001Hello, we're here with W 6 school committee candidate Peter Piaza and we're going to be doing an interview. >> Hey everyone, thanks for having me. >> Our first question is, what will you do to help support students and families affected by the current administration's immigration policy? >> Yeah, well, this is a big one, right? Um, oh man, because it's such a big issue, I think it needs a multiaceted response. Um, one of the sort of like guiding philosophies of my campaign in the first place is that one of the reasons I'm running really is because this national turmoil, like this chaos that we're experiencing right now, I think the only way to survive it is to build community locally. If you know your neighbors, then you can help your neighbors. And so, um, to get
002to your question, I think part of the response is like just building stronger community ties. That's not the only part of the response, but that's part of it for sure. Um, you know, for example, um, just in Somerville last week, uh, there was someone who was picked up by ICE, right? And bystanders had caught a video of it, but they didn't know who he was. And so they had to like canvas the community to find out who to show the video and say who can you identify this person. We need to know their name. We need to and then by by then talking to other neighbors who knew that person they got that information to Ayanna Presley's office to like to people in power and figured out where that person was. Right. And that's just
003like one example. We saw the type of community outrage that happened in Milford, Massachusetts. This was at the end of the previous school year where a student named Marcelo was picked up on his way to volleyball practice and he was beloved in the community and because everybody knew him and because he was and knew his family and so supported there were rallies and Marcelo got out after six days, six or seven days. And so part of this I think is just like really building stronger community ties. And so I think there's a million different ways that we can do that, right? There's a um a lot of interest in Malden public schools, a lot of interest in grassroots community organizing in Malden and especially and in W 6 in particular. And I think we just
004need to find ways to like stitch this social fabric together. Whether it's like something as informal as like a potluck dinner every once in a while or like an event that doesn't sound like it's like this kind of movement that is going to to resist and take down ICE, but what it does is it builds social community and connections. And I think that that is step one at least. And then so that's one piece of it. And I can say much more about like building community in Maldin. I think schools are an ideal touch point for that. And then there's also just, you know, more concrete policies and I think we need to work together with the um superintendent uh with the school leaders at the buildings. We have a state, excuse me, a safe
005school zones resolution. It's passed in 2019 by the school committee. But given the way um things have changed uh in the years since then, it's worth revisiting that policy. It's worth maybe adding some teeth or some details to those that policy. None of that can be done by a single school committee member alone. But by working together, I think that we can update the res the the regulations, the guidance that we offer school leaders um in order to be more so that we can we can we can be responding in a thoughtful and robust way to the threats that face not only our community but you know communities all over the country right now. >> Thank you. Our next question is what do you think the schools can do to help students with the transition
006from high school to adulthood? Oh, that's super interesting. That's super interesting. My kids are in my kids are in the K8. you know, my I have a kindergartener in grade three. So, my touch points with schools are in the K8s and uh so I'm I'm interested to hear your perspective on this because [laughter] um you know, you you um you went to high school in the city and you know, folks um you you uh and you know, I'm sure your experience with your peers um has has um given you insight on this. I mean I know the kind of projects that work on the level of like educational research right so one thing that I should say by way of background is um you already know I'm a parent of two kids who go to
007Malden public schools um both at Salemwood and um my professional work is in educational research uh I have a PhD in education policy from Boston College and then I've worked uh for various like nonprofits and academic institutions in teaching roles and research roles um since then. And so in terms of like transition from high school to adulthood, uh one important thing is like access to um to advanced coursework in high school um so that students are earning college credits as early as possible earlier even than enrolling in college. this is like helping to like kind of get students on that pathway and kind of demystify that transition right um uh so whether it's advanced placement or international balorate courses at the high school level which is something that is has has been shown time and
008again in the research to be beneficial for students in terms of their long-term academic um outcomes. Uh and then there's also um you know early college programs, dual enrollment programs and you know we're lucky in this area to have a plethora of institutions of higher education where um we could explore partnerships where Maltton students could attend um could attend uh community colleges or other universities for college credit in a dual enrollment um structure. But those things dual enrollment, advanced placement, those things are great for students who are collegebound. What about students who aren't? And I think that there's, you know, um internship, career counseling, sort of like apprenticeship type models that are worth exploring um where we could partner with local businesses to host uh students from Malden in career in career- based internships just
