All right, well, welcome.

Thank you everyone for coming to our uh citizens advisory on transit.

I know we have a couple of new members present, and um I think we need to start with uh call the order in a roll call.

Yeah.

Do you have a role available, Sandra?

Similarly, call me in order.

Sorry.

So many needs to second, or we can't second sure.

I don't know if you need to call the vote.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

You need to call the vote.

Yes, sorry, I was still trying to.

No, you're okay.

Super cool that's time, and now I'm spreading.

Ah okay, so um we're doing the attendance, right?

We got the main angle order, and we need and then spend first and second.

So we just need to have a vote on calling the meeting order.

Okay, that's gonna vote that.

And I I we didn't do it, but that was time, but yeah.

Those who agree.

I don't know if we have any opposition here.

No.

Okay.

So for the attendance, did um I will I didn't check my email.

Did is Tracy joining us uh remotely?

Yes, okay.

She hasn't joined yet.

Okay, she hasn't.

So okay, I'm here, Jesse's here, and Tracy will join.

Um read through the names, we just haven't confirmed that there's not okay.

Ravu.

Just say here.

Okay, here.

Jesse.

Yeah.

Tracy.

Here, George.

Derek.

Here the next item is to approve the agenda.

And this agenda we have to move in is from August.

No, we have to amend this agenda.

Oh, the agenda.

Yeah.

So we will I move approval of the agenda.

I can second it.

Okay.

Then there's the only discussion.

I honestly don't remember any um what we discussed in August meeting.

No, no, this is the agenda.

We have proven this agenda we have right here.

Sorry.

So we didn't say any discussion.

I'm sorry, I'm just so phased out doing here.

Okay.

Um sit back there.

Okay, any discussion point?

Yes.

Um, I don't know who received my emails, but I would like to add a few items to the agenda if um if we have time.

And of course, uh we could uh we could suspend the uh bylaws uh uh at the moment, but when it comes to it, if we don't have any time we can suspend the bylaws in order to re-amend the agenda to strike it out to the intervention.

But you know, if we have time, I would like to add to the agenda um two things.

One is under staff updates uh social media presence and time as we discussed the fact that neither RPT nor the advisory has a core problem on Instagram and uh citizens advisory has not on Facebook, though RPT does, and if we want to do anything if we're authorized to do anything and what we might want to do.

And secondly, I would like to add um before future agenda items uh an item called miscellaneous discussion if time remains.

Uh this is because the open comment period at the beginning is primarily meant for non-committee members uh to get comments to awesome to the staff, but the miscellaneous discussion would allow us to uh have them feel free to have more unstructured time once we no longer feel we have to rush to get another item out of the way to talk amongst ourselves committee members and with the staff about anything pertaining to RPT or committee without worrying about whether it's on the agenda and also because then when we're there in presentations, we don't have to get every question out if it's not really relevant.

So it'll help the actual agenda period go faster and help them get back to where they need to be sooner.

So I I'm my motion is that we add social media presence after staff updates and add miscellaneous discussion if time remains before future agenda items.

Somebody does second I can I'm not so he needs someone to second do we need to discuss this um because it's um kind of in alignment with the meeting that we had sorry I can't see people really well okay I'm fine now um about having enough time on the or space on the agenda for uh miscellaneous discussion that he's talking about so that's what we've been discussed in um the for the social media presence we can that was the other thing right yeah for the social media presence so we can add that to the agenda for any of time permits um we'll vote now sorry i i know people looking at me um all in favor say aye aye so we have four people or five you have four this is your newest member okay but he isn't a voting member to anywhere no worries um anybody who doesn't agree or oppose so the motion is to then um add the two well add one of the points that Jesse mentioned because the previous one was pre uh already discussed well that's me the the agenda was discussed before I think the motion was to add two items um and the amendment just passed right I think there was four so the amendment passed so now you're voting on approving the agenda as amended correct however one of the points that Jesse mentioned about having miscellaneous items it it's already incorporated on the agenda one to say where it doesn't say then it's not incorporated on the agenda if it doesn't say I think it's a discussion we had with we have agenda items we could add that wasn't the discussion also that we they want that um that to be listed as miscellaneous items but have it more of open discussion type thing if I recall from our the the meeting that three of us did we did talk about that but as a currently stunts we don't have that as an agenda item only so I guess it's something we could do for the next meeting well and we can add it for this meeting as yeah moved and approved and and I would suggest that we call it other business a lot of the boards and commissions just have an other business item which gives um board commission members an opportunity to bring up other things and have a discussion.

All right so I move I move that we uh amend my amendment of the agenda instead of saying uh where was it instead of saying miscellaneous discussion if time remains to change it to other business second all in favor aye so everybody's in program but no nobody disagrees so I think we can pass the motion to add the two items that uh he mentioned as discussed now you're just approving the agenda as as amended right the approve the agenda as amendment second I'm sorry this is um through technically but what in this case you say now all in favor say aye any opposed say nay all in favor say aye aye those in opposed those opposed say nay motion passes yeah next is our open comment period nobody's here no one here so we move on next item is the approval of the minutes from the April meeting no yeah from the I guess 14 meeting so I can pass the motion to approve the minutes from uh did you say 14th of August?

Does anyone have any discussion points?

Actually, I should ask that.

Yeah, we need a we need a motion and a second before we can do discussion.

Yeah.

I hate using Pilot Pro as a as a weapon, but if we're gonna use it, we should use it right.

Okay, so maybe I should start with asking if there are any discussion points before I um you need to have a motion to approve and then you ask for discussion.

Okay, so I call uh call the motion to approve the minutes from the August 14th meeting.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes.

Second they'd be happy we would have it, right?

Any discussion?

Oh, before we do that, any discussion points.

Yeah, I just wanted to pull it up really quickly to see um the details of the one last time if there was any fix.

Okay.

Is it it's on the agenda packet, is it?

Yes, yeah, that hyperlink.

Oh yes, it's just in the in the hyperly.

We have it right pulled up here.

I have it pulled on my screen.

You wanted to just pull through me.

Okay, I have no particular objection, so I think part of CRT go in uh we can approve.

I'm okay with approving it.

We'll just wait for him to come to us.

Yeah, because now we don't have now we don't have a forum.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, without a quorum, I don't think we can actually pass approvals.

No, we do.

Oh, we do now that he left.

Good.

We didn't, but now that he's back, we do.

Yep.

Oh good, okay.

Good.

So we have a motion in a second.

Uh is there any further discussion?

I thought you was to um looking into it.

Okay.

Yeah, I've got no problem with it.

So we can we can move it, um, approving it.

Um those in favor say aye.

I aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Okay, so we can go ahead and approve the 14th August um minutes.

And Sandra, just to keep us on track, I um Vicky with the attendance.

So I heard Tracy's voice.

Could you also update the agenda dog or the attendant?

So Tracy, since she's not in person, um, is not a voting member today.

Um right.

So and she would be considered just like a publicity.

Just an attendee.

Okay, yep.

A public identity at that.

Okay.

In the minutes that I'm here, but virtual.

Okay, we don't have that.

The next item we have is on meeting canums and expectations all 2026.

So hi, I'm Rachel Fauch.

I'm the interim director of transit and parking, and so really welcome um everybody and thank you for taking the time to be here today.

Um, so historically, I guess the last is it year or so, we've had quarterly meetings for this, but we do have a lot of things coming in the transit realm.

I don't know if you've heard of link.

Um and and anything else.

So we are looking to shift our meetings to a monthly meeting cadence.

Uh, we are willing uh and so it's really up to uh the the committee if you want to keep it on the second Thursday of every month at 4.30 in this room on a monthly basis, or if there's any other additional discussion or on that time uh moving forward if a different day of the week works better for individual schedules, or if just having knowing that it's every second Tuesday of every month at 4:30, and you can accommodate your schedules accordingly, and we can do that as well.

So I just want to leave it to the the committee and the board and our new member.

Um Tracy.

Yeah, so this unfortunately is my last meeting because I've been on the cat board for two terms, but I would say that having monthly meetings, especially with all the changes in transit and link and the growth of the city, um, I think is really really important.

Certainly I won't be a voting member, but you know, I probably will still be catching the replays and things like that.

And maybe popping in as a public member if I'm really curious periodically.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Tracy.

So there are specific that kind of I would say in some realms maybe increases your uh responsibility to the board.

Um so if we were to meet every month of the year, that would be approximately 10 meetings that would be required through our um current bylaws uh for the transit cap committee.

You'd have to make 10 meetings um for the year.

And that's a that's a good idea because um at least in the in the copy of the bylaws I was given when I just was in in the week up to uh getting sworn in, um, which apparently is from 2012, um there is a clause saying that um three unexcused absences within one year may result in your the members' termination.

Um and but that's prior notice and excuse it as prior notice of the inability to attend.

And in order to stay in good standing, uh you must attend at least 80% of the scheduled meetings within a calendar year.

Now, if you know, if we plan six and then there one of them we don't end up having a quorum, um, and then one of them it snows, and so we have to cancel, then there's only four in that year.

And uh if you attend three of them, you haven't achieved 80% still, even if you've attended three of them.

So it's a lot easier to get to the good standing if we have 10 meetings rather than uh rather than uh six or so.

And also, well, it it does say though the termination requires majority of the vote of members who are in good standing.

So, you know, it's not like you're automatically going to lose like when you miss seven classes in college semester, but personally, in my opinion, as someone who's busy myself, I think there's more grace ironically if we have 50 monthly.

And just to be clear, it would be 12 meetings.

10 to meet the 80 percent.

Oh, sorry, month would be a monthly meeting over 12 calendar months.

Is there any way to make it?

I don't know, say 11 because there's a high likelihood that you're one of the months there's going to be some.

Well, that's why there's and that's why it has to be approved and voted on, and if if it's a meeting that's canceled because of weather conditions, that wouldn't count towards the total of the meetings for the year.

Yes, but what I mean is um, so I I'm not quite clear.

Are you saying that it is being now we are being made to have be to be 12 months boards discussing whether we want to make it be 12 months?

That is up for the discussion of the board.

It is our recommendation that you start meeting on a monthly basis, so it creates um more ability to give input to to transit as a whole so we can make positive impacts on our residents in the community.

It would have it would we would need the board's buy-in to ship those meetings to monthly.

Yeah, it says monthly basis as needed in the bylaws, and therefore we do not have to amend the bylaws in order to make it monthly.

Um and as it means that it could be less.

So is there anything preventing us from choosing to make it the 11 months?

Why?

Because uh in I know that in a number of you know groups and organizations we often have something like um in this occasion we're able to meet in December, but a lot of the time people are not able to logistically arrange together in December because of like Christmas and other things.

And we could address that and we'd be able to say, oh we can like we can cancel a meeting as the board.

We can cancel the meeting, we can choose to do that.

But if I don't see the I don't see the value in changing it automatically from 12 to 11.

Because I could make the same argument about November that we're making about December right now.

So there's not necessarily any value with switching it from 12 to 11 in my opinion.

All right, I guess I would tend to I would tend to agree with that because the goal is regardless of how many meetings there are, the the goal is for us to make 80% of them, right?

And um the the point is that the city is changing, and we're you know, our input's important, and it's important that we're connecting with people in the community and then coming back to these meetings.

