Applicant, I want to say good morning.

Uh and we thank you so much for your willingness to serve all of our applicants.

Uh first is Francine Zania.

All right, feel free to come forward.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Thank you.

So again, we thank you so much for your willingness to serve our community and your neighbors.

It's commendable and we deeply appreciate it.

You'll get one question uh per each commissioner, so three questions, and you will have three minutes timed by our city clerk to respond.

Yep, nice and red in the in the front here.

So we will begin with my uh question.

Uh stepping up to serve as a public servant is commendable, and we thank you for your willingness to do so.

Being a commissioner is just one way of serving our community.

Please share how you have served our community through civic or public service.

This may include board service, previous or current employment or other forms of engagement.

Thank you.

Um it's a pleasure being here.

I have always been interested in civic, especially government.

Closer you can be to people the better.

Um as far as serving uh I've primarily uh been uh a mother and a teacher most of my life.

I have served on a couple of uh boards of education, uh one on an elementary level and one on a um high school level.

Um but I also considered some of my jobs, uh teaching jobs as civic responsibility too, and more like a vocation.

Uh and I enjoyed it for that reason.

I enjoy people, so that's pretty much.

I haven't had a lot of uh visible jobs, let's put it that way.

Thank you so much.

We'll now shift over to a second board city commissioner, uh, Commissioner Isaac's question.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Um my question is um can you share with me a time when you work through a conflict at work and how you uh approach uh conflicts in that in the workplace setting.

Thank you.

That's a great question because that's something we deal with all the time everywhere, no matter uh what profession or what uh uh environment that you're in, um whether it's family or whether it's work.

Uh first of all, I like to be direct and I like to find out exactly what is the conflict, to kind of name it first of all, and see what it is about.

Uh for instance, I did uh have a uh child that had a conflict with one of the teachers that I worked with.

I mean, a quite a severe conflict.

And uh I had missed when she sent me a note, I had misunderstood it because it came to me by um what email I think it was at that time, and she was being sarcastic, and I didn't know that.

And you know, sarcasm does not show up very well on email.

Uh and that was you know, maybe it was relatively new to her at that time.

I I'm not sure about that.

But anyway, uh so I did not uh address it at that point.

Then she went to uh a person above me, my principal, and uh uh had complained about how I reacted to it.

So after that, uh I asked her, I asked the principal if I could talk to her directly and find out what had happened, what was the incident, what it happened, and exactly, and then I understood, and then I was ready to make a judgment.

She was right, and then to follow through on that in some kind of uh uh I hate to say, but it you know, you're dealing with kids lots of times it's punishment, you know, in some way.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now shift to uh first Ward Commissioner Alicia Marie Belchak's question.

Hi, yes, thank you for being here.

It's really great to meet you and see you in person.

Um my question has to do with the fact that this is a short-term appointment, and there's much that we do at the commission that our collective work is already underway.

So, how would you balance supporting the existing priorities while also exercising your own independent judgment in your representation of the first ward residents, especially when those two things can be in tension?

Yeah, I've already thought about that.

And one of the things that I came to a conclusion about was that it's a sh of course it's a very short time period, and there are already issues on the agenda and things that have to be decided.

So I thought how I would deal with it is that I would first of all listen to what it was, do a little research if I needed to to find out any background information about it.

I don't, you know, to know what the two sides were to understand it, and then to base my judgment on that at that point, not on a personal agenda because I'm really not here for a personal agenda.

I'm here to just deal with what's happening at that time and try to judge if it's fair, you know, if it's just if it's safe for one thing, uh cost efficient, those kinds of things.

Wonderful.

Well, thank you very much.

That concludes our uh panel's questions here.

Uh, we will also give you a few minutes here, uh, three minutes again for final closing statements from you.

Oh wow, I didn't realize it was that you know that much.

I'm not sure.

Uh I may have been a teacher, but I wasn't so much a lecturer as I was uh I liked group uh you know, where you sit down and you discuss uh information with the kids.

So um, and a lot of them weren't really kids, they were a lot more adults by the time I was through teaching because I'd been teaching, I have taught everything from kindergarten to uh seniors in high school and a little bit of uh college uh prep with the AP programs and things like that.

Uh one of the most interesting jobs I ever had was when I worked for the Grand Rapids Public Schools.

I worked for a program which no longer exists.

It was uh called Outward Bound, and uh it was at the time, I think there was a lot of grants for uh schooling outside of school, if that makes sense outside of the building, let's put it that way.

And I would teach in the homes of adults who had not graduated from high school, and that was a turning point in my life, and I truly loved it.

I met some of the most interesting people I've ever met in my life.

It opened me up to because uh I have always called it like I've I had like a whitebred life, you know.

I mean, I've been in a pretty protected uh uh environment all my life because I am a lifetime resident of Grand Rapids.

Uh in fact, longer than that.

I've had uh all my great grandparents are from Grand Rapids and uh started out as uh diggers in the river for the foundation rocks, and uh they lived on the early Monroe.

I mean when people had residences on a Monroe.

But we would have uh uh for this program outward bound.

What we did is they would divide the city up.

There were about a large group of teachers, I don't remember, it's been a little bit uh since then.

But it it introduced me to people who I perhaps would not have had contact with, and it wasn't as a superior or anything.

You went home, you went to their home, you sat down in their home in their kitchens often, and one of my stories is I'm sitting there, you know, and I'm having a good conversation, and I hear this, and I'm looking, those are cockroaches falling off the ceiling, hitting the stove behind me.

And you know, and they had the stove open or the oven open for heat, you know, and it it was I know that sounds awful, but it was good for me because I had not grown up in that kind of a situation.

I see my time's up, so we thank you very much again for being a part of this process and interviewing with us this morning.

We deeply value uh your input and stepping up to serve your neighbors.

Uh we will be deliberating uh later this afternoon and we'll uh communicate next steps then.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

So you let people know even this afternoon.

Yes, indeed.

Are you going down to like a lower number and then another or yes, yep.

Sorry about it.

Well, thank you very much.

Yes, and the clerk has uh given some uh how the process will look in your email.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you, everyone.

We will take a uh for the public.

We will recess for nine minutes until 9 20 with our next applicant.

Thank you.

Return from recess and the committee on appointments is called back to order at 9 20 a.m.

And we will continue with our second interview of this morning with Mr.

Zachary Baker.

Good morning.

Thank you so much uh for joining us and stepping up to serve your uh community and neighbors.

We deeply value uh your willingness to serve.

Once again, you will get a question from each commissioner representing the first, second, and third ward, and we'll jump right into uh my first question here.

Uh I did have it up for you all.

Here we are.

Okay, so my question, and I'm Marshall Kilgore, I'm the third ward city commissioner.

Uh stepping up to serve as a public servant is commendable, and we thank you for your willingness to do so.

Being a commissioner is just one way of serving our community.

Please share have how you have served our community through civic or public service.

This may include bur board service, previous or current employment, or other forms of engagement.

And you'll have three minutes to answer each question.

Awesome.

Thank you for the question.

Um so as far as currently, um I am part well, I work for the railroads of Grand Rapids, um on the south side of Grand Rapids.

Um I mean currently I am a member of their safety board that is um that's prioritizing like obviously safety, but as far as as well as safety for the community when transporting stuff is and like shipment processing, and we've been dealing with a lot of this high high water issues, is everybody's been dealing with.

So we've been meeting quite a bit to come up with strategies on how to handle potential derailments or catastrophic instances instances that would happen due to unseen circumstances such as high water or extreme winters, like we had this last winter.

Um within with my community, I am a part of a um planning committee that helps.

I mean, that is uh it's a group that meets over on the west side of Grand Rapids over on Leonard Street that uh our main goal is to uh like connect the community with different groups.

We've had like members from like the ALCU, we've had different like uh medic groups from Grand Rapids, we've had um Rachel Hood has spoke with us before.

So we've had like different a wide variety of groups from Grand Rapids come and meet there and try to get people more involved with our city getting familiarized names with faces and such.

But um in the past, I have worked on um less more less of boards, more on groups that have dealt with the environmental issues of Grand Rapids, such as um the large amount of urban areas that are within um past floodplains, so we've been dealing with like um like f uh drainage with like uh with like our storm systems, and we've been trying to try to this year to clean up as much of our drains as possible because it's been a chore.

Um but I mean that's that's my uh official um connection to Grand Rapids.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Mr.

Baker.

We'll now shift uh to the first ward commissioner, Alicia Marie Belchak for her question.

Well, thank you, and uh thanks for cleaning up our storm drains.

That's very important thing to be doing.

Um so as you uh think about all the things that we do here as a commission, it is a short-term appointment, and we already have as a collective body of work that we're working on already underway.

So my question for you is how would you balance supporting these existing priorities while exercing or uh exercising your own judgment independently as you represent the first ward residents, and particularly because these two things can be in tension.

Thank you.

Um I find it's very important before um jumping headfirst into any situation to do research on it to learn what you're going into to learn the history on it, to learn the current laws, policies, and what potentially is going to be changed or altered.

Um and then I'm also very focused on um centering the voices of marginalized and um the affected voices or the affected people involved so that so that like it's not just my opinion, because obviously I I might have an opinion, but I'm not the only one in the first ward.

So therefore I need to need to talk and communicate with the people that are actually affected with it and then move forward from there.

Wonderful.

And lastly, uh your last question from uh second ward commissioner, Commissioner Isasi.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh good morning.

Um, my question is well, everybody's already heard the questions, but my question, because they're all the same questions, let me just say that.

Um, is can you share a time when you work through a conflict at work and then also you know embed what is your conflict style?

