Okay, it is uh 6 30 Wednesday, June 24th.

Uh this is the appointments committee.

Uh and uh we'll call this meeting to order.

Uh Angelina, would you be kind enough to call the role?

Sure.

Um Bradford.

Oh.

Camper?

I'm sorry.

Present.

Okay.

Uh Felix Gardner.

Present.

Uh Wenton Hill.

President.

Okay.

Laurie Hyatt says she'll be late.

Um also Bobby Pavia will be late.

Um Stephen Shore.

Present.

Candice Weathers.

She was on the screen, yeah.

So she speaks to mute.

There she is.

Candace.

President.

Oh, okay.

And Carl Weinberg.

President.

Okay.

Is that a quorum?

Yes, you you do have a quorum.

Okay, so we'll proceed.

Um just uh just a note.

Um uh uh Mr.

Hyman's request uh uh as he is the treasurer right of the DCC?

Yes, set on the board of the DCC, and they have a meeting uh starting shortly.

Uh Mr.

Hyman requested that we uh uh speak with him uh first.

So uh in order to do that, uh we have to suspend the rules.

So thank you.

Uh I I think for that we need a roll call.

No, but we need a two-thirds.

We need two thirds, yeah.

But if you can do my roll call, but it's unanimous now.

Uh should we try by voice problem?

Well, but all all in favor of suspending the rules for the purpose of uh interviewing Mr.

Hyman.

Uh please uh say aye.

Uh that sounds unanimous to me.

So welcome.

And and thanks so much for coming and and uh thank you so much for uh volunteering uh to take this uh this on.

I mean it's uh the responsibility of the commission is uh extraordinary.

I I I was just doing a little bit of research today, and it was interesting.

I saw that uh over a thousand people uh applied to take the exam.

Over 550 people showed up to take the exam.

Uh 85 people are thereabouts uh scored an A in the test, uh and there are 10 openings.

It is a job that's sought after.

And uh there are a lot of good people out there who want to be a part of the fire department here in Stanford.

There's a legacy and a long tradition of uh people wanting to be a part and actually providing the needed service to the city.

Um I lived in a particular community where uh several years ago I was surrounded by people who were either volunteer firefighters or uh part of the uh the Stanford uh fire department, and so there's an ethos there that uh just carries forward and doing good works for people.

And uh I've obviously used their services before, unfortunately, but uh but they they did a fantastic job for me and for my family, and they continue to do that for the rest of the community as well.

Well, as a child, I would put on a Stanford Fire Department helmet that belonged to my grandfather that waited time.

Not only was it gigantic and ridiculous looking, but it it was very I'm sure they've light them up over the years, but it was every child wants to be ridiculous looking at fire, you know.

And there are some of us who who still continue to work with that, even though we may be a lot older.

It's true, it is kind of every kid's uh like right there with astronaut, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

So um this is this will be your first term.

This this is the first occasion for for this, yes.

And I mean, you've already described to some extent, you know, what your interest was, but uh I I I would imagine you had a wealth of opportunity within the city of Stanford to to uh offer your services, but you went with the fire commissioner, sir uh a reason beyond what you already described.

No, I I don't know that there's a reason beyond that, but um I think that's a good reason for service and and the work that the fire department does.

Uh the work that the commission does on making sure that the city services are in fact delivered and ensuring that there's a good governance that goes on, the oversight that may occur of that.

I think it provides uh a needed service for a volunteer like myself.

So I'm happy to do it.

Well, that's great.

We welcome that.

Uh, but to open this up to questions uh uh to members of the committee.

Um give us what you got, folks.

Uh Representative Caprelli.

Thank you, Chair.

No nobody else was jumping in, so I figured I would.

Michael, thank you for your service to this city.

It goes far beyond uh Lyon, and you just you just have served on one thing or the next, and you keep coming back for more punishments.

So thank you for that.

Um what do you see as the city's biggest public safety challenge?

Um the biggest public safety challenge.

I mean, I I think our city has done a fairly decent job in addressing issues that come up.

Um if if I were to look beyond the fire department, I would say you know how we manage the seawall situation and flooding concerns, uh, which does become a safety issue for for all of us, uh, in fact.

Um I think that um further on safety as far as it's concerned with fire department the fire department, it's making sure that we have people who are trained properly, that we have the appropriate type of equipment uh to do the job, whether it's reaching you know to the higher floors and buildings, and how to safely execute uh that whole process.

Uh, I also think it's important for us to make sure, as a city, that um uh uh the laws, the the ordinances are being followed relative to safety, whether it's in buildings, constructions, and in homes.

The fire department plays a role in that, or at least the fire commission plays a role in making sure that uh those who execute actually have the the uh the ability to do so and the manpower to make that happen.

Thank you for that.

Do you see the fire department as having any other role other than you know putting out fires?

Um they certainly do.

It's the education role, uh which um I know that many of us receive from time to time an update or at least an admonishment from somebody who is uh with the fire department or with the marshal's office to say how are those uh those uh uh electronics in your house working, uh, whether the alarms are there, uh, that education role is an important one.

It's it's good to be in the schools, uh which uh I think educating all of the population is important to do.

Um, and I think that uh our fire department should be forward leaning into what are the issues of the day um for safety.

Thank you for those answers.

I yield chair.

Thank you.

Representative.

Yeah, I don't really have a question.

I just say that one of the reasons that Stanford thrives as a city is because of citizens like like Michael Hein.

Um I certainly uh join that.

Um your resume is full of uh commitments for volunteer that you have taken on, and you have given so much to this community.

And um as one who once served on the fire commission.

I think that you you would be uh a real passive to them, uh in terms of you need to know them because sometimes we we have one problem in Stanford that nobody else has, and that is that we have a blended fire department.

So you have to uh kind of figure out how to make everybody feel included as a team, and I think that's part of what those who serve on the commission can in front to take.

Thank you for that.

All of you, thank you.

Representative uh majority leader, Marson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I just want to echo uh very happy to see you continuing to be in public service, but city.

Um very happier here.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

Uh, what I have not mentioned is that obviously you know, and you know that uh uh I actually had to use the fire department services uh a couple of years ago.

Um and they did a fabulous job on making us feel during that stressful time, that they were on top of things and they worked hard to make that happen.

Um recently this year, uh the EMS services, for example.

I had to avail myself of them uh during the blizzard, uh, the tail end of the blizzard.

I had it personally had a um a life-threatening thing happen to me, uh, only to have them answer the call during the blizzard, shovel my driveway out and get me to Stanford Hospital.

Uh there would have been no way that that would have happened otherwise, and I might not be here were it not for those people standing around in my bedroom, um, saying, you know, we're gonna make sure you get out of here and we do it right.

So I am forever grateful uh for them uh for that.

Uh this type of service is not about what it's about for me, but really about how do they do those things for all of our community and make it work?

And so a commission should be there to make sure that those types of people are around and that uh we have the very best folk uh possible to do that job, uh Representative Walston.

Good evening, Michael.

How are you?

Good evening.

How are you?

Good.

Um I just have one question.

You would be a new pair of eyes, and um if chosen to be on this commission, would there be an initiative that you would like to bring forward to the commissioners to trickle out into the field?

And that's my question.

Well, that's an interesting question.

I thank you for asking it.

Uh, but I I see the role of the commissioner being those that have been enumerated in the city charter, and so to the extent that there is an effort by the mayor, by the fire chief, um, by um a collective group of commissioners to say this is an important priority, then I'd like to be able to review that and discuss it with everybody else, and to say, this is how I think we should move forward, but absent that I don't come with an initiative that Michael Hammond wants to see happen with the fire department, other than general safety and to ensure that it's effective uh and progressive enough that uh those folks who are hired by the fire department um represent the best.

Uh and there's a fair opportunity uh for people to be hired and and a part of that system.

Okay, thank you.

I yield thank you, Representative Walson.

Does anybody else have any questions?