So the goal doesn't change regardless of the number of meetings, the goal is still 80%.

So you know, we we say we're gonna have 12 meetings, and if one of them needs to be canceled, so be it.

And then the attendance for the 80% would be based off of the totally meetings we have that kind of year, it's basically how I see it.

And just upgrade technically question 80% of uh amounts like 9.6 ish stuff.

So is it a reason why we need on the higher site of the decibelling on the door site?

Right, and that's because it's not an even number and they like if you were to choose to remove somebody from the board, you would have the ability.

That's why it says likely 10, but it doesn't, it's not a whole number, it's not where we're gonna be.

So it's really dependent on how many meetings we have during the year, and like if the board were to decide that we needed to remove a board member because of their lack of attendance, and so you could do that per the bylaws if you miss three meetings, right during the year.

Yeah, but it's it's not obligatory.

So if we you know if we if we had seven members and you really hated one of them who also only made it to nine meetings, then you and the others could expel him or her, but you know, but you couldn't talk about it.

I'm of the mindset that we if we are making one of these changes for the upcoming year, that we'd be really confident and clear about the expectations.

Um I understand obviously uh it's not a whole number, that's why we lean on the higher site, but I would want to change the warning to say exactly how many meetings.

So this is under the assumption obviously that we have all 12 monthly meetings in 2026, and then the 80% of whatever the expectation is, meaning you could miss either two meetings out on out of twelve or three meetings out of one.

So I'm not sure if I'm really um uh understanding or in alignment with the word likely.

I I just want to set the expectations clear because we do have new members coming in, and also this is changing the responsibility of the credit on board also.

So we can find a head basically because life happens in obviously in Minnesota when it happens and uh when we get to it when we have those situations and it could be a transcendent.

Well, and that would be part of your motion um for what you choose to do.

You can't you can't circumvent the bylaws, and so you'd still have to be within within the bounds of that, which I believe is three meetings.

Like you, if you miss three meetings, you can re remove for the board, which is why this is likely 10.

I see, because you could miss two meetings without being brought up to Yeah, I just yeah the I the math, I just was yeah.

I mean, if it that's what ready is, I think it'd be nice to update the wording on this to say that well, it would be part of your uh your motion.

So you you would move to like that, but then you would fall upon the bylaws.

And so what's up here on the screen, that's not the motion for approval, the motion for approval what the board chooses to move.

So if you choose to move to have a monthly meeting, then you would be holding to that 80% attendance.

And if you were to miss three meetings, so that's hitting your nine, then you would be eligible to be removed from the board.

So the like when it when it comes to it, the likely 10 can just be if that's what your hang up is, the likely 10 can just be struck from the Sverband.

Right.

And we don't need to make any other changes other than to strike likely 10.

Right.

So I move to strike likely 10 from the well, and this is I guess you don't have to.

Yeah, you don't have to.

You could move to have a monthly meeting.

Can I just make one suggestion?

Is I think just to be consistent with what all other boards within the city do is it's an 80% attendance requirement.

Yeah.

So you as a a board member just need to know how many meetings are in that year, and you need to have attended at least 80% of them.

So if that's 12 meetings, you know, or if it's there's two that are canceled, boards and commissions often cancel meetings, a because there aren't any agenda items, or B because there's we can't get a form due to a holiday.

Um November and December are prime examples of that.

So my suggestion would be is if we're looking at doing a uh uh monthly meeting, uh, is I think the board would want to provide some direction to staff as to, you know, tonight is for example the second Tuesday of the month, and we would likely want to have a recurring schedule like that where CAF meetings are always at 4 30 on the second Tuesday of the month.

Um, and then what would happen is those dates would get published to the public.

Um, and then you all would know when all of the dates are for the entirety of 2026.

That's how most boards and commission operate.

It provides transparent transparency to the public, and it also provides transparency to you all so you can do a little bit more planning in the year ahead in regards to meetings.

So just to be clear, how can we how can we change that verbiage?

Well, that's it.

Can we just can we just say you would just have the verbiage change?

No, so this is just this is just the data.

It's not part of it's not part of your motion, so it wouldn't be part of any.

So you would just, if you were choosing to have a monthly meeting, you would move to have our meetings in 2026 on the fourth on the second two Thursday of every month at 4 30.

Tuesday.

Point information.

Do we need to have that?

It's Thursday.

I think maybe I see two.

It's already Thursday.

I'm sorry, but whatever today is.

Um and like like Brent said, the the attendance requirements are in your bylaws.

Yeah, right.

So those wouldn't be part of the motion.

Sorry, go ahead.

And I think if if the buy knows obviously trumps.

Okay.

If that's kind of like the final uh thing that we have to follow, then it's really no point discussing it because the by us clearly say if you miss three meetings, then you could be removed from the board, right?

Um, but historically we have not been having those many meetings to begin with.

Right.

So I'm just what I'm trying to say is if we are planning on moving ahead with having monthly meetings, like we just set the expectations right, that you you can only miss two meetings, basically.

So it's it it that's what it really comes down to because we can't change the bylaws.

Unless we have less.

We'd like we actually can arrange the bylaws.

Yeah, and and I would just I I think we're getting hung up on this point of missing meetings, right?

It's unexcused absences.

If you have if you're in the hospital or you have a family member in the hospital or you're on a business trip, right?

Like those would likely at the discretion of the chair would be excused absences, right?

Like unexcused is you just don't show up to a meeting for whatever reason, right?

Right.

So like I think we need to differentiate between excused and unexcused, and then it's a vote of the board.

So somebody actually like my opinion would be if somebody's not gonna, if your concern is getting expelled from the board, um, I would submit to you that I think that's highly unlikely um because it's you know, your absences are probably gonna be excused if it's you know an emergency legitimate reasons why you can't be here.

Now, for example, if 4 30 doesn't work for somebody, um, I don't think there's anything saying that you can't change the time.

If if 4 30 is too big of a rush to get here from work, maybe the board considers starting at at five.

Or, you know, I think that is, you know, I I would suggest we not move it too late, but if 4 30 seems a little early, you know, moving it to five is always an option to maybe increase the chances of somebody getting here in time.

So and that's really what we're after right now is does the second Thursday of every month at 4:30 work?

And if it does, we'd like to move uh we'd like that the board to convince consider having a monthly meeting at that time.

And we'll make a coming week would be determined if we want to keep them having the meetings here.

Yeah, the like options are we have the transportation center would be an option.

It might not work for everybody, but I'm just saying if this is not convenient for everybody, we could change their location.

So we have two options, either this location or the transportation if the board preferred.

Okay.

Um I want to go back to your comments.

So um, I'm I'm slightly confused now with how you uh differentiated between the excused and unexcused absence, right?

How does that kind of align with the expectations then?

Because, say, for example, we are saying 80% attendance, right?

But then you clarify it saying for uh it's only applicable uh for the excused absences and not the unexcused ones.

So if somebody reaches out and and for whatever reason, say they have an emergency or whatever, they're unable to make it so in uh as a chair, I tell them, okay, you know, it's okay for you to miss.

Um people can keep continue continuing to do that then.

So where does that how does that kind of align with the bylaws of being not being able to miss more than three meetings?

Like I'm just trying to let a sense of the excused and the unexcused part, but yeah, I I think um I don't know what your oath was, but y'all took an oath, right?

Um to to be a part of this.

And I would certainly hope, right, that um you are all on this this board because you want to be here.

Um and so I um don't really like to think about people making excuses saying they have emergencies when they really don't have emergencies just because they can't make a meeting.

So I would hope as professionals and people that are interested in the betterment of the city of Rochester, that if you're on this board that um you're being honest with your absences.

Um and if you're not, um maybe the cat isn't isn't the board or commission free.

Um I okay, well, if you have another one you can go with after ask some questions.

So um as an example, uh just to be very clear, I I'm not from here.

Um my family is overseas.

Um and when I go, I sometimes am away for a month at a time.

And in that sense, I obviously had to deal with and I have a portion of visa to be here.

In that case, would would you then count my absence as excused or unexcused?

And would that basically be eating up my quota for uh 2026 because I really don't have room to miss any other meetings, and even if I have same medicine emergency, I can't I cannot not see my family.

So there's two points on that.

One, if you let us know in advance, chances are that's an excused absence.

The board can make that decision if they want it to be.

The second one is if you're gone for let's say six months, whatever, whatever it is, and you miss a meeting unexcused.

We still, as a board have the ability to choose whether or not you get removed.

So you're not automatically removed.

The board has to make the determination on whether or not you're removed, whether it's an excused or unexcused absence.

So for example, if I it if it for some reason it happened and uh people want to remove you, that would make me automatically become the chairman.

If I feel like I can't handle the each chairman, then I certainly would not vote for you to like like to kick you off, it it even if it were authorized, because then I would be in that situation then within a few months, we'd be down two members.

I I think it's really important to remember this is a volunteer position and you're allowed to have personal lives outside of here.

And so if you need if you were taking two months to visit family or something like that, that would likely be excused, right?

Because you're allowed to take vacation, you're allowed to take personal time.

Now the question would be as the chair of this committee, I think we'd have to have another conversation if like you felt like you couldn't fulfill that role if you won't we like had a certain amount of trips coming up and we could look at what that would be.

But going on a trip would not be unexcused.

You would be allowed to maintain your position.

And so say, for example, if um if I'm I happen to miss three meetings, hypothetically speaking.

Right, then what I'm hearing from everybody in this room is that even if even when it's excused or approved absence, uh the decision is still with the board to decide if they want to remove that person or not.

If you missed three meetings without giving any advanced notice for missing that meeting, that would be considered unexcused, and that would go towards your missed meeting count.

But the board would still have to vote to remove that individual from that position.

And if it's excused, if it's excused, it doesn't count towards your missed meeting.

That's the answer I was looking for.

So thank you so much.

Okay.

Jesse, I'm sorry, I no, it's it's all it's all right.

Um I I wanted to ask if um, so when you talk about changing the time, it might be advantageous amount of personal pain change to five, but I'll hear everyone else, uh the other guess four members' thoughts on it.

Um unless um how do I put it?

Unless it is going to be more difficult to get into this building because of my own personal opinion, this is a good location.

And when I came in here today from the city hall side, um, because of the sky bridges and stuff, the door to ask this corridor was locked.

Um and I only was able to get in because somebody happened to you walk in this direction and I'm knocked.

Um so if there is a way to solve that long term, then I don't see any reason not to do five o'clock.

However, if there isn't, and it's literally just luck of the driving time, then no, I would have a problem with uh rooming five.

So we so I hold up these keys because the doors do lock in this building at 4:30.

Um, but I did get keys to unlock this door.

But if you were saying, hey, I'm coming through the skyway, one of us could meet you and bring you um in.

Everyone else, this door right out here would be unlocked and accessible.

So that's just making sure we know what direction you're coming from.

If you need um badge access to get back here.

So and so that would that would be dependent then upon uh upon you uh being on you being there.

Um have we ever had an instance where there's no snapper?

No.

We would we would accommodate you trying you getting into the building, whatever direction they're coming from.

I don't think that if we had no staffer, I none of us would be in this building.

Correct, right?

Yeah.

Because that door is not open if we have no staffer.

Yeah.

