank you and uh any redirect no your honor at this time the prosecution would like to um rest her case thank you very much you are excused thank you very much doctor [Music] and the prosecution indicated that you rested yes thank you very much is defense ready to call their first witness [Music] the defense calls danny emily to the can stand suddenly affirm the testimony you're about to give faithfully and truthfully to the facts and rules of the mock competition you say your full name then fill your life danny e m l good afternoon good afternoon can you tell the court a little about yourself i am a resident of bernie county and write a one-bedroom house across the road from raptor road i also ran a convenience store in town which thankfully was able to stay in business during this tough and sudden pandemic what was your relationship with jamie kobe jamie and i are tenants of eric a while ago i was able to hire jamie to reorganize my garden into a drought tolerant garden jamie being the very talented xeriscape artist that they are was able to use a variety of characters honor the witnesses falling into a narrative you sustained you can ask another question what was your relationship like with eric smith eric wasn't a good landlord eric would take forever to make money and says to my house we had a few arguments in the past and would often offer rude and critical opinions that no one asked for did you ever witness arguments between eric and his other tenants i have witnessed quite a few arguments between eric and his other tenants yes where do you drop your rent checks off every month my rent is always deposited in eric's mailbox just like his other tennis does are there any physical obstructions that you can observe for this mailbox well the mailbox was out in the open with no lock locking it or anything protecting it from being accessed by anybody what was the relationship between eric and jamie eric and jamie lived very close to each other i often witnessed arguments between them mostly about rent or one of eric's shenanigans that disrupted jaime's life were you present at jamie's mother's funeral uh yes i was was eric there too yes eric showed up to the funeral uninvited which i just really couldn't believe especially after what happened is snake safety considered common knowledge amongst residents of bernstein county that you have interacted with of course the residents that i've talked with all have knowledge that rattlesnakes like to crawl into tight spaces and would generally be on the lookout for them in public which is something i also do did you observe jamie interact with nature yes while working on my garden i noticed that jamie loved animals and xeriscaping too they especially for snakes they were always careful and very respectful of them relevance objection on relevance do you want to be heard are you ready for my ruling on that maybe heard your honor yes this question is relevant because the defense is establishing that jamie kobe is incapable of using a snake as a murder weapon thank you objections overruled the answer stands next question what were your perceptions of jamie's relationship with nature well like i said jamie really loved animals and loved doing xeriscaping work and especially for snakes and they were always just objection your honor opinion testimony objection what opinion testimony opinion testimony uh would you like to be heard on that your honor whilst it is an opinion testimony is admissible because this um witness is testifying to the defendant overruled uh excuse me objection is sustained and next question thank you your honor i have no further questions thank you cross-examination yes your honor to please proceed good evening danny you are a neighbor of damian era correct that is correct i live across the street from them and eric is your landlord as well right yes eric is my landlord and you said that the rent was cheap as you were a tentative eric too correct of course they were it's cheap and i love the desert so it was the perfect combination thank you and all the tenants put their checks in eric's mailbox correct that is correct yes and jamie's mailbox is right next to eric's yes or no that is correct yes and you went to jaime's mother's funeral correct oh yes i attended and immediately after the funeral you left town to visit family yes or no yes i left outside of the county to visit a family member and you were gone for a couple of weeks correct oh yes i was gone for a couple of weeks and while you were gone you received a call from deputy uh sheriff tony garrett about the death of eric smith yes or no yes i did objection your honor argumentative uh you want to be heard yes i would like to i'm just simply asking the witness if she received a call while she was gone on vacation your question the question as phrase was argumentative and and so the objection is sustained the reason why is it's not for you to tell her how she has to answer the question yes or no if you believe that she's being non-responsive or you have another uh objection feel free to make it objection sustained next question thank you honor did you receive a call from deputy uh sheriff tony garrett while you were gone on vacation uh yes i did receive a call and eric smith was found dead june 5th and you know you were returned home june 5th and eric smith was found dead april 30th correct that is correct so you were gone and out of town the day that eric smith was bitten by a rattlesnake and killed correct objection your honor relevance overruled the witness can answer would you like to answer the question can you please repeat the question um you were gone out of town and returned home on june 5th and eric smith was killed uh april 30th correct yes i had to go out of town to visit family members thank you you're uh you're on enough for the questions thank you any redirect yes your honor please proceed were there any physical obstructions that you could observe two eric's in this mailbox uh there were not it was really out in the open there was no locks no gate blocking from it and it seemed that anyone could have accessed it i have no further questions genre may this witness please be excused yes thank you thank you very much and please call your next witness the defense calls francis yazzie to the stand please raise your right hand do you solemnly affirm the testimony you're about to give will faithfully and truthfully confirm to the facts yes please receive please say your full name francis yazzie y-a-z-z-i-e statement can be found on page 47 good afternoon what do you do for a living well i used to own a restaurant called the blue agave that celebrated my culture and cuisine sadly it was closed to the pandemic so now i sell landscape watercolor paintings hand me jewelry and belt buckles to make a living how do you know jamie kobe i know jamie because around 10 years ago or so she moved in half a mile away from my house ever since she moved in we become really good friends especially during the pandemic how often would you see jamie um i see jamie fairly often she usually comes over to my house at around 4 4pm after her mother has been cared for usually when she comes over we talk and have some tea did you ever go over to jamie's house on a couple of occasions yes and while at jamie's home did you ever witness anything out of the ordinary well on two occasions the power was shut off by eric i told jamie that this was probably harassment or illegal but nothing really came from it did this type of incident happen often yes this incident happened often even after confronted eric about the fact he continued to shut the power off and demand jamie verratt was eric involved in any way in the distribution of marijuana yeah it was pretty one around brinsley that he was checking your honor this is improper character evidence do you want to be heard yes your honor this is an exception to the character evidence objection as it shows a pattern of the victim's character and would you like to be heard on that yes i'd also like to add that there is um this is a objection on multiple challenges there is no evidence that the witness actually knows about this and this is also improper character evidence as um the victor eric smith is not on trial today thank you i'll sustain the objection next question thank your honor what did you do after you learned that eric wasn't going to stop shutting off jimmy's electricity well i knew that jamie's mother was sick and i wanted to make sure she was okay so the first thing i did was offer for jamie's mother to stay at my house until jamie could figure things out jamie did end up declining my offer because i didn't have the proper things to care for her was jamie close with her mother yes jamie cared for her mother and was pretty close how did jamie act after her mother's funeral after her mother's funeral jamie was a bit quiet and upset to be expected but after an hour or so of talking because she came over to my house after the funeral around four um she calmed down and even left my house laughing about how absurd an argument she had with um the witnesses falling into a narrative thank you i'm going to sustain that objection the answer stands please ask a new question over the time you've known jamie have you gotten a good judgment of her character of course i have i've known jamie for many years now so how did you react after hearing that jamie was charged for eric's murder well jamie's a really kind and gentle person that i i don't think would be capable doing anything of the sort so when i heard the news i was just left in complete shock thank you your honor no further questions cross examination yes your honor please proceed good evening good afternoon and you live on after road the same street as jamie air correct um yeah i live around half a mile or so away from jamie's house and jamie was extremely knowledgeable the desert in his environment correct um yes that's correct and based on your observation did jamie and eric have a contentious relationship um yeah and from what you observed did it seem to get progressively worse um they did have a bunch of arguments but usually after they did calm down but um yeah yeah thank you is it correct that you're present on two occasions when jamie's electricity was shut off oh yes i was present at his house on two occasions when the power was shut off and you and jane both agree that was probably illegal and unfair for harassment correct yes i told jamie that yeah and jamie said that jamie was handling the situation correct that is correct jamie did say that but you did offer to let jamie's mother stay with you until jamie's figured things out correct um i did offer for jamie's mother to stay at my house your honor relevance your honor may i be heard yes i'm trying to lay the foundation to say that jamie kobe had other ways that he could provide care for his mother but he had other methods that he wanted to use thank you objection overruled thank you honor answer stance next question and you just and jamie decline saying they would be fine correct um jamie did decline my offer because she wanted to stay close with her mother and make sure she did get the proper care she deserves you and on the day of the funeral jamie came over to her residence at around 4 p.m seeming to be agitated correct um yes after the funeral jamie did come over um so he can talk and she did appear to be a bit upset just one second that's the third time that happened um if you believe that the witness is being non-responsive you say objection non-responsive you don't shut her up by saying thank you okay well then objective non-responsive sustained next question thank you honor and jamie left at around around dusk saying you wanted to go to their garden correct um yes jamie did leave her my house around us thank you your honor no further questions thank you very much any redirect yes your honor how did jaime act after her mother's funeral um when jamie came over she was a bit quiet and upset and what was your perception of jamie's character um well i knew that jamie was a really kind and gentle person and creative too thank you your honor no further questions thank you very much is this witness excused yes thank you please call your next witness your honor before proceeding the defense would like to respectfully request a time check on behalf of both sides please let's do that now thank you before proceeding i would also like to respectfully request that the bailiff have permission to oh i'm sorry your honor never mind the exhibit is already shown um the defense would like to call dr tyler clay to the stand let's do it please raise your hand again you strongly affirm the testimony you're about to give will faithfully and truthfully conform to the facts and rules of the montreal competition yes i do please say dr clay could you please tell the court a little about yourself good afternoon my name is dr tyler clay i am the director of the southland zoological museum in california i earned my bachelor of science degree from the university of central state in the year 2000.

