got every great one more minute and for a production note I can't see the audience. without my glasses on. I can't read the stuff in front of me with my glasses on. So, it's kind of a nice little I guess I can the progressive nature of my glasses, but with my health status updated for everybody. Uh we will start the Monday and welcome everybody to the Monday, April 28th, 2025 meeting of the Orno Town Council. Um, we begin our meeting with a roll call. And roll call shows we have council Rob Lway, Council Andrea Hardison, Councelor Sarah Marx, myself, Dan Demer, Councelor Leo Kenny, Council Matt Powers, and Council Council Jacob Baker. Uh, so we have all in attendance. Uh the first item on our agenda, well our agenda always starts with our at the very top we list our council municipal goals as a reminder for us on the council as well as a um for transparency for the people who attend and monitor our meetings. Uh under agenda review, um we list all of the items that have been referred to our various council committees and we take a look at the agenda and um have a time for review and clarifications. I have one item, well, two items that I'd like to propose under agenda review. Unless someone has something before me, I'll jump into it. Number one, I'd like to add the Webster incident discussion to item 5C of our agenda. So, that would come um as our third presentation shortly after public comments. And if there's no objection with the council, we'd ask anybody here to talk about that with us this evening. sh um forego the public comment and you'll be recognized as part of the as part of that council discussion. Is there any objection to that agenda addition? Okay, without objection. And my second agenda item is we have one extra person to appoint um to a board in committee. Clint will introduce another planning board member. Um so I'd like to pull item order 2573 from the consent agenda and move it to the first item on the agend. Does that work for you? on the action items. Okay. And as is always the case, any member of the council or any member of the public can pull something from the consent agenda. So we move it to an action item and have a discussion about it and a separate vote. Okay. Anybody else have anything in under agenda items? So the first order of business then the next order of business is approval of minutes from April 14th, 2025. Could we have a motion? Moved seconded. Got it. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor? Okay. Those town council meetings for April 14th are approved unanimously. Item four on our agenda is public comment. And this is an opportunity for the town council to welcome feedback from members of the public for any item that's not on our agenda. And as a reminder, we just added the Webster discussion to our agenda. So, anyone who wants to talk to us about that, um, please be asked to wait just a couple minutes and we'll get to it right away. Is there any public comment on anything not on our public agenda? Cody, what's up? Um, moving forward, item number five is presentations and discussions. Uh, could I have a motion on order 2572? Moved. Seconded. Okay. Order 2572 has been moved and seconded. That's a resolution recognizing and thanking Lee Cooken for 30 years of selfless service to the Orno Police Department. And I assume we're going to hear from Chief Merrill. Yes. Dan Merrell, police chief. Um, so we wanted to bring forward to the council um a resolution just to recognize Lee Cooken who's in the crowd today. Um, he's spent 30 years. He's one of the longest, well actually is was I guess the longest tenur member of the police department. Um jack of all trades, master of none. Um and was a extremely valuable asset to the police department. And since he hasn't been here, I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing dayto-day without being able to heckle him in the morning. Um so in recognition of his time and the service that he gave to the town, we thought that it would be fitting to um have the council do a proclamation and name a volunteer award. So the Lee Cooken volunteer service award for the town. We're going to create that today. Um, and we're going to work with Flint and other staff members and input to figure out what the um, basic parameters of that award are going to be, but essentially it's going to be centered around volunteerism and giving back to the community and the town. It doesn't have to be the police department. Anybody in the town could get it. Um, so we're working on that and we think that it's a a very fitting um, award and recommendation for just a small thanks for what Lee's been able to do for us in the police department over the last 30 years. And I would just agree and add that that was this great conversation at the staff level and the council. Thank you for your input to date, but it's very rare to find a person that volunteers this amount of time um in such a giving and and caring way to this community for very little in return. And we received a great benefit and nothing exemplifies more probably for this town volunteerism than someone dedicating 30 years to one of our departments. So I think it's a great way to move forward. I don't think this is a situation where we're looking to do this on an annual basis. This is something that, you know, when we see other great volunteers come forward and we have a nomination, this is something the council can consider. Um he does have some be um excellent plaques there to represent what we would do and hang them in a place so the community can see this. So, and this will be an award going forward. We'll annually or just as as needed or as as earned or as I I I I don't think you would do it more than once a year, but I think it's more of that that it's not something we're just going to give out every year for the sake of doing it. you know, he uh for 30 years he served this community. Um somebody else should make similar comparable contributions rather than just a one-year um commitment to something in the town. So, I think this is where we're getting a great opportunity to build those parameters, but to really identify volunteers that go well above and beyond. Excellent. So, not necessarily a 30-year commitment for giving the award, but exemplifies a commitment, not necessarily the example that you have to hit to Yeah. This is a a really dumb question, but he's never been employed here. Is that volunteer? 30 years. Just a volunteer. He's never earned his life. What's that? He's never earned a dollar in his life here. That is crazy. I've seen him around. He's been all over 30 years. Cook's been Well, you've seen him barbecues. He's been to many town events. If you've been around, Cooken comes to He's been to employee recognitions and the the the running in the miles that he's done through all through the state, running to the crime lab or running, you know, before he left just three months ago, he was running some property back to Belfast for us for a day. We just tell him to jump in the car and go do something. He's like, "Yep, I'll be there." The way never says no. Proclamation read. I thought it's He started out as a volunteer way back then. I didn't know you've been a complete volunteer. That's amazing. Thank you. All right. Any other questions or with? If not, I'll I'll read the resolution and then we'll have a vote on it. Any members of the public want to have anything to say before we act on the resolution? A resolution by the Orno Town Council to recognize and thank Lee Cooken for 30 years of selfless service to the Orno Police Department. Whereas Lee Cooken, a disabled Army veteran, began volunteering for the Orno Police Department in April of 1995. Whereas Lee Cooken has spent countless hours volunteering his time in service to the Orno Police Department and thereby the town of Orno. Whereas Lee Cooken has supported the Orno Police Department through various tasks, most notably by managing the department's fleet of vehicles. Whereas the members of the Orno Police Department, past and present, have greatly benefited from his time, dedication, and service. Whereas the council wishes to thank Lee Cooken for his commitment to the town of Orno. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Orno Town Council that the town officially recognizes and thanks Lee Cooken for all that he's done to support the community through his humble volunteerism. So resolve this 28th day of April 2025 and I dare anybody to vote against it. Um all those all those in favor I don't see. Oh, there's Le there's Jacobson. That's unanimous. So thank you very much. We get a come around and get a picture of me. Can we get a picture? Yeah. Excuse me. I got to sneak in next to you guys. Okay. Somebody told me I need to one more thing. Yeah. Ready? Ready? You guys appreciate it. Thank you everybody. Sure. So people have it again. I would like to take down and I hope that someday be able to volunteer like I spend enough time. really appreciate the work that staff did to bring that to our attention and uh you know create an opportunity for this recognition tonight. Um next up on our uh presentation discussion item is 5B recognizing town clerk Shelley Crosby for being awarded the 2025 all-in standout local election official award. Clint, do you want to lead off on this? I will. So, um this is a great opportunity for for our town clerk who does an amazing job with our elections. So, uh we knew nothing about this until just a few months ago and then we were asked to not share. Um it has been made public. There's been a press release, but um Shelley Crosby was nominated by the University of Main Orno. Uh it was University across the nation nominated clerks for their work to go above and beyond in the college environment to help get young voters out. and it's called the AllIn Award. Um, she was nominated by uh Robert Glover, the associate professor of political science. So, I believe Robert's here. Yes. No. Okay. Thought he was going to be here. I was hoping to give him an opportunity to speak, but he was who nominated her. Um, and I didn't have time after the finance committee to find out who was in the crowd, but we do have a large crowd. But I want to thank him for nominating her. Um, I will then since he's not here, the one quote or the one thing to read it said, "Shelley Crosby represents the gold standard of nonpartisan election administration. Her unwavering dedication to student voter engagement, hands-on training, and bridge building between the University of Maine and the town of Orno has empowered countless young voters and strengthened our democratic process. So, we're always quite proud of Shel and her work. And I want to just thank her. Maybe she could come up and and uh we could say say a few words for us and then we can move on. Sure. Yeah, Shelly, let's clap. Well, all right. Definitely new to me. I did not realize that this award actually existed. Um my husband and I gone out to supper one night and it came through and I actually thought it might be spam or it might be um playing on me until I looked at um who it was sent to and then when I saw that it went to the university president I thought maybe I should read it and pay attention. Um but yeah so definitely surprised and it is I say it is a reflection of all of the students and the support and the partnership that has been built between the town of the University of Maine. When I first came here as a municipal clerk I was given goals of what they wanted to see with the elections department and one of the goals that I Yep. Any now that any members of the council have anything to add? you I would I was able to spend a lot of time at the polling place and just watch that symphony that um Shelley conducted and it really it it is amazing with all I mean it's like an army of people and anybody comes in and has a question or any of the workers have any questions they know where to go Shel's got the answer and uh it's it's pretty impressive to watch. So I understand Thank you Leo. I understand there may be somebody online who wants to offer something. Meg Ferguson, can you hear us? If so, can you uh you're welcome to add your thoughts. You're muted right now on our end. Need to unmute. Drop them. Okay. Um anyone else have anything? If if not, I I do. I just I think um an election, you know, the elections are belong to us and I I'm incredibly proud of uh just all the work that goes into it, the volunteer support that we have for our elections, the coordination with the university. I don't I can't say for certain that no other town in Maine registers more voters every election cycle than the than town of Oro, but I would I would dare to say we do, particularly if we leave it to town and not city. Um, and it's extremely well-run. I always I've been attending the counts uh for the past several years and just incredibly impressed with the professionalism and the assurance that it's done with transparency and with uh the bipartisan, you know, the observers from both parties to make sure it's done fairly and just the good feeling and goodwill that people have about our elections in Orno. I think it's a testament to what our community is, who our community is um as a as a college town and I'm grateful, Shelley, for your leadership and it just it's reflective. Your personality comes through and you created this culture around it and it's no accident. So So thank you very much for what you do. Moving on to item 5C. Uh we're going to talk about an incident, a troubling incident of violence that occurred in the Webster neighborhood over the weekend. And I know we've got members of the public. I I would suggest we hear from members of the public who want to share something with us first and then have a discussion with staff and among the council um from then on out. So if there are members from the public who would like to address this topic, um we'd welcome your your contributions to our meeting tonight. Please Jamie, please introduce yourself. Okay, sure. Yeah, the light needs to be on there. a green light on the base of the microphone. Is that what it is? Green. Yep. Is that working? Okay, perfect. Take your time. Um, first, thank you for everyone who has reached out or stopped by or called or text or emailed um or met with us. Um, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Jamie Ren and I live at 33 Crosby Street with my husband Tom Mitchell. Uh, Saturday night around midnight, Tom observed drunken college students trespassing on our neighbors property and he respectfully went outside to tell them to politely move along and that they were on public property. Uh, they weren't listening and after they refused to leave, Tom took out his phone to gather evidence of their trespassing. Uh, when he did this, the four students chased him on to our property and began assaulting him. They pulled him to the ground by his neck and repeatedly punched and kicked him in his head, neck, shoulders, and back. And at different points had him in a chokeold or were manually strangling him, cutting off his airway completely for several seconds at a time. Thankfully, um, all the while they were doing this, they were yelling homophobic slurs at him. Thankfully, our amazing neighbor, Jesse K. She of 28 Pawn Street was able to get outside and pull them off of him. Before the students got Tom to the ground, Tom was able to bang on our window and alert me, so I was able to call 911. Orno PD responded with four officers. Ponovskot County