Anyway, I think it's uh noon and therefore I'm gonna call this notice meeting to order and uh begin with introductions.

Michael Boylan, district six.

And of course, uh Kenamorus City Council District One.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Boylan, for uh accepting and attending uh this notice meeting.

Um I asked for the meeting for a couple of reasons.

Number one, this being your um your uh last year, I think, on on service.

Um, uh I want to acknowledge first of all uh the service that you've given to this city, and uh I'm just completing my first term and have found your work to be extremely uh commendable, uh always focus on the public public purpose uh best interests.

Um I probably don't have to tell you that, but I just wanted to acknowledge that while we're we're here.

Um I am interested in what would you like to accomplish as you um wind down your service here in City Hall.

Well, first, thank you, uh Councilman Amaron for that question.

Um, but before answering, uh what I really want to do first of all is to commend you and the other colleagues who put themselves forward.

Thank you.

Uh as you know, I've tried a couple times myself to get down the road.

Uh and I'm very much encouraged by the fact that we actually have a bona fide race this time.

That you know, candidates are putting themselves forward hosting these kind of meetings, so it's not a foregone conclusion on day one of the opportunity to make commitments.

Um yes, I I feel really good about what I've been able to do and my leadership style in terms of engaging council members, Article 21 and CQI last year with the GSO primary facilities and the work we do.

Uh my focus uh specifically going into the last year on my term is the civic engagement project I've undertaking for the Mandarin to come up with um when I say mandarin, I mean district six overall because it's a very broad district, uh, is to say how I can help uh bring that community together under one voice and one uh one you know one entity, much like San Marco Preservation uh and SPAR and RAM.

Uh those are neighborhood focused.

I'm looking to try something a little bit bigger because of the diversity of my uh community that we serve.

So I will uh that's where I'm gonna put my time and my energy.

Uh, certainly uh and I will look to support uh whatever priorities uh councilman howland assumes assumpted uh president, if you will, of the council.

So uh that's where it's at, and wherever I can be uh helpful in trying to bring this body back to more collegial level.

Uh one more focused on moving the city forward uh as compared to uh vying for whatever's next, either individually or collectively.

Before I continue, uh we've been joined by uh Councilman Pelusa, would you introduce yourself?

Thank you, Chair.

Uh Councilmember Pelusa, District 7, and uh it's gonna be a fly on the wall.

Happy to be here.

Um I'm curious, uh, especially in in committees, uh, you've expressed uh a commitment for or passion for uh public service grants.

So I'm um do you have any uh objectives uh obviously beyond uh making sure that the funding remains the same in this budget cycle.

Um any other thoughts uh well I think it's beyond PSGs.

Uh one of my main motivations for joining the council six, seven years ago and running eight years ago was the idea of trying to get some of my colleagues on the council to appreciate the value of the nonprofit sector as a whole.

A lot of folks look at it as a black hole and don't re appreciate.

I think I made the comment recently uh with respect to PSGs when Mr.

Diamond, I think it was Ms.

Diamond, mentioning that we shouldn't be doing these things.

I says, well, you better stock up the uh JSO budget all that much more because the city's gonna be absorbing a lot of costs and expenses associated with the uh care of our you know un underinsured and uh you know and others in our community as a result of that.

So the nonprofit sector is always one of the main catalysts for me for joining the council to begin with.

This particular year, my my focus has been on that.

I was not initially signed as a liaison for PSG.

That was the Mr.

Lane and he uh asked uh council president Kerako if he could be relieved from that, as he picked up some other responsibilities, and I gladly embraced the idea of doing it.

So merely my focus and and championing for PSG is in in line with my responsibility as it's liaison to the council.

You know, well, uh just uh my personal perspective, I I reflect on when Lincoln said government of the people by the people for the people uh NGOs have kind of fit in and and deliver to the people for the people.

So they do have a very uh fundamental role.

Um my what I hear from some of the participants are the complaints are mainly about the process of of you know application, reimbursement, things of that nature, and so uh somehow I I think there needs to be a little streamlining there to where they're probably more efficient, yet fulfilling that uh fiduciary responsibility and and making clear the public purpose, and that's what I'd like to see going forward.

Yeah, and I think you're gonna be seeing that.

If you see the work of the nonprofit center of late, they're looking at that.

You know, the gargantuan loss of funding at uh state level public sector, private sector funding for the nonprofits in our community is forcing them to become much more aligned in their work so that we don't see the kind of redundancy.

But we digress here on a separate topic.

Let me circle back and ask a couple of questions if you sure.

Well, number one, I thought of the four presentations we had that uh marathon on the introduction of the uh everyone on the first day of uh March, whatever it was, uh I thought your comments frankly were the most inspiring and most compelling.

Respect, and you could tell the forethought that went into it.

So uh obviously the vice presidential, as you said, I won't be on the council, assuming you become vice president and president thereafter.

Uh what do you see number one?

Uh and it's easy to say, I get it, uh, with respect to supporting the incoming president, and then and what are you going to be doing, assuming that you are the vice president in and setting the table for your year as uh leadership of the council.

Thank you for the question.

Uh I think you you jumped my question to you.

Uh I was gonna ask you uh what are your thoughts on on the leadership now, but I will I will answer your question and come back to that.

Um I honestly honestly believe that this body, this entity, is at the uh a critical intersection as to how it is seen within our community and and the gap of trust between our uh elected officials and our constituency, has just seemed to widen.