I'm calling the July 23rd, 2026 special meeting to order at 7 32 p.m.

7 30.

I'm sorry, 6 30, 3 p.m.

Thank you, Trace.

If we can all stand, and I will ask Maryana to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

No, Jason, still using a pledge of allegiance, please.

That's all right, Jason.

Pledge allegiance to the flag, the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Um, and before we jump right into prayer, just want to really take about 20 seconds here and think about all the residents in Danbury right now that just got impacted by a very large fire.

Maybe 80 residents might be displaced tonight.

Um we can talk about it later, but just want us to take that minute to reflect on what's going on.

Nobody is hurt.

Um, and I'm not sure about pets yet, but we our firefighters are doing a great job of police and public safety.

So let's keep everybody in our thoughts and prayers and make sure that remains the same.

Thank you.

Madam Legislative Assistant, will you call the roll, please?

Coolo, Flanagan, Pawley, Lepine, Salvatore, Usaid, President, Gartner, Fay, Henry, Wallace Smith, Spain Reichel, Giordano, Rotello, Chianese, Dwayne Perkins, McAllister.

Oh, I'm sorry, Jabor.

I apologize.

Uh McAllister.

He's at the fire response.

Britain.

Robinson.

Laughinghouse is at the fire response.

And Dennis Perkins is not here.

So five, six, fifteen present, six absent.

Yeah, no, and Dennis is out due to a loss in the family.

And Mike Coello, I believe, is with family situation as well.

Councilman Quello is also in a family situation as well.

Thank you.

Um is there a motion to accept the call to service?

Your Honor, I move to accept the call and return to service for this special meeting since all members have been properly noticed.

Motion is made in second.

Are there any remarks?

Any remarks?

Any remarks?

See not I'll try your minds.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Eyes have it.

The vote is so ordered.

The first I apologize, Councilman Henry.

I apologize to not see the arm.

One opposed.

The first 30 minutes of the meeting is reserved for the thoughts and expressions of the public on matters before the council.

Are there any members of the public wishing to speak?

Any members of the public wishing to speak?

Ms.

Coello.

My name is Michelle Coello.

I reside at 47 East Lake Road.

And I am here tonight as a resident for the record.

I also serve as the chair of the Danbury Republican Town Committee.

Thank you, Council.

Peter Excuse me.

Council and Mayor Alves.

I appreciate the work you've put into this.

Two nights of a line-by-line review is a lot of work to ask in July.

That said, um the council remarks just came out less than 24 hours ago, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight.

But based on what has come out, um the fact that we had 33 members of the public come out and speak against this.

Many different um points were made.

Some were recommended by the council.

Appreciate that.

Um, but there were many that um were not being able to be answered by the council themselves, by counsel who wrote it, or the commission has not been able to answer.

So I am asking you to slow this process down.

We have many questions the public does, I believe the council itself does, and so I'm just asking for the opportunity for the public to digest what came out of two nights, I think 12:30 in the evening, five-hour meetings.

Thank you again for that work.

But it shows the public that this is not ready to go be voted on just as if yet.

We need input from our stakeholders.

So I thank you for your time, and I please ask you to take my comments.

I'm getting so many phone calls about what is this charter about.

I think that the council itself is asking the same question.

So thank you so much for your time and thank you for your hard work.

Thank you.

Any other members of the public wishes to speak?

Any other members of the public wish to speak?

Sir.

Lewis Marks, 31 Topfield Road West.

Did you catch the name of Lisa?

Can you just repeat your name slowly, sir?

This is Marks.

Bus Mars?

Marks.

Marks.

Thank you, sir.

Okay, thank you.

I I would first like to agree with what the lady over there said.

And the reason I'm here is because my sense of morality has been offended.

I know what's right and what's wrong for me, and I think I know what's right or wrong for you people.

And we all know that rushing this is only to serve one purpose, and it needs to be stopped.

Just because the administration has a supermajority, doesn't mean they get to push everybody else around.

Now section 3-8 has been called public notice and hearing.

This has been violated the last three council meetings.

Can you please explain that?

I'm not here to talk to the air.

I would like to have a conversation.

This is for thoughts and expressions that you provide for the council.

The forum here is not for a QA.

We'd be more than happy to answer your question, sir.

Uh, I will have gladly have my team.

I'm sure the Charter Commission or any one of these council members would answer any question you have.

Offline.

Or when?

Offline.

Offline.