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um so I'm not the person that dives headfirst into conflict.

I'm not I I don't seek conflict, but obviously conflict arises.

Um and I've been having to deal with conflict, especially recently with my job with um working on the safety board.

We've been having in uh individual, a couple individual, but one mainly who has been ignoring safety, and therefore we've been having to go through our steps in handling that, which starts off like communicating with the individual, talking about them with our talking about them with the current steps, what safety regulations we've signed, and then as issues presented and as conflict rose and people became more heated in their thoughts because some people have been doing jobs for many years and don't like changes and unfortunately changes happen like safety changes especially happen because instances happen.

So we then we express our express why things happen and then we have to escalate up the potential ladder of situations, which goes toward like retraining, and we've had like um we've had like um we've had like sit-downs with them where we had a third party talk as well and try to um try to make the situation decrease the tension within the situation.

But overall, I like for tension at regension uh conflicts and other such.

I like to follow a procedure of like communicating what what's expected, what's needed, and then escalate as escalate the situation as expected.

Thank you, Mr.

Baker.

Thank you.

And lastly, here this one is for you.

It's a closing.

You'll have three minutes as you did with the questions.

Uh for a closing statement here.

These could be, you know, important things that you'd like to share in regards to serving in this role.

Awesome.

All right, so reintroduce myself.

My name is Zachary Baker.

I grew up in Grand Rapids area.

Well, parents moved around a little bit growing up, but was always Grand Rap is always my city.

Um I had a very large focus in community involvement in my early years.

I was very, very involved in Boy Scouts up until eventually getting my Eagle Scout.

And I wanted to transfer that into my adult life, where I went off to college to get an environmental biology degree so I could focus on uh Michigan's environ ecosystem and how it's affecting our people.

And then as COVID hit and what getting jobs was harder, I moved over into I moved over into the marine construction industry where I learned tons about how uh how our our changing ecosystem and climate change has been affecting our daily people on like everything from like our our lakes to Grand River and Lake Michigan.

But and but then since then I have also been very focused on community involvement where I or I like to I want to be involved.

I'm not necessarily the currently not necessarily the person that sits on a board and tells the people to go.

I was the person that slung on a backpack to go help to um volunteer met my medic services to community events and organizations and such.

I've I've always tried to be gr involved in Grand Rapids and I've wanted to escalate that involvement, and this seems like a natural progression.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Baker.

Once again, we thank you for your willingness to serve, and you will get next steps on this process this afternoon.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Again, we will recess for a few minutes here until our next applicant at 9.40 a.m.

We're in recess.

Okay, we will uh a few seconds here before 9.40 before we start our next interview.

We will call the committee on appointments to order at 9 39 a.m.

Back from recess, and we have our next applicant, Miss Dan Cope with us this morning.

And good morning.

Thanks so much for being here with us.

Yeah, we are delighted that you are here with us and thank you so much for your willingness to serve your community and your neighbors.

We will begin with uh the first word commissioner, uh Commissioner Belchak's uh question for you.

Hold on, keep check your mic, give me a mic check.

Hello.

Okay, we're good.

All right, that's nice and clear.

Okay.

That's nice and clear.

Thank you very much.

And you'll have three minutes to answer each question.

Commissioner Belchak.

Thank you, Chair.

Um good morning, and yes, thank you for being here.

Um, I really appreciate your dedication to wanting to show up and uh serve.

So, as you know, this is a short-term commitment uh appointment uh through the end of the year, and there was much work that the commission's collective body has already put in motion and is underway.

So, my question to you is how would you balance supporting existing priorities while exercising your own independent judgment as you represent the first ward residents, especially because those two things can be in tension.

Uh thank you so much for the question, uh Commissioner Belchak.

And at the end of the day, the job of a commissioner is to serve the people.

And I study Socrates who's really informed my understanding of what it means to be a citizen of a place.

And that comes with an obligation to step up when called upon.

Now, I'm an individual who is just one part of a whole of a larger whole, and I feel that it is vital to apply your talents to the collective, much like the legislative body here.

Now, another aspect of being Socratic is asking questions, an area in which I excel.

I can contribute to the work of the commission by inquiring into the gaps that may exist that require additional perspective.

A strength of serving uh out a partial term without running is that it would allow me to um you know spend all of my energies on this uh body and making important achievements in a short period of time without the added burden of running a campaign.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now move to second ward commissioner, Commissioner Isassi.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh good morning.

My question is um, can you share a time when you work through a conflict at work and then embed in there, you know, what you believe your conflict style is?

Thanks.

Thank you for the question.

So uh I am a professor at Grand Valley, and so I am working with you know 18 to 21 year olds who have lots of opinions, and so conflict is something that I navigate often uh and that I'm not shy of.

Now, um many of the examples that I could give you related to the work in the classroom are for uh protected.

So instead, I'm going to provide you um with an example about a notable experience I had while chairing a precinct during the 2024 general election.

Um cast your minds back.

That day was already pretty tense for a lot of folks, and we had a robust voter turnout, a full staff, and even four poll challengers at the precinct that I was chairing that day.

We did have a few minor incidents with voters describing inaccurate rumors um about um intentional election interference, and of course, on that day the tabulator that scans the votes decided to malfunction, and we had a paper jam.

So this is a common technical hiccup that on any other day may go without comment, but on that day, um, with you know on that day with that many people uh already sort of on edge, um, ready to, you know, people ready to tabulate their votes and the technicians away assisting other precincts.

I made the decision to use the auxiliary bin.

Now, um, you know, I knew I was trained to do this, and I knew that I would have to explain what I was doing to a restless group of people.

Um, and so what I did was I gathered the precinct staff, the challengers, and the voters to explain to them the process of putting the ballots into the exile auxiliary bin.

And so I explained that once the technicians had cleared the jam or would clear the jam, the ballots locked in the bin would be removed and scanned into the tabulator by two staff of different different parties in full view of the challengers and the public.

Um, all in accordance with policy.

I then set up chairs in the public area, invited anyone who wanted to wait with their ballot to sit until the text cleared the jam so that they could tabulate their ballots themselves.

I meticulously documented everything.

I checked my handbook along the way.

I called the clerk staff just to make sure that I was doing everything right.

And I ensured that everyone remained calm while we followed the procedure.

And from this I've learned that procedures are in place to protect people's rights.

They support administrators when they need to respond to emergent situations and ensure transparency and confidence in that process.

While it was stressful to experience, uh, while it was a stressful experience that required me to deliberate, to educate, to keep ANSI folks calm.

It also taught me that following the rules and acting deliberately and also understanding why those rules are important and explaining them to other people is a reliable pathway to success.

Thank you.

Lastly, here I have my question for you.

Being a commissioner is just one way of serving our community.

Please share how you have served our community through civic or public service.

This may include board service, previous or current employment, or other forms of engagement.

Thank you.

I have spent the majority of my professional life working for public institutions.

I'm currently, like I mentioned, faculty at Grand Valley, and so I'm gonna start there.

I have extensive experience teaching civic leadership, from introductory courses that introduce public oriented empathy to advanced courses on constructive dialogue.

And I even designed a course called Sustainable Democracy that connected students with campus and community stakeholders to generate student engagement in the 2024 general election.

Another course I'm currently co-instructing with the city's poet laureate focuses on local grassroots advocacy and art and uses Grand Rapids history to illuminate some of the social tensions that we see today.

I'm also especially adept at you at serving as a bridge for a constituent body.

This is where I think my experience in shared governance at the university would be particularly useful as a commissioner because I work to raise concerns of the faculty that I represent to the senior administration.

This may be on a smaller scale than what you all are doing, but the processes are similar and the working conditions, the pressure, the turnaround time, that's all very familiar to me.

I co-lead GVSU votes and advocate for student voter participation because I believe that an informed citizenry is one that must be intentionally nurtured.

I've worked closely with grant donors like the Campus Vote Project to provide support for voting initiatives, and I've also formally worked elections, like I mentioned, for nearly a decade as both a clerk and as a precinct chairperson.

And something that I've learned while working in all departments of Grand Rapids Township, which is where I was employed before I became faculty, is just the ordinary business of administering public services that when uh like record keeping, for example, that when done well make possible the conditions under which residents live in a safe and supported community.

I also learned from this job that the public is always more complicated than you think it is, and that if you want to serve the public well, you must seek out perspectives that will complicate your own.

Something which I believe I would that would translate well into serving as commissioner.

And the through line that connects my work in local government, in elections, in education, and its administration is my belief in democracy.

Democracy is the recognition that our fates are intertwined, that like Martin Luther King says, that we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.

And that when you see institutions under threat and faith in democracy crumbling, well, if that doesn't compel you to act, then you are part of the problem.

I've been working to address that in multifaceted ways throughout my career.

This is done in recognition that democracy isn't given, it is kept, and that it must be constantly tended, improved, and defended.

Thank you so much for your answer to my question.

Now you'll have three minutes for closing.

These are important things you'd like to share to the committee in regards to serving in this role.

All right.

So with the three minutes I have left, I'm going to try to give it a statement and also ask a question if I can get both done.

But I just briefly want to share my strengths that I think would be an asset to this commission as you make your judgment about who to serve on this body.

Many of my strengths do come from years of studying literature and writing.

I have strong research skills and grant writing experience that I would bring to this role.

I'm also a good communicator.

I do this every day in the classroom.

Having extensive training and critical thinking also allows you to truly listen to one another, to recognize your own limitations, to know when to seek help, and how to suspend judgment until you are fully formed of the informed of the facts.

And I'm also willing to test my ideas with the full recognition that they're not all going to be successful.

