Okay.

Well, good morning everyone.

Welcome to the December 6th special meeting of City Council.

Time is now to attend.

Councilmember Magnus.

Here.

Councilmember Johnson.

Council Member Ruther.

Here.

Mayor Bronston.

Here.

Um.

So our session uh item today is our annual performance review.

Excuse me, there's a term.

Um that includes um evaluation, reappointment extension, separation conference, so um we will now open public comment.

And what I'll do is I will similar to public forum, I'll call each person's name and also call the name of the person following each person so they could be ready to go.

So, our first person, yeah.

Our first person is poor good board.

Who's who's gonna be after him?

Our next person will be uh Mariah.

Mariah.

Mariah, sorry.

Paul.

Yes, they are.

I mean it's totally your discretion.

I don't think it would take three minutes for cleaning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

You want me to send you to hearing?

Good morning.

Floor is yours.

My name's Mariah Gregoria, and I'm here to thank Matthew Chester for the service he has provided to this community, the service and leadership, and to remind us council what a gym you have in a public servant.

Um many of you probably know me as the person who comes and fights for bridge time with the pickleball players and um doing other things, but I've worked with the city on a number of projects, including protests against raises in the prices of renting this room, and also we had a five-year dispute with our next door neighbor, and the city helped us with these uh violations where Ocean Colony wouldn't touch it.

So we have worked closely with the city on many things.

Um I also want to just mention that I'm not just an ordinary person in a sense.

I do have a lot of experience in administration at high levels in public service.

I was director of planning and program development for all of Commonwealth of Massachusetts employment and training money, and there were many, many, many millions of dollars in those days.

I also managed the training program for the Boston Harbor Project, where we fulfilled a promise to the workers and our decrepit primary plant so that they could operate the new uh tertiary plant that was being built.

So I see Matthew as a very skilled public person because I've worked with many high-level public people who are you I don't know that you appreciate how the skills.

Two things I will also just mention.

Uh one at one point I became very unhappy with a public one one of the city employees, and I went to complain to Matthew, and I was a little surprised by how vociferously he defended the public employee, but I must say that the behavior I didn't like was corrected.

And I also want to point out another instance where Matthew accompanied Debbie to a meeting at Ocean Colony to meet with the public and to bring news that wasn't all joyful, you know.

And the people there, it was a good crowd, directed most of their questions to Matthew.

And he was um relaxed, eloquent, um, informative, plain spoken, and it was a productive meeting, and I think people walked away.

Not everybody was happy with the answers, but the answers are the answers.

You know, I think we need to also think about the fact that COVID hit this community harder than most, since we are so dependent upon the TOT, and the writs suffered enormously.

Hotels have not regained their position.

They have not regained their earning power, and the TOT remains low.

So that I think you know, you're facing a particularly challenging time right now, because I think it's even harder to manage.

I apologize, there's no audio book at time.

Okay.

So what I want to say is uh Matthew is a community resource, and we love him, and you need to protect him because we will be great.

Okay, thank you.

So our next speaker is Paul Gregoriev, followed by Harvey Vermont.

Okay.

Good morning, Paul.

Uh I just want to uh say a few words on our city manager's behalf.

Uh over the past 13 years, I've watched several city managers come and go.

This one has stayed and performed, in my opinion, excellently as our city manager.

He had the unfortunate luck to be hit by COVID, which basically took the financial underpinnings out from under our city, and he still performed in that scenario as senior staff were devastated.

We lost virtually every senior staff person and almost all the institutional memory from our staff.

Very few staff members now present, and council members understand the history of principal events and developments in our city.

Uh Matthew is a very valuable resource, uh, he should be kept on at all costs, in my opinion.

Uh and uh the previous speaker with whom I'm well acquainted, I think did a good job of uh providing examples for the past years of his tenure.

I'm not going to belabor those points, but want to advise you to please make the the correct decision in terms of retaining him.

Thank you very much.

Hello.

Um I'd like to appeal to those of you who are actually thinking of terminating Matthew, the appeal to your conscience that this would be a horrible thing.

And the reason is it would be horrible for both the community, staff, and the council.

It would be horrible for the community because as you can see, Matthew is beloved, and it's not for no reason, it's because he cares, he's an excellent city manager.

I've been through three of them, and I know.

You know, we we wouldn't get eight people to come out and make public comment on a cold Saturday morning if they weren't if Matthew wasn't beloved.

So I really think that that is important that we keep the community involvement with Matthew because he he deserves it.

Uh, in terms of the staff, uh there's been a lot of losses lately, and I'm guessing that morale is not up there, and I think if Matthew were to be terminated, I think it would really really uh create a crisis in morale with uh the staff, and we can't have that either.

And last uh I was here when we terminated Magda, and the council was unanimous in making sure that we would get a better manager.

My impression is that the council is not unanimous now on keeping Matthew.

I I have no no inside knowledge, I just am intuiting that.

And if the council were divided about whether to keep Matthew, I think that would really engender uh divisiveness that we shouldn't have in in this council.

