##VIDEO ID:jyVI-6mkkNU## this government meeting is brought to you by eastworks and our local cable subscribers uh welcome to the East Hampton City council meeting for Wednesday January 22nd uh the meeting tonight is being recorded and broadcast by edia on charal Channel 93 and live streaming on their web page eastampton media.org counselors and participants in this meeting are gathering hybrid on the order extended until March 20125 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 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 public hearing thank you this meeting is now called to order Barbara Connie danam here Salem dur present ficia jadik here JP inski Tom Peak here Brad Riley here Tamar Smith here JT Terell here Owens erer pres okay uh let's to Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all and a moment of silence okay um we do have minutes uh that we need to approve um from January 8th uh 2025 meeting so move okay we have a motion the second any further discussion on the minutes from January 8th seeing none all those in favor any against or abstaining abstain okay one exstension motion passes uh we do have an opportunity for the public to be able to speak uh tonight so we um have a timer uh we just need that to address the council um to keep your comments to 3 minutes and to give us your name and address for the record um and so feel free to step to the podium we'll do in person first and then we'll go online next hi my name is Eric pulin Precinct 2 hello councilors Riley and Smith it's uh it's very nice to meet you we have never previously met before this is an important piece of information to share with you all and this brings me no joy to say this but I'm here to talk about the process to which certain members of city council use their position of power to defame slander and ruin the professional reputations of people who simply offer to volunteer their time in an unpaid capacity to help the city at the city council meeting of December 18th councilors Riley and Smith in their capacity on the appointments commiss committee recommended that I not be reappointed for a third ter to the Parks and Recreation Commission which appeared to be a surprise to half the council particularly the ones who actually know me and have worked with me on various initiatives according to various emails acquired through public records request it appears that councelor Riley as chair of the committee began asking the city clerk to dig for dirt on me to block my appointment to the commission as far back as November he asked the clerk if I had violated any laws and was searching for evidence of any misconduct of mine as a commissioner when literally nothing came back it appeared that he needed to change course and come up with a different strategy to attempt to block my appointment he declared that meeting on December 18th if there were four Anonymous complaints about me in spite of the fact that this is a violation of Massachusetts open meeting laws section 2.9 I'm sorry Section 29.0 5 to be exact Anonymous complaints cannot be acted upon by a city council who's to say that Council rally made up all of these charges um now mind you at no point during the two months when he conducted his investigation which is his word did he reach out to me to discuss no did he contact anyone of the park Department including director John Mason who wrote a letter in support of my reappointment uh to the mayor he regularly has asked potential employes to meet with the committee but that invitation was never sent my way a break of protocol Council Riley also mentioned an email to the mayor that quote I feel an obligation to withhold his reappointment pending a review by the city council to ascertain whether she be vote for his reappointment well clearly based on the the surprise reaction uh of many of you that evening that review never actually happened rather it appears he de said that he had the power to potentially destroy someone's professional reputation and career with the same amount of thoughtful engagement that normally goes into setting if you have want a cup of coffee or tea in the morning people's lives are not uh chess pieces to move around in the board or maybe Checkers pieces in your case uh councelor Riley when questioned by councelor guzinski as as to why the appointments committee was Voting to not recommend me councelor Riley passed the Baton to councelor Smith who stated that the quote evidence in spite of there not being any evidence was quote my inappropriate body language raising my voice and creating intimidating environment for other members of the committee these are charges I take very very seriously and let me respond to those uh yes I am a large person I've struggled with my body size my entire life and I'm certainly mindful of how people who are larger can be perceived and discriminated against I certainly never thought I'd see the day when my size would would prohibit me from serving my hometown and I absolutely didn't see the day when the city counsil would body shame me in front of the whole town as far as raising my voice is concerned I have documented hearing loss that has been diagnosed by my primary care physician I actually have a appointment on Tuesday I might be getting uh a hearing aid stemming for many years of playing music um according to the Americans with Disability Act neither my body size nor the tone of my voice should prohibit me from being able to serve on a city committee these statements are also in clear violation of the code of ethics of the rules of city council code code 19 compare this to when councel Riley shouted shame on you president Gomez when a vote didn't go his way or any of the countless times that all of you have raised your voices over the years when engaging passionate issues you owe me you you you after all this you owe me 10 more seconds finally I was in the zoom meeting that night when these discussions about my alleged conduct were raised nobody called on me no discussion was happened Council rally was simply to go ahead with this hear say that could forever ruin my career he doesn't even know and also he doesn't even know the rules of the committee he chairs the charter indicates five votes were needed that that night and he was only whipped together four and he is seeking a ruling from the city attorney which is a uh really great usage of tax dollars I believe my questions are this one up why did councel Ry go on a deeply personal vetta against me and why would anyone put their name forward for public service knowing that counselors Riley and Smith and others might be working to ruin their reputation and to frankly ruin their lives I think the two of you need to resign okay anybody else and we'll try to stick to the three minute boundaries Mr President my name is Nathan Marquee I reside at 37 Holy Oak Street I'm looking at the agenda I'm not sure if you're having a reorg meeting today I maybe I missed it um but basically I'm here to say that I would really like to see a woman in leadership on the city council I'll leave it at that thank you anybody else public speak okay anybody online could raise your virtual hand it looks like uh Amy yes um thank you um council president and the city counselor I'm here to speak on behalf of councelor zarat and in opposition to the censure movement um there are serious concerns about why someone who's advocating for children under Massachusetts law why someone who is um being targeted for advocacy against anti-Semitism while the board is not fulfilling the school board the school committee is not fulfilling its own anti-discriminatory obligations under its own policies and procedures I find this problematic this is unprecedented and councelor zarat has done nothing but do his due diligence based on his obligation to advocate for the needs of all children I thank you for your help and time thank you uh Julie hi I'm Julie and I live in Precinct one I'm sorry I'm losing my voice so if you can't hear me please let me know we can hear you um excuse me I'm sorry um I just wanted to speak on behalf of Owen zarett um I just came to knowledge of what was happening today and I briefly read through all of the notes that were presented by the school committee and I'm asking you to please not censor him he is a voice for me and for many others and if you censor him you censor me he cannot do his job and do his due diligence as another member just po spoke about in our community it's really important that when there's a big issue like this that there is a resolution to it and that there is complete transparency and reading the notes there was not complete transparency you know we always ask the qu the five wise to get to the root cause or to get to a plan to create a better place we can't do that if you shut down people you can't you cannot turn off his voice you cannot turn off my voice that's what you're there for and I have always appreciated all of his due diligence he has always responded back with clear concise answers what I have asked him of of questions so please consider not to censorship maybe we need to consider getting a mediator and sitting down with a group and really find find out what's happening but to censor somebody is completely wrong so I appreciate your time thank you okay thank you uh it looks like um Lois Lois Len yep hi uh my name is Lois Leven I live in tring one a longtime East Hampton resident at this point and I also want to my support in favor of Owen Zar and against censure for him uh East Hampton in my experience my kids actually went through East Hampton schools but they've long since graduated but I never really felt that East Hampton took the um took the the topic of anti-Semitism very seriously so on a one by one basis I had a good rapport with people in the school committee and in the schools when my kids were in the schools about redirecting some of the issues that my kids had and the things I saw but it was all one by one and it was never taken seriously I've experienced anti-semitic at um things at my home because of my kids um I can show you a few pictures not now but at some point and Owen has been a sole voice that really understands what it's like when you're not part when you're Jewish in this community um so I did not read all the information that came through I just have not had the time to look through it I feel for the school committee because I think they work very hard and I think they're trying to do the right thing but looking at the the issue of anti-Semitism and the grand with the small amount that R mentioned that there's other programs in the school that talk about diversity and and uh ways to mitigate other issues between different groups in eastampton but anti-Semitism is very different than what I've seen come out of the schools through the other programs that they've done and I've been following this for a long time just to restate when my kids were in the schools I was really on top of a lot of that stuffff and I have followed it ever since thank you thank you and uh looks like we have Mike offner uh thank you the city council for having me my name is Mike gner I'm a resident of amers Massachusetts um I I just want to say I was um I was I was absolutely flabbergasted to read the school committee's letter um because as someone trained in the law I read that and thought who in the world would draft and send this letter without having a lawyer review it because it was I mean it is one of the most legally foolish things I've ever seen in a lifetime of living in Massachusetts and following local politics in Massachusetts to basically say to ask the city council to censure a Jewish parent for speaking out about anti-Semitism you are in VI you would be in violation of the First Amendment of the equal protection clause and of title six of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which per executive order 13899 makes Jews explicitly a protected class and title six is tied to to Federal funding so in addition to the liability the town could face from a lawsuit you also could be facing the loss of any and all future Federal funding of any CL of of of any kind for the foreseeable future if you were in to indulge in the school committee's blatantly and foolishly discriminatory ask so for the sake of the city of East Hampton I would strongly strongly encourage you to decline to censure uh Mr zarett and to drop the issue drop the issue completely because I cannot fathom how the school committee thought sending that letter was a good idea thank you thank you and unfortunately um we're at our 6:15 wall for public hearing so what I would like to do is I would like to pause public speak time do our public hearing and then I'll reopen public speak time after the public hearing uh and then anybody that would like to speak after we'll have an opportunity to do so um so I would entertain a motion to open the public hearing second we have a motion the second all those in favor any against or obstain public hearings open and it looks like councilor Peak thank you Mr President um so we have one item here it's a interdepartmental transfer of $1,344 to cover an uh old bill from the uh highway department for a police detail uh is Mr nutman on the call let's see oh he is yep y good evening everyone nman director of Public Works um go ahead so we we uh there's a little technical glitch earlier and we weren't able to connect with Greg so we we moved this forward basically without a recommendation just by I mean it's an old bill it is what it is but we just wanted to