Something I love about teaching is that every class session is an experiment and you must constantly adapt to emergent situations, which I believe is likewise an asset for a leader in governance.

Now, the classroom model is particularly useful when um thinking about municipal leadership and civic participation as well.

Um at the end of the day, we usually share a vision for a healthy city where our families are safe, where we have opportunities to pursue our goals, where we have clean air, water, and public spaces in which to recreate and congregate.

And I will choose respect as that default starting point and engage in dialogue to come to a place of consensus where differing parties can see pathways forward that also acknowledge our differences and articulate our shared goals.

I'm also especially adept at liaising um and acting as a bridge for a community.

I have so much experience working uh like I mentioned before in shared governance at Grand Valley and doing this thing already.

This would just be a next step, a larger capacity in which to apply my skills.

Um I'm also not easily discouraged, and I recognize that the work is never done, it's only ever evolving.

I'm tenacious and I jealously pursue the truth, and I would bring that work ethic with me to the commission.

Now, if I may ask a question with my one minute left, something I've been thinking a lot about and would be curious as to your perspective if time allows, is how do you navigate working with groups of people who just seem intractable and trying to come together and build consensus?

I would love to hear your professional opinion on this.

But we are here to hear from you today, so we will not be providing answers back, but feel free to follow up with us um afterwards.

Uh, you still had about a minute there.

Would you like to conclude anything else?

No, I I just want to say thank you so much for making the space for me.

And as a first ward resident, I also just appreciate you making time to hear from someone who genuinely appreciates what you all are doing and and just wants to make this place a better place to live.

Thank you so much.

It's so nice to step up for your neighbors.

Thank you again.

We will be deliberating this afternoon, and you will uh hear next steps this afternoon.

Sounds good.

Thank you so much.

Take care.

And we will recess for eight minutes until 10 a.m.

for our next applicant.

Okay, we will call the committee on appointments back to order.

We are back from recess, and we will begin our next uh uh interview here with our applicant, Mr.

Lucas Leverett.

Uh good morning.

How are you doing?

Good morning, great.

Hope you're all well.

Good, thank you.

Thank you so much for joining us here today.

Uh, stepping up to serve as a public servant is commendable, and we thank you for your willingness to do so.

Being a commissioner is just one way of serving our community.

My question is to please share how you have served our community through civic or public service.

This may include board service, previous or current employment, or other forms of engagement.

For each question, you will have three minutes and you may begin.

All right.

Well, thank you.

Good morning.

Thank you for doing this.

And thanks to everybody else who's here, uh, applicants and observers.

So currently I have the the privilege of serving as vice president of the West Grand Neighborhood Organization.

This is a board that I joined early when we moved to Grand Rapids at the urging of a very hardworking and highly skilled executive director at that organization.

I'm also a member of the board of the West Michigan chapter of the American Advertising Federation and have participated in our Addy awards on that committee each year.

Recently I wrapped up service on the board for the Grand River Makerspace.

If you don't know what a makerspace is, definitely Google it.

It is uh a gym membership with power tools.

As a public park is your backyard in an urban dense environment.

The makerspace is your workshop and your garage.

That was a place that uh we had hoped to open in the city of Grand Rapids inside the city limits, and it's actually not inside the city limits due to all of the challenges and conditions for nonprofits and limited funding with property and costs.

So uh it is open, and I was very proud of that service.

Once that mission was accomplished, I handed that to people that can more effectively function uh in the space.

Before coming here, I served in multiple other orgs and and boards, including a citizens' committee at the concept stage of the Nashville Music City Center.

I also built a nonprofit producing annual events from a 400 attendee $5,000 budget to a 10,000 attendee quarter million dollar budget.

And they added three other additional events, including the Nashville Mini Maker Fair, of which I was a founding producing committee member.

Even in my work, I've invested in the citizenship of the business, engaging in what is now the neighborhood where the Nashville Soccer Stadium sits, and our business at the time with me as Marking Director engaged as a corporate citizen on topics of traffic development and all the impacts of that stadium in that neighborhood.

So you might imagine being on the West Side in the first ward down the street from a soccer stadium rings very familiar to me.

So those are just a few things.

You've got a resume of all that stuff in that packet, and I almost felt bad giving it to you because I've done a lot.

I'm older than I look.

Thank you very much for your answer to my question.

We'll now shift to a question from First Ward Commissioner Alicia Marie Belchat.

Great.

Thank you.

And thank you for being here.

Um, I do think it's very important that we consider the fact that we are a commission with a collective body of work already underway, that this is a short-term appointment.

And so my question is how will you be balancing the uh supporting the existing priorities while exercising your own independent judgment to serve the first ward residents, especially because this can be in tension when we have differences.

Yes, uh, thank you.

So the biggest thing that I believe in for every leader uh is to bring clear vision and and values to the role.

For me, at every opportunity, I would exercise the five that I outlined in my application to you.

Leading with guts, working people over the wealthy, truth over tradition, public safety with more than just a paramilitary approach, and sustainability and environment and investments.

If you choose to appoint me, or if I were to ever run, and the voters were to choose me, those principles would be very well known, and they'd be the foundation, even in tension to which I would be loyal.

I'm always going to be the person that asks questions that other people avoid, and I'm not afraid to be the lone dissenter.

And dissent in this government is something that's far too rare, so I would look forward to living in that tension.

Thank you.

And lastly, a question from uh Commissioner Isasi.

Um good morning.

Um Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Sorry, shouldn't ate that granola bar right before.

Um my question is can you share a time when you work through a conflict at work?

And then if you can also um embed what you believe your conflict style is.

Thank you.

Sure.

So first and foremost, I'm a I'm a big fan of goals and vision.

If a conflict can be resolved with those, that's the best move.

My primary concern is the group destination.

Egos and feelings take a back seat.

When possible, we need to build processes and systems and let those be the bad guy.

When you can, um, use that.

I'm never unwilling to force those processes and systems to change when needed.

I think that's something that government's very slow to do and should be quicker to do.

So if you need to do something into a system to help conflict ease, such as putting the power in the hands of elected officials instead of a city manager in Grand Rapids, which, as far as I'm aware, I'm the only person in this room advocating for today.

That's a systemic solution that you can point to and blame or fix in leadership.

On the personal level, I'd like to get to know people and what makes them tick and find our common passions, uh, not even organizational.

I'm almost never as interested at work in what people have done at work or their resume as I am.

What are you into?

Uh, as a big giant nerd, I love finding out who the secret Marvel fan or Star Trek nerd in my workforce is, and if we can sit and talk and know each other through those things, we can have better conflict resolution as people.

Uh most recent conflict point I'm gonna point you to is actually not even mine.

It was in this chamber when I made the suggestion recently that you use graphics on your screens to reduce conflict among speakers at the podium with you and your agenda in your regular meetings.

Clear communication and setting again goals, vision.

That gives you something to point to and say, hey, look, that's that's the way we do this.

It's not me, it's not you, it's not personal, it's what we're doing together in this vehicle with our egos and our feelings in the back seat.

I saw a systemic way to solve that conflict for you.

I suggested it.

I tend to be the guy that sees that stuff, and I'm always glad to share it.

So that's a that's a little bit of a vision into that.

I try to apply that in my daily work any time I can.

Uh of course I'm also willing to call out the things that might be right or unjust.

Thank you.

We have three minutes also reserved for closing statements for you.

Uh these may be important things you'd like to share in regards to serving in this role as someone who may be appointed to the first ward.

Great.

Well, once again, I want to thank the committee for engaging with myself and the other applicants.

I do still respect the time and effort you're investing, even if I'm among those that believe this is a bit of a show with a potentially a foregone conclusion.

Despite that well-founded cynicism, I can say that I admire and respect all of the fellow applicants.

And there's certainly more than just one of them in this room that I think would make a fine choice if appointed commissioner.

Thank you all for being willing to serve and stepping up to put yourselves in consideration.

I've had some fantastic and surprising conversations around the community since this process started.

One common refrain that's that stands out is uh so Lucas, you're gonna run, right?

No, not yet.

At least not now, maybe someday.

Unlike the last time this appointment process unfolded, you can actually take me at my word.

Folks have also challenged me with, well, what if you somehow did get appointed?

Would you even be serious about serving?

And the answer to that is yes.

I'd be honored to spend a few months continuing to push back against the status quo in GR politics and this commission specifically.

I've truly enjoyed the opportunity to give more depth to who I am and what I'm about beyond the bluster of rhetoric, the manipulations of social media, and the ignorant assumptions and smears of a certain small set of critics.

We're about to hear, or we hear a lot on a regular basis about authenticity these days.

And if nothing else, that's one thing you know that I bring to the table.

So if you somehow get the wild idea that you'd like to have more of me in the conversation, I'll be there.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much again for your willingness to step up and serve our community and neighbors.

Once again, we will be deliberating this afternoon, and you'll hear next steps then.

Thank you very much.

Take care.

Thanks.

For the public, we will be in recess again until 1020 AM.

Appointments back to order.

We're back from recess.

We have our next applicant, Miss Lindsay Perez Pleasure.

We are so thankful uh for your willingness to serve.

Thank you for uh stepping up for to serve your community and our neighbors.

Uh we will begin our questions.

You'll get one question from each commissioner.

You'll have three minutes to respond to each question.

Uh we will begin with a second ward commissioner, Commissioner Isasi to present your first question.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good morning.

Um, my question is um could you share a time when you work through a conflict at work and also include how you approach, you know, what's your approach to conflict, your conflict style.

Thank you.

Absolutely great question, and I'm excited to be here.

Thank you guys all for this opportunity.

