Welcome to the meeting of the City of New Rochelle's participatory budgeting steering committee on June 30th, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Taking place in the City Council Conference Room at New Rochelle City Hall.

The meeting of the City of New Rochelle's participatory budgeting steering committee is now called to order.

Will the deputy city manager please call the role?

Absolutely.

Alika Ampries Samuel.

Present.

So Anthony Bibo, um, who's the next on the list has actually resigned.

Um his job called him back into service.

So council member Al Tarantino was the one who selected him, so he has been advised and he will be going through the applications to pick somebody new for hopefully next month when or yes for next month.

So thank you.

Okay.

Um Ava Charles.

No.

Giselle Reyes.

No.

Janna Gullery?

Present.

Lauren Hurwitz?

Present.

Victor Bowman Jr.

Present.

Matt Stern?

Present.

Gino Frabasile?

Present.

And Makita Lewis.

Present.

Also in attendance tonight are the following individuals.

Myself, Todd Castaldo, Deputy City Manager, and John Jones, our director of communications is in the audience.

Thank you.

And welcome to the folks that were in here at the last meeting.

And good to see you, Gino.

We talked a lot about me.

First on the agenda is the approval of minutes from the June 2nd meeting of the PBSC.

Is there a motion to approve?

That motion.

Is there a second?

All in favor?

Aye.

Everyone.

Sure.

Hi.

Excellent.

The minutes of the June 2nd meeting are approved unanimously.

Second on the agenda is a discussion item reviewing the revisions of the participatory budgeting rule book that we discussed during the June 2nd meeting.

And our city deputy manager will go over.

Yes.

So last month, actually, I guess it's still this month.

We met twice in one month.

We went through the rule book.

If you remember, we had taken a template from the city of Boston and also from the city of Raleigh Durham and kind of mesh them.

Predominantly more of Boston, just because it was a it was a much more robust addition.

So we went through that and in your packet under item two, starting on packet page number six, is that rule book.

And what I did was I I basically went through my version of it and I redlined everything.

So we can see exactly what we talked about and the changes that we made from one to the other.

So I my suggestion is that we just kind of work our way through to make sure that I captured everything that the committee asked for, and then we can move forward from there.

And if there's any additional changes we want to make, we'll notate them down.

And when we get to item five on the agenda for hopefully adopting the rule book, we can read those into the record as a part of the adopted version.

So if we were to look through, I believe the first page that there are changes are on packet page 15 under the rules and responsibilities.

So we had no no changes under the city council section.

Under the steering committee section, we put um at the very bottom there, refinement of proposals will be completed in concert with city staff, and then under city staff, we kind of reverse that.

So refinement of proposal will be completed in concert with the steering committee.

Because we're gonna have to work together to get to a finalized project.

So was there anything else on this page that um I am missing or that would you guys remember from your notes?

I did re-watch the meeting twice.

I'm pretty sure I got everything.

Thank you for that.

And if we're all good, I'll just we'll move to the next uh section.

So page packet page 17 is I section 7, which is the idea collection requirements.

So we had a pretty robust conversation on this.

There are some tweaks or cleanups in here that I have put in for clarity and also kind of knowing how our system works.

So basically starts out with individuals eligible eligible to submit participatory budgeting project ideas shall include residents of the city of Neurochale who are at least 14 years of age and full-time employees of NeuroShell High School.

So those are kind of the two areas that can submit.

I just added for US citizenship to so that some we didn't get any people saying, well, proof of Neurochell citizenship.

Like I just wanted to make sure that it was clear.

What type of information will be required for residents to submit ideas?

So we talked about adding a question of are you a current resident of Neurochell and at least 14 years of age?

So that's a yes or no question.

This will be what's on our website.

Yes or no.

If yes, move on to question C.

If no, move on to question B.

Question B then is if you're a full-time employee of NeuroShall High School.

And again, if yes, move on to question C.

If your answer to both A and B are no, you are not eligible to submit an idea.

So just kind of leading them to leading the submitter to the answer, is what we're trying to do there.

Obviously, they'll submit their name, they'll submit their home zip code.