get couple more details before sure um so Greg if you could sure um so in the what happened with this bill is at the time Northern Tree was doing a bunch of work for eversource in the city and also for us and they had um erroneously build um some bills got to ever source that should have been charged to the city and by the time it was back to us and worked out and I verified everything with Northern the fiscal year had changed over and we've just been working through the auditor's office to get this [Music] resolved uh any questions from counselors any questions from the public whether in person or online okay seeing none all right I'll make the following request in the form of a motion uh request is hereby made for approval of the following appropriation amount requested $1,344 to be transferred from Highway Professional Services $1,344 to be transferred to Highway Professional Services $1,344 the amount requested will be used for the following purpose prior year bill for police detail second okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion okay all those in favor I I any abstentions or no know okay see none motion passes thank you councelor Peak uh looks like we have a utility poll location do you want to pass that back to Barbara uh councelor Z thank you uh so we have a request to place a jointly owned stub pole on ever Street um essentially what this is is there's a uh a guy pole a stub guy pole that's currently in that position that's actually a a tree that's been cut down numerous times um it's pretty rotted and regardless um it's the best practice of the utility company to replace old pole guys like that with um uh with an actual pole uh this is also in the location of the uh St Bridget Cemetery um and they were involved in the conversation as well um in terms of uh guidance for that area uh Tom Brown is here he may want to speak on this topic IC Mr President okay um continue um there were a few issues identified during the conversation mostly that the existing poll is actually two separate polls and that the that's not really relevant to the vote but I just wanted to make it public record um councilor Kinski uh aply noted that and the utility had been noted uh not notified about it and that is going to be addressed essentially they have to REM finish removing utilities from one poll than to just have one um but generally there were no issues with this again it's it's also a safety issue it will replace this rotted tree which will eventually be removed um and there were accommodations made to make sure that the new pole uh once voted on will be coordinated with the cemetery because I believe they want to put I think a fence there but again Mr Brown comment on that more the committee voted uh 30 to recommend this to the full Council uh with no modifications okay any questions or comments from the council any questions or comments from the public okay um and I don't see any online okay seeing none councelor z uh do you need to hear from ever Source are you satisfied I think I think we're probably fine yeah okay okay all right uh I hereby move uh to approve the petition filed by Verizon New England incorp at NSTAR Electric Company DVA eversource energy to place one jointly owned stub pole number t1515 s15s on the north side of ever Street at a point approximately 18 ft easterly from the central line of Franklin Street uh the new location will also be approximately 36 ft Northerly from existing pole numbered t151 2.15 uh and also that the petitioners agreed to reserve space Cas for one cross arm and a suitable point on each of said polls for the fire and police telephone signal wires belonging to the municipality and used by it exclusively for municipal purposes second okay we have a motion in the second uh any further discussion seeing none all those in favor any against or abstentions motion passes thank you councelor zarett uh we have a city ordinance Amendment uh councelor denim thank you Mr President um so the ordinance me uh committee met uh a number of times um with um the uh Council on Aging representative uh Mr Brown uh to discuss um changing the uh ordinance of division 3 Council on Aging ordinance to open up membership of this committee to include uh non-residents of the community um who would uh but who have some connection to the city either they have um been a person working in the city uh well actually they have to be working in the city but this stemmed from someone who had served and lived in the community for a number of years and then moved out of the city but still had a fondness for East Hampton but had to kind of obviously step off of this particular board so we had a um a very good discussion uh in terms terms of the importance of being able to allow members of uh non-residents of East Hampton but who do have an affinity and a connection uh to be able to serve on uh the Council on Aging that could provide either uh some some form of of guidance uh to the city but also individuals who spend a great deal of time uh in the community who have an affinity for the community and want to be able to give back to this community because they are working here um so the committee um and and I'll open it up to Mr Brown uh in a second but just to to kind of cover this so in section 2-51 um uh section A there is hereby established a council and aging board consisting of nine persons appointed uh by the mayor from the residents of the city or persons working in the city um so that was uh an important piece that we wanted to add to that uh section B chairperson of the Council on Aging board shall be designated from time to time by the board uh to so to provide that clarification and then we added this important piece D that says onethird of board membership can be made up of non- eastampton residents living in Western Massachusetts or the four counties of Western Massachusetts so this was the piece I think that was created a bit of a lengthy discussion uh because we wanted to make make sure that uh residents of the city who were invested in the city and who were looking after the um the uh uh residents who uh are senior residents who access the Council on Aging to make sure that in no way at any point are they um outvoted right so the majority still would be uh maintained with uh the majority of East Tamp residents um and then in section 2-5 2 employees of the of the council there was just some updated language as you can see we added with approval from the Human Resources Director um duty to Carry Out programs of on the needs of older adults um Etc so uh you all have the opportunity to to kind of read those things but this is uh the um what we came up with with the help of the the council aging uh Mr Brown I'm not sure Mr President if if you're open to allowing Mr Brown to add anything that he would like to speak on in in terms of kind of the necessity of this change I am open to Mr Brown hi uh excuse me Tom Brown Vice chair of the council and aging board um given two opportunities to speak I won't give up I'll come back for one of them at least um but I want to thank the the ordinance subcommittee for reviewing this and taking it on I think in the course of this action we discovered that the residency requirement for the Council on eing board actually puts them I believe in the minority of other boards and committees in the city that do not have a residency requirement and again this was born out of a lifelong eastampton resident who had been serving on the board for several years and happened to move to Westampton and uh through that process we discovered this uh residency requirement and he was required to get off the board um so that's why we're asking for this change and I think some of the things that councelor Denham mentioned actually put some safeguards in place you must live or work in the city so obviously there are folks you know Bank Executives for example who might live elsewhere but work in the city spend 40 50 60 hours a week in the city and are very in tune with what's going on and then the other safeguard that was put in place um because I believe it was councelor Smith raised the question could you end up with an entire board that was non-residents so the other safeguard that was put in place is that there could be no more than onethird of the board members that are not residents so that means in our Board of Nine the most we could have would be three it also gave us an opportunity to clean up some of the language as councelor Denham said uh a lot of this was written in 1959 uh most of you weren't born yet um so um anyway that's the that's the basis for this whole uh request thank you thank you anything else Council denim before we open it to questions uh no I'm open for any questions that people might have councelors any questions or comments councelor Smith um I would just like to add to that too another aspect um of our conversation in ordinance around this was the possibility of having a new senior um Center eventually coming and obviously a lot of people who work within the field of Aging that might not be working currently in East Hampton might have a lot to offer so we really did look at this from many different angles and I really appreciated the amount of back work you did to prepare for the meeting so thank you and the other councelor is councelor Kinski it sounds like a lot of work has been done on this and a lot of good work I did have a question regard Just for information purposes maybe there's someone in the room who may have the answer to this uh but senior centers can folks from other communities visit our senior center be part of our senior come to the senior center uh and maybe if you wouldn't mind asking Mr Brown to answer that question I'd be happy to hear that I think it would lend Credence to the fact that someone from outside the area who had a connection the quick answer is yes if programs are being offered or trips are being offered non-residents can sign up for those but preference is given first to eastampton residents so if a bus trip was full um it would be full of East Hampton residents first and then if there were openings it would be open to non-residents thank you does that answer your question it answers the question yes okay down yeah and one last point I did reach out to the Massachusetts Council on Aging um just to additionally to find out like are the residents requirements for a counsil on aging and and she said no um but she did say you know I I would want to caution I I I didn't at that point indicate that we would have a a limit um she said there are a lot of individuals uh who are attempting to get on councils uh uh on Aging in various communities so they can have various control over certain operations Etc um and so I think that this is really important that um you know in part you know thanks to uh uh councelor Smith making sure that with this we are opening up to people who care about East Hampton but we are making sure that the majority of people making decisions about um the council and aging are in fact residents so um any other questions or comments from the council okay any questions or comments from the public and can step to the podium um okay seeing none Council denim yep so um I'd like to in the form of a motion um uh you know accept the various amendments to chapter 2 division three the Council on Aging uh amend sections 2-51 established appointment of members designation of chairperson term of office uh section 252 employees of council section 253 duty to Carry Out programs on the needs of older adults coordination with State Council as amended second okay we have a motion in the second any further discussion all those in favor I any abstentions or NOS motion passes and that also concludes our public hearing close the public hearing we have a motion a second any for the discussion all those in favor I any nose or abstention okay public uh hearing is closed I will reopen public speak just a reminder to address to the council and to try to keep it to 3 minutes as close as possible and name and address for the record you know the drill Peg conif um Precinct one I'm not going to give you my address um I think we need to be clear in the room and on uh remotely that at least my perception of what the school committee is doing is not about the topic of anti-Semitism what they are drawing attention to is the behavior of an elected official in corresponding with another group in the city and I know this from personal knowledge when I was on the council 2020 and 2021 I was council president and at any point if I questioned or asked for clarification on something from counselor Zar I would be demeaned insulted harassed and bullied regularly I have the receipts and I my mental health suffered during that time and I Look to a lot of the people on this Council who were on that council at that time who did nothing and I've talked to you about it and it infuriates me to this day that we talked about what can we do and what I heard was he's a good guy it'll be fine he's a good guy and I know that for a lot of people in this community this whole process is very hard to believe why we're doing this to such a good guy and I can tell you that maybe he's a good guy for a lot of you he he used to be my friend before this all started so I totally understand where you're all coming from but when he's not a good guy he's a very bad guy and I I just want to applaud the school committee for the work that you've done and the integrity and the honesty and the courage that you've shown to bring this forward this is not about