Um I worked for many years in a role as uh I'm a mental health therapist um where we had to, as a group with um supervisors of third-party uh um case managers come up with uh our unanimous recommendation for placement for children for living.

Um it was a high stress position.

We cared a lot about the children we worked with, and a lot of times people had different uh opinions on what would be the appropriate appropriate placement for them.

And as the therapist on the case, sometimes had to take a lead role in helping people come to agreement because we had to present to the federal government our combined agreement on our placement recommendation.

So I learned a lot about working collaboratively, um, about getting people on the same page, about managing my own emotions uh when things sounded like they were going in a direction that I didn't think was safe or correct.

Uh and as a therapist, I've learned a lot over the last 20 years about active listening.

Um my approach uh when there's a conflict is to first listen to understand, not to respond, um, and demonstrate that understanding and reflect that person's thoughts back to them so they so that we know I under I heard them right.

Uh I know that you know anger is a secondary emotion.

That's something that can come up frequently in conflict, uh, and that usually covers fear uh or hurt of some kind, and so try and address those emotions to get that out of the way so we can have a productive conversation.

Uh validating people's feelings, even when you maybe disagree with their approach, um, also goes a long way to reducing conflict.

Um I have a lot of clients, for example, a while ago I had a client who was screaming at me.

He was just enraged, and fortunately it was a teleappointment, but he was holding the phone close for effect and was like very angry.

And the natural response is, you know, sir, don't speak to me that way.

Sir, calm down.

But those things don't really work.

Um so I just went straight to the emotion of I'm sorry, you're so hurt right now.

So I just went straight to the emotion of, I'm sorry, you're so hurt right now.

And I, if I had been hurt like you, I might feel as angry as you.

And it's just like turning a volume button down.

I mean, it reduced the emotion very quickly.

Um, he apologized at the end um of his own volition.

Uh the other thing is finding common ground.

Um, I've done a lot of advocacy work with immigrant rights, and uh I've lectured and done education and I've gone to very conservative places.

Uh, and I've learned and was taught by wiser people when my when I started this in my younger years to just start with the common ground.

Everyone cares about the economy.

Immigrants trip contribute tremendously to the economy.

Start there and build from that.

So that's my approach to conflict.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now shift to first ward commissioner Belchak.

Yes, thank you, Chair.

So, as you know, this is a short-term appointment, and there's much of the collective body of the commission work already underway.

So, my question to you is how would you balance supporting these existing priorities while exercising your own independent junjibit as you represent the first ward residents, especially because those two things can be in tension.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, I think going into a new position, I understand that the first order of business is to fit myself into what's happening.

Um, there's a lot of great things happening in Grand Rapids, and I think that that won't be too hard.

Um, I'm supportive a lot of very supportive of a lot of the initiatives right now.

The CAP plan, and congratulations to all of you on passing that.

Um, I would love to be part of helping implement that and make that reality.

Um the neighborhood investment plan.

Um it sounds really good and in line um with my values as well.

And um it was brought up to me recently the idea of being proactive and preparing for the effects of climate change and changing weather patterns.

Um the the person that brought that up to me mentioned taking care of the tree canopy, which I had not thought of, um, but I I would definitely fit myself into that um being proactive approach.

Um, the day that this person brought it up to me, I drove home thinking about it, and it was a windy day, and I walked in my backyard and a huge tree had blown over and busted up our playground, and that really drove that home.

That that might not be a flashy um item, you know, that people that the community gets excited about, but it's something that we need to be doing and preparing for.

Um, so I'm excited.

I yeah, as I've done this process, and I am running, I've been meeting with community leaders and so on, and it's been so wonderful and encouraging because all of my thoughts and ideas about you know, uh creating better third spaces and protecting our green spaces.

There's people working on that, you know, um, working on housing and particularly home ownership, which is a passion of mine, living in a neighborhood uh where I know you know, our neighbors, we really want stable homeowners.

We want our kids to have friends and build that sense of community.

There's people working on that.

Um, so I think there's a lot I could do just by lending my support to the things that are happening.

Uh, and then I have my own um background and ideas also that um that I can work in to those um spaces.

But I know, yeah, there can be tension.

I'm someone who is very hardworking, I can move quickly, but I also understand that the decisions we make as you know, and that are made as commissioners last for decades and long beyond any of us would be in office, and so not just knee-jerk reactions, for example, to housing.

Yeah, we desperately need more housing, and we need to move on that, but we need to move with well thought out, well-researched plans on where and how many, and um, you know, congestion and uh the the roads and parking and all of those things that have to be considered.

So while we need to have the um impetus to move quickly, we need to have the self the restraint to do the research and make wise decisions that are gonna age well uh in the ward.

Okay.

Uh so now for my question.

Uh so being a commissioner is one way of serving our community.

Please share how how you have served our community through civic or public service.

This may include board service, previous or current employment, or other forms of engagement.

Yeah, so I've spent my life uh working to help people in the community as a mental health therapist uh and working in doing home-based work where I was in people's homes, in their schools.

That's given me a really intimate look at the factors that come together that can cause someone to become unhoused, that can um cause someone to have a run-in with the law or a child to go into foster care or CPS.

Um you can't solve a problem you don't understand.

And so having that really deep experience with these families for all of the years that I've been in mental health has given me also a good idea of what solutions can be implemented that help um families and our community stay strong.

So I have a master's degree in counseling.

I got my bachelor's from Grand Valley in psychology with a minor in Spanish, and then my master's from Western.

Uh after college, I spent some time in Guatemala working in a children's home for abused, neglected, and abandoned children where I uh got very fluent in Spanish and learned a lot about immigration, uh, a lot of the push pull factors from that standpoint and US history uh in Latin America.

And I've taken that knowledge back here to my community and worked as an educator, um, lecturing in local universities, at political think tanks for network 180, helping people inform how they interact with the immigrant population, our community.

And in our ward, we have a significant um area of largely Spanish-speaking immigrants that I would be happy to represent and to help uh make them feel like they really have a place at the table here on the commission.

Uh at one of my positions, I worked in a program that was just starting, and I took the lead on improving the foster care system, drastically improving the foster care system, improving policies for informed consent and confidentiality that had been overlooked for this particularly vulnerable population, um, and play creating a plan for kids who aged out who were just literally quite literally being dropped with no one and no support and in very dangerous situations.

Uh I've organized as an advocate for immigrant rights.

I started a support group on in part of the ward over in the Granville area for families who had lost a family member to deportation, which is an issue that gets overlooked.

And as a therapist, I'd have kids coming into therapy because their dad all of a sudden was gone.

And I know the impact, the economic, the emotional impact that has on those families.

I'm also on the board for GR Mobile, working to create safe affordable transportation and parking issues.

And I'm involved in the stocking school park.

So that's a school.

I don't ever have time to talk about it.

It's such a great project, and I'm really excited about it.

And mobilizing the community and creating that what's gonna be an amazing third space and and make keeping the park in green space for the all the kids in that community.

Wonderful.

We still have so thank you so much for your answers uh to the committee's questions presented to you, and now you do have time, uh three minutes here for closing statements.

So, this any important things that you didn't get a chance to share in regards to serving in this role as someone who may be appointed to the first ward.

Yeah, perfect.

Um yeah, so I am a lifelong Grand Rapids resident.

Uh I'm a mother, I have a 16-year-old and two-year-old.

I've traveled around the world and kind of as a younger person assumed I'd be living somewhere exotic and exciting.

Um, and I ended up right back here in Grand Rapids because I grew up and I realized Grand Rapids is a fantastic place to live and a great place to raise a family.

And I really want to help us maintain that family-friendly environment, a city that has great amenities, but also strong neighborhoods, affordable living, um, a good place for working class families to live.

We hit the top 10, 20 on some um measures for as a city for a great places to live, and I want to help us stay there.

Um, I think we can do that through continuing to work on stable and affordable housing that respects neighborhoods and works towards creating community in that neighborhood feel.

Um, so I know we do need rental, and there are rental projects being um started in my ward, uh, particularly one by the river and like market um over kind of by the Grandville area that I'm excited about because it's gonna be a nice one, it's gonna have a beautiful view, it's by good schools.

I think that was a well-planned decision, but I really also want to focus on that home ownership of in Grand Rapids, approximately 50% of um people rent.

And we will always need rental, but I believe there's a good percentage of those people that would like to own and with the price of housing and so on.

I think that we could do a good job of continuing to work to use the land bank to create more housing, particularly like duplex, multi-units, multi-family, multi-generational type things that we could set up to utilize the space and help with down payments.

Um, I want to help, like I said, with the CAP plan, my family at our house, we have pets and we compost.

My family at our house, we have pets and we compost.

And between those two things, uh, the pets eating the leftovers and the composting, we produce almost no food waste.

Um, and along with recycling, it takes us literally months as a family of four to fill one city trash bin.

Um, so I'm very excited to work on initiatives with the community.

I think there's a lot we can do as a community to reduce our waste easily.

Um I want to keep working on third spaces, um, the stocking school.

Uh that park is highly transited by by children in the neighborhood.

It's really the only place in a pretty large swath for all of those kids and creating a community space there.

Um, I'm like very much behind.

We have an epidemic of loneliness in our country.

Uh, it's a real issue.

There's drug companies working on a pill for loneliness.

You feel loneliness in the same neuroscenter in your brain where you feel hunger.

It's a health issue, it's a public health issue.

And so those third spaces, using that, for example, for our elderly population to have bingo night or coffee hour, um, places where kids can get off their tablets and go and use the gym.

Uh, those are initiatives that I would definitely spend my time working on.

We thank you so much for your thoughtful answers to our questions.

Uh again, uh, thank you for stepping up for your neighbors.