Their email address is optional, their phone number is optional, their age.

Obviously, we need that for the whether they're 14 or above.

We put in race as optional, we put in ethnicity as optional.

And then there was a question that one that we somebody wanted to be added, are you open to being contacted by the city of Neurochell or the steering committee regarding your idea?

So that is in there.

And then we talked about lower, how should project ideas be described, and there was a question about project location within required limits, and we just wanted to put to include as much detail as possible.

So that's in there as well.

Sorry to stop us.

I was gonna explain that.

So because this year is a pilot year where you know we're trying to make a relatively limited budget of 200,000 go as far as possible.

We were thinking like where in the city would have the biggest impact, like you know, where do most people probably feel like they have a connection to?

We figured the high school is that that place, and there's a lot of city property surrounding the high school.

So because we're focusing it around the high school, we we want to make sure that we have as much involvement from high school, you know, uh students and staff.

So that's why we included that.

Okay.

So that's certainly something that is probably a pilot year thing that we imagine you know, assuming that this program grows and expands beyond just the high school, we would probably modify that in future years.

Okay, thank you.

Um and then on the next page, we had talked about is the original question was is this project on public property?

And we realized that probably wasn't the best question, so we're just we're striking that, we're taking that one out.

So that's everything on section seven of the rule book.

Um if everyone's okay to move on, I'll go to section eight, which looks like there is a minor change.

Um packet page 19.

We had talked about programmatic projects and adding end events, um, so that we are very clear that this is this will not fund events.

That the program is only for capital improvements, right?

So adding trees or adding a playground or new playground or whatever it may be, that's what we're gonna fund, but we're not gonna fund a concert at on the property around NeuroShell High School or some kind of an event.

So okay.

Uh page next page, section nine, nothing, section 10, just outlines the timeline, which has kind of been the public timeline for since January when we first presented the council.

Section 11, um, nothing on that first page, but on packet page 23.

Um I made a it originally it said eligible residents.

Um I put eligible voters to be a little bit more uh clear.

Um, and then we had talked about a designated tweet took out public location, public, the word public, and have locations throughout the city of Nourish.

And I think the reason we did this was because this is for the voting portion where you know, if a community organization wants to say, you know, we can host a voting location if people want to set up a table here.

Um, you know, we want to have that flexibility so that we can really meet people where they are.

So it's actually in front of a grocery store or a religious institution or you know, any kind of private organization where we think people will show up and you know they can vote.

We want to encourage them.

Um so on going to section 12.

So when I was going through this and listening to the meeting, I realized that we were there was a little bit of overlap between the idea section and the voting section, so I wanted to make it very clear that second section six was the idea piece, and then this section is the voting piece.

Um so the following voting rules shall apply.

Um, and then it's eligible voters shall include again the residents of City and Rochelle who are at least 14 years of age and full-time employees of commercial high school.

So same criteria, but just making sure that it's very clear that it's you need that for both.

Umigible voters may vote once per cycle.

Um voting shall occur online and in person.

So can I so we definitely decided that there will be online voting?

Well, I think that's probably gonna be our prior, okay, our predominant way through the a portal like what Matt showed at last week, last month's this month's presentation, whatever it was, um, through like the Stanford budgeting process.

Um yeah, I remember looking at it for idea collection, but I I can't remember it for actual voting.

So yeah, that works.

Thank you.

Um voters may select up to three projects on the ballot.

Um projects receiving the highest number of votes shall be funded in descending order until allocated funds are exhausted.

And then we didn't have anything here how we would address ties.

So I put this paragraph in, um, kind of found it online, and just to try and at least we address it and hope I'm highly doubtful we'll ever come to that place, but at least we have a mechanism to to address it.

Um, I think it basically um in the event that two or more projects received the same number of votes, and insufficient funds remain to implement all TIE projects.

The city shall first determine whether all TIE projects can be funded within the available budget.

If not, preference shall be given to the project with the lower estimated cost.

If the tie projects have the same estimated cost, the tie shall be resolved by a random drawing conducted by public league, conducted publicly by the PB's SC.

