##VIDEO ID:5CRPUjTq4gw## this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers I'm good evening welcome to the East Hampton City council meeting for Wednesday December 4th 2024 the meeting tonight is being recorded and broadcast by emedia on Charter channel 193 and live streaming on their web page eastampton media.org counselors and participants in this meeting are gathered hybrid on the order extended until March 2025 allowing us to do so I remind both members of the city council and the public participating remotely to remain muted until recognized by the city council president or acting president um also for the members of the public please remove your camera for the duration of the meeting unless you are participating in public speak time or the public hearing thank you this meeting is now called to order Barbara Connie danham here salm Derby pres Omar Gomez JP kazinski here Tom Peak here Brad Riley here Tamara Smith here JT Terrell here Owen Zer present okay and now we will take a short moment of silence okay please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I will oh yeah thank [Music] you thank you for that uh and we do have some minutes um from our November 20th meeting I would entertain a motion so moved second okay we have a motion and a second any further discussion on the minutes from November 20th seeing none uh Barbara Connie Denham hi Salem Derby hi JP kazinski Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamara Smith I JT Terell i Owen Zar I okay thank you now is the time where anybody from the public can address the council uh you can have three minutes please state your name and address for the record and come to the podium welcome uh hi I'm here we gonna get you in the microphone I can do that ahead hi uh I'm June stack house I'm Lily feder off to Falco I'm be eing um we are four fifth F three fifth graders um in mountain in Miss Frankie's class at Mountain View School uh there would be four of us but one of us couldn't make it um we believe that the Mountain View School playground should have better recess equipment the um mvs playground only has structures for people with great upper body strength if your arm muscles aren't the size of the Titanic chances are are you will be quite bored during recess um uh also uh if you're bored or you can end up doing dangerous stuff which is bad when kids get into fights and the kids can you speak louder want try to get right into this microphone kids get into fights arguments and they may have bad physical contact people get hurt and frustrated this frustration can go into Clash rooms which can impact learning and teachers have to sort everything out today we saw a needed argument and two kids started crying kids are going home grumpy which affects parents too during the last month we have made a petition during our recess time and have gotten many signatures we have quite a lot of people agreeing with us the principals almost everyone in fifth grade and quite a few teachers and parents as well we are here to ask for your support as we continue fighting to get better equipment and we hope that you will sign our petition too thank you thank you um and we do have a pen if anyone wants to sign it and doesn't have thank you thank you hi um my name is Sarah amaroso I am a resident of East Hampton I live on Winter Street I'm also a par educator at Mountain View School I've had the great privilege of knowing these three young people since they were in second grade um and um first I'd like to say they are a credit to themselves to their teacher Mrs Mary Frankie and to their families um this was their idea they saw a problem and they ran with it and um frankly I agree with them the it is probably not great for people to hear that our brand new playgrounds are not really serving our children but it's a fact um one thing that I see that maybe they don't is that the kids who are most affected by this are children with disabilities not just physical disabilities but also developmental ones um when you know you can't Scamper like a little monkey or you can't climb hand over hand what you're left with is walking around in circles um and sitting down right and if you can't join in on say a Cooperative game that other kids have made up um you're kind of not left with a lot so that I think is kind of the disappointing fact of it and it's also true with the Middle School playground the middle school is even more hanging by your arms of our body strength and kids have a diversity of interests A diversity of abilities and a diversity of needs and I hope that we can all work together to improve this situation for kids because they just want to have a good time in the little time that they have they have 20 minutes a day for recess at Maple school they had a morning recess they don't have that um Mountain View so they really need to make the most of that time thank you very much thank you any anybody else like to address the Council on anything that is not on the public hearing JP go ahead and sign that are you going to yeah take off a hat and go into uh private citizen mode there you go this is a hard act to follow I think you guys were just terrific thank you so much for coming to visit us today I'm very impressed and I know I will be looking into the into the matter myself and I hope my colleagues will also so thank you that being said uh I know I don't know if you going to be discussing on the agenda tonight uh anything to do with salaries of elected officials but I wanted to say I came across a interesting piece of information uh it was a couple of weeks ago and it was about I think the richest person in the world is it Elon Musk is he now the the richest person in the world put out a an an advertisement for people to volunteer to help out with a project of his he expected people to work 80 hours a week and the only catch was no salary I can't believe that anyone in the world could be that far out of touch with reality to think that people who were working don't deserve to be paid adequate compensation so I hope whatever you do when you're thinking about what you're going to be doing with the mayor and the future city council that you not be out of touch with reality the salary enable folks to be here who can't be here if you don't make enough money to support your families if you need an extra income don't apply for the city council because you won't be making minimum wage better to go somewhere else and I think that's appalling for this community to have folks who don't have an opportunity to be here to have wealth and income be a block or a special Club it is not a special Club this is the Public's place where public business is discussed and there should be a diverse wide range of people who serve there should not be blocks thank you thank you thank you anybody else like to address the council okay uh seeing none um we do have uh an item for immediate attention tonight which is the draft 2025 city council meeting schedule I know that this has been uh reviewed um and uh we I believe just need to vote this in tonight right unless you see some changes and does anybody have any concerns any changes that they would like to propose that would hinder us from uh celor uh thank you Mr Vice President I just have um one question is um so I have looked through the calendar to ensure that there are no um religious conflicts but I also recognize that I am not well read on all of the appropriate religions so I just wanted to double check that we have done our due diligence to ensure that there are no meetings that overlap with high holidays I believe that was taken into consideration um with this draft Yeah okay perfect thank you um so and without any objection I would entertain a motion to approve uh the 2025 city council meeting schedule so moved second we have a motion we have a second do we have any further discussion uh seeing none Barbara Salem Derby hi uh JP kazinski hi Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamara Smith hi JT Terell hi Owen zeret hi Connie denam hi okay motion passes um do any counselors have anything that they would like to share this evening counselor Den uh thank you Mr vice president Mr acting president um uh I just wanted to again to remind folks that we have the municipal um Academy applications that um are out and we're um still accepting um applicants so um if uh you were interested in that they can be found on the city website you just need to search for municipal Leadership Academy and you will find information there as well as the application um so I hope people will take um the opportunity to learn about uh not just the operations of the various departments but it's a it's a an amazing opportunity to um get to know your uh department heads and the folks who work in the city um so you can develop those relation ships um so again just want to let folks know that that's happening thank you councelor to quick question is the information on the city website if people are looking for it yep so you just have to search for municipal lead Leadership Academy and the kind of the search bar there and it'll take you right to the page perfect yeah thank you anybody else okay um we don't have any correspondents I don't have any Communications uh we do have mayor Communications but I don't see the mayor the mayor is not here so I guess um what we have is Rec recognition of exemplary Public Service dispatch fire and police departments which will be on um which was on November 16th 2024 um I guess we'll have to wait for the mayor to fill us in on that um and we have 2 minutes so uh counselor Peak do you think you could give us a two-minute update on finance do your best I'll have to speak pretty slowly because we didn't meet uh fair enough your next meeting our next meeting well we've got uh yes well we have things to uh we have we're going to have an item in in new business okay uh