Like, well, not at this forum.

This forum is just for thoughts and views to be expressed to the council.

Okay.

Section 3 14.

Investigation by council committee.

This is pure nonsense.

It will never happen.

It has never happened, and I am proposing a civilian review board.

Nobody in government on that, like a jury trial.

When people are accused of crossing the line, they need to be held accountable.

There is no accountability in this administration.

The whole process has been a disservice to the people for the last 17 years.

And the only reason you want to bring it up now is to advance political ambition.

And I want to see public notice on time.

At least five days beforehand.

And no more than 15.

Not being done.

Who is accountable for this?

I don't know.

Next.

I'm not against four-year elections.

The president of the United States has four years, but only two terms.

And there needs to be term limits, and not just let's have four years.

No.

We had 12 years of Eric has 20 years of bounding.

There's nothing wrong with four years, but it has to be equal and fair.

Not anymore.

That doesn't work these days.

Next.

What's going on there?

And you want to appoint everybody under the sun.

So you can have people who are beholden to you and will jump when you say so.

Are you trying to copy the people in Washington?

I am angry.

What you're doing is wrong.

Absolutely wrong.

You hand pick the commission, including that man, who I would consider, or maybe anyone would consider collusion with the administration.

This whole thing has been politicized.

It's wrong from the very start.

And by the way, I took a course at WestCon in the fall called Moral Development.

And you people need to find your moral compasses and stop violating ethics.

Good night.

Thank you, sir.

Any other members of the public wishing to speak?

Any other members of the public wishing to speak?

Any other members of the public wishing to speak?

Seeing none, we will close public speaking.

Item number one, please.

Reports, public hearing, committee of the whole meetings, part one, two, and three.

Mr.

Mayor.

Yes, sir.

I I move that we waive a reading of the committee of the whole and public hearing minutes, as all members have copies and copies are on file with the legislative assistance office.

Motion has been made and seconded.

Are there any remarks?

There are any remarks, any remarks.

Councilwoman Faye.

Thank you.

Um did the when did the committee of the whole part three occur?

Committee of the whole would like to speak.

Majority Leader Salvatore.

The first part was the pre-public hearing.

That was number one.

Number two convened after the public hearing, and number three was just the other night.

Understood.

Got it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

Council, there's any other remarks.

Any other remarks?

Any other remarks?

You know I'll charge your minds.

I'll those in favor signify by saying aye.

Any opposed?

Two opposed?

Three opposed.

The ayes have it.

Council, what's your pleasure?

Councilman Salvatore.

Mr.

Mayor, I move to accept the committee of the whole and public hearing minutes and that the city council transmit to the Charter Revision Commission the approved recommended changes and amendments as voted upon in each chapter and convene a meeting to confer between the two bodies for the final presentation to the city council.

Second.

Motion has been made, seconded by councilwoman Diane Lepine.

Council, any remarks on moving the motion.

Councilman Rotello.

Thank you.

Through the chair to everybody hear me?

Through the chair to corporation council.

Joe, could you just walk us through the process?

Let's assume tonight uh the recommendation to the council is positive for the uh formation of the of the two joint uh committees.

What what are the next and final steps until we get to a point where we're sending this to the voters or not?

Thank you.

Through the chair.

So the process is statutory.

Um we did discuss this at the committee of the whole meeting, but what happens is the council, which is the appointing authority under the statute, sends its recommendations to the Charter Revision Commission.

Uh there's then a conferring between the appointing authority, i.e., the council, and the commission, uh, which I believe is happening next week.

Uh the commission receives recommendations from the council.

Uh uh, and then they'll uh review those recommendations and then prepare a final report, which then gets sent back to the council for consideration.

So there are, you know, uh there are timelines for the review and the submission of the report back and forth.

Um, so we'll follow those timelines, of course, at compliance with state statute.

Um, but then ultimately the final report does come back to this body to look at to look at one final time before we prepare the ballot questions.

So let's just assume that the minimum is done, not the maximum is going on for 10 years, but I mean just the minimum uh statutorily.

After this goes to the joint commission, let's just call it a joint commission.

You legally call it something else, but in my head, it's a joint commission.

The Charter Revision Commission, Chairman Britain's commission will meet separately by itself without the council to come up with some sort of a response, send that to the council, and that could be as early as the council meeting in August.

So through the chair, so there are um, yes, the commission's gonna meet uh at least one more time.

Um the they'll and they'll view the review the recommendations made by the committee of the hall to the council to them.

