this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers welcome good evening welcome to the eastampton city council meeting for Wednesday February 26th 2025 meeting tonight is being being recorded and broadcast by emedia on channel Charter
Charter channel 193 and live streaming on the web page eastampton media.org counselors and participants in this meeting are gathering hybrid on the order extended until March 2025 allowing us to do so I remind both the 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 were participating in public speak time or the public hearing thank you this meeting is now called to order Barbara Connie denim here Salem Derby pres Felicia jadik here JP kazinski Tom Peak
here Brad Riley here Tamar Smith here JT Terell here okay and now is when we're going to do public speak time tonight so if anybody is here from the public that would like to speak um at tonight's meeting uh we're going to limit the time
to three minutes um and please state your name and address for the record and address the council thank you I'm Nathan Marquee Precinct 3 Hool Oak Street um I'm this is in context I'm the chair
of the um East Hampton Democratic City committee and I am proudly here to support P conov for City councelor she serves as my vice chair currently on that committee and we've worked together somewhat closely over the past year um I
believe that pig is helpful since and razes me when I need to be razed because I often need that um I also believe that going into budget season you need somebody who's competent and has filled the role before including as president of the city council and um she is
competent and even keeled I say that very lightly um I was also going to run for this vacancy but I'm decided against it once she put her name Forward Thinking this is probably the time for somebody with a
lot of experience to get through budget season especially since she has told me that she probably will not seek another term after filling the rest of this one thank you thank you anybody else from the public would like to speak and I see
um so normally we go first to the in PE in person and then we'll go to uh people online so please thank you yeah all right uh thank you everyone my name is John Mark Lampley of 322 East Street uh tonight I'm speaking on behalf
of my friend ahem corage um in a support of Marin buut uh ahem writes dear members of the East Hampton City Council and members of the community my name is ahim Corbat I
live on McKinley Avenue and I'm a physician at Bay State Medical Center I am writing in strong support of the candidate to see of Marin bugget to the current vacant position on the city council in the recent swearing in ceremony of councelor Felicia jadik one
of the fellow City councilors remarked how lucky the council was to have such a talented and gifted Community member joined this body in many ways the very same could be said of Marin not only is she dedicated hardworking educated and very capable
but she's also wise and passionate in the ways that matter especially in a position so close to the community she's people- centered first and foremost she's incredibly kind and thoughtful and possesses such deep social and emotional intelligence
grounded in Grace and humility she's already quite a positive influence on her community and on this city when I first met menen 3 years ago she and her partner Bruce were living in LEL and looking for some place closer to
Nature I suggest that they looked to Western Mass and specifically mentioned East Hampton to my delight they took my recommendation and ever since I have witnessed them truly Thrive here their energy has been palpable and infectious maren quickly signed up for a CSA at
Mountain View Farm and started taking a no till farming course and in less than a year she and Bruce had already planted and nurtured an impressive and beautiful plot of local herbs Botanicals and vegetables in their backyard on East Street
I have witnessed maren go out of her way to learn about her new community and engage with our Farmers artists and neighbors she lives by her values to shop locally support our mom and pop establishments I've also seen her lead with joy lovingly inviting and calling
on her friends to join her for activities at the public library to patronize this restaurant or that new business or to tag along on nature walks around Mount Tom in Arcadia I've certainly learned a lot more about East Hampton and its local happenings ever since Mar moved here and
I'm so grateful to call her my friend and my neighbor another aspect that makes her candidacy so refreshing is not that she's a woman of color or a member of the queer Community but it's her true political Independence in these times of national
and Civic polarization and partisanship how urgent and wonderful it is to empower and nurture young leaders who are stepping up to unite us who are approaching governance beyond the banner of sponsorship of any party or
ideology I could go on and on but I'll spare you how delicious Martin's cooking is how cute her cats are but I wholeheartedly endorse her candidacy and encourage you to trust her with this opportunity to amplify the
faithful and people- centered work that she's already doing but whatever you decide maren will continue to show up for our city and we are all Lucky that she's a part of this community signed respectfully ahim corbut thank um for my
part I'm very grateful to speak and very honored to speak um on maren's behalf uh she's a dear friend and uh we would be certainly very lucky to win and earn her her support and representation in this town thank you anybody else
here okay let's uh move on to online uh Sarah Schmidt hi uh good evening my name is Sarah Schmidt and I live at 11 Water Street in East Hampton um I'm feeling really honored that we have so many smart excellent people that want to run um for
government at the local level um but today I'm actually here to talk about uh the Deep concern that I have about the unlawful actions occurring under the Trump Administration and I believe we must demand a return to sound legal and constitutional governance so in this effort I am serving as the Hampshire
County representative for no small act which is a nationwide Collective working to drive change and coordinate actions uh locally and nationally and in less than two weeks we've identified representatives from over half of the 3,144 counties in the United States so
we're building a powerful network of engaged citizens and in moments like these it's easy to feel overwhelmed or powerless but action is a powerful antidote and we have to unite to protect our democracy so I'm personally inviting you current and prospective City Council
Members as well as members of the community to join us and by sharing information together we can amplify our impact and our people power so please visit no act.com to learn more and to join our Hampshire County group the time to resist is now thank you thank you
Sarah uh and I I thought I saw another hand up but I don't see another hand up now is there anybody else uh Julia or Julie sorry don't have my glasses on Julie hi Julie I'm from Precinct one on
Concord um I just wanted to endorse Peg conif for city council at large um I know this may probably come to a surprise to her um because we didn't always agree but I have always felt like Peg was available to me when we had a
deep conversation one time she's very open she's very knowledgeable and what she has an experience and integrity is really what we need to bring back to the city councelor I'm not saying that the other applicants are any of the less but
her experience and her ability to speak to people and to see all sides of something is really important she's not just one side or another side she is always listening and
always gives it a 360 review before she makes a decision and I think that's really important she doesn't let her emotions dictate what she does she's straightforward and and again she looks at everything with an eye that if she puts herself in your
shoes and I think that's what we really need um so I just hope that you consider her thank you thanks Julie uh anybody else like to speak before we close public speak time okay uh seeing none that um is
going to end our public speak time and I guess before we get started I'd like to just talk a little bit about process um so we are going to have um the city council candidates um introduce themselves and um read their candidate
statement or just tell us anything that they would like to tell us there's no time limit on that um and uh as each um candidate finishes it will allow time for counselors to ask a question um or a brief question
uh and then we'll move on to the next candidate um once we finish that and we're going to go in order uh which is the order as um the uh that were received by the city clerk um so that that is on our ballot um and we will
then um rank each candidate um in our preference from 1 to six um and we will go through rounds where we will this is not a secret ballot we're we'll mark our ballots and then we'll say who we voted for um and I and and just a brief
statement on that you know this is a unique situation where I'm very excited where we get to user rank Choice voting which I think is a great uh exercise and a great tool um and it also is an an amazing opportunity for people to to put themselves forward and which is not the
easiest thing to do and and offer themselves for public service um which again is not the easiest thing to do um and so this you know is a challenging task for us because we do have to rank people from our first preference to our
last preference and I want to just say that you know if you find yourself at the end of the preference that that is not an indication that you shouldn't you know pursue this further and and I want to just be really clear and I'm going to read something in a in a moment um about
kind of the the process of filling this vacancy and when that ends and um but I I do want to say that this is uh a great opportunity to to cut your teeth to get comfortable speaking in front of of the group here and to to you know be able to
run again um you know historically in our elections we have not had great representation and and you know robust uh races and we've had a few um but not that many and it would be great to have
a choice um for people uh and so you know I would just encourage you even if you don't find yourself in that one spot to not give up to not let this be something that you know um hinders your your aspirations for Public Service uh
and I hope it lights a fire and that when you can pull papers um in July July 1st I was going to say June so I was close I've only done it 10 times so um yeah July 1st that's an opportunity to be able to you know start fresh and and
you know uh let people know who you are because this is a this is a very short time frame um and you know so like for me it's going to be a struggle to put people in the the 456 position um because I don't want you to think that I not don't value you um but it's just the
part of the process um and so I just wanted to make that really clear as far as um how that goes now I do want to read this because this is from um the charter uh and this is um filling of vacancies by the city council and the part I would like to highlight I think is very important persons elected to