009to kind of like get a sense of whether or not uh a certain career path is a desirable one for that student. But just getting those touch points whether to college or to career early on. I think those things help to clarify that major major question that you have after you graduate. What am I going to do with my life? You know, you can't answer that question on your own. There there needs to be support systems to help. >> Thank you. Our third question is, what inspired you to run for school committee? >> Oh, well, I don't know. It's something I had thought about um for a few years. Again, given my my background in um in uh education research and education policy, you know, um when I became a parent, I saw uh school
010issues through a very different lens. It got very real for me. Um and so, you know, I have the the the professional sort of interest in it. I have like actual like skin in the game from my from my kids, you know. Um, and so, you know, it's just something that I think about a lot. I think about this all throughout my day, whether I'm working or at home with my kids and and and you know, not officially doing my my per what this is not a better a good way of saying it. Doing my job as a dad as opposed to doing my job for um UMass. Um, I'm always thinking about education, you know, uh, and so that's a big part of it. Um, we really love Malden. We moved here, uh, for
011the public schools. Uh, we moved here because the diversity in the public school system is incredibly rare to find. And we wanted our children, both of whom are white, to um to go to school with peers from different racial, social backgrounds so that they're prepared for the world that they're going to enter when they graduate high school, you know, and it's really hard to find that. And so, um, we found that here in Malden. We love that about Malden. And, you know, running for school committee was a way for me to like just kind of kind of give back to this community that I feel like has given us so much. And I'll just add one last piece which kind of echoes my answer to the previous question about immigration policies. It's like it's really
012easy to feel um like helpless these days, right? You're just kind of inundated with national international news and what you know and and and all of this stuff feels like it's so far out of reach. But you know that staying with that feeling can can lead to like a sort of despair, right? And so one of the reasons that I wanted to run is kind of like channel that feeling into a place where I can have some impact, where I can make things a little bit better, we can kind of like build community here, so on and so forth. So um so it felt like a, you know, a productive way to kind of like utilize some of this energy that you feel living in in in these times. You know what I'm saying? Definitely.
013Our fourth question is, what does it mean to you for students to have a safe and welcoming environment in the Malden public schools? >> So, this is something that I think about a lot um again from my professional work and my just like personal interests and beliefs in about school as a parent. So, I'm gonna this is going to sound like a detour for a second, but I'm going to um tell you a little bit about uh the partnerships that I um that I have with um public school districts in Massachusetts. Right. So, I work for uh a research center. It's called the Center for Education Policy at UMass. We have a few different projects that we work on, but one of them is a project with a really long name. It's called the Massachusetts
014Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment. The purpose of it is to develop a way of understanding understanding this question, what is a good school, right? And to do that in a way that doesn't rely on test scores. Um because we're pretty overrelyant like think about um school rating sites, you know, like these heavily rely on uh the test scores of the students that attend those schools. But we know from the educational research that test scores aren't an accurate measure of school quality. Often times it's picking up things that have nothing to do with the school, like the kinds of privileges that a student had access to from their family or um or from other sources outside of a school, right? And so we wanted we wanted to think about what's a better way to to to
015um to measure school quality. And so we have partnerships with districts um with about close to 20 districts across the state of Massachusetts. Malden for the sake of full disclosure is not one of our school partners, not one of our district partners um in MCIA. Uh and the way what we do the the our partnerships with those districts involves a lot of just um uh surveying parents and students and teachers in our partner districts to understand their beliefs about what makes a good school. So like sense of belonging, student teacher relationships, emotional safety, these are things that we um we've developed survey measures around these things and we have um we've worked with principles across the state, superintendents across the state to gather data on these things and then to develop action plans to make
016schools more safe and more inclusive. um to the point of your question. And so I've learned a ton about what it means for a school to be a safe learning environment for all students, right? And I think one of those things that really stands out to me in this experience of doing surveys with students across the state, working with principles to um to make use of those surveys. One thing that really stands out to me is that if you as a student you have a if you have agency in your school then you'll feel more this is what the research is saying you may agree or disagree with this right but if you feel like you have some agency in your school like somebody's listening to you and they're making changes in the school as