Uh they'll prepare again a a report which gets sent back to this council, which gets looked at.

So I mean, you know, the process can happen um at any point as long as we properly notice each meeting.

Um so yeah, I mean I do expect this to probably be back here in in August.

Uh we're almost at the end of July.

Could it be properly noticed and get in front of the council?

But what's the what's the date for the next meeting?

The seventh or something, August?

Um don't recall top of my head.

It's 10 days from now, I think something like that.

The fourth?

It's the fourth.

Could it could it be in front of the council on the fourth?

Our office looked at that issue um to make sure the timing was fine and the timing is fine for that.

So it can be done.

And then my my final question would be at that point the council could then decide to send this to the voters.

And it could be out of the council's hands by in 10 days.

Is that correct?

Accurate?

So through the chair again.

That's correct, yes.

Yeah.

That's correct.

That's correct, yeah.

Yeah, again, through again through the chair.

Yes, yes.

Yep.

Councilwoman Shay.

Thank you.

Uh, through the chair to corporation council, the commission will meet separately, and then we have a joint conference with the commission.

Correct?

Correct.

The chair, yes, that's correct.

Okay.

Point of order.

I don't think that was correct.

It's it's it's not correct.

It's a joint and then they meet council.

I apologize, yes, that's it's the reverse.

My apologies.

Okay, so the so the plan moving forward is for the council to have their joint meeting with the charter revision commission.

The charter revision commission to meet on its own, they would then need to submit something to the council.

That was the agenda deadline you referenced in the last hearing or the last meeting of the whole we had on Tuesday that they had to make the agenda cutoff of Monday, right?

Through the chair.

So, yes, the council, I mean the commission prepares a final report, which gets sent back to this council.

So that filing report is is what they generate, they send it back, and then this body has to review that filing report uh at their at their meeting.

Okay.

If the charter through the chair, if the charter revision commission makes changes, it needs to go back to a public hearing, though, correct?

The stat through the chair.

The statute does not call for another public hearing, it just calls for a submission of the report back to the appointing authority.

So there's no language in 7191 that talks about the need for any additional public hearings.

So it's possible for the commission, charter review commission to make substantive changes and never hear from the public on those again.

Well, uh, through the chair.

Um they would I mean the report will go back to the council.

The council, I imagine, could allow for public comment on if they wanted to make that agenda item, they can allow for public comment on what gets sent back to them through the commission.

Um, but again, the statute doesn't explicitly require a public hearing, so that would be a discretionary decision.

Thank you.

Yep.

Councilman Chanese.

Thank you again.

Uh, through the so my question is deals with the actual joint commission meeting that we're going to have.

So again, through the through the chair, um, to corporation council.

Whose meeting is it?

Is it the council asking the commission to appear before us, or is the charter commission asking us to appear before them?

Because it's a matter of Robert's rule who calls the meeting to order, who do we ask our questions to, where's the meeting?

Are we on the diets?

They're in the audience, or it's reverse.

Um I mean, a lot of people on this diet, except maybe two of us remember a previous commission, and I don't recall recall what we did back 15 years ago.

So that'll be my question.

Does both commit commission does the council needs the notice and the commission needs to notice?

Um, since it's Thursday at 7 o'clock, um, the meeting that we're calling for on Monday has not been noticed.

And Friday, City Hall is closed, so you can't use Friday as a notice date, so it would have to be noticed on Monday.

And it's not 24 hours.

So and the commission charter could the commission has not noticed their meeting either.

So can you can you answer the type of meeting we can have?

I know we can have it not we can have it in the black box theater as I discussed before earlier.

Can you just explain how that meeting will occur?

Can we ask any questions we want?

Can I mean how does it work?

Through the chair.

Through the chair.

So yeah, I mean, I had a joint at a joint conference of the appointing authority and the commission.

Uh questions on the charter amendments can be raised by either body.

Uh and I expect that they will be raised.

Um the understanding is that both meetings uh uh have been noticed.

Um if uh if I'm incorrect, I'll let the legislative assistant correct me on that.

Um but you know the meetings will be noticed by each body.

Those meetings have not been noticed.

They've not been noticed yet.

Okay.

All right.

They will be.

Well, the meetings, you know, meetings will be noticed, of course, so as required under the state statute.

Um once that notice is done, it's gonna be done by both parties.

I mean by both uh bodies, both the commission and this council will have its own notice.