Well, if there was no staffer and it's the current time at 4 30, let's say we all arrive at 4 25, we can still host a meeting here.

But if we shift it up to five and then there's no staff, or then there's no you would not have a meeting without a staff member present.

Full stop.

Okay.

And we should all like do exchanging of numbers that everyone is able to just you know inform you when they're and like, but also we all get that email address that's pulled up right there.

Um, no, not that one.

The RPT and Sandra and and my emails have been on all of yours, but we can make sure everybody has our correspondence as well.

So I would I would also just note that I believe after five the lot isn't actively monitored by the parking staff.

So that may solve some of the parking related issues for those of you that just drive here, uh park out in the parking lot anywhere and come through the front door.

Yeah.

And I think Sandra was able to provide the uh parking point or the parking part, so I don't know if it's time to use it.

Yeah, I heard it didn't work.

It didn't work, it didn't work.

Oh no, but uh we're still trialing it.

So if you did receive a ticket, just give it to us and we'll get it for given.

But other committees have that, so I I don't mean if there's a it's new, the coupon thing is new.

Like I I'm saying the other committees have they provide parking process through with the uh we're getting we're moving past that.

So we put when they put in the pay stations, now there's coupon code.

Oh, it's like so used to go in that so we're moving away from the passes and we're implementing code access or parking.

So can I get uh Parker and Mike and uh Darren's opinions on firstly the uh you know the idea of you know texting or emailing and asking to be to be let in if we do shift it later, and secondly, whether you have sent that stuff preferred 430 or 50 before I'll just interject here, it's really important if you if we choose to communicate via text or email, that it's not a re it's not to the the entire group.

And I know Brent will likely go over that.

And can I just ask one question?

Is it because you're coming from work downtown?

Is that why?

Or to me, I mean, just to be honest, the easiest way is if everybody just access this door here because you know it's gonna be open.

Um so like if there's any way for whether you have to drive or if it means you know, exiting and just walking briefly around the building to get to this door, I think that would because all reality is the staff is likely going to be here getting a PowerPoint set up, making sure the tech is working all right.

And just the reality is that sometimes they get busy and may not be always monitoring your phone and all of a sudden you're at the other side of the building needing to let be let in.

So if we can kind of establish an expectation that you all know that this closest door here is unlocked, and that's kind of how everybody, whether you're walking from downtown or your biking or you're driving.

Oh, you you anticipate door ED unlocked?

I did unlock it.

It will be unlocked.

Oh, I thought you were I thought you were saying that it would be unlocked until people actually get here.

No, no, it's unlocked right now.

So people can it has to be unlocked because we this is an open meeting and members of the public need to be able to come and go.

So that door will remain unlocked for the duration of the meeting.

And once the meeting is over, then Rachel will go out and re-lock the relock the door.

But what what do you three guys you haven't been speaking up?

But what do you think?

4 30 five is better.

Um you want to go.

Oh, I'm oh I think you guys later.

Um five works a little bit better for me.

Um, I work till five.

Um, but if I have like advanced notice, like if we decide to do every second Thursday or Tuesday of the month, um then I know in advance I can work with something and uh and get it blocked off, I can make it.

Um and yeah, five works a little bit better for me, but I can make it work, whatever.

So um as long as I know in advance enough to block this time, I'll be here on time, hopefully more in the future.

So sorry for going late today, guys.

Well, like I said, I'm I'm in different, I don't have a preference.

So five is a more convenient time, but 4.30 works fine too.

I so if we want to if the motion was to change it to five, I would certainly vote for that, but it's saying 4 30.

I would vote for that too.

So yeah, if if you want to change it to five, feel free.

Does it inconvenience you guys at all if it's at 5 versus 4:30?

You guys are here to support us.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay, it's fine either way.

You guys are still on the clock or something.

Okay.

Well, yeah.

Okay.

They're on salary.

So I mean, the reality is we want to ensure that the time is appropriate for the board so that they can come and be a participant and we have a quorum and we can vote.

So if that means at 5 instead of 4:30, we're in favor of that.

Okay.

Five would work a little bit better for me in that case.

I would just I'm sorry, I forgot your name.

I know you're not a current member, but you'll be on the board in January.

So maybe interested in your input as well.

Um I'm old minded at 4:30, but uh if five is what everybody does, I'm just one of those things where I should have done a little more research to understand how long the meetings usually take.

Usually an hour.

An hour long.

Okay.

I I I can accommodate what works best for the group, but I I do enjoy 4:30.

What was that?

10.

Yeah.

Ken just got appointed today.

All the people.

And so we invited him to come to the meeting because I thought it would be a good opportunity, bringing it up.

And then sorry.

Um, do we um if we if we were to change these things, would would that be done as um would would that be documented in the minutes?

Because I just made a quick statement that we could just happy what's written in the minutes for it.

You would you would make a motion and it would be documented in the minutes.

Okay.

And then obviously uh just it.

Um, but I I I would like to make I would like to make a motion um to document the following in the minutes and you know simultaneously make the decision that this is what we're going to do.

Point of order.

I mean, you have to make a full motion, not just uh not just the not just a thing on five o'clock.

The motion needs to be.

So I move that the meeting that we meet every month the second Thursday of the month at 5 o'clock p.m.

Okay, yes.

So I I move that we meet monthly the second Thursday.

So let's before we take your motion, let's let's see if there's a second uh on his motion first.

Well, it's explaining.

Oh, okay.

Okay, yeah.

Uh so I would just tell them.

I move that we know decide to have uh meeting be monthly uh on the second Thursday of the month at 5 o'clock PM, and uh uh you know have the following written down.

Uh it's uh as a statement.

Well, I mean, just to keep the because there were discussions about clarity and confusions, I thought it would be helpful to have some sort of statement.

Um the citizens advisory on transit shall have monthly meetings in the year 2026 for a total of 12 meetings, subject to change based on the agreement of a majority of a quorum to cancel one or more meetings.

A meeting may also be canceled during a scheduled meeting in which a quorum was not reached.

The recurring schedule, until and unless it is changed or an exception is made by agreement, shall be to have meetings on the second Thursday of the month at 5 p.m.

Ruby, you would ask if there's a second.

I was uh sorry, I was just trying to process all I would check.

So yeah, and so second, I yeah.

But if we I felt like if we have it written down just agreed on the writing, it would avoid people being confused about what about this?

What about that?

Right.

And so I see where you're coming from.

However, all of that is backed by Robert's rules in our in our parliamentary procedure.

So you would just need to make the motion to have uh meetings for the CAT committee on the second Thursday of every month at 5 p.m.

Okay, so even if it's superfluous, what I'm doing, is it prohibited?

Because if it's not prohibited, having that statement there will still make it much easier for a person, the public to understand what's going on because they're not in the navigating Robert's rules area.

So I know Robert's rules.

I'm I'm far more confused by your statement than or by your motion than just the standard we'll meet every month.

Second Thursday at 5 p.m.

I was adding the clarifications because we are having discussions about well, like does this mean that we're forced to stick to it and all end obviously we're not, but if it's all written down, then it's easier for us to remember or in future members to understand that and not the you know uh use up the time like we did today about uh scheduling and canceling and things like that.

Um and I'm assuming this would take effect in January.

So we like the next meeting would be a month from now, the second Thursday in January.

And what I would recommend to staff and what is consistent with other boards is they come up with a calendar for you all that has the second Thursday of the month.

So you all have that calendar that will go on the boards and commission's website where you go to access the agenda and the agenda packet.

Um and so you'll know exactly when those meetings are going to be held.

You can assume that they're gonna be the second Thursday of the month at five o'clock.

Um actually I already talked to Sandra about it, and if you guys approved that tonight, then we would send you a calendar invite.

So it'll be in your calendars as a reminder as well.

Um I do know we have a motion on the floor without a second, and I know reader, you need to I'm already yeah, yeah, 10 years.

She needs to leave.

Does she have to pass the gavel to I would say we give it to the vice chair?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, before you do, I need to rescind my motion uh or amend my motion.

You would just die if there's no second.

And so there's no second.

Okay, yeah.

Now I'd like to make a motion or I move that we thank you, Rebu.

Thank you.

I move that the citizens advisory on transit meets every month on the second Thursday at 5 p.m.

Do you have a recommended location for the meeting?

At City Hall.

Second.

Yes.

Do you have five hearings?

Oh, I thought we had to make a motion for the takeover.

Motion.

Oh, you automatically take over the two weeks.

All right.

Um, all those in favor.

Wait, any discussion of this motion?

Seeing none, all those in the and so just to be extremely clear, because this is an important decision, right?

That'll affect everybody.

So the motion on the table is to have a monthly meeting the first Thursday of every month.

I'm sorry, yes, sorry, second Thursday of every month starting in January 2026 at 5 p.m.

City Hall.

See no discussion.

Um all those in favor.

I'm not allowed to vote, right?

You can we want you to vote.

All those in favor.

Aye, none.

All those against seeing none, the motion passes.

So Tracy's Tim is this December.

So from January 2026, we need to have a new secretary for the poll.

Point information.

Um if there is it impossible to have a meeting uh basically between now and whenever the secretary is appointed, would it will it be impossible to have a proper meeting with quorum?

Or is it just that it's a necessary for function that we need as soon as possible?

We have quorum now.

What I mean is hypothetically, if no one wants to be secretary or can, would it be possible for us to meet again until a secretary is approved?

You can meet without a secretary.

Okay.

That that's important so that nobody feels that they need to step up if they're unwilling to redo these just out of the fact that it needs to have one to survive.

Right.

And so you can choose if if at this point there's nobody wanting to move into that position, you could table this until the January meeting.

Um see, is there any discussion on the subject of someone volunteering for being the secretary of the citizens advisory and transit?

Are we required by law to have a secretary?

Do we know if the bylaw indicate we have to have a secretary?

I I'm not sure.

I haven't, I'm not sure what that cat bylaws say.

We can review that.

Yeah, I please do, but so I would say that you have it.

The word secretary doesn't show up in the bylaw.

Some some of them, all of them require typically a chair and a vice chair, and then sometimes the secretary is optional depending on the order commission.

So I would just need to see the specific bylaws for the for the cat.

I would I would say that if a secretary is not required, staff keeps notes, and that's where a majority of it comes from, right?

Is that uh is that inappropriate to say staff keeps notes and staff can yeah, we'll produce the minutes, we'll rewatch the like the recording and produce the minutes after the meeting and they'll be attached to the agenda.

If that were the case, is the committee still able to um request the staff to put things in the minutes in a certain way?

Because since this isn't a a citizen volunteer appointment by the mayor approved by the city council role, if there's such a person as a secretary, that means that that person has control over how things are written, generally speaking.

Now most of the time it's right matters, but if if say the committee generally has a certain way they want something to be written down about what happened, um, and there's some nuance that might be difficult to capture the next day while you're at work and uh you know on coffee or whatever you um then it it sort of it puts a damper on that power, if you will, on the citizen side, if the full control or how things are phrased is done by the staff.

So therefore, is there an ability of the committee to request things to be phrased in a certain the minutes for the city council meeting are done by staff?

Um so and if that's like uh the agenda the agenda too.

Yeah, however, that's why you approve the minutes at the beginning of every meeting.

So if there was something within the minutes that you didn't like, you could you could move to amend the minutes with whatever um input you had for the record.