017a result of it then then that goes towards that kind of helps increase your sense of belonging and safety in that school because you're a valued member of that community. if you weren't there, the school would be different because it wouldn't be shaped by the voice perspective that you bring. So, I think a lot of this is finding ways for students to shape the kinds of programs, the kinds of the culture really at their schools because that in itself builds safety and belonging when people adults are saying we value your voice and we really want to listen to you. I think also we have to be super cleareyed super cleareyed about the threats. um to students from different um racial and social subgroups these days. And we've seen examples like this um across the state
018of Massachusetts, but then also across the country where students of color have um been subject to hate incidents, Jewish students have been subject to hate incidents, trans students, LGBTQ plus students. Um and I think we need to have open conversations. uh whenever incidences like this happen, we need to have systems in place so that we can understand what's the cause of these types of incidents and how do we make how do we make the culture better for everybody. Restorative justice is like a pretty um a pretty, you know, comprehensive tool for responding to incidents of harm and it's not something that I've seen implemented in Malden public schools. Uh, but I think that there's some potential there for for restorative justice as like a concrete way of um of building a a a warmer um
019school culture and and increasing emotional safety for all students. >> Thank you. Our final question is, what's one thing you've personally done to help the community and what will you continue to do if elected? Yeah. Well, I volunteer with the Salem Wood, we call it FTO, family teacher organization, you know. Um, it's not always PTO. It could be grandparents or aunties or uncles. So, um, I volunteer with the Salemwood FTO uh to run our seasonal events like our fall fest and uh, winter fest so on and so forth. Uh tomorrow we have um a walk to school day uh associated with the national walk to school day. Later on in November uh we'll be doing another walk to school day for the Ruby Bridges um that's the Ruby Bridges National Walk to School Day. That's
020on November 14th, the anniversary of Ruby Bridg's famous walk uh to her um formerly all-white school in New Orleans. Um, and so, uh, as a parent at Salemwood, a member of the FTO, I've been involved in helping to like coordinate and run these events. Uh, and this all get gets back to what I was saying earlier about uh, building community, building relationships. Um, we should be supporting one another during during the tough times that we're like living in, right? And um and I think little things like this can can lead to big differences in terms of like just community cohesion. You know, you you meet parents on a walk to school day and then you know that person and then uh and then that's you know that's the beginning of these relational ties that just
021make us stronger. And so like these types of events um I think are something that I'm really interested in talking to like the city councilors in W 6 um excuse me the city councelor in W 6, the city councilors in our neighboring wards in order to like find ways to just like bring people together um to to meet one another, get to know each other and support each other. >> Thank you. Is there any last words that you'd like to say? Can I highlight one additional piece of like the the the campaign that I'm really excited about? >> Yes. Uh, so I've been knocking on doors um as many days as I can uh this month leading up to the election on November 4th. And I was knocking on a door yesterday. Uh, and I
022talked to student who had just graduated from Malden High School. Uh, and I asked him about his experience in Malden public schools and he said, "Well, when I started in elementary school was great and then it kind of deteriorated over time." I said, "Well, why did it deteriorate? Okay, like give me some examples. And the example he went to first was that um they used to have library access when he was in the K8s and that library access kind of dwindled, you know, over time. Uh and that student said that, you know, that's where you discover a real love of learning. You know, you can explore your own interests um in a library. Um it's not something you do for an assignment. It's something that you might do for pleasure. and and and you might
023take out books that you wouldn't be assigned in class, you know, and so uh this is something that's a really high priority for me. I I I think that we can find ways to bring libraries back into the K8s through an exploratory or some other way. Um and I know that like everything it costs money, but I I um I really believe firmly that there's there's a more than adequate return on investment for that sort of sort of thing. So, this is one of like the concrete policies that I'm interested in exploring um if I get elected. >> Thank you so much for being with us today. >> Thanks for having me. >> My first question is, what will you do to best support students and families affected by the current administration's immigration policy? >>
024Um well, first and foremost, just making sure that they are safe when they walk through our doors and knowing that we are there. We are a family at Melon Public Schools. Um, and they are safe when they are in our care. Um, they are not going to be um ripped out of their seats while they're in class. um we 100% make sure that they are protected um and always um follow any rules and guidelines that you know that set forth by um the government so to say. Um we're not just handing over a student um just because but first and foremost just making sure that they know that we're a family and we're there to protect them. Thank you. So, our next question is, what do you think the schools can do to help students
025with the transition from high school to adulthood? [sighs] >> Oh gosh. I would say um treating them as the young adults that they are when they're in high school and um for instance, we just um we're talking about our cell phone policy and the state legislators um would like to do a bell-to-bell ban inside schools. um and that would take away access to cell phones for our students. Um when we were looking this over, we believe that it's actually our responsibility to teach um our students, specifically in high school, how to be responsible with their devices. So, while you can't use it while you are in class, um you should be responsible enough or we should be able to teach you that you can keep it on you on your person. Um so, you can