fill a vacancy by the city council shall forthwith be sworn and serve um until the next regular election at which time the position shall be filled by the voters um the person elected by the voters shall forth with be sworn and shall thereafter serve for the remainder
of the original unexpired term or if the term has expired um to the term for which the person is elected persons elected by the city council to fill a vacant position shall not um be entitled to have the words candidate for re-election printed against their names on the election ballot so let me just
decide for that um if you are chosen to fill this position that at our next election um the I believe it'll be our next meeting post election the person who is serving that this um temporary um Position will
step down and the person that was elected will be sworn in um so this would be this is a temporary um filling of the position and the person who gets elected would then get an extra few months on their term because they would be filling the term from the date of the
election forward instead of being sworn in in January which is typically the case so I just wanted to make sure everybody understood that um and and so that brings us I think to the matter at hand um which is the introduction and the statements from the potential
counselors and as you can see uh p conif is first so we would welcome P conov to the podium [Applause] good evening president Derby vice president quiny the rest of the
counselors um my name is Peg conov and I am very interested in filling this vacancy tonight uh but trust me when I say there is no one in the room more surprised than I to be standing here right now while most of you already know my story I will do a quick recap um my
wife Deb and I moved to East Hampton 13 years ago for six of those years I was an East Hampton City councelor and for two of those years I was the president of the council early in 2020 13 days before the world shut down for covid I
retired as a senior director for my 33-year career in IT project management with the same company unheard of today um while I am officially retired I work part-time at UMass in the sociology
Department in a job that I absolutely love Deb and I do not have children but we do have two dogs finegan and Sammy had to get a plugin for them and it's kind of like raising kids from what I hear um I decided to apply for the city
council vacancy primarily because I believe I am uniquely qualified and have the relevant experience to fill this position right now I understand the legislative processes and the procedures and the city council rules I could step
in seamlessly without a steep learning curve with the city's annual operating budget being presented to the council by mayor L Chappelle in the not too distant future and as a former member of the city council's finance committee if elected tonight I would be able to hit the ground running in addition to the
finance committee I was also a member of the ordinance committee rules and government Relations Committee and the appointments committee as a member of the ordinance committee I help C the Cannabis ordinance which allowed the city to generate additional revenue streams as an early adopter in 2019 I
co-sponsored with State Rep Omar Gomez who was a city councelor at the time the welcoming Community Trust ordinance which was reaffirmed just a few days ago by the council and the mayor in 2020 and 2021 I was the council president during
an arguably most challenging and difficult time for all of us as a city council we worked through very long meetings we may have even hit 7 hours at one point in addition to legislative duties these meetings became kind of a town hall where sadness and fears and
anger in the community could be given voice it was kind of an honor to be sitting in those chairs for that actually we were sitting at home during that time listening was the most important job each of us had back then and it still is as city council
president I was asked with tasked with managing the meetings equitably and ensuring all voices could be heard and all business before the council could be handled as expeditiously as we could do even in the face of our own personal struggles of the many positive outcomes
of that time and I think you mentioned it earlier is the ability to zoom and to have people be part of the meeting from their home which is so important to people who are raising kids they can be part of the community they can voice their opinion and that was born out of
Co and it is just about the only good thing that happened during my six years on the council I cultivated positive and professional working relationships with the mayor's office staff and department heads in City Hall I tried to be
pragmatic and not polarizing my focus was and has always been on problem solving and getting results East Hampton will likely face headwinds in the next few years as will many cities across the country I'm deeply concerned about about the impact of rampant Cuts in funding and services
already being felt across a wide swath of the country historically state and federal grant funding has proven crucial to the successful implementation of important projects in the city Union Street Mountain View school just to name a couple any cuts to those grants in the
next few years could drastically inhibit forward progress for East Hampton in the face of this uncertainty I'm confident that my experience can help the city council work through the current issues on their docket to ensure the most responsible outcomes this year but as I
stated in my letter of interest I will not be running for reelection in November this is a short-term commitment to serve on the city council until the election in November I'm excited to see so much interest and engagement here
tonight it it's a beautiful thing frankly uh whatever happens tonight this seat will be available for the 26 27 term and I hope I see all of your names on the ballot I would be proud and deeply honored to serve the city of East Hampton once again as a city counselor
for the remainder of this term and I thank you all for your attention and thank you Julie and thank you D thank you okay uh C oh yeah um questions sorry K yeah you didn't
look like well I I I don't have any questions I actually have a question can I ask one on the instructions for the getting elected this is just because I don't know is it anyone who is not currently on the council who gets the
highest votes that will take over the term or is it anybody in this room only no no no I believe yeah I think it's the election I would think it would be the highest vote who's not sitting on the council not I just want to clarify okay
yep that makes sense do any counselors have any questions you sure know I just wanted to clarify I would think it would be the highest vote getter in the at large seats large yes y did you have a
question Council Ryan Yes okay please and this is going this is going to be a question that I'm going to ask everybody so just you know across the board um so one of the most important criteria for me um as a counselor Beyond appointing someone who is qualified is the
diversity of the council and how we can include more people in the political process so uh beyond the traditional ideas of diversity like race and gender um sexuality disability status Etc um I also think more broadly about things
like Precinct diversity and career diversity and a diversity of policy ideas um what makes you unique and what perspectives would you bring to the council that aren't already included I'm a woman
and I'm gay check two boxes right there um you know which I you know that is neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned but um you know what makes me unique is that I have done this before and that I
understand what it takes and that I try to encourage people to do this who are women because I think we have had historically kind of a a low turnout for women on the council so um I generally try to
convince women to I think I convinced you um to be on the council so I you know I'm not sure that I'm answering your question but I I agree with you that I think the whole diversity of of
people's jobs and careers is really I'd like to see some veterans on here I'd like to see some uh folks who are not differently abled on here I would like to see all of that and I hope those folks feel comfortable at some point to run and to run on those platforms
because I think we need that thank you uh councilor denim thank you uh this is actually a question I'm going to ask everybody as well so I'll just kind of preface it and then try to make it
question um you know I think that as councelor Riley was saying um we are are individuals who have a variety of different approaches to
serving um on Council right some of us try to think collegial uh some of us might be more focused on our friendships right um I think that we all have differing uh
demands and expectations depending on our constituency right if we're serving uh broadly in terms of as as an at large or H if we are representing a Precinct right and so we try to represent the
diverse voices within those precincts or more broadly within the city right um so I guess my question to you thinking about all of that uh you know what is your approach to collaboration within the context of city
council well my it's it's like I also was in my work career that first you need to understand the problem and to understand why the problem is coming to you and what are the reasons that people
are asking for us to take some action on something and to listen and I mentioned that before that a lot of this you know as Julie even pointed out you don't have to agree with people but you do have to listen and you do have to try to understand why they're even at the table
talking to us us and I think that's really important I think it's it's maybe the most important thing that we do and in terms of how you because right we got to get everything past with X number of votes otherwise all we're doing is just
listening um we do have to take action and we have to get some results and I think it's really important to kind of break down what the solutions are and frankly sometimes it involves compromise and you don't get everything you want but if you can get the important parts
and that's really how this should work you know it'd be great to say that we would we'd get everything but there's nine of us so there are going to be some people that you disagree with but it doesn't mean that it has to reach the level of anger or any of that it's just
you have a different opinion and we can still come together and come up with a really good solution thank you thank you uh any other counselors in person councel TR former councelor conov thank you very much for putting your name in the in the Pat um you answered my first question I was question in a file my
first question was going to ask you if you intended on running this absolutely very clear on that um with that being said you were you were seeking to fill councelor zarr's um o o Open position um and as you stated um in your in your letter that you you and I believe you