Thank you.

That makes sense.

And I guess if if we do have it monthly, then it'll be easier to remember what happened last month as opposed to like three months.

Yeah, it's the pro it's like who's the no-taker for D D, right?

I was just gonna say, I mean, in a very real sense in this, in a very real sense in this situation, the staff works for else.

So the staff will do what we ask the staff to do, and ultimately the decisions are ours because we approve or don't approve the agendas and the minutes and everything to that point.

So even if staff changes something, I don't foresee this, but even if the staff changes something that we don't like, we have the ability to change it without with or without uh their permission.

All has been said, if a current or future member in the future wants to be secretary, do we want to prevent that?

Because if not, we can just have it be saying saying that the the staff will have it until someone volunteers for the role.

I don't know that that's necessary.

Yeah, and you like I said, you can always choose to table this and we can review the bylaws to ensure there isn't a requirement of secretary, and you can vote on it in January.

I think I think tabling it makes sense so we know for sure what the bylaws say.

So I moved to table it until January and have the city attorney check the bylaws to see whether or not a secretary is necessary.

Yeah what point I mean great.

Um the part about the city attorney is that going to be part of the margin.

Yeah, yeah.

Absolutely.

Okay.

I didn't know if it if if it we we wanted to be him per se or like a staff to check, but okay.

And you did have a second, so any discussion of the motion.

See not all those in favor.

Aye, aye, all is opposed.

See on the motion passes.

Okay.

So what we'll do is we'll bring it back to you in January.

We'll look at the bylaws and get some concrete direction.

And then I also think that um it is a good practice to choose new officers either at the last meeting of the year or the first meeting of the new year.

So I think the timing still works out well.

And you have new members starting in January.

No pressure.

Yeah.

Secretary.

We have our new secretary starting.

We must wait long enough to table forever.

As a young professional, I know that some people are enthusiastic about that sort of thing.

So I didn't want us necessarily to say, oh, we cannot ever have one, but just like you know, we don't need one, so we're not gonna point one.

So that's the uh once again.

Like I hate to be the partly pro-nerd, but we have the ability as the committee.

If we choose to have a secretary, we choose to have a secretary.

If we choose to have a treasurer, we can have a treasurer, we can make those decisions as the board.

We can make those decisions as the board.

Whether it says anything in the minutes or none.

Okay, for clarification.

Is there any more discussion on item six before we move on to item seven?

See none, item seven.

Okay.

That is a presentation by Catholic.

Okay, explain.

Yeah, um bullets and commission to roll.

It's in the Sandra.

Um, so I um will introduce myself now.

My name is Brent Carlson.

I'm the deputy city attorney.

Um, and uh maybe before we get started, this is the first time I've ever actually been to a CAP meeting.

Rachel invited me to come today.

So I would just like maybe to remind me of your first and last name, how long um you've been on the CAT, and why are you interested in serving on this sport?

So, sir, I'm gonna start with you.

Yeah, my name is Derek Bowenau.

Um, this is my um my first meeting in person with CAT.

Um, my interest is my background's in transportation.

So kind of uh hopefully using that uh expertise to for the betterment of RPT.

Great.

Evening, uh Deputy Attorney Carlson.

I am Jesse O'Christville.

I am the vice chair.

I was appointed by Mayor Norton, uh, I guess at the end of December and approved by the city council on uh at the beginning of January.

And I uh my term expires in 2027, but I may have to step down sooner if I get into medical school, which I'm applying to.

And I um was appointed here because I was interested in serving my city in one of the roles.

Um and I wanted, well, how do I put this?

So I am not though I am but rarely uh user myself of these things.

I am often very politically and civically interested in things that don't affect me.

That way I can actually help people rather than being self-serving.

And also I like to think long-term, and I like to think about things like city planning, how things are laid out, and my own personal opinion, even though it's not logistically financially feasible with our taxes are in the city, as far as I know in the near future, is that our city is one where a local municipal train system would serve the long-term interests very well.

And so I that that's what got me interested in the transit house and how things go uh here.

Great.

Thank you.

Uh I have a background in uh specifically government transportation.

I was previously the government affairs coordinator for the chamber of counters and transportation was one of my uh one of the things that I covered.

So uh I'm incredibly interested in what happens here and what is happening with transit in the city is as we move forward is incredibly important.

So looking forward to it.

Thanks, Mike.

Ken?

Uh Ken Berg.

Um I'm negative member, thus far until sometime in January.

So um, so yeah, I work uh within 125 live as an advocate for older adults and individuals with disabilities.

Okay.

Awesome.

Glad to have you on the team.

Thanks.

Um, I'm Parker.

Um, my background is in um loving public transportation.

I think it's an awesome resource that can help a lot of people out.

Um sorry I'd love to be able to, or I love to be able to contribute and try to make things better.

I've been on the committee for one year now.

Thanks for coming and giving a talk.

Yeah, well, thanks for um your service.

I know this is a volunteer committee, and you all uh you know actively signed up for this.

So thank you for serving the city.

As you may or may not know, the city has probably 20 boards or commissions or so, a little, I don't know how much you all know about the city attorney's office, but we're housed uh internally within the city of Rochester.

There's eight lawyers um within the city attorney's office, and we have six support staff or offices are in the second floor of city hall.

Uh and our office does everything from prosecute all um misdemeanor level and gross misdemeanor level offenses that occur within city limits um to um the civil side, which I'm uh involved with.

We advise um the airport, uh, RPT, the public library, any city department, or kind of a consultative service.

So most of the time how we do our work is an outside uh city department has an issue, and they will uh call up the city attorney's office and say, hey, we need your we need your help through a legal lens, and that's kind of how our office operates.

And that's kind of how our office operates.

Now there are certain lawyers in office that just do the criminal prosecution work, so they're much more involved with Rochester, RPDE, Sheriff's Office, and State Patrol.

So just a little bit about kind of how our office operates.

So what I'm gonna primarily, this is a presentation that I like to give to different boards and commissions.

Uh takes me about 30 minutes to get through, depending on questions.

So if you have a question throughout the presentation, go ahead and ask it.

We can have a discussion on it.

But hopefully get through this in about 30 minutes or so.

I've got about 20 slides.

Um mostly just a reminder for all you that um as an elected or an appointed representative, so you're all appointed by the mayor, uh as Jesse mentioned and approved by the city council, that you are a records custodian for the city of Rochester, and it's your responsibility to maintain any records that are in your possession.

Um let's talk through this a little bit and don't don't get overly concerned or worried about this because in reality you all don't have tons of records in your your possession, but I think it's just a good uh a good reminder.

Yeah.

Um after the end of this, would you be able to send us for able and willing to send this presentation to us to look over some time to teach our own personal time?

Um I, you know, I'm I'm a little bit reluctant to do that.

Um, but if you have particular questions, I'm happy to take those offline and ask answer more specifics.

Um I kind of um this is a presentation that I um asked not to be included in the packet, just because it's kind of um internal to some respect.

But if you have additional uh questions that you'd like to ask, this will also be part of the recording.

Um so if you want to go back and listen to the recording, these slides should be on the on the on the recording.

Um so there's a presumption in Minnesota under chapter 13 that government data is public and accessible to the public for both inspection and copying, unless there's some type of federal law, state law, or local law that prevents it.

Um government data is literally anything.

It's all data collected, created, received, maintained, or disseminated by any government entity, regardless of its physical form, storage media, or conditions of use.

So we're thinking talking about things such as paper, um, text messages, uh, emails, photographs, um, basically anything that you can think of as considered to be uh could be considered government data, and as such could be subject to the open um records law.

I could just have you advanced that only thanks.

I think it's true.

Okay.

Um that are sent, received, or posted by a public official related to official business or work product are considered to be government data and as such are subject to the Data Practices Act.

So we're talking about things such as emails, text messages, and social media posts.

So, in other words, um if you send an email uh in your in regards to your capacity on the citizens advisory in transit, or you send a staff member, or you send one, you send somebody else a text message, or you make a post uh on Facebook or social media about your work on the citizens advisory on transit.

I'm just gonna call CAT because that's easier to, and I think we all know what we're talking about.

Um that could be subject to the data practices law.

So somebody could make a data request, and we would be required most likely to provide them the email that you had sent or the text message that you had sent.

So just a friendly reminder that we wouldn't be looking at you know, emails that you're sending between your spouse or something that's not related to your professional capacity as a as a CAT board member, but when you're sending messages, um you're making posts on social media, um, just be very careful, make sure that they're respectful.

And I always advise boarding commission members against I don't can't infringe on your First Amendment rights, right?

Um, but I um oftentimes strongly um suggest that you not make public posts about your work on the citizen citizens advisory on transit um on social media uh and those sorts of things.

The ownership of the device doesn't matter.

So I know you all are probably given a city laptop or a city phone, but that doesn't matter.

It could be a text message or an email that is sent from your private device that's still subject to the data practices act.

How this would work is if for some reason somebody made a data request, we'll just say for all of the emails that Ken has sent in regards to his um time on the on a cat.

How this would work is if for some reason somebody made a data request, we'll just say for all of the emails that Ken has sent in regards to his time on the on a cat, what we would do is we would send a notice to Ken that would say, hey, any text messages or any emails that you have, you need to hold those.

You can't, you know, you can't delete them.

And if your emails are subject to some type of a retention period, we would ask that you archive them in some way or save them, print them, prevent them from getting automatically deleted after the six months or the 12 months or whatever your data retention is.

So it would be something that the city attorney's office would reach out to you and say, hey, we need to have you put a hold on this.

Again, rarely happens, especially with a uh, you know, a board like this, but I just want you to mostly be aware of of those types of things.

Um let's talk a little bit about the open meeting line.

We alluded to this a little bit earlier, but all meetings of the city councils, city committees, boards, commissions must be open to the public.

And what open to the public means that uh at least 72 hours in advance or three days in advance, uh notice of the meeting has to be given to the public.

Uh, and so how we how we typically do that is we uh adopt a meeting schedule, uh, which we were talking about earlier.

So what will happen is the board has made a decision to meet the second Thursday of every month.

So we'll publish it that to the public sooner rather than later.

So a member of the public knows when specifically when, where, and what time this board meets, and that satisfies our obligation.

Now, if for some reason the CAT decided it needed a special meeting, okay.

So there's a hot button topic that we need to set city staff need an input on, and we want to meet on the first Thursday of the month for some reason, then what we would have to do is we would need to make sure that we notice that meeting at least three days in advance.

Um, but doing it by schedule is just even a more transparent way of doing um business, and that is um my recommendation, and it's how a vast majority of boards and commissions within the city operate.

Public access to the meeting.

So members of the public have to have the opportunity to come in.

Uh as such, the doors are unlocked tonight.

Got chairs for member of the public to come in and um not necessarily speak at the meeting if they don't want to, but um listen to uh and see everything that's going on.

A public record of the votes taken during the meeting.

So uh when the chair says all in favor say aye, all opposed say nay, and then something to the fact that the motion passes unanimously, or the motion passes four to zero, or the motion passes um three to two, whatever that vote is, um, that's sort of um noting for the record what the vote was.

And keep in mind our little olive fringe here tonight is reporting everything that we um both audio and video recording everything that um uh it happens here tonight.

And then finally public access to the meeting materials.