you know um see that number having that conversation that was told here's what i i'm gonna i'm gonna say this and that's that's what my goal is and again i want to talk to bond council because i could do my goal a lot of what if i the money i can't or else i'll be shoveling i'm sure you know so um you know that's my goal and please understand it's it's one of my priorities and i'll stay on top of that okay dave's ready to dave is chopping up we're ready right now [Laughter] so there you go ready i know you are okay no matter what um i do ask the question and no disrespect to dr hall but in regards to this athletic field you're talking about next time around has the board had any discussion on that i think they will are you just jiving or is this a serious kind of like well i think it's just discussion that we've talked about but nothing's been approved or talked just yeah just obviously you just got you're trying to make dr hall feel good he's serious in a heart attack i think everybody has a wish list hey i think i think it's just part of a discussion that would come up in the future yeah i want to make sure mr brown before i have the discussion with the board to have a lot of the answers for you that that's what i want to make sure of before i have that so so i just i just want to do that uh you know it's something that i know is um at the top of the list for dr hall you know he has not been bashful in saying that i understand that can i share what's on the top of my list in addition at the middle school okay i need not say anymore i know i know that too yes yep okay thank you lord and i i do want to thank dave and his crew and staff too also thanks dave again thank you thank you glad to see everyone okay next up is consent agenda approval um dr caglilanis could you read the items on the consent agenda i can item number one proof regular meeting minutes of january 18 2022 item two approved committee of the whole meeting minutes of february 8 2022 item 3 approved committee of the whole closed session meeting minutes of february 8 2022 and number 4 approved press plus issue 108 policies under business number one approved board of education financial report item three under teaching learning is the cmhs naval junior reserves officer training corp drill team competition and item two is the ihsa's state tournament and that is it for consent okay before i get a motion to approve the consent agenda is there any item on here that the board would like to have taken off as a for a separate vote i don't want to take nothing i have a question in regards to the uh which state tournament is this wrestling is this is this are we forecasting for a track what is it uh john tell do you have any comments on that for us please this was a chess tournament that the high schoolers um played in it was two weeks ago and our team for the first time in history i believe placed in 10th place overall this is the first time that our students have placed in 10th place and if i remember correctly mr noble told me that we've had a couple of freshmen that were just shy of going to overall state so so kudos to mr noble and our chess students oh thanks for letting us know so we're we're being asked to approve something kind of post they've already participated in this yes we received the request late but because it was overnight trip we had to still submit it so you said you said this activity already taking place yes it was february 10th was the date and you want us to prove something that already occurred [Music] yes how did that happen it seems like this should have been on the january and uh and i think that's why i asked that question because for example we know that state happens and when it's going to happen is there any way to pre-approve these items just in case for example track is coming up we have softball we have baseball you know we have things that are coming up in the spring like maybe we can pre-approve them now or pre-approve them at the beginning of the year so that we don't run into situations like this it's up to the board but it's just the question that i have to try to get ahead so we so we're not approving something you know a month or two later yeah because i'm looking at the uh in in jr otc that's coming up the 25th and 26th so we are approving that in advance okay so or if we can't is this something that we can throw it over to you if we can't get it to the board in time and have you proven you just let the board know is that something that you can do or does this necessarily have to come to the board you know having a proper document certificate of insurance so on and so forth is this something that we can give over to dr khan at least and say you know what in cases that it cannot come to the border in time i think we'd have to adjust policy six colon two four oh okay so that's a policy driven i i don't have the policy open but that's i know on the okay in jrotc that's what we're asking that's the move well i guess i would like i mean something like that so that we're not doing this myself in this i think this does i think this has happened before years ago do we have any wrestlers going down state thursday because i i haven't heard anything that's what i said wait who is it an overnight trip no was it another bedside yeah i don't know if it's arabella or related to them okay yeah if so then they're like but they just had some because it's been all over the website they won first and this and third in this they just had it so i don't i don't know if that yeah i don't know if that was stayed i don't know what yeah state is thursday or november oh it starts thursday thursday friday saturday the timeout this only applies to overnight trips so if it's not an overnight yeah it's an overnight state is thursday friday saturday board policy does state that overnight trips have to be approved by the war right so that's what the situation is just a reminder to the high school to try to give us stuff in advance so that we can get it on in time just a slight reminder the chess one yeah but they know about the wrestling and that's this thursday i don't know though yeah but we don't know if we're going yeah but that's why i say if we could get it approved just in case i think they go because we know that this is a possibility we're probably going to modify the policy right to allow dr cogan is to make that decision if it's in between meetings right even or even if it could be like for example we we know that wrestling is thursday friday saturday in february it always falls on kennedy's birthday because she would go down state every year with her brothers on her birthday and so you can pre-plan for that we know that maybe the chess tournament changed this year i don't know but you knew they knew it in advance that this was a possibility they may not know that they would have somebody but you can kind of pre-plan for it and have us vote you know have it on the agenda just in case okay all right i've added that to my to-do list i'm going to follow mr bias on this and also take a look at our policy to see if maybe there's something might want to present to you guys next month okay okay can i have a motion to approve the consent agenda second so i just i have a question just on so on item number four approving the press plus issue so the cell phone policy that's in there that we're approving is as which one yeah oh you pulled it out that's not ins that's not under the consent yeah yeah we pulled it out you approved okay okay okay got it okay yep any other questions or comments on the consent agenda i would just uh ken you know this is the kind of one page i always look at so you're forecasting about a 3.5 million dollar surplus yes for this year great yes right now yes and it looks like almost entirely driven by additional revenue it is uh but you also see that selling benefits are way down too about 1.3 million so is that all for offset by purchase services yeah offset by purchase services yes okay in addition to working cash gaining working cash for surplus no this is just uh this really is uh the working cash is listed under other financing options okay okay uh roll call i'm brown brown is an eye dr hall aye mr smallish hi this is walters aye mrs gilbert aye vice president rupert aye president over aye motion carries okay next up for under action reports superintendent first one is can i get a motion to approve board policy 7 colon 190 student behavior second so now i can ask my question so we're approving it as the building has requested so cell phones can be students can have them as long as they're turned off or silent during the day during class time unless as the policy gives teachers flexibility to use them in in the curriculum or they can use them at lunch time is that and they can okay okay okay any other questions or okay did we get them maurice we got a motion yes sir okay um roll calvin brown isn't i mrs galbraith hi mr sualish hi dr hall uh i have a question who motioned and who's second for this one um bill and galbraith promotions okay mrs walters aye vice president rupert aye president albert aye motion carries the next item teach under teaching and learning um superintendent has asked us to pull that from the agenda and we'll bring it back in march we had some other uh adjustments that came that we need to take a look at so we'll bring it back next month okay good i had a couple questions anyways okay yes please do there was some remember usually you guys tell us when things are going to be different and there's some differences on there that i think you should indulge i wasn't sure if it was construction driven you know like starting a little later going into gym you know we usually get a heads up if we're gonna do something like that okay it just seems later yeah like this year i think we're getting out by memorial day right this year but next year students set well i mean i know it could change but june 7th that seems very late again this was brought back to this was back at committee and so much of this was driven by the testing schedules right at committee of the whole maybe we could just have uh explanation because i know we used to get that yeah yeah always saying this is what you know this is what the committee wanted or this is why we're doing it this way yeah gentle do you want to have any comments there before um yes so um i will make sure that i give that address i thought that i do it on this evening and tell you why we're starting later it is because of construction so i will do that at committee of the whole and answer any questions that you have thank you okay okay okay next stop on your business can i get a motion to accept and approve the base bid and addendum number one in the amount of twenty two thousand dollars for a total contract amount of twenty two thousand dollars for maverick lighting solutions of chicago illinois for the installation of led lighting on the exterior of creepmoney high school and crete elementary school second any questions or comments this is the exterior and we just did some led lighting in the interior of the building so both of these the this one and then the next one this is for the exterior the next one is for the interior at the high school the first one is for the exterior of the high school and the exterior of crete elementary right we had we had a couple of light poles over there so we decided to include that and that's what a definite one is what you're voting on is really the only thing in the bid was the installation of the fixtures we are behind the district is buying the fixtures themselves just because we get better incentives on the rebates at the led lights and all that so you'll see in the board report we budgeted this part of the short-term facility plan so we budgeted 442 000 it came in with the bids all the incentives and everything at 328 000 plus we did receive 50 000 in the isb uh maintenance grant so everything came in about a hundred sixty three thousand under budget i remember that i just thought the work had already been completed no no okay that was obviously it's gonna be planning for the summit okay okay a quick question can with these beards these are sealed bits yes and you have a bed opening we have a bit opening yes okay yes has any of the potential bidders actually come to the opening or you inform them no they they've come together they come to the open is that hell held in your office it's held actually in a board room okay if we only have a couple then we'll hold it in my office it's a public opening so they can still come in they can still come in but we had i think we had four at the at the bid opening and uh so they they were all here so we headed in there yes okay all right any other questions or comments okay roll call please dr hall hi browners and i mrs galbraith mr sualish aye mrs walters aye vice president rupert aye president albrecht aye okay next up can i have a motion to accept and approve the base bid and the amount of 166 thousand dollars in addendum number one in the amount of twenty five thousand seven hundred dollars for a total contract amount of 191 thousand seven hundred dollars for maverick lighting solutions of chicago illinois for the installation of led lighting on the interior of creekmoney high school so moved second any questions or comments for ken on this okay roll call as soon as you're ready brown is and i mr swalish hi mrs galbraith mrs walters aye dr hall aye vice president rupert aye president albrecht aye motion carries next up is personnel and culture can i get a motion to approve the personnel report including approved certified staff leave of absence return from leave of absence resignation and reassignment and educational support staff employment reassignment leave of absence and resignation sorry any questions or comments okay roll call please mrs walters aye brown is an eye mr swallows hi mrs galbert dr hall aye vice president rupert aye president albert aye motion carries um does anyone have any old business good mr oh just this being black history that would be new business i'll wait the new business i'm sorry the only question i had is do with the decision coming in the next day or so do we do we have a plan to get together or how we would discuss that like at least inform the public i mean i know we talked about it last week but so we're all so if the seven of us if we are gonna have an emergency just be prepared either tomorrow or thursday to come in right i mean i just wanna make sure we're all on the same page that is that is that what we're gonna do or let's see let's see how it comes out and let me i'll consult with carrot and consult with each of you and then i'll i'll come out with a recommendation whether we need us emergency meeting or not and then we i'll make sure everybody's included though in that final decision so then we would do something quickly if that's the case okay um mr on new business mr brown before you go i know ken had something he wanted to sure a new business item he's older than i am so you can i'm just saying i just know you had a birthday not too early before beauty age before yes definitely well that hurts [Laughter] yeah i think he received four aarp cards oh i'm sorry um two things board that i wanted to share with you under new business uh one has to do with the public comments came in about our facilities and reopening our facilities uh as we start moving forward here um so i've got we're putting we put a plan together don's gonna pull it up but uh in essence starting um at spring break uh which is the last week of march right after that which is august or august april 4th bless you april 4th what we will do is we're going to allow school sponsored events at all of our buildings so so that'll start on april 4th and then in addition to that on april 4th we are going to allow facility rentals at the high school the middle school and moni elementary school the reason we're not going to allow that at the other schools is because we're going to be doing a lot of pre-construction work at night and weekends at those buildings so uh thanks don i appreciate it um and so i'm flipping through this real quick so i can you can see this because i just put this together there we go here we go at the conclusion of spring break the district will allow school-sponsored events in all buildings with the use of any kova 19 mitigations in place at the time based on cdc and idph guidelines so whatever that means whatever guidelines are there at that time recommended by cdc will allow school sponsored events at the conclusion of spring break which is april 4th the district will allow outside organizations to use our facilities on a rental basis at the following buildings monae elementary school crete moni middle school and crete monee high school our rental policies and guidelines for this will include the implementation of any covet 19 mitigations in place at that time based on cdc and idph guidelines and lastly as i mentioned additional buildings will not be allowed to have rentals by outside organizations due to pre-construction work that will be taking place in the evenings and on weekends starting march 26 2022 you can see the buildings that i've included there and then lastly our legal counsel has reviewed and updated our facility rental agreement and we will be posting the new one to our website so they've gone through to make sure it meets all the guidelines we have included some things in there about current uh cdc and idph guidelines having to be and all of that too so that's our that's our plan now moving forward so those six buildings right there uh just spring break so they'll be cleaned and sanitized and ready to go for when the kids come back after your pre-construction whatever you're doing right well let me let me explain that pre-construction is going to take place for the rest of the school year at those buildings it's going to be off hours and on weekends so in those buildings contractors will be coming in but everything will be cleaned you know they they have um and you know this is part of keith's responsibility they have things in their contract that they have to clean up and make sure everything is spotless so the kids are ready to come in either the next day or on monday or whatever yeah because we don't want the teachers oh no don't worry about that or you know and most of that