yeah I um so uh we will be meeting uh this uh a week from today so that's what the 11th um at 5:30 p.m. uh to discuss uh the uh Peg access account appropriation perfect thank you so much may I raise a point councelor Sarah thank you uh vice president acting president Derby uh if I may address uh the chair of Finance um I think I realize that we're actually in some sort of kind of catch22 loophole where the committee made a recommendation on coun salaries but there's no real opportunity for a council vote to either affirm that or to make other recommendations because of the way well it doesn't appear on the the uh public hearing tonight and so I was wondering if there's if there's any way that you can think of where we'd be able to have full Council input on this matter uh yeah thanks for your your comment there uh I think that yeah the way that this uh public hearing was set up only discusses uh the mayor s we did vote within committee uh to uh take no action on the other uh items and I I suppose that that should receive a full vote on at the city council it's not customary for things to even if we make a motion to take no to not do something or to dismiss something uh we do usually uh the the full like we are simply we're just an advisory body so the full Council um would need to uh take a a vote on that um I don't know the the way the I'll take I'll take responsibility for the situation ending up like it is because the language should have included to say that that second vote that we voted to take no action no action on the other items um so uh I guess acting president Derby I'm kind of interested how you think we should handle this one I well I understand the conundrum here and I think that potentially the solution here would be to set a public hearing for the next uh meeting and to get um language to Barbara with some sort of change there would have to be some sort of change I believe that there's an amendment that was proposed um that would have to include that language cuz you can't post no change okay um so I think that would probably be that way the council could either say as a a full body we agree to make no change so we would reject that or we would agree to discuss whatever change we think would be reasonable C Peak so then I guess here's what I would suggest is um that we we we have our public hearing um and then at that point if there's amendments that people want to propose to salaries and stips other than the salaries or stiens of the mayor that we vote to set a public hearing for those for those particular um those particular propos for that particular proposal or proposals but that unless there is a proposal that we we not do that because um I just think uh so you have to bring forward something yeah to be advertised and hold a public hearing these are ordinances city ordinances how about so I think that probably what makes sense is um to have this amendment which I have in front of me which is is a change of City Council salary be sent to finance so you can review it on Wednesday but preemptively set the public hearing for our next meeting so you'll have time to review this as a committee The Proposal but then we will also have the opportunity as a full Council to be able to discuss it I think that's fine with one caveat which is that and I would not expect that Finance I would suspect that Finance would um return without much of a recommendation because Finance already took a vote on a course of action and so then we can we can discuss this matter in 2 weeks um separately but that there's no course of right there's no other um and I think that that that would allow um so if Finance did want to discuss it and vote vote it down and come with a negative uh I think that's perfectly acceptable as well um and it is almost implied but it does at least there is an opportunity it's not like we would be having a public heing without an opportunity for finance to be able to weigh in on the specific proposal which I think would makes sense councelor Kinski I presume you're speaking of school committee and City Council salaries the the only one that we have in front of us is an amendment for city councils is it possible to schedule the public hearing for both should have been done yeah we're a little late in the game but I I think that we are late in the game it's the the end of the year period right and we pushed it to the last moment which is not unheard of with us but we have well I mean since since nothing has been moved forward I don't see why not it would just that would have to be I have it would have to be in writing to Barbara by by tonight and you have to read it Tom would have to read it and refer it to committee right so if you want to write something i' get can maybe we can return to this after the public hearing because we are scheduled to go and so I just won't conclude my committee report I guess so we can just jump back into it that s for you perfect and and we do have um we are past uh 615 so what I would like to do is I would like to um entertain a motion to open the public hearing sove second motion the second to open the public hearing uh Barbara uh J JP kazinski hi Tom P hi Brad Riley hi Tamar Smith [Music] hi JT Terell hi Owen Zara hi Connie denim hi Salem Derby hi okay the public hearing is open and I will pass it back to councelor Peak thank you Mr Vice President I'm going to sort of sit a little bit back from this and hope I set it off um okay uh so we came back and forth on this uh topic uh throughout the year um and and uh I think that what we heard from our finance committee members and from handful of counselors who submitted uh feedback uh as well as some non- counselors is that there's sort of a diversity of opinion uh on this topic and and that that diversity of opinion um is kind of philosophical sort of comes back to questions about public service and uh to the extent to which Public Service uh is um should be treated you know like like a regular job or whether it's something a little bit special and and also questions about uh you know whether small cities we are of we're a very small City like how we should take our salaries into account when compared to much larger cities that have a much larger tax base um but the fundamentally there could probably be some questions about how different the job actually is and so I think there's a lot of ways to look at it um and uh what we ultimately uh proposed at the end of the day or what we we voted on the end of the day uh was a proposal that that um that barbett actually suggested but you know um which just uh again would not take any action uh on any of the salaries or stiens other than that of the mayor and that in the case of the mayor uh it would increase uh the uh the salary of the mayor uh by $33,000 uh effective January 1st of each uh coming calendar year after uh 2025 which is the last year that we have a salary set for um just for anyone at home or who wasn't on the council a few years ago uh there was a back and forth um in I want to say 20120 about the mayor's salary and uh there was a proposal to raise it uh there are some people who did not want it rais there are some people who did and sort of what we basically agreed on was the idea of incrementally raising it over the next four years because we now have a four-year mayor which that became a thing in in 2019 so this would continue with that and basically set a pay schedule for the mayor uh for the Remain the the the entirety of the next mayor whoever that might be uh term uh so with $3,000 raises it would become 93 $3,000 effective January 1st 2026 96,000 in 2027 99 in 2028 and 102 in 2029 um this was uh ultimately this was voted on two to zero with one ex exemp ex yeah ex that that being myself um I think that uh I personally have some concerns about the salary being a bit low all the same I I do want to respect uh the decision of the committee so I I'm I'm putting it forward with just noting my ex am I suddenly BL abstention abstention yeah um and um yes I think that's that's my presentation okay thank you uh any counselors have any questions any comments councilor s thank you uh Mr acting president um so um I did submit early on a recommendation for uh salary and uh to the committee and that salary was $120,000 a year um I had felt that the last time that we had this conversation that we were significantly behind the times in terms of compensating our chief executive of the city um and that even with the last changes I felt that we remain pretty far behind um the city over the last few years has made substantial efforts um to change our pay plan to make sure that the pay of all the employees of the city is Equitable um and adjust a number of salaries um certainly mostly over prob the last four years I believe um and I don't think that the mayor should be excluded from that process of equity it's a four-year commitment it's very rare that someone could leave that unlike any other job um it's a 7-Day a week 24-hour day job and it's very public facing um when you leave office whether that be from just choosing to leave office or not or losing in an election um you can't go on LinkedIn and find other mayor jobs like yours um and to then re-enter the private or public sector is not necessarily guaranteed it's not like there's jobs just just waiting for you while I will admit though that the office does op open up opportunities um it's very public facing um one bad newspaper headline or social media viral post uh by no fault of the Mayors U can significantly affect your livelihood and job prospects um and so that's I think kind of the some of the intangibles and the subjective but so the objective is I sat down with the data and we were given salaries from across the Commonwealth for uh fiscal year 23 and 24 I believe it was um and that included a scatter plot and just looking at the scatter plot you could see that East