So typically the materials are posted on the board of commission website, so any member of the public can not only look at the agenda, but they can also look at the packet materials.

So let me ask a question about that.

And I'm not trying to be a stickler here.

Yeah, but this presentation, why does it not why does it not count for public access to meeting materials?

Or maybe it does because it's on the video.

It's on the video, right?

Yep.

Um, the bottom point is a little is important here because public access does not mean the public has the right to speak or the right to speak or participate in the meeting.

Now you'll notice number three on tonight's agenda is an open comment period, which is a period of time that we elicit comment from the public.

Um please know that most um boards and commissions do offer an open comment period, but it's not a requirement.

We we do it just to welcome uh input from members of the community, but it's not necessarily a requirement.

Um so that is really the public's opportunity to come and could provide input to the to the board if they so choose.

So making a good record.

Um all meetings are recorded, both audio and video, and posted to the city of Rochester board and commission website after the meeting.

Another reason to make a good record is because city staff will go back and listen to the recording to put the meeting minutes together.

Um so that's why it's important um to you know, say motion passes unanimously, because when we say all in favor say aye, um if nobody says nay, then it's pretty clear that it's unanimous.

But I think just noting that you know, motion passes unanimously or motion passes four to one with board member so and so voting nay, just so that the record is extremely clear.

Especially if there are abstentions.

If there are abstentions or any time, you know, if it's a unanimous votes um saying that the result is uh unanimous is good.

But um sometimes if it's like a three-two vote or uh or a like a four-three vote.

There's seven of you on this on this commission, it's important to just otherwise it's hard to hear who votes I and who votes nay.

So typically we would just know who voted nay on that, um, just so that we um have a good record as to you know the outcome.

Um okay, we we talked about that.

Ensure all motions are noted for the record.

So this is another thing uh that the chair should be doing is we have a motion made by member so and so, seconded by so and so.

All in favor say aye, all opposed say nay.

Motion passes unanimously.

So just having the chair articulate who made the motion and who seconded really helps make a much clearer record.

Um sure the results of all motions are noted for the record.

I just talked about that.

Um, and then um the highlighting will mean something here in a minute.

But um, for example, the board chair states a motion made by board member A, second by board board member B.

That goes to ensuring all motions are noted on the record, and then um motion passes unanimously or motion passes six one with member C voting nay, that goes to ensuring the results are noted on the record.

Does that does that make sense?

It just really helps make a much clearer record because sometimes voices on the record, the camera's okay, but it it's it's not going to be able to pick up who's who's making the motion, who's seconding the motion, who's voting nay, who's abstention, you know, who who's abstaining, etc.

Okay.

Uh let's talk a little bit about a public meeting versus a public hearing.

And I um admittedly this is the first CAP meeting I've been to, so I don't know if you all have very many public hearings, probably not.

Um, but so maybe this is not super relevant to this board, but we'll go through it quickly.

Open comment period is a total of 15 minutes in length, and uh again, we can look at the bylaws, um, but typically each big speaker is limited to four minutes.

Okay.

Um the little asterisk there is it is important because it's uh if, for example, the board had a lot of members, a lot of people here that wanted to speak.

You had a somewhat hot topic item or somewhat of a controversial agenda item, and the open comment period was gonna clearly go longer than 15 minutes.

You all collectively as a board can make a vote to suspend the rules and allow an additional two minutes or allow an additional five minutes, but that vote has to be by a supermajority, which is a two-thirds.

So normally when you're voting to approve things, you're looking for a majority vote.

But in order to suspend the rules, you need to have a supermajority rule, a supermajority vote, which is a two-thirds vote.

Um if you are looking to suspend the rules, I always encourage board members to not only suspend the rules but to provide some parameters.

I make a motion to extend the open comment period for five minutes versus saying I make a motion to uh extend the open comment period period because that I mean, then you could go on forever.

Um so adding some type of a time element, like clearly if there's only one person left in their in the middle of their sentence, we'll let that person finish.

But if they have a lot more to say, um I would want the board to vote to extend the open comment period.

Any questions about open comment period?

And literally anybody can talk about whatever they want in the open comment period.

Okay.

So if they want to come and they want to write to you about how good their how bad their experience was on city bus or how bad their experience was with city transit or something like that.

We want positive experiences.

Right.

We we want positive experiences, but it's also an opportunity for members of the public to bring concerns, right?

To the board's uh attention.

So it need to be related to transit on the open on the open comment.

I'm just curious.

Um theoretically, no.

Um, but uh we obviously would expect it to be respectful.

Like if they come and they all they want to do is gripe about a city staff member, or they want to gripe about like I think we need to use our the chair, the chair would need to use their discretion as to whether or not that's appropriate.

Um but theoretically, if somebody wanted to come and talk about how great their trip to Well Disney World was, they can theoretically do that for their four minutes for their minute, right?

And then their their time.

I just wanted to, I just wanted to clarify.

Yeah.

And I would be go ahead.

And correct me if I'm wrong.

They they can make the comment and the committee can you know take it, you know, take it under advisement and say, we'll look into that and get back to you.

It doesn't need to derail the whole meeting in the interest of time.

Correct.

Open comment, and that's a good point is open comment period is an open comment period.

It's not a discussion, it's not the open comment discussion.

So really, and this is where sometimes things can go off the rails when there's somebody's coming and making a comment to the board.

This is really uh it's tempting to want to respond to that, right?

But that's not an opportunity that's not we we wouldn't want you to respond to that particular um commission member at that particular time because it's literally just an open comment period.

If you feel like there's some additional follow-up that needs to occur, um, I think it would be a good idea to add other business on the future agendas, and that would be a good time.

Uh, you know, so and so mentioned something during the open comment period, I think we should have additional discussion on that, or ask staff to do some follow-up on a particular issue, that would be a good opportunity to do that during open um uh other business.

So that if I understand correctly, out of discretion, of course, um if we already have another business section, then under the other business, after the open comment, if someone brings something up, we can, I'm not saying I would personally want to necessarily uh have a little bit of interaction in the in the sense of so and so mention this, uh we you know, we'll look into the yada yada.

Do I understand what you were saying correctly to sort of sort of thing?

Um I would say we wouldn't we wouldn't engage the member of the public at that point.

Um, but if somebody is you know, again, this is my first, but somebody's complaining about the cleanliness of a of a bus, or they're they're they're complaining about something, city staff might be able to say, yep, we're we're aware of that um and we're addressing it.

Or but it would not be a time to like have a discussion with the with the member of the public.

Yeah.

And could we maybe say it would we be able to before uh, for example, they know an open comment say something like um, I can't remember if it's by law or just by custom, but uh let's say custom uh by custom the the board does not uh respond to members of the public after their comments.

If you would like to hear uh the thoughts of one or more of us, um you may you may contact us at and then maybe you'll have a slide where whichever board members feel like giving their info out, decide to have theirs out there so that they could be contacted for follow-up.

I agree with the first part of your comment, um, where um if you feel like it would be you know parkour, for example, they make very clear at the beginning of their their meeting that the open comment period is an opportunity for members of the public to comment.

However, the board will not be providing any type of a response to that particular member.

So I would note that.

Secondly, because you all are um public volunteers, I guess if you will, one of the things that you did is is your email address is is public.

So all of those, uh all of your um information is accessible to the public.

We don't necessarily give out your email address, but it's more or less a click here, and it's kind of a a box that you would that the member would fill in and it it could potentially go to one of you.

So if you see an email from some type of an automated service, it's because a member of the public has that.

So the member of the public does not see our email address.

That's correct.

That's the best to uh that to the best of my knowledge, that is correct.

Like they the city has your email address, but it's more like a click here, and it's kind of like a you know, those little standardized forms where you put your subject line in and then you type your comment and you hit send, it sends to you, but they don't necessarily see what your actual email address is.

And what I would suggest is if you get something like that, um, that you uh Sandra, are you the main staff person?

It's us.

Okay, I would suggest that you forward that to the staff and ask them how to respond because what happens a lot of times is somebody may email all of you, right?

And I would just not want you all individually responding back to that person with inconsistencies.

Um so I think to really streamline all of this.

Um, like if somebody has a concern about something, um, and they contact one of you, please forward that on to the staff.

And if they feel like they need legal input on it, or they will they will handle it from there.

Does that make sense?

And it also affords us the opportunity, like we're not aware if somebody reached out to everybody, but if somebody did reach out to one of the committee members and we could re we could then send a response to everyone.

And Brent, I apologize, I haven't fully reviewed your presentation.

Yeah.

But it's also a really good opportunity to to outline, you know, um, that we should never be sending an email with everybody on the committee on that email.

Um so anytime you were to email, it would be directly to staff.

And then if we were to email everyone, it would be in a uh blind carbon copy situation.

So you wouldn't be able to respond back because as soon as you reply all, you've officially had a meeting.

Um in a sense, you've had a public, you've had a gathering.

Um sorry, are you saying that those of us who are trying to like ask things of the other members like our are you don't want us to send it?

Correct.

You are not you're not supposed to be kind of colluding outside a public setting.

Yeah, so you're not supposed to send me a note about anything that's on the agenda.

We're supposed to talk about it here because if we talk about it, it's public record correct.

And that like if you guys run into each other at Trader Joe's, you can say hi and you can have interactions, but you can't have discussions referring to this.

Okay.

And that's a very and it is in my presentation later on, but it is a very it's if you're gonna take one thing out of this presentation, that's probably it, is do not email um all of the other board members, um, because that is uh that would be a definite open meeting law violation.

So that's why I'm suggesting is if you get an email, send it directly to staff.

Don't include the other board members uh on that.

Okay, so and so what if there's like a doubt about whether we'll be able to have have a quorum?

Like, is it okay just to check on in debate?

No, that is our responsibility as the staff to to determine if there's a quorum available.

Yep.

It's not the responsibility of the board.

Okay, that's done.

Yep.

So if you for some reason, if you can't make a meeting, now that we're going to monthly meetings, you're gonna have more meetings.

If you can't make a meeting, and even if you uh communicate that to the staff, um, because if we can't get a quorum, there's seven of you on the seven on the on the board.

So we need at least four in order to have a quorum.

So it is important for staff to know that um you know you're not gonna be there just to make sure that there's a quorum.

So then hypothetically, if if say we're at uh, you know, if there are seven members and three people can't make it, uh, and then you just find out that um the the fourth person can't make it, uh, and then you know there's another person who says, I'm not sure if I'm going to make it, I'll have to make a really big sacrifice, like some big sacrifice, but I intend to, will you be able to then tell them we already do not have a quorum?

So that we could communicate that we can still meet without a quorum, you just can't vote.

So we could still meet and have an informational meeting and like and but we wouldn't be able to vote on anything on the agenda, which means fundamentally the following meeting, you would be approving two sets of of minutes, or you know, like you'd be approving um the things from the previous meeting as well.

Yes, what I what I mean is if in such a scenario, we would you be able to inform the person we don't have a quorum, like because we don't want to have somebody, I don't know, uh end up frustrated with how with that.

Right.

So if that were to happen, like that individual on the committee would let the staff member know, like that let me and Sandra know, and then we would let the committee know that we wouldn't be having a quorum, but we would like to still meet to have an informational meeting.