Sheriff's deputies came and Orno Fire responded as well. While this sounds like this is Orno and this is unthinkable in our town, this is actually the second time that a major assault has taken place on a Webster resident by students in our neighborhood. Uh, miraculously, Tom was not murdered outside our bedroom window Saturday night, but it was sheer luck, and it shouldn't be down to luck. Town policy and enforcement of those policies should have prevented this from occurring in the first place. The town's past approach and current policies to Webster neighborhood are obviously inadequate. We shouldn't have to live in a town where a threat of violence is even a remote possibility. and we shouldn't be afraid to be on our homes or leave our homes to tell people to leave our property. The Webster neighborhood has been vocal year after year for literal decades about the problems with students and I don't think that a fact the fact that an assault occurred surprised many of the Webster neighbors um shocked them and it was shocking to the entire neighborhood but I don't think anyone was surprised. our neighborhood hasn't felt safe for some time and this incident has elevated that feeling to an unthinkable level. Um, so on behalf of myself and Tom and all of Webster Neighborhood, I respectfully ask that the council make drastic and substantive changes to their approach in dealing with Webster Neighborhood. We've repeatedly raised these issues and we look forward to seeing how the council will address these moving forward because I hope it's innovative and changes from how the town has approached these issues in the past. Um, but again, I just want to say thank you to everyone who's called and reached out and shown up today. Um, and thank you to the interim dean of students for the work the university has done um, in response to this. So, thank you. Thank you, Jamie. Is there anyone else would like to be heard on the topic before we turn it over to staff? Okay. I'd welcome um Clint and I we talked about this yesterday. I know that many councilors were informed of this during the course of the day yesterday or maybe even Saturday night. Um we were able to connect with um our town manager Clint Tashan yesterday and I know he's been in touch with um police chief Merryill and we I kind of like you to give us kind of an your take on on what happened, what you can tell us what's what's going to happen um in in response to this incident and then we I think we should have a a further discussion about how we respond from a policy perspective. So thank you. Uh so I have had a chance chief Marilyn and I spoke he is available but we've gone over a lot about this and it is an ongoing investigation for the town. So there is a lot more going on and we are learning more as we move forward with this and that's part of the unfortunate nature of an incident of this kind that you know more and more gets built. But there is more happening. Um it we do greatly appreciate and I need to say more than anything on that evening there was multiple reports of of noise in that neighborhood which led to a quick response by the police department. um continued notifications to us. The 911 call, we were able to respond to that address as it was shared with multiple officers from Hasbanovskott County in an ambulance. Um more than anything, um this is I've been here about 9 10 months. The more that we take advantage of 911 when there's emergencies like this, the better, um we can address them as a community and as a town and we can respond. So, thank you to everybody that took advantage of those systems and use them correctly. That's exactly what they're there for and why they're here for these types of emergency situations. Um, in addition to that, we are working again, we will be working with the district attorney's office. We do have the individual's names and they've been shared with the people involved as well as the university um, so that they know what who is there. We don't know much more beyond that, just their names and ages, where they're from. Um, that will be also shared with the district attorney's offices as well. Um, we do have a date that it is scheduled for its preliminary and I that may not be hit or may be hit as the actual date, but August 7th is when it's scheduled. That's something that we found out late today um at the district attorney's office. And again, I think that's just sheer workload, but I don't know that for a fact, but that's the timeline that's been set in place so far. As more information is coming in, I know the police department's been relaying that and speaking with um persons involved as well. I think more than anything that in addition to what's happened there, we're learning more about what did happen and what the appropriate charges may or may not be. Um it did start there were four summones issued that included assault as well as uh criminal trespassings. So those were issued on that evening. Um in addition to that, I'd also say that um because the number of complaints, we looked at local ordinance and it looks like we do have a um uh disturbance violation uh level two by town ordinance for a for a party in the neighborhood with greater than 20 people in attendance. So those steps are going to be put in place as well to make some notifications to the property owners involved in that that which is that led to it and it's our understanding that the individuals involved in this were at that location originally as well because that was part of their conversation with our officers. Um outside of that, you know, this is where I think we need to transition the the conversation away from what happened on that evening and more along the lines of his requests. What are the drastic and substantive changes? That's a very difficult question. um one I wish I had an answer for you here today that was simple and easy and could be implemented. Um but there's multiple layers to this. I think that goes to the conversations as counselors. You've opened this dialogue since I've been here with the community. You've had multiple conversations and it is a struggle to find out what the exact answers are. Um it's unfortunate for the community and the neighborhood that uh individuals that don't know how to conduct themselves in a public setting are now setting the standard for our community. It's extremely unfortunate, but again that is where we are. those individuals um hopefully um as they go through this process will understand how much damage they've caused to our community and our residents because it is significant um and I'd like to see that change and I think the council I speak on behalf of the council community as well. Oh, I guess so. Yeah, go ahead. Before we move beyond the incident, um my one of my first questions for you and I know that you prepared an answer for it is why weren't these um are we comfortable or can we are we certain that they're are they student aged individuals or are we certain that they're students at the university between the ages of 19 and 21? But I do not know if they are or not students. You I would recommend they contact the university, but we do not know the enrollments of the University of Maine. And we have members of the student affairs team here and thank you for joining us this evening for something that the community is definitely concerned about. Um my question to you I think Sunday and reiterated again today was why wasn't there an arrest involved? and your answer satisfied me, but I I think y the bigger community would like to know why weren't people, you know, taken to jail um as a result of this incident. Police departments go through a lot of training. There's no perfect answer in the response to any of them. But again, and I don't know the full firsthand details of what they arrived on, but I have talked to the chief when they arrived at the scene and and and dealt with what was going on. The summones were issued. um the chief can give some further explanation, but under um their training, the town has to be uh careful and thoughtful in arrests because all people involved have rights. Um and we got to make sure those due processes are there. Um decisions are made with the information at that time whether there's an imminent threat. If I'm using that correctly, that's what was the assessment that needed to be made. Um at that, my understanding is is there evaluation at that time, at that scene, it had been contained. Um, not saying that was a right or a wrong assessment with information we'll learn after the fact, but it was at that moment at that time when they were there that those were issued and I believe at that point all the people left the scene and the officers stayed to make sure everybody had moved along. Um, we will learn from this. I know the department's already tied conversations about this and discussions and there'll be more training, but at that moment that was the evaluation made on this response that we could not arrest because there there was no imminent threat continuing at the time of their arrival and they didn't witness it. I believe was the other concern. The officers did show up and after the fact, so they weren't primary witnesses to it, which can also change the assessments that they see it and they felt it rose to a higher level or nature. Um, it's not a perfect scenario. It's not a perfect world, but that was a decision they made in that moment and and I am confident in the review that's going on as they continue to look in what happened that evening. Okay. Um, can you tell us the the house that is the site of the the address that's the site of the level two disturbance? That's public information, right? I think yeah, I believe it's I will share it. I believe it's public information, but there was a complaints on 80 North Main and that's the one that we were understanding that we're over the number of allowed um guests. Um so that's where what's originating and we will be contacting them to confirm this as we go forward. Again, that we give them an opportunity to share whether that was accurate or not, but that's the information we have. So is it confirmed that these individuals came from there? Yes, they said at when they met with the department that they had been at that location. Thanks. Sure, Sarah. Dr. Marks. Yeah. I I've also heard some questions in the neighborhood about um was that party actually closed down? Is that something the town has the ability to do or not? I've heard these questions on email going around like maybe maybe you can answer. I guess closed down is subjective. I don't know. We arrived and asked it to disperse and they were dispersing after the complaints that the community gave to us. So So in terms of a timeline, the neighborhood had complained about the event. Yeah. Police had reported to the property. Yep. And then um then this event involving um our Crosby Street residents um Tom and Jamie had happened after police had shown up to disperse the event. That is my understanding as well, but I could confirm those timelines if we needed that. Yep. Okay. Any other and in terms of the level two complaints will we be landlord and residents engagement with parties? Our ordinance requires no. It's the landlord and meets with the chief of police and and in this and and can be the town manager which I am going to participate. So it will be town officials meeting with them gathering information about what occurred. Yeah. and and possibly issuing it. Again, there is a penalty within our ordinances and once we meet with them and confirm all the details, most likely level two has a penalty component to it. Now, this was also a residence that was subject to a lot of complaints in the fall for an event that Yeah, that's what we're trying to assess. How many do we have? That's part of what we're required to give them under ordinances to tell them the number of complaints in a 360day period at that location. Yeah. And part of the work we've been doing on this as some know and you know we haven't it hasn't been as visible as I would like or it hasn't been as particip participatory as perhaps we would like but we've been looking at these um these ordinances and one of the the complexity of the ordinances is a challenge as is the awareness in the community about the role that community members have in bringing concerns forward so we have a basis to start from. Um, so this is not there's nothing about this that's welcome, but um, at least it it triggers a complaint that starts conversations. And I got to tell you, the the neighborhood is I think at at its end with this particular resident and the people that live there and the types of behaviors that occur there. Um, so I'm looking forward to getting a report back in terms of how those conversations with the landlord goes and then looking at, you know, every and all appropriate opportunities we have in ordinance now or and put in ordinance that could address um address the root cause of behavior in the long term. I mean, there's got to be a collaborative way to address the fact that this is a this is a location that invites a certain amount certain type of behavior that's just not appropriate for one of Or's residential neighborhoods. And um these kinds of this type of assault is just it it brings it to the forefront and brings more people out, but it's an under underlying problem in the Webster neighborhood that has to be addressed. Anyone else? Jacob. So, um I know we'll get in we'll get more into ordinance review and any changes that um may be done may helpful, but um what type of recourse do the police have right now? So, a neighbor calls um with a noise complaint. Um the police show up. I mean, do they have the ability to close the party? Do they have the what is what currently happens per ordinance? This I guess I got to be careful. You got multiple variations of the same hypothetical. What's a party? What's the numbers? By our ordinance greater than 20 becomes a problem in the sense that you that would would trip that threshold for being a level two. Then there's also if it's been multiple complaints at the same location. We also then have the very difficult um decibel meeting reading component of this and I would like to avoid that conversation because that's much more involved. So I think we're more focused on if you call and there's a party at your neighbors and you there's a complaint um they would show up and again if it's under the 20 I think you'd be in a situation where they'd have the meeting and give them that first warning. If there's further complaints and it continues on, that would continue to escalate and be at the evaluation of the officer. If it's over the 20, you're seeing the situation right here in front of us. The party was closed out, I guess, was the term that was used here. people dispersed and at that point we're now meeting the day later, the first day after that to review and contact the owner of the B of the property to bring them in and notify them of the potential violation and ask them to bring information that per ordinance includes the name, lease type, copy of the lease, and then ask them for what their plan is going forward to alleviate the situation because again may or may not be multiple violations. I don't want to speak because we haven't pulled the exact number of times we've been there. Um, but even at this as a type two, it was greater than 20 people. What are they going to do to assure us going forward that