said mentioned it again tonight you're going to be able to hit the ground running um with that being said um are you seeking and you mentioned a few times your your in your letter and in person your your Finance M um would you be seeking a spot in the finance committee or would you be looking to
fill the two open vacancies left from counselors there being on property and onf whatever the other one was um my love is finance so I'm I'm going to make no bones about the fact that I think that's where my skill set lies because
my degree is in finance and I have worked in finance my entire career so logically for me yes Finance would would be an important committee to be on however if that's not how the council wants to reorg I will do whatever is
needed at this time I am here for the city and for the council to get some work done before November I have no large aspirations one way I just have one more question if you don't mind Mr President um just just
another followup um a lot of other applicants are looking to run for election or re-election not quite sure what it's going to be Quantified as come fall um and and and with you not very clearly not running in the fall um
why should we not allow a new member of our community to cut their teeth and and and become a fabric of the city I mean you can you certainly have that right um because I in if I were in your shoes I would want in the interim to have
someone that did not require um to be ramped up at this time doesn't that's just me but um new blood is also good so however you feel this Council needs to
have a new person you know I I'm not going to feel badly one way or the other um I just from a pragmatic standpoint and in my career I tended to go toward those folks
who could solve the problems right now and I think there is a certain kind of importance in running an election and in participating in being voted in you have to talk to your constituents you have to get out there you have to meet
people you have to State your case and and hear from the the community I've been elected three times I've done that and so I think that's an important piece of having the privilege of being on the city council is asking your community to vote for
you um and it looks like councelor J yes thank you um just one question from me so uh given that it's my belief that I think a lot of us here can agree that the city and really our country is at a major inflection point I'm curious
um former counselor knth where you see East Hampton going in the next few years and what role do you believe that city council should play in getting there and how would this abbreviated term if you were to be appointed fit into that
Journey yeah I mean it's really tough cuz we don't know what we don't know yet we know what has started to happen and that is that funding and humans are being cut and you need people in specific positions both state and
federal to get stuff done and it does concern me as well that that and mostly on the topic of Grants federal and state that those could be those could dry up because we have done amazing things with that money and so I you know I think the
only thing I can do is use my voice in the next eight months um to try and you know convince the folks here and the folks in City Hall to maybe watch their wallets and not spend as much money um
but we don't know yet how things are going to shake out but right now my biggest fear is is money and and how we will get by without some of those grants and we may have to tighten our belt right
now great thank you okay any other questions uh okay thank you Council former counselor con old habits that heart k welcome thank
you good evening counselors uh thank you for the opportunity to speak and for your consideration as the next um interm atlarge counselor my name is k jrog McQuade many of you may know me um but I'm a lifelong resident of East Hampton currently living on Jones Drive in Precinct
5 I care deeply about this community and its people uh having grown up here I have strong ties to the community and I've seen the city blossom into the thriving city um that we can all be proud of today my family still lives in town my sister and I have recently become homeowners um and her adorable daughter is soon um to be enrolling in
East ampton schools I feel a strong drive to serve this community and work to make sure it stays resilient into the future um for for all the people who call the city home professionally I bring experience in public policy and economics research program management nonprofit operations and Communications
I've worked on varied research projects focused on Equitable Workforce Development housing access and datadriven economic policy both in nonprofits and through my current position with the m donu Institute my academic background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology and anthropology and a MERS in public policy
um and administration from Mass ammer here in East Hampton I've served on the affordable and Fair Housing Partnership for the past 3 years I recently had the privilege to serve as lead author on the zoning recommendations report um we presented to city council this past November or December I also coordinate the eastampton Housing Coalition or we
work to engage residents uh spread awareness and advocate for affordable housing as the Coalition um we organized the 2023 city council uh candidate housing Forum um centering housing as one of our community's most urgent issues um and if chosen to serve in this
capacity I would be interested in focusing um on these pressing issues such as housing affordability and cost of living uh through ideas such as um petitioning the state for the ability to do rent stabilization um or working to fund a permanent um Municipal emergency rental assistance program um at the city
level um I also see actively reaffirming our Comm commitment to equity as a critical priority to serving um all community members regardless of race ethnicity class gender identity sexuality ability or religion our our current political climate demands an unwavering commitment in these values
and I would be proud to stand alongside others on this Council to ensure that remains while we continue making meaningful improvements in our city I have brought this intersectional perspective and deep commitment to equity to all my work and I hope to bring it to city council as well thank you again for this opportunity and your consideration I'm ready and eager to
serve our city and I I look forward to collaborating with all of you thank you all right and so now we'll ask questions I'll ask the first one um are you interested in pulling papers July 1st definitely yeah um that was my plan all along um and I saw this as an
opportunity to sort of get in early and learn as much as I can hopefully hit the ground running um in January with a really strong platform okay thank you other counselors are you answer ask your question uh I I
certainly can I I didn't want to go first every time so would you like to go first Council sure yeah I was just being because said you wanted to ask a question so I just wanted to be um so as I mentioned right that that we have varying demands upon
us we have differing approaches to how we think about this work and the relationships that we build within the context of working on city council um I think as uh we have a a a lot of kind of issues and things like that that we want
to work on as as former councelor orano said we don't always get what we want um and so the question that I have is um you know what is your approach to what would your approach to collaboration be right within the
context of city council yeah um thank you for the question um I think I I enter situations of potential conflict um from a starting place of empathy I I think it's important like you had mentioned to understand where other
people are coming from or like also Peg had mentioned understanding where other people are coming from understanding that just like I care about the future of this community so do the other people that are showing up um and speaking it's not a me versus you it's a how can we
see where our interests align um and build on those so we can you know amplify that as a community I think that there are things um there are debates that are worth having that you know there are going to be disagreements that are worth fleshing out and and making those decisions as a
community I don't think that we should shy away from that but I do think that as different perspectives as people have in the city um I think we can all agree on a few couple core tenants um and I'm committed in um sort of operating in that
space thank you thank you Council Riley thank you um uh first I just wanted to say that when I asked this question before I said beyond the traditional ideas of diversity and I I just want to change
that to be inclusive of Beyond implies that those things weren't as important and I I don't think that that's true so I'm going to rephrase the question inclusive of traditional ideas of diversity like race gender sexuality disability status um all of the others
um I also think more broadly about um Precinct diversity um career diversity um diversity of policy ideas education background class all of those things um so with what you know about the current
city council um what makes you unique and um what perspectives would you bring that we don't already have included yeah um thank you for the question um I think we uh have the privilege to have a city council that um I think represents some
of the um diversity that I bring to the city I'm a queer person um I feel very lucky to have counselors like Brad Riley and gny Denham um holding that torch um for the queer Community I think the
perspective that I would bring that's a little bit different um one I think being from Precinct 5 um gives me a little bit of a different perspective than a lot of counselors uh have in the past I also think um
I'm a lot younger than counselors have been in a while um I'm I'm someone who recently was renting I'm someone who has student loans I'm someone who you know very recent until very recently was living paycheck to
paycheck um this is an I think an experience that is really important to the work um that the or is is a really important voice to bring to the city council thank you Council TR quick question first thank you very much um
for putting your name in for this um I have a quick question what what do you foresee as your biggest challenge if if you were to be appointed City c yeah thank you for the question I um I think as Peg mentioned there's a lot of um intricacies to the way that process
works on city council There are rules to learn there's interpersonal Dynamics to um become a part of um I think the biggest challenge for me um and this applies to a lot of the situations I get myself into is I have
really big Ideas um and sometimes I need to be told what's realistic or need to like work with other people to really find a reasonable Middle Ground um and you know I hope that this council is open to that but I would say that that's my biggest challenge is dreaming too big
thank you any other questions any any counselors online have any questions uh looks like councelor Smith I see your hand yes I have a question um I haven't I haven't spoken yet in this meeting too