So next thing the instead of the city, it's the steering committee may establish residency verification procedures, age, ballot limits, so on and so forth.

Section 13 had nothing, which was transparency and accountability.

Section 14 was communications and outreach, which had no changes.

15 had no changes, section 16 data collection and evaluation.

We added um age demographics and racial and ethnicity demographics.

Obviously, those would be option, those are optional for submission, but we did want to have that as a data.

And I believe that would hold changes.

Did I miss anything?

No, but thank you for the time and energy that you put into this stuff.

That was what's a great start.

And we know that this document is the capable.

Yes.

And this has to be, you know, running.

Right.

And so thank you.

I think when we go through when, you know, as we get to item five, um, it's a very plain it's a very plain looking document right now, um, just created in Word.

Probably gonna ask our communications team to jazz it up a little bit.

The content will remain exactly the same, um, but the appearance just might be a little more uh user-friendly and visually appealing, I'll say.

So John and his team are excellent at that process.

You've been doing a great job.

Yes, far.

So okay, so moving on.

Next on the agenda is another discussion item regarding the future community engagement opportunities.

Right.

So I thought putting this on the agenda, um, you know, you have everyone one just to I know we've there's been some participation from um you know Lika was out during our first summer sizzle concert.

Um we've had some other participation, so Matt's got the cards right here.

But just you know, wanted to open the floor and see what you know you know, we the city will continue to do what we can to promote the program.

The video just went live, I think yesterday, which is awesome.

I know we've there's been some participation from you know Lika was out during our first summer sizzle concert we've had some other participation so Matt's got the cards right here but just you know wanted to open the floor and see what you know you know we the city will continue to do what we can to promote the program the video just went live I think yesterday which is awesome um but we'll need you know the committee as to help as well um to get really spread the word on the street about the program so just wanted to open the floor and see if anyone had any comments or did these get mailed out to people in the snail mail so these these particular cards did not but within the mailer that you probably just got within the last week or so from the city which is like our spring summer newsletter there is a section in there that refers to PB and also I don't think was there a QR code John no QR code but there was the URL to the URL so it's neuroshell ny.gov slash PB and it would take you basically to exactly where this QR code would take you and then for uh individuals who receive the newer shell review you'll see that uh an advertisement in there as well uh for the month of July there'll be a small ad with a QR code in it as well basically the same kind of imagery as from the postcard so and then the summer sizzle concert series um there's a kind of ongoing um you know display of ads and things and this is on there as well um and our social media our outdoor kiosks our screens within city hall um and our TV it's supposed to be on as well so it cycles through on there um from a school the weekly newsletter weekly e-newsletter speaks to it every week um and that's something you residents can sign up for and it comes every Friday Friday afternoon usually um schools for the so for the school district what we did was we provided I want to say close to probably 3,000 cards 2500 to 3,000 cards to uh the superintendent's office and we asked that they be spread through neuroshell high school and also given out to eighth graders at Albert Leonard and Isaac Young with the thought that these are the kids that'll be coming to the high school next year.

So you know let's get them to submit some ideas hopefully they are 14 but let's get them to submit some ideas so that you know they're gonna they're gonna have that campus for the next four years so we wanted to make sure we included the next group of high schoolers as well so and we've asked uh Monica who's a communication person for the district to also help push it out through the parent portal and you know all that kind of stuff so we're we're using we're trying to use every tool in the toolbox here to get the word out but um word of mouth is probably going to be really important as well.

Yeah I think this is the sort of thing where people reading it might think oh that's a great program and then never actually go to the website and so I found that like a lot of things you it really ultimately comes down to asking people to do it.

Like can you please fill this out like it's a bigger idea here's how you can do it and kind of working with them to do that.

And so like as an example when I went to Ghost Fest um and we're just like walking through and it's like very kind of you know hand to hand kind of talk to people one on one explain it to them and ask them to go fill it out.

And even then I mean like the next section we have 18 ideas.

And then how do you need a vote?