will not continue to happen at that address? I guess I real quick. Sorry, Leo. Um, and then beyond that, the any sort of recourse, fines, etc. are on the landlord or do we have an ability then to determine who the tenants are and find the students or stay at the landlord level or the property owner level we will the property owner we'll be notifying the property owner and again how they handle it there the ordinance got a bunch of different variables I mean there's even to the extreme that if the landlord does isn't responsive um the town could take steps to eliminate the problem um I don't know exactly what that means under the legal definitions, but I think that would mean begin proceedings to see that the tenants are evicted. Um, that would be unique. I've never seen um a town do that, but again, we have a norance that allows us or says we may have that authority. Um, again, we're testing some of those out, but again, I first step is we'd like to meet with the landlord. And that would be the common procedure for this type of violation to set up a meeting with the landlord. And again, repeat violations escalates it to doubling, tripling, and so on for continued violations at the same residence. It it seems like the challenge is, and this is the obviously the worst possible outcome, and I'm sorry that that happened. Um, but the challenge is obviously trying to assign blame to a landlord or even to the tenants, you know, to you're trying to assign a blame to the landlord for their for the tenants they rent to, which as a landlord, you don't you really don't control your tenants. It's not, you know, even if you said evict them, that would be a, you know, six-month process. So, but we're, you know, the danger is trying to assign the blame to a landlord to who then assign the blame to tenants who are who ultimately at the end of the day it comes down to their guests that were leaving, which they don't control either. So, I I understand and it makes sense that we meet with the landlord about the disorderly and maybe we already have from from this past uh cuz this has been that house has been going on and and I think from everything I've heard up here that's we've got a community police officer who's done a a really good job from what I've heard from a lot of residents over there with what happened in this in the fall I guess it was. So I think that's from the town's perspective I think it's been being handled adequately and and now you know this so this comes down to again landlord tenants tenants guests who again may or may not be humane students I I don't know so I think the it seems to be in the hands of the law which is appropriately where it should be. Um, and again, I guess I just caution that we before we jump on the landlord who ultimately doesn't h you don't have a lot of control once someone's in there. Like I said, I don't know that we can go tell them to evict a evict someone. And even if you did, those tenants have rights to not be evicted as well. So, I that's it's very it's it's pretty convoluted and you are that's multiple levels out on other possibilities of what could or couldn't happen. The reality is the meeting will occur and if it's ascertained that they did violate the ordinance, they will get a fine. That's where we're at right now with this specific one. But we got to have that meeting first um to just make those determinations. So uh and again, we're close. I don't want to step ahead uh chair when you're ready to look at the the beyond the specific incident in front of us. Right now we're kind of on that edge. So tell me when you're ready. I think um anybody else have anything on the specific incident? Oh. Oh, come on up. Yeah. Gonna come up here, though. Yeah. Well, we're a public meeting that we broadcast. So, come on up with Eric if you want. I kind of wanted to respond. My name is Eric. This I live at 108 North Maine and I've been in that property now for this will be our 18th year. And I just want to respond to you, Leo. I my my um perspective of the issues in Webster side are that they are localized to certain properties and and so this 80 North Main um was until probably eight years ago privately owned. Well, it still is, but there was a live-in landlord at that facility, at that building. They rented out the other rooms. There was never ever an issue there. There are now this property has become more of a regular issue and there are other properties in the neighborhood which are regular issue properties and then there are some other properties that are rented out that are equally large in the number of units that are rented that are not an issue from my from what I've noticed. So, what I would what I just want to stress that I think that the issue here is landlord oversight of who they're choosing to rent to year after year after year. And landlords do have they should have control over who is living in those properties and who's living in our neighborhood. And that's where this can begin. I think there needs to be some oversight on the landlord and an equal penalty when they're not doing their due diligence to make sure that screening and proper assessment of how respectful students are going to be or tenants, let's just call them tenants are going to be that are using those properties. Other landlords are doing a great job. Those those buildings are not an issue year after year. And um then the second thing that happens is the landlord did everything they could and then the students need to have some sort of equal punishment on them. My understanding is that the fines currently are really small. Couple hundred for a noise ordinance or I guess a level two, right? There's a couple hundred fine which is like nothing. I mean I think most of these tenants are just going to fork the money over even if they had to pay it upfront to have a party and throw it. So, I like the idea of having a warning system in general because people are going to do this inadvertently, but at the same time, um, at this point, like I I kind of want like the first warning to also include some some sort of sizable penalty so that there isn't a second time at all and that there's a general understanding in our neighborhood that these things just aren't acceptable. There isn't going to be a party with more than 20 people. It's going to be everything's going to just be kept quiet. It's going to become the norm in Websterside. Websterside's not going to have this sort of thing that's been going on for for a century. How how long has it been? You know, 100 North Main used to be the thing there, right? And that got changed shortly before we moved in. There needs to be like a whole shift in the philosophy of people that rent units in Websterside. And I think that that can come about by some change in the ordinance so that it has some some fangs to actually stop this stuff from ever happening in the first place. Thanks. Thank you, Eric. Did we have anybody else who wanted to You got to come to the microphone if you want to talk in a public meeting. Sorry. Thank you. My name is Paula Dilva and uh my wife and I we been here for three years in the town of Wateroo. We love love the town. We love the people but it is we live in that area. We live on Peters and the entire area is subject to that fluctuation of good and bad. But I'm just speaking now just to express my disappointment and frustration knowing hearing that those individuals were let go and not be arrested and I was under the impression they've been arrested. Maybe a lot many people here was under the impression and someone here said oh there was no witness. What more witness you want? You know I mean so if I go outside now I punch someone in the face I can walk away. anyone can walk away. So those individuals just walk away. So it's frustration unpunishment meaning okay let's do it again and it's okay. That's what I'm wanted to say. It's very very frustrating that this happens and okay that's it. Okay. Bye-bye. Nothing happens. Yep. That's it. Yep. Go ahead. Yep. Just before just to clarify, they were summoned on the spot which is and again arrest means do we detain them and take them in and put them in jail and at that point the evaluation of the crime committed at the time and the information we had there wasn't sufficient grounds for an arrest and the town of Orno runs a risk if we do arrest them and we are wrong that it can come back on us. We are continuing to investigate and working with the people involved to see if that was a there was more charges that could have been levied and we're working with them and we will continue to work with the DA on that. But as far as saying they weren't arrested, I would not make that statement. They were not detained nor taken to jail. But they were issued summons on the spot, which means they were in violation of laws of the state of Maine and our town, and they were served right then and there. So that that is and again, you may feel that's a nuance or something you don't agree, but we did do what we were supposed to at that time based upon the police department. And that's I support them in that decision and I support them as they continue to evaluate whether there was more information they should have been able to obtain at the time. Um, and again, that's that's why we have the police officers out there doing their job, and I commend them for what they do every day, and please keep at it. So, okay, Paul, I think I'm with you in the sense that my initial reaction is if someone goes to the hospital, someone goes to jail. that just seems like kind of the natural balance of things in terms of fairness. But after hearing how Clint described the incident and the responsiveness of the police department, I taking a step back and having a day to think about it, I I support Clint and his leadership and Dan Merrill and and the work that they did to respond, but I I completely understand your frustration. It's not my expertise to say AO or B, but you know there's an aggression property trespassing and where I come from those people wouldn't be walking playing games right now and you know bragging about oh we did this but now we can walk away. Haha that's my you know that's how I see it. Yeah, I think was a bad decision. That's my personal Okay. Appreciate you sharing with us. Thank you. Yeah. Anybody else want to address this? Y if you could please introduce yourself. Thank you. Hello, I'm Jody Clayton. Uh my husband Dennis Harrington and I live at 24 Crosby Street. I moved to Orno in 1986 as a student. I've lived here ever since. I've lived in that address for 30 years and I just want to briefly say that yes, this is a historical issue in our really lovely neighborhood and we also have many lovely students. I just want to reiterate and and support the idea that it does come back to the property owner and it does come back to the landlord. We have an apartment in our home. We own a commercial building in Bangor. I have commercial tenants. And you know what? Deterrence work when you're a landlord. If a slap on the wrist is all you think you're going to get, then you're really not going to be as diligent as you should be and could be in terms of managing your property. In my time in Orno, there's been healthy crossopulation between landlords and council people, and that has absolutely been reflected, I think, in our ordinances. That's a very blunt thing for me to say, but I've lived here long enough. I think I can say that. And I don't think um protecting landlords who are making profit on their properties should be our number one concern here. And I think it should be the health and safety and livability of every single one of our neighborhoods. And so I would just really urge the council to put that in your thinking about this. None of these landlords will be bankrupted if there is a substantial penalty that's financial to them. Maybe they just won't let it get that far. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? One more. Two more. You could please introduce yourself, sir. Hi, Steve Oonnell. I live at uh 34 Crosby Street. Can folks like lean into the microphone a little more? I don't know if I'm just Steve Oonnell. I live at 34 Crosby Street with my spouse. Okay. And um I mean, we're spending a lot of time. I feel insulted that the town is not looking. It It was an assault. Someone went to the hospital. Don't feed me a bunch of, you know, well, we got to look at this, we got to look at that. I mean, either we protect residents or we don't. You know, hey, you know, that's what you the town has lawyers for. So, if you make a mistake, you made a mistake. Someone was assaulted, went to the hospital. I mean, what I mean, if it looks like uh I just don't get it. And um the other issue about the landlords and the parties, 99% of all the students are great. There's no question about it. They're loud. Most of them if you ask to calm down, they do. No question about it. But somebody was assaulted and went to the hospital and the town is still thinking about it. We're still thinking about it. Come on. I mean, I I've never uh this is the same response we got when Mike Curtis was assaulted. A lot worse than this down at the same I think it was the same house, wasn't it? I don't All right. Well, anyway, it's like, oh, yeah. Well, we're going to, you know, the landlord down there said, uh, you know, he met with people in the, you know, in the in somebody's house and, you know, said the same thing, Leo, though, about, you know, hey, um, I can't control who's in here. I understand that 99% of the people in that building are good. Plus, I will tell you that there were a lot of students in that complex at that time who were afraid to say anything cuz people who lived there told them to keep their mouth shut. Okay? So there are very bad people amongst us that assaulted my neighbor and I'm and I'm here at a meeting and you're telling me we couldn't decide to do something more. Someone's assaulted and taken to the hospital. We arrested a coach uh we arrested a softball player and their father up at a bar a while back. you know, um I don't know. It doesn't make any sense here. I I just feel like we're insulting Jamie and Tom. We're insulting the town is insulting them by not doing enough now. Not tomorrow, next day, or the day after. All right. I am upset. And do I have five minutes or I don't have five minutes? Typically three. And it feels like we're at about three. So, okay. Yeah. All right. So, this is the problem we've got is we're talking about first it's an incident or is it an assault? I thought it was an assault. So, everybody's talking, oh, this is an incident. Yeah. Gez, you know, we got to do something about that. Don't get me wrong, uh, one of the Orno police officers saved my life one night. So, I appreciate what you do. I really do. and I don't want to be in your position, but I they were assaulted and and so what we're saying is if you live in Orino and someone comes up and assaults you in that situation, it wasn't a party they were at. They were at their house, choking them, taken to the hospital, and we're just going to go, well, you know, we got to investigate that further. I I just don't get it. I'm sorry. Have a What's that? I sir, right? I think the part that's being missed is all parties involved have been summoned for an assault and criminal trespass. I think the question is why we didn't take them to the Scott County Jail and that would have required a violation of a higher