And and I um just to give you an example, it's only happened to me once, but one time at one of the boards that I advised, uh one of the members was planning on um being remote.

And I I think it was maybe the roads were bad or something, and they they were in Rochester, but they just um wanted to attend remote.

And it got to the point where we didn't have a quorum.

So we literally called that person up and say, hey, um, we've got some time-sensitive items on our agenda tonight.

Is there any way you'd be willing to drive down to City Hall?

Yep, no problem, give me 15 minutes.

And so we just pause the meeting for 15 minutes, that person came in, then we had a quorum and we could continue forward.

So you can't vote remotely.

That's true.

Uh okay.

Yeah.

And I can't like I should basically recap one of the things is I shouldn't be texting Jesse about like train station or like anything, a relatives meeting, I shouldn't you can't talk about that.

Correct.

I would suggest that you not talk about anything.

Um I do have a slide on this.

I would suggest that you not talk about anything that is that has been before the board, or certainly nothing that's gonna come before the board.

Okay.

So once you get the agenda, um the worst thing you could do is say, hey Jesse, what do you think about agenda item six?

Or how do you how do you think how do you think we should address that tonight?

Like that is a big big no-no.

Um like if public can with you, but a map another member cannot with you as a member, correct?

If a member of, yeah, right.

If a member saw the agenda and said, I have some input on agenda item six, they email you, no problem.

I would also just ask that you forward that information on to the staff, because there's a potential that information is important, and if if you're the only one that's receiving that information, nobody else knows about it unless you forward it to the staff.

And if staff says, you know, this is really important information, maybe they would then include it in the packet, or they would print off the email and provide a copy to you all so that you can all have the same information when you're making the decision.

Okay.

And if people in the public are asking us for opinions on like the zips program or something, we shouldn't not talk about it, or just on the meeting.

If somebody's asking a question about uh a member of the public is asking you a question about public transit, answer it.

Okay, that's why we have you guys here.

We want you to be advocates for our public transportation system to be able to be kind of conduits of information.

It's just talking to each other.

Yeah, okay.

That makes sense.

And if somebody provides really good input to you, like advice that you think should be shared amongst a concern or whatever it is, like just really the point is use use staff.

That's why that's why they're here for you, and they will make sure that and maybe they just make a determination, you know what?

That's maybe not something that goes out to the entire board.

Um, but that doesn't prevent you from bringing it up during the discussion, right?

Like I would encourage you, like if you think a member of the public has provided something important to you, bring it up during the discussion.

Okay, it makes sense.

One thing I would would note on that.

Um, it's not necessary, and actually, you know, I'm gonna reserve that thought to we actually get to the slide on the top story.

Okay, all right.

Any other um let's uh we're sticking on that for so long, yeah.

No, and it's it's important, that's why I think it was worth our time.

Yeah, public hearing procedure.

Um, we're gonna go through this quickly um because it's my understanding you guys don't have a lot of public hearing here, but um public hearing is basically um it's an opportunity where um members of the public get to comment on a particular agenda item.

Okay, uh so the chair would introduce the public hearing, and then city staff would make the presentation, board members would ask staff questions about the presentation that staff had just made, and then the applicant uh gets a 10-minute presentation.

So, like in the planning and zoning context, if somebody's asking for a major modification or some type of a um, they have they have a request, then they give a 10-minute presentation to the board, and then the public hearing then gets opened.

Each member of the public would get five minutes to speak.

Uh, again, this is a time for public comment and not a debate.

Um, the chair would close the public hearing, and then the applicant gets a five-minute rebuttal.

So the idea is the applicant could address anything that members of the public brought up, and then uh board members ask additional questions.

There's a motion and a second, and then there's a discussion.

Um, and that's kind of uh, and then finally there's a vote.

Um so a lot of times what I see is the discussion starting before a motion is made.

Okay, but I according to Robert's rules, best practice would be to have somebody make a motion to second that motion.

Is there any further discussion at that point, then the discussion occurs.

That's that's really how Robert's rules was designed is to have a motion, a second, and then the discussion.

A lot of times I see discussion, then a motion, then a second, and then a vote.

So really we want to have and I would encourage you all not don't be afraid to make motions, um, even if you think you might be in the minority, right?

Because it's really important to get a motion on the table.

Um, because if everybody else disagrees with you, nobody's gonna second it, right?

And if nobody seconds it, then the motion dies.

And then somebody who has kind of on the other side of the issue, then you would make a motion that would inevitably get seconded, and then you would have that discussion.

And you can make a second on a motion and still vote against it.

Correct.

So if you wanted to open something up for the discussion and there wasn't a second, you could second discuss and still not vote for it.

Seconding is just um saying, yeah, I want to, I want to, I want to um discuss this more.

I want to learn more about I want to discuss the topic more.

So that's correct.

That's and that's an important point that a second does not necessarily mean that you're in favor of it.

It's just saying, hey, I want to have more discussion on this.

Um final point I'll make on the public hearing procedure is if you wanted to kind of see how this works in action, I'd go on to the city's website and look at one of the prior planning zone planning and zoning.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Commission meetings.

Um, and they have a lot of public hearings.

And I'm thinking back to last night, we had like five of them on the agenda last night.

Um so if you want to see kind of how this works in practice, that would be a good thing.

Um moving on here.

Okay, this is what we were talking about a little bit earlier.

So um quorums outside of scheduled meetings.

So you can, and I don't think this is going to happen, but sometimes, like at least in a parking rec context, there's some type of a public event.

They're gonna dedicate a new park, or there's the new statue going in or something.

Um everybody wants to be at the grand opening of Soldiers Field or Silver Lake or whatever it is.

Everybody could theoretically go to that event, but certainly would not want to have any type of discussion about anything that has come before the board.

Um, if that makes sense or anything that is is set to come before the board.

Um talked about that.

Um this is one of the little exceptions is um Parker, right?

Um if you said, hey Jesse, I'm running 10 minutes, you know, I'm running 10 minutes late.

Oh yeah, that would be okay.

Okay.

Um transitory type of information, but it really needs to be limited to that.

Like I hey, I'm gonna be at the meeting, but I'm running 10 minutes late, or hey, I'm at the door and it's locked for some reason.

Can you have somebody come help me?

Like don't um feel like you have to like try to look up staff's email.

You know what I mean?

Like if it's easier to uh text Jesse or Jesse to text you, or I don't know what all the connections are here, but transitory information is okay.

Okay.

But the that or the agenda thing, and that's seems a little bit different from transitory.

Yeah, I I um I kind of agree with you.

Um, I think maybe um that probably should be taken out.

I um, you know, it's not really anything substantive.

So for example, um if you were discouraged where I prohibit the fact that right, right.

So for example, sometimes if you think there's a hot button I there's a hot topic item, right?

And it's the last thing on the agenda, maybe somebody would say, hey, I think we should make that the first thing on the agenda.

So you don't have to let the member we don't have to make members of the public wait the entire hour and then have us let's deal with the hot button item first.

Some of the people will then clear out and we're kind of doing a public more of a service.

So I think it's a public service also to send that request to change that order ahead of time because some members of the public may come in at 5 30 instead of five specifically because they don't have time to do everything out of there for that one specific item, whereas if in the heat of the moment at 501 change it to be at being at 505, they're gonna miss it.

And I think that's something that you need to consider, like uh right.

So if if something is um lapsed on the agenda, you're there might be people that say, you know what, uh, I'm gonna if I show up 10 minutes late, I should still be okay.

Um, but if you move that up earlier in the agenda, they could miss it.

So I for the most part would um encourage you to not make major changes to the order of the agenda.

I think staff generally does a good job putting things in a particular um order.

Um but technically um you said, hey, I think we should move this up.

What do you think?

Technically not a violence.

Okay.

I think we got that.

Um cannot email a quorum about city business.

So this is um really what we've been talking about, is um don't want you emailing each other about about city business, and then a string meeting.

So what a string meeting is uh I'm gonna try to get um Derek, right?

So if Derek were to email Jesse, and then Jesse were to email Mike and Mike were to email Ken and Ken were to email Parker.

Um even though you all five are not on the same email, information is being shared amongst a quorum of you, and that would be considered a string meeting.

So I've actually had this happen before where a chair of a border commission emailed each member individually, right?

That is an open meeting.

That would be a hand meeting, not a strong video.

String is me on the meeting.

Yeah, so um don't do that.

Um questions about this slide.

All right, let's keep moving.

So these like misdemeanors or something.

Like you probably um I'm not sure that it's a big of an issue for you.

It's probably a bigger issue for the city.

Oh, right.

Yeah.

Um, because we're um the the stupid, I mean, to be frank with you, the city could potentially get sued over something like that, where um, you know, we're a government entity, we have an obligation to have public meetings that are open to the public.

Um, so it's a bigger issue for the the city than probably you individually.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's it.

I'll try to add more work on your plate.

Right, yeah.

I know we've had a lot of discussion on this, but this is probably the most if one of the most most important slides in this presentation.

I would say it is the most important.

So and and I would encourage you that like I know this is a lot of information that you're getting tonight, and there's some very new members to the board, and you haven't been meeting just but quarterly, right?

Um, so once you I would just say if you have questions, um reach out to staff.

Um reach out to Rachel, reach out to Sandra, and if they have a question they can't answer, they know how to get in touch with me, and we can get you that that clarity.

Um, I would also say that moving to monthly meetings, you're gonna become it's gonna become much more regular to you, and you're gonna kind of get the flow of meetings down and how motions are made and how the record is you know made.

So I think doing monthly meetings, you're gonna become much more proficient in in doing this work than otherwise a quarterly.

Okay.

Um Robert's rules of procedure.

So we're not gonna spend a lot of time on this.

It sounds like Mike is fairly comfortable with Robert's rules of procedure.

Um, but I think an important part on there is to keep it to keep it simple.

Okay.

Um, because sometimes when we get motions that are too complex or it just um it can sort of muddy the water to some extent.

So I think making simple motions um is is really um important.

Um a lot of times, um if you're being uh I think this is more of a it's more of an advisory, it's an advisory commission where you're your staff is asking you, hey, what do you think about this?

And you all are providing insight input as to kind of which direction you think the city should go on a particular transit topic.

Okay.

Um, however, sometimes if you're ever in a position to vote yes or no on a particular item, okay, like the uh yes, we're gonna approve this or no, we're not gonna approve this, okay.

If you ever get put in that position, um if you say I make a motion to approve per staff facts and findings, that's staff, one of staff's favorite things to hear.

Okay, because basically if they're making a they will make a recommendation, we suggest you um we recommend that you approve this because X, Y, and Z.

Okay.

If you say I make a motion to approve X, Y, and Z because of X, Y, and Z, then we can just use the staff report as the basis for making for the approval.

Okay.

If you disagree with staff, okay, and you make a motion to deny the request, it would be very important that you articulate why you're making that motion to deny it, just so that the record is clear.

Um, is there a particular criteria that you know that aren't being that the staff think that are being met, that you don't think are being met, it would just be important to articulate why um you don't think the criteria, if you will, has been met.

Does that make sense?

And as as Brent transitions to the next slide, we really want this this commission to be a solid advisory committee.

And so when we do make recommendations to council, we can say this was supported by the CAT committee, or the CAT committee said no.

Right.

Um, which happens a lot in planning and zoning commissions.