Well, seeing that there are none, uh we'll let you move on to your next volunteer activity.

Okay, all right.

Well, thank you so much for the time and for being here.

And and this is nice because I get a chance to see you.

It's so good to see you.

We'd be nice that the wide walk would be good meeting.

Oh, I'm sorry, I mean, that's unusual.

Most people don't trust you.

I really don't know.

Nice meeting everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

So let me just um see who we have on the deck.

There were some late changes here.

That's what I said.

I think we could go up the C C.

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

Let's see here.

Oh, okay.

So, so um just put into the record that uh uh applicant uh number one uh 832.045 and environmental protection board Laura Tessier uh here for reappointment cannot attend uh family matter and uh we'll attend via Zoom next month uh which brings us to uh Lee Shimetz, who is there on Zoom.

I see you.

Um rather uh Maria Lenares was supposed to be out of order also.

Remember we spoke about that.

I sent you all.

Oh dear, yes, yes.

Uh uh uh forgive me, um uh Ms.

Schmettz.

Uh uh yes, let's let's let's let's do that.

Um so um uh Lori.

Uh now if I've already messed it up.

Uh Legarcy.

Did I do that properly?

Yes, you did.

All right, so uh uh is is that who's up next, uh uh Angie?

Sorry.

No, no, Maria Lenares.

I'm not sure how to sing her.

Maria.

Oh, okay.

Um, forgive me, folks.

There were a lot of late changes on on our on our docket here.

Uh so um is it necessary once again to suspend the rules?

Why don't we just be safe?

Yeah, alright.

So uh I'll move.

Thank you.

Second, and second, uh all in favor of spending the rules.

All right, that sounds like the majority to me.

Uh uh two-thirds majority to me, yes.

So uh that brings us to uh uh number six, uh item uh A32 uh.050 uh fire commission, and this is Maria Lenares.

Uh this is her appointment, a reappointment to uh position a term that uh expires on December first, 2029.

Um welcome uh what she said she's in the Zoom.

There you are.

There you are.

Forgive me while I scramble to catch up with all of this, uh so welcome and and uh and and thank you so much for uh stepping forward one more time uh to do this.

This is a reappointment if I'm uh not mistaken.

Yes, it is I think Mr.

Norris, we can't hear you if you're talking.

You may be muted.

She's not muted, but I don't see any indication of it.

Maybe it's a microphone.

Yeah.

No.

Okay, we'll give me a minute.

We'll think of some good questions in the meantime.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

No, we don't.

Maria, we can't hear you.

Can you check your microphone?

Because you can always dial in as well, Mr.

Norris.

This is ours, if you want, we have a with a result of the results ability to dial in.

Another option is if you have earbuds or some sort of headphones, um, you could plug in.

Sometimes that works.

It looks like on my side that she's muted.

Maybe Angie can unmute her.

Or I think there's a there's a number.

She's not muted.

If you want to hang up and call right back or use the phone numbers, yeah, that's in the email.

Yeah.

Angie, I'm gonna send you a picture because on my end it does show she's muted.

Uh yeah, it's where it's just open.

Okay.

So there's a chill open.

Oh, it's correct.

Oh, the DCC.

That's on the other side.

So go pause the other way.

This and just go down the whole list.

Okay, this is after we're all out of order now.

Do we have to uh parliamentary question for you?

Do we have to reinstate the rules?

No, so if we go back to um to number two on the agenda, if we were to turn to number two and then follow it from there, we don't have to do anything.

Okay.

We're suspending the rules to take up this in this number out of order.

Correct.

Okay.

We should see when she comes back.

Do you want to ask me to do a sound check just to make sure?

Yes, I think I think we did that.

We Miss Schmitz, we did hear you a few seconds ago.

I think you'll still go.

Your mic is still good.

You want me to I'm ready?

Do you want me to go?

Yes.

We could just check the microphone still good.

Jeff, we're well we've confirmed that.

Yeah, we can hear you good.

So we were just doing a sound check.

Yeah.

You can hear me?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

I guess we'll give it a minute and then we'll go to the shit.

Someone just came on the other side.

I'm a C.

I'm gonna check her email and our phone number and see if that's her.

Hold on.

Hello, good afternoon.

Hi, this is Maria.

Yes, this is Maria.

Good afternoon.

Hi.

Oh thank you so much.

And uh thank thank you to everybody for being uh so patient.

Um just uh so uh welcome and uh and again thank you so much for uh re-apping and and taking uh taking this on for another term.

Uh I guess my first uh question for you is um being uh a veteran of the commission now.

Um how do you assess the physical facility of the downtown firehouse?

Um well that's a great question.

I'm glad that you brought it up.

Um first of all, I would like to say that uh we have a really great bunch of men working that are very qualified.

Um it's an honor to work and to volunteer my time at the fire.

I think in our benefit to maybe upgrade some of those facilities, um, because I think it would help them and their training and and their in the way that they do things.

Um I learned a lot through the last few years that I have served, and I would have loved to give the uh that downtown look, uh, a new a new look.

Is there any are there any sort of specific um elements of the facility that you find um either out of date or or wanting?

Um I think I think the most important part that I would probably say is the elevator right at the main fire station that I noticed because that's where we attend most of our meetings, right?

The elevator may be a little bit uh out of date if we ever had anyone with any some handicap, you know, inabilities.

It it's it's that's a difficult elevator, probably to fit a wheelchair.

I think for me that was thing, but also you know, um but technology, right?

As we grow into this AI era, I think that's with a little bit more uh technology based, uh I would love to see that.

Thank you for that.

Um let's open it up to uh the committee for for questions, Mr.

German.

As a veteran uh commissioner, um how do you assess the morale of the department?

Well, you know, I have to tell you that I'm always very impressed with everything I normally see.

Um when we see candidates and we're making a decision, um the one thing that I notice the most is that yes, the fire the fire person who's coming before us wants the position of the job, but their morale or their view on their teammate is really um extraordinary.

They yes, they want the job, but they would never talk bad about their brother or the person that they work with or the people that they know.

So in my eyes, the morale is good.

When you want to succeed, but you also want to see your friend or your brother succeed, it says a lot about who that department is.

You know, that's those things come from the very top, and it's definitely reaches the grassroots of our firemen and all across and uh management, I would call it.

So I'm always very, very impressed when they're like, you know, what when we ask like what stands you out from somebody else, and they were like, we would never talk bad about somebody else, but I think this is how I would stand out.

So in I'm always in awe because they really do work together as a team, and that's really important.

Uh representative.

Yeah, Maria, um there's I actually have two questions.

So the first one is there is you know that there was certainly prior to um the change in the charter back in two thousand 2013, 14.

Um, that did um you know that that dealt with um the professional fire uh fire organization and then and the um and and the volunteer fire organization.

It was a it was a great deal of um I don't know if animus is the right word, but um the you know there's a great deal.

There was considerable conflict between uh the two organizations.

Uh we're now 10 over 10 years being you know past that point.

How would you assess the relationships um the um the collaboration and so forth uh between the uh volunteer uh houses and the uh and professional houses.

And our regular environment, yes.

You know, I have to tell you that from my standpoint of view and what I've witnessed, I what I can tell you is that they work really, really hard uh management to ensure that they have a really good relationship.

They work at it every day, and I see it, I see it when I'm there not just for for interviews, but I see it when I go and visit, when I go talk to the chief.

I see that they're actually working really hard to ensure that we never go back to that.

They're always they're always remembering that it wasn't so good, and now that we're really lucky that it is the relationship is really good.

So I think the one thing that I've noticed is that sometimes when if there's any friction in the air, I think they kind of just you know make sure that they're uh addressing that friction right away.

And that's the one thing I have noticed, right?

They address the problem.

They don't want it to grow, they want to make sure that they are it's under control because a small problem can be fixed easily, but I guess if you don't really pay attention to something and it grows, it's it's gonna get big.