crime. But they've all been summoned well that that's what I was trying to clarify. They have all been summoned for assault and founders upset that somebody in a town was assaulted and taken to the hospital. What they what the hell else could be done? And we are very upset and four people have been summoned for assault and criminal trespass and have been reported. I have the names. If the council wants them, I'll share them. It's been provided to other people. What's that? It's a criminal record. So, it's public information. So, it's been provided. We have no idea. All right. We got to get this, you know, we can't have these back and forth discussions. We've got a podium. People can speak to the podium. We open this up so that people could be a part of our conversation and that's how we're going to manage it. So, hi Chad Eddie live at three Broadway the tough end. Um Jamie, sorry to hear about you and Tom. Uh it's not just over in Webster side. I was assaulted about four years ago at my location, college kids. A gentleman was out in the parking lot and versed was throwing his girlfriend out of the car. They live right beside us. I went out, proceeded to say, "Hey, what's going on?" as any dad would do with a daughter. And he told me, "Never mind." And to get back in the house, and I said, "No, we're calling the cops." Uh, as we were walking back to the house, he started to proceed to follow me, came onto our property, pushed me, uh, says that his father knows Zillinsky and all this stuff. He'll have me taken care of. Cops were called, they arrived. I had to show them a video. Nobody was arrested. What's it going to take? Somebody to get killed before we have rights for the people that live in this town? I've lived here all my life. Now we have people that speed by. Thank you to Bill Cody who's put up some signs, slow down, but they still speed. I holler at them. But what at the point are they going to get out and try to fight me because I'm telling them to slow down. It's as that we have to live in a world like this where we're afraid to speak our mind where we live to have people be safe. This isn't Orno. I don't care where you live. Orno is a great town. It's gone excuse me gone downhill since I don't care if you're Republican, wherever. When we have our leader of the country who can speak the way he does to people and now people think they can speak that way. We need to be tough and needs to start here in Oro and none of this bull crap of oh we have to follow the ordinance arrest people make people held accountability. I called the the um the landlord myself Bangor wherever they are and I had to proceed to have those tenants not come back the following year and what they proceed to do is as we're moving out take cat litter throw it over the fence to my yard to my dogs and all that. We live here in Orno. We shouldn't be the second choice our students first. It should be we live in oro. We should have rights and we should be able to talk and speak the way we want. It seems like the students have rights first. That's all I have to say. Thank you for what you guys do and thank you to the fire department, police department, and Tom. I'm sorry. Thanks, Chad. All right. I think we're ready to move on to kind of next steps. I would um invite um Clint you to give us uh kind of your thoughts on what the enhanced neighborhood patrol is going to look like on main day um on Wednesday as part of this discussion as well in Yep. Yep. Uh well, we'll start there then since that has been right up. Yep. Do you want to do that later? No, let's do it right now. Okay. So, yeah, we have had conversations main day. The council's had two or three meetings. We've had meetings of staff and there's um the typical pro typical rules and protocols have been in place and have been going implementing for the past 3 to four months which is standard practice meetings with the university meetings with ORO PD all the partnering agencies whether it's state police or otherwise in addition to that though some of the other things that we're doing in the area we're going to be more patrols in the neighborhoods for students that are walking around and that was something that was going to be added this year on a on a ongoing basis um no time intervals but trying to patrol pull the neighborhoods on the other side of the river every hour or so to make sure that the students aren't gathering or there's other problems happening in in the residential neighborhoods. Um, so that was one step that was added. And then in addition to that, we have set up a new location. The chief could come forward and speak up a little bit more about this, but they're actually doing more to triage with students um at the Knights of Columbus location, I believe. I might be getting that wrong, but I believe that's where it is and he's coming up. But those are the big enhancements to the patrols. And then I would say before he speaks, obviously in the light of with recent events, there's going to be heightened awareness. It's impossible not to have that in light of what's just occurred. So there will be more and I think the students should be prepared as that they are going in and as residents in the neighborhoods call 911. If you see an issue, call our police department. We'll have a lot of other agencies here to help us. We are staffed up significantly. We call in all active officers to work that day. We'll have better responses on that day if there are issues. Um and that's standard. That's what we always do. Um but again, calling us is the important thing for us to do. Um, and I'll stop away from, you know, different things that we do or don't do and how we work with the district attorney's office, but there are certain things that we do there as well. Yeah. So, as as Clinton mentioned, for main days, which is typically Wednesday, um, we have I've reached out to the University of Maine State Police. Um, all of our staff that's not working the night before is working. Um, right now I would estimate 35 to 40 police officers will be here in town. Um, between all of our staff, um, a compliment from the crowd management team with the state police. Um, and we've talked to Chief Flag. He's going to provide us some people to help. He's also staffed up for the day. Um, so there will be a significant presence in town should anything happen. Um, this is what we've been doing for the past, it's the model that we've been using for probably the past five or six years and it's been pretty pretty successful for us. [Music] Um, so yeah, there there will be adequate staff in town, resources provided. Um, members of the state police will be here. They have a special enforcement oi team that they have. They're providing those resources to us for free. So the biggest the biggest thing about main day is this is not something we've done this before on our own and we've struggled. This is not something that we can successfully pull off without our community partnerships and our relationships with other agencies. And it's the first thing I say when we meet on day one. Um I mean we are creating a significant draw on resources to the region for that one day for an 8 hour period. And we'll have extra patrols in the neighbor like squad cars in the neighborhoods helping students get home safely who maybe have had too much to drink at the at the major gathering. And I would stopping short. We'll have extra pole trolls in the neighborhood. Officers will be driving around. Um we do not have the capacity to give everybody a ride home, but if there's situations where people deserve a ride home, they'll probably get one, I guess, is the way I would communicate that. Um but yes, they're going to be out and that was one of the things I brought when we went over everything. I said, "With the amount of officers we have available and the amount of patrols, there's no reason why we can't just do undirected random patrols through the neighborhoods to drive and see things before they're reported if they're there. Allow a person in the neighborhood to come up to an officer and say, "You know what? Thank you for driving through. This is what's going on. This is what just happened and they went this way or different things that may be happening that are causing problems." But again, that does not circumvent the number one thing that a resident should and could do is if you see a problem, please call 911. We will have the ability to give rapid response all over the town on main day. Okay, great. 911. I understand call the 4,000 number which is outside when how would you recommend us calling 911 versus dispatch? So we are my recommendation always is you use the non-emergency line for things that are not pressing that you don't need me to be at your doorstep within less than 5 minutes. Right? So, um, barking dogs, loose dogs, um, even noise complaints, but that depends on what are we talking about. Is it loud music? So, loud music, I would use the non-emergency line. If it's 2:00 in the morning and you hear a disturbance that's um, a verbal altercation, then call 911. It's a judgment call. It all goes to the same location in Bangor. It's just a matter of how the call is received. Is it called as an is it received as an emergency call or is it received on their business line um which actually has a phone tree attached to it that makes you go through some hoops to get to an actual dispatcher. And I also have the further levity to say that I urge people to call 911. If you're confused, don't make a question in your own head. You call 911. That's why it was invested in as a country to have an e- 911 system. If you needed someone there and you're wondering whether you should or shouldn't call 911, you should call 911. It's not your job to determine how important this situation is. Now, if you know, as he shared, that it's not important and not urgent, then yes, please use the dispatch number. But I always heir, do not make a value judgment. We do not coach people not to call 911. That's why it's there. Feel free to use it. Okay. All right. I thank you very much. I think we should move on to kind of next steps and I know others had some had some thoughts. I have some thoughts. Yeah. And I've had some thoughts from all of you and I guess I would just start with it. You know, some great information has been brought forward and I think the police department's doing great work to continue to investigate the current incident in front of us to see if there's larger charges that could be levied against anybody involved. And again, that's something that the district attorney will also review. These people have all been summoned slasharrested and reported to the district attorney. I think the neighborhood issue, the concerns we're hearing and again some of it whether you know stricter enforcement for landlords what can we do with the tenants and again I've been asked what can we do about land use planning ordinances there are a lot of things we can do I do not want to portray that this is a problem that has a singular answer this is and I'm going to make a societal statement but unfortunately we have people in our society that don't conform to the norms and we've got to address those and we've got to make sure we take care of them. We got to have balance. So, I think there's things that the town can do from the extreme to the less extreme to try to implement changes. I think we need more time as a staff to research if you're genuinely interested. Everything from limiting to the number of apartments in certain neighborhoods, promoting other types. We've talked about this. I mean, one example, you could buy every apartment in the MDR in the town of Orno and convert them to single family and say, "We're not allowing longer allowing apartments in them." We do not have the resources of the money to do that. But again, there are options to be considered from the extreme and probably unactionable to the less extreme and when compiled together may make change. I would commend Orno that some years ago you invested in more high volume residential apartment complexes. Mitch, the numbers aren't here, but we'll pull them for the next meeting. you have less apartments in the MDR area now than you did 15 years ago because there was other opportunities provided. Those are the incremental things I think you could see to happen and continue. Um, but again, a lot of this if a person wants to buy and put an apartment in, our current rules would allow that in that zone. We can look at other options to change that, but I would like us to get the advice of a legal attorney that works in planning and ordinance drafting to see where our limits are and are not and how far we want to go as a community. And that's where I would end with is I think when you recruited me as your manager, we need more community engagement. I think the community development committee did a nice job to engage a conversation. I think it fell short. I think if the community that showed up here today would show up to a meeting without an incident in front of us, this town is ready to effectuate change and I'm excited to be a part of it with you. So I think this is where you need to continue on and if you're going to do some public engagement, it cannot be just the ones that want to show up that given night. I'm sorry it's beautiful out tonight. There's a lot of things we'd all rather be doing. If we're committed as a community to make this change, we need to show up and have these serious conversations and be committed to that. And whether that's a small group that's appointed as a an an ad hoc committee to work on this for a little while to report back to a larger community as a whole and take more input. I don't know that answer. But I think those are the steps you need to start thinking about putting in place because if we could do it tonight, we'd do it. I What's the, you know, uh Rome wasn't built in a day and if as they said in Boston, if it had been, we would have hired their contractor to build the big dig. We're not going to fix this overnight, but I think we can make major changes right now, substantive and drastic, that would have been begin to move the needle in the direction this community wants. And I think we'll see it over time. And I think that's where you're all coming from. And what do you want to see be a part of? So that's the kind of stuff we need to do. I think you need to give me time to compile some information, meet with some of the attorneys, whether MMA legal or our own town's attorney, and say, "What are some advice and some areas to consider and just kind of compile a brainstormed list of options for this council to review?" And some of you have shared this to me already. Um, I think it has to be balanced. I mean, yes, um, we don't know if this was students involved in this situation, but students are a continuing part of this conversation, but I think we need to look at the whole picture. Who's causing these issues? Who owns the properties where these people are coming from? And what do the neighborhoods want in them? And does all do all neighborhoods want this? Do we have a zoning issue that we have not zoned parts of our community community adequately because it's actually functioning in a different way and we need to reconsider that. And I say that because we're working with a wonderful consultant in Isabelle Exley who's coming forward with some of those kinds of suggestions that our zoning maybe has outgrown our use in certain