So that will require similar outreach probably even more and so like I think it will ultimately involve us going out to organizations and asking people to do it both in group settings and one-on-one and I I think we're like between now and the fall when there is that vote I think the most important thing we can be doing is one showing up as many of us as possible going to as many events as possible to get the word out but then also building like organizations capacity to help and to feel empowered to submit ideas and to get their their own people to come out and vote.

And so I think that's like the main work before us now.

I was just at a district four council meeting uh you know that uh council motion way had hosted at Webster Avenue at Webster Elementary um to talk to people about it um I've been at a few events I'll be at the summer uh concerts on Wednesday nights and Saturday nights but I would love help from committee members um to do the same and then other ideas about where we should be um the summer is in some ways is not a great time because people go away but at the same time it's a people are here um and often have a little bit more time on their head so um any ways that we can get people to do this.

A bigger version of this, that would work too.

We also we still have administrative correct funding that we can use.

So like if it was to go to an ice cream shop and newer shell using some of our budget that we have for this as like the first hundred people to come and submit an idea, get an ice cream cone.

Like I love that.

Yeah.

Do that, you could do the pizza shop, you could do that.

I mean, I mean thinking about how hot it is right now, ice cream is probably the best way to do it.

Um but yeah, I mean, we have I think we have $20,000 for administrative costs, which include promotion of the program.

We've only spent about $500 at this point, or maybe $100, but um like some of the new businesses that people are gonna be checking out.

Um I don't know if the whole C B DHC stuff is where you guys want to be.

Um I'm just trying to think of like what's new where we're at least where we live because that's our most familiar know this the tennis place.

I'm sure there's other new businesses throughout town that would love to have a reason to partner with us um to get feeding the door.

Yeah, you could probably reach out to the chamber of commerce and see what they were doing.

We started those conversations with with Catherine and with the bid, um, which is downtown, just to try and see how we can get the this information out there.

Um, postcards are always an easy way to kind of get them on their counter and hopefully people take them.

Um posters we've done before, you know, for promoting other events.

Um, you know what's interesting?

So I I'm I've never met most people in this room.

I'm Lauren Hertz, I'm a realtor, and one of the tools that I use when I'm selling a house is something called text, it's new, it's like text your home or tax me home, and I've gotten really good feedback.

Like you can basically pay to have this text message sent out to a certain zip code or like I send it out to X amount of miles within my house.

Anyways, um, and you can text and then have it go to the video.

So I've been told by the guy who runs it that like my open rate was like 11%.

He's like, that's amazing.

I'm like, really?

11% is amazing, but apparently, like there you can see like people actually engaged with these videos.

So um I'm happy to make an introduction.

Obviously, this is not a home, but he can utilize the same technology, and like a lot of people in the neighborhood were like, oh, I got your tax.

Um and and then you can see how many people are opening it.

Because I think like you said, it's about like people look at this and be like, oh, that's awesome, and then not do something.

But if it's on their phone, they might be like, oh, okay.

So that a texting campaign might be it was not expensive.

You've been sending a video.

Well, I sent it to let like he did like check like if you want to sell your house, check out like check out my open house.

And it's like the video on my in the links to my Instagram.

So it could link to your Instagram thing that you posted.

Um I want to say I reached like six thousand people for like five hundred dollars.

Yeah, we can look into it and see if that's a method.

Well, it's called Text Me Homes, but his background is in like other issues.

Now he's doing real, but he's a local guy, he's in um Larchemont, and so if we have money to put again something like that, it would send it out to 10801 or 10804, and that's all 10805 or something, that might be an interesting to kick some money at that, see if it even helps because everybody's walking around with all for the most part.

I wonder if what's with the and you guys remember mentioned this already.

But with uh all the new development um downtown the apartment buildings, a lot of them have their screens in the front.

Correct, yeah.

Um, maybe you guys have already done that, but that's something I just thought of as you're talking about.

Or like a bus stop.

Yeah, that's too like those.

Inside the apartments, buildings, um yeah, any of those places I think would work.

I'm trying to think where are people waiting around doing nothing like maybe the train station, like where are people just waiting?

Um I don't know what's at our beaches, but if there is maybe something at our beaches, so it's outside.