So that is the one thing I can tell you that they are doing.

And is there if anything ever perfect?

Probably not.

But I will tell you that they work really hard to make sure that there is a last friction.

Um I'm always I'm always impressed about how they work together as a team.

Someone for me from coming coming from corporate, they have taught me a lot how to work with teams and make sure that there's that brotherly love, and that when things happen to talk about them, to address them immediately.

And I think right from our how firehouses that we've seen that are volunteer and that have to deal with our paid firefighters, the relationship is a lot better.

But I really honestly think it comes from the top because the top has made it a priority to ensure that we never go back to those days.

And I did not serve on the commission during those times, but I've only heard stories, and they remember those stories because they want to make sure they never go back there.

And I think that's really important.

Well, thanks.

That's that's uh that's very good to hear.

Uh my other question um has to do with the you know, have a composition of it of the commission could be changing rather dramatically.

Uh if all goes well tonight, these interviews and and at the board meeting on August 6, um, there will be several new members of the fire commission, uh, as a grizzled veteran of the commission, uh what advice would you give them?

I think the the most important thing when you when you come on to uh anything new and maybe you're not uh a hundred percent familiar with it, get to know the staff, get to know the people who are behind those resumes, understand the firehouses, how they work, what they really do, understand the city, the problems the city has, the growth, the construction that goes up, the types of buildings that we're building, um, what are the problems that the fire department is encountering, right?

We're growing.

It's it's important to understand the volume of people in Stanford and the amount of people that are working and the fire department, right?

What kind of a call do they attend?

What is really right now, what are they attending?

Are they attending fires?

They are, right?

But the number one thing that they are attending is EMS, right?

They're probably like the number one call.

If something happens in an emergency, they're calling the fire department.

And we have a lot of EMS people that are also fire bed, right?

So I think if you want to be a good commissioner, you got to know the people behind those resumes, the people at the firehouses, what they're qualified for, what actually do they do for the town of Stanford?

How is Stanford going?

What is the Stanford's needs?

That is super important.

And once I think you understand that, then you can basically understand what our job is and why we need to hire certain people in certain positions, because we're trying to address those needs.

Well, uh Maria, that sounds like like you know, terrific advice.

Uh so I want to really urge you to uh you know to share it uh with uh with the new commissioners when they come on board.

Uh thank you.

Uh thank you very much.

I yield.

Thank you, Senator Weber.

Uh Representative Camparelli.

Thank you, Chair.

Um how are you, and thank you for volunteering again.

Thank you.

Um, what do you feel over the last several years that you've been in this position, your major contribution was and what are the mistakes that you made as a rookie to to Representative Weinberg's point that you want to pass on to the rookies, not to me.

That's easy.

I could tell you that right away.

Uh the one thing I can can tell you I was blindsided by and I was in awe, actually, is the amount of certifications and training every fire department has to go through.

Every fireman, every man and woman on our teams, the amount of certifications and studies and tests and exams and practice that they have to do for maybe something that will occur once every year or in a 30 second stand is incredible.

I honestly was very naive to that fact.

And I'm telling you, I am always in awe of our men and women who work for the Stanford department because the amount of training that goes into everything that they have to do is incredible.

The amount of repetition that you have to do in order to get it perfect and to work together as a team and to understand it to mesh well as a team is incredible.

You really have to see it in order to understand it.

And I was very naive.

Coming from corporate, we're we're we're structured in a very different manner, and this was different.

And I think that's the one thing I take back and I've learned, and they've taught me how to probably work better with people, how to mesh things better as a team, and the amount of practice that it really does take to work together as a team.

I think that was probably the one thing I will tell people get to know the faces behind those resumes because you'll be impressed with what you're going to see.

And I was very naive to the fact.

So that is the one thing I'm probably I've mo I've learned most.

I make sure that I learn everybody's names now, that I understand what they're doing, what they're doing on the truck, how they play a vital key.

And the most important thing there to learn is that everybody has an important job.

It doesn't matter where you sit or what how you rank, everybody in the emergency plays the most important part because your 20 seconds adds up to everybody's 20 seconds of input that may save a life, or you don't know what's going to happen, right?

It's probably saved a house from totally burning down.

Like, and I bring this from experience myself, right?

So this is why I'm telling you, so that is something that I will tell you that I I did learn for sure.

And I and I did take it for granted.

And and just quickly, what's been your major contribution?

I think what I bring to them is insight, right?

I work in a corporate office.

Um, um, I have 15 people that report to me.

I understand how important it is for people to mesh together, how to work together.

I understand that in order to get your job done, you also have to have great people that are standing next to you and how to elect people like that.

I think that's my contribution.

I have a lot of insight on people because I work with people every day.

I know how they operate, how they work, and sometimes you know, we we run into problems and we may have biases against people, and we also have to understand that people aren't perfect and experience with working with people.

I bring that to the table and say, yeah, maybe that's the case, but you know what?

Sometimes a little diversity in a group is also good because it keeps us sharp.

So I think that's what I bring to the table.

Well, thank you so much for your service and for those answers.

Um, and for coming for reappointment.

I yield chair.

Thank you, hi.

Oh no, no, no, well, even that we were looking at we'll get to that, but um, I thought I had to go up and uh immediately uh uh respond.

Uh any any other questions for uh Ms.

Linares.

Uh well, that being the case, uh thank you so much, and thanks for hanging in there through those uh technical uh snap moves.

We appreciate your effort to uh uh put yourself through to us.

Thank you very much, and I appreciate your time and I apologize for the inconvenience.

And at any time you have my information.

Please feel free to feel free to reach out and thank you again and have a great evening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so now we're gonna fall back into order.

Uh this is uh item number two.

Long ridge road Stanford.

A32 data 046.

Uh, this is uh uh position on the environmental protection board.

Uh Leisha Mitz.

Uh, this is a reappointment to a term that will expire in December 2028.

Uh uh welcome back, uh Mr.

Mentz and thank you so much for for your service.

Uh we appreciate your stepping up.

Uh, uh you're you're on mute, by the way.

Um there we go.

Gotcha.

Uh that was an easy one.

Uh so thanks for thanks for coming back.

Uh I you know, we um uh just in the last month or so uh have uh been reviewing the proposed ordinance to set up a new conservation commission.

And um I was kind of curious uh given your experience and and your background, uh what your reaction to that uh was.

Um thanks and uh good evening to everyone and uh appreciate your time and uh deeply appreciate your service.

Um, the conservation commission, I think there's um some very strong pros and cons.

Um, as you probably know, the EPB, uh we take on a lot of roles, uh roles that in other towns, Fairfield, Greenwich are split among different um committees and commissions.

Um and so I think the idea, and so because of that, some things get less attention.

So I think the idea of a conservation commission is a strong one.

Um I had some um strong questions about the tree ordinance having a lot of background in in street trees and such, and I think the rethinking of that is a good idea.

I think there, I think the idea of a tree ordinance is good.

I think there were some flaws in the initial idea.

Um, but overall, there's a lot of issues in front of us, uh, you know, from a conservation environmental point of view.

So it uh it could be a good thing to um to broaden that out as as we've seen Fairfield and Greenwich and other towns um in Connecticut do.

Right now it's all under uh EPB and regulatory issues not surprisingly take precedence.

They have to be resolved every single month.

So any inland wetland issues comes right to the top of our docket and other sort of longer term conservation issues, um, maybe get short shorter shrifts.

So I think there's something very positive in the idea.

Right.

I think the impression I get from speaking to other applicants for uh environmental protection is that um by the time you're done, you know, reviewing zoning applications and such, there isn't much left uh to do anything else.

Yeah, I mean, as I said, regulatory always goes to the top of the pile as it has to, um, because there's a there's a there's a time sensitive to it, so I think that's true.

But the the flip side is that um sort of going through these issues, they're they're complex.

Uh they're regulatory, the conservation issues are complex.