Uh, we will be deliberating this afternoon, and you will hear about next steps on this position this afternoon.

Thank you.

Um, thank you so much.

Take care.

Again, for the public, we will be in recess as the committee on appointments until 10 40 for our next applicant.

Thank you.

We will uh call the committee on appointments back from recess.

Uh our city attorney is not a stepped away for just a moment, but Mr.

Schramm will be back.

I would like to welcome our next applicant, Mallory Root up to the microphone.

Oh, and city attorney is back.

So we're all here and present.

Good morning, uh, Miss Root, and thank you so much for your willingness to serve your neighbors.

You will have uh one question from each member of the committee from all three wards with three minutes to respond back to each question.

Wonderful.

We'll begin uh with my question.

So uh being a commissioner is just one way of serving our community.

Please share how you have served our community through civic or public service.

This may include board service, uh previous or current employment or other forms of engagement.

You have three minutes.

Um over the last 10 years, I have served the community on the West Side in particular through uh my business, Roots Brew Shop, which is a coffee shop.

Um, and it's our mission is to make the transactional relational.

So we're seeking to form community and intentional community in particular.

Um, and we have done that um over the last decade, welcoming many different people in to roots.

Um in particular, responding to the crisis of loneliness, which is a crisis of our time.

And I think that Roots has done an incredible job just from the feedback that we get from our regulars, the fact that we do have regulars very consistently, and we know them well.

Um that gave birth to a second um business that is celebrating its first year at the end of the month, actually, um, which is a co-working space, a half a mile called the Cottage on Turner.

And so serving again that response to the crisis of loneliness in particular to the West Side.

Um through space and place.

And I think that's really important, being in a very technocratic age, having a physical space for people to come to, um, especially to engage with one another with diverse views and a space that they can call home.

Thank you very much.

We will shift to Commissioner Xassi's question.

Thank you.

And have really good bagels, sandwiches.

Yes, we do.

It makes everything better.

Sorry.

That's that's my name.

That's my ad lib for today.

Um could you share a time when you work through a conflict at work and then when you explain that, can you embed what you believe your conflict style is?

Thank you.

Yes.

So being a public-facing um business, we do um encounter conflict.

Also being the leader of a team and an integrated team.

Um, we often come head to head with a few things.

Um, and I would say that my conflict style and conflict resolution style is to lean in rather than um back away.

And it's through understanding the whole situation, through listening, asking questions so that I can understand the mindset of the person, um, so that I can understand what their goal or intention was, so that I can better discern the right solution.

Um, and it's through yeah, uh, I'm not I'm not in fear of conflict.

I think that it's such a great way to find a solution.

Um I I think that it's something that one of my favorite things actually to teach my managers is learning how to enter into conflict rather than back away from it.

So I think there's a lot we can learn from one another, and um also having the disposition of uh assumed good intention from the other, and I think that's a really important way to enter into conflict.

Thank you.

We'll move to first ward commissioner Belchek.

Hi, very nice to see you.

Um I'm so glad you're here.

Um, you know this is a short short-term appointment, and there's much that the commission is already working on collectively that's underway.

So, my question to you is how would you balance supporting these priorities that exist while exercising your own independent judgment in serving the first ward residents, especially because those two things can be in tension.

I think I think um tension is good for discernment.

I think being able to enter in with fresh eyes and see things and understand things and ask questions can be a real advantage.

Um entering into things that are already in progress.

Um I really do seek to understand and ask questions.

I would say one of my greatest strengths is discernment and uh asking questions.

I think if you uh have ever come to roots um and sat at the counter, many would say that that's a dangerous place to sit because I asked so many questions.

Um but I do seek to understand, and I think being able to um move things forward in union with what this commission is already doing for the city and listening to the people that are coming in with their concerns and understanding how that can maybe um buoy what's already going on.

Well, thank you so much.

This brings us to a closing statements from you.

Uh, these are important things you'd like to uh share in regards to serving in this role as someone who may be appointed to the position.

Wonderful.

Our city is a beautiful and special place.

It is a place of character and culture.

The people of Grand Rapids are special.

And it's been an honor to serve my community over the last decade through roots in particular, and now the cottage on Turner.

I've had the opportunity to be on the front end of growth on the West Side over the last 10 years.

It has given me a unique perspective of how changes to a neighborhood affect those living in it.

Both for the negative and the positive.

It has taught me to be open and ask questions.

It has taught me to be present and that being present is important and necessary.

It is a joy to live in this city and a delight to be part of helping foster community through place in particular.

I am no novice to the integrated aspects of making a city run.

Through the experiences of my businesses, I have learned to navigate zoning, seeking building permits, working with the health department, grant writing, simply engaging with the diverse members of our city and the like.

Thank you so much, Ms.

Root.

We uh will be deliberating this afternoon, and you will hear about next steps regarding this position then.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Take care.

For the public, we are now in recess until 11 a.m.

for our next applicant.

Thank you.

Okay, good morning, everyone.

We will call the committee on appointments back to order to begin our interview for our next applicant.

We have Mr.

Steve to be.

Uh welcome.

Welcome.

Thank you so much for your willingness to serve our community and your neighbors.

Uh, you will have one question from each member of this committee, and you will have three uh minutes to respond in addition to a closing statement of three minutes as well.

We will begin with second board, Commissioner Isasi.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, good morning.

My question is can you share a time where you work through a conflict at work?

And while you share that explanation, can you share what you believe your conflict style is?

Thank you.

Yeah.

Uh thank you all for being here and putting time into this process.

I know you have busy schedules, and this is something new that got thrown on you.

So, but I do think that it's important that we do this work.

So we'll flush it out and make educated decisions.

Umflict is always around us.

Like every job, every interaction, every relationship, there's conflict.

I've experienced it in many different ways throughout my professional career in many different formats.

Um the past five or more years I've worked with the city on a public-private project.

Um, and many conflicts come up due to engineering, what's possible, what's not, funding, what what the stakeholders want, and there's multiple stakeholders in a project.

So I have found that with knowledge of what I once did not know about processes, uh, you can help get to a solution.

What we learn, there are reasons for these processes, helps understand all angles of these in order to get to a yes a little bit quicker.

Um over the years, most conflicts can be resolved with some crucial conversations.

Hopefully, get to a collaborative process where it's a win-win solution.

Um, all parties work together to find a mutually beneficial outcomes based on the underlying interest.

Uh, but if that's not feasible, I would go into the compromising solution, which is kind of the middle ground.

Uh it gets all parties closer to their goals.

Progress is rarely a hundred percent happiness.

Like there's always gonna be a little bit of give and take.

Uh, but we should not forsake some progress if nobody wins.

We can't compromise and work together.

Um perfection is the enemy of progress, so I I work to make incremental change to get progress in one format or another.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I will give you the next question here.

So I want to, as I have done with other applicants, commend you uh for stepping up on your willingness to serve.

Being a commissioner is just one way of serving our community.

My question is for you to please share with us how you have served our community through civic or public service.

This may include board service, previous or current employment or other forms of engagement.

Cool.

Um I I have an extensive college background in healthcare.

I've worked at at all the big hospitals in town.

Um I'm a level two firefighter.

I'm a small business owner, which led to an entrepreneur consultant role at the bridge with the MSU.

I'm director of operations for a local community nonprofit, Fans of Valley Field.

I have helped save the Santa Parade.

I worked with Art Prize, I'm on the board of GR Foodie Fest, Tip Bar Foundation, and Enriched Living.

So my love and efforts for the city extend well outside the first ward.

Uh for the past seven years, I've worked to build a community in Grand Rapids while working with the city to restore and activate an under underutilized green space.

We have hosted over 50 accessible community events, a lot of diversity, and they function as fundraisers for the city parks.

To date, that campaign has raised over five million dollars through public and private funding, thanks to the Evergreen Parks that was pushed in 2019.

Um, and many, many private supporters.

There's hundreds of them that have given to this.

Um we're kind of excited.

Uh, I currently sit on the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority Board, the Economic Development Board, and the West Side CIA.

Um, I have been imprinted in the community for years and want to continue what is best for the residents of this city.

My experience working with the public private sector with the city has prepared me to understand and navigate the nuances of living, playing, and working in this town.

Thank you.

And now we will move on to a question from Commissioner Beltrack from the first board.

Yes, thank you.

Hi.

Um, as you know, this is a short-term appointment where much of the commission's activities and collaborative work is already underway.

So my question to you is how would you balance supporting these existing pri priorities while exercising your own independent judgment as you represent the first ward residents, especially because these two things can be in tension with each other.

Uh yeah.

I would work with you all, the current board of commissions and future commissioners.

I would work with the city mayor and manager to learn what you guys are working on and what's what's in the pipeline and how I can how I can help and get caught up.

Uh I will listen to residents as I continue to campaign for the permanence or semi-permanence um position and get a feel for what residents want to see progress and change within the city as we grow.

Find issues that are worth exploring and hopefully finding common goals and ways to get there.

Thank you.

So now this brings us to closing comments.

You will once again get three minutes for your statements.

These are important things you'd like to share with this committee in regards to serving in this role if you are selected as the appointed first ward commissioner.

Okay.

Um as I've been through this process, I've learned a little bit from each of you who sit on this current board, and thank you for making these tough decisions in such a public format for the city, but has to happen.

I think my involvement with community is evident with my experience and volunteer initiatives in the past.

And I would love to earn this appointment and get to work a little bit earlier.

Working with the current commissioners, learning from you and the residents as I continue to listen to the community.

I I do trust you all to make the best decision and stand by whatever that decision is.

I will continue to help where I can in the city as I have for the past few years.