anti-Semitism curricula that is a red herring um I think I think what we need to understand is this is a disciplinary action it's not going to stop him from doing Council work it's not censor in him it is going in his record as Behavior Unbecoming of a city counselor and I think it behooves all the city councilors here and any future city counselors to recognize that that kind of behavior will not be tolerated and the only way we can show that is through this this is the only thing our bylaws allow us to do or he resigns but this is disciplinary and I think it is warranted and I am here to tell you that I was not going to speak tonight cuz I figured you know let the chips fall where they may but I think there's a big misconception out here of what we're doing and it's got to be corrected and I stand before you as a person who was a victim and I'm tired of it thank you thank you Lindsay Rothchild 73 Mount Avenue I wasn't planning on to speak either I'm frankly tired of it I came last year I warned about the same kind of behavior do women matter in this town do our voices matter because it doesn't feel like it does perhaps the guests are surprised by the school committee's action because they have not been involved in East Hampton Civic life so I want to provide some context I've been subject to anti-Semitism I've also been subject to the harassment and bullying by Owen zeret and I've witnessed him doing it to other women on the Council other women and Civic positions in the city there's files here in the city hall he tried to silence me he contacted the FBI to silence me he contacted the chief of police to silence councelor denim this first discussion of censoring came up as counselor con con of mentioned in 2021 I was heartened because councelor Derby and councelor Peak said yes we know he's a problem we're going to do something but you know what he's a now it turned out he's too good of a guy and they weren't up to the leadership or the fortitude to stand up for women in this town I was deeply disappointed by that I trusted them I trusted that they care about women's engagement in Civic life that they care about other people on the council and the the victimizing that was happening Dan rist stood up and he was bullied and harassed off the council they still remain Sil silent it's disappointing um I I don't know what else to say I've pretty much said everything I can I I agree this is not about anti-Semitism this is about his behavior towards the school committee I used to be friends with Owen in fact Laura and I ran his first campaign from the school committee I commend the school committee for saying no that's female leadership saying no to the bullying we're not taking it and I also commend them on all the hard work they do for our kids in this city and standing up to bullying is modeling modeling what we need to do to our kid for our children in this community and I thank them I mean I I can't speak to I'm I'm only speaking about this address please excuse me name and address uh my name is Greg Schwarz I'm an 18 lady slipper thank you Florence um you know I'm here because of the censorship of Owen um as as a Jewish person that lives in the the valley um I feel that this is there's there's no other group I you know there's just so much anti-Semitism going on um around here nationally and to think that if who's bringing up legitimate concerns about anti-Semitism in the area and instead he's being told to he's being censored for it there's there's no other group where if somebody was African-American or LGB and they were complaining or or bringing up a case of of harassment or discrimination and they'd be censured for it so I I'd like for everyone to reconsider that uh Neil brick 39 wev um I'm in here um in support of Owen's efforts to stop anti-semitism um I think it's important that that that we we deal with that I I came here a month or two ago to seek um a motion pass that I felt was basically I felt it was anti-semitic and and it was attacking Israel um which really bothered me and I think we have to be really careful about stopping anti-Semitism and and you know and so I mean I'm I'm against bullying too I don't know all the details unfortunately I've read as much as I can um but definitely we need to stop anti-Semitism and you know stop attacks on Jewish people and that's all I have to say thank you thank you hi counselors um k j Mar McQuade um at a Jon's drive also wasn't planning on speaking tonight but I just feel like some things need to be said um I want to Echo some of the comments um from prior counselor Peg um and Lindsay that this isn't about anti-Semitism this is about a documented a well documented pattern of behavior this there is no surprise or it's not a secret that there's a cultural problem on city council that women don't feel safe that people have left because of the culture there have been news stories multiple and one name comes up and it's Owen zeret this is not about picking on him individually this is about accountability this is about using the tools that you guys have as a council to say this behavior is not okay it's not stripping him of his counselor ship it's not stopping him from speaking in meetings it's saying we stand with the women of the city we stand with people who over years have faced this behavior and want to see it stop hopefully this will be a push to to fix that behavior and I I hope it I hope it is thank you good timing hi my name is Jean Francis and I live at 15 Cottage Street and I don't have anything prepared but I do would like to read even though my eyesight is really bad if you all please bear with me um but first of all I just want to Second what everybody's saying we need a woman on the council as president so um Prof councelor Derby I think it's time for you to move over so you've been here for 20 years that's long enough so we need a woman we need women to speak I would like to read a letter from um Carolyn Cushing who could not be here tonight because she's also our poet laurate so she's doing something with the poet laurates so I'm going to try and do this I can sometimes easily read from my phone so I'm going to try it okay this is from um Carolyn who sent this letter to the city all the city councilors except you Owen so I think all of you have read it I wonder if you I mean I'm curious to know if you're blaming somebody else Salem for that since you seem to blame other people you're one of the blamers I understand but I do want to read this from Caroline yesterday um news that the school committee and thank you school committee um is calling for councelor zarett to be censored is upsetting but not surprising as you know from my this is Carolyn speaking from my January 8th public speak posted posted below she posted Below in the email I and my neighbors have been observing the toxic culture of the city council and the negative impact that you that your work for years the negative impact I'm sorry impact on your work for years every group that is dynamic but but when it reaches the point that those Dynamics are in the media imagine that there must be a lot that has been happening behind the scenes that we don't hear about and I think that Peg uh uh past uh president conth and past counselor Lindsey zared have spoken to that many times so I don't know you know anyway so these are things behind the scene that it seems that the male counselors Riley uh Salem and Tom and JP I don't where you stand most of the time uh so it's like it seems like you all aren't listening to this you're think oh he's a good old boy well he's not he's a bad old boy if you can finish that be speaking to what I can't remember who said that but I I second it that's that's three minutes oh my time's up yeah sorry okay well you've got my point so I think Salem you need to move over in our new C person need to into your spot hi Nathan Marquee 37 h Street I actually was not going to speak um on this topic so it's kind of in my head I've always had a cordial relationship with um councelor zeret it remains cordial to this day I'm also the chair of the East Hampton um Democratic committee I'm not coming here to speak as the chair of the East Hampton Democratic committee but we did have a meeting last night and this topic took up quite a bit of the meeting I'm not going to share details but it was jarring um I don't think anti-Semitism is okay I don't think massin is okay I don't think racism is okay I don't even think um what's the mandre is okay I don't think any of it it's okay and bullying definitely isn't okay either um I want to reiterate my point earlier I would like to see a woman in leadership in some capacity on the city council um I respect all of you tremendously I know that you take a lot of heat and I also know that the school committee's been through a lot for the past couple of years and I take a little bit of umbrage that they're being raked over the coals again and that's probably my biggest issue with everything because I don't have the personal experiences but I trust people by their word and um thank you thank you uh it looks like we have somebody online Andrew suralink if you could unmute you have three minutes just let us know your name and address yes uh good evening my name is Andrew ceric I live on Massa soy Street in Northampton and I'm here tonight to talk about the school committee's attempt to censor councelor zared there uh first I'm going to say that first there are several speakers tonight who have tried to make this about uh Mr Zara's personal conduct but that's not what is in the censor s your request if you read it yourself there's nothing in there about bullying or rudeness the request targets only one thing and that's councelor there it's work on anti-Semitism in our schools so let's look at what the committee's own request said that uh councilman zared did he went to official meetings with School staff he emailed about anti-Semitism concerns he suggested ways to improve the curriculum and he asked questions through proper channels and he met with principles when incidents [Music] happened the committee has never tried to censor censor anyone else for advocacy as far as I know it has never said other information requests were improper it has never complained when other parent counselors got involved but now when it is about anti-Semitism suddenly these normal activities are worthy of censure so this kind of selective treatment violates the City Council ethics rules the co uh city council's code explicitly banss religious discrimination the school committee's own code of conduct requires putting children first uh instead of dealing with the real concerns about anti-Semitism affecting our kids the school committee is attacking the person who raised the concerns it's making up rules that don't exist and it's trying to silence legitimate advocacy about discrimination um as an e eastampton taxpayer myself this I'm concerned because this puts our city at serious legal risk under CI uh under state and federal civil rights laws I am worried about the liability I will face as a taxpayer to share in legal consequences of the council's uh actions if it indeed censures uh councilman Zara so here's what I'm asking the council to do I'm asking you to reject this discriminatory request for censure to consider I'm asking you to consider censuring the school committee instead for discrimination I'd like you to figure I'd like you to figure out why I'm almost done why anti-Semitism activism advocacy triggers these extreme reactions and to look into why the school committee isn't addressing discrimination effectively the school committee has a duty to stand against discrimination and is time to hold the school committee accountable thank you thank you okay so it doesn't look like we have anybody else oh well maybe we do so three minutes hi um Jen Sandler uh Williston Avenue um I also didn't intend to speak today um I'd urge you to actually read it because um uh you know um the the content of the school committee's letter is quite clear um and um I there are many things that I that I could say um and I think that what I want to say that hasn't been said yet um is that I I I don't actually think that Owen is acting out of ill will um I don't um and I and um and I don't think that in general bullying comes from ill will I think it comes from trauma and I think it comes from Fear um and I think that those are real and those are real experiences um but by his own uh by his own admission he met many times with the school committee with members of the school administration to um voice his concerns he was heard he he expressed being heard and then he lied about it and he essentially slandered the school committee and the schools um for for for not responding to um to his concerns and they did respond to his concerns and the fact that they didn't respond to them in exactly the way that he wanted to you don't get that you don't get that kind of power um as a citizen and and trying to get that power to unilaterally determine um the appropriate response is bullying um especially when you lie about people who are doing their job and who have been under so much pressure and so much so they've been docked they've been attacked for doing like a really amazing job there under really difficult circumstances and it's just really disappointing honestly I feel disappointed um that this has been allowed to go on I've been hearing about Owen um bullying women on the council women in power in this community for a long time I have not experienced that myself and because