There's a lot of legal issues behind them.

And um what people might not recognize is what a strong staff EPB has, and the conservation commission would need something like that as well.

Um, so there's definitely a scaling up that would need to happen.

I'm not sure that's totally understood.

I think it would emerge.

Um, it's not a bad thing, it just seems to be, I think broadly understood that uh there's a very strong need for, and in our case, a terrific staff who uh does a lot of the field work, prep work, and um leads leads the charge and understands both the technical and the legal implications of the decisions.

Yeah, not you know, not being familiar enough with uh Stanford history.

Uh, I'm not sure when the last time uh border commission was set up at a whole cloth, uh such as this, you know, leaving all kinds of opportunity, I suppose, to define what it is going forward, but you're right.

At the moment, the remit is somewhat vague.

Yeah, fair enough.

Yeah.

Uh, representative co-chair, uh, uh Ms.

Mr.

Chimz, um, I have heard one that this between various members of the Board of Representatives who are discussing the Conservation Commission.

One thing I have heard mention is that a potential alternative route would be to expand the environmental protection board, give it more members, and potentially expand its capabilities somehow to allow it to perform some of the functions of proposed conservation commission.

I feel uh neither for or against.

How do you feel about that?

I don't, it's a it's a good question.

I mean, do you need something next to it, or do you simply need to expand what we have?

Um I think the I think that expanding what we have is not really the issue because um we could have you know five voting members or we could have you know ten there, but the issues still need to be dealt with one at a time.

It almost doesn't matter how many we are, it's a matter of could you take some of these tasks and move them elsewhere?

Um and some of them are more conservation-based.

Are there are there certain issues that you know they're and they're a little more long-term and perhaps not as regulatory?

So I think that's an interesting.

I think I don't know that adding to the capacity.

It might be that adding to the capacity of staff is the issue, and you could actually almost share staff between two commissions, potentially.

Um, I don't know that having more people on the commission is really the issue to me.

And our history is as as you all know, is regulatory back to the early 70s when Connecticut passed the environmental statutes that would came down really through the federal level.

So it's definitely in response to that, and as those regulations change and it's all about wetland law.

Um so I think you could actually probably add to staff and then have them serve uh two different commissions, um, but you'd still want to have a separate docket because that's really the issue of how many things can get dealt with um in an evening, you know, without going to one in the morning each time.

So I don't know that it's adding more to more people to our team, but you probably, as I said, could uh do that with staff, and that might be a cost savings and even a good, you know, kind of cross-fertilization of ideas and knowledge.

I have a question.

Representative.

Thank you.

Hi, Louie.

How are you?

Good Carl, this is my representative.

Nice to see you tonight.

You uh you get to deal with environmental stewardship once a month, huh?

At your EPB more often than once a month, sometimes at your EPB meetings.

But of course, you also deal with it every day.

Yeah, on your on your daytime and often nighttime job uh at Soundwaters.

Um I I'd like I'd be very interested in hearing your viewpoint on this question.

When it comes to environmental stewardship, what is Stanford doing well?

And what are our opportunities for improvement?

I love that question.

I think that as a city, I'm really thrilled to say that we're doing a lot well.

Um, and you know, Soundwaters in Stanford works very much in collaboration with the city.

And from an education point of view, every single student in our public schools has the opportunity and does learn in the environment many times in their educational career.

So if they are with CLC in pre-K, they are learning with Soundwaters and with their own educators, you know, in their classroom and in the field in first grade and third grade and fifth grade and sixth grade and ninth grade, and then as they get even further in high school, they can um specialize with us in after schools.

You know, I was at uh both the Harbor Center and Cove Island today.

We had hundreds of students out on the water, sailing learning, and it's not actually because we care that much.

I will just be honest about sailing.

Um, it's because that's how you can get out and play in the, you know, in the environment.

Uh, it is our greatest natural resource, and making that available throughout their careers.

I think we are extraordinarily fortunate.

Um, and I don't mean that to tout Soundwaters, but really to tout our partnership with the city um together.

Um, I would say students in Stanford have more opportunities.

I dare say to almost anyone in the state because it's so we work with or um students throughout the state, but they might come to us once or twice in their academic career.

But in Stanford, it's absolutely woven in literally to the pacing guidance of the curriculum and to the fabric of students' lives.

So I think from that point of view, we are so far ahead.

Hundreds of thousands.

I mean, every Stanford student will grow up learning in, understanding, enjoying having fun, being challenged in the natural world.

That is something that very, very few communities have.

I think we're extraordinarily lucky to have the partnership we do.

I think for adults there's less, but of course, you know, we're busy people, all of us as adults.

Right now, tonight, by being with you, I'm not down in the salt marsh.

We have an ongoing salt marsh restoration project, mostly student research, high school students, but we're also doing public engagement.

So we have volunteer groups from the public.

I mean you could just sign up and learn about restoration and work in the salt marsh right now.

Um and we're doing that once a month from April, you know, through the fall.

So there are opportunities.

Um with the schooner, again, that the schooner goes out all summer long with the public.

We're thrilled about that.

So I think for our city, we get out a lot more.

There's more we could do.

Um, we're working with the Harbor Commission, it's a challenge, not due to them, but due to health regulations.

We really all would love to get the um the see the uh um the uh the beds open, the oyster the uh the clam beds open because we actually it's healthy enough and it would be a great market.

People could actually go out and do clamming in the city.

How you know, again, connecting food to a healthy resource, that would be great.

Um we are really stuck in a loop with the Department of Health.

We will get there, I hope this year, and all of a sudden, like Greenwich, um, like other towns, we could be offering um uh licenses to go clamming, and all of a sudden people in the city can go out and really, you know, harvest.

So I think there's a lot that can happen.

Um we have great access to the to the shoreline here.

Again, in Stanford, that's not true for most towns.

Um, we're really blessed with that.

You know, for $25 for the season, you know, seven dollars if you're a senior, um, that's an extraordinary opportunity.

It's a pity that it's limited to our town, but there's it's a resource-constrained situation.

But for the city of Stanford, I truly believe, Carl, we are so far ahead in the stewardship, certainly with students and even with adults at the opportunity, with what the whole city has done down at the harbor in the last 20 years, has been extraordinary.

And that idea that whatever development was going to happen, started with the land use division 25, 30 years ago, that every development would have to create a public esplanade.

And I was talking with a developer who was out there watching how amazing it is, and he said 30 years ago, I thought these people were crazy.

I did it because I had to get my permit.

But it literally it was an esplanade to nowhere, but one after the other after the other, and that's the city of Stanford planning ahead, and all of a sudden, what was you know, nobody knew we had a harbor, nobody said somebody said, Lee before you talked about it, and even the Stanford Harbor was a place, you know, we have thousands of people walking down there every single day, you know, in in decent weather.

Um, we've opened the harbor to the public, and that's because the city thought ahead.

That's because the land use division, the planning and zoning, um, really took the long view.

So I think it's an incredible story that we have.

Probably a story we should tell more about because we are um uniquely blessed, and it's not by accident, it's by intention that's gone on for many decades.

Thank you.

That's very reassuring.

Uh to you here, really appreciate it.

Really appreciate your viewpoint.

I yield.

Oh, thank you.

Uh any other questions for Ms.

Jim.

Uh Representative Campero.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Um, first of all, I'm so grateful for your expertise and that you are loaning your expertise to the city.

I I think what you do is incredible on the EPB.

Um, and I really love what you said just now about um, you know, all those stewards from 30 years ago looking at the environment in tandem with development and planning ahead, okay?

Because that's I think what actually we see the conservation commission doing, looking ahead and helping us steward.

Um, I think it's so important.

My my question to you, um, and I also want to thank all of you for looking at the ordinance and making sure that it was right before it was presented to the to the board.

Um, what do you see as the environmental protection board primary responsibility and how would you balance environmental protection with economic development and property rights?

How do you do that?