So with that, um my son and I we've been going out, we ran out of cards and need to pick up more.

Um but we've been going out and it just feels messing that it feels a little weird.

Just hand the card.

Um and so at one point we were standing to stationary um and handing out cards and and thought it would be great to just have one of those banners, like the pull-up banners.

And I felt that same way when I went to Pride.

It was okay to sit with other um city organizations, but it would have been great to have ask me anything about participatory budget and then be able to roll it down, put it in the bag, and to even hand it off to someone I'm going to this next location.

Okay, let's meet down the block and I'll hand it off to you, and we have like some type of group chat to be able to pick it up to get them to the local park.

And those are pretty inexpensive.

Those are pretty expensive, even if you happen to have one of these done, but the problems are inexpensive.

Yeah and in the visibility I can tell it would have made a difference because even with the costs when we did the concerts walking around it was great to meet people and sit down and talk to them about um the the process and everything and encouraging them to um do the QR code now like let me see if it works.

We were doing that but it just felt like if we just had more like visibility.

Yeah.

Yeah I mean we can I'm open to that's the point that was the point of this discussion item whatever you know the roll up that pull-up banners are great we have we have those um that we could probably re repurpose for something like this which is makes it even easier.

We do have a couple events coming up that would be like worth looking at um we have our summer of soccer um community tournament which is going to be on Friday July 10th I believe it is and that's going to be at Flower City Park so it's 12 teams one of them being a city team one of them being a school school district team and then I believe a boys and girls club team and then the rest are community teams so it's it's a co-ed and you know so that could be an you know it could draw up we're gonna have then believe there's gonna be a beer garden there and a DJ so we're trying to make it an event for people to go to and really have fun at while watching the different games that are going on.

And then on July 19th which is the finale for the World Cup um we will be at Ruby D park.

Oh wow um kind of like what we did for the Knicks uh the Knicks game we'll have a watch party for that final game um we're gonna be closing down Lawton Street as well and have like local vendors there you know with food so I think it's a perfect opportunity there's probably gonna be a lot of people there and depending on who is in the finals could be even more people.

Right.

So you know I think that that could be a really good opportunity to have a table there and really capture a lot of a lot of people at that point.

So we are talking about having a table so I know that you sent out a list maybe about two or three weeks ago with all of the events that some of us did respond.

So now when we do go out so we'll have a table and a possible pop-up and then along with the with the cards as well.

Yeah I'm gonna I need to go through and just like it we have a little bit of a like our so yeah no for sure we we can give you again we'll have to get the pull-up banner okay made um so I gotta locate where our old ones are and see if we can repurpose that or if we just buy a new one um you know we we like to have everything in English and Spanish so maybe it's two of them that's fine.

But I think yes we would like to give you guys an arsenal to go out there with as as much as I can physically do my you know and get some other staff hopefully to help out here.

But yeah that's what we're we're definitely looking at.

So that's the question which my husband asked me as he walked in to say where is this money coming from where is the 200 from people ask us oh where's that money come from where is that so that the 2000 dollars is from the city's operating budget so it's just funded through tax base.

Okay.

And all of our other revenue sources um the 2000 I believe was a hundred uh a hundred with community benefit or open space fee and a hundred with bond with a bond that we would forward so part of it's coming from downtown development uh core fees like yeah so the community benefit bonus is a development fee um for building higher density on a site um open space fee is a requirement that every developer has to pay 263 per unit um that goes into a fund that can go towards parks and open space like four acres the some of the work that's happening there is going being funded by that um and then can fair share mitigation is not being used here but that is another development fee as well so um you know try to revenue source it the best way that we could so to more um ideas what have we shared this with the PTAs yet um not across at all schools okay yeah I'm there to be all the elementary such at targeting middle high school we can we share with them um I so I've spoken with the uh the head of the PTA Leah um she she's on board but um I haven't actually it's it's been a while so I can see circle back.

Okay.