Um so in terms of whose meeting it is, it's it's a conferring meeting.

Uh I'm not sure that we need to really get overly concerned about who whose meeting it is.

It's a it's a it's a mutual combined proceeding of both the commission and this body, the council.

Um so I'm not sure that that's gonna be necessarily that critical of a legal issue on who whose meeting it is per se.

Um we're guided by the statute, it's a statutory process.

The statute's pretty clear on the appointing authority conferring with the commission on any charter changes.

Um I think that I think that answers your question.

If I can, Mr.

Mayor, to follow up.

So in your opinion, there's enough time to notice the meeting for Monday?

Since again, city hall's closed tomorrow, so you can't post it to the town clerk's office until Monday, and you need 24 hours.

Councilman, uh and I apologize.

It has been closed, it has been posted with the town clerk.

It has been hasn't been no the bodies haven't been noticed this council, pending the action of this council.

It's post the possibility of a meeting.

And if it doesn't get sent, there's no meeting.

I'm sorry, just as a point of clear question.

Sorry, did you are you done?

Do you have a remark?

Are you done, sir?

It was posted.

I'm good.

Thank you, sir.

Councilman Faye.

I'm sorry, there was a lot of sidebar conversation, so I'm not sure if I actually underheard everything that was going on here between the legislative assistant and the mayor, but through the chair to corporation council.

Has Monday's meeting been noticed even though this body has not acted on its next step?

No.

Through the chair, I just heard the legislative assistant represent that notice was made.

No.

The bodies have I apologize, madam councilwoman.

Would you like the legislative assistant to answer your question?

No, I I think notice and publication of notice is corporation council's purview.

Through the chair, um I've never seen the Office of the Corporation Council notice the meetings, and notices always happened through the legislative assistance office.

No, but the the process of publication is handled statutorily, and that would be within the purview of the corporation council, correct?

Say that one more time.

So what I said was the process of publication is a creature of statute, and that's something that's handled through corporation council, correct?

Well uh through the chair.

When you say done through corporation council, it's guided by the statute, which you know is section one two twenty-five of the general statutes, which requires notice, and there's specific notice provisions in there, and as far as I know, that's always been handled by the obviously legislative assistant through notice to the town clerk, notice via email to council members, uh, notice uh through the city website.

So that process is is not hand to my knowledge, is not handled by our office.

Okay, it's handled through the assistance office.

So I would I would inquire uh of our council president, perhaps through the chair, who has instructed a legislative assistant to publish notice for a meeting that hasn't been directed by this body yet.

Thank you.

Um councilwoman Faye, um, there's been a discussion about a dates that would be available uh to have the conference.

Monday was one of them, and uh there is this meeting, and there would be a conference with the charter revision commission, and and Monday was discussed by me with with our legislative assistant specifically.

So I I guess I'm understanding I'm understanding um uh council president's point that Monday was an option for a day, but that's a different answer than the question that I asked, which was who instructed the legislative assistant to notice a meeting that has not been called for by this council.

This council has not yet acted.

The notice is posted at the town clerk's office.

If we do not vote forward, the meeting will not go forward.

And is that the common practice?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

To notice every possible date that a meeting might take place.

It's it's yes, yes.

We we the the um the effort is to try to obtain try to get this on the ballot for November for November's election.

So the dates that are available are limited.

So just discussion and comment for our action item tonight.

I think there's nothing more blatant, which is we're still in discussion.

I think there's nothing more blatantly jaded to show the intention of the administration that is pushing this agenda forward.

The fact that this body has not acted yet, the fact that we got off the dias at 12 30 at night on Tuesday, and I was thrown a meeting notice for this evening.

It's not the way it should be done.

It's certainly not best practices.

And I strongly object to moving forward this evening.

Thank you, Councilman.

Councilman Gardner.

Thank you, um, your honor.

Uh yes, I just want to know that in my experience, I I feel that there is occasions where it's not out of the ordinary to schedule pending meetings.

Um depending on whether or not uh the outcome of a meeting.

So I feel this is an efficiency of government and um not a a slight against the government.

Thank you, legislative leader.

Councilman Quell, I believe I saw your hand up.

Thank you, uh, your honor.

So if I could, this may be directed through the chair uh to our council president.

When we were here Tuesday night until 1230, we left, we got the special notice for tonight's meeting, then there was 19 of the 21 sitting council members present at that meeting.