places and we need to expand our ideas a little bit more. Um but again that goes back to the comp plan process and I don't think that's responsive enough by itself to address what's in front of us here tonight. Right. Anybody have any responses to Clint? I have one but I'd defer to others first. Councel Marks. Um, thank you, Clint. And I just want to say, um, I feel a little tearary, so I just want to say I feel really sorry, um, for Tom and Jamie. And, um, I'm very sorry that that happened to you. I also live in this neighborhood. I experience some of these problems also, not to the same extent. My house is a little bit isolated from some of the more problems. Um, I do think what Jamie said about although people were horrified and sad in the neighborhood, I don't think anyone was actually surprised. I think most people felt like it was something that was sort of waiting to happen again. Um, given how out of control a lot of the parties have seemed um over over time. And although I guess it's true that we're having less rentals in the neighborhood, I I don't live right where the properties are, but I can say that this year for me, I've heard a lot more of the larger parties. Maybe the house just moved closer to me, but I haven't had a feeling that this problem has gone away. I've more had a feeling that it's just simmering and kind of waiting for the next big incident. Um Clint, I really liked what you said about a comprehensive look. What I would really like to see for us as a council um is if staff could do the work. I know it's work and I know it's time and I know staff is busy, but I'd really like a very comprehensive list of all the different levers that we have the ability to pull as a council. whether those are ordinance changes um in terms of increased penalties for both individuals who violate policies or for landlords, whether those are different ordinances than the kind we have right now, whether those are zoning changes as you talked about. Um, I think that there's in of course there are enforcement issues too. Although I I largely think that our in our police are enforcing what exists in ordinance and policies and I feel like it's more on us to take a look at our ordinances and our policies and our zoning. But I think sometimes there's an urge to bring us as a council maybe like the I don't know the the more moderate tweaks. And I guess I'm hoping we really see a list that gives us the full range of all the levers that we could choose to pull knowing that there are some we will not be able to choose or choose to pull. But I've never felt yet like I've seen a comprehensive range of everything that could be done. Um and I love the idea of perhaps including this in a comp plan that comes back to us at some level. I'm not, you know, I feel like I'm not sure I want to vote for a comp plan that doesn't address some of these issues because they feel like they've been present for me at least the entire 10 years I've lived 15 years I've been in town and we do a comp plan every 10 years. Um, and I I think it's a really good point of potentially creating I think people in the neighborhood, what we can do is I say we because I'm in the neighborhood um is to show up regularly and show our deep commitment to putting in our side of the work because the solutions will be better if we do get the ongoing um communication from the neighborhood, not just once. And if that's a subcommittee, that's great. Or if it's just people being well notified and coming to as many more follow-up meetings as possible. I feel like that's the part that we can as community members do to help this process move forward. And again, I'm just deeply sorry, Tom and Jamie. Any other counselors have anything? Council Artson, I just want to follow up on what Sarah has said and what Clint has said and just ask that everybody let this anger turn into participation. Um, join us at committee meetings, join us here, be a part of the solution. Um what happened was horrible and I'm sorry that that happened to you and I just with we've got some busy weeks coming up. The weather's getting better. They're going to be more migrant through the neighborhoods. Please make use of the 911 8664000. Our police force is there to help and if they don't know then they can't be there. Anyone else? Yeah, I guess I would. Yeah, Council Lar just I mean you've heard it from a number of us, but I'm also very sorry this happened to you. That's unacceptable and I identify with a lot of the anger that a lot of people have expressed, including the gentleman who walked out. I I appreciate um the validity of his concerns um while also respecting the work of our police department and all who are working on this. This is a difficult time. Um, I am fully in support of what Sarah's asked for. Um, full range of the OP options available to us. Um, I'm curious, um, whether that's going to come back to full counsel first before we have individual committees work on this. I mean, I'm I would be eager to start looking at some of the disorderly conduct ordinances and ordinance review committee. Um, if that was the the will of council for us to start looking at that. Um, you know, I'd like to try to be proactive about this in whatever ways feel appropriate. I don't know what everybody else is thinking. I think it um I think it makes sense for us to we have another meeting in two weeks. I think it makes sense as we come into that meeting with a plan on how to divvy up the work and a plan on how to I think there are a couple different components of the of the work. I think the comp plan is a definite tentpole thing that we need to accomplish and I think it makes some sense to me for us to use that comp plan to make determinations on how we want our residential neighborhoods, you know, how to transform over time. And I know that, yeah, it'd be easiest if we could just buy out all the properties and put, you know, put doctoral candidates in them and be done with it. And um we don't have the resources for that, but there are things we can do. And I encourage staff to when you meet with people to you send the message that there's going to be accountability is coming you know um and when you uh and the comp plan's going to be a place where that lives I think and I think the other pieces we've been working on sort of a engagement I don't want to lose sight in the fact we're working on kind of engagement plan for the fall on September 6 with oral festival days where kind of bringing the community heard it again and again and again 99% of everybody's wonderful and we we want to spend time building those relationships as well. So if we come back to our meeting, our next meeting with a plan and then as part of that plan, I think we should have a circle of date on a calendar to invite the people that are here today and more to come back in and hear about how we're going to move things forward um before the start of the school year. you got a few more weeks of, you know, classes will empty and the town will be completely different two weeks, two or three weeks from now um for the summer. And I think that we should have a plan to um update and the community on what's next before the start of the new, you know, obviously before that, but before we all get back together in the fall for the start of a new academic year, which so many of us celebrate, I think we need to be um really visible about what we're going to do next. Does that make sense to people? All right. Well, thank you to everybody who joined. Yep. One more point. Yeah. Very shortly. I did also just want to say um in some of the discussion, our current ordinances do have penalties for both landlords and for individuals who violate the noise ordinance. The individual penalties are in 20 um sorry, the landlord penalties are in60 for ordinance and the penalties to individuals is in 1357. So, for anybody who cares what the current ordinances are that we'll be looking at, those are where we're starting from. Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you for this discussion and thank you for those who have joined us and for sharing your stories and for the work that staff has done to support it. Um, we'll move on next to item six, which is public hearings. Um, we have a public hearing to consider amendments to the town of oro code of ordinances chapter 16 general assistance. I'll call that public hearing to order and offer. Is Shelley, are you going to present to us on this? Kip, could we take a two-minute recess to allow people to exit orderly and allow the chair to step out for a Okay. Give Sarah a second to get back. Okay, we've opened the public hearing on to consider amendments to the town of Oro Code of Ordinances, chapter 16, general assistance, and our town clerk. Uh, yes, Shelley Crosby. So, I am speaking on behalf of the ordinance review committee. In your packet, you would have received the internal memo which basically outlined the reason um for the ordinance change on the general assistance program. The last time that we had an on-site internal audit in which DHS sent a representative here to go through our records in our program practice, they noted that our GA ordinance was outdated and recommended that we align ourselves with the MMA um sample ordinance draft. That is something that is updated as changes happen at the legislature and at the federal level and it goes through a codification process against MMA's um team as well as state statute. And if we were to align our current ordinance so that we simply had a disclaimer in our ordinance saying that we follow that advisement, then um that would eliminate the disconnect of having a program that is not in step with state statute and current program trends. Um, I did put this through DHS as well as MMA legal um as well as our town attorney and all three in their own variation came to the same conclusion and that was that the entirety of chapter 16 needed to be struck and removed from the current ordinance. Upon review by the ordinance review committee, we discovered that the last time changes had been made to that language was in the mid 90s. So, it's definitely due. Um, the program has been administered correctly. it has been keeping in step with how um the state statute is. And what has been basically saving us is that we do every fall look at those um recommended changes and the council takes action and approves those and that is how we administer the program. Um I think it was just an oversight over the years that no one ever thought hey we should go back and make sure that the ordinance aligns. so that um we're covered in both spots. So that is our um recommendation in order to have a better practice and more efficient ordinance language for residents to review if they have a question or we have an appeal or a challenge on a decision made. Okay, thank you for that presentation. Rob, as a chair of the committee or Leo as a member, do you have any Nothing really to add. Thank you so much for all the work that you've primarily done on this Shelley and thank you to Dan and Leo for well staffed. We haven't gotten her a national award for it yet like on the election stuff but we will all right um this is a public hearing and any um comments from members of the public hearing none I will uh close the public hearing. Sorry, we don't do any of those public hearings on the uh you know on all the other stuff anymore. So I don't What is the um So what's next on this? This will be before us for action a month from now. Okay, great. Thank you, Shelley. Next up on the agenda is uh acknowledgements by council members. Could we press for time? Is this people okay dispensing with this or if you've got someone I guess I'd welcome if you have one? Let's go ahead. Yeah. Yes. Um I mean I know these acknowledgements are for good things and I know I've been uh using this as acknowledging some tougher uh situations recently, but I'm acknowledge the very real worry and concern that I share with many members of our community, many residents who uh of our town whose uh health and safety and constitutional protections are under pretty constant threat right now. Um, a lot of people are worried in our town and I just feel like it's worth continually acknowledging um the violations of rights that are happening all over this country and that many people in our town are particularly vulnerable to with a sizable immigrant population, a lot of students at the university who are uh vulnerable to many threats right now um from ICE, immigration enforcement who's operating unconstitutionally and many other threats. Um, I just feel it's important to say that out loud in meetings like this. Um, this is not okay. Shouldn't be normal. And uh, I am uh, in solidarity with all those who are worried right now. Thank you, Rob. Any other acknowledgements by council members? Councelor Marks. Um, on an up note, I wanted to acknowledge the library who's starting their seed library program. I might have that term wrong. Maybe Lori could correct me, but um, I'm very personally excited about this idea of swapping seeds and, um, having that kind of exchange in our community. And I really want to just thank all the members of the public who came tonight for a hard discussion. So, I would I'd like to um acknowledge and thank staff. The ornal stops 2025 safety survey is up and online. I don't know how much engagement we've had with it yet, but probably not enough. Um, I completed mine and it only let me vote once, which curses on you, Cody, for that, but I'll maybe I'll figure ways around it. Um, but I do hope people take advantage of it as an opportunity to identify spots in town. You know, we now have the the new lights up on Westwood that and it takes a while, right? I mean, we voted on that back in the I think it was the fall and and they're up now for the start of kind of the outdoor season. appreciate the work that public works did to get that up and the cooperation with the school to get the signs configured so it's it's really visible and I'm pleased that it's there. So, thank you. Any other acknowledgements? Okay. Thank you. Um next we'll move on to um consent agenda. We don't have anything on the consent agenda because we moved order 2573 to an action item and we'll take that up first. Could as as an action item, could I have a motion putting order 2573 order appointing the following boards and committee members? So moved. Second and town manager wants to add one more. Agenda went out. Uh John Quinn did confirm for a 5-year term to the planning board um as an associate seat that would expire in 2027. Um and again, that's because it's an unexpired term that is being filled. Okay. So, um I accept a motion to add that to the appointment. So moved. Second. All in favor of that motion. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? Unanimous. Okay. And is there any discussion on the overall order, the amended order? Jan, I just wanted to say that um this is coming out of the kneecap committee having had um information forwarded to us by the staff um and um we're making this recommended uh suggestion of a slate of people to appoint right now. You should also expect as a council that there will be some more appointments probably coming your way because there are still some seats that are open and not yet filled. And we are also waiting because we referred to the library to library board of trustees to bring us a recommendation back. That'll happen I think next month and to the DIIB committee to bring us recommendations back on applications for those committees. So this isn't a complete and done deal. It's a you're appointing these folks and you'll see some more people coming or you're being asked to. You'll see some more names coming soon. Okay. Thank you, Council Baker. Yeah. And sorry Dan, I would have brought this up uh prior to the meeting, but I just thought about it. From a procedural standpoint, should you recuse because Jaime's on here a couple times? I don't think there's any reneumeration or anything like that. I mean, I'm happy to acknowledge it, but conflict of which is a legal issue and a conflict in I mean, yes, it is just no funny. Yeah, I'll recuse just a so I can go home and tell her I didn't vote for her. Thank you, Jacob, for that. Listen, I'm saving you. I don't know. Maybe you don't want to vote for her. So, I'm saving you. All right. I have no uh family relations with any of the other nominees I that I know of. Um All right. So, order 25. I'll recuse myself and all those otherwise in favor of order 2573. It's unanimous with one abstension. Dan demerit abstained. There's nothing. All right. Order 2574. An order authorizing the town manager to draft a contract with Fresh Start Incorporated for renovations funded through the opioid settlement funds for an amount not to exceed $30,000. Could we have a motion? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Chief Merrill. Hi. So, been working on opioid settlement funds for a long time now since Clint got here. I really appreciate him pushing me on this and we're able to move the needle. Um, but I think it was not sarcastic at all. I promise that was your opioid pusher. Is that what was completely that was completely genuine. But in all seriousness, I think a a really great opportunity for the town and for a use of the funds, a portion, a good portion of the funds that we have right now has come to light um with the fresh start recovery house that we have over on College Avenue right now. Um I've met with the owner a couple weeks ago and I've been talking with people in the know in the industry about expending funds and I've met with Clint. Um, and I have a proposition from the owner at Fresh Start to do an addition to some of the existing space they have in their house right now to add more bedrooms. Um, and I've spoken with code and that's part of the um, contract that we got to work to draft to make sure that everything stays compliant as far as the ordinances go. Um, but should you guys approve it, I'll start working with the town manager and code and other agencies to get approximately $30,000 off the books. We have 40,000 and some change in the bank right now. So, if we did up to 30,000, we'd still have some money left over um to do other projects with. So, it's compliant and I think it's a good use. And we'll we'll work on a contract to bring back finally. That's the one thing I want to remember to is the final contract before we execute it. We'll bring it back to you guys for presentation to make sure that it's in agreement with what you guys want. Questions? Is this the property that um was before the board of appeals? Yep. Yes. Not that it matters for this purpose, but just to to have the right parcel. Yep. Any other questions? I would just say that this is um I think about as uh obvious, effective, compassionate, um appropriate use of these funds as I could think of. Um thank you very much for your work on this. And I was just going to say the same thing. So, I'm just going to say what Rob said. Doesn't happen too often. Yeah, that's once in a once in a row. Okay. Any other comment? Any me any comments from member of the public? I have a question. Oh, Andrea, when you say contract in construction project, is that also including bringing the units different units to code? Yes. So, that's part of the contract that we need to work on with the town manager's office. Um, yes. Some of the meetings that I had already. met with Pat and David Daniel and the fire department and started with before I came to you guys tonight to see if this was even possible. They all said yes, we just need to make sure that we do X, Y, and Z. So, we need to make sure that we get those things in the contract and make sure that those are the things that the owner over there can agree to before we would expend the money. Um, but yes, that is the ultimate goal to be compliant with the spending regulations and the town ordinances before we do this deal. Does that answer your question? Okay. Any comments from members of the public hearing? None. Um, all those in favor of order 2574 is presented. It's unanimous. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. Uh, council committee reports, we'll go with uh, community development. Matt, so um, as Dan has said, we're in the middle of another or no stops initiative. Um well, it's an ongoing thing, but um we're collaborating with the town staff to evaluate pedestrian safety issues in Orino and residents can share their concerns and identify problem areas by completing the Orino stop survey found on the town website. And I is it on our socials, too? Yep. And socials. And what is that called again? Can you remind me is exactly what that homepage, Facebook links, everywhere. So, please fill that out. Um, I still have to fill mine out, but I'll do it. I'll do it for you if you want to give me your And then, um, we are in the process of the Oro Festival days revival. The planning and and coordination for the fall festival is ongoing and the next working group meeting is May 13th at 6 p.m. in the council chambers. Um right now we have no updates on the vernal pool special area management plan and I will turn this over to Dan and Andrea if they want to add anything that I missed. That was a great that was great. Okay. uh finance and operations committee. Punt till next week or uh next meeting when we'll do a full presentation of the audit, but we had it today. It was great. A lot of good information. Excellent. Um nominations, evaluations, and council policies committee. Uh you pretty much saw what we worked on in our last meeting, which was a slate of folks nominated on to you or recommended on to you. Um we'll be doing some followup on that and continuing on our other charges this month. Ordinance review committee. Rob. Uh nothing new we had we didn't meet this month uh as it was determined by staff that uh there wasn't quite enough uh for us to work substantively on yet, but we're going to continue uh working on the charges so far given to us by council. Okay. Um diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging committee. Matt, I don't have any further updates right at the moment. And council chair update. I don't think I have anything. We do, you know, we our discussion was uh long earlier today on the Webster, well, let's call it the assault and um if that's what it was and that's what the summones were for. So, we'll have a plan coming back to you in two weeks on, you know, Clint, Sarah, and I and I welcome anybody who has suggestions on how to proceed to be in touch with the three of us. We meet every Monday as a as a team to kind of look at the agenda and as you know we invite everybody to preview the agenda before it's published so everyone can add things to it and respond to it. So there's that and if I did want to add one thing Matt to the community development committee it was uh I noticed that the the speed sign on Forest Avenue got moved up to the top of the street to catch people coming into town. Um which I think is great and a nice give us a nice new data point to consider. So thank you for that. All right that ends that. We've got a town manager report. Thank you. Uh BNC really quickly. Um I did give an update for the work plan. My goal was to try to get that every uh at least every uh 6 months. So again, this is kind of a fivemon window where we've been working on it since 1st of December. But again, um love some feedback if counselors want to email me on their thoughts on format and content. But it kind of gives you the status as where we are. Um again I think it begins to show that we're making progress on just about everything. Um but again I reiterate completion of it all I don't think is feasible but we're going to make progress on it all. Uh so that's where that sits. The other part of this is that I did meet with uh the chair leader both chairs uh chair and vice chair and tenatively sket set scheduling May 12th for the annual evaluation to create I'm going to get this wrong Dan but the process or procedure in in that that you would meet in November with me at the six month and May would be the annuals is kind of what we're working towards with the council. Is that a fair assessment? That is a fair assessment and it's very important that we adhere to what we committed to in your contract and provide a transparent way for all the council to have input on on your performance as we plan for budgets and and things like that. So, thank you for that. So, if you're ready, we can get into what was going to be the init the last this is your last input before we get into budget. Budget starts the workshop next week. This is a summary. Um, so we're bringing forward to us the the last opportunity here as we built in the calendar this year. We were going to have two or three engagement meetings of the council to talk about whether it was revenues I think was the very first one. Um the second one we kind of began the conversations about format and how we're bringing it forward. And then tonight I can give you um the summary again without and very intentionally without one page. And we're going to talk about why I left that page out. But if you're prepared we could start with a short presentation here. Dan ready and willing, I think. So, I don't know if possibly it could be brought up. It's an attachment so maybe people at home could see as well um that are going along with us. Um this will be a component of the full budget. This is the budget summary. And again, the intent here is to provide something that the public could look at without having to dive into all I don't know 100 pages or so that you normally have. Are you able to share it on the screen for those who are I thought he was working. Mitch, what are you doing here? I thought you were on vacation this week. Last week. Last week. All right. Welcome back, Mitch. Yeah. You able to get it up for us, Cody? Yep. So um so the one thing that is missing and you'll see is and and I say is is that the hypothetical 2025 tax rate calculation form and again that would again the reason I've pulled that back there was versions prepared but again I think this is a conversation I want to kind of walk into this year and learn with you. If we start talking mill rate and mill rate projections now we're going to communicate to the community the wrong motives. This budget is about setting our revenues and expenses, which then leads to how much money we need to raise in taxes, which then enables staff to go see what happened to the town's value for growth, homestead, etc. throughout the year, and then set a mill rate. And again, to reiterate, the mill rate sets the bar for what the town needs to raise for taxes to meet its obligations, county, town, and school. And then we use that same number and put it on each individual property so that they know what their fair share is of the total. Um, and it gets us into conversations about homestead exemptions, gets you into conversations about overlay, um, personal property as opposed to the real property, how much of it is eligible for the Betty reimbursement. It's a very intricate process. It's not something that's intended to be shared in a five-minute conversation. So I guess that's where I thought if I shared it now we'd immediately be jumping to well did the mill rate go up did it go down where's it where let's talk about what's happening to our expenses and revenues first is where I wanted us to focus in on so the remaining parts you know get us into our cost center summary our revenue summaries our expense summaries I do a one-pager or the staff has provided a one pager on the uh wastewater pollution control facility um again because that does not affect your taxes that is a rateayer based model, but it is part of the town budget. And then the last page is a modified version of what you've been calling impact on a home or for borrowing capacity or different values. And I kind of put my own little spin using the exact same model you had, but I just said, let's see if we can try it a little bit differently. So, as you go through, I'm staying on the cover page. Um, right now with revenues, I bulleted the six key things that you will see when we get to that page. Um the first estimate of revenue sharing has us losing $225,083. So that's right out the door225083. I reviewed all revenues with staff and we've gone we're going to be going over again tomorrow is the last staff meeting after we meet today to get your direction. Um but EMS billings has been generating more revenue. We learned that even in this year's audit from 2024. So I increased it. I was being careful because there there are some economic changes that got to be careful. And I would never promote going to 100% of revenues in one year because you're just setting yourselves up to lose. You never want to see a negative revenue from budget to actual. That means we're losing money that we didn't intend to. And that's why I always use a little bit of conservative approaches to it. We've been seeing higher return on investment earnings. I upped that another 75,000. That's significant increase. But as you will see in the audit showed today in the presentation we got, we've been seeing significant growth on the investments on earnings. And I think even if we see a dip in interest rates, which I doubt, but if we did, I think we'll be able to sustain our current rates. And that is well under what we would be earning. There's room in there. Um use on TIFF, we're shrinking. Couple things. Last year you did a 90,000 one-time special project. We're going to take away allocations for like one-time special projects um to the kind of the budget. Those are going to be independent orders going forward, especially in TIF. TIFF's like a revenue fund, a reserve fund. So, when you allocate those funds, I want those as independent orders, not um married into an entire budget and a larger philosophy. I think it should have a documented history of a vote of the council to spend a tiff on a particular project. But again, that's irregardless of that. We also been given some suggestions that we are aggressively budgeting our use of tiffs towards operating costs. So we wanted to mitigate a little bit and we made some measures and when you go through the tiff presentation you'll see an itemized budget of what we're proposing and why. But again that would be an $88,000 $88,561 less. Um you have used undesated or unassigned f fund balance of about 300,000 a year. It is growing and continues to grow and without seeing 2025 third quarter estimates look that we're at least going to maintain even with a high use of overlay this year. You had a large lawsuit. We're going to be negative in that because the lawsuit exceeded overlay for the year. Um we'll talk more about that maybe later as well. But again, I increased it from 300 to 450, $150,000 increase. Part of that motivation was to offset some increase in expenses as well as to