Thanks for the question.

And I think we do that and balance that every single month.

And I think that one way I feel that confident we're doing it well is the fact that we don't always agree.

And I think that's actually important.

We are a very collegial board, but we are not uniform.

Because there is that tension.

But we well, the key is, and we are getting better and better at it over the over these many years is to be consistent.

Because the challenge is that we are enforcing environmental regulation and rules, you know, site by site by site.

And that's really challenging.

So the key is to be consistent so that you know someone isn't being unfairly, you know, like plagued with extra with extra protection simply because they came to us at a certain time.

It has to be consistent.

And sometimes, you know, the environment, you know, people have rights to build stuff.

So there's this incredible open, you know, I can't remember how many acres up in Long Range.

It's one of the largest sites to be developed in years.

It will be developed.

Um the developer, the people who own it have the rights to do it.

They will do it, you know, to, you know, according to environmental regulations.

And I think there's a healthy tension there, left to their own devices.

They probably put in a lot more properties and you know, you know, intrude a lot more into protected areas.

But at the same time, where you know there's areas that are reasonable to build, they are certainly allowed to do that.

And I think the uh the board totally understands that and frankly supports that.

Um so I there is a tension there, but um I would say it's a healthy tension and one that um we we really grapple with, you know, every every month.

And we actually talked about that when we were talking about the conservation commission, finding people that to your point earlier are well educated.

Like we don't we don't see the board, we see the board as being people like you and Laura and and Bob Clousey, um, you know, mixed in with some some regular people, obviously you guys are like superheroes of the environment.

Um and we also talked about that healthy tension, right?

Um, and also the conservation commission would not be a regulatory body, right?

It would just be an advisory body.

Right.

Um so there would be less imposing from from that commission.

Uh thank you for your answers, and thank you again for um for your service to the city.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Any uh other members of the board?

Um uh see no, I I I thank you so much, uh, for your for your service and volunteer and everything you do with South Waters.

Um I live near the water myself, and uh I appreciate your efforts every single day.

Thank you all, and really truly thank you for your service.

I appreciate it so much.

Thanks again.

All right, uh, uh welcome.

And uh, hi, good evening.

Each unmute is like a little victory.

So um, so you're you're you're here for a reappointment.

I I would imagine you must hear some amazing stories.

Uh oh, yeah, as you said on the board.

Um and uh and you know, for people to make the effort, right?

To come in and and and and appeal, I think I understand the remit, right?

Um uh what works and what doesn't work when people come to you uh seeking some sort of uh uh adjustment.

I I look for them to be genuine in what they're saying.

You know, some people will cite um mounds and mounds of information, they will send it to the office, and the office will send it to me in an email, and then I will have to read it and they will write and write and write everything for a $25 ticket.

So I really have to believe that somewhere in all of that, you know, most of the violations are human error.

You know, I I parked in a handicapped spot and I didn't hang my my new placard, but I mailed it in, but I had to come to the hearing anyway, you know, or um, I my license plate is one zero zero six oh five, and I put in one zero six oh five, but I actually paid for it.

So there's a lot of just little things that are mistakes that are made.

Um, so when I when I look at that, I kind of try to be that person.

Like I could do that myself.

I have a personalized license plate, so I hope I can't spell my name wrong.

But in the interim, sometimes people do make mistakes, putting a zero and they use the actual zero instead of the O, and they just pay for it.

So things like that.

It's really just about listening to what people have to say.

I've been doing this for probably 18 years, I'd say.

Maybe, yeah, probably 18.

And I'm the only, um, at the moment, I'm the only one doing it.

I think I'm the last person standing at the moment.

Right.

Well, uh, the appointments committee is uh doing our best to send in the cavalry for you.

Oh, yeah, no, that I understand, sure.

Well, we have we have two applicants uh uh standing by to speak with us this evening.

So uh so help us on the way.

Oh, that's great.

Um uh let's open it up to the uh to the committee.

Anybody have any uh questions?

Yes.

Uh Laurie, I just wanted to say I would say thank you for 18 years of service.

That's really tremendous.

Thank you.

Uh, but I also want to thank you.

You know, as as chairs sure mentioned, we're interviewing two candidates for um, you know, for this board, and um and one of them is uh I learned about this volunteer this service opportunity because of you.

So I really want to I want to thank you for uh for bolstering our recruiting effort.

It really means a lot.

Oh, you're welcome.

I mean, I know that it's it's a hard commitment sometimes, but I tried to reach out to people that I thought would be good and hopefully they will get appointed.

Well, thank you so much for that.

You're welcome.

With that on you, thank you.

Uh Coach Gardner.

Uh quickly, um, I see you've you worked on the subject cool system and you're a social worker.

I obviously can't imagine a better person for this role than you.

Um, but could you tell us what what should we be looking for in a candidate for this role since you've done it for so long?

What makes a good uh good person?

Well, now that they're all on Zoom, um, it's much easier because in person you really had to be really careful about when people actually got angry and they were right there in your face and it was a room full of people.

But now that it's on Zoom, you can just click them out.

So I would say someone who's pretty open-minded, um, tolerant because some people get very, very angry, um, and they yell at you, and I understand their frustration and you try to kind of calm it down.

And depending on who's running the meeting, some people leave everybody in the room like here today.

Some of the people in the office will only put will put everybody in a waiting room and then will do individuals.

So depending on how they run the meeting is really how you have to kind of roll with it because you have to make sure that you're, you know, you're very conscientious of what you're saying to people and listening to what they have to say, you know, being objective, you know, being fair and impartial, being able to understand the rules and regulations which are given to them.

Sometimes I will tell you honestly, there are some weird things that come out where I'm like, okay, you know what?

I'm gonna go look at that sign tomorrow, and then I'm gonna make my decision.

So I think people that are willing to go the extra mile, and you know, people that know a little bit about the city and a little bit about the parking regulations.

I mean, it's just like anything else.

If you're a lawyer and you know, you know where to find what you're looking for in the Connecticut General statutes, that's what you really need to know.

So sometimes I actually have to go and look for things.

Oh, does it have to be 25 feet from a crosswalk?

Is it 20 feet from a fire height or 12 feet from a curb?

Stuff like that.

So I I, you know, sometimes I have to look things up and I take the time because you don't give them the answer that night.

So I have time to go out, look around.

So just somebody who's like I said, fair and impartial, you know, maintains like a neutral position, um, and puts a lot of their own stuff aside because you are gonna get yelled at and people are gonna be very angry at you.

Um that's pretty much what I would say.

And somebody who can actually, like I said, access what they need to look at.

But I will say this for the um the girls in the office, they are excellent.

They know everything, except that they work for the city of Stanford, so it really wouldn't be fair, but they know every single thing.

So sometimes I will ask them a specific question, and we get the answer and we come to a decision.

So I think it's just somebody who can really just do the work that they need to do to get the right information so that when they're granting or denying a ticket, they're really doing it based on a lot of the information that's already written by the enforcement officers.

Well, not the enforcement officers, but obviously by the if they're in the charter or the regulations, however they are.

Thank you so much for you.

You're welcome.

Good evening.

Thank you.

Um, I asked how many hours do you say you are actually out in the field, like on a weekly basis?

Oh no, it's only it's only right now, it's every other week that I do it.

Um, and I'll just run out when I'm driving around the city, I go out all the time and I'll just look, you know, maybe an hour or so, you know, get to where I'm going.

Look, sometimes I take a picture and I bring it home and have to really look at it because sometimes it's hard to really make a decision, especially if I'll give you a perfect example.

Sometimes I get a picture of a license plate.

Now somebody is telling me that they were parked somewhere, but that's not what the sign says.

So I have to say, okay, well, how am I going to determine from a picture of a license plate whether or not this person is parked illegally?

So I have to kind of go out, look a little bit, see what's going on.

So maybe an hour, not a big deal, half an hour.

It depends if there's two or three people that I gotta check on, but yeah.

