Springfield City Council — January 19, 2021

0:06 i guess it's time for me to call the city council meeting of january 19 2021 to order and uh uh roll call counselor van gorden counselor moe here counselor rodney here counselor stare here councillor woodrow here and counselor pictionary here i would like you all to uh accompany me in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with individuals under god indivisible with liberty and

0:52 justice for all can i get that right okay these instructions as we begin our meeting tonight i would like to ask members of the audience who are joining us online god i can't see right so please keep yourselves on mute until you are called to provide public testimony there is one time this evening designated for public testimony and will be listed as business from the audience on the agenda if you are joining us online with a tablet smartphone or computer and wish to speak during that time please use the chat window it looks like a speech balloon on the upper right corner

1:38 please send a comment to the organizer with your name board or general location and the subject you would like to speak about you can select the organizer at the bottom of the chat window i will call you and it's your turn to speak for people calling in my phone only you're in listen mode and cannot be called upon the order of let's see the order public cash some money will be as follows anybody who has submitted a chat or anybody who submitted email in advance at this remaining time neil will read emails into the record now what do i have next here uh springfield upbeat anything no your next item is the consent calendar okay

2:23 uh consent calendar uh do we have uh accept or changes i moved to to accept i moved to approve the consent calendar second roll call counselor ben gordon yes councilor mo yes council rodley yes councillor stare yes councillor woodrow yes and council pictionary yes no public hearings tonight uh business from the audience

3:09 if you'll give us just a moment we'll get the queue together for folks that we have waiting thank you how many how many do we have do you have any idea so far we have about six but they still may be coming in our first speaker counselor is ben christensen and ben i will activate your microphone for you you have three minutes then yourself muted you'll just need to unmute your microphone

3:56 our declaration of independence says we hold these truths to be self-evident and though the constitution hadn't been written yet jefferson was referring to the rights that they would later put in the constitution that he also referred to as unalienable on the day that king said the words i have a dream at the steps of lincoln memorial he was all he said the founders also wrote a check that he called uh that came back un uh marked unsufficient funds he's talking about the same set of rights that jefferson and the idea that these rights have not existed for all people in this country mayor lundberg's letter she refers to engaging citizens and she calls them gadfly the greek philosophy the gadfly bites another animal and it sucks the

4:42 blood from that wound that is left behind traditionally this term is used to devalue the voices of people who are critical of their government at the time of the founding of the united states it was very different from the european democrat monarchies of the 16th century where the wealthy and the aristocratic elite were the only ones who are allowed to govern a french man named alexa tocqueville wrote about his experiences living in the united states with one clear um uh observation the level of citizen participation in government using this term gadfly just to describe your fellow citizens is shows a level of contempt for the basic ideas of this country is founded upon jefferson makes another clear observation in his writings that the government that the the right

5:29 to govern is voluntarily given by the governed but it has one great cost it can be taken away we have many examples this informal a formal declaration saying we no longer want to be part of another country a large portion of our country uh seceding over the institution of slavery and a million people standing in front of lincoln memorial demanding equal rights they are all a withdrawal of consent as jefferson describes in the founding documents the supreme the city of springfield has a long history of using his security forces to silence the people that would speak out through violence intimidation and fear this culmination culminated in an act of violence last summer or last summer in july when the police attacked an unarmed line of protesters we also see this with a lack of

6:14 transparency from the city manager's office in the derogatory language used by the city council and the mayor to devalue the voices of the citizens who would challenge the people in power let me make this clear this is an assault on the founding principles of our country and is unacceptable of an elected official i'm calling on the city council to build an environment that encourages citizen participation to direct action and engaging the city officials exactly as the people who founded this country would have intended or we the people withdraw our consent no justice no peace perfect timing counselor our next speaker is lauren williams

7:00 and lauren will get your microphone going here should be able to unmute on your side lauren and you'll be ready to go hi yeah it seems to be a little confusion the chat box isn't available to me i can't see that on my phone or on my computer but regardless can you all hear me i'm yep yeah okay okay great um i i live in ward 2 as you know um i often go for modest runs from ward 2

7:45 to ward 3 and in that roughly 3 mile loop i passed the home of somebody who participated in the violence at our state capitol as well as the insurrection in dc a couple who are proud in organizing neo-nazis and another couple who identify as proud boys and organized violence locally and nationally and these are just the people that i'm aware of why is there silence around actual danger and violence but for peaceful civic engagement via public comment gadflies this type of behavior from leadership unknowingly or not that contributes to injustice against its own community members public service is the privilege of representing those same individuals

8:31 that being said the responsibility that now rests on each and every one of your shoulders is to denounce white supremacist terrorism and the sentiments expressed by the former mayor in her resignation i ultimately think this was a distraction by somebody who hasn't held who hasn't had a seated position for almost a year and i'd like to focus on what went unmentioned like the need for police reform sbd comprises a full 40 percent of the general fund the lawsuits that have been brought against spd show a consistent problem with the culture the settlements that people receive are deserved however the police should be the ones paying to rectify the wrongs they committed if this were the case perhaps the depar

9:17 our department would be attempting to shift the culture and would stop hurting people instead of learning no lessons and providing no feedback to involved officers when they perpetrate significant harm against members of the public or those within their own department while there there's still so much to be done i'm proud of the first step city council has taken and the progress that's been made thank you i yield my time thank you very much next speaker our next speaker is amy cothron and amy if you unmute your microphone you should be good

10:04 all right can y'all hear me yes go ahead all right tonight i'm not going to tell you anything you haven't heard before in fact i'm actually not going to tell you anything because we've been telling you this for the last six eight months you know that there is an issue with spd you know that it has a toxic culture you know all of this yet you still want to keep their funding just as high as it's always been you all know what's going on me voicing it here it's pretty obvious by former mayor lundberg's remarks in her letter what she thinks of us speaking here and honestly i feel like that culture permeates to a number of you council members

10:49 uh that being said you know what we want you know that we're not a french group like mayor lundberg or former mayor lombard acts like we are and based on that i just want to say shame on all of you shame on the city of springfield i am actually leaving this city shortly and part of the reason is because of how i don't feel safe in this city if i got pulled over i would not feel safe and all of you are permitting this to happen as this continues to happen you'll see more quality members of your community who contribute and do things for you know for their neighbors for their friends they will also leave it may just be across the river to