I haven't experienced it doesn't mean that that I don't believe that it happens um I've talked to a lot of people and I listen to a lot of people and I've listened to Owen which is why I don't think that he's acting out of ill will but that doesn't mean that that that it's not your responsibility as council members to stop it and to say this is a boundary um this is an important boundary and you have that power and you have that responsibility so I urge you not to equivocate about it um it is not stopping him from speaking um or removing any powers that he currently has it's just putting a limitation on it to make sure that other people can do their job in good faith which they have clearly done um it is so courageous of them to speak out about this um and I urge you to back them up thank you thank you can you reset the time uh Jonathan Schmidt um Precinct Three a little at 442 East Street um as uh one of the other speakers said I've also maintained a cordial relationship with counselor zerit um and yet I find having read through all of the documentation that was provided to you um that uh some of the behavior that is exhibited therein uh is jarring and uh appalling um I would like to stress that uh this is not a um sudden uh uh item that is being brought forward to silence anybody in their pursuit of of Justice uh this is something that has been uh documented as taking place over the course of a year um as I think about you know what else I can contribute to this conversation um having served on the committee previously having been a citizen who joined that body with um Grand ideas about what I thought um the students uh should be learning uh to succeed as humans in the 21st century um I quickly learned that that was not the purview of that body um I see that some of the proper channels have been followed to you know meet with uh various administrators to talk about you know curriculum and additions that could be provided uh to to support students learning uh but ultimately it is the role of the school committee to um create policies in this case that uh oversee the schools and uh as is clear in the documentation that you've been provided there are uh numerous uh policies um related to the issues of harassment and bias uh I joined the committee at a time uh when we were in uh Dire Straits uh in relation to um how uh we were um allowing discrimination uh to happen within the school district and as a result the district became leaders in the region uh in terms of um bringing in um experts and education to to um to you know address these issues uh to address bias uh in all of its forms uh and um I think to overlook those uh those policies that are clear and in place and enforced uh would be a disservice to uh the school committee uh and um I'll just finish by saying I I also applaud those who've come forward it is not an easy thing to do um especially when there are so many people who um would uh readily rally against you uh despite not having read all the materials uh and so I thank you for your time for your consideration for taking this issue seriously okay looks like we have another hand online Julie so I didn't know if I could speak not about um this issue here but about bullying just for a brief moment um Julie from Precinct one um I can remember back in January of 2022 going at a council meeting they spoke about a reappointment that they had did at a meeting in December 17 2021 with the city council during that meeting Owen zarett had expressed his concerns about a reappointment to the Parks Commission due to an individual who was bullying him said vile things said vile things against the epd that were so derogatory and every person at that Council excused it they said it was okay because it was free speech that included P conif that included lindsy Roth's child all of them said it was okay because it was free speech so when we talk about bullying it needs to be across the board I don't think Owen Zer was bullying when he was going with the school committee trying to get answers that was being assistant that was trying to get answers so when they claimed that they're being bullied they were okay with it back then now they're not okay with it they feel it's you know they're they're being harmed what about back then in December of 2021 when you guys all set that presidence by go ahead and allowing that person to be appointed to the Parks Commission so you need to think back when you set that precedence and I am not saying that Owen is bullying I don't think he is that is what he's doing is not the definition of bullying but what that other gentleman did that con approved of and what Lindy child Roth child approved of that was bullying thank you okay thank you anybody else looks like there's nobody online I will close public speak time now um and we do not have any items for immediate attention which brings us to Communications from elected uh officials boards and commissions and we do have uh school committee request uh and I would invite Laura Scott to the [Music] podium good evening city council uh uh I'm planning tonight to read into the public rec record uh one of several attachments that I sent to the full Council including to councelor zaret this past Sunday at 6:45 p.m. um I just want to State for the public record and those who might be watching that that email there was a text to the body of that email that is public record there is a four-page letter to the city council requesting the censure of councelor zaret there was also a communication timeline a um an arrangement of our I'm sorry a collection of our relevant policies in East Hampton public schools that deal with anti-bias anti-discrimination Etc um we can certainly make that we've made every effort to make that as widely available as possible um anyone is free to reach out to any of us and we'd be happy to share that with you as well uh request by the East Hampton school committee for the East Hampton City Council to censure councelor at large Owen zarett East Hampton City council president Derby and eastampton East Hampton City councilors Kinski jzac Peak Smith Denham Riley and zarett I'm writing to you as chair of the East Hampton school committee with unanimous support and agreement of the committee we submit to you the following information regarding the conduct of councelor zarett toward the school committee and members of the East Hampton Public Schools administrative staff and we seek your support and cooperation in the dispensation of commensurate consequences the events and circumstances outlined in this letter are troubling and unfortunate and we are bound as an elected body and service of East Hampton public schools to the code of ethics developed by the Massachusetts Association of school committees we have a responsibility to the community to the school administration to our colleagues on the committee and primarily to the children in our district therefore we are compelled to address false statements about the district and conduct that negatively impact the work of our Administration and staff our students learning and the morale and reputation of eastampton public schools we respectfully request that your body votes to centure councelor zeret for the conduct outlined herein beginning early in 2024 councelor zeret repeatedly requested an audience with our interim superintendent while that is outside of the traditional purview of a city counselor and therefore not standard practice given that councelor zared is a parent of a Current eastampton public school student a meeting was scheduled and took place on March 16th 2024 in attendance were our interim superintendent our curriculum and grants coordinator myself and councelor zaret this was a lengthy and cordial meeting that by councilor zat's Direction focused mainly on the topic of anti-Semitism in our district we empathized with his concerns and sought to reassure him by enumerating the broad and robust protocols and curricula that we employ to not only teach history and World cultures through a lens of compassion Justice and critical thinking but to also support our teachers and staff so they will be well equipped to instruct around bias and discrimination of all types and particularly those that Target vulnerable populations the school committee and the district consider issues of discrimination and bias as a high priority and as such have an ongoing contract with the collaborative for Educational Services to continually strengthen and expand our district offerings to educate students staff and our school Community about anti-bias anti-discrimination hate speech trauma-informed responses social and emotional support and restorative justice practices following that initial meeting at councelor zat's request we agreed to schedule a second meeting that took place on April 2nd 2024 I was not able to attend that meeting but those in attendance including councelor zaret described to me that it was again a cordial discussion in the same vein as the first in the months following the second meeting the school committee and our interim superintendent received a multitude of emails from councelor zarett these were centered around the theme of combating anti-Semitism in East Hampton Public Schools including Suggestions by councelor zarit to implement specific curricula in our schools and school sponsored events featuring local Faith leaders the tone and content of the emails indicated that councelor zarat was not satisfied with the responses from the committee and the interim superintendent it also became evident that councelor zerat was making a number of escalating complaints in multiple public forums about anti-semitic incidents in East Hampton Public Schools alleged inaction on the part of the school committee and administration to prevent and address such incidents and that his efforts to communicate with the school committee and administration were ignored these statements are not true and we have outlined above how the committee and the administrative staff regularly communicated and met with councelor zarat it was difficult to understand where the breakdown in mutual understanding occurred and continuing communication with the counselor was increasingly challenging at the start of the 2024 25 school year two members of the school committee agreed to take the lead and Communications with councelor zerit with the goal of determining what specific requests the counselor had which of those requests we could agree to and to offer explanation for any specific request that we could not Grant these efforts included continued regular communication with the counselor multiple meetings that included school committee members administrative staff curriculum Specialists the district's Equity steering committee and the collaborative for Educational Services despite these efforts the pattern of communication from councelor zaret expressing frustration and dissatisfaction with the school committee and the school administration continued and unfortunately escalated to incidents of clearly unprofessional and unacceptable conduct on the part of the counselor following a meeting with a school Committee Member and curriculum Specialists councelor zared attempted to schedule an unauthorized meeting with himself the curriculum Specialists and an outside organization he did so without prior notification to or approval from the committee or School administration this inappropriate interference was discovered when various parties involved reached out to the interim superintendent to EXP Express their concerns and confusion shortly thereafter there was an incident at one of our district schools that was identified and dealt with promptly in accordance with district and school policies School administration notified the interim superintendent the school committee chair and school families that this incident had taken place and encouraged those who would like more specific information about the incident to schedule a meeting with the building administrators councelor zared immediately requested and was granted such a meeting where with the building administrator and was told the specifics of the incident immediately following that meeting councelor zaret texted a member of the school committee that the meeting had occurred he then emailed the school committee and interim superintendent to request that they disclose to him the specifics of the incident at our district school in violation of the process that had been clearly communicated to the school Community to be clear at the time of councelor zat's request he was already aware of the specifics when questioned by the school administrator that he had met with as to why councelor zared had made such an odd request he responded that he had not told the group about this meeting and further included the following via email quote as for my request to them with knowledge of the content it is essentially a test of good faith Behavior between Municipal Partners as stated your response was prompt cordial and collaborative and you provided me more courtesy and professionalism than I have experienced from my Municipal peers as indicated the POS city of response from the committee and superintendent overall has left me incredibly concerned as to expected transparency and collaboration between Community Partners I am interested to see if my inquiry will Garner any response at all and whether they will share any information especially given my preemption over a year with warnings about anti-Semitism whether I am a city councelor or or Jewish person