much and so I just wanted to acknowledge all of the all of the different candidates um I really appreciate your willingness to run and to come in at this time and so C being the Precinct
Five City councelor I do agree with you that it's a little different um little are their way from the city central you know what I'm saying the middle of the city so my question for you I know that as a younger as a
younger um candidate I know that graduate school is something that is more recent to you and I'm just wondering if you've seen any real changes in your discipline that really
would speak to that things are moving along even with with in the academic realm because you're someone that I've always known to bring a lot of evidence forth for the things that you believe in and so I'm just wondering from the perspective of knowledge generating um
what are some of your biggest skills in that and as you were learning this how difficult do you think it would be to transfer that from academic knowledge to on the ground creating policy at a local level uh yeah I appreciate the question
I um I think a good way to speak to this is um I've had the privilege to join the MD Donahue Institute recently um which is focusing which focuses on applied research um so that has been a really eye- openening and
um I think challenging in a good way experience to really apply some of that uh academic knowledge to what's going on um on the local level I I've had the privilege to work on a lot of the housing projects that we're currently doing um so I'm
seeing in real time the challenges that cities are facing um with housing affordability with uh all sorts of demographic challenges um and I I hope to bring that um policy or that data driven um policy experience to to city
council okay good thank you thanks councelor Smith uh councelor jik yeah thank you um I'm curious because I know K and and again just echoing everyone else's comments as well uh it's really exciting to see all of
you here and to hear um everyone sharing so far and I'm curious because knowing that you've had a lot of experience both from the perspective of growing up in East Hampton and leaving and coming back and you've been involved in a lot of committee work and and other
organizational um pushes for the city I'm curious how or if you could share maybe some examples or one example of when you may have successfully built consensus or mediated differences of
opinions or differences of thoughts between different stakeholder voices or different Community groups yeah um I appreciate the question I think that's really important um I think to speak to an example from the housing realm um a lot of you guys know
the project siis the commons um that brought a lot of uh polarized energy I think along along or among people who are passionate about housing there are a lot of people who said you know in in good faith are saying we need new
housing we we need rental housing just not this project you know just it doesn't feel right it's a corporation it's you know someone's making money off of us um and I think that all of those concerns um are definitely well taken um
but something that I really tried to do was to like build a bridge and build understanding around what the process of building affordable housing looks like and how um a lot of the like this project is a new uh it's a bigger project that e Hampton
has had in a really long time if if ever um it's leveraging um a lot more low-income housing tax credit money than where used to um and that creates the it creates the aesthetic that or
the the um I guess impression on in the community that this project is something new or that it's a dangerous new thing that the city is going to have to face um and I
think I would hope effectively communicated to a lot of people who are now supportive of the project that like this is the best that we can get and like if that project didn't get built you know it could be a subdivision or something that's a lot
more detrimental that we don't want um so yeah it's it's a challenging process I think to peel away some of those layers of understanding that some people don't have or maybe they're attaching feelings
to something that isn't totally accurate um so yeah great thank you thank you any other any other questions from counselors okay thank you Kate it thank you guys and I believe our next candidate is
online and that would be Marin are you with us Marin I am it's Marin by the way oh sorry Marin yeah sorry about that so it's the floor is yours Marin thank you uh good evening my name
is Marin bugget and I live in precinct 1 I'm honored to stand before you today to express my interest in the outlar counselor vacancy on the eastampton city council I have a deep love for eastampton it's more than just the place
I live it's my community my home and out of the 12 towns and cities I've lived in it's the first and only place that has truly inspired me to put down routs it would be a privilege to serve our city and contribute to the ability of our incredible artists musicians
restaurants businesses farms and natural spaces to thrive I believe my passion and background align well with this public facing role I'm a mission-driven transparent collaborative leader that has spent 9 years working in Energy Efficiency and
Environmental Conservation striving to create a more sustainable future my current role as a regional operations manager involves driving operational improvements and efficiencies along with managing projects in support of 300 employees and
50 programs my prior role as a program manager involved managing a $25 million budget for a government agency both of these roles have been high impact and high risk and have prepared me for the pressures of this
role additionally I have spent 5 years in Dei leadership as a chair for a women's employee Resource Group that I co-founded I also launched the company's first mentorship program which has directly contributed to Promotions for
37% of participating mentees and I'm proud to be a mentor in the program through this work I honed my ability to engage across diverse stakeholders listen deeply and Foster meaningful collaboration to to create
solutions that leave all parties feeling seen this has required empathy critical thinking and strategic problem solving all of which are vital to public service and for being effective ad kits for our community beyond my professional
background I have a wide range of interests and hobbies and I'm dedicated to continuous growth and Improvement I'm a gardener an herbalist a forager a cook cat mom climber an adid reader and enjoy
life th in exploring and supporting our local businesses I regularly take classes on a wide variety of subjects from leadership and de I to gardening herbalism and holistic health last year um I took a local noil
gardening class and started a large garden with my partner filled with perennials and pollinator plants this year I'm furthering my knowledge through a permaculture design course and hope to apply my expanded skill set to our garden and our community to be able to
share the abundance and learnings widely I'm really grateful to live in an area that allows me to lean into my values and interests and I'm delighted by the opportunity to have a positive impact on the lives of our neighbors and to increase diverse representation on
the council as a clear neurod Divergent woman of color with a disability there is immense value in having representation and Leadership when people see themselves reflected it Fosters belonging and engagement as eastampton continues to
grow and diversify I believe our leadership should reflect and celebrate that one of my goals if selected would be to ensure all residents feel valued and empowered to help shape our future given the growth we're facing we
must also be mindful to develop sustainably to keep money in our community when we can rather than in the hands of corporate developers and to prioritize our local businesses residents and natural spaces I'm moved by the opportunity to
serve and my believe my experiences passion and dedication make me a strong candidate for city council East Hampton has given me a sense of home and belonging that I had not previously found anywhere else and because of that I want to give back to contribute my
skills energy and vision shaping our City's future and ensuring it remains a place where all residents can flourish I believe we have the power and an obligation to ensure that East Hampton is a city that allows artists musicians small businesses farms and ators to
thrive for generations to come I look forward to working alongside each of you to continue building a resilient connected and Equitable eastampton thank you for your time and consideration thank you and I will ask uh the same question I asked cim which
is um are you interested in pulling papers in July yes and regardless of what happens I'm also interested in exploring our local committees okay great thank you um other counselors who councelor Peak is going to go first this time okay so
everybody else is uh before their question editorialized a little bit on this so I will too and I'll just say it is I'm so happy to see this group this is I think my third time doing this for the city council my fourth if you or
fifth depending on how you want to look at it if you count school committee vacancies so I've this is not my first rodeo with having to appoint somebody after somebody else leaves uh partway through this is I believe just looking
at the resumés with half of you having not even spoken yet um the strongest group I've ever seen I'd be honored to serve with any of you I'm bummed that I have to put somebody last because I really I am like this is a great group
um that being said uh I know some people's uh background's a little bit better so Mar I wanted to specifically ask you uh could you tell me about uh some uh some experience that you might have uh serving on specifically a multi-member
body a board or um committee or something not maybe municipal or maybe a working group or something like that but just something where there isn't a hierarchy because I really think that that is one of the trickiest things for a lot of people to acclimate to when
they get on to local government is that none of us are anyone else's Boss Salem runs the meeting but he can't fire us like you know we we accountable only to the voters and we just have to uh and
and we're forced in a way to to deal with that Dynamic which is unfamiliar I think in a lot of the hierarchical structures that we are used to seeing in most of our lives so if you don't have any experience with that that's totally fine but I'm just if you have an example
of working in that kind of environment I'd love to hear about that yeah I do have experience working in that environment I have been a chair for the women's employee Resource Group that I co-founded for the past five
years and we do not have a manager so it is five of us um and we've gone through several iterations um of chair members we've gone through a lot of change with the
makeup of our chair and have been able to navigate working with a wide variety of personalities and goals we've been able to really divide up the goals based on