026have access to a a lot of these students have um jobs. They're helping taking care of their families. They may need a um or get a phone call during the day or a text message that says, "Oh, can you come into work, you know, sooner?" So, just really teaching our students how to be um adults when they walk out of our doors and not treating them as though um as though they're just children because they're not. They're humans. It's our job to to teach them and educate them not just, you know, math, science, reading, but just how to go on and be um young adults in the society. Our third question is, what inspired you to run for school committee? >> Oh. Um, so my youngest child was diagnosed uh with autism. He's on the
027spectrum in and um was having difficulties navigating the world of special education. We fought for services. We fought for placement. And I really just started thinking, why a why should I be fighting for something that every other student is afforded? And b, how many other parents are out there going through the same thing that I'm going through? Um, so I made it my mission that I was going to run for school committee. I was going to get in and make sure that every student that um has uh different abilities, you know, are are taught the way that they need to learn. and it's been my passion since and um I have been able to incorporate mentoring programs within the school that has general ed students um going into our special programs working with students um
028peer-to-peer support and um yeah that's that's my passion that's what brought me here. >> Awesome. Our fourth question is, what does it mean for you mean to you for students to have a safe and welcoming place to stay in the Maldm public schools? >> It means everything. Um, my own kids are Malden public school students and I've always said that they actually spend more time at school than they do with me by time um, you know, they get up in the morning off to school, they spend six and a half >> [snorts] >> um, hours just in school. not to um mention after school extracurric extracurricular sports or whatnot. So by the time they get home to me um they only have a limited amount of time, you know, usually hang out, have dinner, go
029to bed. So it's really important that every single student that comes through our doors is supported um because they're really spending a better part of their youth with us. Um, not to mention then you have groups of children that don't have much at home. So when they're in our schools, this could very well be the only meal that they're receiving during the day. So it's really really important that um we recognize that um sometimes our schools are are what are are the only thing that some students have. So it's really important that we are like a family that we are aunts and uncles and moms and dads and sisters and brothers because um for many this is it. >> Thank you. Our final question is what is one thing you've personally done to help the
030community and what will you continue to do if reelected? >> Uh but my passion has been special education. Um, so I I I spend a lot of time I am the liaison to CPAC and before I was that on school committee I was a CPAC member myself. Um, so I have spent a lot of time working with um those with different abilities volunteering with the Challenger League um which is um our our young baseball players. Um and I'll continue that. I will continue to fight for those and not just those with um special needs, but those that just need somebody to have a voice for them, those that are maybe afraid to speak up. I will always and will continue to always be a voice for those that um that need somebody. But my heart
031does belong to um those that have different learning needs and I will continue to make sure that um they are they are in classrooms with their peers. They are not separated. They are just as equal just as deserving of the education and just as deserving as making friends, going to prom, playing in sports. Um so I'll I'll always continue for to fight for them. >> Thank you so much for your time. Do you have any closing statements you'd like to say? >> Well, thank you for having me. This was my first podcast ever. Um, and I would just say that I really really appreciate the support that I have gotten from um, the W three residents that um, have elected me in the past, all of the Malden residents, um, my peers on the school
032committee as well as city councilors, um, the mayor of Malden, um, and just anybody that actually goes out and votes. It is so so important and imperative that we ensure that our voices are heard and that we are um represented by those that share the same ideas as us. So um thank you again. >> Thank you so much for uh taking the time out of your day to be here with us and answer our questions. >> Thank you. >> Hello. We're here with W 5 city councelor Ari Taylor and she's going to be answering a few of our questions. >> Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. >> Our first question is, what are ideas you have to support new income streams for the city? >> Um, so I think
033I think there are a lot of options for us. It's going to take some time to um bring different income streams into the city. Uh, I think the most lucrative would be um restaurants, hotels where we can really get the the higher uh additional taxes off of those. Um, but also I think they're things that the city needs. Um, I'd love to see more vibrant shopping. I would love a Trader Joe's or an additional uh supermarket. Um, I think those those are are all things that I'd like to see us put in a plan and and try to get to stimulate our our economic development. >> Our next question is, what's something you've personally done for the community and how will you continue doing that if reelected? >> I've tried to focus a lot in