I also understand the idea of not appointing someone who's currently running for a campaign so they can focus on it and not to give any preferential treatment or leg ups in the process and let the voters decide of who's going to work for them for the next four years.

As I sat here and listened to the previous candidates, I was impressed with everybody.

I think they're all great.

And uh it shows that the city's on the right track with the amount of talent we have and the people that are trying to get involved.

So I'm excited to be part of it.

Well, thank you very much uh for uh your answers and your willingness to serve.

Uh we will this committee will deliberate on all of our applicants and we will uh provide feedback to you on next steps for who we will be selecting for the role this afternoon.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

For the public, we are now in recess into until we interview our next applicant at 1120 a.m.

Okay, good morning.

Uh the committee of appointments will be called back to order at 1119 a.m.

We will begin here in 15 seconds with our next applicant, uh Mr.

Kurt Rephart.

Thank you so much for your willingness to step up and serve the community and your neighbors.

You will get a question from each individual member of the committee, and you'll have three minutes to respond, in addition to a three-minute closing statement from you.

We will begin with uh Commissioner Belt from the first ward.

Fantastic.

Thank you, Chair.

So good morning.

Um, as you know, this is a short-term appointment, and much of the work that the commission is already collectively working on is already underway.

How would you balance supporting those existing priorities while exercising your own independent judgment as you represent the first ward residents, especially because those two things can be in tension with each other?

All right, good morning.

Um thank you for this opportunity.

Uh at risk of brown nosing it, sounding like a brown noser, the appointments committee was my favorite committee to serve on when I was a commissioner.

I just loved the process of getting people involved in the city, and I'm thankful that we have so many people who are interested in this appointment.

Uh the first ward is a really big ward.

It's not just the west side, but it goes all the way down around Garfield Park, and so the work needs to be shared.

I think that as I approach this, um, you know, I would vote with my time in terms of how this happens.

The first ward has had a long tradition of having a strong teammate working relationships with the first ward commissioners, and that will be essential to me as meeting with you regularly, Commissioner Belchak.

Uh, forming a team to be able to divide the responsibilities, show up for constituent calls, uh, support the first ward businesses in the way that they deserve to be supported.

Uh so my first priority would be to be an excellent teammate to to you and to respond to the things that come forward from first ward residents.

Uh, you can count on me to show up to every affordable housing ribbon cutting and groundbreaking.

That's my passion and excitement.

My children are always teasing me for driving around and making an alternate adjustment so that I can see progress on projects.

Uh I know that the budget is the very first thing that we would be working on together, as well as this the search for a police chief.

I walked through two police chief searches and served with four police chiefs when I was on the commission, as well as past five budgets.

So hopefully I'd be able to step right into the stream there and offer the experience that I gain from that time uh to bring uh wisdom and and expertise to those discussions.

The same is true of the master plan uh and the zoning ordinance as that rolls out.

All of those things are are are areas where I believe I'll be able to step right into the stream and contribute.

At the end of the day, I have to vote though, and I have to vote my conscience.

I am fortunate to have five years of voting record to see so the community can see how I weigh what the community is asking for versus the decisions that are in front of us.

And uh I commit to listening well to the first ward community, even during this eight-month period of time.

But with the understanding that during eight months, my job would be to be a helpful supportive uh person, to augment the relationships and the work that's already happening.

Ultimately, I have to vote my conscience, and I have to represent what I believe the first ward needs.

And so um in those moments, uh we'll work it out together.

So thank you.

We will now move to uh the second ward with Commissioner Isasi's question.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um my question is can you share a time when you work through a conflict at work?

And then when you answer that question, can you embed in what you think your conflict style is?

Thanks.

Thank you.

Uh well, there is a lot of conflict involved in the work of the city commission.

Sometimes there's conflict between the community and the commissioners.

Uh, you've all experienced that.

Sometimes there's conflict between colleagues.

I've experienced that.

Uh I saw that you experienced some of that even on Tuesday.

Uh and there's oftentimes conflict between the various stakeholders in terms of making a decision about what we need to do.

Uh I think that professionally I'm a person who gets called into moments of conflict to provide mediation, to be a calm, level-headed presence, uh, and to listen to all sides.

And so I would bring that same kind of professional ethic to this work on the city commission.

One example that came to my mind uh as I was preparing was there's a block in Hart Side that was having a tremendous amount of drug activity in it.

And this was at the same time that the city was having discussions about what to do about homelessness ordinances.

So while that policy discussion was happening, which there was lots of conflict in that about who and who to follow, it was important for me to go to who is closest to the issue, to listen to the people working with the unhoused population, the people living in that community, as well as to pull together everyone who wanted to solve it.

So we had some really frank conversations.

The main issue in that moment was drug dealing.

So we actually invited the GRPD, the rep the residents were willing to sit down with GRPD, and they said, we don't want you to arrest drug users because they're caught in a cycle of trauma and and they do not need to be penalized for that.

But let's can we focus on drug dealers.

We came up with some agreements together.

The GRPD did a sting, they arrested the drug dealers, and the situation improved.

So you have to go to the left.

And then out of that discussion with those stakeholders also came a de-escalation training that we offered to free for businesses, among other things.

So I'm a believer that when you come together, if you look at who's closest to the issue, and you bring together everyone who wants to be a part of solving it, uh, that you can come up with solutions that can cut through some of that conflict.

So, what is my conflict style?

I'm a I am a person who seeks to be an agent of trust and somebody who seeks to be a peacemaker, uh, and that's how I would show up to moments of conflict on the city commission.

Thank you.

Lastly, uh question from the third ward.

Being a commissioner is just one way of serving our community.

Please share how you have served our community through civic or public service.

This may include board service, previous or current employment, or other forms of engagement.

Thank you.

This is this is good for me to get my chance at three-minute comments here.

Um, my first service to the community is with my family.

I'm married to my partner Mattia.

We've been married for 24 years.

She's the person that inspires me the most, and I try to give her my very best energy.

I have two teenage children.

Uh, they're both GRPS scholars, and uh and as my role as dad is very important in helping them to grow up and be civically engaged kids.

Um in my neighborhood, I I'm an elder at Servants Community Church, which is a church that's welcoming and affirming of all people.

Uh I I spend a lot of time with my church community, uh meeting meeting the needs of the immediate neighborhood that I live in.

For uh prior to my time on the city commission, which I'll speak about briefly, uh, for 20 years I worked in community development at a place called the Other Way Ministries, place-based, asset-based, faith-based community that was walking alongside neighbors, families who are struggling with poverty, with addiction, with all sorts of things, food insecurity.

Um really my whole career has been dedicated to the first ward the residents of the first ward.

And then I got a chance to be a city commissioner for five years.

It was the greatest experience of my life.

The relationships I built built during that work are some of the most meaningful to me.

Um, and I had a desire to continue to do that.

I want to continue to do that, but as I left my time on the city commission, I've continued to invest in affordable housing.

I I've worked with six or so nonprofits in town that are doing work with affordable housing, particularly with the unhoused population.

Uh my work with them is to raise money, help them navigate the city's systems, uh, to bring primarily affordable housing at 30% of the area meeting median income online, which I have a lot of thoughts about that uh that I'll share in my closing comment.

But I I've kept working uh in the space that's connect kept me connected to the residents of the first ward.

It's kept kept me connected to the city staff that I enjoyed so much working with.

Uh and we're keeping to move it move the issue forward.

As I mentioned before, I've also been invited to support multiple organizations in seasons of change.

Uh one, I helped an organization to close, which was very painful, another one to transition from a fraud and to a new set of co-leadership.

And so I find myself being asked to come into a situation just like this for a short season where some wisdom is needed and where some patience and understanding is needed.

And it's my and my ambition to be a collaborator and an agent of trust.

So that's how I've gone about my work here in the city, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to consider doing it again for the first ward.

Thank you, Mr.

Eppart.

Uh, lastly, here are your closing statements.

These are important things you'd like to offer to the commu the committee here in regards to serving in this role if you were appointed as the uh first ward commissioner.

Well, like I said, my time on the city commission was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Um and in 2022, it was my desire to keep doing that work.

Um while I was on the city commission, I developed just an incredible genuine respect and appreciation for my colleagues for the appointed officials that I served with.

I would be elated to work with them again.

I I have maintained many relationships with city staff.

I'm I'm in in City Hall here almost once a week, sometimes twice a week, uh, for projects that I'm working on, and it's always a joy to interact with the people that I work so closely with.

Last fall I went through a really significant discernment process to think what's my future in politics.

Um I loved the work and I missed it, and I felt like I was effective at it, and I wanted to continue to do it.

Another thing became clear that 2026 wasn't the year for me to run a campaign.

Um I mentioned my teenage children at home.

Uh but in that discernment and in that understanding, along with the other insights that came about, this opportunity came up.

This moment came up.

Um, and I considered it and I felt I felt what it would feel like to sit back up there with you.

I know the heaviness that you're carrying right now.

I've experienced it.

Um I felt compelled and willing to join you for this season, to hold that heaviness with you, to represent the the people of the first ward that I love and care about uh in the same way that I tried to before, with integrity and with uh with my authenticity.

And the work that I'm involved with is already so closely aligned to the work that you're doing.

I listened to your presentation at Cow on the Affordable Housing Fund, and I'm so thrilled for some of those things that are finally coming forward.

Uh that's been the primary area that I've dedicated my time to after the city commission, working with the housing commission, working with the people that work with the unhoused.

I'm working with several emerging developers in the city, walking with them, helping them navigate their systems.

I've just two weeks ago I presented with with one of them to you one of those projects.

Uh I'm already working with city staff on how can we support those emerging developers better.