I don't work, so I'm retired.

You go in response to a to something that has been submitted to you.

Yes, yeah.

At the hearing, if I get a lot of information and I can't really decipher it from the picture, I will go and look myself.

Because if they don't give me a picture, it's like I I can't go off of it.

I mean, because the next step after me is to go to superior court.

You have to pay like 95 non-refundable dollars, and you know, I don't ever want someone to go to court and I have to explain how I came to a decision on whether you are parked legally or not, just based on the picture of your license plate.

So I will go out and look.

Okay, I guess the reason why I'm asking is because I'm hearing a lot of complaints and reports about the tractor trailers being parked like overnight off of the and they're kind of like extending it into another truck service area, like impromptu, just pulling over all these tractor trailers, and they're not supposed to be the those areas are designated for no overnight parking.

And where where is this you're saying?

I'm sorry, all of 95 by um, that's back.

Baxter Avenue.

Yeah, I don't I don't get too many.

I mean, I get I get I get the 120 hours um where we have to have a conversation about that because people don't understand that you can't do that, and the oversized um vans and things, maybe one or two, but I don't get a lot of them.

Are you saying that they're there that they're there?

I have but you're saying that there's a lot of people getting those tickets and you're there getting complaints about or no.

The residents and and the fellow representatives are saying that that area should really be addressed.

Oh, I agree, but unfortunately, that's the enforcement department.

I I don't have any control over that.

I don't tell them where to go, they go wherever, wherever they are assigned by their supervisor, and it's usually in like high, it is usually in high traffic areas, which is Bedford Street, Summer Street, all the areas, the Bell Street Garage, it's pretty much downtown.

Most of the stuff that's on the outskirts of town is called in by somebody.

So I would tell those people to call that in to the office, and then the office can give that information to parking, and they will go out and give those tickets.

That's Luke.

That would be Luke.

Yeah, I don't.

I I just met Luke actually.

So yes.

But I do agree with you.

It's very aggravating.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Roser.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Well, that being the case, uh Ms.

Legusia, I thank you for nearly two decades of service.

And uh it's pretty awesome presentation.

So thank you.

And thank you for everything and have a good night.

Appreciate your time.

Sure.

Thanks for waiting.

We appreciate that.

Oh, you're welcome.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Okay.

So now we have uh the cavalry.

Uh item number four A32.048.

Uh Ms.

Morant, uh welcome and thanks so much for stepping up as you heard.

Uh your your uh your possible future colleague uh is ready for a little bit of backup.

So she sounds that way.

What inspired you to seek this out?

Um Lori is my friend and neighbor and co-worker before she retired for many years, and she threw it out to me, and I thought, you know what?

This this could be a really meaningful way to give back to my adopted community.

Well that's uh that that's that's really uh great.

What do you know?

What do you what do you what have you learned what you've learned, having heard what you've heard, uh, what do you see as the challenges?

What do you see as the opportunities and uh and what are you bracing yourself for?

I think one of the challenges would be angry angry people, people in distress, people who want to feel heard.

Um I work for the courts for the last 18 years in in juvenile court, and every day brings a fresh crop of uh unhappy people.

So that's sort of where I shine in that I can I know how to listen to people, I know how to make them feel heard.

Um I also understand how important it is to follow the law, and how important it is to not see it in a vacuum, to understand that things happen, um, circumstances arise, and um just making people be more comfortable pleading their case, looking at the evidence and and ruling accordingly.

And I feel much more comfortable going into this with Lori as a terrific resource.

I would think so.

Well, yeah, it's even it seems like um even though some of these fines are not gonna send anybody to the poor house, uh, if they're making the effort to come see you, it strikes me as it's about more than money.

Absolutely the principal involved, right?

Yes, I can see that.

Yeah, uh let's open it up to the committee if we could.

Uh any questions.

Uh uh coach.

No, I just want to say Miss France, if if you've if you've been blessed by uh by Lori and uh and she deems you a good fit for this role, I think we we all probably agree that you most likely are.

And I thank you the volume of service uh and uh I hope it uh it works out and you enjoy the role as much as Lori Clias.

Thank you.

I I appreciate that.

And if there are no other questions, we've kept you waiting long enough.

It was actually very interesting.

I've never uh been at this type of meeting before, so.

They're all public.

You can join us, but you're welcome to hang out as well.

Thank you, thank you.

It's been a long day, but maybe another time I will uh I will try to catch one.

We're here on the final Wednesday of the month.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thanks so much for your uh volunteering.

Have a good night.

Take care.

Bye now.

Okay, and now uh Mr.

Willis, he wonderful.

Did you see him come back?

Uh no.

I saw a lot of case.

Okay, let me find it.

I did see him focus header on that for a second, then you left again.

So I'm not sure if Andrew can get him on the phone.

I thank you.

Is it Angie or Christina?

I guess it might be Christina though.

Hi, yes.

I'll try to call him right now.

Okay, Chris.

Yeah.

We can move to numbers.

Since the stakeholders, that's a safe.

Suspended rules.

Well, no, because we're just moving on, we're just looking up.

Yes.

Okay.

Well then we've been in suspense for some time.

Yeah, I was gonna say, um, we'll suspend suspending.

Um so uh uh Linda Darley.

Why don't you say here?

Thanks so much for this comment.

We'll be able to thank you.

Hello, everyone.

Hi there, thanks so much for uh for waiting.

Absolutely, like she just said, it's very knowledgeable, gives a lot of information that you don't know is behind the scenes, but I like the process, it's very transparent.

I like that and hello to everyone on the screen.

Well, uh, uh given some of uh uh this uh Linaris' uh advice, uh what what would your observations be?

Well, I like the fact that everyone is so open with their opinions and they do not hold back.

I have been at a couple of meetings, but in education, all you do a lot of the times is participate at meetings or you're running the meetings, and quite often someone said, you know, we have a very diverse population, so sometimes opinions are on very oppositional, and you have to find a way to bring people together so that it's for the common good because everybody's here for a reason.

They've got a value or a mission or a goal, and and they want to work toward that.

It's just a personal observation that this we we've met so many people who've already given so much in the course of their careers, and and come to us volunteering to give more.

I think that's very commendable, but honestly, I do think it's a genuine calling.

It's a calling as you go through the years and you go through different changes personally and professionally, you do have a change of mind in the way you view the world, and and what it comes down to is how we treat each other, how we support each other, and are we helping others?

And that's the way I see it.

I certainly you know thought I had that in my 20s, but as you grow and you expand your natural family and your friendships, you realize the world is quite small when it comes to what your value is, and that's supporting and helping other people and uh doing good in the world, so to speak.

Yeah, and you're you know, in your own corner of the world.

That's what it's all about.

So, what led you to volunteer for this particular position where did somebody reach out and propose this to you?

Yes.

Uh I've always wanted to volunteer.

I volunteered on many committees in education.

I've been in the state uh for 51 years in the area of education, and I just retired last July.

So I'm in that transition of wanting to help people, but also as a principal, you know, you have those tremendous uh crises from time to time and and all of that, and I wanted something where I felt a little more like I was giving what I could offer.

So the mayor's office did say, hey, there's an opportunity for this commission, and I jumped at it.

So hopefully that works.

Do you bring any preconceptions with you to the role?

I do have a perspective from a school leader.

Uh our most one of our most vulnerable populations are our youth, and I've seen firsthand, I've gone through the the two crises in my lifetime, which is uh you know, 9-11, and I was a principal at Davenport Ridge with approximately 650 students at that time, and the of course pandemic and COVID, and being a principal at Heart Magnet right here downtown.

Um, and during those times, our service people, our police, our fire, our ENTs, our medical people, people that we consider to be uh heroes, are the very people who are right there in front of children, in front of students.

It doesn't matter if it's kindergarten or grade 12.

They are right there and they're there for a purpose.