11:36 eugene it may be elsewhere and those who participate in horrible acts like rob davis richard elsie and others will continue to call this place their home i think i just gotta leave it at that because you know you've heard it all i see the rest of my time thank you sorry you feel that way uh next next speaker our next speaker is ji wang and g you're um if you're on your microphone you should be ready okay hear me yes we can uh hi i'm xia uh thanks for your time uh what happened at dc on january 6 was not an accident

12:22 those the master terrorists and the white supremacists were not suddenly shown up in dc they came across the country and their power has been reinforced by local law enforcement and local cities tolerance for decades many oregon white supremacists at dc also stormed the capitol building in salem on december 21st they are team tim davis rob davis gina shipman and richard elsie this was also not an accident all of these white supremacists from springfield were also at the thurston collaboratively working with spd to hurt the bipolar community on july 29 last year the trauma they caused to bipolar community is not healing team david's violence at dc was

13:07 not an accident rob davis was arrested as salem on january 1st was not an accident richard lc was arrested in eugene by using flagpole to assault people was not accident on january 9th what made them so entitled to spread their violence from springfield to state to national level what the critical role of cspd has played in the last year to reinforce this local violent white supremacist why springfield city councilors haven't used language white supremacy to condemn local wise local violent white supremacy the violence after daniel 6. it was a darkest day of damaging american democracy in history they were so close to killing these officials in the congress building

13:53 these officials can be any of the officials who served the city as well been leaving china until 35 years old mayor lamberger's letter just sounds like a chinese communist party dictator's propaganda it's ignorant and dangerous her legacy of fostering local white supremacies should be ended last weekend i just shared with a friend that the current springfield city counselors are showing change to learn by listening to concerned citizens voices it's time for what springfield city councillors to grow out of mayor lamberger's non-cultural sensitivity which is very outdated in the 21st century i demand springfield city council to

14:38 denounce white supremacy because white supremacy should not be welcomed by oregon should not be welcomed and reinforced by springfield city anymore thank you thank you very much uh next speaker also the next speaker is dana herkett dana your microphone there you go good evening my name is dana herkett and i live in ward 1. my statement will be echoing some of the points already brought up but i am reading it in its entirety because we all deserve to be heard the deadly takeover of our capital on january 6 was absolutely bone chilling i hope we

15:24 can all agree on that i saw the statement released by lane county officials and signed by council president mo so i was glad to see the violence acknowledged and condemned by our local officials so thank you for doing that i'm here to again point out that we undoubtedly have factions of these same highly radicalized and heavily weaponized white supremacists right here in springfield some of whom were in washington causing carnage on the six like others have brought up and who have so far been able to brutalize and intimidate people in our communities without consequence the fbi has stated that white supremacist terrorist attack will only increase in both frequency

16:11 and severity throughout 2021 so counselors what are you doing to ensure the safety of your constituents particularly members of our bipoc jewish and lgbtqia plus communities and those who have already been targets of white supremacist violence and who already feel completely unprotected and victimized by our law enforcement furthermore were any of spd's employees in attendance at the capitol attack you are our only voice so we need you to ask these important questions we are at the mercy of both your action and your inaction counselors i hope you recognize that now more than ever we need to hear this

16:57 council loudly publicly and unwaveringly denounce white supremacy we need to hear where you stand and i'd also like to address christine lundberg's resignation letter in just saying that it's completely inappropriate that part of a public statement from an elected official was used to call some of their constituents petty names this attempt to bully people into disengaging from their involvement in local government is suppressive undemocratic and sadly very telling alienating and othering marginalized voices is never acceptable especially when it comes from a leader thank you thank you for your comments

17:45 neil councillor speaker is shay gallagher hi shay you're up uh yes okay can you hear me now you're good yes okay well if you've already heard from other speakers tonight we have a real problem here not only has the springfield police department been remiss in investigating and arresting the people in our own community who participated in a violent insurrection they also haven't given us any assurances that neither the department nor any of its staff or officers support that insurrection and as the federal investigation continues more and more law enforcement officers

18:30 are being identified as members of the mobs that invaded our capital and used a fire extinguisher to brutally beat a fellow officer to death that's how much blue lives mattered to that mob our community all of you here on the city council we all deserve to know if any of our springfield officers were present in that mob given the anti-semitic and racist slogans of those terrorists minority members of our community deserve to know if any of our springfield officers were in that mob given their attack on media our local journalists many of whom are crowdfunding their own anti-ballistic gear deserve to know if any of our

19:15 springfield officers were in that mob as members of the city council one of the vows you take is to uphold the constitution it's not too much that you demand that members of the police department you oversee also uphold our constitution and our democracy but on the eve of the inauguration instead of a disavowal of treason armed insurrection racism and anti-semitism instead of vigorous investigation and the arrest of local people involved in that treason springfield police chief lewis issues a statement that there are quote no known specific risks in springfield and gave us another example of his

20:01 unwillingness to prioritize the safety of our community from the ongoing threats of white ring extremists i want to know why i want to know why chief lewis and the spd won't make a statement against racism anti-semitism and treason i want to know why people that were a part of a terrorist mob two weeks ago are walking around our town tonight so i'm asking you our springfield city council to find out why to uphold our constitution and to find out whether any members of the springfield police department the city of springfield employees participated in anti-democratic attacks in either salem or washington dc

20:47 this police department has already shown us that they won't investigate themselves thank you thank you for your comments uh neil our next speaker is jenny osteen you're up ginny you should be able to speak now [Music] jenny can you hear us well hold on jenny for a moment our next

21:32 speaker would be holly shaper and holly if you unmute your microphone there you go can you hear me hey i'm holly schaefer from ward 2 as you know um i'm really going to echo what a lot of folks have already said tonight so since our the last regular session our nation has been shaken to its core first there was an attempted violent overthrow of the u.s government by armed right-wing extremists we've heard about the springfield presence that was there this is followed by reports of possible extremist violence coming again this week so that's a very tense backdrop which has us all on edge during this tenuous time when a reassuring or unifying message would be

22:17 very welcomed former mayor lundberg submitted her second and final letter of resignation she could have chosen to focus her letter on unifying a clearly divided city or even offered you words of wisdom as you prepare to work towards solutions for these systemic problems however she instead chose to use her final official communication to attempt to discourage civic engagement and to broaden the division that currently exists worse yet the implicit messages in her letter will continue to deepen the inequities that we need to work to correct and they support an environment where white supremacist ideology can thrive luckily you've so far chosen to walk a different path