And my other thought was um if you need extra hands um maybe we can ask if there are students that need summer internships um you know through the city uh that don't have much to do this summer and can get a small slide and help buy hand stuff out at events or yeah sure that was gonna be my question did what we able to follow up with that with the SYEP I mean the some make you some are using employment program um to be honest I have not been able to but I will talk with Kelly tomorrow and see how we can make that a part of a part of this um especially for the the um participants who are kind of working direct before the city yeah right for the there's people that are gonna work kids that are gonna work for DPW and they're gonna work within this building there's parks employees there's you know a lot of different avenues that we can we can try and buy can follow up with Kelly Johnson tomorrow um and just see what kind of availability we would have to do that.

Um especially for the um participants who are kind of working directly for the city.

Yeah.

Right.

The there's people that are gonna work, kids that are gonna work for DPW and they're gonna work within this building, there's parks employees, there's you know, a lot of different avenues that we can we can try and buy can follow up with Kelly Johnson tomorrow um and just see what kind of availability we would have to do that.

But I think that's great.

I mean, even if we can have kids walk around and you know, if we get posters or we get more cards and kind of go out and hand out cards and um would really be helpful.

And then their ideas, right?

Because we have our own ideas.

So what we actually did was when they were doing the orientation for summer youth, we made them I had the staff give these cards out to every kid that was being hired at their orientation with the hope that they would do the QR code, you know, they all had to be over 14 with working papers, so uh or 14 or over, so we were hoping that they would participate as well.

So I meant their ideas around how we can do engagement.

Yeah, like the ideas, yeah, but then also ideas.

No, for sure.

Um, bringing it, you know.

Unfortunately, we are I know TikTok is really popular now, but we uh we're not allowed to use TikTok, so um not one of our not in our arsenal right now.

So can I ask, uh or maybe John, you actually know, is there a plan?

Like I I think the cards are wonderful, they're beautiful and very helpful.

But I know like we do cards at my job, and it's like thanks, you know.

So um, is there a plan to keep I love the video on Instagram?

Is there any plans to kind of like keep a little bit of content going while idea submission is open just so it stays relevant and reaches more people on social media channels?

So I'm definitely gonna take the lead a little bit from the team here and just sort of understanding at some points as we're identifying some of the submissions, maybe sharing some of the ideas in the same way that Council Member Stern shared some of the ideas that he was met with informally.

Maybe that's a good way to just sort of bump up here's some of the ideas we've gotten in.

We'd love to get more.

It's an easy low-lift way to kind of again just re-engage the population.

Also just adding updates to the PV website, I think will be another resource that we'll be able to use, just kind of keep people following along the process.

I love that.

Would um I wonder how this would work, but I think young people respond best to young people.

Like there's gotta be a few of them who have submitted ideas who'd be willing to make a 15-second video about their idea.

Yeah.

Sorry, that are we not young people?

Yeah, they also all want to be stars, so maybe they can submit a video submission and then we can do like a montage.

Yeah, like especially if they've said that they're comfortable being contacted.

I don't know if we've received more submissions since our last meeting where we added that, but um, if they say that they're willing, I mean that's what a great way for them to promote their idea, but also be you know social media famous for a minute.

Totally.

So we I will say that the we didn't change the online form we do until we're we were gonna change it's gonna change tomorrow.

If you guys adopt the rule book today, the online form will then change tomorrow with the way we've talked about it until we adopted it.

I wanted to leave it the same.

Um so we can we'll work on that tomorrow to get that updated with the new requirements and the new, or not the requirements, but the new questions and so on and so forth.

And then hopefully, yeah, if we can pull out from there somebody or a couple, you know, younger people that are willing to um participate in a video that we can, you know.

Like you would just say maybe our own member.

Yeah, we have a youth member on the right, right?

Um I believe so.

I believe she's going to summer camp.

Which is why she's not here.

As she should.

What about okay?

I'm not like an expert with social media at all, but like, is there a way to put a call out there like on social media and be like submit it with this hashtag, and then we can like get those and re-post the ones that we want as opposed to have like I feel like it's a heavy lift to ask the young people, okay?

Fill out this every like go to the website, fill out this form, then make it that we might like it, then we might content you.

What about just like hey, spam us with your best ideas?