034the last two years. um on on sustainability projects um and ways to ways to get more of our of our residents involved. Um, I think one of the things that I'm most proud of that I'd like to see more of in Malden is the pocket forest on Goodwin A. Um, really taking a resident's idea of wanting a garden, working together, and then putting putting out something that the whole community can enjoy and the neighborhood can enjoy. I think that I I'd like to see more of that happen. I'd like to be more involved in working with community members and and bringing them together and bringing their ideas to life and and making that happen for the city. How do you tackle voting for what you want versus what your constituents want? Um, that is a
035tough question. It it takes a lot of thought and processing and doing your own research. Um being able to to do what you know, balance what you know is right. Um, and then also really listening listening to the reasons why your your constituents may want something. Um, because they may be saying one thing, but when you actually have that conversation, it it turns out that you're all looking for the same goal. Um, so it's really important to have the hard conversations. It's important to weigh out what the needs are of the community and be able to say that, stand by that. Um, and and see it through and and be able also to admit when you're wrong if if the decisions you make are not correct. I I always say that I never want to
036make a decision that I can't answer to my constituents about. Um so I think it's important just to weigh out everything and do your own research. >> And our last question is what inspired you to run for council? So many things um inspired me to run when I first ran four years ago. Um I really wanted I felt like I I felt like I had done a lot for the community and that I could be best put to use helping the community on the council. I saw what was what was happening, what was needed, and I I felt like I had, you know, the ability to do more in a council seat than than the the community service and the activism work that I was doing at the time. And I really I have always
037wanted Living a life of service has been very important to me and I felt like this was just the place where I could do the most service and the most good. You know, I have I have three daughters. I want them to grow up in a city that they can be proud to say I'm from Malden. And um I think that was a big driving force as well cuz I am very proud to be from Malden or proud to still live in Malden and I want the people who have lived here before and who live here now to be and who will live here in the future to say the same including my especially my daughters. >> Thank you for being here with us. Do you have any closing remarks? I am just uh really
038thankful that you put this together um and for those questions which were not easy um but I appreciate that because I think it's important to ask the hard questions and um I you know I am unopposed but I I ask for the residents of W five to still vote for me and and I will continue to work for them and the city. Um, and I'm excited to do more work in the next two years. >> Thank you. >> Hello. We're here with Ward 3 city councelor and council president Amanda Lahan and she's going to be answering some of the questions that the youth had. So our first question is, what ideas do you have to support new income streams for the city? >> Well, I think this is the key question right now. Um, I
039think it's definitely come up in every candidate forum. It's been coming up at every council meeting. Um, I've really concluded that we have a revenue issue. Um, and our zoning is the underlying problem. I think right now what we've learned is that we need to craft the zoning that attracts the type of development that we want to have because we are not bringing in the kind of revenue that is going to support our tax base for the future. Um, basically your zoning is what allows you to have the kind of buildings and the kind of tax generating revenue that you are going to get from the kind of built environment that you want to have. And so I think our council is coming to a consensus that we need to redo some key districts of
040the city. Some of the things that have come up recently is um Commercial Street, it's Lower Broadway, um it's some of our city squares. So, not just the downtown, but areas like Maplewood, like Lynen, some of those areas that have a lot of potential, but right now they're just zoned for maybe one, two, or threetory businesses. I think there's potential we can do a lot more by fixing some of that zoning in the short term, and we'll be able to bring in um some more tax revenue generating businesses, some things like mixed use. I think we've attracted just housing in some areas, and um we need to do a little bit more than that and get those coffers filled up. >> Thank you. Our next question is, what is something you've done for the community
041and what will you continue to do if reelected? >> I think I'm most proud of my track record on affordable housing. Um, I have been lucky to be appointed to our affordable housing trust fund board as the council liaison. Even prior to my time on council, I was on the Asian Community Development Board um that serves Malden, Boston, and Quinzy and you know, just the greater Boston region and has a great record of building affordable housing across the region. And um I learned a lot being on that board. I was on the redevelopment authority board before I joined the council, too. And then in my day job, I learn a lot about housing policy. So, I've really used that whole background to leverage that knowledge on the council. Um, and again being on the affordable
042housing trust board as the council liaison, we've brought in a lot of federal dollars to the city and been able to leverage that to partner with nonprofit developers to bring in new development that's really serving Malden residents. You're going to start to see a lot of those developments coming online this year and next year. Um, we have the Community Preservation Act in Malden, which takes a percentage of our tax dollars that comes off of residential property taxes and puts that into a special fund and we can tap into that to build affordable housing, too. So, we have these resources that we've been able to utilize. I want to make sure that we're still doing that. I think the city is, as you can see looking around, we're very dense. We're very built out, but we're