try to offset the loss of revenue sharing. Um overall all revenues of the town with all the losses and all the increases $50,131 more than last year's budget were able to increase. We got a small increase out of it which would offset any losses there. And again, with the 225,000 loss revenue sharing, I think staff's done a great job to work together to come together with a plan that we feel is sustainable. Are you not counting the 88 tiff in that calculation? I am. I didn't tell you all you're going to see all the ups and downs lower. This is not all the changes. This is the key ones. There's a lot of others we moved up. There's some licensing. There was some uh I uh we're going to do the EMS building was up. Uh revenue from uh recreation's up. So, we'll go all through those when we come down, but there's more. So, those shouldn't if you did the math, that's not going to work there because that's not all of them. That's the highlights, the bigger ones. All right. Thanks. Um same with expenses. So, you're Okay. Again, I wanted to get to you to kind of giving me some input here and outline what the summary is. Um the pay and benefits were estimated in January at 7,628108. That was the first draft. We've finalized in this draft budget. It came in at 7,6420. That's for all employees. That's a $45,185 increase. So I want to fully be transparent. What we estimated in January was close but not dead on. And it we have refined it and came back with that number. Um this is based upon 4% colas and then all and conforming with all negotiated agreements within the town for collective bargain agreements. Actual wages is only 254 or I shouldn't say only that feels like I'm editorializing is 254 615 of the 405185. I also wanted to make sure we're going to have conversations when the fire departments here of that the fire department safer grant ends in the beginning of March. That will have a one-year cost to sustain which is included in the numbers provided of $92,97. One full year or just to get through the end of this that's just the remainder of the partial year. It's approximately one3. Okay. Thanks. Yep. So if you tripled it, you would get a annualized cost on current pay and benefits. Yep. Um, workers comp for the town has increased significantly. We're reviewing our final audit, but as of the draft budget you have in front of us, we need $143,755 more just to cover our increase to workers comp. We have a very high mod factor. Um, as a team, we're working we've instinited the safety committee and we're working with them to talk about some of these issues to see what we can do on a global scale to reduce workers comp claims. um we are not in a problem situation. We just have some high loss ones that are carrying through and leading to some increases. So um but that did affect multiple departments and when you look to the cost summary sense area you'll see how it's hitting each of the different departments and how much their share of that 143 is. Would you know off the top of your head like approximately what do we what what's our total workers comp and what percentage increase does this represent? Oh, that is an excellent question and I don't know it off the top of my head and I don't think Zach does either. Wow. So for those uh Thank you, Zach. Uh for those who are online, uh I think the you said there was about a 30% increase. Last year was 340,000. Thank Yeah. Thanks, Zach. That's that's a big increase. That's And I know we had big claims, but that's a lot. It is. Um the Okay, this next bullet, I did something I told you we wouldn't do, but we looked at the budget, and again, I think it also shows where the staff is and how we're approaching budgets going forward. You adopted a capital improvement plan for the year. We've reviewed that capital improvement plan. We looked at what the impact was in the budget and we have now updated appendix C for budget for the budget only. So the amount of dollars that was in the capital improvement plan coming from taxes was about 100 1,662,000. When we saw the draft of the budget, we reviewed the entire list. We're able to restagger it. And I have attached appendix C here for review, but we've reduced the one-year allotment for the capital improvement plan by $196,660. We are pushing some things out. We actually brought one forward. One of the bigger changes is the fire department. We brought forward the purchase of SCBA equipment now to go along with a new compressor now and we've delayed some other equipment. The reason we're doing that now is it reduces our cost for maintenance and repairs by about 10 or $15,000 per year in the operating budget. So again, we felt that since it was only a year or two out, if we're buying the compressor now, if we do them all now, we're going to be on a good 10 to 20 year window before we do it again. So again, another big change. We can talk more when we get to the capital section in the budget, but what was in the capital improvement plan, staff is making a recommendation for a small smaller amount for this year only. Okay. And so not that's not from 25 to now. That's from original plan to current plan. Correct. A budget plan if you will. Council marks. Yeah. Clint, just on that appendix, can you I'm not clear when I'm looking at it. These highlighted lines, are these the ones that you changed from the original plan? I was going to bring it up when we got there. Can uh Cody, can you bring up appendix C, the other attachment, please, so people at home can see. I see colorcoded lines on ambulance purchases, pickup truck facilities, mini front end loaders, and excavators and but those are not changes. No, the changes are anything with a bold black bar around them. They've been circled. So when you look the first one you will see is public works mini front end loader had had 35,000 in the second line. We have taken that to zero. Oh, is that also the car lease way at the top under code? That one also have a box car that was Yep. So, that was a $2,000 expenditure that is in your operating budget. We do not need to have that in the capital plan. That's an operating expense now. So, the changes are going to show by a bold do they all show a zero a blank dollar amount under 2026 or are there somewhere the amount was just reduced? Uh the uh No, the only one that won't let me just find it. Where is it? fire department inspection. Yeah. So, the the harder one to see is airpack reserve and general equipment fire. That was actually increased by 57,500 for the airpack reserve. Uh okay, for the airpack reserve use, then there was an additional $120,000 to expend this year. So, that was a big increase. But again, we removed excavator, we removed the front end loader, and these will be in your one. This is the summary. Okay. Right. We'll get more the itemized sheets. These are going to be listed out in their in their departmental summary sheets. What we did to change it and why. Um, but again, higher level, we reduced it by $196,000. So, if you look down at the very bottom of appendix C, scroll down for me, Cody, if you will. That bottom bar of totals. Keep going. Keep going. Right there. The first line in there is operating taxes for this year. that had been 1,662. It's now 1,470. That's where the change that's the total net change. But we will get to the itemized list for the budget itself. That's just helpful to know where they are. And I guess my other question is just these are not projects that are just being pushed to next year. These are projects where you have a like a just change the timeline. Okay. Yep. So overall expenses, if you look at just pay and benefits and workers comp, the expense budget would be up $548,940. The total expense increase that is being presented outside of school and county is $558,610. So again, about $10,000 more uh more than than just those two items. So you've talked a lot with me as the manager about what are the things that are I hate the term but um fixed you can't change well you can change them but the things that are incremental fixed costs that are happening that staff can't come to you with a plan other than showing you what the increases are going to be pay benefits workers comp those three numbers are significant this year 548 there are many other changes in the budget but again we were able to net effect affect them we made some cuts in some places andreed increases and others. Um, and we can show you those as we go through, but that's the big cut would be the capital improvement plan. Last year, you needed 1.66 million. Now, we're proposing 1.47. That's $196,000 decrease. That allowed us to do other things in other areas that we couldn't offset. So, if I almost ready, I'll kick it over. Just want to take a quick look um so that people understand that the first thing you see the municipal operating expense is a form you liked an awful lot last year. I liked it. It gives you the um departmental and with highlight comments I did catch this morning with the team and I got to thank Lori. We left in there that the library had a temporary relocation cost of 50,000 that was shrunk to 25. It's a placeholder number because it's not adequate, but we did put some money into the budget because there are going to be costs for relocation to deal with. Um, we can discuss that more when we go through the library component of the budget, but we wanted to make sure that there's at least acknowledgement for that issue in front of the council as a whole and the community as a whole that as we are about to get a major project down there, they do have to relocate for a little while and how we pay for that and where they go is not 100% determined yet. So we're working on that. Um but then it goes through all the other departments and you bigger departments have more lot bullets because there's more happening. This does not res represent every change. It is the highlights. Certain things we thought were really good to point out when you get into the uh the school uh comes oh wait we're out of the municipal town budget is up 3.79%. But if you looked at that as an impact on the tax rate, that's 2.75. That's because we're only about 37% of the total tax commitment. So the amount of money that it bears to the taxpayer is smaller than what our increase is because we're not the entire budget. So again, those two numbers are at the end, but our expenditures are up 3.79, which would be a tax rate impact of 2.75% on the whole compared to last year. And then the third item in there is all our revenues itemized. There are some that are in yellow and that is because we don't set those. We can guess at those, but those are done on the tax rate calculation form. We don't know those till we know our value. We will not know our value till 8 July. So this is part of this mill rate projection. And I want to make sure when this is put out there for the first time for the community to see that this is a very tough conversation because it is an estimate. It is our best guess on numbers that are not yet determined. But again, those four numbers that I've highlighted will be determined based upon the number of applications the assessor has to process when setting our mill rate. Um, tiff is another one. We do not know until we know our mill rate. We don't know the value of our tiff district. But again, that one we budget for a little differently and that'll be a different uh issue. But as you go through percent increase or decrease is called out in every column. Um you know again bottom of page 13 you can see we increased fees by $2,500 for the agent fees. Seeing some increases there. I budgeted for it $250 more for dog licenses. We were bringing in more. We budgeted the increase to show it. Uh same with birth, death, marriage certificates. But again, a lot of little changes throughout. Building permits have been underbudgeted. We have been seeing more building permits and we're quite certain as the years we look forward, there will be more. So, we just kind of estimated a little higher on all of those. Uh total revenues again I've already told you the bottom line but if you go to the bottom of page 16 we're up $50,131 for the year is what we're projecting general fund revenues. Okay. And then um the we do have the hazmat funds at the end. Those are reported in as static. We don't those are not part of the general fund. That is a non-general fund expenditure. but we do show it to you so that you know that we have uh 395 coming in for hazmat funds. The next section after that's expenses with a little bit more detail than the first one. It's not just by department. It also breaks it down into some of the individual categories. When you meet with the staff, they will have the itemized lines of these as it's entered into our budget. That's the booklet we're building this week or finishing I should say this week. Uh it's mostly built. It's just got to be compiled. Um, but again, same number in here. When you go through to the bottom line on paid bottom of 18, we're up 558610. And at the very bottom of 18, I'm reporting tonight, county taxes are up 105,393. Um, that's a again, they reported a 10% increase, but for our budgeted purposes, that's going to be an 11.67% increase on our tax assessment. and school has will be setting their budget tomorrow night and we are under the understanding from our conversations they're coming in with zero increase. They've had a lot of increases expenditures kind of with health and benefits but they did have a significant increase on state subsidy this year and they've been able to come in with a flat budget zero increase. Um payroll summary. This is something we've been working on. I don't know if you got it in this format in prior years, but I thought it was very helpful to show the 7,642 that we reported. And we also took and did that same summary for last year, so you can see the change and where that money is going into the three areas of pay, retirement, FICA, and health insurance. And then the the finance director, Zach, had done a comparison. I said, "Let's do a comparison for 25 and 26 as a side by side." And we did that and gave some notes to you about what's going on and why with each of those. But this is just again for your uh wages. This is not looking into paying benefits. Wastewater pollution's in there showing an increase. Um we'll talk in greater depth about this, but they are uh having to have an increase overall to the rateayers. We can talk about what that impact will or won't be as we go through, but again, they have increased costs for wages and we are contemplating the idea of a $6 million bond. So, they have built that into their beginning to build that into the reserve budget plan. This does not get them to full, but it gets them very close. And then the last one is your home value. Mill rate last year was 2135. That means if your house was worth $100,000, your taxes would be $2,135. We did not get into homestead veterans exemptions and all those things. This is just straight up value. If you had a $375,000 home be $8,000 a year. Uh just an arbitrary number, but we wanted to give two numbers for people to look at and compare to. You should be able to work on incrementals. And then I like what you had done. If we spend 10 more, 50 more, 100 more, or 500 more, those are what the impacts are to each of those two columns. So, if you wanted to spend an extra half a million this year, a person with a $375,000 home would pay $261.51 more. And then the last one is is that I did a