pre-work constantly goes a lot of that's in the hallways okay and they really won't be getting into the classrooms until school is really out enough but it does give them a head start i think also that i mentioned to the board that at creed elementary we're shutting down the east wing right at uh spring break so we can do a special abatement there and then they'll be working that'll be shut down for the rest of year so they can work on the mechanical room but again i've made it very clear the contractors know that that work is done after hours and on weekends it's not done while the children are there yes that's right i'll repeat your question go ahead can i try it again my question on that is if they put the rental form in february 28th and it's for a march 19th and in between the guidelines change they have to follow the curve what was about what they signed the agreement on okay just wanted to make sure that that was clear and and will we make that clear to the people thank you okay okay so that's number one the second one a little bit more confusing so it's illinois public act 102-0519 which is senate bill 508 so this is something that came up this is a brand new law that has come into effect and it created a new section of the property tax code and what it says is that it automatically increases the taxing district's levy to make the taxing body whole for all refunds as a result of property tax appeal board decisions circuit court orders and certificates of error so let me try and kind of explain that in simple terms whatever that means you know so um what the state legislator legislation attempt to do is to say okay when you do our when we do our loving we collect and get our extension we start collecting funding money there are some people that appeal their assessment their assessed value and all that and that lowers the money this law went into effect for the district to recoup that money that is out there okay and every texting body that money is added to the levy automatically we don't request it they automatically put it on there okay so that's what you'll see and at one point here that i say it requires the county clerk to automatically increase each taxing district's levy by the total amount lost due to refunds from the prior year our amount is 307 000 and some change there okay now what that does do it puts an additional burden on the taxpayer because that money has to be spread out amongst the other taxpayers and collect that money over and above our levy okay so it's the law i know i know mr brown it's the law that and eric can correct me if i'm wrong on this but that's what the law is now now here's what i will say the district has the right to say no we don't want the money all right the district has that right they can say that the county clerk will automatically put it on and if you don't say anything they're going after the money what i did down here is i tried doing a little bit of a calculation to let you know this would be the additional cost to each homeowner based on the home value of their tax bill that would increase that much okay so for somebody that has 150 000 home it will increase an additional 22.6 you know 22.69 over and above what i've already estimated the increase is going to be okay so i just need direction from the board if you want my recommendation i'm going to i'm going to give it to you because i always do anybody i would say you say no to this money that would be my recommendation so so if i understand this the state of illinois is putting this burden on the rest of the taxpayers and not compensating this themselves well the taxing district is and that the taxing district the legislation because what happened was taxing bodies went to the legislative legislators and said listen we're losing some of this money that we're counting on in our budgets and that in essence three hundred seven thousand dollars last year we're kind of you know that so how do we make this up you know and all that stuff most of that money is from a lot of commercial properties they're usually the ones that you know there's some residential but it's mostly commercial properties and so what happens then is that when when they get less in their assessment everything now it's spread out amongst the residential property tax owners so we've been surviving with without that right we have been surviving that uh without that uh this is on a year-to-year basis so every year we would have to make that decision the board would have to make that decision i mean and honestly i could make it we don't even need ford action but i do think it is important for the board to take action on that as um you know as letting the public know that we don't want that this is from a year ago okay yes so i just need direction from the board if you want to go that way i will have a resolution prepared i already talked to john izzo uh and john and uh eric's firm will prepare a resolution to bring to the board in march to approve that so that then i will take that then to the county clerk when i do the extension and say no we don't want this money so do we need a consensus or just go around and vote or i just need direction no i can't wait this is a question yeah we would vote when he brings a resolution i think the question is do you want him to bring that resolution to the next i definitely do personally yeah i agree yeah this is this is brutal on the taxpayers so so if we do that then the county does not collect that money exactly okay okay they have to buy law collect the money unless the tax taxing body says no okay got it based on this new law based on this new law and it'd be something that we would revisit every year every year we were and i i i will tell you this i want to thank john izzo and his firm because i never got any notification on this and john called me the one day and says hey have you gotten anything from the county clerk saying what your amount is and i said no because they're supposed to notify us and so john did some digging he found the amount and you know he sent me over an email saying it was 307 000 is this for this coming up december when we vote on the levy this this is no this is for the current tax extension that we're going to get so it'd be for the tax bills that go out in may yes okay yes let's say this comes back some year it's 15 million right and it's going to make a i mean yeah yeah okay i mean that'd be a huge appeal but the good the good news about saying no to this is the fact that it will not affect uh tax caps or any of that stuff it doesn't affect any of those things so you know this again is just additional money but again i think it's in the best interest of our district okay so you have the direction you need i do okay thank you very much i appreciate it thanks again okay other new business well i guess this is a combination of new new and old uh back on martin luther king's birthday i shared with dr kagla niece and our assistant superintendent of curriculum i got it right this time i she set me straight because i called her director last time about acknowledging dr martin luther king's birthday in some manner from a district or the school level i went around all the schools on a sunday i had nothing better to do and just did a drive-by and looked at the marquis and saw maybe one or two that actually acknowledged that and doctor cognition got on it and she assured me they had measures in place to do that and that was built then into the curriculum and she wrote a nice article i read that uh on the district website thank you so much for the beautiful article he wrote so being said black history month my wife stays out of my business when it comes to school board okay but she again she just drove past mec looked at the marquee it was nothing pertaining to black history month even though we still got to have a little less than half of a month ago and she decided she said who can i write to i understand she wrote to our communication director i don't know if she responded as a couple yesterday she had not so and she said again she looked on the website i have not i cannot validate this but i'm just asking in public what are we doing as a district i remember there was something on mec today was it today well i drove by it today and it was i pulled from nelson mandela okay as i'm driving uh eastward okay great it was facing westward i didn't i didn't see it until i saw it i looked to turn around okay good good thanks thank you i mean great great and again i'm not knocking the district i remember when i first got on the board the board members used to do what we call board bits we used to have each board member had an opportunity to write a little article every month we took turns we rotated you know you had your time coming up in a six or seven month and we just write whatever we thought was appropriate at that time so i don't know if the again not just black history month i'm talking about you know asian american month hispanic american or whatever things are recognized out there in the world or at least the state or united states i don't know if anything is there is there anything there on black history for the district or can our president just kind of you know he you're doing a good job nelson just representing our board responding to concerns out there the parent maybe you can write a a little two two sentence of whatever it is in honor of black history month there's old saying it's a biblical saying it says it's the little fox that destroys the vine the little things can have a big impact or it can have a little impact and i'm telling you as an african-american to see our district or the villages put little blurs up that it goes a long way let's say just you know the district recognized black history month boom not labor intense but it goes a long way so do you want to add to any of that please yes so um mr brown in response to the marquis i'll start with that we do know that some of them cannot be updated because they're old i don't know if we talked about this before but they're frozen and locked and ken is working on a plan for that um but in terms of instruction and what's happening in classes and we certainly can be more culturally responsive where we dedicate something to every month and just not black history month but in all of the classrooms across the district and i shared this in the january fyi of all of the projects and activities that are going on throughout the district in every building for instance in most of the buildings part of their morning announcements is project wisdom with quotes from famous or african americans throughout history elc has reading corners elementary every classroom teacher is indulging in instruction around that and kids are doing starting to write essays at the middle school they just announced yesterday in conjunction with amazon there's an annual mlk poetry writing original work and those students were recognized yesterday from amazon and then at the high school level again those students are working on their research skills and promoting that work there and mec is also doing project wisdom and announcements on a daily basis and thank you for that i appreciate it it's more the old same public uh perception is reality so if it's not seen by the public that's what i'm looking for and a great kudos to dr cogwinnis and your staff but just i personally will might again my wife will be very invisible when it comes to the school board and things like that and what i do but when she came to me she said what can i do to bring awareness of black history month from the school district as a whole somewhere so she would have drove past maybe again i i don't know if that quote came was up there you know maybe i'll tell her go back and tell her you just you know what happened you just have your glasses on or something no no i'll tell her just where i saw it today driving here okay and just so you're if you're aware i sent dr kagunis an email on monday february 7th expressing are all the marquees at the schools reflecting something about black history month thank you so much that that means a lot that wasn't a q a log i didn't add that it wasn't it was yeah and because and that's why when i drove by today you'd mention that but there was something on there a quote from that i think if i remember it right backwards it was nelson mandela but again i missed it on the way heading east but i turned around and looked and saw that on the back i think my wife was looking stuff maybe the different direction because at one point nbc said thank you school board or something they had something on there but yeah thank you for the school board yeah it was now we're in the february so yeah i think that was there since last june i know so and i did uh talk with mr mclean as well to make sure that um any of our things that were frozen uh the maintenance was out there helping any buildings uh to open those to make sure and again this is why we are really needing to have electronic marquees because it is much easier for us to send out an electronic piece that can be like that because we're a little bit more current up to date and we can put more on them so i cannot wait until we can have these marquees up there in the meantime we're going to struggle to keep struggling through with our with our little letters to put them up to make sure that we're not missing important events like this but you will see even in the hallway here make sure that you see the um we have a digital display out here yes right there and it has the same thing on it because we've got rotations on them because we do value that right for any any community members on facebook and stuff there are pl there are a lot of posts about what the kids are doing and yeah yeah there's there's a lot of social media i think my wife knows how to get on for facebook i know yeah i i'm not on facebook yeah the elementary especially well that's good but a little snapshot as from the district that'll be great if that's not what you're already doing and and again uh from a board perspective nelson if you think that's appropriate i wouldn't mind you just from the board from you know we recognize this group this group inclusion that's where about diversity inclusion and i heard you hop on it a couple times as things have been presented up there again it's these little things you know those are gaps out there that these are the little things that's going to continue to br bridge us together merge us together and i'm going to say this and that's going to be it it did my heart well for whatever reason people of different ethnicity came together a couple years ago on the corner right there in exchange in main street in crete over in moani join hands and lock arms together for whatever cause they came to do it that did me well when i drove past and saw people of all ethnicity come together for a cause and i just see that at some point i can see our board and our communities continue to come together and these little things i think just have a tremendous impact to make that happen okay that's all i have i would like to add to that i think it's a great idea but let's be careful that we are all inclusive on what we're recognizing yeah absolutely you know there are a lot of like you're talking about federal holidays whatever if we're going to recognize one we better make sure that we're recognized that's okay and i'm all for it so i think we need to just uh like i said i'm not asking and invent the will and you know and and put a dissertation out there on it you know just you know in honor of this month and our lincoln birthday or whatever it is right i'm just saying we have to make sure that we are all inclusive so maybe we need to make a list and plan this or whatever but in order to make sure that somebody doesn't have hurt feelings and that's going to happen if we skip some major thing to somebody we just need to make sure that we're we're covering all our bases personally that's what i feel because maybe something is very important to me and it's not important to dr hall but we didn't do something and now i have hurt feelings and he doesn't even know it because he didn't know it was something i mean are we going to recognize state are we going to recognize federal are we just going to recognize what we choose to recognize i'm just asking us to be very careful on how we plan this i totally agree that's a morale booster i love seeing all that little stuff in it and it means that somebody's paying attention but we need to pay attention to everything across the board i mean maybe one thing about it but i can tell you i can tell you deep within with recognition of black history month it's more than a moral booster for me but okay maybe i use the wrong tab i think you're after me tonight mr brown i'm just trying to express my feelings maybe i don't use the word you want me to use i'm really sorry about that no no i'm gonna no no i'm sure you there was no no bad intent on that but i'm just saying that you need to be careful okay okay thank you any other new business uh no need for closed session tonight can i get a motion to adjourn so moved all in favor say aye aye all opposed

i said during the original presentation that there are two conditions in which going out that far is not that accurate you have big um uh error up to 30 one when you have a thousand roughly a thousand kids in the school um and then the other one when you have buildings inside of control but not out of control but we have increased growth so we have both women in our town and so um but i did want to put it on here you saw a little dip there in 2020 which all schools in the state tended to have all public schools uh but you see an increase uh k-12 we're continuing to move to 2031. i'll point out that these nasdaq projections have consistently been a little bit lower than our actual numbers that number out there is is is 12.97 approximately 1300 students roughly 300 different times now now these projections don't include um school choices so you can add roughly another 100 students to that by today's standard so maybe it's 150 to 200 then depending on you know and that's all the question of how many uh how many seats open and how many um seats that the school committee will vote on um [Music] so i wanted to show you that to show you that there is you know there is a projected growth up to 2031.