23:02 you have embraced the challenges presented during public comment you have chosen to engage with your constituents and have sought to broaden the accessibility of council meetings for everyone i want to commend you for that i also want to push for more councils should immediately and publicly denounce white supremacy councils should do this for the good of our community including our small business owners who were angered when they suddenly had a group of heavily armed vigilantes patrolling main street in response to a peaceful march on june 6th this was a march that was attended by parents with children people with their dogs our neighbors city staff our community and yet heavily armed vigilantes felt it was appropriate to patrol main street and to send a clear

23:48 message that bypoc folks and their allies are not welcome in springfield council should do this for those who have been consistently harassed threatened and injured by both spd and by local right-wing extremists denounce white supremacy for all of the bypoc people and allies who risked their safety to give public testimony at the independent investigation forum additionally as others have mentioned please investigate whether any spd officers were president present in washington dc on january 6th and report that out publicly epd has already investigated and reported to the public that none of their officers were present springfield should do the same we have a right to know so please continue on the path you're on and encourage more civic engagement instead of less please

24:35 continue to allow participation both virtual and when appropriate in person and please join your colleagues from the area and denounce white supremacy immediately thank you thank you holly it's nice to hear from you next speaker our next speaker is jay smith and jennifer if you on your microphone we should be able to hear you okay we're gonna hold on jennifer as well and we'll go to our next speaker uh jennifer potter

25:26 hi can you hear me okay um my name is jennifer potter and i'm a resident of ward 3 for over 20 years and and i just want to start by thanking all of you for your service i know you're all volunteers and this is not an easy job being on the city council especially at this time so i appreciate your your work um and then echoing other speakers i call on you to make a statement um as a council condemning white supremacy i think that is a really important message to send to our community at this time and also i keep hearing on the news that police departments all over the country the national guard the military are examining their staff people to make sure that they are not white supremacists and or supporting domestic terrorism

26:13 and i call on the city of springfield to do the same thank you thank you very much neil council i believe we've uh got jennifer smith now ready jennifer if you unmute your microphone hi jennifer hello thank you for having me here tonight um i'm also going to talk about what's you know obviously on our community's mind tonight um local community members of so-called patriot organizations participated in the dc assault on the capitol they're seen on video many images you have some of these in your inboxes um people also breached the oregon capital in salem participated in a riot in dc in

26:59 december participated in riot with proud boys in portland in august participated in injuring bypoc blm protesters in salem in august participated in counter protest in thurston on july 29th still no charges for many of these crimes the same people who have been protesting assaulting blm protesters since july in springfield including individuals who showed up to give patriot liberty speeches at rick brazil's community forum in december around the thurston incident i would ask that springfield leadership and police need to take a strong open verbal stance against white supremacy and white nationalist terrorist action

27:45 and i would say that chief lewis needs to stop referring to these people as the all lives matter group um and take a little more realistic view of the situation um journalists and bipac protest leaders have been wearing body armor for defense against armed white nationalist extremists in springfield since july let that sink in i'll leave you with this words have meanings and consequences and the result of the spd's inaction over violent anti-blm protesters has emboldened them i also ask how many of our officers and staff within spd fire ems and the broader springfield city government are members of extremist

28:30 groups such as the three percent the oath keepers or other patriot militias thank you i yield the remainder of my time thank you very much neil our next speaker is elizabeth utterbeck and elizabeth you should be ready to go hi elizabeth thank you neil um hello council it's lizzie utterback from ward these last four years have taught me that i cannot take democracy for granted it doesn't work on its own it requires community participation so here i am again i spoke last time about the importance of public comment then i read christine lundberg's final letter to counsel

29:15 in which her hurt and pain are obvious perhaps healing could have occurred had she acknowledged the part her family has played in causing harm to others instead she chose to double down on protecting white supremacist values i've started to notice what is referred to as dog whistles and christine's communications and i see those in chief lewis's remarks too an example from her letter is when she writes about protecting our small town values being a son downtown in a state that was founded with racial exclusion laws this comment is absolutely a dog whistle without saying this directly she is able to communicate that she wants to see springfield continue to protect and reward white people and exclude bipac folks

30:00 from those same privileges then she goes on to share her annoyance with people who spend their time trying to unduly influence counsel with comment she named calls you've heard from others about this this was especially confusing to me as someone who does spend their time commenting during council meetings because i have no way to unduly influence you i have no power or authority over you you are not my family members i do not employ you you are not receiving financial donations from me if anything i put myself at risk to make these statements here so it makes me wonder what is going on where undue influence is occurring christine's comments support the type of behavior we saw in the salem capital siege in december and more recently

30:45 the attempted coup in dc where domestic terrorists subverted the democratic process with violence and threats of violence this is important because we have residents of you as you've heard here in springfield that participated in these activities who have also assaulted peaceful protesters and who have also used your public forum with rick brazell brazil to further intimidate residents and push their white supremacist platforms another source of confusion was chief lewis's remarks on social media stating he's not aware of any threats this week when he absolutely does know of these threats and does know about this person's participation in dc because they've been reported you may have heard the term silences violence unlike democracy oppressive systems work without community participation they go whether you support them or not

31:30 and they run non-stop so in my role as a mere lowly commenter with nothing to influence you with i'm asking that you denounce white supremacy all joking aside please take this to heart and make a clear statement please back this statement with action call for an immediate review of city employees including police officers to determine whether any participated in the attempted coup and further screen them for membership of white supremacist organizations thank you thank you very much neil you got more chelsea wilkes um and council we have we're down to our six speakers down to six okay uh chelsea wilkes is the next

32:18 speaker hi can you hear me okay great thank you so my name is chelsea wilkes and i live in ward 3. i wanted to respond to former mayor lumber lundberg's letter of resignation in her letter as we know at this point in her letter she stated that a small group of citizens spend their time trying to unduly influence city council she called these citizens gadflies she effectively urged the city councils sorry city councilors to ignore the concerns of these citizens as one of those gadflies i was insulted by mayor lundberg's dismissive remarks my goal in attending and speaking at these meetings is to better the city that i

33:04 live that i live in and love i take time out of my week to better understand how our local government works the things it does well in areas that could improve to be honest making comments and asking for change is not easy for me i don't enjoy speaking in front of people as is probably obvious in this moment nor do i like being confrontational i do this because it's a civic duty and i cannot in good conscious stay quiet i found mayor lundberg's response not only insulting to those of us who are showing up and expressing our concerns but also to you city councillors who have been taking our concerns seriously i want to thank you for your efforts and implore the next mayor not to continue in mayor lundberg's