Like we should all uh want the best, and I believe the best is Matthew.

So please, please keep him on.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is I should borrow, followed by Linda.

Hi.

Good morning, city council members.

Thank you.

So great seeing you all.

Um I was shocked when I heard that there was this agenda uh on here, to be honest.

Um, and I was at MIT of lights yesterday, and I just um mentioned to a few people that I knew that this agenda was on, and everybody was shocked.

Like, why would I why would there be a consideration of terminate terminating Matthew?

Matthew's a product of Hafoon Bay.

I always use him as an example of somebody that grew up in the Halfun Bay schools that did fantastic, that's been a role model for all of us that have kids in the school system.

He's been somebody that's been available to the community ever since he was assistant city manager, always there to answer everybody's question.

I serve on a board with Matthew, leadership council San Mateo County, and I see him and his insightful questions, his demeanor, how appropriate he is.

He's somebody who has accomplished tons in his short tenure as a city manager.

I think of the budget situation and how he's turned around.

I think of the Carter Park, and I understand that there has been some staff turnover.

I'm in a similar position as him as the leader of an organization that has had staff turnover in this situation.

It's very difficult, and it's not necessarily um because of the leader, it's a very competitive market.

Staff will say whatever.

Not always true, you know.

Uh, they have agendas, you know, but I do know Matthew to be a genuinely good, force right, caring city manager, and I can guarantee you you will not find better.

And I can guarantee you there'll be backlash from the community if you do terminate it.

Um but each a few that is an elected.

So please make the right decision.

Thank you.

I'm gonna take a moment and once again repeat that the topic of this uh special session procession is an annual performance evaluation of our city manager.

There's nothing here in the subject.

Good morning.

Good morning, people.

Thank you so much.

I'm listening to you.

I just want to um share my utmost confidence in Matthew.

I wanna explain.

I there's really no words, it's almost emotional to think about how Matthew has been beside our Latino community, and I do believe I'm speaking for the Latino community because so many were wanted to be here.

But Matthew's been there for us through thick and thin.

When you need us at Ano at Lostro, I Matthew was there for us.

Matthew was there for us when we had like so many things that we needed to do and move for this community.

He sat and listened to us.

Like, how are we going to move forward with this conflict with you know what happened with Anina?

It was such a painful point.

Matthew really helped to bridge our community, law enforcement, and the greater community to come together in a way that helped to mend and heal and grow out of tragedy.

But Matthew's also been there for us through the shooting, through COVID, through the wildfires, through crisis.

And time and time again, Matthew's been sailing our community with strong leadership and care.

And I know he navigates so many different perspectives of our community, but for many years the Latino community felt very isolated.

And thanks to all of you for listening and caring.

You brought in Matthew that really has heard with care and patience and time to listen and take action and make change that's equitable across our coastside.

There's not always solutions for everything that we need, as you know, but the fact that someone will care and make you feel like we are one community, that is Matthew.

And so I feel to close that.

Our community has been through so much tragedy, been through so much loss, and it's been through so much trauma.

But I know today is to honor Matthew, to recognize the good work, but I do want to say that to lose Matthew would be a huge trauma and loss to our community because we've been through a lot, and he's been the glue and the positive voice to keep us going in moments of darkness that we didn't know how we were gonna rise up.

He's represented the city as a staff of courage, of trust, and of care, frankly, and and professionalism and responsibility.

And so I think he's very ethical professional, and I can't think of a better person to steer our city forward during such a critical time.

And especially what we're going through in this country around the um around the United States.

I feel that here in Happen Bay, we have a strong sale with the city and with all of you.

So I want to say thank you so much and please continue to do the good work and um we continue to really thank you, Matthew, for everything you've done.

Thank you, so it's super good.

Sorry for the delay giving in a though.

Didn't hear who the next one was going to be announced in one year.

No problem, but it's a pleasure to be here with you, and I think it's a good opportunity all of you.

So I'm here uh also to personally lend my support for uh a positive performance evaluation and continuation of the employment of Matthew Chichester, city manager.

I'm fairly new to this community.

I've been here for 10 years and is coming in as a novice from a big city to a small coastside community with a strong sense of its um importance as a as a coast side and its autonomy as a coast side.

I've needed a lot of direction about where do I go for this or that or the other?

And what I have found is that I could ask questions of Matthew and get a straightforward answer if there was a straightforward answer or a referral to where I should go next, um, and always without hesitation.

And is years progressed in in encountering him in a variety of different settings, and much of what I have done is in the social justice kind of realm.

I found him straightforward and objective and clear cut and always professional.

And those are um attributes I really really admire.

I'm a retired health professional after nearly 50 years.

So during that time of providing service to members of the community health care, to members of the community, I had a lot of opportunity to meet people who were hired as public servants, and some of whom did not perform as servants of the public.

That he sees the community as a whole, the coastside community, that he knows the coast side community, and that he cares about the coastside community.