Hampton was an outlier from all the data so I wanted to see what potentially BAS based on that data where we would fall so I sat down with Excel I filtered out the data to just four year Mayors um I removed Boston as an outlier both because of the population and the and the um uh the salary was also a significant outlier and obviously I removed East Hampton and I ran the forecast function and that basically came out to $120,000 or $119 um and so both based on kind of all the intangibles and kind of the qualitative information that I I mentioned early on we also kind of have the statistical basis I think to at least recommend that number so I just wanted to put that forward I I want to make sure that we are fairly paying the the the chief executive of the city for all the work that they do and again recognizing that it's not a 9 to-5 job you don't close that door of you9 and go home you you basically open that door at the beginning of your term and you close it at the end so that that's all I want to make sure I want to make sure I put that out there and whatever the council chooses to do with it and I respect that the process of the of the finance committee but I just wanted to make sure I put that out there any other counselors have any thoughts or discussion before we hear from the public Council Riley thank you um yeah so you know I I certainly share some of the thoughts that um counselor PE and counselor Zar have put forward um you know when I talk to people outside of Public Service about what salaries look like specifically in East Hampton um like people think it's actually crazy what we do um and you know being as close to the mayor's office as we are and to see the type of work that um mayor La Chappelle has to do on a daily basis it to me it feels offensive to be paid that low um in my full-time job I almost make the same amount that the mayor does and the types of responsibilities that I have pale in comparison oh can you not hear me well um they they pale in comparison to the types of things that she has to do and you know and then and I look at you know the budget that we just approved and there are people who the mayor oversees that make significantly more than the mayor does um and you know that maybe that's you know I can certainly see like the value of you know our IT services for sure I I think we could always pay our it people more but when you think that the mayor overseas the IT department overseas HR overseas you know uh all of the finances the planning department I mean there's there's just so much to that job and you know one of my concerns going forward because we're going to have a lot of turnover here in our city leadership over the next few years what kind of people are we attracting to the job that are willing to do that kind of work for that price um are we going to get a mayor that is not as tactical and intelligent and dedicated and prepared as as Nicole was when she took over um so you know what I want to balance that against however is every time we talk about the budget it's always where are we cutting money from and with complete respect to counselor area because I I think 120,00 does seem fair we've had pretty Lively debates over 20,000 or $30,000 having to come from somewhere and so I think we still have to have those debates plus we're also going to have to talk about an additional amount of money to pay the mayor so you know I don't know what the answer is and I I'm I'm more than happy to continue a debate to find out what this number looks like just that I know it needs to be higher than what it is um and yet somehow we still have to find a way to pay for it so I I don't really know where I land in that yet but I I hope that others will kind of weigh in and and talk about this thank you councelor Den uh thank you Mr Vice President acting president um I think it's I I will be honest I I voted against I voted for this increase I was not in favor of massive increase um I think for a variety of reasons um I think the first reason is that anybody can run for mayor um and quite honestly electoral elected positions often turn into popularity contests and the mayor our current mayor has brought millions of dollars I think into the city and I don't know that the next mayor is going to be able to do that right and I think that we are we're using language like chief executive officer and I think that we need to be cautious of using that because I don't think that the the future Mayors necessarily have the same the same skill set as this particular mayor um I I could be wrong right we don't know who's in that field yet but I think that that's that's language I think we need to be cautious of um the one of the only requirements for that person is they don't have to have a job right they don't have we don't ask of them to have a degree we don't they don't have to have an MBA they don't have to have an advanced they don't even have to have a high school diploma right and so I think that we need to be careful [Music] of what what we're saying it's also it is an elective position and it's a choice like all of us are sitting here because of choices that we have made um and that person wants to do that for whatever reason I think that we also have other positions within the city who fill various needs and so who who are specialized in their particular trade and their particular knowledge and so for us to then pay double the amount in addition to paying all of these higher salaries for people who have specialized professional experience that are supposed to advise advise the mayor so now we're doubling up on the things that we we are paying for uh in regards to councelor Zar it's kind of us as an East Hampton as an outlier and Boston we are in fact the smallest city in the Commonwealth we do not have a massive uh uh tax base to be able to to pay for some of those things to pay for higher salaries um and that's just our reality and I think we're doing the best that we can to be able to navigate that um would I like to see them paid more sure and I think that we've acknowledged that and we've tried to do that in a way that we can uh support the the acknowledge the the the increase in uh the you know um um it's not a living wage but uh inflation so we tried to acknowledge that um and I think that we're doing the best that we can I think the other thing that we need to acknowledge is that we're in a $1.8 million deficit right now and we don't know if we're going to be out of that until March March or April and so for us to say well we're in this financial situation uh but that's okay we're going to put $30,000 towards this as councelor Riley just alluded to we're going to have to take $30,000 from somebody else and I just do not think that we are in the financial situation right now to be able to do that um and I think and just I'm going to say this as a woman uh we could have changed the mayor's salary at any time in the last term or uh before that uh as an ordinance we could have changed that that mayor has brought in as I said a considerable amount of money to this city and no one has questioned whether or not she needs more funds for all the amount of work that she's doing and we haven't done that because that's a woman and now we have other people who are interested in running this who are in fact men who have expressed interest and now we want to raise it $30,000 I just I am just acknowledging the discrepancy that I think is is in that like I just I am I am uh as a woman often seeing the financial discrepancies in pay and the amount of work that women often do that are not financially recognized and now being able to say well now there's other people who are interested and moving forward with some of those things and giving a much higher higher uh salary to that I'm just acknowledging that I want to name that um and again I think we're in a financial deficit right now and I just think that this is this is the um not the right time to to be thinking about this thank you councel Council R and then just just a point of clarification we actually don't know who's running for mayor in the next term uh it could be a man it could be a woman it could be a non-binary person it could be a queer person we are talking about increasing the salary for an unknown person that we do not know exists so you know I don't think that it's fair to say that we are talking about increasing the salary with the anticipation that a man will become mayor um we've had more more women as Mayors in the city than men um and I think we have all benefited greatly from the women who have been Mayors and were another woman to be mayor uh in this next term then she would benefit from the salary increase so I I just wanted to correct that that we the reason why we have these debates now is because we don't we cannot have them when it is a year where there's an election happening so the process of even taking out papers does not occur until next year so this is an unknown thank you uh councelor Kinski there still yeah I I just wanted to follow up and say while I appreciate there be dis discussion between genders among genders among types of people I think councelor Riley is Right could be anyone who decides that they want to run for mayor and I hope we have a good candidate this this season uh I really do because as councelor denim puts it there is a salary con I mean a financial constraints but then again there always has been Financial constraints and believe me it is never a good time to talk about salaries of elected positions it just isn't and it's never a good time to raise any salary for any elected position I will point out that this is not for any one of us or for the sitting mayor this is for 11 months from now 12 months through 36 no wait a minute it's even longer it's 4-year term that we're talking about this is going to run 11 months from now for the next 4 years after