And I'm just curious why in that moment you plan to have a meeting tonight, yet decided let's not share that with or even ask for input from the other 18 members that were here.

Hey, does that work for you?

I just think that would be maybe common courtesy, because the other biggest problem that I have here on top of that is that we have given the public a little over 24 hours to review 25 pages of our motions and changes from Tuesday night, which was the third part of our committee of the whole, that I haven't had even a chance to go through and see perhaps, hey, maybe something was missed.

I don't know.

I think it only makes sense to give the public more time.

But instead of doing that, we rushed a special meeting tonight, barely got the notice in it for 24 hours, which I can tell you based on the lack of response in this crowd, people aren't probably even aware of the meeting, let alone the changes that were made that we on the council probably haven't had a chance to even go through to double check ourselves, let alone give the people and the public their appropriate amount of time to digest this, let it ruminate, and perhaps make a comment because when they were here at the public hearing that we had, their responses were based on what the charter revision came back with.

They haven't had a chance to talk about it tonight, like we are gonna be here tonight discussing it or voting on it.

And I think it's irresponsible, it's definitely the wrong thing to do.

This is not about uh left and right.

This is about right and wrong, and it's wrong to not give the public enough notice to look at the changes that are here in front of us and comment on them.

This is version two, charter revision.

We made our recommendations back to them.

The public hasn't seen it, but now we're gonna sit down with the charter commission on Monday, which is another rushed meeting, and I don't even know if I agree with the logic, but let's take the state statue out for a second.

Is it fair to the voters?

Maybe they can't make a meeting in Monday.

They can't even speak at that meeting that we're gonna have to discuss another chance at looking at what Monday's meeting is gonna produce between a meeting between the members of the city council and the charter revision.

And with all due respect to corporation council, I think we need to know who is gonna chair that meeting.

No disrespect to the people on the charter revision, but ultimately it comes back to us.

So to say we're gonna have a meeting, we're not sure per Robert's rules who's gonna be in charge of that.

We're all gonna work together.

Understood.

I get that part.

But somebody needs to be in charge of that meeting.

And the bottom line is after that meeting takes place, the charter revision commission is gonna make their recommendation recommendations back.

We don't get a chance to go to the committee hole again and discuss it to look at it again.

We have to vote on it that night.

I'm probably less than 24, 48 hours again, and the only chance that the public's gonna have to comment on this is gonna be at the August City Council meeting.

I've sat back and I've been quiet and I've been calm.

But genetically, it's probably impossible being half Portuguese and half Italian right now, because I am frustrated, very frustrated right now that we are not doing the right thing and giving this back to the city of Danbury to comment on.

It's their charter.

Our responsibility, their charter belongs to the city.

Now I am not opposed to revising a charter, but in this manner, one step after another after another, it's rushed.

24 hours notice.

Let's have a meeting on Monday, let's notice it before we've even talked about it.

Yeah, that may be okay for possible zoning commission meetings and other small meetings, but this is the constitution of our city, it's our charter.

So I don't agree with the logic that it's it's done normally in other areas.

Well, you know what?

We haven't opened up the charter, we haven't looked at it in 10 years, so let's rush it.

That's we want to tell the voters.

I don't want to tell the voters that I want to tell the voters we've taken enough time, we've looked at it, and guess what?

We're gonna sit down with the charter revision commission, and we're gonna go back and we're gonna work together because that's what we do.

We serve at the pleasure of the people, but it's gonna be very difficult after that meeting after we get the comments back from the charter revision commission to look the public in the eye and say, Oh, yeah, you know what?

You'll have no comment on that.

We don't hear what you have to say.

I don't care what you have to say, irregardless of the fact they may break great suggestions that we may think was a good idea.

Hey, I saw what happened.

You have the charter revision, it went back to the council, they voted, it went back to you.

It's you don't you don't send something out that's half baked, and this is what this is.

I am all in favor of putting this to the voters.

I am just not rushing it.

And I think it's important to remember that when we voted for the bond issue for one of the biggest ones I can remember since I've been here for the new high school that I was that has been asked for for decades.

That didn't happen on a November election, but it was important enough to get feedback from the clients and uh for our from the voters, and then when it finally went out to the public, they had a chance to vote on it because that bond, that building was 100%.

We didn't go to the city and ask them to sign in and approve and vote for a 200 and I think eight million dollar bond with plans that were half designed because we wanted to rush it.

No, we've waited this long to do it right for the new high school.