the strengths of each of the members that we have serving as a chair and we've been able to Foster significant growth in our group bringing it to over 400 members which is about 15% of the company that I work in today
um and have worked collaboratively across many project types from developing that mentorship program to running an annual awareness month for women's History Month which includes bringing in external speakers at times
and developing events companywide and for the members specifically uh one thing that I'm proud of in this annual celebration is we've created a women and Leadership panel that is specifically made up of members
that actually work at the company I work at um so we've done a great job of lifting each other up and working collaboratively to serve the employees at our company and that is also the role of the council is to serve the members
of the community so um I would be comfortable stepping into that non-h hierarchical seat thank you thanks other uh councelor Riley um thank you Marin so you know I I said that I was going to ask the same
question of all of the um candidates but you you essentially answered the question in your opening statement so um I hoped that I could ask you an additional question um just to dig into some of your experiences so um in your
opening statement it sounded like you've got some experience in man managing or overseeing a multi-million dollar budget um a a city budget is a complex process and it has a lot of moving Parts um there's a lot of questions that need to be asked um and every one of us who's
been sworn in as a city counselor has had to do the city budget for the first time and there is no experience that you can typically get on passing a city budget for the first time so I wonder if you could talk about um some of work
that you've done and what your approach would be to hit the ground running like we've all had to do in our first year I think there's a lot of value in being as prepared as you can be when
you are facing a new situation so I would commit to doing my homework ahead of time and really diving into the current breakout of the budget what is proposed what it means what impact it
would have on our residents and lean on all of you as well to work collaboratively together to ensure that the decisions we're making are in line with what's best for the future of our
city right thank you thank you other questions from other counselors uh councelor joh thank you um maren I know you are a relative newcomer to eastampton um please let me if you can confirm for all
of us I don't recall exactly the length of time that you've you've lived here but my question is if you are appointed given everything you've shared so far how do you plan to engage with community members especially given that this is an
at large position that you'll be filling to really understand the needs and concerns Beyond what you have yourself experienced as a resident up until this point yes so I've been in East Hampton for a year and a half which isn't a lot
of time but I have made sure to get involved in our local community and engage with our local businesses artists and musicians and have a farm share around the corner from our house um so I think that as a counselor if I was
selected I would just lean further into that and ensure that I'm engaging across events in eastampton going to the Open Studios engaging with our artists um really just putting myself out there and finding ways to just build Bridges
across people that might not have the same opinions or values as me finding those common points and helping to drive engagement through that I think we also have a lot of opportunity to engage some
of our residents that may not have English as a first language by ensuring that our Communications are multilingual we're applicable that we have flyers in areas across town that we may not have considered before that we're engaging
the precincts that have historically been under represented and that we are really leaning into those community building events as well where we can create those connections and ens sure we continue to have that small town Vibe even though we
are City because I think that would be a very important thing to maintain going forward through this uncertainty that we're facing knowing our neighbors will be key to surviving anything that's to
come so um I think I would just really be leaning further into Community good thank you thank you uh Council Den okay uh thank you Marin uh
uh same question um you know as I as I mentioned we all have different perspectives we have we um we have different constituents right that we have to kind of navigate those relationships Etc um we have a variety
of personal interests that we um uh work with community members to kind of bring forward uh to the uh uh to the council to and to the community uh to address kind of concerns or promote projects Etc um and we don't
always we don't always end up getting what we want right so um the question is is again uh how what is your approach to collaboration particularly within the context of of a of a diverse
body I think just being mindful of of fully listening to each other and creating a open dialogue with each other remaining curious rather than
guarded ensuring we're remaining rooted in the common ground of serving our community being willing to compromise when necessary and working collaboratively to find solutions that again ultimately benefit our community
good thank you thank you and I believe I see councelor Smith raising her uh non- virtual hand there there you go councelor Smith thank you Mr President hi Marin thank you for your words so far um so
you had mentioned that you have a background in energy conservation did I hear that right okay um and so one of the things that I wanted to Poe to you in particular is that at a at a
governmental level at the local level we have a lot of initiatives where we are encouraging electric and encouraging more um just more environmental measures for
people I also as a counselor get a lot of feedback that those are measures that are too expensive at this point in time so I'm just wondering from your background how do you usually deal with that cost perspective versus we would do
it if we could but we can't afford to yeah that is feedback I have also heard frequently um I'm a big proponent of our Mass Save program we have a home energy audit program in Massachusetts that
has um a lot of incentives so that can reduce some of the cost pressures of upgrading to more efficient items that longterm do reduce the energy bill but upfront can be a burden the Mass Save program does offer
audits for income qualified households that include completely free remediation of asbestos of knob and tube removal to improve the home's safety comes with insulation comes with HV
measures such as heat pump water feers and heat pumps for heating and cooling your house so in that regard that does remove cost pressure and does reduce energy bills
um there are um also a lot of things that we can do that are lower cost so starting with insulation is a great approach um there
are also ways to improve the Energy Efficiency of your home through weather stripping for instance um but I I do understand there can be barriers
[Music] to living more affordably really um having lower lower income is more expensive it's everything is more expensive when you are low income so um
it is definitely difficult but I do think that our state have has some great programs to increase accessibility okay good thanks thank you any other counselors have questions and councelor
Kinski I uh appreciate everyone who's spoken tonight and those who will will will speak to us thank you very much from the bottom of my heart it really warms my spirit to think that people are
coming out and being here at this time so all of you thank you this is going to be an easy to know this is a very difficult choice so as others have said uh no matter where you are on the list it doesn't really matter
uh you're presenting yourselves and I think helping to us to understand lot about e stampton in that regard I would like to say Marin I I've heard you speak about Environmental Conservation uh
local spending women's employee resource groups uh multilingual uh so there's been a lot looking at the council and what's currently on our agenda and what maybe ought to be on our agenda do you have
any thoughts about those subjects and how you might fit in particularly yeah I think just circling back to the idea of cost pressures and the ever increasing cost of living cost
of rent um I'm definitely a big proponent of um finding Creative Solutions to ensure we're able again to survive everything um that's potentially to come
and that is already here so I would be a big proponent of finding ways to make East Hampton a more circular economy and getting creative again with our solutioning especially with the
potential of federal funding getting cut um we need to strengthen our community we need to become more resilient through becoming more of a circular economy through actions like time banking um SO trading time the bartering
system that doesn't require money um finding ways to have more edible plantings throughout the city for instance a local organization has been planting food forests along the Northampton and Florence bike paths along with in front of community
buildings in Holio and I think that's something that we could do here um having more community building activities such as seed swaps helping each other build Gardens expanding our library of things at our local library
um having Community potlucks as well taking some of that pressure off of having to cook your own food um making sure our community is getting proper nutrition and making sure they're getting enough calories um doing skill shares so just building more of that
here I think will also help build Bridges across divides that may currently exist so I think that would be one of the roles I would want to play thank you any other questions from
cellation thank you Mar all right and so that brings us uh to Ken yes welcome thank you I just there all right IIA precinct
for I've been a 20year resident of eastampton um as a longtime resident and dedicated volunteer in our community I'm eager to contribute further to the growth and well-being of eastampton I also want to deepen my knowledge of the municipality and local
government how things run I mean I know how things run from the planning board perspective in the CPA but there's where I want to be U my involvement with the planning board the community preservation act CPA
committee and the affordable Fair Housing Partnership have provided me with valuable insight into how projects go up to the city council um I've gained a thorough understanding of how different bodies of government and volunteers collaborate to address and
solve problems uh during the covid-19 pandemic I assisted in researching and evaluating the third party administrator TPA responsible for Distributing funds to the residents who were laid off ensuring that the aid reached those in
need of efficiency and what was neat about that was we we uh we chose a TPA that actually um had an ecosystem where you know they may not have been able to pay the rent but
um wayfinders actually had other programs for those folks like rent um uh heating assistance in electric and food um so we we chose a really good TPA for those folks so it was a deep kind