So if somebody's like filing to have a uh something a plat rezoned, and they would go that would have to go on to council, but they would say the planning and zoning commission did like was out in favor of this.

So do we have you said approval the stuff for informational violenations?

No, only on things that we vote on, and so we'd be requesting a vote uh for those agenda items.

And sort of an advice, sort of, and if you all are sort of an advisor to the city staff and to some extent also the city council, because if you were asked to vote on something, it would be a rec your vote would be a recommendation to the city council.

And it would be part of those that formal um agenda item that we would submit to council.

It would indicate whether or not the CAT committee is supported or um denied.

So the most basic is I move that or I make a motion to.

That's how a motion typically starts.

I move that or I make a motion.

Okay.

And then you articulate what your motion is.

Again, simple as good.

Then that gets a second and then discussion and then vote.

I also heard something tonight of a point of order.

Okay.

So if you feel like the discussion is kind of going off track, right?

Or you're getting outside of the bounds of what you've been asked to decide.

Somebody might say point of order to kind of try to bring the discussion, refocus the discussion on really what is being asked of you.

Point of information might be you're having a discussion and you feel like you need some more information from staff.

You just have you say you know, point or uh uh point of information, and then you would ask a question.

So we're not gonna go through all of this.

Another thing that I would maybe mentioned is um sometimes what I've seen is after a while, discussion can kind of become cyclical in effect.

So you kind of start discussing one thing, and then all of a sudden you're starting to discuss the same thing that you discussed five minutes ago, and you're not not really making any new progress.

If you feel like okay, the discussion is done, everybody has had a chance to articulate what they want, you could say uh I'm moved to call the question, which basically signals to the chair.

I think the discussion is done at this point.

I'm asking for the chair to call for a motion, uh, or I'm sorry, the motion argument would call for vote.

Does that make sense?

I think that's a really useful tool, and I think it's a tool that can be underutilized.

Um obviously, if you're two minutes into the discussion, maybe not the appropriate time, but if you're like I've had discussions go 30 or 40 minutes, and I'm just like waiting for somebody to say, okay, um, you know, I make a motion to call a question because like we're talking about the same things that we've been talking about for last 20 minutes.

So it can be a useful tool.

Um if I don't see them there.

Um I don't know if it's necessarily um there's a lot of things.

Yeah, this is yeah, this is just cheating.

I'm just trying to put our people.

Yeah, okay, but it is pretty similar to closure then like I'm not sure.

I I don't I don't know enough about some of this stuff, Robert.

Like, are you able to um object to calling the question that's in?

You would if there's not a there's not a discussion on it, but if you object, it can either not be seconded or it can just die and vote.

Right.

And a lot of the discretion goes to the chair too, right?

Like if the chair says, you know, yeah, I I think it's um yeah, please I'll leave it at that.

Okay, okay.

All right.

Um we're getting towards the end of my presentation here, but um just remember about conflicts of interests.

So um, and I'm gonna actually just put this up here.

There, the the city ordinance actually um lists out different conflicts of interest, and it's primarily a monetary interest.

So if for some reason you have, and again, I don't know all of the different things that you advise the city on, I know it's transit, but for some reason, if you had a monetary interest in the decision that was gonna be made by the commission or the board, that may be an opportunity for you to want to recuse yourself from that discussion.

Um if you have questions about needing to recuse yourself, just reach out to the staff and we can ask for the conversations.

For example, um, I've just used this because it comes up all the time.

Just because there's a topic that is male clinic related and you happen to work at the mail clinic doesn't necessarily mean that you have to recuse yourself.

Okay, but if it was a mail clinic topic and that is you're in the transportation department at Mayo Clinic, and this is you know about BRT, or you you worked on you've worked on some aspects of what you're being asked to vote on, that is probably an opportunity for you to recuse yourself.

But just because you you were or you volunteer for an organization doesn't necessarily mean that you have to recuse yourself, it's just not a case-by-case basis.

Does that make sense?

Yes.

All right.

Um, I think we're gonna talk about yeah, abstentions versus recusals.

Okay.

So let's talk about an abstention versus a recusal.

They are distinct things.

So abstention.

So this is choosing not to vote either for or against a motion for whatever reason.

It's a way of not taking a position.

Okay.

So for whatever reason, um you just don't want to vote on a particular topic, um, that would be an abstention.

Okay.

I would um I would say that I would encourage you to use abstentions, rarely.

Um, because really you have been put on this board to make decisions, um, and would encourage you to um vote on agenda items if you can.

Um the note is by virtue of being on the board, you have a right to vote on everything on the agenda.

Okay.

So what I see where I see abstentions a lot of the time is um during the approval of the minutes from the last meeting.

Okay.

So somebody wasn't at the last meeting, okay.

They didn't go back and review the video, so they would abstain because they don't know whether or not the content in the minutes is accurate or not, because they weren't there and they didn't go listen to the video.

Okay.

However, I want you to know that even if you weren't at the last meeting, and even if you didn't look at the minutes, by virtue of being on this board, you still have a right to vote.

Okay.

However, as I noted up there, best practice would be, and I think arguably your obligation, if you miss if you miss a meeting to go back and to listen to the recording of that meeting, just so that you know what happened, that allows you to confidently vote on the minutes.

And sometimes there's overlap between meetings, right?

Especially now that you're going to monthly, where maybe something on the January agenda bleeds into the February agenda.

And if you didn't take the time to go back and listen to January, you might be entering the February meeting with not all of the not having all of the information.

Does that make sense?

So while it's not a requirement, I I would um highly encourage you to take the time and go look at uh at the prior recording if you were having to miss a meeting.

Did you have a question?

Okay.

Um finally, recusal.

Uh so recusal would be because of a conflict of interest.

Um if you were to recuse yourself, kind of in this setting in room 104, um, I would suggest that you just articulate to the board that um, you know, I have a personal connection to this topic or whatever that is, you don't need to go into a lot of detail that you're recusing yourself.

Then what I would ask is that you like actually just leave, leave the room completely, just go hang out on the atrium out there, and when that uh agenda item is done, we would come back and get you and we would we would bring you back into the room.

That way there's no appearance of impropriety.

Like even if you're sitting in the back row, you can still be making facial expressions, kind of expressing your you know, approval or disapproval or something like that.

So, really the best practice is to just leave the table, leave the discussion completely, go somewhere else, we'll come get you in, and we'll go ready for you to come back in.

And a recruit a recusal is typically just on a particular agenda item.

You don't have to recuse yourself from the entire meeting just because there's something at that meeting that you have a conflict with.

It's likely just one agenda item that you are recusing yourself from.

Okay.

Um you all have filled out an ethics disclosure form.

Um, I'm not gonna go too much more into that.

Um we talked about this a little bit, but basically, um your email address is your the city does not um actively publish your information to the public.

Okay, but just know that your email information um you are you can be emailed by a member of the public, and theoretically, if somebody made a data request for your personal email information, we would be required to provide that to them.

But regarding things that have to do with this committee only, correct?

Like as far as the public yeah, that somebody requested something about emails that you may have sent, but theoretically, if somebody asks that I want um Michael's email address, theoretically, we would have to provide that to a member of the public because it's public data.

Excellent.

Okay.

Um there a way to that we can check and uh see which email and information it is uh that that is that they would send to the public if they were given a request that way we can change it if we need a different email.

If you would like a different email address to be used specifically for this, I would recommend sending setting one up and asking for that that would be the one that is used.

Because currently, currently per public records laws, you sending us an email on your current email address right now opens, like we would have to provide that email address that's on like in our files, right?

Right.

And so do you all get emails as to when the agenda is published and that sort of thing?

If you don't get signed up for those, um, and that's likely the email address that the city has on the file for you.

So whatever email address you're getting agendas to now is the email address on file.

And if you wish to change that, uh reach out to um probably the city it's the clerk's office.

Or through transit, and they can get you to the right person.

But really, whatever you put on your um application is what the city will use unless you tell us otherwise.

And I think it's important, like if somebody were to put in a public records request, it would have to be specific.

Correct.

It you know, it wouldn't be I want all of Jeffy's emails that he's ever sent from his his email address.

There they're they're even date range specific.

So it would have to be like, I want correspondence regarding this from this date to that date.

And truthfully, in a lot of those situations, there's none.

Right.

Um, so that doesn't happen very commonly.

Okay, that's all I have.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you, Brandon.

Thank you.

Thanks for thank you, uh the attorney.

You bet.

Did I thank you?

That's right.

Do you any uh do any of the members of the uh committee have any questions for the deputy attorney?

Um Jesse just mentioned um a point of discussion or next meeting to be on um social media presence to encourage broader engagement with the public in a form like that, if um we were all above it.

Well, and and Brett touched on that in like we we asked that you kind of refrain from from those interactions in social media because if you were to comment on something and then you know somebody else with the committee were to comment on there too, then suddenly now you've effectively had a public meeting.

Yeah, sure.

Right.

So like if if the if the cat had its own Facebook page and you had a staff member that was putting posts on, like you know, results from the cat meeting last night, and then all of a sudden you started to comment on it, and then Jesse commented on it.

Like we we get into trouble very quickly under those types of circumstances.

So that's why, like, yes, the city of Rochester has a Facebook page, but we have Rachel knows this very well.

We have a whole communications team that decides what goes on the Facebook page and comments are disabled, and there's a whole bunch of parameters around that.

So individual boards and commissions typically don't.

I think some of the more public-facing city departments, such as the police department or the fire department have their own individual pages.

I can tell you the city attorney's office does not have its own page.

Um so we're we're very careful as to what it's posted to social media.

Yeah, that that makes sense why there wouldn't uh why there would be a hesitancy around such things to such an extent that as of now that they generally don't exist.

I could imagine a logistical way using city staff and specific consensus on particular posts like by the committee at a meeting with a prohibition on any commenting on it on the post by the members of the committee, how it could it could work and fulfill all the logistics and standards, but it makes sense why you know that that requires intentionality, so you know, none of the committees probably are gonna do that unless they feel like well, and we would it's not under best practice, and the city doesn't allow like a board or permission to have their own social media.

Is there a specific place where that is written down official policy?

It's it's just a best practice because what it would do is open like everything on social media is public record, which means we have to log everything that's posted on those pages.

So we have screen recorders and everything.

So everything that's posted is retained because that becomes public record the moment any post goes up, but it is not within the best practice to have boards to have their own.

And like it would go against what you would consider like a good social media, but you'd have what like what would you how many posts would you have and like what what would that engagement look like?

Because you as board members could not run or engage on that page.

And is does RPT have like an Instagram page or pisser page or something?

We RPT has a Facebook page.

So we can maybe make advice to that or something.

Yeah, but I mean our own maybe.

I I guess the thing is that's puzzling me though, is that you know, we're we're the citizens advisor in transit and thus our very nature is to be a conduit.

And so how do you you know the you have two competing challenges here, right?

One of which is um, you know, following you know different best practices, avoiding any avoiding the risk of anything happening that would be acting as though you're at a meeting doing uh when you're not at a meeting and thus you know, creating some creating a public records headache for somebody.

Um and then on the other hand being not just theoretically accessible, but obvious to the public.

Right.

And um, you know, I don't want to interrupt you, Jesse, but we do we did add this to the agenda.