I set a certain bar of cooperation for municipal officials and that starts with openness to dialogue and transparency my colleagues on the school committee continue to refuse to offer that again this is not a gotcha moment for them it is a litmus test of trust end quote in further escalation the next day I as school committee chair received an email from a reporter with a local newspaper that reporter stated that they had been cont contacted by councelor zaret who raised concerns about Rising incidents of anti-Semitism in our schools the lack of administrative action in response and accused the school committee and direct District administrators of ignoring his request for communication and transparency on this topic in these statements to a school administrator and a local reporter councelor zaret acted in ways that we clearly perceive as untruthful manipulative and counterproductive to honest and effective governance those two events on that day triggered the need for an Urgent Response on the part of myself and the full school committee I notified the interim superintendent the mayor our school department attorney and individual members of the school committee I also contacted the local reporter and shared with them the sequence of events beginning early in 2024 and continuing to present day just as I have for you in this communication as a result of the history of our interactions with with councelor zaret and these specific incidents in the first few weeks of January it is the belief of the school committee that this Urgent Response is required under our responsibilities as elected members of the committee we must correct the public record and make clear that this type of counterproductive and potentially harmful conduct is unacceptable and will not be tolerated it has become clear to us that something further needs to be done to ensure that such conduct from a fellow public official would be met with Comm Ure consequences I would like to clarify that neither myself nor any member of the school committee or District administration has or should seek to silence critics of our work nor to obscure from public accounting the challenges that we Face nor are shortcomings in meeting those challenges state law and our own District policies outline the processes by which we hear and resolve complaints and with good reason adherence to clearly stated policies offers equity and treatment and facilitates work between District representatives and other stakeholders toward best possible outcomes without fear or favor there is a clear distinction to be drawn between criticism or policy debates moderated through the appropriate channels on the one hand and the dissemination of false claims in the public sphere and interference in District Operations on the other we as a school committee are faced with a fellow elected official who chose the latter the potential harms that these actions might have caused are serious and Incredibly troubling to our committee we are currently negotiating the terms of a contract with our new potential superintendent and are actively seeking a new Director of Business Services the committee is working diligently on the preparation for an appropriation request to help cure the budget shortfall for fy2 after a number of unanticipated and unpreventable costs that occurred midyear we have also begun the challenging work of drafting our our FY 26 budget request which will require close collaboration between city council City and school officials and the school committee all of these critical matters could have been easily disrupted or derailed by false and damaging headlines in local media Additionally the larger School Community would be faced with deciding what is true and what is not and making decisions about the best interest of their school AG children which could certainly impact enrollment and school choice ratios I do not know know if councelor Zer considered these potential harms before acting but he should have the damage to our District's reputation morale and financial viability could have taken years to correct I would be remiss not to State unequivocally the strength of our District's values and our shared commitment to combating bias discrimination and hatred through rigorous and thoughtful learning in an environment that is safe and supportive for all of our students and staff this has been and continues to be a top priority for our committee we take that responsibility very seriously we welcome opportunities to engage in rigorous debate about the Myriad challenges facing public education but any assertion that our district or our committee obfuscates or ignores incidents of bias discrimination or hate speech against any member of our district is provably false and unproductive in improving the experience and outcomes of our school community our school committee is incredibly proud of our District staff students and families we treasure the value of public education and consider it our privilege to serve the city of East Hampton in furtherance of East Hampton Public Schools we thank you for your time and extend this communication to you the East Hampton City Council to consider the appropriate response to this difficult matter do not hesitate to reach out to us with any further questions thank you chair Scott um are my other members allowed an opportunity to share I would allow that good evening everybody um thank you to our colleagues at city council for allowing us the time on your agenda uh during a packed meeting um I'm going to try to keep this short and I apologize for my voice I'm getting over a cold um my name is Sam Hunter I'm the chair of the policy subcommittee on the school committee and I use he him pronouns the first thing I would like to do tonight is to apolog oliz I would like to apologize to members of the council and members of the public who have approached me regarding councelor zat's behavior in the past who I did not take as seriously as I should have all of us who have been follow following City politics for the last eight years have heard stories and seen behavior that is not defensible councelor Zara was a friend of mine who did not have a very good understanding of social cues I I was able to Breeze through the long and occasionally personal and accusatory emails he would send without taking it personally I imagine he was passionate and maybe not great at reading people he has shown me kindness during my time on school committee and I appreciate that but I'm sorry that I participated so much in covering up the other side of councelor Zara despite having been warned many times by people with nothing to gain he's a bit of an odd duck I would say to people you just kind of have to brush them off what I didn't realize was how much time and energy he was sucking out of the limited resources in our district the amount of meetings he has requested back and forths he has required and emails and texts that he sent to other members of the school commit and to the interim superintendent and other members of the administration is very alarming additionally constant meetings with him around the topic of anti-Semitism have not gone anywhere he will generally say that he finds each meeting productive report that he is satisfied and then within a few days he expresses that he is uh upset with our response and he will often begin writing long and accusatory emails to us again in fact today he was actually invited to a meeting with senior administrators and a representative uh from a uh Community organization that we work with to discuss anti-Semitism this was a meeting that he was invited to at the beginning of the month he did not even respond to the meeting requests until two hours before the meeting this afternoon that's a false statement I'm putting that I'm just Laura told me not to bring it up but I think it's really important that people understand that he's lying that's true our roles on the school committee are complex and Technical we are tasked with supervising the superintendent participating in and approving the budget advocating to the city when more and different resources are needed and setting District policy when families reach out to me I generally try to connect them both to district and Community Resources and if those resources have been inadequate the chair will generally determine if we need to involve the interim superintendent and how much additionally families will often reach out with bigger picture issues and issues that may be addressed publicly in the past few days many community members have reached out to me endorsing the censure and expressing that they were so relieved that finally someone is doing something about this I'm struck by one parent who shared with me that her son had an experience at school that was distressing she wanted to process it with someone in the district who had not been involved in the original incident because she wasn't sure what to expect next or what resources she could ask for to address her child's needs counselor Zara's advice to her was to speak at public speak at school committee and also at city council but to wait 6 months until a new Council was seated she found that advice to be odd and could not imagine saying anything about her son publicly on camera like this she said that the advice made her feel like he wasn't taking her concerns seriously and that he was just tying it into whatever he was doing on city council she described to me that there was not a shred of urgency in his response even though she was quite worried for the immediate needs of her child she also wanted to assure me and I asked her if I could share that story she wanted to assure me um that she did decide to talk to the principal the principal was very helpful her son is doing great the advice from the counselor to that family was not just wrong it was potentially dangerous to the immediate mental health needs of that student and their family and to their privacy students and families are always entitled to privacy when dealing with sensitive matters there is a chain of command that needs to be followed from Individual staff who witness the concern up through building administrators families should never feel that they need to speak publicly about distressing experiences that their children have experienced in order for their concerns to be addressed this is an example of the counselor having a poor understanding of his role within the community and with the school committee in the district and with District policies and building procedures that have already been developed to preserve dignity human rights and privacy of all affected despite the many emails sent between councelor zarett and the school committee there was never once an email describing the concerns of the constituent who had reached out to him for help part of the foundation of a socially just education is accountability and restorative justice we talk in the abstract about restorative justice a lot in education but we have concrete policies and procedures for what to expect at each level of the school district we are asking tonight for the adults in the room to model for our students what restorative justice looks like we are not asking the to resign we are not asking for him to be recalled we are not asking him to stop speaking we are only asking that the counselor use the resources that the council Ed the resources that it already has to put a note in his file because of this particular instance in which he misrepresented himself to outside agencies misrepresented our community and lied to the press this behavior is troubling it has gone on for some time it can stop today because we can stop enabling it I know this is hard for councelor Zara to hear I am urging him to use this as an opportunity to reflect on the choices that he has made in his life and things that he could do differently and what might be the best way for him to continue being the best possible version of himself in the future I thank the council for your time and again I am deeply sorry to the community as a whole for the role that I have played in condoning this Behavior I am grateful for the opportunity for growth and I'm sorry that so many have been hurt along the way um Megan Harvey I just I have a slightly different um thing to say and I'm going to be using eye statements but I am speaking for um all of the members of our committee when I say um when I say this um that I stand firmly and unequivocally against all forms of hate and discrimination I am deeply concerned about all incidences of hate and discrimination that happen in our schools in our city and Beyond I'm deeply concerned about the rise and and acknowledge the rise and anti-Semitic incidences in our state and in our country and I'm deeply concerned and it is a top priority for our school committee U and in our district I have spent many hours working on this um I'm not satisfied with where things are um as my colleagues have said we have contracted for years with a collaborative for Educational Services among others there this work is never done we have not done a good enough job there is no point where we say we have solved this I thank all who have reached out who have advocated for continual Improvement to our policies and our procedures I have thanked counselors there many times and I stand by that I advocacy is incredibly important and I appreciate it and it it gives the fuel that we need to the people who are doing this work um on their various committees um I just want to again state that this is not