i also later on went to receive my masters as well as my phd in biology with a specialization in herpetology which is basically a branch of zoology mostly concerning reptiles or in this case snakes and what is your experience in the field well for many many years i did work as a naturalist at various national parks and even now as the director of the zoological museum i've seen plenty of snakes and specifically snake bites at this point i may even call myself the snake whisperer which is also the title of my newest autobiography what is your involvement in this case well i have examined the medical examiner's report as well as the mojave rattlesnake specimen itself with this i can concur that it was indeed a mojave rattlesnake that has been eric smith now i'd like to direct your attention to what has been entered into evidence as exhibit d do you know what this is yes it appears to be a photograph of the mojave rattlesnake with a missing rattle how come or how often do individuals die of a mojave rattlesnake bite it is actually not a very common occurrence for any individual to die of a rattlesnake bite including a mojave rattlesnake and what might happen if the bite were to go untreated well after a few hours the person may experience symptoms such as difficulty breathing loss of vision muscle spasms and in some rare cases cardiac arrest may even be a result what exacerbates a mojave rattlesnake bite well moving around causes the venom to course the person's bloodstream a lot quicker as well as wasting time attempting to look for or grab the snake now i have seen other cases where the person has attempted to have somebody try to suck the venom out of the wound now what this does is it creates a false sense of security when in actuality all it does is put the poor person sucking the venom out at risk of poisoning as well witness has fallen into a narrative may have you heard your owner yes this witness just finished their answer and the last portion of it was a narrative um the court is not going to strike any of the testimony it was another narrative objection sustained i'll ask that the witness be more concise next question thank you and what is your stance on this snake's missing rattle a missing rattle is actually a lot more common than some may think the rattle is made up of a material called keratin which is the same material that makes up a human fingernail so it is definitely not that sturdy especially considering that snake shed twice a year by running up against hard surfaces and could you describe the nature of the mojave rattlesnake yes it's truly a fascinating snake the most venomous one in north america even um there are most active between the months of april and october and the mojave rattlesnake is not particularly aggressive unless it is destruction the witness has fallen into a narrative do you want to be heard yes your honor this is an expert witness and they were simply describing the nature of the mojave rattlesnake which requires a brief description thank you objection overruled the answer stands you can finish your answer briefly thank you was there more you needed to say on that briefly no i finished my answer thank you next question um permission for the bailiff to approach the exhibits and rearrange it so exhibit e is showing sure thank you your honor thank you now how do you feel about dr dunn's theory that the rattlesnake was dumped in the mailbox i find dr dunn's theory highly unlikely as it would be a very difficult task and very dangerous as well for somebody who is not a professional in this field even considering the tools used including the humane animal trap now looking at exhibit e would this tool make handling the snake possible in this situation no as i've stated it's a very difficult task and would be very very risky for somebody who is not a reptile specialist how common is it for snakes to squeeze into tight shaded spaces it's actually a very common occurrence for snakes to squeeze into tight shaded spaces they do this for a number of reasons either to get out of the sun wait till it's darker out and how do individuals usually react in these situations well a person can very easily reach unknowingly into their mailbox which would agitate the snake and cause it to attack permission for the bailiff to approach the exhibits and rearrange so exhibit b is showing sure thank you your honor do you know what this is yes it appears to be a photo of eric smith's mailbox in your professional opinion how could the snake have gone into the mailbox well the snake could have easily squeezed through the slit at the top of the mailbox which i believe was one and three quarters inches wide or if somebody were to have left the door open it could have easily obviously slipped through inside what were the dimensions of the snake while the snake was around two feet long and at its widest point it was two inches wide with these dimensions could the snake still fit through the slot oh yes easily snakes can sort of maneuver their bodies to squeeze into really tight spaces and even at its narrowest point it was much smaller than two inches so definitely could have gone in through the slit at the mailbox or even in smaller spaces that'll be all at this time your honor thank you cross-examination yes you agree with dr dunn that the mojave desert rattlesnake is the most venomous rattlesnake in north america correct yes that is a well-known fact you said in your witness statement that the mojave rattlesnake is most active between april and october correct yes that is correct and smith was bitten in april yes i believe so and you and doctor dr don disagree that smith's cause of death was from lethal and venom nation well i can concur that it was the rattlesnake that has been eric smith but i'm not too sure as to what the cause of death was okay and smith did not seek the anti-venom because of trends in the bite of delayed symptoms correct yes a lot of people seem to think that the bite is not severe and they wait very long so yes and yes or no this is someone was that someone with extensive your honor argumentative as to yes or no sustained can you rephrase the question yes thank you your honor this is some this is something someone with extensive knowledge of these species would have known no not necessarily many desert residents know that the anti-venom is widely available as well as to be precautious when um putting their hand into their mailbox objection the witness is being non-responsive i asked if they would be able to testify that someone with extensive knowledge of the species would know that the snake has trends in the bite of delayed symptoms thank you overruled the question was responsive next question is it possible to die from a snake bite alone well i would it is possible however it is extremely rare as there could be various contributing factors like other underlying conditions did you ever personally examine eric smith's body no i only examined the medical examiner's report as well as the mojave rattlesnake specimen thank you please turn your attention to exhibit a i believe we do not have the snake tongs oh never mind okay are you familiar with this exhibit yes they are the snake feeding tongs please point to the item located near the tongs in your witness statement you said that this item is consistent with the size of a rattle correct yes that is correct you agree with dr dunn saying that the best way to handle venomous snakes is to use snake feeding tongs and gloves to avoid injury correct well i wouldn't say that would be the best method but yes usually these tools are very commonly used by reptile specialists thank you and these items were found in kobe's residence correct i'm afraid i cannot testify to that i'm not objection according to stipulation 5 it states that they would have the expert witnesses would have reasonable knowledge of the fact stipulation and considering that they have testified to using these tools as an animal specialist they should know that from this from this fact simulation these would be located in kobe's residence your honor this witness did not was not a part of the investigation into kobe's residence so they would have uh they may not have proper knowledge of where exactly in the residences was found or that this was indeed found in the residence thank you the court is going to open i got it the court is going to overrule the objection as it was phrased if you believe that you can properly impeach this witness with uh something in the packet feel free to do so objection overruled thank you your honor okay are you unable to answer the question yes i am okay then thank you no further questions your honor thank you very much any redirect um yes your honor did you examine dr dunn's report yes i examined the report and did you agree with dr dunn's theories on how the snake ended up in the mailbox i disagreed with dr dunn's theory that the snake could have been dumped in the mailbox for various reasons like it was very dangerous and it could have squeezed in on its own would tools such as the snake feeding tongs make snake handling possible only for reptile specialists somebody who is not a professional in this field could very easily get injured thank you nothing further your honor may this witness be excused yes thank you very much [Music] thank you doctor and council do you have a final witness to call yes but before proceeding the defense would like to respectfully request a time check on behalf of both sides thank you let's do that right now okay i'm gonna have the two of you chat that out and then you can tell me what's going on and while they're doing that uh i want to just let everyone know i think we've all been doing a wonderful job with our masks i am responsible for the health and safety of everyone in this room right now so if we could just take a moment to check our our masks and make sure that our mouths and noses are you know not with us thank you have we resolved the uh discrepancy and so what is it um and you agree all right thank you i commend you both for working that that out that's exactly as it should happen next witness the defense would like to call jamie kobe to the stand thank you [Music] c-o-b-e-y can be found on page 42 miss kobe could you please tell the court a little about yourself yes my name is jamie kobe and i'm currently a resident of burnsley county i've lived in one of eric smith's properties with my mother for about 10 years now what was your relationship with eric smith well eric and i weren't necessarily the best of friends sometimes we got into arguments but we always ended up calming down eventually how would you handle these arguments well sometimes the police would get involved and other times i admit that i did act childlessly however i always realized the extent of my mistakes and obviously never repeated them again were you your mother's caretaker yes she was old and had pre-existing health conditions so i was responsible for taking care of and supporting her at this time what was your occupation well i used to work for a restaurant called the blue agave but unfortunately it shut down due to the pandemic so instead i tried to step up my work as a service objection your honor this witness has fallen into a narrative overruled if you could briefly answer the question thank you your honor thank you so i as i was saying i had tried to step up my work as a sur escaper but unfortunately people couldn't afford my services so that didn't really help either could you afford your rent often i couldn't afford my rent but whenever i did have any extra money to pay eric in whatever amount i could i did just to show that i was still appreciative of him did you ever hear of any illegal activities taking place on eric smith's properties yes i was aware objection to your honor uh relevance uh may i heard your honor no overruled on those grounds the witness can answer your honor we also like to raise some objections to improper character evidence okay now we're now we're in the ball field do you want to respond to that yes your honor this is an exception to the improper character evidence objection as it goes to show a pattern of the victim's character and their reputation within the community as well as their interactions with others within the community do you want to be heard yes your honor the victim is not the one on trial here jimmy copia jb cobias as well as a the um the phrasing of the question as to a pattern of illegal activity uh is vague and ambiguous and does not go to show anything about the objection sustained next question did you blame eric smith for your mother's death i didn't blame eric smith for my mother's death because as i had said she was old and had pre-existing health conditions i had known it was honor this witness has fallen into a narrative no the witness hasn't the witness can answer overruled thank you your honor as i was saying um she she had pre-existing health conditions and i was aware of the fact that it was only a matter of time i just hadn't expected it so soon so she was really the top of my priorities and how did you react when you saw eric smith at the funeral when i saw eric smith at the funeral i was surprised because we weren't friends so i hadn't invited him and i didn't expect him to be there after the funeral where did you go after the funeral i went to my neighbor francis yazzie's house because we're friends so i trusted her to help me calm down before i went back to my house to do some gardening which is always really relaxing for me too is gardening a main hobby of yours yes i've been gardening for quite a while so i'd say i know quite a bit about different techniques which is also why i own a variety of tools why did you purchase these tools i purchased these tools because i'm also a member of various animal rights organizations and it's always been my priority to handle the things i interact with with the utmost care and respect now i'd like to direct your attention to the morning of april 29th did you go anywhere the morning of april 29th yes the morning of april 29th i went down to my landlord's mailbox eric smith to drop off my rent payment which was an envelope containing 48 cash at this time did you touch the mailbox well it was a while ago so i don't remember touching the mailbox in specific i'm sure i have at some point in the past all i know is that i definitely dropped off my payment and did you put a snake in the mailbox of course not now did you do anything of note on april 30th during your honor vague ambiguous says the term of note sustained i can rephrase your honor please did you go anywhere the morning of april 30th yes on the morning of april 30th i went down to our local town hardware store and put up a sign saying that i was selling my gardening tools why did you sell your tools i sold my tools because i needed money to pay for my mother's funeral funeral expenses i didn't have a stable job so really anything at that point helped and did you kill eric smith of course not honor this calls for an opinion testimony may further elaborate okay the phrasing the question is the term kill is requires a medical testimony as for the actual cause of death as smith has been contested by the defense in today's trial thank you overruled the witness can answer thank you your honor of course i didn't kill eric smith just because we had our differences it doesn't mean that i would ever wish harm upon him let alone imagine to do it myself that'll be all at this time your honor thank you very much cross-examination easter honor good evening jimmy kobe good afternoon your attendant on one of what was eric smith's properties correct in burnsley county yes i did live in one of eric smith's properties and on april 22nd your mother passed away yes yeah that that did happen you now know and knew at the time that eric smith shut the power off causing your mother's death objection your honor compound question can you read the question tell me ask the question one more time you now know and knew at the time that eric smith caused your mother's death thank you your honor break it up you now know that eric smith caused your mother's death due to a lack of power due to oxygen correct well that was really a circumstantial occurrence i mean objection you honor this witness is non-responsive may i be heard hold on i'm just going to play this back in my mind the objections overruled the witness can briefly answer the question thank you your honor well the my power being shut off that day was just an unfortunate occurrence really anything could have caused my mother's oxygen machine to shut down and of course she had health conditions so as i said i knew it was a matter of time it just hadn't expected it at that moment on page 44 line 32 and 33 you said i did not blame eric entirely for my mom's death she had been very very ill so it would be fair to say that you did partially blame her correct well of course my situation with eric was difficult we had gotten into arguments in the past but really my objection witness is non-responsive may i be heard your honor yes they're asking my witness if they blamed someone for their mother's death this is a question where my where the defendant or miss kobe should be allowed to elaborate on their answer as it is not so black and white thank you so here's my ruling you very appropriately impeach the witness with with some other testimony the witness is able to answer you and so the objections overruled thank you your honor the witness can briefly finish their answer uh as i was saying um our my situation with eric was difficult at the time my mother was at the top of my priorities eric wasn't really at the front of my mind at your mother's funeral you had a confrontation with eric smith yes uh yes that is correct and in this and after this confrontation when you returned home you said quote i am going to kill them yes um when i had said that i was referring to um some small snails i had found in my garden it was an emotional day it just kind of slipped out of course i didn't actually mean it but i wasn't referring to a person but the words that you're going to kill them did leave your mouth yes objection your honor asked and answered overruled it was asked and it was very circuitously answered and so it's appropriate for the attorney to ask the question again please answer it as i had said yes the words them did leave my mouth but it wasn't in reference to a person you owned the tools to capture a rattlesnake correct i'm sorry could you repeat that please you own the tools to capture a rattlesnake correct i'm sorry could you repeat that you own the tools