How can we take that affordable housing fund, that land bank, that Brownfield Redevelopment Fund, and have them work together to truly support these projects in new and exciting ways.

I've I've worked through the things that you're gonna walk through.

I've been a part of the selecting two police chiefs with the same firm that you're working with, with the same city manager whose decision that ultimately is.

Uh I trust the city manager and I trust the people that we've engaged to help us navigate that.

So I'm thankful for this opportunity.

Thank you for listening.

I would love to share more about my how my time on the commission would help me to step in on day one to be helpful to you all and to especially to be a great teammate to Alicia Marie.

Well, we thank you again for engaging in this process and being uh willing to step up for your neighbors.

We will be in deliberation this afternoon and we'll follow up with next steps on uh your application then.

Thank you.

Thank you.

For the public, we are now the committee on appointments is now in recess until 11 40 a.m.

Thank you.

Well, and we will call the committee on appointments at uh back to order at 11 40 a.m.

We will uh welcome our next applicant, Mr.

Paul uh salty Zak.

Please uh correct me on the pronunciation of your last name.

You were you were closer than most.

Okay.

May I hear the correct pronunciation?

Saltesiak.

Salt T Z or Salt Tishak in Polish.

Oh, love you.

Well, thank you very much, sir, for uh being here with us this morning.

The committee commends you on stepping up to serve uh your neighbors.

You will get one question from each of the committee members.

You will have three minutes to respond uh to that question.

We will begin in the second one with Commissioner Isassi's question.

Um thank you.

Sorry.

Uh good morning.

My question is can you share a time when you work through a conflict at work?

And when you give that example, can you share what you think your conflict style is or your approach to conflict?

Thank you.

Well, luckily, since I get to go last, I I punched everything into AI.

So I've got all the I've got all the answers for here.

I'm just gonna read everything.

No, just kidding.

Um I think in general terms, um I've been guilty of not handling conflict properly, and I think uh I've learned from that.

Um I believe in hitting things head on rather than letting them fester in the background.

Um, I think that's super important.

Um I had a really good supervisor who was good at that at a previous job I had.

He would just, as soon as he sent something, he'd say, Hey, everybody come here.

You know, you'd sit down and you talk about it.

So I I like that style.

Um, and just doing things in the background is dangerous, I think.

But uh it also made me think about the time when I was very young in my 20s.

Um I actually was a union steward for a while.

Uh it was one of those cases where I was in a union, I was doing uh graphic arts work uh with a lot of very skilled craftspeople, and um the union steward stepped down and nobody wanted to do it, so somebody's gotta do it, so I'll do it.

And that was at a time in our industry where things were transitioning from being very skilled, you know, hands-on work to becoming digitized.

And that and I I could see you know that evolution.

Um, but you had some very proud people who were you know proud of what the work they did who didn't necessarily want to see that future.

And at the same time, I had to help negotiate a contract between our union and the owners of the company, and that was also at the time when uh nobody had had to pay for health care before.

It was when co-pays and things like that came to be.

So I was really stuck in a really tough spot with trying to see both sides and negotiating uh and that balance between you know respecting the skills of these people but also seeing the future and just trying to come to some middle ground and uh I feel like if I could get through that, uh a lot of other things are much easier.

Thank you.

Now I'll shift to my first word colleague, Alicia Marie Belchak for her question for you.

Hi, thank you for being here.

So, as you know, this is a short-term appointment, and much of the work that the commission's been collectively focused on is already underway.

So, how would you balance supporting these existing priorities while also um providing your own independent judgment as you represent the first ward residents, especially because those things can be in tension with each other?

Yeah, that's a that's a really good question, and I guess that that's kind of the essence of this position, right?

Um you have to listen.

You have to pay attention.

You have to listen to your constituents, but yet have your own opinion on things.

And the way I like to handle that is I try to talk to as many people as I can, and if I sense a difference of opinion with my own, I just try to educate myself and find out, you know, why do these people feel that way?

And oftentimes they're able to reveal some facts that I was not aware of, and they can perhaps change my mind.

So I feel like I can step in.

Uh I have been paying attention.

I'm pretty aware of the issues that you guys are facing, and thank you for uh dealing with all that.

It's not easy.

But I I have my own opinions, but I think I'd be good at coming in, evaluating everything, and then just making the right decisions uh based on the the first ward.

I've I lived here my whole life, uh grew up on the west side, and then I moved over to the Ottawa Hills district for about 25 years, and now I'm back on the west side again.

So I do like to talk to people and solicit opinions, so I feel like I have a pretty good understanding, but in addition to my own too.

Okay, and a question from myself.

Uh being a commissioner is just one way of serving our community.

Please share how you have served our community through civic or public service.

This may include board service, previous or current employment, or other forms of engagement.

As you can see on the uh the application paperwork, I've I've been involved with several things, um, particularly here in our community.

Um I served on the board of the West Grand Neighborhood Organization as well as the Stockbridge Business Association.

Um, but probably the biggest thing I took on was uh forming uh nonprofit called Fans of Alley Field.

Uh Steve touched on that earlier.

It's an old vintage baseball park here on the west side, and I feel like we've done a really good job of transforming that into a community gathering space.

And I often tell people that uh I've never worked so hard for no money in my life, but uh, but it's it's truly a labor of love, and I feel like everybody who we're doing it with, and that's I I feel like I'm pretty good at that.

I I'm pretty good at in addition to doing things myself.

I try to rally others to help too.

You know, like, hey, you know, have you thought about helping out?

Um, for example, because I'm so busy these days with my my full-time job and the ballpark stuff.

Um, I will I'm gonna help in the community cleanup, which is coming up.

So it's like, hey, let's just you know, it's not a big commitment.

So I think you can do things incrementally that make a big difference, things like that, uh instead of just sitting back and letting somebody else do it.

So in addition to the the board positions, and I I also serve on um planning committee at the museum.

Um thing I thought about too, which I I don't recall if I listed it on my qualifications, but uh I did a lot of coaching, you know, youth uh sports, and that's so important.

Um I have so much respect for teachers, and you know, when you're a coach, you're in essence a teacher, and it's been really gratifying to have uh kids that you see many years later who tell you you know how much fun they had, or you know what what that meant to them.

So that's you know, on a micro level, I think that's super important too.

Thank you very much uh for your answers.

Last uh we have three minutes for closing statements by you.

Uh these are important things you'd like to share in regards to uh serving in this role uh as someone who may be appointed as a first board commissioner.

Yeah, that's uh it's an interesting thing to think about.

Um when I much like when I took the uh union steward position, I felt like well, somebody's got to do this, so you know why not me?

Why why can't I step forward?

I've learned a lot about uh how to negotiate things and uh manage people's expectations through our our efforts with the ballpark, and I've learned this uh diplomacy, which you guys are very, very good at.

Um and then when I saw the candidates, you know, my my qualifications pale in comparison to a lot of these people.

There's so many very well qualified people.

I I thought, well, I'll just drop out, but I decided not to because I think doing something like this really helps you understand the inner workings of our city, and you know, as somebody who loves Grand Rapids, I just think it's important, and I'm glad I did it.

So I'm glad I'm here.

Um I have mixed feelings about whether or not uh the people who are actually running for the position should get the appointment just because they have to campaign and they have to get their message out there and talk to people.

So I don't know, that's for you guys to decide.

But uh as I mentioned earlier, I just think with my with the experience that I have here in this area, you know, in the first ward my entire life.

Um I may not have the qualifications that some have, but I can I can outwork just about anybody.

I can work really, really hard to represent people.

So that's why I'm here.

Thank you so much for being a part of this process and stepping up to help your neighbors.

Uh, we deeply value it for you and all of our applicants.

We are now uh going to uh move into deliberation.

Uh and you will know today this afternoon uh your uh feedback on next steps for this for your application.

Thank you again.

Very good, thank you.

Take care.

Uh I would like to colleagues, if it's okay with you, take a would you all be open to a um maybe a five-minute bio break for just a moment.

Is that okay with uh colleagues, uh staff?

Is that okay?

Okay, seeing that the committee will now move into a five-minute recess.

The committee on appointments will return at a uh 1155 a.m.

for deliberation to move forward with the uh top three applicants.

Thank you.

And now we will begin deliberation on the next steps for all of our applicants.

I want to start by saying thank you to all of the uh all of the folks who applied to fill the first uh ward vacancy.

We deeply value and appreciate the time commitment.

It's a very public-facing process, uh, and we really appreciate the folks who stepped up to do this.

Um I will now uh turn to my colleagues to provide comments uh and and anything they'd like to share on this process um after uh deliberation and we've shared, we will then each raise um uh and seek support for uh the applicant that we would like to see move forward.

Colleagues, Commissioner Bell.

Okay, I guess I get to go first.

Well, um yes, thank you everyone.

Um to see such a wide breadth of candidates uh apply and go through the vetting process and then end up here this morning is really gratifying.

It gives me a lot of um energy and hope to see how many people are really dedicated and invested in our community, and particularly the uh folks who talk about our first ward neighbors and all of you are our first ward neighbors, so thank you.

Um as I've been thinking about this role and what is needed, I'm thinking about it in like three different layers.

I'm thinking about it in terms of what will serve the people of the ward first and foremost as a representative.

We do have an election coming up, so there is going to be opportunity for the people to weigh in formally in their own voice.

In the meantime, as the elected representatives up here and as someone representing the community, I'm I'm aware of what what do our people in the first ward need most?

What do our residents need?

Who can represent those voices?

And um, so that's one layer.

The second layer is as a colleague and a partner in the ward, which is the reason I have put, you know, added my voice to wanting an appointment process.