of um research for that um one of one of the most significant learning experiences for me was long debated Sierra Vista project on the planning board uh this taught me the importance of patience and the necessity of listening to all sides of a debate
debate and clarifying statement I just think that a lot of people including myself didn't know some of the acronyms and the terms that we were using in that in that meeting those meetings those year-long meetings and I found myself asking clarifying questions
so people would know what they think like the Ami the average median income um what else was there there was um just affordable housing and all of the rules behind that it's it's a complex situation you know
complex entity in itself um so I I I learned a lot doing that um I'm committed to representing all one of uh I'm committed to representing all of the citizens of East Hampton and will always be open to suggestions and concerns from
the community um uh now I'll tell you a little about myself um I had a 41-year career at the Harford in it I recently got laid off I'm looking for a job um and I started off in the mail room and
that would make me kind of unique in the situation where you know I didn't go directly from high school to college um I had a lot of steps in between that um I was the president of our lgbtq ERG
group Not only was I president I helped the women's Network the Latino Network and the um South Asian Network form and we all collaborated together and we were really effective
together um I think that's all I want to say for now okay thanks K and do we have any questions from councilors I guess I'll start okay are do you think you're planning on pulling papers and yes okay good to know good to know um councelor
denim you want to go first I'm GNA go I just I think I'm um thank again appreciate you being here um same question right and I know you started to kind of answer that there a little bit but if you could share a little bit more
in terms of I think that by asking clarifying questions to the to someone on the Committees on the or oneon-one and being inquisitive and um grounding yourself in
the subject matter at hand um and maybe even getting experts involved that you could alleviate a lot of conflict okay good thank you any other counselors have any questions they'd
like to ask councelor jik thank you um Ken it's nice to meet you I'd like to ask you the same question that I asked Cen because I believe that you have some some overlap in your experiences especially with the committee work that you've both done so
the question is could you share example of a time when you successfully built consensus or mediated between different stakeholder voices or different Community groups um I think I'm going to go uh to
the CPA um where uh some uh affordable housing project was asking for some money and I wanted to um immediately get that money to them it was 100 Grand and the money that they would get from us would be equal to 4
million doll somewhere else um I don't a lot of people on the committee I think wanted to hold back not so much hold back on it but um maybe ask more questions and um through talking with them at the next
meeting they got the $100,000 okay thank you thank you uh Council Riley um thank you Ken um so yeah the the question that I've been asking folks I'll just you know restate it again um so inclusive of the traditional ideas of
diversity like race gender sexuality um disability status Etc um thinking more broadly about Precinct diversity career diversity um policy ideas or any sort of experiential learning um what would you
say makes you unique and what perspectives would you be able to bring to the council that aren't already included well um I grew up on welfare I grew up on food stamps I grew up on those tokens you get for free hot lunch and stuff
like that I'm always conscious and I've had 41 years at the har where I can build up myself and uh be you know financially self-sufficient um I'm always conscious of those folks who need a safety net who
fall on that on that safety net and get bounced up so in other words uh I I guess you know help folks need help and I'm always conscious that where they can go for with that
help thank you thank you any other Council Tru first off thank you again yeah um what skill set do you have that you feel you would bring to the council to to make the council better and more importantly um better the people of be stamping sure
um maybe some of the council folks don't know uh about the planning board maybe some of the council folks don't know about the CPA um I'm sure you do but um I think um I don't know if you folks know this
but the Enfield Connecticut their city council stripped diversity equity and inclusion from their program and they didn't replace anything I think if the Winds of Change came here that I I would be able to speak to that and um not only
for myself the community but the legions of volunteers that come and work for eastampton the volunteer in eastampton they want to see I think most of them want to see that they're cared about so
that any other questions okay thanks Ken thank you wait wait oh oh Tamara you got to press that raise hand button I didn't see you sorry all right hien I have a question for you I know
that you've had a lot of experience on some of our city committees yep and I'm just wondering um how you handle being a dissenting voice so how does that look
um if I I I would be totally confident doing that if I've done my research and I um I really felt that my point of view or um where I
wanted the direction to go um would suit the city the people um I would have no problem being a dissenting vote in fact I was a descending vote at least once on the um planning board okay okay thank you I apologize
councelor Smith I didn't I didn't see your hand that time that's okay okay uh thank you kenk you appreciate it uh and I think this brings us to Carl hello everybody uh my name is Carl PR I live at six Golf Street precinct 3
my farm underline Farm is in Precinct 4 and I had some prepare notes but they don't seem really applicable so I guess I was really taken by surprise when Owen stepped down and I took that as an opportunity to speak to my neighbors my
employer my employees everyone who I see at Market to see what they see as a need in East Hampton or what they love about the city and what seemed to come through is that
so many of our neighbors are new to this town as I am so many have moved here as adults because there was something about eastampton that called to them I feel that East Hampton is the very definition of what a Gateway city is as
Massachusetts has seen it this is where people land because we have a lively nightlife we have good restaurants we have businesses are booming and for the moment at least there's still a few houses available to get into but talking
with friends Neighbors you know people who come to the market to buy chicken they're worried about the fact that housing isn't affordable that ever sources prices keep going up that you know state and federal grants are in
question in limbo or maybe not coming through at all I know as someone deeply invested in agriculture there are numerous Farms right here in East Hampton who have reimbursement grants that they're not sure they're going to see and feel that this is simply a
harbinger of the times to come like it's not going to get easier which is going to require that as a community as a city council and as a city at large we pull together because we are all in this together and that's the only way we're
going to get ahead so I'm you know I really didn't expect to see so many qualified people here tonight I really don't want this job but at the same time I feel I have the
tenacity the perseverance and gumption for lack of a better term to see what needs done done um and with that I'd love to answer any of your questions uh thank you um
I'll ask you the first one and this is the same one I'm ask everybody do do you think that you're going to pull papers in July I mean it really depends on what happens here it was my intention but at the same time if we have a highly qualified person stepping into that position at
large who am I to set them aside but I think that it is important that we have a lively election and I think it's very important at all levels of government that we have real Choice great thank you councilors
Council Peak hi um thanks so much for doing this and uh I'm going to ask you the same question I asked maren which is uh could you give me an example of of time either uh just in any capacity where you've
worked maybe in a multi-member capacity like a non-h hierarchical multi-member capacity maybe in agriculture uh maybe something else but well I I said on the steering committee for the East Hampton farmers market and not to say that there's a lot of um you know situations
where we get in loggerheads with that but it is a matter that is non hierarchical and we have to come to consensus to get things done it's you know um humbling when you might have an opinion that is not shared by everyone else in the room but I think
that's something that we all have to keep in mind like we have our personal passions we have our things that we really care about and not everyone else is going to have the
same commitment to that topic not everyone is going to have the same perspective that we do and part of coming to consensus part of you know living in harmony with one's neighbors is to acknowledge that while
our perception may be different we need to come to some arrangement we have to come to some agreement to continue on and as others have said you know compromise does not mean that you get everything you want heck it might mean you don't get
anything you want but that is part of living in this world being a human in this world and you know carrying on thank you thanks other Council R um yes a similar question I've asked other
folks um Carl so inclusive of traditional ideas of diversity like race and gender sexuality um disability status um I think more broadly about Precinct diversity career diversity um
policy of ideas so you know what is what makes you unique and um you know maybe is there a a moment of resilience in your life that you can speak to um anything like that sure absolutely um well as far as diversity goes I am very
blue collar I work on a farm I work at East hampa machine and tul as a machinist I you know before moving to the state I was the teamster Steward for local 236 back in Iowa I have worked
with organized labor I've done Community organizing for acorn I've been as involved as I felt I could be at any given time um as far as trials and tribulations I moved the farm to East
Hampton 3 years ago and you know in the tail end of the pandemic but definitely difficulty at the same time I was given a diagnosis for Moma in my spine which required that I be unable to walk for
the entirety of a planting season for an entire raising season and you know I think it is less an a tribute to me and being able to carry forth and more to the amazing community that we have in eastern or western Mass in
eastampton that people showed up and you know they carried me through that there was a lot of you know I said trials and tribulations to get through it but it was a point where I could have quit I