Hashtag NR, whatever, like movies on your own.

Yeah, no, I just actually put a note down, uh hashtag um PDNR could be a hashtag that would basically be short enough to remember and could potentially catalyze some responses on social media and allow us to monitor the activity under that hashtag.

Assuming that there's nothing else with you know PDNR that's out there trending, and then we can sort of repost there.

Do we are a lot of are a lot of young people following your shell on social media?

So on our social media accounts, it's kind of hard to tell the ages.

I think the Facebook is an old a little bit of an old become a little bit of an older crowd I guess.

Instagram would probably be the younger trending audience and there are young people on there unfortunately because of the ownership implications we can't do um TikTok at the moment but I feel like a lot of the events that we've had and a lot of the videos they've gotten the most response have been through our Instagram presence.

Yeah I mean I I think if you have a couple of great young people that you already know that are doing their internships here they're doing summer employment um that are willing to make a video like just giving them a camera and letting them submit your ideas is what we're like just very informal that's I mean I work at a college and I feel like this is what works for us in terms of engagement is just letting them have free reign as long as they know the parameters and um you can even do like they could do a live if they want like whatever you're comfortable with from a social media perspective but if we have the followers there and our experience that's how we get more um engagement than like sending emails and stuff like or like handing out flyers usually our students throw out the flyers.

That's not everyone but you know I feel like social is a really key tool that we already have.

I really like the idea of like linking now with our summer youth they'll be starting next week I believe so you know capitalizing on some of those locations you know getting maybe a list of you know maybe the youth bureau can can put a messaging out there to the participants of who would be interested in this you know some people like the camera so they might you know and we can we can utilize that as you know the here's a summer youth employee employer or employee and you know this is what they're thinking about PB.

So you know it's kind of already in house in a sense.

Yeah.

Isn't there a way to make it like a contest too like the the employ the student employee who gets the most people to submit and like tag their name gets a I don't know what it's a free t-shirt I don't know but like then they might be more in um incentivized to like spread it to their friends so it's not like a one hit wonder.

Like maybe it's like you get I don't know a stone with your name on it at the high school or something.

Oh that was a good one just now that was quick too.

So the last thing I I when I was when I was younger well even still like in you gotta incentivize these kids.

Right.

So maybe there's a contest so yeah we've got to look at it obviously within within a reason we're still a government so we know it's a little more difficult on our end than if we were just a private and you know private industry here um but we can definitely we will look into that um and you know we want to be creative we want to but I love the idea of filming younger you know and and it might you know and even filming the p filming this committee you know getting your guy you guys out there and you know trying to you know spur the war you know spur the participation I think would be really helpful almost everybody here is eligible so you can submit ideas too yes but if you're not recluded and then do a little like selfie maybe flash pad idea that's fun yeah so I don't know if we have any more more we'll we'll work on some stuff and then we'll come back next month I think our you know at our next meeting and give some more updates on you know or have some some follow-up on this but I think it's public knowledge that it's supposed to be in the high school area.

Correct yes okay everything about this process is public.

And yeah there I I did notice one of the ideas is not yeah in the that right area so I think it's important continuously emphasize and remind people that this pilot year is just reminding it so we all do our own video just like hey guys did you know your own followers who live who follow you from the neighborhood I can do something tomorrow maybe I just want to make sure I'm not releasing information that's not it's it is entirely public.

I mean that would be honestly we probably have a lot of followers because of your line of work a lot of local yokels yes um which would be you know help to really you know if you need if you need graphics like we can provide the graphics if you wanted to include it in your video or something like that.

That goes for anybody.

I mean I think we just sent it over to Matt earlier this week or last week so um you know whatever we can do to make this successful we're gonna push as hard as we can so is there an of uh like an official like clergy liaison person with the city that has an like some type of um digital list or like the interview because we talked about that the last time like possibly do an announcements don't service and so is there a formal way that we could do that.

I I certainly I I feel like I have relationships with those individuals so I'm happy to make those asks yeah.

Okay, okay, okay, and I'm sure you know we talk about between us and everyone else, we may have our own places of worship and be willing to set up a table and you know do all the same things.