to capture a rattlesnake correct well of course any person who would need to handle a rattlesnake would need to have just gone or non-responsive sustained i suppose so thank you please please direct your attention to exhibit a the snake tongs in this exhibit are yours correct yes that is correct please direct your attention to exhibit e the humane animal trap in this exhibit is yours correct that is correct uh please return your seat you do own a hunting knife correct among various other tools yes okay it'd be safe to say that you know a great deal about the mojave desert rattlesnake yes well i had to have some knowledge as to different things i could encounter in my work in the desert objection honor this witness is non-responsive may i be heard your honor yes this witness had not yet finished their answer and this witness has been not responsive in finishing the answer objections sustained move to destruct the testimony of stricken please answer the question uh yes that is correct i did um have a humane animal truck no i so do you know a great deal about the mojave does a rattlesnake yes uh as i had said yes i do have some knowledge of the mojave rattlesnake because i would need to know of joshua this witness is non-responsive she's she's getting it out but get it out quickly please okay uh as i was saying i do have some knowledge of the mojave rattlesnake because again i wouldn't i it is a possibility i interact with them during my work so i have to have some knowledge as to how to proceed then you know just how deadly and potentially lethal a mojave does a rattlesnake is yes of course many snakes are deadly and a mahvi rattlesnake is widely known so various people would know that and you did know that eric smith had a pre-existing condition which left him vulnerable correct well i had some basic knowledge of his health conditions but nothing too in depth well you didn't know that eric smith suffered from high blood pressure had a kidney condition and suffered from congestive heart failure correct objection honor compound question overruled there are three parts to that question but it is one uh as i had said i had some knowledge of them but nothing as to their specifics so you didn't know that ericsson had those specific conditions yes of the conditions but not about them yes thank you you were at the mailbox the morning that eric smith was attacked yes i had gone to drop off my rent payment and you were carrying a canvas uh tool bag and a humane animal trap when you're at the mailbox yes i was returning from my garden i was carrying some materials that i use on a daily basis thank your honor no further questions at this time thank you very much any redirect yes your honor before proceeding i would like to respectfully request a time check sure thank you please proceed why did you own your gardening tools i own my gardening tools because obviously i'm azure escaper so i needed different materials i could use in my work as a desert and again i'm also a member of animal rights organizations so as i said it's always been my goal to treat the different things that i interact with with the utmost care and respect hence the tools to ensure both of our safeties honor this witness has fallen into a narrative overruled next question thank you your honor and did you blame eric smith for your mother's death i at the time of course as i said our situation was challenging i mean my mother was at the top of my priorities she had just died i didn't have a job i i needed money to pay for her funeral expenses and i had to handle all of that i just yeah are you a reptile specialist oh no i'm just a zero escaper i've earned some certificates for my plants but not i don't really have an all-encompassing knowledge of desert life that'll be all your honor may this witness be excused thank you very much [Music] go ahead and have a seat you are excused and at this time the defense rests thank you very much uh i think at this point we are going to be ready for closing arguments but before we do that just give me a moment i want to look at my notes here [Music] is prosecution ready to proceed with closing argument um yes we are but before we would like to proceed um i would like to request a time check let's get it for both sides please there's a remainder of five minutes thank you very much please proceed with your closing thank you the people's burden of proof is to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that one jamie kobe committed a murder in a willful deliberate and premeditated manner and two jamie colby acted with express malice tonight the people have met their burden we must first ask what motive would jaime kobe have to intentionally kill eric smith with a mojave desert rattlesnake planted in her mailbox well the answer lies in 10 years worth of a building feud between the tenant jamie kobe and landlord eric smith the tension at its breaking point when jamie after repeatedly failing to pay her rent had her electricity turned off resulting in her mother dying of cardiac arrest jaime was distraught and furious over eric's accused involvement and after years of built up grievances this was the act that towed the line leading jaime to one solution to utilize her environment and plan an attack on eric smith after arriving home jamie took the opportunity and harbored a venomous rattlesnake and planted it in eric's mailbox lying in wait the next day when eric went to get the mail she was attacked resulting in her body being found dead face down on her lawn the following morning according to california penal code 189 degrees of murder a murder conducted using poison is defined as murder of the first degree considering the defendant obtained and utilized a venomous rattlesnake and eric smith's cause of death was from lethal and venom nation the prosecution argues a verdict of murder to the first degree according to calcram 521 there are three requirements for a person to be guilty of first-degree murder one the murder was willful on april 29th angel russell testified to identifying the figure walking towards the mailbox carrying a humane animal trap and canvas tool bag as jamie kobe jamie is an avid animal lover and gardener knowing extensively about snakes and having the knowledge that a bite from the mojave desert rattlesnake is deadly if left untreated from a prior relationship jamie was knowledgeable about eric's health and pre-existing kidney condition which would only be exacerbated by a lethal bite further from her mother's death jamie knew that the nearest hospital containing the anti-venom used to combat the snake's poison was 45 minutes away two the defendant acted deliberately in a video obtained from deputy garrett um smith security system the system was triggered by movement in kobe's backyard at 7 00 am just hours before eric was bitten on deputy tony garrett's way out of eric's house she discovered snake protective gear gloves boots and a shirt sitting together on a table in smith's garage jimmy's snake tongues main traps and other tools were bought only after the attack in a further investigation jamie cobby's fingerprints were the only viable ones found on the mailbox the defense would like you to believe that at this time jaime's reason for being at the mailbox was to merely drop off her rent check yet after inspecting eric's residence deputy garrett did find rent checks but none of which belonging to jamie jamie even admitted that she would only pay rent a little but scarcely during the pandemic three the defendant acted with premeditation first on april 28th after the argument at the funeral jaime was seen visibly angry at her residence by terry edwards from terry's observations jamie was emotionally drained and even stated i am going to kill him before specifically stating her need to finish something important second in jamie's testimony it is stated that during this time he was merely gardening at dusk yet jamie was intentionally obtaining a rattlesnake during dusk their most active time planning to use it to kill smith third the video of jamie's backyard obtained from the sheriff's department features snake tongs and an object located near the tongs that appears to be the missing rattle this would indicate that the rattle was removed prior to the attack leaving no question of premeditation the defense would like you to believe that the mojave snakes rattle merely fell off while slipping into the tight mailbox yet after inspecting the scene sheriff garrett found no evidence of a rattle or anything indicating one was ever there moving on to the second count according to california calcram 520 20 there are um a person committed expressed malice if they unlawfully intended to kill this requirement has been proven through the charges of first-degree murder the prosecution argues that the judge finds the defendant guilty of first-degree murder however if it is not found we argue find the defendant guilty of manslaughter because of the passionate a fight that occurred before the attack jamie colby desired to avenge her mother by taking the life of eric smith and yet today the prosecution has found that revenge is not a foolproof plan tonight the people have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that jamie kobe is guilty of first-degree murder with malice of forethought thank you thank you very much does the uh is the defense ready to proceed with their closing argument yes your honor please proceed good evening your honor my name is shanne mcgee and tonight i'm defending my client jamie kobe tonight my team and i have called four witnesses to the stand to testify to jaime kobe's innocence these witness testimonies along with our cross-examination of the prosecution's witnesses has shown that the prosecution has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that ms kobe is guilty of the charges being brought against them tonight eric smith and jamie kobe did not get along this is ms kobe's motive according to the people while they had their arguments and disagreements jimmy kobe was not the only one who had this relationship with eric smith as danny emily testified tonight eric smith could often be seen arguing with all of his other tenants when they would stop by his residence 46603 on raptor or 46601 on raptor road eric smith had a reputation for being rude as the prosecution's own witness deputy sheriff tony garrett testified tonight in fact the only redeeming quality of eric smith that the deputy sheriff could list was eric smith's business policies smith also had a reputation for dealing drugs to residents of bernstein county including minors i think we can all agree that being the county's resident drug dealer for children is sure to create some enemies so if disagreement and dislike are the motives we are searching for tonight then you would have to put a majority of burnsley county's residents on trial now the prosecution would like to paint jamie kobe as some sort of snake expert with extensive knowledge on snakes the only expert in this courtroom with extensive knowledge on snakes is dr tyler clay the prosecution's expert witness dr don presented a bunked up theory that jamie kobe a small town gardener lured the mojave rattlesnake into a cage cut off its rattle and then once again lord it this time with food into eric smith's mailbox of course dr dunn who has no snake specific experience believes this absurd theory to be possible as they have no expert knowledge on the behaviors and capabilities of the mojave rattlesnake only a professional such as a reptile specialist could perform such an act successfully which dr dunn agrees with tonight now according to dr tyler clay what happened on april 29th was most likely an entirely naturally occurring event not only have they seen multiple cases where a snake has stuck has snuck into a tight space such as a mailbox but they also testified tonight that it is very common for snakes to naturally lose their rattles in the desert they've also seen multiple cases where snakes have snuck into someone's mailbox and attacked the person reaching inside because they felt threatened and multiple residents of bernsley county testified tonight that snake safety is common knowledge amongst the residents and that many practice caution when reaching into tight spaces such as mailboxes your honor according to calcrum 224 before you may rely on circumstantial evidence to find the defendant guilty you must be convinced that the only reasonable conclusion supported by the circumstantial evidence is that the defendant is guilty according to dr tyler clay the most plausible conclusion that can be drawn from the prosecution's circumstantial evidence is that the snake entered into eric smith's mailbox entirely on its own what happened on april 29th and the death that followed while unfortunate was an entirely naturally occurring event that had absolutely nothing to do with jamie kobe and could have been completely avoided with both proper caution and proper medical care like the widely accessible anti-venom from the lack of thorough investigating like the deputy sheriff's quick glance into jaime kobe's garage to the multiple plausible conclusions that can be drawn from the people's circumstantial evidence this is anything but a clear-cut case of murder miss kobe was a kind and caring member of this community who wouldn't hurt a fly and she blamed absolutely no one for her sick mother's death she was aware of her mother's old age and health conditions and knew that unfortunately her death would eventually come to pass she made peace with this fact long before the events of april 22nd and just wants to mourn her mother's death and celebrate her life in peace she's a caring member of this community who is a part of multiple animal rights groups and would never harm a snake let alone a human being your honor according to calcium 224 before you may find miss kobe guilty you must be convinced that the only reasonable conclusion supported by the people's circumstantial evidence is that miss kobe is guilty the prosecution has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that ms kobe is guilty of both first-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter they have failed to meet their burden of proof what happened on april 29th was an entirely naturally occurring event it was a tragic accident that was caused by mother nature and a situation out of our control i ask you your honor to not let jamie kobe become yet another victim of this tragedy and find miss kobe not guilty on both charges of first degree murder and voluntary manslaughter thank you for your time your honor thank you very much does the prosecution have a rebuttal yes i do please proceed opposing counsel has presented a story of speculative facts and improper character evidence about what they believe to have occurred with this case today however let's look at what we do know from the facts provided today angel russell identified the figure holding the wired cage which was large enough to transport the snake walking to the mailbox and standing around it standing around it as jamie kobe and jamie's fingerprints were the only ones found on the mailbox that could have been a culprit the other belonging to danny emily who was out of town and the other fingerprint belonging to the victim eric smith who was deceased and finally it is unreasonable to assume that a snake would naturally seek solas in a mailbox the slot was barely bigger than itself and it was not cool and it was not easily accessible and there are no witnesses who have testified to seeing the snake slither up and go into the mailbox for these reasons the pros the prosecution respectfully requests that you find jamie kobe guilty of first-degree murder since all four requirements have been met with express malice thank you thank you very much and does the defense have a rebuttal yes your honor please proceed the prosecution's only eyewitness angel russell testified tonight that they were unable to see jamie kobe interact with the mailbox at all they never saw jamie kobe touch the mailbox and even testified tonight that they were too far away to see the details like what jamie kobe was holding and the expert witness tonight dr tyler clay testified that it is very common for snakes to squeeze into tight shaded spaces such as mailboxes they have seen multiple cases in fact where this has happened where the snake has even attacked the person reaching inside because they felt threatened and they testified tonight that this behavior would be very similar to the behavior of a mojave rattlesnake now your honor the prosecution has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that ms kobe is guilty of both first-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter they have failed to meet their burden of proof the events of april 29th and april 30th have already taken one victim do not let jamie kobe become yet another victim of this tragedy and please find her not guilty on both charges of first degree murder and voluntary manslaughter thank you for your time your honor thank you very much so the court has heard the evidence in this case the court has heard the closing arguments as well i'm going to give the attorney scorers a little bit more time to fill out their forms i'll check in with you on that in a moment um in a moment i'm also going to give the the teams some time to come up with their mvp names and whatnot but i don't want to hear those yet either to allow for the attorney scorers to have a little bit more time before my verdict i would like to thank everyone in this room in this room first of all what a round of applause for all the the participants tonight phenomenal job great job and i mean my lawyers the witnesses the bailiffs um you know our scorekeepers everyone excuse me our timekeepers everyone um to our coaches our attorney coaches uh our teacher coaches uh can we give them a round of applause great job because um as i recall that the attorney coaches probably don't get paid anything and the teachers certainly don't get paid enough so i really really thank you all for what you've done i don't know if we have any parents in the room or that are watching are going to be watching it later but these young folks are here with us today because of the supportive family you know whatever that means mom's dad you know older siblings grandma's grandpas round of applause for all of them because we have [Applause] we have some wonderful bright people here and i would be remiss if i didn't think the stanislaus county office of education back room back of the room over there for all the work that you've done over these