probably should have quit but I believe in the work that I do I believe in the importance of good local food I believe the importance of the local economy and I've one of the reasons why I'm here too you know if if we don't do it who will
so right thank you So yeah thank you any other counselors Council denim um thank you Carl appreciate you being here I appreciated your perspective and things you've had to say so I appreciate that same question you kind of talked about it a little bit um
you know as as has been mentioned you know we have differing approaches to this particular work we're all individuals I think at the heart of who we are we want to do what's best for East Hampton um and and um you know we
we also have to answer to our constituents right and so you know what's your approach to collaboration and and you know what does that mean to you within the context of kind of working with uh uh within city council
well I think uh specifically working in the city council it is you know of ultimate importance that we listen to our constituents and repeat that again it's our job to listen it's our job to take our constituents concerns and bring them forth and
advocate for it so in that regard I think it's very important that you know we we rely on the data we rely on you know the facts but that we we we be stared by our hearts and mind and our mind you know we
let how to put a different way that we remain true to ourselves but remain true to the spirit that our constituency is sending us here for um I think it's very important that we look for commonalities you know again we're not all going to see every problem in the same light nor
see the same solution for it but being as we're all residents of East Hampton we have commonalities and it's a matter of fiing those out and building upon them like we live in a great place we live in a great town there's a reason why so many people are moving here but
we need to make sure that we m maintain that sustainable environment that we're in we need to be able to continue to grow especially as you know all of those state and federal funds become less and
less Dependable as we maybe can rely on Beacon Hill and DC less and less we need to be able to lean on each other more and more and that's going to require that the city council find those commonalities and work together to find the best solution in the moment thank
you you thanks counselor jik thank you um hi Carl so I'm curious if you could elaborate a little bit further because I've heard both you you said if I'm I'm remembering correctly that you you didn't want this job but
you um put your name in anyway and I also heard you said that you were thinking about or planning to rather pull papers this summer anyway before this opening came up so I'm just curious if we maybe as I said elaborate a little a little bit further on just really
quite simply why you want to be on city council sure um well I think if I may start with why I didn't want the job I I don't have the experience I don't have the experience Peg brings to this and there would you know I would be learning
aresh on how the city council operates but that said anyone taking this position or the replacement for peg in the the fall is going to be at that point I believe I am absolutely capable of fitting into those
shoes and you know representing the constituency of East Hampton and I I suppose it's that reluctance that reassures me that it might be the right position for me I
think if I was really excited to step into this position it might I might not be the right person for that but I you know I mean I I speak to a lot of people at markets every week and if there's something that has been repeated and
feels like I'm fluffing my ego a little bit here but I talk a lot of politics i l talk a lot of local events and I often hear that they have you know I have their vote and I think that I can
represent eastampton and see that we continue to grow in the right direction thank you thanks uh councelor Kinski here I do and oh thanks councelor Smith I'll get to you
next hi Carl thank you so much uh I it isn't often we get to see blue collar workers here who aspire to the city council I think it's absolutely terrific uh it isn't often we get
farmers who come to the table to work with us uh I would say that we really could use some education in those areas so I'm I'm thrilled that somebody from various people from various backgrounds are coming here and wanting to to to
join the club join the group join be part of the process uh you would said that you were worked as a member of the teamsters and you had been a steward correct and you done
Community organizing for acorn often times that I I really have two questions one is often times I'd be curious what your experience have been in managing conflict and issues that may come up because you seem like a very affable type of person who uh I think people
would like to talk to uh so I when you when you tell us that you meet with people and you went to your neighbors and you did a lot of talking I think you do a lot of listening too uh but how do you manage conflict how do you manage conflict would be one one particular
question the conflict of on the streets when you're talking to people and also I think one of the key factors is someone who's willing to dig into the facts go beneath the surface of
everything to really dig deep and I'd be interested in knowing more about your work in research so state government local Government Federal Government you come and bring us information I hadn't heard about Enfield so I appreciate that
but uh maybe you could elaborate sure um well I'd say for research I mean I am an autodidactic I read a lot and I try to absorb what I can I think as with
most things we have to fight confirmation bias we have to make sure that we're getting opposing viewpoints on any topic that we're studying um specifically with state or
federal governance and I I you know used to read the New York Times not So Much Anymore you know I try to absorb as much news as I can but it's you know I can't say that I've gone deep on looking for
anything in particular it's tends to be like with housing I read a lot about it I try to figure out what you know the statistics are I think I've regurgitated some to this Council in the past as far as where our poverty levels are but it's the information's out there if we
want to look for it and I think the catch is again just making sure that we're not falling into that confirmation biased to you know reaffirm our own place but also to try and see where other people will be coming from cuz we all have different perspective we all have a
different view on how we get to that end goal um and I can't remember your first question part of it was was conflict and I'm curious if there were particular conflicts that you came into I would imagine being a member of the teamsters
there could be a lot of variety of issues so I was yeah I mean when what what kinds of role and that may not be the place were you well I would say as a steward I had one job and that was always to stand up for the worker regardless of the circumstances and
while there had to be negotiations depending on the particular circumstance you know when you are an advocate for a peoples you advocate for those people and as a worker as an employee at UPS at
the time where I was a steward you know it was a very confrontational work environment management was regularly trying to go against the word of our contract and and it was a matter of regularly being there to call them out to document the trespasses and to then
follow through in you know the uh system set up and admittedly in hindsight it was you know a system designed to diffuse any real change a system designed to just let everything go back
to the status quo and you know I think that was one of my great disillusionments with that role was that we weren't empowered especially on a local level to have any real change to make improvements in the workers
quality of life to hold management accountable Etc what we were was just a report Taker and that would get passed up and passed up and passed up um I suppose My Hope with the council is that we can find more ways to have agency
locally to have more control and say on keeping our constituency and population comfortable in you know very uncertain times so you know when it comes to confrontation I am not afraid
of it I'm not afraid to advocate for what I believe in but I also recognize the need for compromise and you know recognizing when you're in the minority that it may not go your way in this case but you still have to advocate for what
you believe and stick true to your heart thank you thank you Council oh councilor Terrell actually I did tell councelor Smith she next counselor [Music]
Smith she's un M muted muted there you go sorry I had Sirens go by earlier so I muted it so one of the questions that I wanted to ask you Carl one of the things that you had said is that you're blue
collar worker within the city and so one of the questions that I have for you is from your summation what do you think are the some of the top issues that are facing blue collar workers within East Hampton right
now inflation in a word inflation whether that's the increased cost of housing whether that's electricity bills whether that's auto insurance or health insurance everything is going up I know being down at the East Hampton Community
Center you know more meals going out every week and now with threats to funding they're looking at cutting back distributions to bi-weekly as opposed to weekly which is just going to put that much more pressure on every individual household to feed themselves you know it
inflation in a word and you know I I seen again I hate to be a broken record but I don't see the help coming from DC I don't see the help coming from Beacon Hill which means we've got to help each other we have to help each other and we
have to figure out whether that's you know thinking creatively outside of the box or leaning into tried and true methods we need to be able to take care of our neighbors in this time and that's a lot of blue collar neighbors okay thank you thank you
thanks Council Trill I first off I I want to thank you for for what you do being a farmer I think that's that's incredibly important a bus probably one of the hardest jobs um that anybody could do um I also appreciate your brutal honesty I didn't expect anybody to get up there tonight and say they
didn't want the job um I I appreciate that um but with that being said what tipped the scales and and and and made you make the decision to submit a letter of intent just out of curiosity what was it those constant conversations
with the people at the market or what what what finally made you make that decision I um I went down to the east hampen Community Center for few distribution talked to Robin for a little bit and it was you know I I I see her regularly
it's nothing she told me was new but it's a matter of things are just getting worse and you know it was you know highlighted with the bad weather we just had come through the fact that we you know have unhoused people in the