And caring goes a long way, it doesn't go the whole way because you also have deaf knowledge and expertise and ability to lead, but he has those attributes as well.

So I think that's telling me my time is gone.

And so you know what?

I will wrap it up by just reaffirming um my strong support and appreciation for the work he has done and hope that this is something that uh the city council will continue.

Thank you very much.

I wasn't talking about that.

No, the same exact alarm.

You know what?

It was probably called too.

But it was probably time, so very timely.

Thank you.

Good morning, friends and neighbors.

Um I have had the pleasure listening to the comments on a little screen out there, and we could hear most of them.

Um, I would uh say yay to all of what I've heard.

As a person who chose this community for this chapter of my life, chose this community.

I'm pretty invested here.

Um I was retired and I went around and said hi, my name's Joyce.

What can I do?

And you did everything in your everywhere all the time.

But I don't, but what I do, I enjoy being involved in.

Um, so all good.

Um I'm just gonna give a bunch of adjectives that without stories behind them because I think the stories are known.

Um Matthew was um pointed to um selected for assistant city manager, I did a thumbs up when the change was made and Matthew was made city manager.

I have two thumbs up.

So here's my list of adjectives that all have things behind them responsive, appropriate, respectful, timely, knowledgeable, energetic, involved and engaged.

I think maybe that is the big one involved and engaged.

These all are quantities that are desired in our leaders.

Um that comes from growing with the community, getting an education, getting experience, and bringing all of those things to us.

And during that time, there's been institutional and community knowledge absorbed into this person.

And to me, that is one of our most valuable assets going forward, those who have institutional knowledge and can look at perspectives.

Did I make it under the three minutes?

You could have gone longer.

In person speaker, sorry, RGMs.

Good morning, good morning, Mr.

Mayor, Spice Mayor, City Council, Matthew.

Thanks for this opportunity.

And um, you know, I I have a million things I want to say from the heart about Matthew and how he holds this community, and there's a job description of what we require of him, but the way he connects to the community, I think speaks volumes of who he is as a person and what we need as a community.

Um there aren't very many events or I don't know if there's been any events where I've been where Matthew hasn't found time to be front and center and present, not looking at the clock, not in fact a lot of times part of his family is there as well.

So this this lives in him and in his family.

Um just thank you, Matthew, for everything you've done and how you helped make us all feel at home here.

Um, I think a very important piece in our community is diversity, and how do we reach out across culturally to ensure everyone is included?

And it's not just the way Matthew is with people, it's that knowing him and his family, he lives diversity, he knows it from the inside out, and that I don't think you know you don't find the run of the mill candidate that we look for, and so it shines deep, and it's important to me, and important knowing my son growing up in a community that um that's valued, um you know, as someone that I've talked to fairly recently, said you know, think of the positives, bring the positives into the room, right?

Like what are the things that that really help make us shine?

But the last piece I want to say is, you know, a lot of rumors, and I think what I want to remind us all is that we all have a part of asking the right questions to ensure that things are running smoothly, and I think it falls on Matthew's shoulders, but it's sort of like I have a six-year-old who's learning to read right now, and I want to point to the teachers and say it's your job, but I realize that it's all of our jobs, that it's a part of who we are, right?

I just set up a Nintendo form, and he had to read the screen before we could go to the next level, right?

Like I had to be a part of that, and I think that we've got Parks and Rex, we've got our planning commission, we've got you as a city council.

Like, what are the questions as a community?

Are we asking to support our community to support Matthew and vice versa, and that we're all engaged in this?

So the sense of how do we rise up as a team as a community and work together.

So, and all of the city workers that I've been in contact with have indicated, intimated that it's this energy that keeps them together and excited about being here.

And that's a tough thing to keep keep our employees in.

So appreciate your taking time on your Saturday.

Thank you for a few minutes, counting on you all.

Looking forward to a positive vote.

Thank you again, Matthew.

Really appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Now who's our person speakers?

I see there's people online, but I don't know.

Those are just mostly the people.

Is there anyone who's online out here in person who wants to speak, please raise your hand.

And if those are yes.

Yes.

Okay, so if I see one person, Emily Lines, if you can unmute yourself.

Can you hear me?

You can.

Okay.

I'm sorry I can't be there in person, but uh I just wanted to express appreciation for what Michael uh seems to have done through his leadership.

I was a recent participant in the uh this net program, the community training program, and uh he was just uh wonderfully engaging and the whole presentation was very very um helpful.

And since then I have had several occasions to go to City Hall for various uh needs, and again was pleased with the responsiveness I got uh from staff itself, which to me reflects on the quality of the leadership they're getting from the city manager.

I've been a resident here for 40 years, and um I'm pleased with the way things are going and just want to express my appreciation and support for the kind of leadership he seems to be providing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Emily.

This will be a last call here.

Um, we're gonna go into closed session in a moment.

So is there anyone else who wanted to speak who is online remotely?

Please raise your hand now.

Okay, um, there's no one else.

So we will now end the public portion of our closed session meeting.

So public comments is now closed.

Thank you.