years to make this what i consider to be the crown jewel of your programs round of applause for them and frankly when i got an email oh i don't know about a month ago three weeks ago saying would you be willing to do this in person um i really wanted to be here in person but i i was kind of like i don't know right because we are doing things over at the courthouse that in any other time would be considered to be cruel and unusual as far as continuing trials and keeping people detained and doing things remotely so i'm still of the perspective that less is more right now so and then like i said a little bit after having that conversation i literally found out i was positive myself and i only tested negative for the first time a couple days ago so to me this was a gamble to do this but it was a gamble that was well done um i think we're all safe and frankly it's just great to be in the same room with all of you let me check in with my attorney scores and see how they're doing you were last let me ask you first got a thumbs up miss ratliff you're still you're still calculating we got a thumbs up mr legero thumbs up okay they're good to go and i just got a piece of my mask and i'm having a mask malfunction give me a moment okay so i am now going to render my verdict um i will let you know that uh again my verdict isn't the score it is however my verdict uh i am profoundly of the opinion that closing arguments matter i believe that in mock trial competition i believe it in real court i i've done both a lot as a lawyer and as a judge i think we had great closing arguments here today however this is an exception to the rule let me tell you why i i was very impressed with the defense closing argument frankly i thought you did a phenomenal job but i want to go back to one piece of the evidence and that was the redirect of i believe it was sheriff garrett and so then you know could this person have done it no could this person have done it no could that person have done it no so it really could have only been the defendant i mean that was so effectively done and and having considered all of the evidence the court uh finds the defendant guilty of first-degree murder remand her take her into custody we'll see her in what 25 years something like that okay i'm kidding of course you're not actually going to jail um and so i am finding the defendant guilty as charged okay now at this point what i'd like to do is hear from the attorney scorers if you could briefly introduce yourselves and give us some comments and we'll pass a microphone and because we started last we're going to start first with mr wagner because we had them last earlier so i think both i think both sides here did a a great job in this i really appreciated seeing it and and i had some specific comments and some of these may be things that are this is my first experience with mock trial so i never did this when i was a student i probably should have um i've never scored it before and so i i really liked seeing um how this works and i i'm not sure if this is a thing or not but it did seem with with the leading questions which obviously being a defense attorney is something that i focus on a lot of you are asking them with the word correct or yes or no at the end of it and in the real world and unless there's a mock trial rule that i'm not aware of that's not something that you have to do and so i want you to think about going forward because obviously one of these teams is going on to a statewide competition correct yeah you don't actually have to do that you can ask the question and leave that there and it leaves a little more room and the fact that that's my first takeaway from this in terms of a critique means that you all did exceptionally well because that's talking about the nitty-gritty of how you ask a question which is something that i deal with in terms of training our new lawyers after they've been doing this for some time i really liked the defense opening particularly because the first two sentences of it are an opening that i've given or the resident i wrote i've given this opening um that that was kind of cool to see and i also thought the prosecution did a great job with their opening as well and with their closing it it really is all about closing and opening because the facts are what they are so i think you all did a great job and i'll pass this along thank you and before you pass it on i want to say mr wagner was recently within the last year or so made like one of the numbers like the number two guy over there right right yeah so he um is a high-ranking person at the public defender's office so if y'all are look i'm thinking okay you know four years for college and then law school if you're still there and you know eight nine ten years you got a good group of people here who might be looking for work um thank you for those comments on that note um i think both of our offices and i think county council take the microphone but i know the da's office in our office and i think county council as well does takes college interns as well as law school interns so if that's something you're interested in i have cards with me today i'm sure mr legero has his information and i would imagine great great point and also um before i pass it on to miss ratliff i don't want to make light of what i just said mr wagner was and is a great lawyer but now he is a great supervisor and his comments were very well received by the court i hope you listened to him because i think he was spot on ms ratliff i also agree that this competition is it's very nice to see the young people in our community step up and really take this on it showed that you're really well prepared and excited to do this and took it very seriously i'm a native of modesto i was born and raised here and then i did go off to law school i went to hastings but i came back here to practice and i've been here my entire legal career and i think you all did an excellent job i did agree with judge villalobos that i was really impressed by the defense's closing i do mostly bench trials so i am well aware of having to focus on the judge and making sure that objections are made correctly and being able to respond to them i think both sides did a well did that well and responded to them and moved on because your objections aren't always going to be sustained and it's just something that happens and i think just being able to move on with questioning is really important and you all did that well so good job and before we move on to mr legero i have to make a comment about that miss ratliff was assigned to my department for the better part of five years and frankly is one of if not the best attorney that practiced in front of me and i was constantly overruling her and she had to look at me and you know the beginning it took us some time to figure it out but she figured out what worked for me she zealously advocated on behalf of her client and i have some notes here about demeanor that i'm going to talk about in a little bit what she said was spot on great comments thank you mr lejeune thank you your honor great job everybody the witnesses were fantastic by the way and they can come across as very robotic or they can come across as very relatable and you were all very relatable the difference between the two teams is like fractions you know um i think both teams did an amazing job i've coached mock trial for years i've scored mock trial in the past every year i'm impressed with the talent and hopefully that talent will join our ranks whether it's the public defender's office county council or the da's office we want local talent we want to hire you as attorneys so please when you go to law school and you successfully pass the bar we want you to come back and join our ranks we prefer to have people that are local and you're all as talented as most attorneys that we see in the courthouse right now you guys do a great job making your arguments there's some tweaks some nuances some things that each one of you has that with time you polish those out and some of them if you are following up the question with a yes or correct you know like reid said you don't need to do that there's a more effective way to do that but that just takes time and learning how to ask a question that's loaded and gets the information that you want out of your witness so great job everybody and good luck to whichever team goes on and if you have specific questions of any one of us i'm sure we're happy to hang around and talk to you about those so thank you and i i have several comments i want to make but the first thing i want to do first of all i forgot to say thank you to these three attorney scorers in particular for being here for this final round uh thank you to your offices for having attorneys come and score previous rounds but very specifically thank you for the district attorney's office because year in and year out you know i don't know if y'all make them do it you force them to do it you highly encourage i don't know what i do is that i do know is that every single year there's a whole mess of deputy district attorneys that are uh scoring these rounds so thank you for that um i want to address the comments that were made by the lawyers and then i want to go over my comments here first of all i want to talk about what ms ratliff and mr um legero just said as far as uh we want you um i'm sorry i just have a bit of mask issue here okay um so my advice to you is go away as far as you can you know take take this uh career of yours to high school and law school as far as you can do the best you can for yourself but then come back we need you um when i was on the school board that's what i said in my graduations what these lawyers just said is 100 spot on and i want to give you an example of that i left and was a federal assistant federal public defender in the district of nevada i was an okay lawyer i did a good job um when i was in reno i i didn't know what it was like to be a nevadan right i didn't i didn't get it i didn't understand the mindset i came back and i was a deputy public defender here in mr wagner's office before his time but in his office i was doing a suppression motion just like the pre-trial motion that you did today an officer got on the stand and said that he pulled someone over because of their proximity to prescott estates prescott estates is a not so wonderful east at the time was a not so wonderful neighborhood off prescott okay the person was pulled over at the tony roma's tony roma's is gone it's where nothing bunt case cakes is right now y'all probably know where that is since i'm from here i knew that it was just as close to dutch hollow which at the time was one of the nicest if not the nicest neighborhood in town as it was to prescott states i would have never known that but for being from here so that's something that you can serve your clients by doing please come back now i have a whole bunch of positive comments to make about individuals and about the group as a whole i do have some constructive criticism and i want to tell you why i'm giving you this constructive criticism one of you will be going on to state i had the privilege of going to state three times and all of those three times we got eliminated right in the first round we were good enough for here not good enough for there all right and it is i think all of our goals for you to go forward and be excellent and so because of that some constructive criticism i'm going to offer but it's it's in a spirit of making you better let me start with this one mr legero i want to ask you in your mind think about the best birthday christmas hanukkah whatever present you ever got in your life think about that you got it in your mind what was better that or you as a district attorney realizing that the defendant is going to testify in a case right defendants don't testify they rarely testify in real life and if you're a d.a you're like okay i got i can ask them just about anything reason why they say that is think holistically about your case there was when you were crossing the d.a the the defendant you made some very good textbook objections right but the more the defendant talks the more they're going to get themselves in trouble so so that is an advanced way of looking at the case so just a thought um some comments um i thought your opening statements were both phenomenal as far as laying a story this is a story of revenge this is a tragic accident i think the defense did a better job of linking that opening down into their closing but you both did a phenomenal job as far as your openings um i already told you what i thought about that redirect of of the of the sheriff i thought it was phenomenal um okay some technical issues now um several of you said that you uh direct the court's attention to x y or z um i would ask that you never say that again and let me tell you why um i'm the boss here right and and when i say that it's not because i like to be the boss it's because since i wear this robe i have to be in charge so i don't like anyone to direct me to do anything and is it fair to say that most judges are like that right and so you say the same thing differently i invite the court to look at exhibit a i invite the court to look at listen uh to exhibit b when you all go to state trust me the attorney scorers are going to get that and it will be well received i want to talk a little bit about non-responsive versus this question is becoming a narrative or falling into a narrative from my perspective non-responsive is hands down the if you imagine your objections to be a tool belt right like a hammer a chisel a screwdriver non-responsive appropriately used is the absolute best objection that you can ever do and from my perspective here's how that works and i wrote a note down about some of the testimony um when we were talking about the exhibit with the snake and you know how's the snake and it's two feet and two inches at its widest point or whatever and then there was a comment and it's six the sixteenth most deadly snake in the world or it's 16 times more deadly than whatever that was not responsive and the reason why was because the question is what did you observe what did you observe about the state the snake the answer was very responsive except for that part that objection would be sustained every single time by every single judge the narrative is more like you know is it is it not i prefer uh black and white imagine baseball you got a foul line it's either in or it's out with the non-responsive objection you can really easily get that in and also before i move on from that tensions got a little high at some points today and i mean that with the lawyers and i mean that with the witnesses okay i want you to realize that as a judge i will always protect my witnesses always 100 percent of the time without fail okay so that means that if people are getting city with each other the uh witness will always win the lawyer will always lose so how do you deal with that if you're a lawyer above the fray stay above the fray okay i'm going to talk about an attorney who's no longer here there was a gentleman by the name of tom brennan who prosecuted gang cases he did a bunch against me sent a bunch of my clients to life for a very very long time he was the nicest sweetest guy that you would ever deal with as he was putting your client away for the rest of their life all right he's a sweetheart am i wrong about that he was a sweetheart and so as lawyers you always got to be above the fray and if you feel yourself kind of getting into it the emotions of it just take a moment just take a moment that's totally good one of you withdrew an objection after you heard the response i think that was you sir i frankly think that was one of the most lawyerly things i saw today yet tried something it didn't work the other side very appropriately responded to it you're like i'm good judge let's move on this is this doesn't make a break by case i thought that was phenomenal great job let me just take a a oh one more thing any because this happened several times the first question hey please tell us a little bit about yourself never works in real life okay um when you're talking to an expert tell us your qualifications uh the second question that was asked was tell us your experience in the field totally appropriate the question hey how you doing tell me about yourself what's going on we can't start questions that way that would be it's not relevant calls for a narrative there's there's a bunch there and i think both sides did that um i'm wrapping up here one that i wanted to say the pre-trial both sides phenomenal use of the cases could have slowed down a little bit um great job relating the the cases to the facts here so to our pre-trial attorneys phenomenal job um one thing and i think this matters um you all look great you really do i mean the lawyers i mean the witnesses uh our bailiff our timers you all respect the solemnity of these proceedings you've taken the time to get yourselves ready in here and in past years you know we've had like powerpoints and pictures and i and i see all like in jeans and pizza parties and i know that that's what you do that's who you are but today you are attorneys today you are doctors today you're on trial for your life and you all did a phenomenal job on that uh i think i'm gonna leave my comments at that because we're getting to the end of the hour here i think we have to do a couple of things do at this point is it the right time for the schools to announce their mvp is that good can we do that now yes so for the prosecution have you decided on a mvp for the defense sure yeah just you know chat it out talk to each other uh then let us know who the mvp is on each side and and if you all need to come and join feel free to do it yeah go to your coaches is what i'm hearing over there i am thank you this is awesome thank you appreciate it okay are we ready on behalf of the prosecution our and hold on drum roll please got it our mvp is for the defense uh shannon mcgee your honor all right good job okay and for the defense who's our mvp uh for the prosecution all right round of applause great job now uh i don't know what do we do next we're gonna take a break okay this is a great time for a break [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] this [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] all right good evening i am scott kykendahl county superintendent of schools and it's my pleasure to welcome you to the awards ceremony for the 38th annual mock trials this year's mock trial people versus kobe is the trial of jamie kobe a