about the content of this matter this is about what happened in early January um and for us um and for our committee doing something that we absolutely do not want to do this was never um this is not something that would have organically come up from within our committee however we are compelled to correct um falsehoods that we received um from a member of the media that we're told to a member of the media that we what we receive second hand um from that media um we are not dismissing or ignoring any incidences that are happening in our school nor any parent or Community member or counselor or anyone else who reaches out to us we are not ignoring it we are not um downplaying it I am taking it very seriously I'm not done working with the groups I'm working with this is not an end to any of that meetings are ongoing with the equity steering committee with a collaborative for Educational Services and with any community members and all community members and with local organ organizations my work is not done our work is not done I want to make that clear that this is not about not addressing this the content of this or anti-Semitism um and I'll just end by saying that none of this is what any of our the members of our committee wanted um our our priority is the children our district that's it we are are doing what we believe to be right and best for the children District last one hi I'm Linda Marquee I'm a member of the East Hampton school committee and I'm just here to say probably less eloquently than my fellow school committee members that I stand 100% behind that I am here and I was elected to serve the students and this community in the capacity of education and public education I do not take one single action that I do not believe is in the best interest of this children of this community we have been given these children they are all of our responsibility I would not stand here today and full support of my other committee members without saying that this is an action that was extremely difficult to make because I have had a relationship with counselor zarat that I have valued it is also an easy decision to make when you realize that there are certain clear situations and boundaries that have been taken and that have been stepped over this is not about anti-Semitism this is not about anything about that this is about standing up and saying falsehoods and it's about trying to combat that and it's about saying that we as a community need to work together to create an Equitable environment for every child in our community and I stand 100% along with the unanimous decision that was made by my school committee members I'll I'll be really brief just as a member of the school committee um my colleagues and I we advocate for every student in our oh Eric G yet um we advocate for every student we take every issue brought to our attention seriously and we want to work with people and I've had cordial discussions with Owen and I would hope that we can continue to have discussions as all people wish to do but I also know we brought up the topic of bullying and I think the other topic that I even teach in my class is being a bystandard and when I listen to my colleagues um although I've not experienced it myself I do believe that it's real and I do believe that it needs to be addressed so I support them 100% in that thank you that's it us for any questions or anything I so as far as procedure goes um basically uh as per our rules a counselor can make a motion to move this to the rules government Relations Committee um where then it will the letter will be reviewed um Council Zer will have an opportunity to respond um and that's where the process will unfold and I believe that we do have uh a counselor um that is going to make that motion so yep you guys are all set councelor Kinski I move to uh move the letter from the school committee to the rules and government Relations Committee for further review second we have a motion in a second any further discussion all those in favor I I any uh NOS or abstentions abstain okay motion passes um and so we still still are in our um Communications from elected boards and officials do we have any other uh counselors that would like to uh make an announcement or speak uh councelor Zar thank you um I just want to take this time to start by recognizing International Holocaust awareness day which is coming up on January 27th this day memorializes the liberation of the aitz binau concentration camp and remembers the murder of 11 million people 6 million of whom were Jewish people roughly 2third of Europe's Jewish population the Holocaust is a data point on a long history centuries going back of anti-Semitism or hatred towards Jews it is also part of a reflection towards today here and now we are living in a time where anti-semitic incidences have increased over 200% over the past year Nationwide this represents an ongoing steady climb over the past five plus years FBI statistics demonstrate that greater than half of all hate crimes are directed towards Jewish people and make up 2% of the population a recent study demonstrated a worrisome rise in anti-jewish sentiment across the globe at over 50% in the Commonwealth anti-semitic incidences increased over 70% in the past year this places us roughly at the top third in the country my work as a city counselor is to reject hate of all kinds and work towards the safety of everyone East Hampton Inseparable from my identity is being very openly and proud Jewish this part of my identity provides me with very specific historic learned and lived knowledge about the Contemporary manifestation of anti-jewish hatred as well as a broader understanding of that group's feelings concerns and experiences on the topic and in this moment I feel a very specific urgency on the issue the national and state statistics include commensurate increases in anti-Semitism in our schools I've sent a number of Communications on the topic meant to underscore my sense of an extreme concern and urgency on this issue I believe that we have shared concerns for our students in our community myself and the school committee and the school administration so today I'm offering an open invitation to collaborate can we pledge to focus now on anti-Semitism in our community in schools can we create an outline to work constructively towards a shared goal form a task force of City stakeholders the mayor myself schools parents moving towards productive and compassionately towards a goal of educating and ensuring the safety of students teachers staff and families this is an exceptional time to uniz as a city let's all band together now this most urgent time for the Jewish people My Hope Is that we can all do this and move so forward bead together on this thank you Mr President thank you councelor Zar um and we is there any other uh Council denim thank you Mr President um I just want to say that um I'm incredibly heartbroken for what I heard today because I do believe that there are Jewish people in this community as there are other people of color is there are women is there are members of the LGBT plus Community who hurt I know that I see that I experience that and at the same time that doesn't excuse a person who's a part of those communities to abuse other people and to bully them you can do both and I'm incredibly sad about the experience of people individuals on the school committee the majority of whom are women there are members of the LGBT plus community in that and this is not a oneoff situation in April councelor zarett sent an email to the police accusing me of being belligerent of suggesting that I'm menacing and insinuating that I might cause him personal harm because I asked him in an email where I documented his ongoing aggressive behavior to stop for that councelor Zer then proceeded to go to other councelors on this committee to undermine my relationships with them which resulted in point of privilege point of privilege I disagree with the accusations I believe that the counselor is engaging in personalities and I think that if we want to mediate this conversation I think there's better places to do it but I feel that the statements are both speculative and rumor mongering and not maybe fully representative of the relationship point taken I would say um councelor denim um if you could uh continue um in with generalities that's fine yep I think that there is ongoing behavior on this Council by an individual that undermines the responsibilities that those counselors have with the community and underl undermines their ability to build relationships with members on this Comm on this Council and within the community that is just that is a fact and for this Council to be able to move forward there needs to be a change in Direction however I am tired of the expectation of cruel Behavior having to be mediated I did not run for city council so that I could pay attention to the emotional needs of other people on this Council I ran for this Council and to and to represent members of this Comm so I could meet the needs of members of this community that is why we are here and the suggestion that we don't care about the needs of other people is just false but we also don't have to be bullied constantly point of privilege I think um that concludes uh Mr President I believe that using terms such as bullying without accurate representation of what that means or think those are very strong and again are making um suggestions to the public that might be misleading point I and I think that um we will move on from elected uh officials uh Communications and um we do have uh corespondence which is the 2025 city election calendar and that is for information um we don't have any uh president or vice president Communications I do not believe the mayor is here um and so that brings us to committee reports Finance councelor Peak thank you Mr President uh we met like an hour ago to talk about uh the old bill from Highway Department uh that we discussed at a public hearing uh we're going to be meeting uh next week but uh on account of some scheduling it will not be at our normal time it will be Thursday uh January 30th at 5:30 p.m. uh in conference room r one where we'll be discussing the uh the new business uh on the agenda would you like me to move that new new business uh yes please okay so um uh let's see so first of all I would like to move the city council uh FY 26 budget to the finance committee and to set a public hearing for that for our oh we don't need a public hear well then to not set a public hearing so just to send it to committee and we have a in a second do we have any further discussion on sending the FY 26 City Council budget uh to finance okay seeing none all those in favor any extensions or NOS motion passes okay and then I have two an inter departmental transfer and an appropriation uh as a group uh I I'm going to make a motion I I'll I'll make these requests on first reading as a motion and set a public hearing for our next meeting at 15 p.m. for those two uh items so uh the first one uh request is hereby made for the following appropriation this is the inter departmental transfer amount requested $220,000 to be transferred from Reserve fund $20,000 to be transferred to salary $220,000 the amount requested will be used for the following purpose funding of the salary of the sustainability coordinator position at 34 hours per week for the remainder of fiscal year 25 uh second one uh this is the supplemental appropriation from the uh CPA request is hereby made for approval of the following appropriation amount requested $100,000 to be appropriated from CPA fund undesignated fund undesignated fund balance $100,000 to be appropriated to Tasty top affordable housing $100,000 the amount requested will be used for the following purpose uh for the building of 36 affordable housing units in Phase One of a 34 acre mixed use development second second okay we have a motion in a second uh to move both of these and set the public hearing any further discussion seeing none all those in favor any knows or extensions motion passes thank you councelor Peak and let's move on to Public Safety councelor Zar thank you Mr President uh we met recently uh let me just pull up the calendar here we typically meet the second Tuesday of every month so I believe that was the 14th yes we met on um January 14th at 6 p.m. we had a number of topics to discuss um that I want to make sure I summarize appropriately for the public um the roadway we did not have a quy review of Public Safety departments at that meeting the roadway infrastructure and pedestrian safety items was uh mostly a report by residents living in the loudville area uh this is a group of residents that had requested a meeting um due to concern of both highp speeds and a perceived number of accidents there as well as other um noted potential dangerous uh infrastructure there there's no sidewalks there's nowhere to cross um it's a two-way stop that and there was recently uh particularly a a bus accident there which raised concerns for the safety of school students um some of them came and spoke during public speak uh director nlman from the DPW and um uh uh Lieutenant U detective um Alexander uh we're both there uh we reviewed the concerns uh uh two things came out of that discussion one is that um there's a potential for a grant program to install a uh permanent speed sign um in that area that's a grant that I believe opens up this summer and so uh we're kind of on hold for that but the uh I think there was consensus among the two