And so on the elementary level, when we had uh fire personnel coming in for a whole sometimes routines, sometimes emergencies, whatever children are very curious and very interested and very genuine and sincere, and they want to look to those role models.

We want children to run toward them, not hide from them.

And in my experience, social media plays a great part, unfortunately, in some cases, too much.

Um, and so I do see students from time to time pushing boundaries.

Is it really a fire drill?

We can just walk a little slower, you know, things like that.

We can just you know take it as a routine sort of thing, and we really don't want children to look at things that when they're serious, it's it's it's serious, and whether it's a drill or it is a crisis, we need our students to be able to move the way they're supposed to move.

So, from that perspective, that's what that's what it brings.

It seems like um as a new member of the board, you know, I'm you know, just at the beginning of the learning curve, and so with each one of these uh meetings, I go and learn what I can about each commission, and it it seems as though testing and evaluation of candidates are two of the sort of principal activities of the board, and and it is that something you feel obviously that uh is a way that you can contribute and and and uh have you had a chance to see what that entails or is it early for you now?

It's very early for me, but specifically I think I can transfer those skills.

I've I've led many interview committees and I've been a participant so many times on interview committees.

The most important thing is a fair, equitable, transparent process.

You follow the protocols, you follow follow procedures, and as with any candidate in any field, whether it's corporate or education or fire commission.

There are certain parameters.

Do you have the ability?

Do you have the capability?

Do you are you a communicator?

Are you able to work with colleagues?

Are you able to go into unexpected uh situations?

Do you have the character?

Are you trustworthy, etc.

etc.?

The list goes on.

And so hopefully, I can transfer those skills to what we would be looking for, in terms of candidates who their mission is to do, you know, public safety, health, welfare of the citizens in Stanford at any time.

It could be something very minor, something as we know, very emergency-based.

And I have full confidence.

Our firefighters are amazing.

I've had experiences where they come into situations in the schools, and they're always they always seem to develop mentally know what to say to children who are saying, where did you get that uniform?

How do you, you know, how do you get that?

You mentioned that at the beginning that, you know, when they're doing a job and they don't shluff it off, they're able to pull the students uh back to reality or or whatever the situation is.

So I give them high high marks for that.

I think anybody who uh is in a task-oriented occupation, right?

It's not an ongoing thing, it's you're moving from one task to the next, and and and so you know, like almost like telling a story.

There's a beginning, middle, and an end to each one of these tasks, and that they bring that right.

Very goal-oriented, yeah.

Um open it up to questions for the Christina, or something.

No, no, uh, Mr.

Chairman.

Yes, thank you.

Uh thank you first of all for your service and education.

That's such a wonderful life.

Thank you.

And uh, and I really respect you so much for being that kind of a given person.

Uh many of our children are struggling with um illegal substances.

And one of the things the fire department has done in a wonderful way, is to have not come available to the community.

Uh and I just would, uh I think your gifts will help them understand the young people who fall into that kind of bad behavior.

Uh the other thing is the fire department has done very well and could do better.

I hope they can get a grant to get uh defibrillators in in public spaces.

Because again, they're very good when you get there.

But they're two or three minutes can make a difference.

Absolutely.

We've had firsthand experience of that, and then the public schools became the through a grant, uh the recipients of AEDs in the schools.

Um, I'm very much supportive that that should be everywhere, quite honestly.

You just today the health uh situations of individuals you just don't know, especially youngsters.

I very briefly on the fire question, and one of the ideas that I had, which you can consider, is that co-locating the fire headquarters next to the brief headquarters, so that they can have a rapid response that would be coordinated.

So uh we discussed it in a few meetings, and I don't know where it is since those days, but uh as a new person going on the board, I would like to just so they're seeing I absolutely I heard it and I take it in and absolutely think it's a great idea.

Thank you.

I yield, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Representative Bill.

Uh any questions from the board?

Ms.

Donald, just so appreciative of what you're saying, disease emphasis and some of the district hand by artists out across the street from House.

Um a wonderful school.

I guess I guess I missed that at some point, you're in your principal uh role, yeah.

Just want a well-run school, it's such a wonderful part of the city.

Thank you.

I look forward to voting for you in fact that's role.

Thank you so much.

Mr.

Chairman says we are bragging, right?

My middle daughter is a graduate of heart.

Of heart, really?

Oh heart's a great school.

It's a great school.

My family, uh, you know, it just is like it's just that homegrown.

All the neighbors, I've I have before I retired, the neighbors came by to say goodbye.

And yeah, I had just been there last week.

It's it's uh it's a great place to be.

Her name is Edith Presley.

I know Edith very well.

Please tell her I said hello.

Yeah, I used to be, she used to be my daughter now.

Oh, yeah.

Because they're rebuilding a playground.

Right now.

I know.

You're true.

I'm sure that was your place.

You know, the last time was um we had uh Mr.

Jardon.

And we we had uh he was there a couple of years ago.

I used to I used to volunteer with Mrs.

Jennings there.

Absolutely.

So I'm such Mrs.

Jennings.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, so a lot of people, small worlds.

Well, we're delighted to have you here.

Thank you.

Delighted to see you.

But yourself following one position.

Well, thank you so much.

I appreciate it, and I appreciate your time and uh your services.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I'm kind of sorry you retired.

There's a fun.

It's okay.

My wife tells me I'm flung again.

Oh no.

Reverend, I'm not doing it very to everything to everything there is a season.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much again.

Thank you.

All right, now we're gonna pull things back on track here.

With uh applicant number five.

This is A32.049 parking violations hearing officers, Robert Willis.

Uh he is uh joining for his first term, which would expire in December 2028.

Um you missed a couple of uh your fellow candidates uh uh met with us just uh a few moments ago.

So uh to tell me uh what what are you what are you hoping to achieve uh this as a member of the uh uh as one of the parking violations hearing officers.

For some time I was looking for ways to give back to my community.

I see this as an out-to-do to move forward in that pursuit.

And do you have expectations going in?

No.

Uh it's you know, it was interesting because you know, one of the things that came up in the course of our prior conversations was that uh folks are a little upset sometimes uh when you meet with them.

Uh but not at me personally, I didn't want them to take it.

Yeah, so that's a that's that's that's that's good.

Um Grey Rock, you know.

Yeah, do you know Grey Rock?

Just Gray Rock.

Yes, you let that go right past you.

I don't know that I you cannot react.

You cannot react to someone in that situation.

Um I work now with the Catholic Cherokee's.

We do a meals on wheels delivery.

We do with people who uh through whatever reason uh cannot fend for themselves, even to make a meal.

If you are a 30 minutes late, 45 minutes late, you have disrupted a routine of theirs.

They will let you know about it.

There are between 35 and 40 people that are vote.

If you accept 35 to 40 people yelling at you, you.

You can't get that through.

You can't get through that emotionally.

No one could.

So you must uh you must gray rock, these folks.

Um when I was working for the Office of the Public Defender, um, you go down and someone has been locked up all night and they're hungover and they're angry at whoever they were angry with the night before that got them locked up.

You cannot let this person's emotion affect you.

You have to go back and go about your day.

These people want to be heard.

We are there to listen.

People are mad, okay.

People are upset.

Okay.

Is it fair?

Maybe.

That's what we're there for.

We're there so people can be heard.

We're not there to get upset with them.

We're not there to mirror their emotions.

We are there to let them feel as if justice is being served.

Well, thank you for that.

Uh let's open it up to the uh committee.

Do we have any uh questions?

Coach.

Are you aware of these the other candidates?

Do you know um do you know Laurie or um, the other people that are um I don't have any information on anyone?

Uh Lori Long.

Lori uh Legier.

She's well, it's just because that's what you work.

You have worked in the Stanford Court system, and this was 20 years ago.

Okay.

Yeah, it's it's been uh some time.

Uh I was there in 2004, 2005, uh, private practice for about five years thereafter.

Then I was in the corporate world until 23 when I took a buyout and went to the Catholic charities.