33:50 steps but to demonstrate a greater value for civic engagement even though it may not always feel pleasant beyond being insulting to those of us who take the time each week to attend these meetings mayor lundberg's letter reminded me of her response this summer to a black unity march in which she said black lives matter and all lives matter i was struck then by her missed opportunity to speak directly to citizens of springfield who may genuinely not understand why all lives matter excuse me is a non-response to the statement black lives matter black lives matter as a statement is not political it's a matter of human dignity and civil rights our next mayor must do better than mayor lundberg than

34:35 being informed about why black lives matter to that end i would like to ask city council to ask those interested in the mayoral position specifically how they will address racial injustice in springfield and what their position is on police accountability and reform thank you for your time thank you and by the way you're a better speaker than i am next next one council our next speaker is brittany dialecta and brittany you should be able to i i think we've run through a lot of time uh than we normally do and i hope is it is it all right as the counselors that to continue on with with the speakers that we still have

35:23 okay yeah thank you so much great thank you can you all hear me yeah great thank you hi my name is brittany de la conte i live in ward 2. as many of you may remember i am also the recently appointed cultural minority representative on the springfield police advisory committee i don't normally give comments but i also saw mayor lundberg's resignation letter and felt it was relevant to my position to provide comment to counsel i was admittedly pretty shocked by that letter and again as you all know my position is specifically put in place so minority voices will have a chance for input um it is clear in the title of that position that minority voices are not the majority and i was very concerned at the dismissiveness

36:08 former mayor lundberg took towards those voices calling persistent quote-unquote non-majority voices gadflies made me very concerned that i will be considered a gadfly for simply fulfilling the duties of my position and frankly i am now scared for how i may be treated on the police advisory committee although i understand that former mayor lundberg's position is not necessarily reflective of all leadership i would very much appreciate some kind of statement or reassurance from council spd and the future mayor that these sentiments are not reflective of council and that minority voices are valued in the city of springfield again as the cultural minority representative on the springfield police advisory

36:54 committee i would feel much safer and accepted in my position if this kind of statement were made i yield my time thank you thank you for your comments counselor speaker is diane peterson hi diane hi can you hear me yes sound great hello hi thank you um i'm here today to voice concerns about activity of violent white nationalists and white supremacists in our community and to ask for action by the springfield city council opb reports at least three oregonians who took part in the storming of the oregon capitol building in december also joined in the mob attack on the u.s capitol two weeks ago

37:39 one of the three is a resident of springfield these individuals do not appear to have been arrested or charged and are very likely back in oregon looking for more opportunities to incite violence in light of the capital attacks and the increasing activity by groups like the proud boys whose recent rally in eugene turned violent i call on the springfield city council to denounce white supremacy and anti-semitism and to create a plan to protect our citizens particularly those who are too often the direct target of these hate groups we cannot be a community that celebrates dr martin luther king his dream and his work and also tolerate the ideology and behavior of violent white nationalist white supremacist domestic terrorists

38:24 i've lived in oregon eugene and springfield for 10 years but i was born and raised in rural southwest virginia near the capital of the confederacy we regularly took school field trips to sites of civil war battles the south has a deep history of racism but i have never seen the level of overt white supremacy and anti-semitism that i have seen here in oregon our community our state needs a reckoning with its racist past and present present we need your immediate action to denounce white supremacy anti-semitism and then do more many great suggestions have been presented here tonight i look forward to seeing your response thank you thank you for your comments neil how many more do we have we have

39:13 three speakers left the next one would be kristin vignetta okay kristen hi good evening counselors my name is kirsten vignette and i live in ward 2. um the day after martin luther king day is an opportune time to bring up uh former springfield police officer scott mckee's guest viewpoint published in the eugene weekly on november 5th of 2020 titled exposed truths hate and evil hide behind truth at injustice at springfield police in it mckee describes among other things how he kept a framed image of mlk giving his famous i have a dream speech the back of which was secretly

39:59 vandalized by a colleague with a slur um basically criticizing mckee for um seeing mlk favorably and mckee only noticed that on the day he was packing up his belongings from spd this story is especially salient in the present context in which the unchecked presence of white supremacists in law enforcement is of national concern as previous speakers have clearly already voiced springfield has a white supremacist presence that is quite visible to us all and so my question which echoes what many have already said is this what's what stance will city council and spd take in regards to white supremacy and what is spd doing and will be doing

40:46 in the future to ensure that its officers are not affiliated or even remotely sympathetic to the white supremacist cause that has a strong presence within our city what side of history will our city be on many of us so-called gadflies will be paying close attention to your next steps and we hope that you will make the right choice for the majority of springfield which is non-white supremacists i hope that is clear if there is a minority despite visible it is the white supremac right white supremacists of our city and i hope that that will be visible in how our government and our police department is uh handled and managed what principles are

41:32 going to lead these institutions thank you thank you very much next speaker neil council our next speaker is chris mcallister hey chris good evening council my name is chris mcallister i live in ward 3. gadflies i'm bothered by the statement our duly elected mayor gave as she chose to give up her role for no reason directly affected by her voice or her actions after the people spoke to have her serve this failure to honor the people's voice speaks to the silenced cries over the past decade it is ironic that our people are referred to by this reference that originated in a writing called the apology for there is no apology for

42:17 the inaction of this body until we have bodies and then maybe we will have action from the brown black unhoused and other uncertain voices who live in fear and do not call the police because it's more likely to cause harm than bring safety to those displaced without safe places due to the economic and racial divisions in our community three children dying is what it took for main street reform dozens of our unhoused have died while waiting for reforms that have been asked for by the people but but not but been denied by the missing political will to please a small portion of this community contrarians we are not and patience is growing as does our social debt and liability people were allowed to bring bear mace

43:02 and weaponized signs on city property and were heard by our city yet the victims of our city in action co-denied in both their voice and in the outcomes that this city brings we are not here to harass or be controversial our people cry because they are harmed without due process and are not honored in their sacrifice to speak against the cultural and systemic abuse that happens here the status quo needs to go for the sake of our peoples in or in oregon and in springfield we need to have our votes matter and our people considered the council listens to local groups on economic needs and the results are easy to see the social groups who advise the city do not have the same clarity let our people grow we really need you to hear the people and honor the fact

43:48 that when we build outcomes for our people that they consider everybody not just the angry not just the hurt but everybody we need to actually do long-term planning and the last 10 years have had a lot of people opening up voices to be heard but doing nothing with that information data does not matter outcomes do not matter national and state plans do not matter but 10 businesses in downtown can chase away opportunities that have served the needs of our people small voices have been able to disrupt and derail progress years and years in the making and our staffs loyal and more than enough actions to try and

