This government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers. Welcome to the city council organization meeting 2627. We have a new crew, a good crew, some old returning folks, some younger
returning folks. Uh before we begin, I just wanted to say one thing have one quick ask. >> Sorry. Roll call is the first thing on the >> roll call is on there. >> Maryanne,
>> yes. I don't have my [laughter] list. >> Amanda Newton here. >> Tamara Smith here. >> Felicia Jassik here. Connie Denim >> here. >> Tom Peak >> here. >> Ca Jim R McUade >> here. >> Nathan Marquee
>> here. >> Jonathan Schmidt >> here. [clears throat] >> JP JPinski out of my script. Sorry. [laughter] >> Thank you, Maryanne. >> Pardon me. >> Sorry. >> You wanted to be official on that. That was good. Thank you.
Uh, I wanted to say I really do appreciate everybody standing up and Salem had alluded to that and spoken to it in his remarks as mayor. Uh, it's great to see all the faces.
I would have one ask this year and that would be that that we have a council that can step outside themselves and I would ask you to consider Our role and function as a community, as
members of leaders of that community, is not only to feel and listen to our constituents and our own hearts and our own beliefs, but to hear those who think otherwise because this is a community
where everyone belongs and I hope we always have that attitude. one of the goals and most important to my heart and I was very proud to serve in that role and
have that. Well, let me let me share just a quick story. One of the most important things that happened was when a member of the public came before us and wrote to me and said, you know, I've always felt very much like I was not ever listened
to or heard or it that people would read, be on their cell phones, taking notes, doing things other than paying attention and with an open heart and ears to hear
what your constituents are saying. So my ask is that each one of us think about that throughout the year, throughout the term, and that we work together as a team because without a team, we have a bunch
of shall we call them cats and we're hurting cats and I we don't want to hurt cats. Nobody here wants to hurt cats. We want to have people who can talk to one another, who can share ideas, who can believe in each other, and we can only
do that by reaching out of ourselves. Thank you very much. That being said, we have one item of business. I will entertain nominations for president. >> I'd like to nominate Connie um as president. >> Is there a second? >> Second.
>> You have a second. Give that Maryanne. >> Yes. [clears throat] Are there any other nominations? Then the nominations are closed hearing none. Is there any other further discussion? All those in favor? >> I
>> I opposed. No extensions. This is unanimous. The chair is yours. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Would you like to be sworn in at this time? Technically, I think I'm supposed to be
scoring. You want to be your right hand, please. I state your name. do solemnly swear I Connie Dunham do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully and impartially >> that I will faithfully and impartially >> discharge and perform >> discharge and perform
>> the duties of city council president >> the duties of city council president >> according to the best of my knowledge and ability >> according to the best of my knowledge and abilities >> in accordance with the Constitution of the United States of America >> in accordance with 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 East Hampton >> and the city of stammed. Congratulations, President Den. Appreciate that. >> Um, [laughter] before we do anything, I need to raise this seat up because
>> I need to lower the [laughter] way >> because I feel really tiny. [laughter] >> So, so the next order of business is to uh accept nominations for the um vice president. Before I do that, um I just
um I want to acknowledge um Councelor Kazinski. Um I think that uh last year was a very uh challenging time for this council. Um and I know I looked to you to step into
a leadership role uh in order to guide us through what I felt was a very difficult time. um and you willingly stepped into that. Um so I just want to acknowledge that I very much appreciate you and the leadership that you gave
this council um in that in that um very difficult time. So I uh on a personal level uh certainly have a lot of respect for you but certainly appreciate what you did for this council and ultimately for the community.
So I appreciate you here. Um so uh before us now we uh need to I will accept nominations for uh vice president of city council. >> I'd like to nominate Felicia Jadzik for vice president. >> Second. Um so we have a a
motion in a second. Uh any other nominations? Seeing none, um I uh no further discussion. So uh all those in favor >> great. Uh so unanimous uh uh Vice
President Jazzic, congratulations. They're swearing in for this as well. [laughter] Think memorized by now. [laughter] I state your name. Do >> I, Felicia Jazzac, do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully and impartially >> that I will faithfully and impartially >> discharge and perform
>> discharge and perform >> the duties of city council vice president >> the duties of city council vice president >> according to the best of my knowledge and ability >> according to the best of my knowledge and ability. >> In accordance with the Constitution of the United States of America. >> in accordance with 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 East Hampton >> and the city of East Hampton. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you very much. So, looking at the agenda, um,
uh, Council or Vice President Jedzac, >> um, I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules, um, in order to just rearrange the order of the agenda. >> So, we have a motion to, uh, suspend the rules in order to rearrange the order of business.