members there that we'd obviously be willing to lend support director nlman discussed the complexities of that intersection uh that being that there's been multiple studies and the grading of the intersection makes it very difficult both um in terms of sight lines Etc that intersection was actually regraded a few years ago um a light would be very expensive there is a potential for a four-way stop and he says that they they will consider studying that further um other things like sidewalks Etc are very difficult because uh of the elevation of the roadway there as well as uh the an existing flood plane we also briefly discussed um the Glendale Bridge down the road that's a multi-million dollar project and that bridge needs to be replaced but that replacing that bridge also um uh will uh facilitate potentially in some more safety in the area we also had a discussion with a gentleman who is new to the area Mr Tom drought um he brought up concerns generally about bike safety but more specifically on East Street and Hendrick Street um again we reviewed that discussed that determined that at a future time we would have to have a more discussion both with DPW in particular to those streets but as well as potentially uh the planner in terms of complete Street on those streets uh we did not review the traffic and traffic rules we did not review the language and traffic rules in order uh and did not discuss The Pedestrian sty safety on West Street uh the request to consider a city-wide speed limit uh was essentially granted uh there was some really good input uh from members of the public basically explaining the significant decrease in fatalities uh when you decrease speeds to 25 miles per hour um Council Derby and I who were in attendance um our exceptional clerk was not there um um agreed to put that forward for a public hearing um the second week in February basically we just have to determine the language the location of traffic rules in order and have to add a couple definitions so I'm just still working on that and we'll give that to to the uh clerk but uh we plan to hold a public meeting on that item uh at the second February meeting uh February 19th so at this point in time I'd like to make a motion to uh add a public hearing uh for the request to for a Citywide speed limit of 25 miles per hour uh at 6:15 in these Chambers that's why I'm here tonight said last meeting said uh and that's for February 19th that's that's a motion second okay we have a motion in the second any further discussion from the council I see none all those in favor any NOS or extensions motion passes uh the proposal revers the traffic direction on daily field road we had agreed that there would be more of a public um availability session in in public safety before it actually gets to um a public hearing uh there were I think just a couple members of the public we had director Mason there and believe one of the parks Commissioners uh commissioner heninger was there uh they both again spoke on the topic answered questions um again there was consensus uh to move forward with this it will add significant safety um to the area by redirecting traffic um from uh the his the director of hiskin down daily field to Lou Avenue that also will allow them to move the uh toll booth or or the the ticket booth in um and allow right turns only in and out of the park uh so there will be no cross traffic um we did at the time also review a list of streets that should be notified um rightfully so um and I can make that available to the council but um but there will be letters mailed or postcards mailed to a number of of bordering streets to the park um and um because of that and the need to prepare that um we recommended that that that public hearing be the first meeting in March which is March 5th and again the committee voted uh two to recommend that to the full Council um so at this time I would like to make a motion to set a public hearing to uh change the direction on daily field road um for a a public hearing at 6:15 in these Chambers on March 5th second we have a motion in the second any further discussion um all those in favor any NOS or extensions motion passes and then really quickly finally uh this was mostly a housekeeping item uh to remove booster AB for our oneway streets as many people know this was is um uh an exchange essentially of land with the city the city essentially had no more use for this street and we were able to obtain land near the current Mountain View School to make way for the the now rotary um I forget what exact when that took place but that was a few years ago um but that was still on our our list of oneway streets and so that was a very obvious decision to make um and so I'd like to set a public hearing as well for that item to remove Brewster AV from the list of oneway streets uh and to set a public hearing for that item um at 6:15 these Chambers are March 5th second we have a motion in the second any further discussion all those in favor any knows or abstentions motion passes um that is all for our report we will next meet um on Tuesday February 11th at 6 p.m. in conference room 1 um the fire department is anticipated to be providing a quarterly report um and I'm uh I I'll update at the next meeting if there's other um items of not as I think we've gotten a lot off of our schedule uh thank you to the council's patience for somewhat of a lengthy report but um uh the work of Public Safety Is Never Done thus concludes thank you councelor Riley thank you Mr President um so the appointment committee last met um yesterday January 21st um normally we would meet on Mondays but it was um Martin Luther King Jr day um we had before us um two appointees um normally I I go in great detail um to talk about the appointees because I think it's important for the council to know who it is that we're appointing when they are people that are brand new um these folks are not brand new they they are very well-versed with the city so um the first person that we had before us was Lori Reynolds to be appointed as the tax collector for the city of East Hampton with a term expiration date of December 31st 2027 and then also David Gardner to be appointed as our Building Commissioner with the term expiration date of December 31st 2027 um so just to give you very brief background um Lori has um worked in our own Assessor's Office um in the past she's also worked uh with DPW and um has served under Carol veto who was our tax collector um for I I think she said it was probably five or six years um Carol veto also recommended uh that Lori be appointed to fill her seat um you know there really isn't much to say I mean the office needs to run as it needs to run and um Lori has been doing the job of the tax collector since um Carol Vito's retirement so she's already doing the work um you know the other thing that I just want to put out there is that um she's also a certified Municipal collector um so she has uh certifications as well and then uh uh in respect to uh Mr Gardner um so he has been serving as the interim Building Commissioner since November 4th um I I don't know if all of you remember um back when we were having conversations about the vacant storefront ordinance um there were questions about how many properties you know we had in the backlog that had not been inspected um and received all the uh permits and Licensing that were required um this has been a an issue in the city for quite a while um and just to confirm that since November 4th uh Mr Gardner has uh become up to date on all of the periodic inspections that happen every 5 years um all of the certificates have been sent out um and then um also the churches have all been inspected so those are all set and then um for this 5-year uh iteration there are 30 apartment buildings that are set to be inspected the fees have already been paid dur in the system he's doing the work he's caught everything up he's doing a fantastic job so um I don't I'm happy to answer any questions that either of you might have about these two um I think that their work speaks for itself and the last piece that I'll say is um that the HR department has already conducted um the official hiring process so in terms of like are they qualified do they have you know the credentials everything's checked out and it's good to go thank you any questions councilor quiny I have just a statement if I may please I am thrilled to have competent people step up to the roles folks who have been vetted through the system they're known to you stamped and I'm grateful so thank you and thank you for your work on the appointments commit thank you any other questions no okay all right so then um in the form of motion I would like to officially appoint lloy Reynolds to be our tax collector and David Gardner to be our Building Commissioner both with term expiration dates of December 31st 2027 second okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion see none all those in favor any knows or extensions motion passes all right thank you Mr President um so next I have uh a matter of correcting the record I'm going to give a little bit of details here just so that way everybody is operating from the same set of facts so at our um city council meeting that occurred on December 18th 2024 the city council voted four to2 to remove Eric pulin from the parks and rec commission with three exensions during the vote then council president Gomez notified councelor Peak that it didn't matter how he voted on the measure because the vote had already failed which councelor Peak then abstained former council president Gomez then not ified the public in the full Council that the vote to reappoint had failed and that the council clerk would record it as such upon further review of the home Charter the city has determined that the vote was announced and recorded incorrectly there is no Grand conspiracy here it was a clerical oversight that except for counselor jadik who is not a counselor we all share blame for not catching it but tonight I want to make everything right so as for what you've heard tonight I gave my word to people who filed complaints with uh with respect to their anonymity I'm a man of my word and in a long career of working in the antiviolence movement where anonymity is Paramount um I chose to accept that uh anonymity when I had requested information from the city clerk's office about whether Mr pulin had previously violated open meeting laws it was not to fish for a narrative to build a case against him on the contrary I was doing my due diligence to ensure what the facts actually were this is a part of the job of the chair of appointments is to investigate claims when they come up I did not find that he violated open meeting laws which is why I never brought it up in our uh committee report I stand by protecting the an anonymity of the people who I spoke to if those people would like to eventually come forward and talk about their experiences with Mr Pand they're welcome to do that I'm also fine with people thinking what they want about my conduct uh in order to protect that anonymity those who work with me know how steadfast my morals and ethics are and to that end the personal attacks they don't hurt me um in fact this is part of the job of being a local government official is to whether the criticisms that we receive whether they are deserved or not and while I did not make the error on the 18th I also did not catch it either so I accept blame for my oversight and I'm happy to accept blame on behalf of the rest of the city council misinterpretation of statutes laws and Charters is common in government the true sign of good governance is to correct misinterpretations once they occur and that's what I'm going to do right now so for the matter of correcting the record I will read the following language from section 2-10 Council review of certain appointments appointments made by by the mayor shall become effective on the 45th day following the date on which notice of the proposed appointment was first received by the city council at a regularly scheduled meeting of the council unless the city council shall within that 45-day period vote to reject such appointment or unless the city council sooner votes to affirm the appointment for the appointment of a department head appointed by the mayor the city council shall act upon the appointment at the next regularly scheduled meeting following the meeting at which the appointment was first received by the full Council or that the appointment shall become effective here's here's the key piece here rejection by the city council of a department head shall require a 2third vote of the full Council except that an appointment to a multiple member body may be rejected by a majority vote of the full Council as I said in the previous meeting the Parks and Rec Department are I mean the Parks Commission is classified as a multi-member body so the key phrase in the language here is by a majority of the full Council while the council ruled in favor of removal the full Council means nine people where a majority means five people therefore the vote to appoint was affirmed despite the president announcing that it had failed in the vote being recorded as such this is an in where a single word in an entire section of the charter determined the outcome of the vote mistakes happen and I would please ask that the record reflect this going forward um I have no other um business uh for the committee report so I would just say that the committee meeting uh the committee the appointment committee