44:34 resolve these are often denied by the lack of action on council i really hope that you hear the people and that you speak truth because our people are hurting and they're dying and they need to be seen by you i yield thank you chris next speaker neil council the next speaker is thomas lawrence who was the last in the queue um we also had a speaker jenny osteen whose microphone didn't initially work i would be happy to go back after thomas if you would like if the council is okay with that it's not her fault okay thank you go ahead okay so thomas lawrence thomas your microphone is unneeded all right are we good go ahead all right thank you um i would

45:21 first like to say um to all of you counselors i do see a change um in a positive way um i can i mean i can see your faces right we're on video so i can see that you're all listening i can see that you're all you're all taking this in and you know we've talked before about the process being part of the problem and you know we'll get to that as we get to it uh i would also like to just further talk about what everyone else has mentioned but really focus on what this other group is that we keep talking about it's not all lives matter and after dc we can also prove conclusively they're also not the back blue crowd even though they have been repeating over and over again that they support the police they disobeyed assaulted and ultimately killed a police officer in dc because they don't support the police they support the people who oppose black

46:07 lives matter that needs to be crystal clear and understood at this point they do not care about this town they're not in this queue they're not talking about how much they love springfield what they love is the status quo that allows them to be them and they hate anybody who's asking for equality anybody who's telling them what they can and cannot do as soon as police pushed back in salem their entire attitude changed they said the same things that black lives matter extremists the ones who are asking for complete abolition they said the exact same thing they told them we supported you no longer they told them to go quit their jobs because they are bad people they don't care about anything except for keeping the status quo and i'm so glad someone else said this

46:52 because i was probably going to pull back but oregon is arguably the most racist state in this country that is not part of the confederacy we have one of the worst white supremacist histories and we are not part of the south but we were a state then we have people all over the state flying confederate flags for what people always try to defend it by saying it's about our heritage we're not part of that heritage that's not our grandfather's flag it's people who want to keep the status quo of white supremacy in this country alive end story that needs to be crystal clear and that starts with all of you as well it also starts with chief lewis who i i we've said more than enough has made it very clear how he feels about all this uh the sides have been drawn

47:38 but we need to make sure that we understand that there's more than just two sides there's there's multiple sides they are against anybody who is not on their side they have attacked everybody including the police that they claim to support we have to call it out for what it is it's not all lives matter they don't care about all lives they care about the status quo staying the same as it is which allows them to do whatever it is that they want and that's the privilege that we all have most of us as white people straight white people in this state country etc please help as everyone else has said call them out make it very clear and chief lewis i would love to hear a statement of you condemning it rather than telling people to ignore governor's orders thank you thank you do we have the other last

48:24 speaker neil yeah if you don't mind i'll give one more chance to ginny kenny osteen sorry it doesn't sound like it's going to work i guess we'll have to close the public part of this now sorry jenny and council comments common council response now uh uh leonard southern africa's names yeah that's okay thanks steve um i want to thank um everybody for their comments tonight and i'd also like to thank mayor lundberg for her years of service she performed

49:09 an often thankless job with dedication to the city i cannot stay strongly enough how imperative it is that we continue to hear from the public at these meetings um the and particularly from people of color the the idea that brittany who spoke tonight would feel hesitant to express herself at police advisory committee meetings that alarms me and it's something that i take very seriously and i would like to just say that i know that all of my fellow counselors join me in thinking that civic engagement is a sign of a healthy society and democracy does die in the dark so we

49:54 would all urge you to continue coming out to these meetings and speaking your conscience thanks bradley casper bradley thank you and i want to thank everyone who shared tonight and shared the tension and the fear and the concerns that so many are feeling and first i would also like to acknowledge the years of public service that former mayor lundberg offered to the city of springfield and i appreciate her stepping into leadership and weathering many challenges and changes next i would like to say that our former mayor does not speak for everyone in springfield and does not speak for me i understand the ways in which this

50:39 resignation letter felt disrespectful and hurtful to the many passionate and involved residents who take the time to advocate research speak up and work to build a more inclusive future springfield and i have heard from several people before tonight as probably many of the other counselors have on about the already challenged by barriers to authentic engagement and i've heard just how these words made them feel if we truly are dedicated to representing and serving all of springfield this means the people who voted and the people who did not this means the young people who have yet to have a seat at the tables but who have every right to expect to be welcomed and considered this means no arrivals this means those

51:26 who are those who own property and like chris mcallister said those who are on house those who are business owners and those who are not this means the conversation the process and the actual city government belongs to everyone and it is my honor and my duty to listen respectfully and to consider the voices who has to be heard and those who are not yet in the room and finally i think of us all as collaborators we elected public servants and community members and for democracy to work as counselor stair said we build trust through engagement and cooperation not by merely turning to the will of the presumed majority i hear you i see you and we are all in this

52:11 together and i thank you for continuing to show up next counselor uh barely counsel harley yes um i just want i wanted i don't know how to say how heartfelt i thank everyone for showing up and talking and giving us their viewpoints and their perspectives i've been around several decades i still get enlightened by the information that people offer from their perspectives when they speak to us no matter how long i've been around i still have a lot to learn and i also have a lot of experience behind me in order to be able to put things together and try to work the best we can for our entire community

52:57 one of the things i have on my council page is the communication is the key to community and it really is and if you don't speak to us we don't know what you're thinking we can't read your minds and i appreciate especially over the last several months the degree of respect that our community members have had in coming and speaking to us as frustrated as they might have gotten with us or as frustrated as they seem like they might be with us at times they have respected us and respected our position and understood that they may be giving us information that we don't have um and so we need to be able to take that to heart and and hear what they have to say it doesn't mean we may doesn't mean we're always going to agree

53:43 or we're going to positively act on everything but i will i too will speak for the rest of the council and myself and saying that we do listen and we do hear you we don't always have an immediate answer but it does it does get incorporated into how we do things and what we think and how we how we work with each other and for the betterment of the community so thank you very much um i will continue to listen and try to incorporate um the different things different perspectives that especially ones that i have not had or have not heard before and and we can hopefully together collectively i like corey's comment on collaboration collectively collaborating we can look forward to getting just an

54:28 even better future for springfield thank you thank you counselor uh next person i'd like to speak okay counselor vanguard um yeah i just thought i would add a couple of thoughts to what people had mentioned um so one of the things i just want to keep emphasizing is the importance of the public dialogue that we've had the last couple of months um it has probably been at its highest point since any time that i've been on council and it makes public policy sort of better sometimes we don't respond to all of it sometimes we don't think about all of it sometimes it takes like three weeks before it goes by before it really sinks in but the reality is we're listening to what is on your mind and what your concerns are