We had the right engineers, the architects, the feedback from everybody involved with the career academy.

Why?

Because it serves the city and the future of our kids and families for decades to come, just like this charter revision does.

I don't understand why we're rushing this.

Thank you, councilman.

Council, any other remarks?

Any other remarks?

Any other remarks?

See none.

I will try your minds.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Any opposed?

Roll call, please.

They heard the eyes.

It's procedurally.

Can you do a roll call after you heard the eyes?

Sure.

Can you get the roll call?

Yes, sir.

Yes, Ms.

Coello.

Nay.

Flanagan.

Yes.

Holly.

Yes.

Lepine.

Yes.

Salvatore.

Yes.

Busade.

Yes.

Gartner.

Yes.

Faye.

No.

Henry.

Wallace Smith.

Spain Reichel.

Yes.

Giordano.

Yes.

Jabor.

Yeah.

Rotello.

No.

Chinese.

Yes.

Dwayne Perkins is not here.

Britton.

Yes.

McAllister.

Robinson?

No.

Two, three, four, five.

No's the ayes have it.

The motion carries.

Update all committees.

Uh no updates, excuse me.

All committees will continue.

And we'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Question for corporation council.

Motion to adjourn.

I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

You can ask the councilman the motion's done.

There's no remarks.

I had my question out before you said motion to adjourn.

Point of order.

I can ask a question of corporation council.

Why not?

Because there's no remarks right now, sir.

It's a it has nothing to do with this.

I as a council member.

Councilman, I will.

Can I not ask a question on the record of corporation council?

Can I allow you to answer that's the question?

Okay.

I made a comment during my remarks.

I would like to hear further clarification of our meeting, whether it's been properly noticed or not, that's going to take place on Monday between the members of the city council and the Charter Revision Commission.

Who is going to chair that meeting was also brought up by Councilman Chinese, so I think it's incredibly important.

As we work together, there it all can only be one head of the kitchen, right?

So somebody needs to be the chair or that meeting.

Who will it be?

Absolutely.

There was a committee.

So through the through the chair.

So my recommendation, since the statute doesn't explicitly define who runs that meeting, my legal recommendation, my legal recommendation would be in the absence of statutory language, that since the appointing authority is the council, I would have the council uh open the meeting, conduct it, they can speak to the charter vision commission at that point.

The dialogue can go back and forth between the commission and this council.

But since the statute doesn't speak to who is running the joint conference, well it's it's a conference, it's a conference.

Yeah, I mean it's a motion.

There's no motions being taken, there's a conversation being had, it is a discussion.

I I get that.

My point is just that somebody needs to be in charge of it.

That's all.

So who's it gonna be?

I'd like to know before we leave tonight's meeting.

I uh I'm sorry, I just wanted to point out that the this administration has decided that it's the whole council, but if you go back and look at the minutes from the special meeting in 2009, the mayor then just appointed the majority and minority leaders to meet with the Charter Revision Commission.

So it was just a it was just a meeting where they sat and they went over here's what the council suggested, and then they had their time to go over it and sent it back.

So it was just a meeting, it was not uh, you know, oh full board, and you guys can back me up on that because you were there back then.

It's a discussion and a conversation of what we said or what we suggest that they relook at and then they have the work to do.

We can't bring anything else up that night.

Council president, as council president, who would you like to run the council meeting, sir?

Well, I I I would prefer that it not be you, your honor.

I agree.

That's why I'm asking the council who it should be.

So perhaps perhaps I would be the presiding officer for the council.

And then it would if we're gonna do it that way.

You guys don't uh because it's a meeting.

I'll know if you there's no vote because it's not the agenda, it's a discussion, and the council president as your president can lead the meeting.

Uh through the chair, if I may, sorry since we're debating what whether it's a meeting, it certainly would be a meeting for FOI purposes.

Um, but I I think it's perfectly fine to have the council president run the proceeding, however, we want to define it.

Uh that can be run through the president.

Um, and since again, since the statute doesn't speak to who technically opens the meeting, I think that's a fair uh a fair process to follow.

Also, since we don't have a committee as uh as was done last time as councilman salvator mentioned, I think again we have discretion to decide how that is conducted, so I think it's perfectly reasonable and fair to have uh councilman Bazaid run the proceedings if that helps answer anything.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I will now entertain a motion to adjourn.

Second, it's been a second, all those in favor signify saying aye.

Aye, aye the ayes have it.

Good evening, everyone Paul