that period so 5 years from now I I I shuttered to think what may be happening with with salaries but I think if if we look at uh the salaries of of plumbers and electricians and etc etc I'm not sure it compete I'm sure it competes well with the mayor and exceeds the mayor's salary that isn't where we need to be a year from now that isn't where we need to be 5 years from now uh if it were up to me I would easily start at 100 and go to 110 uh the following year and and and then maybe keep it at 110 at that point but that's would be my recommendation and I will make that recommendation tonight uh I think that's an easy no-brainer I'm not sure that compensates the mayor regarding the Centum I think you had said that we could change the salary we can only change the salary during not not for any sitting person so it couldn't have been changed a few years ago it could have been changed three or four years ago yes it could have been changed but that was 3 or 4 years ago now we're in a situation where we won't be able to change it again for 5 years that's a long time uh and I don't think it matters whether it's a woman or a man or whomever we want to be sure we have a good candidate and I will remind you that I think we we we still have within the charter a POS a a a uh provision that calls for anyone who has that they can't have another full-time job so this is the full-time job it's not like you can take someone who and they can supplement their salary with what we're offering no this is what we want them to do and thank goodness we've had a mayor who did bring in lots of money and and we did have a mayor who was very well equipped before the current mayor to serve the city and before that we had a mayor who served us I will say very strenuously very hard I think councelor Derby and I looking to you we sat through many a meeting he brought us along educated us I will say that uh when we when we started I think it what was it 2003 or so y um anyway I will I think what we need to do is be realistic about our salaries thank you councelor kazinski councelor Smith I'm going to get right to you councelor PE had his hand up and then you'll be next C PE thank you Mr prce President uh counc Kinski largely said what I was going to say which is just that um we set mayor lel's salary in October of 20 November I'm sorry of 2020 I remember that it was November of 20120 very distinctly because I remember walking my brand new dog and a neighbor a constituent and neighbor of mine jumping on the porch and saying hey you better not raise the mayor's salary and the dog barked at them and he's he's a great guy it wasn't like a thing but you know um I just the point is that was set and the reason why that set is because we don't want to ever be in a position where a sitting elected official is exerting influence on us to raise their salary because we all have to go to the mayor all the time to ask for stuff to ask for support on things hey my constituent want needs to do a thing would you support an appropriation whatever right and we don't want there to be that leverage there the only way to do that is to talk about hypothetical future people now when you're in a small you know Community like East Hampton that has I love East Hampton but frankly it's somewhat embarrassingly like low rate of competitive elections there is a sense of which that kind of feels like a formality I think when we raised mayor L Chappelle's salary all of us probably expected mayor La Chappelle to be the mayor in 2022 so there is that but at the same time we don't know someone could have come along and said it so we were not saying that we're raising mayor L we are setting mayor LEL salary we're saying we're setting the salary for whoever that person may be um I know that there's been some people who have I've heard I think of a couple men and a couple women who have expressed interest in running and I think three of the people that I've heard express interest have since said that they are not interested and part of that is that this is it's a hell job it's an impossible hell job um there's just way too much stuff to be done and you don't have the resources to do it all um and that is it um and and when things don't get done uh everyone's mad at you for not being able to accomplish impossible things um so it's a really difficult position now I I think that like none of that negates uh counselor denham's point that we are in a deficit right now like that's just is the truth right and like you know I mean I what I heard from the mayor last budget season sounded like a plan to exit from that this year but we won't know if that plan works for a while so if somebody wants to say yeah we're not in a position to do anything crazy I completely get that I I I do I and I wouldn't begrudge anybody for for feeling differently on this matter but I I do just think when we're talking about $3,000 one stupid mistake from the mayor can cost a million dollar right like when you're talking about a lawsuit that might happen because somebody did something wrong when you're talking about an HR thing like a bad a bad appointment to something that ends up blowing something up when you're talking about like a statement that might create a bunch of bad press and distract people like when you're talking about a a policy that gets put in place it is so easy for a person in these positions like I mean I ask mayor L Chappelle she could tell you about plenty of decisions she's made that looking back she would have probably made a different decision and it would have saved the city a lot more than $30,000 so I just I'm not saying that this is a philosophical matter there's no objectively right answer here and I'm not going to act like there is and I'm not going to act like somebody who disagrees with me on this is wrong and I'm right because that's not the case but I do just think we need to keep this in perspective when we're talking about attracting a up to this point unknown person to the city to do this job what skill sets is that is that person going to have what sort of professional experience is that person going to have councelor Denham is also completely right that is totally possible that somebody with absolutely no experience in a professional environment no experience in an executive or administrative role could come in as mayor and with the support of their uh department heads uh and just a great intuition and a good gut and a lot of luck could be an incredible mayor that's absolutely true I don't disagree with that at all I also do think that having experience running a large organization writing a budget handling HR situations these sorts of matters is going to put somebody in a better position to succeed on day one that doesn't mean that if there's two hypothetical candidates running you know in a little less than a year that I'm going to vote for the one with the MBA instead of the one who has you know a really non-traditional background because car Character Matters I think a lot more than those professional qualifications do but I do think those qualifications do matter I do think that having insight into the sort of just basic executive functions of the job and it is the executive branch of the city that's what it's called in the charter I think that having some background in those things all other things being held completely equal is going to make you better and I think that at at every dollar that you raise that salary it's going to make it a little bit easier for a wider group of candidates to step away from their current job to put their current career on hold and give this a shot for four years so like that's just kind of where I am I again I I completely understand and I don't disagree with really any point that anyone has made tonight but I do think that is just what I have to say on the matter thank you I'm just I'm sorry one more thing is just to reiterate what what councelor Kinski says this is our last shot to get this right for 4 years right if we set this as as What It Is Well years right yeah because well in four years we'll be deciding this for fure for the future person but we won't have a say on is the mayor's salary not the current one but the theoretical mayor of East Hampton is their salary appropriate the next time we'll be be weighing in on this it'll be 4 years and a bunch of us will not be here so I do think that there's something like maybe that you can say whatever like it is but I just think we need to be thoughtful about this because there's not an opportunity that in 2 years we look at this and we say oh it's it's 27 and it's 90 you know what we actually should go up to 110 like we won't be able to do that at that point because that's a sitting person and it's not right and it's also not allowed for us to be looking at it at that point Thank You councel Peak councelor Smith thank you okay thank you very much uh I have a few few things um I just want a little bit of clarification on First and a few comments that I need to also feel compelled to make so H where to start I guess the first thing um just because for someone who's watching our conversation from the outside it's a little hard to follow what's actually on the table right now um so for clarification sake are we talking about whether or not we are approving the mayor's salary to have an increase um incrementally over the next several years or do we have other proposals on the table right now that we are also trying I just think that it's confusing and I just for everybody who's watching um can we just clarify that first thanks councelor Smith I'm G to have councelor Peak answer that thank you councelor Smith those are great questions and I apologize if I didn't do a good enough jobs so the proposal that was voted out of the finance committee is to incrementally increase the mayor's salary by $3,000 each calendar year over the next four years uh