And so if we want to discuss this, we would we would want to discuss that in that portion of the agenda.

Agreed.

Okay.

So we have four more agenda items on hand.

Point of information.

Um is there anything on here that needs to be voted on this month?

I would say if we wanted to to flex specific items for the future agenda, that could be an item we'd vote on.

So are you asked it?

Do we want to vote to move that up in the agenda?

Well, yes, correct.

If we have something that needs to be voted on this month, my recommendation would be to do that.

But I my point of information is to staff to see if any of these things do need to be voted on this month, because I I will then make a motion to push everything that doesn't need to be voted on this month to next next month's agenda.

I was just about to say, just to move spectrum everybody's do we meet the one that'll go through anything next on the agenda.

Uh we table it for next meeting.

Yeah, so you would have you would move to table the remaining items up if and then just we could we go over future agenda items, which would now include the tabled items.

So I move to table all additional items to January.

The very second push function meeting.

Second is there any discussion?

I would like to make a brief discussion um point out of the um the the agenda items here you meant uh that that we would skip.

It is there one of them that even if it's not required to have a vote that you believe is time sensitive.

The only thing is if we want to look over the future agenda items slide.

If you guys want to look at suggestions for the next meeting, obviously it would be false service changes zip, secretary, um, and any additional staff updates, but if there's something specifically like a social media conversation that we want to as a board discuss and get out of the agenda, we would do that now.

Okay, so that that being said, I believe I'm not able to make a motion here.

So is that does the motion stand as put or is there a motion to amend the motion?

Oh, I will I will by acclimation, I will change my change my motion to pull future agenda items discussion off.

Does that does that make sense to remove future agenda items discussion from the postponement to next meeting?

Right.

And you could you could say I move to table items eight, nine, and ten until the January meeting.

So by acclamation, I move to change the uh motion to table items eight, nine, and ten until the January meeting.

All right, any other discussion?

The second means to agree.

A second part, sorry.

Any discussion?

Seeing none, all in favor, say aye.

Aye post nay seeing none with this unanimous vote.

Um the items, uh let's see that items eight, nine, and ten.

And well, these are the ones that were marked there.

Uh are set a post are tabled and postponed to the next meeting.

Um point of information.

Did we did you also postpone the you did postpone social media one in that motion, correct?

Or did we mess up and need to make any motion to postpone that?

I I think I remember you saying that after staff updates, which was under number 10, that social media and miscellaneous discussion would occur.

So I'm changing other business, but yeah, I think that tabled that we did table those.

Okay, I just want to make sure the motion did table those correctly.

Fairwell.

Then we are at future agenda items.

So we already have a pretty loaded agenda for the next meeting.

Um, but kind of um some we're working on a monthly report, and if we switch to a monthly meeting, we would be able to provide a monthly report on um on what's going on in transit.

So it'll give you um what our ridership data is for that month, um, if we had any missed trips or what our on-time status was, and especially like this participation is something we look at for that.

So that is one thing we can add, start adding to the agenda moving forward is just having a monthly report.

Um so we did go out for RFP, which is a request for proposal for a new operator.

Um, well, we're about to go out for RFP um for a new operator for our transit system.

Uh our existing contract is a 10-year contract, and we're at that 10 year mark, and so we're going out to bid.

The existing contractor can put in uh to bid again, so we can provide an update, it'll be out at that time, and we can go over some of those those items within that.

Um what we won't be able to discuss in January would be if anybody submitted a bid or have any discussion on that.

So we could move that to March or something like that as well.

Um request for what?

Request for proposals.

Yeah, so that's when you like to submit bids to be able to um to have a contract with the city.

Or I mean, in this situation, we're the ones putting out the request for proposals, but it could be a private entity too.

Um, and then uh we'll be working on the outreach for the spring service updates in January.

And so this would be an opportunity at our next meeting.

If there's anything you want to ensure it's reflected in the survey that we put out, um, we could discuss it at the next meeting.

Um, or if there's anything you want to ensure that is considered with our spring service updates, so I would consider that be part of the next agenda.

Um, and then an update on link and our other projects, um, which could be like the Sixth Avenue or the Sixth Street project.

Um something that we're actively looking at right now is incidental usage, which is utilizing transit space outside of transit use.

And so it's not a great example, but an example that FTA provides is like, do we offer up like somebody to set up a coffee stand next to one of our park and ride locations?

Um and then we could lease out a portion of that space and collect some additional revenue.

That individual is able to like promote their small business.

Um, so and you know, what are some creative ways that we could collect additional revenue for the transit system?

So that's something we could brainstorm um in the future and you know uh bring in any ideas and potentially implement them.

And then the city is additionally brought on a new staff member, and that title is the mode shift coordinator.

And so effectively they've been brought on to help promote bicycle pedestrian in transit in lieu of traditional vehicle travel.

Um, and so he's really enthusiastic and he'd love to come and speak with you all in January.

So if that's approved, he's already accepted that that time slot and would love to come then.

So did you have anything else, Sandra?

No.

Okay.

Okay, so those are all the potential future agenda items, and we have the items that in the original form of the agenda, right, were labeled eight, nine, and ten, as well as the secretary appearance.

Sorry.

The secretary appointment as well.

Oh, yes, as well as the secretary appointments.

And and these are just suggestions.

Yes, and these don't have to be in January.

These are just ideas.

Okay, yes.

So the ones we have actually pointing to January already are the ones that were currently labeled eight.

Uh sorry, false service update, October monthly report, zenith updates, staff updates, social media presence, and uh secretary appointments.

Um now we have those um future agenda items.

So the if I understand correctly, well, it is is there any firstly, is there any motion to undue or amend the um the postponement of the aforementioned agenda items to January before we just discuss these?

I don't know that the chair can ask that question about a to see if there's basically isn't the chair asking someone to undo a motion that was previously voted on.

My apologies for miscommunicated.

What I just wanted to make sure that we dealt with that I that if there was any reason to deal with these, that that is a separate question from individually discussing these.

I don't have any reason to do so.

I just wanted to go through the procedure properly.

My apologies.

I think I think I agenda items eight, nine, and ten have been properly tabled to the January meeting.

Um and I I'm um about adding, not subtract.

Very good.

Yeah, yeah.

And I would say that uh my opinion would be is um, and I'm not even sure that the board needs to take a vote on these, but is there maybe it sounds like we we have a pretty big agenda coming up in January?

Is there any of these things that you're particular?

Like maybe Rachel is recommending they bring back or that you all have a particular interest just to kind of uh my recommendation would be to move the mode shift coordinator until February because that one will no doubt be it'll take some time longer and it will likely get a lot of conversation with the board.

So the timing, I think that to be respectful, we should move the my recommendation would be to push that off until second February.

I don't even know that that's a motion.

Oh that's just a recommendation staff.

Yeah.

And like again, you don't necessarily have to vote on anything these things, but it is if you wanted to give input and suggestions for us to build the next agenda, this would be an appropriate forum for that.

Um, additionally, if there are any items that are not reflected up here and not tabled to the next meeting, this is a good opportunity to bring those up as well.

Okay, so yeah, I'll do the other items.

Actually, yeah, yeah.

So, firstly, is there any motion to add any item that has not been mentioned to the agenda for January?

Could we adjust like the monthly reports be like a combination of like the last you can like overview the last year and like the fall and December?

We can, yeah, that January is a great time.

So um we can work on providing it, will at least be 11 months of the year.

I can't guarantee we'll have December stata available at the next meeting, but we would be able to at least do most of the the previous year.

Um, but I think that's a great recommendation and a way to introduce that too.

Sweet.

And again, it could be an item that maybe you don't even have discussion, it just could be part of the packet.

And if you wanted to discuss it, you could bring it up in other business.

Okay, sounds good.

And it keeps you all in the loop as to ridership data and that sort of thing.

And I'm just thinking again, don't have a lot of experience here, but the airport commission, for example, one of the first things they do is they go over the operational data of the airport.

What were the employments, the deployments, what was the load factor for Delta American?

And it's not like something that the board or commission votes on, it's more or less an FYI for the for you all to stay kind of apprised as to what's going on within transit, for example.

Um, so that would maybe be, you know, like in March, Rachel presents the January that you know, I mean it what maybe a two-month leg or however that however the data works um to kind of just keep you apprised of the ridership and yeah, whatever data else data they are wanting to share.

That makes sense yeah, I I think so.

So do I understand correctly that your desire is to have on the agenda for next meeting just a report about the last year with the specifics done at the discretion of staff?

Yes.

And you you don't have to go.

We don't have just a recommendation, anything else, just a recommendation.

And so what I'm gathering right now is what we can do an annual report at the next meeting.

I think that's a really good suggestion.

Um, and then probably we'd like to probably cover the spring service updates as well, just because those survey that survey will start going out the week after your next meeting.

So it'd be good to ensure that you have input on what that survey looks like before we put it um out to the public.

So we'll have the fall service and the spring service, change update and spring service.

Okay.

Um is wait, so it doesn't require a motion for that.

Okay.

And does anyone have any does anyone believe we should have any of the others?

Your you already suggested motion coordinator go to February, which we all agreed with incidental usage or RMP update or linking other project updates.

Does anyone have a reason to have them at the January meeting or at a different meeting in particular?

Can we already have something?

Link updates that I was just gonna say link updates we already have.

Yeah.

And if you would like constant link updates, there's a newsletter that goes out every Friday.

So you can sign up for that on the link website as well.

Very well.

So no motions are no motions are required.

So those ones will probably at the discretion of staff.

At discussion of staff.

Just the recoup when I'm here, and we will do a year and we for 2025.

And then we'll do a full service change updates and spring updates.

Yeah, the false service already got moved.

Yeah to the next meeting.

So okay.

That's fine.

Well, and Paul.

Okay.

Those are the two items we have for the next the new items.

Let's see the two new items.

Very well.

Okay.

Are there is there any discussion remaining on this matter of future agenda items?

Because remember, we cannot talk to each other once this meeting is over.

You can talk to staff, but not me.

Right.

And you can send if there's something, you can always send a direct email to me and Sandra, and we can ensure that it appears if you feel like that we all have to know something and you you know talk to them.

And it's also just a good reminder that you're going to be having an opportunity, at least on a monthly basis, to propose new agenda items.

So maybe this seems a little bit new tonight, but maybe within the next month you're thinking about, oh, somebody talk to me about this, or this is something I've experienced or heard about.

This would be a this would be your opportunity to hey staff, I would like an update on this.

Um or yeah, just an opportunity to provide some input as to what future agendas might contain.

Yeah, on that matter then, to make sure that everyone, in case anyone hasn't spoken up to make sure the communication will go well.

Um I know I have your um phone number and email Sandra on the website.

I did not find yours, Rachel.

Are you I'm well I'm in your in the emails that you guys all got, but we can ensure that you have my um contact information.

It's okay, because on the website had staff representative Sandra and Oxen.

Yep, I'm you.

Okay.

I often don't remember, so I I I didn't want to proceed to thank you very much.

Um all right, so if you want to send an email there.

Um is there any other discussion?

Is there a motion to adjourn?

So we'll I believe that is there, is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion?

See none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Right.

Would that you ask vote we adjourned?

Good.

Thanks everyone.

Thank you, Brett.

Okay.