will next meet on February 3rd at 6 p.m in conference room 2 which is right here behind city council chambers and thus concludes um looks like we have um four mayoral appointments um and those are going to be expiring on 39 so yes um and that I believe so that there are two that were currently on the agenda that we did not review okay so then there will be two more folks that will be added tonight for new business so we'll have four appointees at the next meeting I just want to make sure that we have all right so we have time because the next meeting is the 5th so yes yeah it's February 3rd and and um you know just would you mind moving those two appointments to Comm yeah of course um so I make a motion to remove the two mayoral appointments and new business to the appointment committee second yep we have a motion the second any further discussion all those in favor I any NOS or abstentions okay I have a question though for clarification not related to this vote I just want so the motion passes question Council yes um Council Riley can so uh thank you for the very in-depth explanation of of that prior vote but can you explain what the ultimate outcome is so do it stand or yes so basically so what happen so the total vote was four to remove two to keep and three extensions and the motion that was before the council was to reappoint okay it was recorded and announced by council president Gomez in error the Assumption here was that we were going off of the majority vote which is you know we we typically do that in instances where we vote on agenda items that the the higher number vote is the one that matters there are always the exceptions right sometimes it's 2/3 majority sometimes it's um a simple majority of the folks who are voting and other times it is the full Council so as the language which reads to appoint Mr P into the parks uh reappoint Mr P into the parks and rec commission would require um uh five votes to remove him would also require five votes we did not have five votes to remove therefore the motion stands um so he's a he is uh reappointed oh okay yeah councelor Peak since I came up in this I just want to say as a bit of uh just accountability here I absolutely knew that that was how the rules worked and because councelor Gomez as a city council president worked essentially full-time at that job and as I did not I knew that that was wrong and I thought about saying that it was wrong and then deferred to a person who generally was right when we were in conflict with each other because it just was more deeply involved in these things and so I even in that moment went wait one second and then I didn't say anything and I should have and so that was a rookie move on my part and I am sorry and uh I'm going to try not do that again next time that something seems wrong I'm going to say something about it even if I think that the other person is is probably smarter than me so there's that fair enough and uh that concludes Council Ry correct I think so I see there other counselors that have their hands up okay I'll refer to you C president uh since we're in committee reports let's keep it brief if we can please Council Kinski and then Council Smith did you have a hand up too is there any further action required by this Council in this matter and how does it get affected the result no so so the I'll just say quickly there was a question on whether if if Mr pulin had had been removed from the committee by the mayor then there would have been a question on whether or not the sunset period needs to occur for him to be reappointed right that that is true that if if somebody is removed I think 6 months before they can be you know reconsidered that had not occurred um so there isn't anything else that we need to do at this point um other than to correct the record okay stand thank you for the explanation councilor Smith I'd also like to make a point for clarification um it's my understanding since that meeting that since the information was not given a name I made an error in supporting it because that broke open meeting law and I've I just want to take full accountability for that I've I I agree with Eric Pand who came up to say that was not right because it wasn't I didn't know it at the time and I would have corrected um the action except it turned out to be a moot point because he was reappointed but I do I do understand um the concerns I understand where I made a a misstep and I just am am aware of that and I apologize for the misstep and you know I learned from it and now we know thank you councelor Smith is any any other all right so we're going to move on from appointment yes that's concludes thank Council Riley thank you councelor Smith um so uh to ordinance councelor denim uh thank you Mr President so we haven't met since our last meeting we are meeting tomorrow at 5:30 in conference room 1 to address all the um items on the agenda specifically we'll be discussing the shevy ordinance uh um and the uh residency requirement we will have a new item um I just want to make clear that the review of the affordable and fair housing Partnerships zoning ordinance recommendations um we are waiting for them to let us know who's going to be serving in a um in a work group with the committee so that we can kind of move through that so uh they are also meeting tomorrow um at 6 um and so at that point we will be able to um have an idea of of who's going to be on that work group and uh who's going to be available to uh work with the committee so we will be um moving forward with that um once we have those names and there's nothing that needs to be looks like ordinance review committee's final report ordinates for you uh yep so um we actually received um a couple of new items from the city clerk so um that is on the clearly on the agenda um and I will be providing that information to the uh members of the committee and uh we will not take that up tomorrow but we will be looking at it at a future date and I think it needs an extension because our next meeting is the 5ifth I believe yeah yep so that's that expires on the 4th wait oh I'm sorry March I think I'm good no I think you are good my um I don't think I February I was I was looking at the the sewage and fertilizer that's why and I just got it backwards so I'm sorry about that 124 I don't work no I think we're good um and then do you want me to move the can you please uh yeah so I in the form of a motion um want to move the request for ordinance committee for the ordinance committee to review update list of special Municipal Employees used to the ordinance committee second okay we have a motion to the second any further discussion on this item see none all those in favor I any NOS or abstentions motion passes and that's everything that our committee has to offer Council this evening thank you councelor denim uh property councelor Zar uh thank you Mr President um we uh we have the utility poll location and public hearing uh the request the ordinance request regarding flags on public property um I think as everyone knows that's an item of significant interest to many people in the city um for a variety of reasons um and because of that I'm still doing some background research on this um because it's more complicated than um what was entailed in the recent SJC ruling regarding flat um so I'm I'm trying to gather some background information um I do respect though the the public interest in this and so what I'm planning on doing at least is to have a meeting on this topic at this point probably in February um just to gather some public input and allow the public to participate uh we're going to probably need this room I would anticipate if you agree I do agree so um I'm working I need to just look at the calendar um and certainly if there's counselors here obviously a on the committee but also be um who think can think of a think that there might be a night that might be better based on our overall Municipal calendar and or desire to attend as um members of the public um please let me know but I have to I have to look that over um so I just wanted to update people on that and uh um th concludes uh thank you rules and government relations councilor Kinski thank you uh we will be meeting the rules and government Relations Committee on Wednesday next week at uh 6:15 p.m. to discuss two items that are on our current agenda the request from councilor denim to review the rules of the council meetings I do hope our city clerk is available that day we'll check with her it would be helpful she had significant input into the process and also the home Rule Charter Amendment uh that was regarding the mayor's compensation we will review that matter also at that time okay this concludes okay thank you councelor Kinski um we don't have any old business or pending I believe all the new business was moved to committee which leaves the final item which is the election of a city council vice president um and as everybody knows our rules are are clear as if there's more than um two candidates that we would do rank Choice voting and I think this was a good exercise for us because we had three candidates and Barbara was practicing um doing rain Choice voting so she's an expert now um since that time um two of the people have withdrawn um their interest in being vice president um which I believe just leaves one um councelor quiny uh and so at this this time uh I would just need uh a nomination um for Council councelor Zer I moved to nominate uh councelor kazinski for the role of Vice President of the council okay we need a second second okay we have a motion the second now Barbara forgive my my being naive here if should I ask for anybody anybody else any further nomination are there any further nominations okay seeing none um all those in favor we have sorry sorry we didn't ask a discussion my bad my bad any further discussion yes um I just want to show my support for councilor Kinski um I think that you'll do an exceptional job in this role I think one of the things that I've learned from chair wrist and from you is that you care very deeply about this Council you've been very dedicated to this Council um I think that you have a lot of integrity and I think that you try to do right by the community and by members of this uh Council additionally I want to acknowledge that um I think that the last couple of years have been personally challenging to you and through that you have uh contined to show that dedication and I think that your your family and your daughters would be very proud of you today thank you councelor Denim and and I do want to apologize for moving too quickly um I take full responsibility for that and uh is there any further discussion I I'll I'll just say that um you know I've served with councelor Quinsy for 20 years and um and I I think I I look forward to the opportunity to have um someone that is uh wise and is dedicated to the city of East Anon and I appreciate you putting your name forward so uh councelor is there yeah I I think that so councelor Kinski and I have I believe served we've served on the property committee every term I is that correct I believe so um and uh he's been gracious enough to alternate the chair with me which I is very kind um yeah same I think that something I had mentioned um in in terms of my interest was kind of this role of parliamentarian and I think that that's something councelor Kinski certainly offers as well um there's kind of a stately way that he carries himself that I always admire he he seems to kind of find the Middle Road in things but a way to unite people when he's talking and is always very thoughtful when he does um and I think that's certainly something that is needed in leadership um and we've agreed on things and we've disagreed on things um and it's all been good so I'm glad that you're in this role and um I'm looking forward to it thank you okay councilor Smith I would also like to really vocalize my support for counselor cisinski I have worked with you for every session that I have been in um as a city counselor um not every session but every term as a city counselor I've always found you to be knowledgeable of the city Charter open to having discussions if I don't understand anything and willing to have debates about issues that you either disagree with or don't understand and I really think you're going to do a great job in this position and I'm grateful that you're here and it also made it easier for me to say this is not the right time for this but I very much trust counselor kazinski in that role thank you thank you anybody else okay all those in favor any NOS or abstentions motion passes uh thank you councelor Kinski and and I would just say um there was a a slight oversight on the agenda so we didn't put the election for President which I would like to you know it's important that we codify that as well so I think we'll just do that at the next meeting um as the charter States um or I believe the rules maybe Charter or the rules states that we have to have a vice president within two meetings um the president position is not as clear it's um so if we do it at the next meeting it's it's no big deal um and uh I'm I'm not quite ready to move over yet yet but I don't know who else really would want to do this job because it's not easy um so I appreciate I appreciate everybody's for this long meeting tonight um and I would entertain a motion to adjourn since all over business we have a motion in a second all those in favor I no NOS or exensions thank you that concludes thanks [Music] everybody e e