55:13 and it's sort of influencing and thinking about like where we need to go to as a city so like one one of the messages i really heard is that people want to know that it matters when they show up it matters when you show up you know we're a big diverse city with people on both ends of the political spectrum which means that when we have good civic discourse it may sound a little bit messy but we're better because of it so please keep showing up the other thing i was looking at the note um you know when it went uh as far as this is the first time we've met as a council since um since uh the the events in washington dc the riot at the capitol whatever term that you would choose to use it i think it's worth noting that councilor morrow

55:58 really represented where we were all at when he signed on to the lane county uh statement um that's one that statement really came out for the the board chairs and the board and the mayors to be able to sign but if we could have all signed that we would have um in our in our uh community you know there's no like political violence isn't welcome at all right like treating people poorly isn't welcome at all and one thing i want to be really clear and i've always said this is that people in this community need to be able to call the police when something bad happens the police here are here to serve us that is our how we hold people accountable from uh if people commit crimes um and i just want to reiterate the importance of you know that police are here to

56:43 serve everybody thank you anybody else wish to speak counselor missionary at the risk of sounding redundant i i concur with everybody that has spoke before me and i know that sounds like a cop-out but i don't know what else to add um other than the fact that that they are speaking the same things that i am thinking and that i i too appreciate you know as much as sometimes it it stinks to hear but i gotta tell you it's it's important and i always appreciate the folks that are talking and i take in a lot and i consider every one of them and i appreciate it

57:28 um and that being said i think i'm ready to move on but but again thank you for all your input and i appreciate fellow counselors input and and we do take it to heart every one of us and we know because it's our job so thank you thank you counselor and as we in regards to me i'm here to serve you people and i try and do the very best i can i hope naturally i do what you want but i don't so i need to hear from you so please call me write me tell me and i'll listen and that's important to me it's city's important to me the public's important to me thank you okay we're going to move on to correspondence okay council your next

58:14 item is correspondence and petitions um one item correspondence from christine lundberg regarding her resignation as mayor of springfield for a term of four years starting in 2021 i move to accept correspondence for filing did we have a second a second unless counselor van gorden's second no you can go in a second i'll start it here in a minute i was gonna say i'll third it so now our counselors are fighting huh okay uh roll call neil yes counselors van gorden yes councillor mo yes councillor rodley yes councillor stare yes

59:01 counselor woodrow yes and counselor patient airing yes okay accept it now we move on to the big one um their appointment city attorney want to comment here what we're gonna do yes your next item is business from the city council interim mayor appointment and both city manager nancy newton and our city attorney mary bridget smith are here for the staff report go ahead good evening council it's uh mary bridget smith the city attorney can you hear me okay okay what i'd like to do tonight is just

59:46 set up um the actions uh before you for this item of the interim mayor appointment there are two parts to this item one is to find that a vacancy has occurred due to christine lumber's resignation and then the second will be to appoint the interim mayor um after the council addresses the vacancy by a motion to find that the vacancy has occurred the council can move on to discuss and appoint the interim mayor there are two counselors that have expressed their interest in serving as the interim mayor councillors van gorden and cher they are deemed nominated by submitting their written questions and answers earlier in the fall so the council doesn't have to go through a nomination

1:00:31 process tonight the council can discuss the appointment anybody can make counselors can make a statement if they would like when the discussion is finished counselor mo can call for a vote and how the vote will work is that when neil calls your name you could just name the um person your selection that you're voting for and so state your choice by the person's name this appointment requires a majority of the council that's four out of the six votes if the council doesn't get to that result you can go back to discussion and keep voting but that is that'll be the process for this item are there any questions

1:01:24 i any question because i'll move to accept i move to accept that the letter from christine lundberg has created a vacancy for the position of mayor okay sean did you did you second it yes i'll second you gotta realize your face is in the shade it's hard to see you um okay uh uh neil take a vote counselor van gorden yes counselor mo yes counselor rodney yes counselor stare yes counselor woodrow yes and counselor pictionary yes okay uh that's been accepted

1:02:11 now great we're going to move on to where we're going to take a vote and select one of the two candidates that's correct counselor mo so if there's any discussion or statements that folks would like to make now would be the time before you vote counselor oh thanks steve well if i could summarize the ways that i could see that we could be moving in a better direction in the city right now it would start with the process by which we're making this appointment right now early on we had the opportunity to open the process to outside candidates people outside the council and we also had the opportunity to allow

1:02:56 the public to vote on this vacancy and in both cases we opted not to and i feel that if there's a perception now in the city that we're less than fully accountable and less than fully transparent then this is the kind of decision that we're making i mean it's due to this kind of decision um so people on the council i have gotten to know everybody on the council over the last four years and i think everyone on this council is a good and a decent person who truly wants what's best for the people of springfield and that said i think that the challenge that we're facing right now is to make this process and make our

1:03:41 general decision making less of a closed circle and truly open the process to people and voters here in springfield we are considering a large number of fairly ambitious projects right now as far as building is concerned and i would urge us all to consider the impact that these large projects are going to have and whether it's going to be positive or whether it's going to be negative on the voters because i can guarantee you that they're paying close attention to what's going on right now um so when i took this job i considered a great honor to serve as a counselor here in springfield

1:04:26 and i would consider it a great honor to the service mayor thank you other counselors would you speak i i agree with leonard as far as trying to earlier try and get out there and select a replacement for the mayor in december i think i pushed for that and suddenly i was sort of told that until christine officially resigned she could walk back in and take that position and that was up until just just a few days ago so anything we would have done that done then would have been wasted and so we sort of had to wait until we got the letter and now tonight we're making a decision we sure made it earlier i wish we had i don't think we could have i think that's

1:05:11 my my opinion so i want to tell the public that uh i i know what they wanted i wanted to do what they wanted but i don't think there was any way we can legally do that i just might think anybody else so sean counselor ben gordon yeah and i think it's worth noting that this is probably the i don't want like the most extreme example of how a vacancy could occur um and it definitely was challenged by the the updates from the two terms and the one comment i guess i wanted to make about um about serving for serving as mayor is that i think from uh from internally like to the to the rest of the council the thing that's important to me we work