community that need attention we have you know well-housed people well-healed people who can't you know afford their heating bills and can't afford food and it's well I do not know the solution if I had the solution I'd
just tell you what it is and go home but something has to give something has to change and it's going to take people who are yeah tenacious Advocates to see that happen
I I I think it was just the palpable need that I was feeling and I didn't see anyone else putting their name in I was wrong thank you very much I appreciate that thank
you okay any other questions thank you Carl and that brings up Benjamin good evening my name is Ben Drake please T to three um given the momentum of both National global politics right now I
think it's easy for us to forget the impact that a local government can have on its citizens I think though it's hard for us to forget what impact Community engagement can have um I put in my application because
I was uh nervous given the complexities of a midterm appointment of a special election and the political divide I was nervous about who would show up who would apply um I needn't be I want to just first say uh as a citizen I'm very
thankful to Peg to Kim to Marin to Ken to Carl for stepping up um I think you have an incredible selection in front of you um I was nervous that we wouldn't um given that we don't get to vet people beforehand um so with that I
respectfully withdraw my application I look forward to giving my energies elsewhere to the city thank you okay thank you Ben appreciate that so that concludes our introductions and statements um and so that brings us to the council vote um which is the very
exciting part and I just want to say before we do this that you know it's really kind of mindblowing to me um the quality of candidates that we have right now um and it's just like it's such a great experience cuz like Tom said we've
done this a few times and it's um it's never easy but it's really great to be able to see um the engagement that people feel and the connection that people feel towards East Hampton and that are willing to sacrifice their hard
earned time and energy to create a better place for themselves and their families and their friends and each other um and so you know again this is difficult for us us um and like I I want
to encourage everybody no matter what number you are on this piece of paper to keep this enthusiasm to keep this energy and to to bring it to um July 1st and you know I think that all of us here I
don't think would be sad if someone ran against us I think it might even be a little exciting um and we might be able to solidify our own positions more let people know what we think and what we feel and and what we think that we can be a benefit to the community cuz we
don't always get to do that um so you know this is uh an exciting moment um and I just want to remind people that whatever number you are keep it up so and Council J did you want to just say something sure absolutely it just happened very quickly so I just want to
thank Benjamin for like putting your name in I mean I think a lot of Courage right and obviously you saw something within this and you are a member of this community where you thought you could make a contribution so I just I just want to acknowledge you so I appreciate you being here tonight and taking the time to to do
that okay so we're going to vote and we're going to write this down on the piece of paper and oh sorry did you want to say something if you don't mind oh please uh I also just want to say to everyone before we vote that I I think I can speak for the whole Council when I say this if not then someone tell me I'm
wrong um I'm I'm going to be voting and I think everybody else is going to be voting specifically to fill a vacancy right now in this active Council term so what that means is I don't think when we come out with this vote I don't think
that anyone should necessarily um interpret the result of this vote to be how we would maybe Vote or even endorse or anything else if these people were to run in a subsequent election like I am personally going to
heavily bias towards like experience in doing this sort of stuff in my voting and that maybe is going to look different than what I would look if I'm sitting in an election saying what's the sort of vision that I want going forward so that's just like
this's job is is in being a sort of an like coming in in the mid like a midterm appointment isn't an important way I think different than the job of be like running for a fresh term in in an important way to me so I just want to
throw that out there as well because uh yeah we're about to do it yes that's and that's a great point I appreciate that and I think that can bring us to the voting and then we'll announce our votes they will get tallied up here um and
we'll go from there [Music] okay what am I supposed to be doing online uh yes good point so I um Barbara did send out a ballot um so if you can locate
that and you would just want to um look at the ballot and there's a a section for your first choice for your second choice to your fifth because right now we have five um candidates that we're going to vote for so right I will record
the votes for for the two of you and barber will have that so you could just write it on piece of paper you don't necessarily have to have to have a ballot okay thank you and I think once everybody has filled out their their ballots then we'll announce our votes and um are you going
to tabulate them okay so and I think I was chosen to go first is that correct Barbara you are I make sure everybody's I was chosen to go first yeah okay and um
I am Dan I'm ready is everybody else I'm just I'm just saying I'm ready so once everybody's done then if when you're done voting if you could hand your ballot down to me once we announce it right after you
announce memory remember what I was going to do going to read so we're I'm just going to read my first second third fourth fifth wait how are you going to do this I believe that's how we do
it and um individual my my online counselor if you could just give me a thumbs up when you're ready okay oh I got two thumbs UPS how are we doing here we got thumbs UPS councelor Den do we have a thumbs up oh we have a thumbs up okay here we
go yeah yeah yeah yeah I just want to say one or two things before before we start um so as these are being read in I'm going to record them um and I just want you to verify that it's correct I mean you can see it on the
screens here but I'm definitely prone to making mistakes and data entry so I want you to look at it and then just verify that it is that it matches your ballot okay all right I'll start um First Choice pay conov uh second choice cim jrog
mcquate uh third choice uh Marin uh fourth choice Carl fifth Choice Ken yep five that's correct who's next yes it will um oh sorry uh Felicia
jik yes my first choice is Peg conif second choice Marin boget third choice C Jamrock mcade fourth choice Carl
prw and fifth choice is Ken iodo oh sorry sorry I'm forgetting my job um JP kazinski uh first choice Peg conth uh second choice Ken PR third
choice Marin bagot excuse me one sec can you repeat second choice please second choice Carl pra third choice minin baget fourth choice cam Jamrock mcade fifth Choice K I
have one four three five two yesp and then last but not least uh Tom Peak uh my first choice is
Peg conif second choice cim jamrog McQuade uh third choice Ken IIA fourth choice Carl prw uh fifth Choice Marin boget uh that is
correct uh Brad Riley First Choice is Kim jamrog mcade second choice Marin boget uh third choice is Carl pra fourth choice is Ken IIA and fifth
choice is Peg conif okay uh Tamar Smith okay first choice is Peg conif second choice is Cay third choice is minin fourth choice is Carl and fifth
choice is Ken and JT Terrell first First Choice is Marin second choice is Carl third choice is Peg fourth choice is C fifth choice is Ken okay correct that's it uh Connie oh
sorry that's okay con Connie that's okay I mean it doesn't matter I'm kidding I'm kidding I'm kidding I matter uh First Choice is kayam second choice is Marin third
choice is Peg uh fourth choice is Carl fifth choice is Ken did I say that correctly uh Pig where am I 31 there I am yep yep sorry sorry great so I'm going
to now tabulate the results for the first round um P conif has a total of five votes also if I make a mistake just yell okay um heam jamrog McQuade has
two Marin bat has one can I I'm going to say it wrong I'm so sorry um has zero First Choice Carl PRL has zero first choice and Benjamin Drake is withdrawn so after the first round um
any candidate who doesn't receive any um First Choice votes is eliminated from the running um at the end of round one the candidate with the fewest First Choice votes um is also eliminated so that would be candidate bagot leaving um
um just two left so uh since that was a first choice vote by JT that transfers to the highest ranked candidate who's still in the race so I'm going to highlight that one and then in round two um Peg cones has six and Kiam jamrog
McQuade has two um so at the end of round two the candidate with the fewest um total votes is eliminated um and we have only one left so that is p conov who is declared the winner okay congratulations Pig you are the [Applause]
winner okay would you please approach approach the bench the bench approach the [Music] bench I State your I state your name do solemnly swear I P do solemnly swear
that I will faithfully and impartially I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform discharge and perform all duties and upon me all duties incumbent upon me as city counselor at large as city counselor at large according to the best of my knowledge and abilities according to the
best of my knowledge and ability agreeably agreeably to the rules and regulations to the rules and regulations of the Constitution of the United States of America of the Constitution of the United States of America the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of Easton and the City of East
Hampton congratulations congratulations thank you thank you y I'll shake your hand Peg have a SE so we meet again welcome back um uh so the meeting's not over quite yet um there's just one piece of business which is Council committees uh
quick reorganization um and so what we are going to do is um uh councelor conif is going to take uh a spot on property um let me just make sure I write this in
um on Public Safety so we're going to do a little bit of a reorganization here um uh councelor JT Terell is going to uh move to Public Safety where we are going to uh at our next meeting vote him to be
the chair um and on finance his spot will be uh filled by councelor con um uh to uh fill out the remainder of the term and that's the only reorganization that will happen and I will take a motion to
adjourn okay we have roll call um we do need a roll call so we have a motion in a second um Barbara um Connie denim hi Salem Derby hi ficia jik hi JP kazinski
hi Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi emmer Smith and JT Trill okay hi camera oh she just joined and I'm sure she's here to say I maybe hi there we go thank you everybody again thank you so much we appreciate you here for this process good night
everybody have a wonderful evening e