so that's the proposal that's currently on the table I believe that both councelor zarett and councelor Kinski have signaled that they intend to introduce proposed amendments um and so uh at the point that I think we finish this you know where we go around I think that they probably will and we will debate the merits of those um those amendments but right now the proposal that's on the floor is the one that's uh in the packet okay I appreciate you clarifying that so thank you add clar councelor Smith councelor Kinski would like to make one more clarification I just wanted sorry councelor P I just wanted to be very clear since the you you're clarifying for the public this is for the salary to begin January 2nd 2026 first but yeah you're January 1st 2026 not not not this coming year but a year from now for a new mayor that's correct the the the salary for the mayor in this coming calendar year was set in 2020 yep does that answer your question councilor Smith okay continue okay um few things I heard and I just want to point out because they made me uncomfortable um the current salary of the mayor is the current salary and to say that if we continued with the current salary don't know the kind of person that we would get as the mayor um I want to be very careful about that kind of language perhaps we would not get as much of an experienced candidate perhaps we would not get someone as much education but to say the kind of person we would get while I understand the intent I think we have to be very clear about that the second thing that I want to say is as another woman on the council I think it's really appropriate and necessary for women on the council when they see a gendered pattern that has taken place that we pointed out and that we say hey this has happened the socialized response of course is to be defensive and to say I would never do anything like that and that was my my intention but I think the larger thing that we also have to remember that these patterns do exist and pointing them out is a burden for anyone who has to point them out and to consistently be given feedback as to why that's not the case I just be very careful of that turning into gast ating because um I think councelor Denham has a good point there and the last thing that I would like to say is that I agree that the salary needs to be higher I also agree that we're at a point right now financially that raising the mayor's salary by a huge increase would really be um I feel adding to a lot more of um a lot of the division that the city is already feeling and so while I agree that it needs to be increased I also think we need to show that we can be financially prudent about that decision and make it incrementally over those four years and so that concludes what I have to say for my comments thank you for the time and I pass it back to you thank you councelor Smith and I think um pro at this time what would potentially make sense is to open it up to the public and then put a motion on and then count can weigh in once again just because and we're deliberating and it it makes more sense to deliberate once the motion has been made and the public has been able to give input um councelor denim before we open it to the public would you like to yeah I just also want to appreciate uh councelor Smith's comments uh I'm looking at the charter right now and there's nothing in here that says that the sitting uh um mayor can't be have their salary increased so I'm looking at uh section 2-4 compensation expenses and nothing doesn't nothing says that the the mayor uh salary can't be uh increased while they're currently sitting not in an election year so just want to point that out good um so I think what makes sense now is to open it up to the public so if anybody here anybody online um would like to to weigh in on this issue now is your opportunity because once the motion is made uh we will not be entertaining any public comment anybody here okay anybody online would like to speak you all told me just raise your digital hand and I see no digital hands uh okay so councelor Peak I would entertain a a motion okay uh and then we can continue to deliberate um you know once the motion is made there will be time for deliberation and there will also be time for amendments um all right proed uh so I move that in accordance with the home Ru Charter chapter 3 section uh 3-1 C and chapter 9 section 9-6 I2 uh the annual salary of the mayor of East Hampton shall be uh well this is stuff that was in the past but we'll just 82,000 effective January 2nd 2022 84,000 effective January 1st 2023 87,000 effective January 1st 2024 990,000 effective January 1st 2025 93,000 effective January 1st 2026 96,000 effective January 1st 2027 999,000 effective January 1st 2028 and 102,00 effective January 1st 2029 second okay we have a motion in the second now this is our chance for further discussion councelor Zar so what I'm hearing is a few things um so so one just for the record I think when we did this a few years ago I think I had recommended $15 or $110,000 for the mayor which also overshot where we ended now because you know the only mayor I've ever served under has been mayor L Chappelle who happens to be a woman but um witnessing that closeup and the hard work of the work that she did day in and day out made me realize that I think at the time it was $75,000 was not adequate um so I'm hearing a few things one is that um we need to be fiscally responsible and I completely agree um that that raises some alarms to have a $30,000 uh increase at least based on what I was recommending um and that the current ceiling that is recommended in the in the um public hearing is maybe too low so maybe the council can a during our deliberations agree on what they think an appropriate end point is and then see if we can figure out how to get there because I do agree that with staring down a deficit we obviously need to be mindful of that but we also I think need to be mindful of once again my in my opinion appropriate compensation for that office regardless of their qualifications or who they are the work that has to be done as mayor is the work that has to be done as mayor um and so maybe if we could find a number I know counc Kinski thrown out 100 110 I'd thrown out 120 maybe if we could figure out where we want to go and then we figure out how to get there um over the next four years that that might satisfy what everyone's saying here if that pleases the council okay thank you councelor Zer any other thoughts on this uh councelor Peak um yeah just that uh I will say that while I I do have some concerns about the numbers here um one thing that I do like about the The Proposal that's on the table is that it's somewhat incremental um and that that is something that for whatever it's worth um in our conversations in finance committee there was one of these conversations I believe that mayor L Chappelle was present for and I believe that what not that she will be the beneficiary of any of this but that one of the things that uh she did say was that what she thought would be best that whatever we do for this or any other position is to try and set it over as long of a period as you can and make it gradual because that at least means that when the budget team is doing their work they can uh there's some predictability to it uh so you know if there are folks who want to make counter proposals on the number um I'm frankly sympathetic to that but at the same time I I do think I'd prefer to see something that increases grow gradually and not in a sudden uh start just personally um that's I guess what just responding to counselor's ER for thank you councelor Kinski if we were to somehow come to some agreement that 120 was a good ending point for the final year for example just hypothetically and we were to say that we started the January 1 2026 at 100 and then divide the other two would that make any sense to have it be incremental not to have a huge jump to end up what seems from this point of view to be a reasonable Place although who knows what's going to be reasonable five four or five years from now uh would that make any sense so I'm I'm suggesting is 100 whatever the midpoint is the two midpoints equal and then the end point final year be 120 I I think um councilor Kinski thanks thanks for that and and since I haven't said anything yet I guess I'll I'll I'll weigh in at this point um you know I as I think about this I think uh about a few things um number one is you know compensation of other leaders in the city and you know the superintendent is a is a pretty you know significant leader of our school department and um and I believe that that compensation is significantly um well above 20 um and so you know I think the mayor probably has as much if not more responsibility as a superintendent so I I you know I I would tend to agree that this potential increase makes sense as it relates to parity within City departments um and I also look to our neighbors you know I think northampton's mayor right now is somewhere in the 130 range maybe a little bit more than that and northampton's a much bigger city so they have a bigger tax base you know so it probably doesn't need to be you know at that level so maybe somewhere below that but I also think that the mayor of Northampton probably has to deal with similar issues as the mayor of eastampton does um they you know it just might be a smaller geographic area with a with a you know marginally smaller budget um but still has the same issues to deal with and and I think you know one of the things that makes me feel like it makes sense for the mayor to be compensated and I and when we did this the first time when I think uh councelor Kinski and I did this when uh you know mayor tnik was was in office and and again when Ken mayor kader was in office um you know we always said it makes sense to raise the salary because