1:05:56 well when we work together and i think it's critical for us to take a step back as we go forward here and you know if we if it's leonard or if it's myself once we get there whoever the new counselor is here is really think about where people policy objectives are on this council and really form up kind of a more working council so that people are running and working on policy objectives that they want to accomplish and really to me that says you know walking around and sort of sitting down and talking to people about their goals what committees that they want to sit on and really getting the right people in the right place when we're when you know we're successful as a group it's a really interesting experience being on the council because we're individuals in our body at the same time and i just

1:06:42 i just wanted to point out that one of the keys to addressing some of these long-term issues is really getting to who's doing what giving people on the council enough running room to sort of work problems that they see so that we're all sort of more accountable to us as a group and finally to the public thank you uh counselor bradley like which counselor um some of this is gonna you've heard it uh but i was up in the middle of the night preparing it and so i want to share it um and i know that i have been when i was campaigning and even in the last couple weeks i've been very outspoken in my criticism of this process

1:07:28 that was chosen by y'all my current colleagues and i do think that limiting who can be considered for interim mayor as well as who can be involved in the process is a missed opportunity and this is a vestige of the past that a lot of the folks were talking about earlier tonight sequestering power and self-selection are hallmarks of white supremacy and the opposite of accessible inclusive government that i would like to see and that i would like to be part of and i think it bears mention that i was neither heartily encouraged nor heavily endorsed candidate um as i was approaching joining the council and i'm quite confident that had i gone

1:08:13 through the application process i would not have been selected so it was through the will of more than 12 000 voting springfield neighbors that i'm in this seat and that is how i think transparent democracy functions so we've heard the outcry many springfield residents around this process and whether we are able to shift the charter as quickly as folks want or we are able to create a better way for us to do this moving forward i think that it's absolutely necessary for filling these empty vacancies for to in the future so that being said um i'm also serving within a system and a structure that existed before i got here and i am one voice and a relatively new one at that

1:08:58 and i am absolutely committed to working collaboratively and creatively with whoever is selected to serve as interim mayor tonight and our future counselor because there will be an additional counselor joining us and i will look forward to a democratically elected mayoral process in 2022 because the process and the people are not necessarily one in the same and i also believe that all of my colleagues are passionate and committed to serving the best interest of our shared springfield as councilor woodrow said we may not always agree or share the same values and understanding however i also believe that our differences represent the differences of our many neighbors and the residents and we get to try to

1:09:43 work through them together and i am very heartened by this meeting and us flexing our muscles to have these conversations in public and to be able to agree to disagree or disagree and not agree so that's my that's what i want to say thank you answer riley i think we're at the point now where we're going to go through a vote process selection process uh neil doing i could do a roll call yeah counselor van gorden i vote for myself counselor mo and gordon councillor rodley

1:10:38 both for myself counselor woodrow van gorden and counselor pictionary hmm interesting position if it's a tie then we keep deliberating if it's not we don't but that being said it's how the process works and i support sean okay four to two sean apparently you are the new mayor for the next two years this is uh mary bridget again so uh just uh some point of order here in process so that's uh four votes for uh councillor ben gordon to serve as

1:11:24 interim mayor just want to ask on the record that you accept the appointment council van gorden i do okay there's no need to do an additional motion [Music] so now the next step will be to move on to the oath of office that's attachment 2 in your packet if you would like you could just raise your right hand and read the oath or we could do it the more traditional way where you repeat after me whatever works best for you um if they can find it then that would be great usually i stumble when you read it back to me i'll go for um if it's an attachment to

1:12:10 you on the mayoral uh appointment packet there it is all right i sean van gorden do solemnly affirm that i will support the constitution of the united states in this state and that i will to the best of my ability faithfully perform the duties of interim mayor of the city of springfield oregon during my continuance therein wonderful thank you and congratulations thank you very much now as i understand it you as inter mayor will run the remain remainder of the meeting and help find your replacement i want people to know that both candidates for the american position are excellent people absolutely excellent and either one of them

1:12:55 both of them would be good for the city who would have no problems with either one of them well you didn't tell me i had to finish the rest of the meeting i said you didn't tell me i had to finish the rest of the meeting steve yes you do these instructions i i have here uh yeah i know the but i want to thank you guys for your support it means a lot to me it it means a lot that you put your faith in my in in the taking on this next journey uh next item please um mayor van gorden the next item is council vacancy and again nancy newton and mary bridget smith are here for the staff report good evening council it's mary bridget

1:13:40 again um this item before you is the process for filling the current council vacancy for ward one the item is asking you to approve the process and the schedule and then authorize staff to move forward the process is set out in the packet it includes a written application and in-person interviews all meetings that you would have regarding this matter would be subject to public meetings law and then the open it's estimated with an end appointment date of march 1st staff is prepared with public outreach to start tomorrow so moving forward with pushing out on the website and social media about the opening and so really just looking for your questions or feedback about the process or any

1:14:27 if you want any additional qualifications for the candidate that should be included counselor woodrow yes i just wanted to say i looked at what was given to us in the packet and i'm fine with the timeline and the outreach and how everything is set up at the moment unless somebody has a comment that i hadn't thought of but i'm i'm fine with it uh counselor pictionary i wanted to look at the um residency requirements and if there is if it would make sense to basically have a requirement i know it has required them to live in the ward but have a time in time residency there um

1:15:13 starting tonight for example or 30 day or whatever time period for example it would take for a for election process to where the person that is potentially or maybe we can just talk about it through discussion as far as qualifications are concerned but uh to me it would be a basic qualification if you have a person that is putting themselves in for that ward that they have some experience or some some life in that ward or you know some connection to that ward as opposed to a brand new resident there uh kelsey steele thanks sean um i hope this isn't a dead issue already but in the interest of

1:15:59 consistency i would love to see um if we can wait until may to have an election for the open seat in on the may ballot um councillor schter if i could just respond so the um charter has the filling of the vacancy for the councilors as the same as the mayor um so we can't um call a special election um to to do that if that's if that's what you're asking that was what i was asking thank you

1:16:44 and two counselors um point about um residency requirements um he's correct the charter requires that the person live in that board any additional residency requirement like for example if they were to live there for a certain amount of time if you make that a qualification from the council that means that no one can apply unless they meet that residency requirement um so that's something to consider or the council could just use that as cancer pictionary saying in their deliberations when they see who all applies then can look at well how long have each of these persons lived in the ward or in the community council romney thank you so i i would be

1:17:31 i would be interested in less barriers as opposed to more and this is my first time through this process so is there any way to add in additional um public participation as opposed to people submit it just comes to the council is there a way for us to somehow let the public weigh in let them vet let them ask questions is there is there a way for us to do that so that we at least lean into a more inclusive process i can start and then um nancy may have some input as well i think the answer to that is uh yes uh