>> Uh, so we have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I >> any nos abstain? Okay, great. So, uh we um will rearrange the order. Did you have >> Yes. Um I'd like to have the
announcement of committee assignments go to the end. Um so our next item would be any administrative items or announcements followed by reconfirming the East Camden City Council resolution and then finally the committee assignments. >> Perfect. All right. So we'll do that. Um
great. So just um we have four new people uh on um on council which is very exciting. I know uh when I started there were two of us um and then uh um last
year the last election we had it was just a slate of all the returners. Um and so it's very exciting that we have four new people. So, I would think that it would be uh just helpful to talk a little bit about the role of the president uh as well as a bit of the
role of the the vice president just so that we are um kind of all on the same page. And so, just want to make sure that that we're um kind of operating um to the to the best of our ability and and in the most efficient uh manner. So,
um just again to reiterate the the role of the city council president is really to facilitate the um city council meeting, right? Um and it's to make sure that uh you know we create an
environment where there's an open dialogue uh for people to be able to participate openly and to be able to share their their thoughts and their opinions. um and want to be able to do that in a manner that um is respectful um and also
really fosters uh an environment where we can um kind of share our perspect personal perspectives and thoughts and ideas, but at the end of the day, we can walk out of that space and still be cordial with one another and respectful and and be able to to to be able to do
that, right? I think that's in in some regards in what what was in line with what you were saying. um councelor Kuzinski. So um the other thing I think that the city council president does that is very important um and I take this really quite seriously is is to
protect the integrity of the council. Right? My role is to make sure that you all individually have space to be able to um articulate your viewpoints. And I think sometimes that is not necessarily what is shared by the greater public,
right? Um and so it's I feel that it's my role uh to protect each of you individually um so that you're able to do that, but also to protect um the the integrity of the the the council. Um so with that right uh we all have duties
and responsibilities and so it's it's my responsibility right to hold um this this body accountable right uh and in turn you're expected to hold me accountable as well right and so I look forward to to being able to work with you all to to make sure that we are as
transparent as we possibly can uh with the community um so you know that's something that that I'll make sure that that rip it and and I'll work with uh Vice President Janzac to be able to to um to honor right for
the for the community. Um part of that and I think that we've strayed a little bit [clears throat] away from that is really being mindful of opening law. Um I think that we really have a responsibility to make sure that we are um
doing our kind of business for the community according to to expectations of law and things like that. Um I think that we have um in some ways like I said drifted away from that. I think there's some confusion around um kind of the
distinction and the difference between public speaking. Right? So, I'll be sending out an an email uh later uh this weekend um just really kind of talking about those distinctions um because I think what often happens in
our meetings is we have uh public speak at the beginning uh which is where people should really be participating but then throughout our meetings we're allowing the public to participate and we haven't articulated that there's a public hearing and so not everyone is being able or has the opportunity to
participate in the same manner, Right. So, just want to make sure that we're kind of following those laws. Also, being really mindful about our forum, right, and how we're talking and engaging with folks um outside of our committees or outside of council, right? So, just want to be
mindful of that. The other thing that we've drifted away from that's really important to um to open meeting law is really our meeting minutes, right? Uh and so technically by law, right, we have to have our meeting minutes done within 30 days. And so that's something
that we're going to start to hold folks accountable to. Even if there's not a meeting, uh it's going to be really important that our committees touch base and at least do the business of the of the of the community to be able to get those things um uh uh approved, minutes approved, so that the community is up to
date and we are transparent with kind of the decisions that we've been uh been making in in our meetings. Um, with that as well, one of the things that I'm going to support you all in is just trying to standardize our meeting minutes so that they're very easily accessible and people are able to follow
them and understand them. I think that we've had a format of individuals kind of doing their own way and I think that that's uh worked for our particular communities, but I think it's been difficult for community members to really be able to follow along with our decisions and things like that. So, just
want to um, you know, acknowledge acknowledge uh that. So, that's something when I send out an email later uh this weekend, I'll have that information for you all so that we can really kind of begin to standardize a little bit of kind of our own work. And again, that's really just about being
more transparent with the community so that they're able to follow along with the the work of our of what we do, right? Um, that being said, also I'll be uh the vice president and I will be setting up a meeting with our uh council
clerk uh to really talk about how we can be most efficient and work together so that we're getting everything that we need done um uh in a in a timely manner, but also that we're again being trans transparent as we can so that we are um getting the information that we need out
to the community. So looking forward to that. That's really kind of all I wanted to say. Just those initial things just to kind of give you all a heads up of of wanting to be really more transparent and um really holding ourselves accountable to kind of the expectations
of not just the community but expectations of opening law and and things like that so that we're just doing the best that we can. Um on the agenda also uh the next item is the um reconfirming of the East Hampton City
Council resolution pertaining to discrimination and intolerance. Um unfortunately that was not included in the agenda. Right. So we don't have that language unless we went and searched for
it. Um, so what I'm going to recommend uh and um is that we do that at our first city council meeting. Um, so, um,
I would entertain a motion to, um, move that item to of business to our next, uh, city council meeting so that we can include it in our agenda and also then the public would have access to that information as well. >> Were you thinking this the 7th or the
>> I was thinking this or >> the 21th or the 20th? >> I was thinking the the first meeting is the seventh. >> Seventh, right? So, the next meeting. >> Yes. Yep. >> Someone second. >> Uh, great. So, I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor? >> I I uh any nos? Seeing none, abstensions. Great. So, we will move that item to the um first meeting which will be uh next week. I will check in with Maryanne to make sure that that is
uh taken care of. Um the other thing the last item is um uh committee assignments. So uh I put together our uh committee assignments in and if I was to be
elected wanted to be prepared. So I put together our uh various committee assignments. Um so if folks want to um take a look at this um I think one of the major things I think that we've all been able to recognize is that with a
new uh uh uh body uh and with four new uh individuals uh tried to arrange this in a way that allowed for um people to to gain experience uh but also there's a
nice mix of new and returners. So, there's a real opportunity for mentoring, right? And so, I take that really very seriously with this with this new group. I I've chatted with um um many of the new folks. of just saying, you know, I really want to be us to be accessible and really um provide
some real mentoring opportunities for folks so that over time, right, hopefully people will continue to to serve on council and there's opportunity for for leadership uh development and and opportunities to to to move up, right? And so want to make sure that
that that folks have those um opportunities, right? So um so done that. Um any um I think that's the last item. Um I'm very much looking forward to working
with all of you. Um and I will as I said I'll work with Maryanne to to get the agenda out to you all uh later today. Um but that's everything. So I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> So moves. I have a motion and a second
to adjurnn. Uh any notice? No further discussion. Uh all those in favor? I >> I uh any opposed? Any extensions? No. Great. Awesome. Thank you so much. Congratulations everybody. Appreciate all of you. Looking forward to working with all of you this term.
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