043going to have these smaller opportunities as small buildings come online. If the city can be poised to acquire those with the money that we have available, we can build smaller affordable developments and I think that's going to be the way that we're going to be able to serve the market heading forward. >> Awesome. Thank you. Our third question is, how do you tackle voting for what you want versus what the constituents want? >> Well, I think that we're elected to use our judgment. I think that that's one thing I learned very early on as a counselor. Um, it's important to do good community engagement so that you are listening to a a broad swath of what your constituents are telling you. I have definitely gone into certain votes thinking I might vote one way and
044then have heard from constituents and found that maybe I was changing my mind or evolving my position. Obviously, you only get things done if you have six votes. You need a majority on the council to get anything um passed. But we're up there to listen to voters and have their input affect our vote. Um, and and that's what we're there for. We're not there, you know, we all have one vote and we need to be listening to our constituents to inform how we make our decisions. Of course, >> our fourth question is, what inspired you to run for council? >> Well, I think back, you know, I never ever envisioned myself being in elected office. Um, I often tell the story of how I was encouraged to run by another woman that I work with
045in my day job. Um, we had been doing a job interview for an open position at where I work and this person had worked for someone in elected office and when the interview was over, um, this other person turned to me and said, you know, you should think about running for office someday. There's this this program out there where you can get training in how to do that. And I thought like that really came out of left field. Where did that come from? Um, but she saw this potential in me that was, you know, to me seemed random. But I think people see something in you that sometimes you have to take it and run with it. And the the thing that made me really feel like maybe I had something to contribute was when
046I think about how when I moved here and then I became um a parent, you know, a lot of times when I would go to community meetings, I didn't necessarily feel like the voices of people who had young children or people who are women um or who got around the community not in a car uh who people who walked and took transit, took the bus or rode a bike um they weren't necessarily always listened to doing community meetings, a lot of us would get up and try to explain how the community, you know, wasn't safe if you were trying to walk around, especially with little kids. And um there were a lot of people that had great ideas and just had a vision for how the city could be more welcoming and safe to young
047families. And I didn't necessarily see that point of view being listened to. And so I started going to a lot of community meetings and trying to advocate for different things. And eventually I just felt like, well, if you know, those of us that are out here not being listened to, if they need somebody to advocate more strongly, maybe I'm the one to get up there and run and be that stronger voice. And so I did. >> Great. Our final question is, uh, what makes Malden home to you? >> My family and I, I have a daughter, um, married to my husband, Mark. We've been here since 2011. We always talk about how Malden is just our place. Um, we were really we kind of fell in love with Malden because you know the the great
048things about it obviously it's it's it has traditionally been a very affordable and welcoming place and we definitely found that when we moved here. I think we struggle with the affordability now for sure. Um, what we loved when we moved here was that there was like a lot of artists that lived here and my husband is a professional artist and that was something that we were really looking for. Um, we wanted a place that was really welcoming for people that didn't necessarily have like your typical 9 toive job. We wanted there to be other people that did a variety of things for a living. Um, we wanted to be able to, you know, get out and go hiking and also get into Boston and like I said, not necessarily have to rely on owning a
049car. We wanted to be able to walk places. We wanted to have a variety of things to do. And all those things are totally true about living here. There's so many different types of people that live here. Um, the minute we moved in, we felt like it was home and we never wanted to leave. And like we just love Malden. We never ever want to live anywhere else. >> Thank you so much for answering our questions. Is there any last like closing remarks you'd like to say? >> I just want to say thanks to Uma for having folks in who are running unopposed. I know I said this in the forum that um AC/DC and GMAC and the Commonwealth Seminar and so many other organizations hosted the other night. I think when you're running unopposed,
050um I never ever want it to seem like, you know, those of us without an opponent take it for granted that we are running without an opponent. I think it's a it's a really deep honor to be able to serve in elected office. And I think having multiple people on the ballot is actually a good thing. This is definitely not something that you get to take for granted that you're just going to be reelected year in and year out. and having people that challenge you and being up there on the council stage with people that disagree with you is a good thing. It's actually not good if you just I think are not um challenged and don't have to answer for your views. So, I think having an opportunity to come in and do something
051like this and talk about why you run and what your vision is and why you value the things you do is important. So, just thank you for the opportunity. >> Thank you so much for being here. >> Thank you.