we can attract more qualified candidates that might be able to you know do a better job for East Hampton regardless of who they are but you know more qualified and and willing to put in that that extra work and and making it worthwhile for them to leave their job and and you know potentially relocate or or whatnot um and you know at the end of the day the mayor is the one that's responsible for the budget so if the mayor's salary is higher it's the mayor's responsibility to present us a BAL balanced budget that's the law and um you know they will have to not only do the the job of the office of the mayor but they're going to have to do Outreach um you know to governmental agencies to try to bring more grant money in to try to offset local you know expenditures to try to find ways and creative ways to make sure that they can balance the budget with those fixed numbers that are in place and they will that mayor will know what those fixed numbers are and it will be their job to make sure that they can earn their salary um and they're the one that's going to be responsible for the treasurer and making sure that you know all of the receipts are collected in a timely fashion and everything gets so you know so much of this rests on the mayor um and so I I don't feel um a ton of apprehension looking at raising it I I think that you know um one 120 might be or might be a a good ending point and looking at 100,000 as a starting point and incrementally going from there that seems to make sense um and it looks like it would bring us into closer alignment with other you know big department heads in the city and our neighbors um so you know I would be willing to entertain something like that do think you this is a this is a good effort of of trying to be fiscally responsible especially with kind of the unknowns of the deficit that we're currently in um and some of those moving pieces um but I do think that a four-year term mayor it does make sense to have competitive salary um and and and I think that that could potentially benefit the city and and ways as well um so that's that's my statement from there and then it looks like councelor Denham you have a comment yeah so I just want to say again like I completely disagree with the logic of what people are saying this is an elected position it's not a position that you have a advanced degree for and I think in that regard the only stipulation that we have for this this position is that you you not have another job during this particular time and so or one of I think there's three requirements and one of them is that you don't have so anybody can apply for this anybody and you are banking money on that person is going to have the skill set that qualifies them for this the entire the whole point of having department heads is that they are skilled they are knowledgeable they have understanding of how to do these things that's why we rely on our Treasurer that's why we rely heavily on our auditor like that is their job to advise the mayor in order to be able to put those pieces together and I think what we're saying is is that this all falls on the responsibility of the mayor and now we're doubling up salaries for a position that you're saying that that person is essentially the sole person for doing those things and I think that's why they have those positions to be able to inform them but I think that you have the potential of giving somebody a massive salary who has literally no experience and you're hoping that someone who has the ability to be a CEO is going to say you know what I'm going to give up my 150,000 or I'm going to give up my $250,000 job in order to take this $1,000 it's not going to happen it's not going to happen I've already asked people who I think are qualified for this and they are like absolutely not there is no way I would take that not only for what I would experience in that position but the fact that I have to give up the amount of money in order to be able to do that job and I think we are underestimating are the ility of our department heads in order to be able to advise effectively our mayor and I just I I I think that this is a huge mistake and I also think that we are far out of being out of the woods of our financial situation at this particular time particularly given the fact that we might have tariffs coming soon etc etc ET who knows what our financial situation is going to be with this change in administration and I just think that this is a huge mistake council is there um so Mr um acting president uh just based on what you had stated um a potential model could be um basically just year one through four raising it to $100,000 now and then uh year two 106 year 312 and year 418 which is close but kind of um gets kind of gets too close to to being there just as a recommendation which I would make it I would so I want to just put that out there okay and we got a few more got councilor Terrell I haven't heard from you yet so maybe I'll chime in and then I'll go to councel Peak and councelor Kinski thank you uh I just want to say I was one of the councelors that voted in favor of these of this um $3,000 year increment um during finance committee um and and I did it for two reasons I I I do think it it is an important position and it does need to be to be addressed as far as far as more money's concerned but also we need to be um as it was mentioned fiscally responsible um and and as councelor denim um pointed out already there is nothing that would affect that would keep us from readdressing this in two years if in fact it became an issue in two years it could be addressed during a sitting mayor or three years from now um I just think we don't want to bite off more than we can chew fiscally um and I think in incrementally although might be a little low I just in my opinion I feel that's the way to go right now okay thank you Council Peak um so I sort of taken a slightly different idea when we were just sort of talking about if if we wanted to do it incrementally um and so my idea what just one way that it could be done the the current uh proposal uh looks to increase the salary by $33,000 well if you wanted to increase it so that in 2029 it was it reached that 120 that seems like something a couple people have viewed as attractive you would really want to actually and the salaries at at the salary is already regardless of what we do tonight going to be $90,000 next month um so that what what um I think if I'm not mistaken uh the the best way to do that would just be to take the $3,000 increase that's here and just change that to a $75,000 increase so that then it would be n instead of 93 it would be 97.5 instead of 96 it would be 105 instead of 99 it would be 112.5 and then instead of 102 it would be 120 by 2029 um which like I mean if we're just throwing things out there I just want to say like that if we want to preserve the general if people like the the general idea of an incremental increase um and don't want to put a very large amount you know the that would in terms of of the 2020 uh six budget you know that would only really change the the general cost of this by $45,000 and even by the end would really would have it increase it by by 12,000 but um that's that's something that I would feel okay about but um I I'll defer to my colleagues I I I would just say that you know in the time that I've been a city council i' or I've SE I've seen mayor's fire department heads um that's a job that that Mayors have to do so I well I agree that the May a mayor has to be absolutely um Guided by the experience and expertise of their department heads um they at the same time also need to hold them accountable and um potentially deal with um poor performance or misconduct if it comes up because you don't always hire the right person and um so I I I don't think you can just count on have that person just be able to 100% count on those people because they're not they're not just advisors they're also employees correct councelor denim I don't need more money to be able to fire somebody like I don't think that's the criteria by which people hire or fire people right and so I think people are able to make good judgment good sound judgment to be able to figure out whether or not the relationship with that department head is working and still make less money because I think it happens it happens all the time and so I don't think that's a criteria for that but it's not just the salary we're going to have to think about the increase to retirement Medicare uh uh health insurance this is not a small number that I think that we are walking into right now and so when I said that we we rely on them to advise there's all sorts of reasons why that relationship might not work out or that department head might demonstrate um poort judgment uh cause for release uh from their role and responsibility um and so I think there's any number of reasons but that does not uh the amount that we pay a mayor it is not is not contingent upon whether or not they fire somebody right I think it's about us being fiscally responsible in a precarious time and I think that we are we are suggesting that we increase this Sal this has to come from somewhere and I I disagree wholeheartedly with the arguments of well the Northampton mayor makes x amount of money we have a much much smaller tax base I mean that is a consideration in the determination of how much we pay somebody not whether or not they make the same amount as another mayor from another town just because the work is the same we have a finite amount of money that we're able to pay people I mean that is just our reality and there are the parks department is exploring the possibility of of H new this is a this could potentially be half of another salary of a needed position in the city I'm sorry this is we we are not in a financial situation that we can just tag on this type of money to people