1:18:17 there are ways that we can have the public be more involved um the all of the um in the schedule there are uh the meetings are corresponding to already scheduled council meetings and those do have business from the audience so people would have the opportunity to come speak or um also provide written uh input to the council as they always as they already do um but we could certainly look at um more specific ways to get uh input from the public about um candidates and also input on the candidates if you'd like so this is nancy i think i'll weigh in here for just a moment

1:19:02 um i think that's a a great question i was just thinking in my mind about a public process that's largely online so how do we you know pull that together but i think the important part would be putting together a timeline where we could build in some touch points with the community um for so we would one we would first have to do the an application period let give people time to consider whether or not they want to submit an application and then also to complete that application um and then allow staff to kind of collect the materials put that together and then maybe having um some kind of a forum that we could do online where you know maybe we can have people give

1:19:49 input they would need to know who the candidates were so we would have to have a period where we would advertise that so we would need to be really specific that people were giving you know um consent we would um obviously redact any personal information but for people to see application their application materials would i think be important so staff can um put together a process and bring that forward to you um either at our next meeting or in a in a counselor memo but i just off the top of my head i'm thinking it will extend the um the timeline a little bit but we could certainly build that in i would appreciate that thank you the council pictionary so

1:20:35 if i'm if i got my times correct there's seven opportunities for the public to become involved in this opportu in this selection process and it doesn't look like we have got very stringent limits as to how long they can talk and and ask questions and it seems that you know that is a that's a lot of ample time and i would like to have the position filled so we can be a full count a full court so to speak um but without shaving off and not doing it our due diligence but i think that seven times would seems like that would be a an ample amount of time for people to ask questions and be part of the process

1:21:24 um council this is mary bridget again one option that we have kind of a low tech option but we already have a cmo email address and that could be promoted once we know who the candidates are and to invite public input that might be another way so the public knows um that you really are looking for their input so that could be um one option um as well to get you more input from folks yeah i would be fine with you know providing or you know you know accentuating a time in which say hey we really want to hear from you on this date or something like that that's fine i i've just um it's already going into march and i would i would like to have that position filled so we we're like i said a full court and move on with things and have a decide a

1:22:09 decision-making process that's strong i'm looking for other people yeah counselor withdrawal um i agree i think the input is important but i also think that the system is already set up to get that input um i i i looking at uh looking at what was done in the past and it and the opportunity is there for people to um to uh express their opinion and and express their um uh what's the word i want um perspectives on on uh the of the potential appointment of the next counselor

1:22:54 um yeah we i think the reason i'm leaning that way is that we are seeing a very active community right now and i would like to see that community take advantage of the opportunity that they have to speak in that in that session and i don't think at this point i don't think we need to do extra i think um i think they i think we do have a community that's that's recognizing that uh that they can come and and voice their opinions so i i would like to see us utilize that and and and to get the i'd like to see the position we have so much work ahead of us i want to see the i want to see the position filled so that we can keep going

1:23:39 councilman i'd like to see us get to get up to full speed as as fast as we can so i do want the best candidate possible for that position we've been through covered fire thirsting issue and vaccinations we've got a lot of stuff to address that's very important for the people and i i want to get moved on so that's where i go um and then i'll make one quick comment before before i entertain a motion i think one of the critical things is throughout the whole process people are going to have opportunities right there won't be a one event we're going to put a sign in and says this is the time to comment throughout the whole thing feel free to give your feedback anybody else i think we need a motion if somebody wants to uh

1:24:30 fire that one up want to make no i don't have anything written in front of me here but i do at the bottom of the second at the bottom of the second page i can make a motion if you want go ahead i'd like to make a motion to approve the process for appointing an interim city councilor that's what it's going to say is there a section i second okay it's been moved and seconded uh neil could you call the role yes counselor vanguard or mayor van gorden sorry i don't get a vote on this one oh yeah counselor mo yes counselor rodley yes counselor stare

1:25:18 i think he's frozen he's froze or he's really still counselor woodrow yes and counselor pictionary i think we've got enough technically to go on if let's see give a letter in a second and see if he comes back can we text him or call him or he's calling in just one moment

1:26:29 i have counselor stare on speaker before we get him back if you would like to hear his vote on the last item yeah sorry everybody my screen froze up by me yes thanks okay it sounds like it's five to zero the motion passes next item is business from the city council anybody have business council rodney i came prepared to speak tonight i really just wanted to reiterate that i appreciated counselor mo stepping in the last couple weeks i appreciated the statement that you signed on to from the county and did it quickly and i also appreciated the statement that

1:27:15 the city and councilor mo signed on for martin luther king jr day so i want to thank you for your service as pre-interim mayor in the last couple weeks and let you know i appreciate that i'm not gone so thank you thank you very much for that any other business all right next item next item is business from the city manager good evening counselors this is nancy i do have uh one quick item for business from business from the city manager it's a piece of good news and i'd actually like uh neil ada to share this big uh good news because he's been working very hard on this project

1:28:02 oh great well thank you nancy so council we wanted to share uh some news on marcola meadows which is a project that's very important to all of you and you've been working on our incredible dpw staff led by our project planner andy limbert and then a fantastic team of people from all departments within the city have brought phase 1a of the marcolo meadows master plan project to substantial completion so on last last friday staff issued the very first building permit over the counter for the first 29 lots and tomboy odd our dpw division director and jim donovan who's a planning supervisor they met with dr horton's superintendent on friday and they're

1:28:47 excited to get to work and i could tell you on saturday they were out there working and so this is a huge project based on the developers projections they're looking at 750 units this includes 425 single detached dwellings and about 325 multi-family units so a huge project lots of steps ahead lots of challenges that we'll work through but some great and professional work is taking place and we wanted you to have a heads up they already have a sign up there if you're looking to buy a place uh counselor pictionary neil would you please um extend our or my i'll speak for myself my uh deepest appreciation for the work

1:29:34 that the staff has done i've been in the background looking at that and been involved with some of that and it's been an immense amount of work and they have really had to really had to work together it was not um an adverse situation it was really a partnership situation and i appreciate the work from from andy on up and and across from all that you know the fire department all those different agents or departments that have to be signing off on those uh permits and in the process so very much thank you yes all right this is from the city manager no further business thank you thank you nancy any business from the city

1:30:28 no other business from the city attorney then we are adjourned thank you everybody have a great night