horticulturist living in the community of burnsley california a semi-rural town in the high desert kobe is charged with the homicide of kobe's landlord and next door neighbor eric smith the prosecution argued that kobe should be convicted of first degree murder or the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter this competition sponsored by the county the stanislaus county office of education that's us offers students from our high schools an opportunity to gain knowledge and understanding of the link between our constitution and the substance of the law as applied by our courts and legal system this event is a true collaboration effort between schools and the legal profession we are so grateful for the more than 50 attorneys and judges who presided as either judges or scorers at this year's competition at this time i want to acknowledge team coaches attorney coaches every parent grandparent family member friend and guardian to these students your commitment is a key element in their success and your support makes all the difference in their lives i also want to congratulate every student who participated in this year's competition we know from past participants that mock trials has had a significant impact on the lives of many of them and i can personally attest to this because my own son who graduated from gregory in 2020 was part of mock trials students not only increase their skills in reasoning listening and speaking but many of them do go on to pursue careers in the legal field at this time i would like to introduce one of my favorite people mary ann sanders sco board member and education foundation board member who will assist with the presentation of awards but before we begin with the awards did you wave marianne did you wave everybody okay there you go before we begin with the awards let's give a warm welcome to the following schools that participated in this year's mock trial [Music] are we back all right now we're live okay um to the individual awards what uh what many of the spectators here in the room maybe didn't see but we just had a powerpoint presentation with all the different schools um listed as well as their team coaches is to give them recognition all right so we're going to do something similar so individual awards we would like to recognize each coach and their selected top performers for each role and we include best pre-trial attorney best prosecution attorney best prosecution witness best defense attorney and best defense witness from each team [Music] so all right here tonight to present the ryan dickerson award for excellence and leadership in mock trial please welcome ron and lynn dickerson thank you very much we really appreciate stanislaus county office of ed giving us a few minutes every year to present this award in memory of our son ryan we were mock trial parents too like many of you participating and watching tonight both of our sons participated in mock trial and it was a great experience for both of them in fact our son ross won a statewide award the year that he one of the years that he participated so it's a special event to us and our son ryan went to modesto high school and was a mock trial star in his own right so he tomorrow would be ryan's 33rd birthday but he died the summer that he graduated from high school he drowned while lifeguarding at a summer camp in the summer of 2007 and to say that it was a loss you know was such an understatement because he really was just an extraordinary human being and i say that because i'm his mom but everyone who knew him would tell you that and so we were just sort of intent on figuring out ways to keep him from being forgotten because when someone that special dies you just really worry about that happening so one of the many things we did was to establish this award and we asked the stanislaus county office of ed to work with the coaches to ask every team to choose sort of the outstanding leader on their team every year and then they submit those nominations to us and we review them all and then we choose one sort of grand prize winner of the ryan dickerson excellence and mock trial award and that person gets a really beautiful crystal uh trophy and a 250 dollar cash prize so we're gonna tell you who the the winners of the individual schools are and who the big winner is so okay since you guys are here we're going to start with with turlock and the uh you're going to get the certificate for the turlock team is going to go to martin verteo [Applause] come on up yeah this is a real difficult time for us because every one of you guys are just outstanding and so it's really a difficult choice and then from modesto high we have shannon mcgee [Applause] okay so we'll get go through these from patterson high school it's evelyn hernandez [Applause] johansen high school is carla eraza houston high school is tori kelly [Applause] from enoch's danielle ruiz or daniel ruiz i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm trying to be fancy from downey is james swanson [Applause] from davis it's grace ascension [Applause] and from buyer it's sarah nunnelly [Applause] and the recipient this year of the ryan dickerson award from gregory high fallon woofley thank you very much ron and lynn now i would like to introduce judge linda mcfadden to introduce the ray ladine in of court spirit of stanislaus county mock trial award thank you scott i echo all the comments were previously made by everyone uh applaud yourself for being here and for participating in this program so for some of you an end of court sounds a little odd because an end means you check into a hotel right well the concept of the end of court is similar to that in england the people who want to become attorneys actually live in an inn with other attorneys and are mentored by attorneys and this produces professionalism and ethics in the practice of law and that's the concept of the american ends of court is to improve professionalism and ethics within the practice of law and there are thousands of chapters of ends of court our local and of course is the ray ladine american inn of court it is named after judge ray ladine who was instrumental in starting the inn of court program in our community and i believe his son was a participant in the mock trial programs the mock trial programs does produce several outstanding attorneys and judges we have judge ruben villalobos here tonight he reminds me of how old i am because i was his mock trial judge when he was in high school so thank you judge villalobos i appreciate um feeling old [Laughter] but that's uh that just shows you what you're able to accomplish and so tonight we had a difficult decision uh the coaches have given us names and descriptions of students that have participated in this year's program and our committee from the ray ladinian of court uh had a very difficult decision this year but we are awarding the spirit of the stanislaus county mock trial award and scholarship to lucy liang and i don't know she's here tonight but it's a 500 check here [Applause] lucy in here you'll find the check for 500 and congratulations to all of you thank you all right thank you judge mcfadden um now i would like to bring up our very own mary ann sanders to introduce the hall of fame award [Applause] thank you very much um i wanted to take my mask off because i think it's a lot easier for people viewing from their homes hearing me pronounce things differently so it is such an exciting honor for me to be the one that will be presenting tonight's hall of fame award the hall of fame award recognizes a coach for his or her commitment and leadership in mock trials program teams cannot exist without a coach and we're grateful for all those coaches it takes a tremendous amount of time passion and effort and they do not get enough credit this year's hall of fame award goes to a coach that has been involved in with mock trials for 17 years plus and led his 2019 team to the state finals a former student grace sanders has this to say about her mock trial coach the main thing i would say is that he always believed in me a little more than i believed in myself i remember i went into mock trials auditions for the first time in my junior year with no idea of what i was getting into and he said that he wanted me to be an attorney this immediately terrified me but the confidence he had in me to do well made me have confidence in myself he was always there to provide a constructive remark but was also always ready to make us laugh and keep us engaged as only a second-year mock trial participant i never dreamed i would have have the opportunity to go to state and i would love to say that i was that it was all the participants doing but it wasn't it was mostly our coach with his endless support and helpful critiques to our materials that made uh made it the best it could be i could never have asked for a better mock trial coach judge rick desasso became an attorney coach eight years ago when his son participated in this year's hall of fame coaches team he said this coach constantly encouraged students and helped them succeed he's able to bring the best in each individual student no matter what their previous experience is with public speaking or performances perhaps the best example he can give of his impact on students is that he is the only teacher who has now adult son and his friends still keep in touch with him constantly throughout each year also due to his direct influence a number of students from his mock trial program have gone on to law school and become attorneys judge disasso personally sworn into the bar one of these students this past december drum roll our 2022 hall of fame award goes to coach mike richards by our high school you bet [Applause] well i honestly hope that mike richards is is watching tonight and congratulations such a great guy does he know already okay all right and now we would like to are we good brandon okay and now we would like to recognize the journalism and courtroom artist competition winners for the journalism portion of this competition students experience a courtroom setting from the perspective of a news reporter they learn about the american legal system observe the action in the courtroom and then write an article based on the case this year's winner of the journalism contest is and i love this name rana bananka modesto high school congratulations the mock trial program also allows artistically talented students the opportunity to participate in the courtroom artist competition the courtroom artists observed their mock school their school's mock trials and created a drawing of the courtroom scenes and the winning courtroom artist is catherine aquino as a veto of turlock high school [Applause] so hopefully catherine's watching too so congratulations both rana and so sorry both rana our journalism winner and catherine our artist winner are eligible to compete at the virtual state mock trials final in march it is now time to announce the awards for the championship teams the winner of the stanislaus county competition will represent stanislaus county at the state mock trial finals next month so in anticipation of declaring this award can i have the defense team kind of come and stand over here can i have our prosecution team kind of come stand over here okay scoot in see follow the instructions at the guy with the camera okay there you go a little more being on camera is a good thing all right so turlock high school modesto high school competed earlier today in the championship round after a fierce trial great presentations on both sides the 2022 stanislaus county mock trial championship team is modesto high school congratulations to turlock the mock trials runner up again congratulations to all of our participants thank you so much for being here and again a huge thank you to the attorneys the judges and coaches who invest hours into prepping these teams of students thank you and we will see you again next year congratulations [Applause] so [Music] you

the next slide just shows it's the same it's the same not it's the same graph done in the bigraph form so you can actually see the numbers there but can you go to the next one please this is the one i wanted to talk about this is where people's spending now that consists of all the things that we use so that's teacher salaries that's material costs all the things that go into educating a student so if you if i was going to talk a little bit more about this and flush it out a little bit more but if you just used that number today and you assume that between now and 2031 you know i don't think i think it's conservative to say that 400 kids well there'll be 400 extra kids in this district and it's probably more like 500 but if you just look at the pupil expenditure today and remember that's going to increase the teachers salaries go up the price of constructional materials go up so that number just continues to clock as it does with that existence if you just assume 300 which i think is is way under what would be that's almost 5 million every student representing roughly sixteen thousand dollars that's another five million dollars if you if you get the middle class and said it was one student that's closer to seven ninety dollars and if you went which i don't think is unrealistic given the building that's going on it's it's roughly about eight million dollars added to the budget just of kid walking and that's assuming that these are all general education tips you have to probably have you know roughly 17 special education students in that district and each one of those kids could be between 75 000 if they're not placement up to 300 and that's certainly not all the majority of those we educate right now we try to do that um but you need to think about this you need to think uh about what happened when you when you increased enrollment if you can't stabilize the enrollment in the district you cannot stabilize the budget this there's no possible way to stabilize a budget if you can't stabilize the amount of kids that come into the school year after year as it is there's some guesswork too but once you factor in building up i showed you the building permits um especially in doyle's there's a lot more building going on um you can see where these numbers can go and and you know it can it can take a dip like it did last year but you know i wouldn't give her what was the end i i wouldn't count on and the reason i say this is because you know you're going to look at this budget and it's certainly a little bit higher than the towns have asked us to go but um the idea with increased enrollment as we've seen over the last couple of years and into the future that we can maintain you know two and a half percent increase is almost impossible this is almost impossible to do again if you can't stabilize the population in moment you cannot stabilize the budget it just continues to grow so i want you to keep that in mind we have made some significant cuts and we're going to talk about those but remember everything we cut comes at a cost to a student you know you cut a program that that's that's instruction that's the benefit the student doesn't get and we still will do what the town of the world is with the community as well as um but you know please keep that in mind when these enrollment of us when you're looking um he's like bob can you flush this out just a little bit more sure i saw that just wanted to highlight a couple other things um so the first thing that i looked at there when i saw it jumped out to me a little bit was shrewsbury is a pretty good district and that's below us and that kind of jumped to my attention so one thing about that shrewsbury is a lot bigger thus they're able to leverage some of their costs over more students the other thing is that they have 28 20 high 20 kids in their elementary school classrooms and that's something that we've heard this these our two towns do not want to have so bear that in mind when you see the low number for suresberry the second thing is in addition to shoe spray it just passed an override but i think it was last year in over three to four years they're going to see a significant increase in their school spending so they'll be more in line with us um grafton has been historically in the bottom 10 uh or even lower than that in the state um i don't really know much why that is so it's not just a district you would want to compare to but it's part of our passive foreign peer group um so the other quick point is that you see the state average is 175.75 uh we are at um about just around numbers about a thousand once per student we have a thousand fifty students um just to make math easy for me a thousand times a thousand million dollars so our budget to be at state average would be a million dollars higher in fy 20 than it was so that just gives some context to um you know to get us to state average spending it's a million dollars more than that budget so now we're going to just go over the changes that we made since our preliminary budget so just to orient you at the top we have last year's budget what the preliminary level service budget was on is the 19 million two thirty seven point three increase on a level service budget um then we have adjustments here the first adjustments to the transportation revolving we had the transportation revolving fund committee approved two years ago we're budgeting to use that for the first time we anticipate we'll have fifty thousand dollars going into it every year we'll be able to use that to offset our transportation expenses um we are planning on the second item to prepay for some special ed transportation costs which is legally permitted for that category of spending it's one of the only exceptions where you can prepay for future fiscal year expenses the next two items are we have grants for special ed and we've been able to preserve uh the balances in the grant so that we can carry a little bit more forward to next year so we're going to use that to offset what we would normally pay for in the budget and this is the same thing applies with the music therapy services where we were able to carry forward we had money set aside and grant forward and we're able to carry that forward next year and preserve some of those funds 20 000 increased usage of school choice funds i was fairly conservative in the preliminary budget and what i budgeted to use in berlin and we have the capacity to use more we used school choice funds to offset teacher salaries in the general fund budget and we received school choice funds in general for taking school choice kids into the district it's 5 000 per student