who are in the city and that's also a cut in the services that were able to provide any number of people in this community our senior center our veterans office our health care our health department our parks department we're always talking about all the parks department needs more money and here we are saying well you can't have this $40,000 once you add up all of these other expenses uh councelor quinin sorry I skipped over you I'm glad we're having a good discussion about this and I know that everybody's listen listening to everyone else and I hope the public is listening carefully also I'm sure they are let's say we were to wait we were to say hey this is a terrible ter just and we've seen we've seen some really terrible times in the past where the budgets were SL was slashed and people lay on and on let's say that's what's coming and we're going to hire a mayor who's going to pull us out of that and help us find Solutions come to East ampton and work here be our mayor be our leader only we're going to pay you pay you less too that being said now it things turn around they get better and all of a sudden we have some money in the budget we have some money let's raise the mayor's salary it's time we can afford it I think that's an absolute wrong time to be raising a mayor's salary during the a setting mayor assuming we could do it and I'm not sure state law allows us to okay raise the current salary of someone currently your mayor it is poor poor practice that allow as as councelor Peak had said that allows for too much leverage when we we're go each one of us is going to the mayor asking for geez can you support this can you well you know my salary he needs to be no no no no no that's absolutely the wrong kind of Leverage in the wrong time Now's the Time to be making those decisions and we're going to make them I propose an amendment to this and I propose that the first year be 100,000 January 2nd 2026 that the second year be 107,5 a partial increase on the way to 120 and and that the third year be 112500 with 120 in the final year of the mayor's term sounds like that could be in the form of a motion I made it in the form of a motion if I may so we have a motion and we have a second on the amendment to the original motion and so now we can have discussion on the amendment any discussion on the amendment to the current motion it's basic okay um seeing none so can you just we want to just go over make sure you got I have 100,000 for 2026 is that right 107 107,5 127 112 528 and20 and 2029 is that correct that's correct okay okay so we have clarification and we have a motion in a second no further discussion okay Barbara uh JP kazinski hi Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamara Smith n JT Terell nay Owen zarett hi Connie Denham no Salem Derby hi got five yeses three NOS M motion passes okay motion passes so now we we have the original motion as amended um do we have any further discussion okay Barbara okay Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamara Smith no JT Terrell nay Owen zarett I Connie denim absolutely not Salem Derby hi JP kazinski hi five yes three no motion passes okay motion passes um and that concludes our public hearing I will entertain a motion to close the public hearing so second okay we have a motion in the second uh Barbara uh Brad Riley hi Tamara Smith hi JT Terell hi Owen Zer hi Connie denim please T Derby hi JP kazinski hi and Tom hi sorry okay okay and that brings us back into our committee reports and I believe we left Finance open yeah in case somebody wanted to do amendments right so I have a amendment in writing okay um and I guess yeah it's kind of my I mean I don't know if my we got to do yeah uh so I guess the idea then just to recap where we were is that I would if somebody wanted to make because we because I messed up the the uh the public hearing thing um if somebody wants to you know if somebody wants to make an amendment I'll at at we can have the public hear we can set a public hearing for it and we can discuss it but it was the committee's vote uh and this was a three to zero vote uh that we take no action so uh that's where I believe we are um so I have a proposal from councelor Kinski here um that um I guess I could do a first reading of this is sort of an unusual situation I'm trying to I guess I want it in writing it's it's here in writing so okay um csky if I have any trouble with your handwriting I hope you'll you'll forgive me um so the first thing is for school committee salary in accordance with the home Rule Charter chapter 4 section 41e the annual salary for uh the six elected members of the school uh committee shall be 6,000 per member effective January 2nd 2026 and the salary of the school committee chair shall be 6,500 effective January 2026 and then um the the other thing is for the city council salary he says in accordance with home Rule Charter Article 2 Section 24a the annual salary of the city councilors shall be $10,000 per member effective January 2nd 2026 the salary for the president of the council shall be 10,500 effective January 2nd 2026 so like I said we are going to have a meeting about this but we already discussed it and voted on it so I don't anticipate us having anything further to deliberate about it but since you were not granted the opportunity to make an amendment due to my oversight uh I think that it's only fair that we uh deliberate on that matter uh in two weeks uh so that would be uh for I would make a motion to uh set a public hearing to discuss that for uh December 18th in 6:15 in these Chambers second Motion in the second any further discussion Barbara Tamara Smith hi JT Terell hi Owen Zar Connie Denham no Salem Derby hi uh JP kazinski hi Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi okay motion passes um so we will have a public hearing at our next meeting uh and I believe uh this will probably be discussed in some ma manner maybe I don't anticipate discussing it committee because we've already deliberated at length like this if I had done this right we would have been doing that tonight so we're just going to do it in two weeks and I apologize for any confusion that that may have CA okay thank you councelor Peak does that conclude that concludes okay uh we have Public Safety councelor Zar uh thank you uh Mr active president um I don't have a new report uh as we haven't met since our last meeting our next meeting is next Tuesday the 10th at 6 p.m. in room 1 um we'll be uh discussing um uh the the all the or will be available to discuss all the non-dated items I don't believe we have a quarterly uh uh safety department uh roadway infrastructure pedestrian safety items we will definitely be reviewing the language and traffic rules in order um um the Citywide speed limit we will discuss as well as well as uh I believe that director Mason will be pres to also give his input uh for Reser reversing the traffic pattern at Daily on daily field road um just as a note there seems to have been there is has been a lot of requests and discussions uh through various City channels just about General pedestrian and motorist safety that's uh come both my way um into the mayor's office and um these things are complicated um they they cost both money and resources um and they require the input of various departments so a lot of people have been talking about speed bumps and that becomes a very difficult discussion but certainly one what we're always looking forward to having um but just for the public to know that those things usually need to go through some sort of vetting process before they even become a um agenda item because we want input from the DPW the police and the city Engineers before we introduce things like that uh to make sure that they're at least realistic so I just wanted to put that out there um and please be safe and drive the speed limit um at this time I'd also like to request a 90day extension on the uh traffic and pedestrian safety on West Street uh that's kind of dormant but we're we're waiting for a few things to happen so I'd like an extension on that please in the form of the motion I just made second okay we have a motion in the second uh any further discussion okay JT Terell hi Owen zeret hi Connie denim hi Salem Derby hi JP kazinski Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamara Smith hi and again that's next Tuesday the 10th at 6 pm. in room 1 for our next meeting and thus concludes uh thank you Council Zar uh Council Riley appointments thank you Mr Vice President um so the appointment committee last met um just two days ago December 2nd um and we had several reappointments before us um so I know you all know this um but just as a um to explain the process um I know councilor trell this is your your first full um term but uh at the end of every year we get a slew of people uh who need to be reappointed um unless there's like you know specific issues with a uh a person or if you know a chair reaches out and says you know we really have a challenge with expers this is generally just very straightforward procedural business stuff that needs to get done um so I'll say uh first that we approved all of these reappointments with a vote of 20 um there's only two of us at the meeting and then as I said at the last meeting when I sent this to committee because I I was confused as to what we were doing uh just to remind everybody with the exception of uh Mark Tanner our city solicitor um who has to be reappointed on oneyear terms only his term expiration date is December 31st 2025 all other people that I'm going to list will have a term expiration date of December 31st 2027 so I'm going to read off all of the names and their committees and then if people have any questions or reservations at the end uh we can do so [Music] all right so we have Lindsay Rothchild to the affordable and Fair Housing Partnership elod shikin to the agricultural