Uh there is a lot going on.

We have a lot of uh deep issues and real needs and some heavy decisions that need to be made.

And I think it's important to have someone who can not only support um myself as a colleague, but support the entire commission as a seven body uh person body.

So I'm thinking about that layer of how do we work as a colleague together, how do we move forward?

And again, uh the third layer being how do we work to make our priorities take real traction here as a seven-person body making decisions together.

So those are kind of the the layers that I've been thinking about.

And so I was I was listening not just for experience but also for heart.

I'm listening for um how we might fit together, work together, and what kind of conflict resolution and being able to step into what what becomes a very public role for many of our wonderful applicants.

That's relatively new, I think, to them.

And so, and uh I will let our full commission you know, weigh in on all the other nuances that we'll need to discuss down the road.

But as we go through the filtering process, that's kind of where I've been.

And um honestly, some of you are making a very hard choice.

Um, and at the same time, I feel like there have been a few that have kind of risen to the top here today for me personally.

So um I would be interested in moving forward.

Um Dan Cope, uh Kurt Repart and Lindsay Perez Pletcher.

Okay.

So you've shared your top three.

Uh are you formally at this time moving for one applicant?

Um if it's okay, I would like to hold off on that.

Yeah.

Okay, but sharing your top.

Thank you very much, Commissioner.

Commissioner Isasi, any comments?

Um, thank you.

Yeah, this is um my seventh year in commission, and while I don't um well, while I live in the second ward, I did live in the first ward for some time.

And so I think our job as commissioners is to represent our ward, but to really think about how our wards interact with each other.

Um, because people are moving and constantly sort of changing, and we heard some of those stories today.

Um, there's been no secret that I have said, you know, Kurt Rappart was my number one choice.

Um, that's probably fueled by the fact that I served with Kurt for those five years.

Um, and what you heard from him today is exactly the kind of person he is.

Um the fact that he has noted that he is not interested in running, you know, that was something that has been mentioned in the past.

Um that was not my intention.

Um, and so I think that to be able to have a process that's divine designed to have somebody who has a lot of knowledge, um, you know, would be really helpful because we'd have term limits here in our city.

So for me, I would say um, it was hard too.

I I would agree with you, Commissioner uh Belchak.

Um, everyone who put forth their names, thank you for doing that.

I've gone through appointment process and ran for office.

I think I tried to get appointed twice and ran for office three times before I was elected.

So I say that all the time because most people don't win on their first try.

Um, and I certainly didn't.

And this when I ran for city commission, I was like, okay, this is absolutely the last time I'm gonna try to do anything.

And I was definitely in the underdog when I ran.

Um, and it and it might not seem that way as I said up here, and and I'm the senior commissioner, but that that is often the case.

So um I really appreciated um everyone's comments.

For me, you know, probably more than three people stood out.

Um, uh, like I said, I mentioned uh Mr.

Repart.

Um I really like to hear from Mallory of her business and just like a business as a force for good.

Um, you know, Dan.

I'm like, oh wow, I should have taken one of your classes.

Um go Lakers, by the way.

And uh Lindsay, you know, I think one of the things I heard you say, I'm gonna remind myself of this is you know, anger is a secondary emotion.

And as somebody who um has spent a lifetime of like trying to not be angry, um, that really spoke a lot to me.

And so, you know, sometimes it is about the subject matter knowledge, but I have always said that I am not I'm not gonna be the person that knows the very specific details of most things.

I always say I'm somebody who knows a little bit about a lot of things, but the number one thing that I think you have to know is to have relationships with people.

I also think that means putting boundaries sometimes when people um hurt you, when people are rude to you, when people, you know, maybe don't want to talk about the issue and are one way in one place and one way in another.

I think that's okay.

Uh the best advice I've ever got was not everybody has to like you.

And I think sometimes as a woman and growing up, I have always wanted people to like me.

And I'm now in my 40s, I'm like, I'm over that.

Maybe it's because I'm term limited, but I really like you all stood out with saying things, you know.

Uh Steve and Paul, your work on you know, Friends of Valley Field, like what a great Grand Rapids story of people coming together to volunteer to work on things.

And others that maybe had maybe I I'm not mentioning it, you know, again, you still decided to step forward and put that on there.

So um, you know, for me it was it was hard to to get to that three because I felt like I had probably five.

Um, but I would say I I really overlap with where you're at, Commissioner.

Um for me, the motion that I would be making is is for Kurt Reppart.

Um, so just I guess I mean obviously one of us will make a motion, somebody else will, but that would be my number one choice if we're then gonna have three of us to have a motion.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Commissioners.

And uh I I want to stop start my deliberation and and conversation and comments have ended this by first thanking my colleagues.

The questions that this committee chose, the questions that we chose were uh crafted by us.

Uh the uh clerk's office and our city staff helped us lay the groundwork and communicated with every single person who went through this, vetted them multiple times.

That requires uh some partnership and and synergy with multiple offices within uh our city.

So I thank our city staff, our clerk in your office, uh, attorney's office, and all the folks who vet vetted our neighbors who want to step up and serve.

That is deeply important.

So thank you to our our staff and then to my colleagues of really sitting and saying what do how do we in just a few minutes because there were so many folks.

How do we really get to the root of what this work is?

And without a whole bunch of time to create what this, we really talked about this.

Commissioner Isassi directly talked about conflict, many ways of conflict uh are a part of this role, huge pillar of this work.

I talked about public service, public and civic uh service.

It's really the title of the job gets through to as well.

And then Commissioner Belchak talked about balance, judgment, the meeting the needs of the people.

This committee did a fantastic job in speaking directly to the root of what this role looks like.

So I want to thank you, colleagues, for your thoughtful engagement and contributions to this work.

Um I want to continue to uplift.

Uh I I've said in the beginning of this, as someone who went through this process.

Um I wasn't looking to benefit from the process.

I was just engaging in simply a very flawed process.

Although we are, in my opinion, the representatives of people were were elected, we're elected for a region of the city, although you do carry out the needs of every single person.

A proud South Sider, but I want the folks of the first ward to decide by the election box who they appoint.

But it's in our charter.

So we are as uh city representatives working with the tools that we have.

So I'm proud to do this work, although I do believe it's flawed, but flawed systems are as American as Apple Pie.

And it is our work to do the very best with what we can, not for your own personal benefit, but to show that your dedication to civic and public service.

So I think every single person uh who uh who applied, who took part of this very um important uh role and was public and wanted to step up to serve our community and their neighbors.

So now uh without seeing any further comments uh we can now move into uh uh recommending for folks to move into the final round, which will be three three out of the nine applicants that we interviewed today.

Commissioner Belchak, if you'd like to raise your first person to be moved forward, I would like to make a motion that uh Lindsay Perez Pletcher is moved forward to the final round.

Okay, I'll support that.

Moved and supported.

All those in favor?

Aye, aye.

Motion carries.

Commissioner Isasi.

Thank you.

Uh uh my motion is to uh move forward uh Kurt Rappart.

Okay, support.

Moved and supported.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Motion carries.

And lastly, uh colleagues, I move to move forward uh Miss Dan Cope.

Support.

Moved and supported.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Motion carries.

So we have uh we have uh Mr.

Kurt Repart as a finalist.

Uh Miss Uh Lindsay Perez Plescher and Miss Dan Cope.

Thank you again to every person that's been involved in this process, from staff to applicants and uh and our community members watching or that will engage with these folks.

Uh Mr.

Clerk, if you could walk us through next steps and what that would look like.

Sure.

Um with with these um with this recommendation, I'll um talk with the mayor and the city manager about Wednesday's um meeting, which will start at 10 o'clock following um Brownfield.

I think Brownfield meets that morning.

We yeah, sorry.

So Brownfield meets first.

That usually goes until 10.

Yeah.

Um so um so at the conclusion of that meeting, then um we'll start this at 10 o'clock.

Um I'll come I'll be sending out emails to the three finalists what the details are um as far as time frame and how many questions and that after I speak to the mayor and the rest of the rest of the commission to to see where we're where we're at with those with those questions.

So um plan on probably about 45 minutes for each, I would say is probably a good time for each.

Yeah, usually so um so you just plan on about a 45 minute time frame for each one.

But uh we'll we'll come up with more details um later as we go through, and that'll be on Wednesday the 22nd, starting at 10 a.m.

Yes, Commissioner Yusassi.

Thank you.

And then I'll also, I mean, so it would follow the same thing.

We'd have our interviews, we'd have time to deliberate, but we also do have additional time on Friday April 24th, I believe.

I thought we were hold or we're holding some time on our calendars.

Colleagues, do you have that time?

Let's see.

For some reason, I see you know, sort of what we did for Mr.

Strom.

No.

I don't think we held the okay.

Oh, I do see a hold.

There's there's a hold.

Oh, what need be, maybe.

Oh, I think that came from the executive office.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Well, but if we I think we're holding because we didn't know if we could have the 22nd or 24th.

Oh, god, okay.

Um the understanding is if someone is selected on the 22nd, we will move right to an oath of office right away when it happens because um city manager will be releasing his official plan on the 28th.

So it's gonna be a with three people.

Hopefully that would be a we should be able to do that.

If it is, we can we'll have everybody will have their calendars sitting here if we need a additional time to do that too.

So thank you.

I just saw that this morning.

Thanks for confirming.

And there will be a press release following.

So the public as well will know direct steps on next steps.

Well, thank you again to the public, all the applicants, all the staff, and everyone who's been involved in this process.

We look forward to uh continuing this process in the near future.

Have a great rest of your day.

The committee on appointments is adjourned at 1210 p.m.