and we try to spend about what we receive on school choice funds the worcester regional pension information was an estimate it wasn't available at the time the preliminary budget that received the actual data from worcester regional shortly after the new year and the last item is we've had a series of different adjustments related to students attending charter schools out of district placements and choice schools where between the time you prepare our preliminary budget and now we've got updated information on what those costs are involved [Music] transportation revolver and school choice this is typically where we have a safety net and i know i always feel uncomfortable when we dig into it and so you can could you just talk a little bit about that so the committee has an idea sure so this will be able to continue to do in the future um we won't necessarily be able to carry over to two years of grant funds prepaid for special ed and it's nice to not budget for that because if a student moves into town and we've had four in the past year and a half that are going to affect next year's budget um we don't have to split the capacity to absorb that in the budget we feel like with where we are this year we need to be a little bit more aggressive in offsetting our cost increases um so and we typically have a little bit of a balance at the end of the year on our budget so we felt like this is a year we need to be a little bit less conservative to get our budget to a level that the tenants might be able to accept it's a difficult balancing act we'll talk about it more as we go forward so all in all that brings our level service budget total adjustments is the 302 000 and the overall increase is 5.6 on our level service budget so uh an above-level services this is what we talked about uh in december we presented all of these items these are all personnel related items that again we wanted to make investments in we thought that even going forward i mean given the last couple years the investment in our personnel would be really the thing that was going to help our students some of those we had to take out again you'll see them again in a district improvement plan a new one that's coming up that you're going to vote on in september this is what was left so the two items in yellow we've managed to uh keep those in but we funding them with grant money one would be ida special education grant the other one with uh that's a three grand i believe and then um in green would be the ones that funded the budget as you can see there one is the curriculum assistant this uh this was a an existing position this was an assistant for the assistant superintendent and we combined a couple of um roles up in the central office to um allow that position to remain and it's already paying you know what that position is existing and it's already paying benefits it gives carol a chance to get to schools and work with the principals and work with teachers which is really what's needed and it's especially needed now that's what we've done for this quarter the other position was the the elementary the literacy coordinator we talked to you about that that was a position we have a math coordinator coaching right now so i want to provide a class repair observations to model lessons in classrooms um to hear professional literacy related professional development to teachers and just to work with them work with them on their instruction again and this will benefit this will be a benefit to us to our students [Music] the final position we kept down there with the honda addition of one consulate to the hanzo counseling department this would allow us to do a few things one to have one counselor from nine and ten that would also handle psats and vp testing coordination another one that would handle the students in grades 11 12 and that person would also handle the internship and the shadowing program that we're introducing again so we can expand programming a bit and then not a bit i think that's that's going to that's going to be great for us it's one of the things that's going to separate us from other high schools and then finally we will have one guidance counselor to work specifically with uh middle school students where we're seeing a lot of issues especially now with coleman those are the students who really especially sixth graders they've never been in the building and you know we've never even seen their faces so there's a lot of work to be done in middle school so we kept that position and we thought it would be it would be critical so we're um above all the services we kept uh again we really just three everyone going into the going into the budget do you want me to be over again why haven't we kept everything i guess i'm trying to understand what guidance are we getting from the town that says we need to stay below a certain number that has prevented us from funding some of the other things we would love to find them all again the time gives us numbers we'll get to that but i'll say that's what we did was when we took the entire list we said you know we can't keep all of these but if you remember what we talked about the new district approval plan the one you guys gonna vote on in september we said that you'll see these again so we took them we just said all right and we have to cut some of these how are we going to prioritize them let's take the things we absolutely we absolutely need next year and keep those in the budget and then the other things will sort of prioritize so i'll give an example that classroom teacher up there for aces building he doesn't absolutely need that this year because he can move a teacher around but the year after that there's no way he can't not have that teacher because there won't be enough teachers in that building for the incoming class we're seeing keeping our classrooms fit up between 50 and 60 kids now which we didn't see before so you can't do that with with just two teachers and so so again that will be that will be on the first year the first year of the transitional district approved you'll see that um but yeah we would have loved to keep we think all of them are required so you'll definitely see them again we think that we'll we'll try to prioritize i mean you you get the answer to the other part of your question about why would you why are we going to do that so um this basically takes our level service budget that we just showed you of the 18 928 as in the cost of the level service request you can see where they're allocated by school the curriculum assistance support is district rules so it's it's across all three schools the ela coach is just in the two elementary schools and tahanto has the its sheriff curriculum assisted and the bulk of that is the social the school council [Music] so that brings us to a proposed operating budget increase the operating budget number there the increases are 6.7 for berlin memorial boylston is 10.9 percent tahonta was five percent an overall increase of 6.8 typically the range that was presenting to the towns is three to four percent uh for um a little bit on the high side but somewhere in the it's the typical range but we'll talk more too about this because we are getting more state revenue so we'll talk about how this all fits together but this is the expenditure increase to the operating budget um just a highlight of what it is my school um you know this has been something historically people are interested in um the berlin memorial increase in terms of what makes up that 6.7 percent both of that almost two-thirds of that is more than two-thirds of that i think no just under two-thirds of that is out-of-district tuitions and transportation this is again from students that are newly identified in the district needing to be either through moving in or pre-school age that have needed to be placed in a private school outside the district um and the transportation that goes with that the other piece is the most significant trigger is teachers union contract increases and then there is an offset this math coach is currently shared between the two schools and we're we're doing that we didn't budget for it last year we made the decision and figured out how to pay for it within fy22 but fy23 is the first time we're budgeting for that so that relieves half of the cost of that person out of berlin memorial's budget and then the last piece is above the cost of the above-level services we previously presented boylston elementary um a lot's happened there again primarily though um close to half of it is out of district tuitions transportation paraprofessionals and special ed contract services just the needs that become fairly intense in that school and in their students attending schools outside the district the teachers union contract increases is 76 000.

we've also seen an increase in the number of people participating in the healthcare plan so the constant benefits for those employees for health care plans has gone up the cost of sharing the math coach is 48 with berlin memorial you'll see that this isn't exactly it's not a net with berlin because we've also factored in tutor support with the person switching to become a coach position the tutors provide direct instruction tier 2 instruction to students so [Music] there was that tutor support that was needed in addition to to the coach so that 48 is a little bit of a tutor cost plus half of the math coach and again the amount of the same month above level service items that we showed before the tonto it's a similar story the out of district tuitions and instead transportation and paraprofessionals are driving a large part of the budget this doesn't happen every year this is an unusual year um and again this is why we're faced with the the challenge of arriving on a budget that's relatively reasonable increase uh teachers contract increases is in health care again affecting toronto then a counselor position and we have a couple offsets there that are they're moderating the increase of tonto as well i'm also just going to highlight with capital we presented this uh pretty quickly at the end of the last meeting but this is the capital for berlin memorial we had a firm go through and do a full assessment of the capital needs of the burma memorial school and 54 000 is going to go towards addressing level two level three priorities on that assessment we didn't have any level one um critical immediate priorities we worked through part of level two and we think we're going to get into the level three priorities um through the use of these funds and that'll be kind of an ongoing item in our future capital plan as well the entry access security is something we are um [Music] we likely there's a possibility we may pull this out if you look at the entrance to berlin memorial school it's a little bit different than the other two schools this will be something that's also in toronto's plan the person at the front desk has a clear line of sight to letting people in at burling memorial school and part of the entry access security best practices is to have a lock on both the first door and the second door the thought is at berlin memorial the principal uh has commented well you know you might you may not need that at school even though it's kind of a recommended best security practice because they're going to see people they're letting in so this is something we may end up pulling back and redirecting to the first line so i just wanted to highlight that um the items for boston are listed there the library group prepares it seems like we have some type of group repair annually at some point this is going to be a much larger capital article but we are able to by doing this by some more time with that roof we would like to eventually for this building do a facilities assessment like we did for burling memorial but right now these were our three top priorities the asphalt repairs and improvements some of those were made last year we're going to continue with the kind of the next areas um that are priority and the scrubber for hotline will enable the work of cleaning the floors to get done a lot more effectively and efficiently um to help us get our schools ready for the beginning of the school year a lot quicker than we have been able to the last couple years excuse me for tonto the first two items are just payments on the bonds we have outstanding for when how we fund this building those are going to be fairly steady over the next i think 10 years to 12 years that are left on those bonds until they're paid off the second item the rooftop units you see them as you're driving up on top of the building um that will replace either two or three of those motors we've had i think about four or five of those replaced uh in the past two years it seems like their useful life must be pretty close to 10 years when this was built because they're all starting to fail and the motors need to be replaced the the last item is for enhanced security up at the front where not just the first door but the second door would be locked would give uh front desk an opportunity to see visitors that can step into the vestibule before they're admitted into the building you might have seen that in some other high schools that you've attended excuse me so the budget's paid for in two ways one is by assessments to the town the other way is we have revenue that offsets the expenditures we receive so the revenues we're getting um primarily come in the form of state aid the bulk of them we've had very flat about one percent two percent increases uh in the time that i've been here the student opportunity act was approved i believe three years ago and through that act it calls for changes to the foundation budget which is the baseline amount that a school is supposed to be funding to get students for and it varies based on grade level varies based on demographics like income english language learners special ed so basically what the foundation budget does is it says this is the minimum amount you should get you should have to run your school and then what it does is it says how much should be paid for by the towns by looking at the relative income and commercial property values of the town so communities like berlin and boylston about 80 percent of the budgets are paid by the town and 20 is paid by by the state through chapter 71 funding community like worcester would be the exact opposite um still even with that our chapter 78 and 19 fy23 is increasing by 12 over fy22 which is a huge help to our budget as you'll see when we look at the assessments um we're also seeing an increase in chartered tuition reimbursement the rules for people who are familiar with charter schools we get a small amount back from the state when we have students attend other districts i'm not sure why that is but i'm sure it was because districts lobbied about the impact of charter schools there's also a provision that says when you have a year where there's a significant increase like we did during the beginning of the pandemic that the following year you receive almost a one for one dollar amount for what that increase is so we're going to get that 79 000 next year but it's one time we're not going to keep getting it but that's still good news for next year and then lastly we're seeing a decrease in breaker fundings due to lower claims what we've seen is our special education costs up here they've gone down and now they're coming back up the reimbursement you get it occurs a year after so we're now in a cycle where the circuit breaker revenue we're getting is is based on the year when we didn't have any special education costs it doesn't really match what our expenditures are their budget's actually gone up these are the dollars that go with that again the chapter 78 is the big change chapter 71-8 is is for transportation as a region of the district we get that for students that live more than one and a half mile from the school um and those are the other categories the one thing i want to highlight here is we have an excessive efficiency fund um i have not budgeted sometimes the charter reimbursement will change which is i've only budgeted a 5 000 increase i've instead budgeted to use the excess inefficiency fund because if for some reason the charter reimbursement amount changes i don't want to have to go back we'd have to go back to the towns if we were going to have a shortfall in revenue to try to get a budget increase or we basically have to cut our budgeted spending by using e and d instead once our budget's approved even if the state aid changes we don't have to go through kind of an additional budget exercise so but in total um state aid is up 281 thousand 282 000 and the district revenue including the use of e d is up 87 000.

this is just a high-level picture of which categories of spending administration being primarily central office although not all central office positions the special ed director and the assistant director for teacher and learning role into the instruction category other school services includes things like the nurse athletics food service maintenance and operations is basically facilities costs and also some technology costs more of the infrastructure technology costs fixed charges is benefits and pension costs [Music] and tuitions is out of district tuitions so uh the bulk of the dollars are going to instruction there you can see there is an increase though on the tuition line a little bit but this is uh how desi kind of looks at the high level functions of spending across your school those are just for your reference they're in the slots for you to have that feature aside from the the general fund budget we also use revolving funds um we pay for some school expenses that are revolving funds these are the key funds we have other funds that are smaller but these are really the key funds what i want to highlight here that jeff brought this up before the question is you know our safety nets and if you look at boylston the school choice revenue we're bringing in we've had less schools less students attending you'd have larger class sizes larger numbers of students in town in boylston coming into kindergarten we've also had a pandemic which affected the thinking of maybe not wanting to take you know new kids in during a pandemic or having a hard enough time educating our own kids um so we went from 73 000 in revenue and school choice right from boston and fy 21 to 43 000 this year out of that 43 000 um all the three students are in fifth grade so next year that number would go down to 15 000 but discussions with base we're planning to take in three more kids so that's the 30 000.