commission Rachel Phillips to the AC aquafer protection committee Steven Litwin to the Board of Public Works Mark Tanner City attorney Louise Jacob to the commission on disability Mariam andara to the community relations committee Deborah August to the Conservation Commission Hal weeks to the Conservation Commission Julianne Busa to the Conservation Commission Bruce homestad to the commission on disability lesle Tain to the commission on disability Thomas Brown to the Council on Aging Patrick Bruff to the Council on Aging Marie Ferraro to the Council on Aging uh Leslie Herer button to the Council on Aging then we have Tracy Eller to the East Hampton City Arts uh Cassie eof to Ed EIC Dave Delio to edic Lisa puns to the manhan rail trail Elizabeth sturgeon to the manhan rail trail David jaffy to the manhan rail trail Alexis josea Abbott to the manhand rail trail James Crawford to the manhan rail trail Anita loose Brown to the manhan rail trail and also John Bader to the manhan rail trail next we have Paul Davis to the nashan Pond committee Elaine wood to the nanic pond committee Kira heninger to the Parks and Recreation Commission Brian Hilo to the Parks and Recreation Commission Nancy Stenberg to the Public Library Association of East Hampton James uh zarvis to the planning board uh Jesse beler Timmy to the planning board James Ramsey to the registar of Voters Anthony Mana to the veterans Council Maxwell swisser to the zoning board of appeals and then finally John Atwater to the zoning board of appeals okay and that is a form motion yes that's that is in a form of a motion thank you so we just received a second so we have a motion in a second any further discussion on uh councilor Peak so an organization that I sit on the board of has business before the zoning board of appeals right now so it's probably proper for me to recuse myself from both of those um but I think I've got got no objections to any of the others okay and I think we can probably have the clerk note that that um a yes vote from you on the the group will include an extension on those two yes please okay uh so we have a motion in the second uh any other discussion okay I see none Barbara uh ow and Zar abstain okay uh Connie denam I what oh you said okay Salem Derby hi JP gazinski hi Tom Peak I except for the two yep uh Brad Riley I Tamar Smith I uh JT Terell I okay okay um perfect thank you thep what I didn't hear you said abstain no I didn't hear JP oh did you did I skip your JP I vote I thought I voted I don't think I may have been quiet about it okay okay all right thank you um so and then also we have a number of um new appointees and reappointments that will come at a later date so um the appointment committee will be meeting on December 16th at 6: p.m. uh right here in conference room 2 um and thus concludes thank you councelor Riley uh and that brings us to ordinance councelor denim uh thank you Mr Vice President um we haven't met since our previous meeting our next meeting is December 19th at uh 5:30 in conference room 2 um and that's all our committee has to offer Council this evening okay thank you councelor Denham uh property doesn't look like you have anything councelor Zar no okay uh rules in government relations councelor Kinski uh I have nothing to report I just be me meeting with Council Gomez to see if we could schedule a meeting to discuss the one item of business we have and counsel Terrell but other than that there's nothing to report okay um we don't have any old business thank you Council pinski uh we don't have any old business um we do have new business and what I'll do is um I'll just uh hand off whoever so Council Riley this first piece um the information on the timeline of the vacancy I'll have you move that all right perfect thank you um so I make a motion to move the city council vacancy process and public notification of timeline record uh What's happen so per the new city council rules with this new form the uh this the uh the summary is read into the record Mr okay just want to that out yep so let me do that then um all right so I make a uh I'll with withdraw the original motion start over Okay um so I make a motion to move the city council vacancy process and public notification of timeline to ensure a fair and transparent process I'm requesting that the rules in government Relations Committee present the process to fill a city council vacancy as detailed in our home rule City Charter in the rules of the East Hampton City Council for public education Outreach and recruitment okay and that is to move to rules and government relations that's correct okay so we have a motion and an explanation do we have a second second okay uh so we have motion a second uh Barbara Connie denam hi Salem Derby hi JP kazinski hi Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamar Smith hi JG Terell hi Owen Zer hi okay um and Council Riley also have you move the appointment committee um yes thank you um and then also in the form of a motion um I would like to move the city council president appointment to the CPA committee uh to be sent to the appointments Committee in the form of motion second okay we have a motion in a second go ahead Barbara salm Derby hi JP kazinski hi Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamar Smith hi JT Terell hi Owen Zer hi Connie Dam I okay motion passes um and Council um councelor Peak I'm going to have you do the interdepartmental transfer all right I'll make this uh in the form of a motion uh this request in the form of motion and I will also set a public hearing for our next uh meeting uh at 6:15 in these Chambers uh for this item uh requests hereby made for approval of the following appropriation amount requested 47 uh uh 1,743 122 to be transferred from Peg access account 4774 322 to be transferred to Peg access account $ 47,7 4322 the amount requested will be used for the following purpose to give approval to spend from the peg access receipts reserved to count for cable related purposes consistent with the franchise agreement okay do we have a second second okay uh so we have a a motion in a second to uh send the interde departmental transfer 4774 322 to um Peg access account uh to finance and set a public hearing any further discussion see none uh JP kazinski hi Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Cameron Smith hi JT trell hi Owen Zera hi Connie Denham hi Salem Derby hi and looks like we have a request to return the ordinance Review Committee so I'll pass that over to councelor Denim thank you Mr Vice President um so at towards the beginning of the year we removed the uh ordinance review um committee's final report um and at this time we are asking Council to um put it back on our uh agenda to be able to address that I think that for myself myself um and um councelor Smith I think we've had some time to acquaint ourselves with um ordinance um and we've moved through a number of items right now and it just feels like this is a good time to um to bring this back um and it has also at the same time given vice president Derby who was member of that Council before some time away from that for us to be able to come back and with Fred um look at that I did make a commitment to this Council when we asked for its removal that we would be committed to this um and so uh I'm holding up to my word um and we are in fact bringing this back to council or to the committee to um to review that final report and hopefully have that back to council um sooner than later okay thank you councelor Denham so we have a motion to move that to ordinance uh do we have a second Che a second I just have a question yep so we have a second and and further discussion or questions just if we could get a a list of what the remaining items were I don't I couldn't find them in the record I know we had voted on a number of them but I don't know what's left there so if someone's able to send that out to the council I would be I appreciate that okay uh noted uh any other questions or discussion Barbara Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi C Smith hi JT Terell hi Owen zarett hi Connie Denham hi Salem Derby hi uh JP Ken hi okay uh and it looks like uh the next one would be appointment so I'll pass it back to you Council Riley thank you Mr Vice President um yes so uh before I make the motion um one of the appointments that's before us is for the director of planning and Community Development that position's been open for quite a while it's very important to the city um I would ask that if any counselors uh have questions or want to participate in the process to please let me know you can come to the council meeting you can send me questions and emails I'm happy to share the cover letter and resume with redacted personal information from uh from the applicant um I would humbly request your participation um so in the form of a motion I would like to move three uh mayoral appointments and eight reappointments to the appointment committee second okay we have a motion in the second any forther discussion okay Barbara Brad Riley yes Tam Smith hi JT Terell hi Owen Zer hi Connie denim hi Salem Derby JP Kinski Tom Peak hi okay uh and the last one is the Retirement Board 2024 Actuarial results and request increase Colo Base by 2000 and I would just ask that you move that to finance I guess Tom I will move I move that we uh move this item to the finance committee for review second okay we have a motion to the second all right any further discussion seeing none Barb Tamara Smith hi JT Terell hi Owen Zar hi Connie denam Salem Derby hi JP Kinski hi Tom P hi Brad rley hi okay and that concludes our business business for this evening I would entertain a motion to adjourn so move second motion to the second no further discussion on this one go ahead Smith hi JG trell hi Owen Zer Connie denim kby JP Kinski Tom r hi okay thank you everybody um get those chairs out e