I do know that um council member Peters did take us, I he asked for a stack of these, and he usually goes out to a lot of the churches in the Lincoln Avenue corridor.

Okay, and and hands them out, and you know, so I think the word probably he's definitely hit that hit that area, I think.

Um I'm probably not the right person to talk about churches and stuff like that, but I know he's hit hit a lot of the area, so have we have we made any connections with Iona or Monroe?

I know they're in their own world to some extent, but it's at least worth a shot.

So we have, I mean, we just yesterday announced a partnership with Iona um with regards to the space at 500 main.

Um we do have a we do have a link with Monroe as well.

So um actually the the Monroe president is the chairman of the bid board, so um, so yes, we can ask them as well because no, that's again 19 to 1819 to 22 or 21, so for sure we can definitely reach out through them, and they're usually pretty good about and I believe that Monroe is on trimester, so they do have people over through the summer, um, whereas I want it's you know, probably a little it's a little bit quieter at this point, but um for sure.

Unfortunately, I need to run to another sensitive public meeting.

So I'm gonna have to leave early, but hopefully we have a completed rule book.

Yes.

So are we good on item three?

Yes, okay.

Yes, I think we're good.

Lots of engagement to do.

Yes.

So I I'll let you take so moving on with the agenda.

Next is our discussion regarding the current ideas that have been submitted as of June 22nd, 2026.

Yeah, so I just I I did a quick download from our system.

Um I took out names and um any addresses for for this purpose, just to guide give you guys an idea of what had been submitted.

Um as Matt did mention there are a few on here that are not within the within the zone of around the high school and like Garden Street.

Um someone wants the light back.

I'm in agreement, but we're working with the state for that part.

Um just to give you an idea, there were a few more submitted between um June 22nd and today, but I needed to draw a line at some point so I could get the agenda out.

So how many did you say?

I believe on here is probably 12 or 13, and then I think we had when I ran it today, I think there were 18 total.

What I'm gonna do is I will I'm gonna create a uh a one-drive folder with this spreadsheet on it, so you guys can kind of check in whenever you want and see what we've gotten.

Um I just have I'll upload it probably once a week or something like that.

Oh, just so you guys have an idea of where and you can start reviewing them yourselves and seeing where we're at.

Gino, are you sweating over there?

Did you say these are filtered to only include the ones that are within the the no?

This is everything that was submitted.

If you look at um like the third one from the bottom, okay.

Yeah, that's not uh and we were very I mean, our webs the website's clear on where you have to, but it is what it is.

We're not making any decisions on this, it's just for FYI.

This is just FYI, yeah.

We won't, I don't think any decisions will be made for you know, we're gonna be going through this process and eventually we'll close the idea submission and then we'll go through everything, and that's how we'll then come up with a ballot.

So we're we'll work through that.

Yeah, it's only one if that's all it is for NAGA.

Um again, this was just to give you guys an idea of what had been submitted, give Gino a little visibility.

Um then I will create that one drive so you guys can see as we go along.

And each probably what I'll try to do is for each meeting, give you guys the most up-to-date list, at least for um up until the point where I have to release the agenda, which is usually a week before the meeting.

So we're good.

Oh, for the next item on the agenda, we are being asked to adopt the final version of the participatory rule book.

um up until the point where I have to release the agenda which is usually a week before the meeting so okay we're good oh for the next item on the agenda we are being asked to adopt the final version of the participatory rule book and there were no changes made for that so as the participant rule book stands is there a motion to adopt the final version I hereby make a motion for the participatory budget steering committee to adopt participatory budgeting rule book which has established procedures and eligibility requirements for the city's participatory budgeting programs and promotes fairness transparency and consistency in the administration of the program is there a second a second all in favor aye aye woohoo the city of new rochell participatory rule book is adopted congratulations unanimously we got it done okay um we have no old business and for new business our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday july twenty eighth and that's about our meeting is there a motion to adjourn i motion so you're gonna stick around for a little while moment is there a second second all in favor okay the meeting is adjourned all in favor unanimously and thank you guys thank you thank you we are here