million bond service and a $6 million bond service so that as you move forward and we know what we're doing on the capital plan, property taxes, we're estimating recommending a potential $6 million bond that would be implemented in the next year or two and that will cost a $375,000 home $235.36. I played around with the median home value with our assessor. I don't think it works in here for the different purposes, but we did have a rough estimate and the median home values right around the high twos for ORO. But again, to share it specifically, there's a lot of inconsistencies and what people have for homes, meaning that some have a lot of outbuildings, some don't, and we can't really drill down that closely. But this was truly just a single family home. But again, some single family homes have a large barn, have a swimming pool, have expansive decks, which changed their values a lot. But roughly the high twos is the average assessed value of a home in Orno. So that gives you an idea of what the average median sorry median would be. I did do a little bit the valuation. So the value of Orno in 2025 was 717 million. For tax calculation purposes, it's higher because you have to raise your homestead exemption. But again, that is the number that was used and was reported on our form. And if you estimated expenses through property taxes is 15,307950. You could do the math for a mill rate there if you wanted to, but I'm not ready to give you my projection on a mill rate yet. So that's why we withheld that. I want to do more refinement with staff. And I've actually even talked, we're going to do some training on the tax rate calculation forms. I haven't done one in 10 years. Full disclosure, staff's newer and working through it. And I want us to all get a full refresher on it before we present. So we're working on that as well. That was a lot. And did I hit my half hour? Yep. Nice job. Sorry, but that's so I've end with the question. Are there major changes this council wants to see us prepare and implement before we begin our presentations in a week at workshops? Go ahead. Um, let's go. We start with Jacob, then come back this way. Jacob. All right. Uh so it's combination of me understanding more uh this year than I did last year at this time but also I think it's it's better presentation. So thank you all um for putting this together. Um a couple questions specifically. You had mentioned Clint that uh independent projects will not be part of the budget but come through special order. Uh what? Yeah. Is that Sarah's mouthing tiff to me? Is that just tiff projects? Oh, it's tiffs. Okay. Yep. All right. And then so related to tiffs, why why are we looking to reduce tiff spending? From my understanding, it's one of those things if we don't use it, we don't get it. Or is that more of a complicated question than it? No. There was a general sentiment from conversation only with our auditors that we have a large amount of use of our tiff budget towards operating. So in taking that piece of information, we looked at the whole budget and I said let's reallocate where we think it should be and where the numbers should be and see what happens. And we came in slightly lower. So I said let's go with it and see how we do for this year. We'll propose it with a slight reduction. Um, I think there's flexibility to say you could increase that, but again, the more of you put towards operating budget, the less that's there for large projects down the road. So, we just wanted to limit its use, and we thought that was a good number for this year. But again, with council direction and feedback, if you'd like to see it go up, we probably have some room there to increase it. Um, third question, um, the humane pilot, do we I I know we budget for it. Do we actually receive a check from them from the university every year or certainly do? That's something we just hope to Okay. Yep. We send them an invoice and they send us a check. Okay. Our electronic fund transfer. And then I've got a lot of questions, but last one in the interest of time is um in the capital expenditures. It was very minor. Um but one of the uh savings was that you moved a car lease from capital expense to um regular expenditures. Thus that wasn't capital in the capital budget. Um I didn't see but are there any other I would say bookkeeping movements like that feeding into that reduction or are they truly No. Okay. That would be in the capital side only. That's the only one. Uh, we did ask that staff if you had small expenses this year, meaning things that we just didn't feel were capitalized. Um, oh, give me an idea of one of them off the top of my head. I know we had a few. Oh, tasers. The tasers. You may have used to seen those in the capital budget. That's an ongoing cost. We pay for a lease, so we left that. And I said, "No, that's an operating cost. Don't confuse capital budgeting with something you can leave right in the police department." Yep. All right. Thank you. Um, again, I've got a lot more, but I'll let Leo and Sarah um, if we're going down the line. Yeah, sure. I don't have uh a ton of questions other than as far as what to see. I do maybe it's a little bit of a safety blanket that that one pager that shows that puts all the the I think it's revenues first. No, it's just it's major the expense categories and then the revenues. Just that one pager I think would be good. I don't think it's in here. It is. I think that's the one if you're remembering the one I believe it's also the one that ends with a projected mill rate and that's why I pulled it. I said I don't want to give it out yet because that ends expense revenue and then mil and I said you know what I don't want to put mill rate out in the community yet because I don't think we're ready for that conversation. Yeah. I like I like the the look of that sheet just to see yeartoear but and um I just I want to just comment appreciate your work and staff's work. I think you know coming in way you've come in is is commendable. Um, we'll still look and see if we can do better, but I think I think you guys did a did a really great job. And as like I I believe you're kind of recognizing revenues. They're they're real, but you're also still being safe with those% to not to kind of again, we don't want to over overestimate and come in short on revenue. We could push them a lot more, but we're pushing. Yeah. No, I think that's I think you've seems like you've struck a a really good balance. So appreciate all the work by staff and by and by you for the on this. That's all I got. Amanda, do you have any questions? Hustle marks. Just I when I go right to left, I mean it. You don't have any? I'm good right now. Okay. Um I have a couple. I wondered on this um page which is the I don't know the one called FY26 proposed municipal operating expense budget with the cost center and the comments down the right side. Yep. Um uh page number 11. Sorry. Thanks for pointing out page numbers, Leo. That would have been simpler. Thank you. Um on this one, this this was very helpful. I much appreciated it. I was wondering in the comment section um we had asked last year at the end of the process if this comment section could also have a line which reflects what you put on your summary page on page nine under each cost center just telling us how much growth there has been in um wages and benefits in that cost center. Um I mean most of that is a fixed cost but it helps when we look at the number. Most of that number is usually coming from wages and benefit rises. It would be helpful just to see that in each cost center and to include if there's been an FTE increase in that cost center to also put that in the comment section. I think we only have a half FTE increase and I think it's in general government on this proposed budget. But um just to note that there so that this one page kind of has everything reflected if we look at it um if that's possible. And I second what Leo said about these documents are great and really comprehensible and very succinct and I think they'll be a great basis for um community members to look at. Um, I wanted to ask on your overall budget summary page and your sort of question back to us as a council, which as I understood it was, okay, is this where you want us to come in or do you want to see something different? So, I want to just be brave and put it out there and say that I appreciate the work and I would still like to see this not come in at this kind of increase to the taxpayers. So, I mean, I realize it's 560 um,000. It could have been much more, but I would like to see us work to lower that. Um, and I would personally not like to see more cuts on our capital side where I feel like you've already brought us some of those. So, I really would like to hear if there's anywhere in the operating side that we could reduce in specific just on what's on this page on the expense side. I'm aware that everything listed here is a fixed cost um with the exception of the safer grants and I'm under the impression that we're due for discussion of those this year and that the fire department will be bringing us that discussion. Um, you know, my understanding is that was an experiment that we had a grant for a certain number of years. The grant is ending and it feels like the right time to me for us to have that data as a council on what value to the community has been brought. And I do think it's important, it may be a lot. I just don't have that data. Um, and it's important to note that although that's 92, you know, 93,000 this year, it's 279 really for a full year. So, if we choose to continue funding this program by taxpayer dollars, you know, that's a 279,000 a year that we're looking to take on on the taxpayer burden. Um, so I guess for me that's a little bit different than just continuing as is, and I'm hoping we're going to get a lot more detail, but I'm really open to anywhere else. I would I just I really would like to see this come down. I don't want to see us with 560,000 more to the taxpayers. Um, I understand money was tight this year. Um, but I I still want to work us have us work harder to bring that down. That's me and I'd like to hear from my fellow counselors where folks are at because I think that's what Clint's asking us. I didn't realize that's kind of as directly as you were asking. But I guess I would just of course say the opposite of what Sarah said about capital. I I still I I'm I'm not if if we're going to look and I and I and I support that that response to to try to do better. Again, I do commend what you've done and but if we can do better, I I'm in support of that. And and I do think we we've we're establishing and I appreciate establishing um uh funds for things that are coming. I mean, and that's that's good budgeting. I understand that. But I I I think that I I would I want to I and I don't think this this meeting was to dig into that stuff which I I I did look at and have some thoughts, but um it's a b it's obviously a balance like everything else. So, um I think I think that can use some more scrutiny personally on on the capital sides and establishing different capital um and and I'm and I go back to last year being our biggest biggest expense ever. I think I don't think that's been proven wrong. Sarah's Sarah's thrown in inflation or something at me to to try and uh compensate for that. But it it that's our biggest time our biggest capital budget to date. I think coming off I and I don't I guess I don't know that's why I asked that question earlier. I don't know how much we've come off last year's budget um on on totals, but um I I think that's still an area for some scrutiny. I'm all in support of of seeing where else we can and and I sort of was also to to Sarah's point. I guess my thought is we're going to get into the details as we go through the rest of this and and I I'm not we're not prepared or I'm not prepared to say where and what at this stage. So, but I thanks Adria Rob guess I would largely agree with Leo. Um um although I'm I'm yeah I'm trying to wrap my head around some of the things that we'll have to dig into in more detail once we have the full budget books. I guess just to to finish it up, wrap it up, I will say that I I think a lot of very good work has gone into this. I'm comfortable um or resigned to the idea that we are a um a high service community without a the a significant tax base to um and people look to and want those services and I think that this is a pretty a very responsible start. I'm definitely open to if there are things that we could do that don't short change us down the road, but um I feel like the message, one of the messages comes out of this summary discussion is I think needs to be that staff's put together a really responsible start. Um staff needs to know that council values their work and and the budget that we develop over the next few weeks, you know, several weeks will I I think will um reflect the support we have for the work that that people do to serve our community. So, I'll just share that. Sure, Sarah. Um, and I just wanted to ask also, Clint, kind of based on our finance committee discussion today, um, I know you've increased the undesated fund balance amount by 150. I just also want to ask, is that something that we could consider increasing more based on the discussion with the auditors or not? You can bring that back to us at our next discussion. But I know you just mentioned something about the TIFF funds, and there might be some wiggle room there, but is there some wiggle room on those undesated funds further or not? Thank you. Okay. Do you mean using more of them or do you mean building that up more? You mean using more? I heard that at the discussion with the auditors that there was potentially some room there. So, I just would like some more information back from staff. Verifying. Sounds like t tax cuts to me. That's what I just heard, but maybe not. No. No. All right. I'm teasing. All right. Uh I think this completes that discussion. Um thank you for that and thank you again for all the work that staff put into that. I know um several members of this council have been spending a lot of time on it and appreciate that work as well. Um we do not have any public petitions. Item 12, item 13, future agenda items and council requests for supporting items. Are there any? Yep. Going once, twice, three times. Public comment. We have another opportunity for public comment. And seeing none and we are going to move into executive session. Council may take action pending the discussion. Um, so I would take a motion to move an executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA section 40563 regarding acquisition of real property or economic development. So moved. Seconded. Moved and seconded. All those in favor? It's unanimous. Are we going to move next door? You can't vote. Oh yeah, you can vote. Yeah. Um, are we going to move into the other room? We're going to do it here. What's that? Since we can come back to the TV, we can move to the other room. Hey, look the other room. You're very good at what you do. 59. Yeah. Hang on. Okay. Cody, are we live? Are we live? Um, okay. Uh, declared ourselves out of executive session and we will not have an action item on our agenda this evening. We have asked the town manager to get back to us in two weeks with um some additional information. Uh, and with that, I would take a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Seconded. Seconded. in favor.