Thank you for giving back to our city.

So yeah, you know, it's um it was something that I've been thinking about for a while.

Uh a number of outside factors came together at once to put me in a position where I could devote my time and my attention to doing something uh beneficial.

So I've been there um working now for a little over a year, got a shift tomorrow.

I'm driving the North Stanford route.

Um so uh yeah, it's a it's uh I wouldn't say I wouldn't say rewarding uh because it does have its challenges, but uh at least it's all this work.

And I feel like this is too, you know, municipal service, it's all this work.

Yeah, that's why it's something I'm interested in at this at this point in my life.

Yeah, it seems that is it preferred by the administration that the members of the hearing offices have a legal background or sort of cult background of sorts, or is that just a benefit of all three candidates we appear to have?

Oh um, I don't know.

Uh it could just be coincidence, it could be um a certain temperament that goes along with your legal trading.

Um, as I say that gray rock, that is um role differentiated behavior was uh something we talked about a lot both at business school and at law school, where you must see yourself um as someone who has to try to achieve objectivity.

Um even though yes, of course, you are subjective, you're gonna have your own thoughts, your own ideas, people are gonna run you the wrong way, but you must strive toward that goal of objectivity.

So I suppose someone who has at least a bit of formal philosophical research on that subject, you know, we do benefit at law school, focuses on objectivity.

So maybe it helps.

Agreed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chris.

Uh, thank you.

Um, so I noticed on your application.

Um, in the question, how do you learn about serving on a city?

Yeah, I'm saying Stanford Board Commission.

That you uh wrote uh social media.

Yes.

So uh I'd be interested.

I'd be interested in which what site, how you how you got to it?

Um, if you could just elaborate on that a little bit about it, yeah, sure.

Are you familiar with the social media site Reddit?

Yeah, of course.

Okay, yes, more than more than a little bit.

Yes.

Um, it's feelings.

All right.

Well, well, for those who may not know, Reddit is essentially a real oh, okay.

Yeah, no, it's it's not a site itself, it brings people together.

There's a community there, uh, for the city of Stanford, our Stanford.

So a lot of folks will come there for uh suggestions about restaurants, um things to do.

Um, and I I love to be outside.

I go to the park pretty regularly, all different parks, uh, arbitrary, uh river parks, our local uh waterway parks.

I love to go out to restaurants.

I like to know about my city.

Um, I grew up in Caiden, so well, not a lifelong Stanford.

I mean, I think essentially lifelong, appreciate it, but I've been in the area generally for most of my life.

So I love to hop on the subreddit, so he's asking questions, see if I can't try to give somebody some restaurant recommendations, and um along the way, I saw there was some information about this.

Um, chased it down and found the application that's bringing it in.

So yeah, our standards.

Thank you.

Yes, there you go.

Felix is uh I'm a force amendments, yeah.

And I post on it regularly.

Oh, yeah.

I want to thank you for your willingness to serve.

And the empathy I hear you both.

I hear I hear you talking about the gray rock, but I also sense that there's a great deal of uh compassion in which you're doing and uh the fact that you do where you were planning or joined the way you did.

Oh, well, you can do some of the things you want to do.

Thanks very much.

Yeah, I I I read on your resume about about good products, which sounds like sounds like a bit of a bit of a passion project.

Yeah, um, could you tell us a little bit more about it?

Okay, um, I grew up in the trades.

Um, my grandfather had a good work, uh, my father is a house builder.

So by the time I was uh by the summer I graduated university uh with the BS, I also that same summer finished my 1500 hour carpenter certificate.

So in hindsight, if you think about it, I did 128 credit hours to get my degree.

So you figure maybe 10 hours of actual work per credit hour, that's 1280.

So I spent more time at practice to get a carpenter's certificate than I did to get a bachelor's degree.

1500 to 1280.

If I you know, loose map, of course.

So all that's to say I'm pretty good at it.

Um, I worked for years in the restoration industry, cleaning up uh houses after uh floods and fires to get people back to their homes.

So the idea of going into a distressed property, going into a property that's been burned out or neglected or filled with sewage for that matter, um, this is nothing new to me.

So the idea of um spending a year of my life just knocking down the inside of an old abandoned neglected property, making it habitable again, and providing below market rate rent to people who need it.

Yeah, it's a bit of a passion project.

Um they are technically LLCs, it's technically for profit, it is an enterprise, it's not a non-profit, but it's not you know a source of income.

Uh I've been fortunate to make a couple of good decisions along the way where I don't necessarily need those projects to be profitable.

So I treat them almost like a non-profit, like everything I make off those goes back in.

Um, this year I'm building a privacy wall and a fence for one of the properties so the tenants can enjoy the backyard.

Um a couple years ago, I put a new roof on one of them.

I've got one tenant right now who's um out of work, so just hasn't paid rent in four months.

It's okay.

You know, I can cover it, you know.

The those are kind of house, things like that.

So yes, um, I very much enjoy um fixing neglected properties.

That's if I could find a way to do that uh full time, maybe I would, but so far it's only been it's only been part-time, but uh yeah, so are these buildings primarily in Stanford or elsewhere?

Oh, yeah, four of them were in Stanford.

Um there's 106 Williams Street that's down by the cove.

Uh there's 48 Plain Hill Avenue, that's in Glenbrook, not far away from where I live.

Um there's 1172 Bedford.

Uh there's 81 Plymouth, and then there's a fifth, which is in Decay, it's 44 Morton Street.

Um, these are all two families, uh, one of them's a three-family.

So, you know, primarily I've got either first uh generation immigrants or war refugees uh in the properties now, and everybody um I'll tell you real quick.

One of them, we'd um we've been trying to get his wife, uh travel beast, his wife and his daughter.

They're in Ukraine.

And we've been going through and through and going to various um different embassies internationally throughout Poland, uh, the Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia.

Uh and finally we found um we found them an opportunity to go and interview in Romania.

Set it up, you sent their travel up.

We finally did get their visas.

They went through the whole process and they arrived two weeks ago.

Okay, cool.

So they've been here now for two weeks.

She's got another two weeks, and the best part of that is she has now a permanent visa where she can uh his wife and daughter can come and visit him now any time for the next 10 years.

So uh I had seen him for, you know, I see him pretty regularly a couple times a month when I'm over there, and he'd been letting his beard grow, he'd been letting his hair grow, but then one day song all cleaned up, clean beer, clean haircut.

Now I didn't really make anything of it until that night when he called me the invited mill for dinner, and they were there.

So it's just uh a bit of an aside way.

I could just help this random person with you know being able to find him a good place to live, provide that for him, and also help him with uh his applications.

The lawyers he talked to was like 2500.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So did you do that yourself?

Oh, yeah, I did all the work for him myself.

He insisted, you know, he kept insisting and gave me like a hundred dollars, and you know what I mean.

It's the sort of thing where I'm just gonna turn it around, right?

I'm just gonna turn around and put it back in the house anyway, right?

You know, so but it was important to him, it was very important to him.

So I was like, Yeah, like you guys just put in the house account and it'll go back to paying his electric bill next month, something like that.

But have you look into you know about you guys from Ukraine?

The year for you visas, yeah.

Oh yeah, that's uh there I've got two guys there on there now, and we're looking to flip one of them to try to get him an H uh H1B through his employer, so I'm specialist.

I found Senator Clinton very helpful.

So when we brought in the family.

We are looking to um extend is uh his TPS, and we've been in touch with representative.

So he works at Toyota Stanford, so the owner of Toyota Stanford has a pre existing relationship with a congressman, so he went that way.

I'll keep that in mind.

So my wife is also Ukrainian, but she's been here for 20-something years, but she is also a first-generation, so she has a lot of inns in that community.

So I've done a lot of these $50, you know, where they insist.

I have one lady who pays in food, she cooks up a plate of stuff for my wife, brings it over, it's home cooking, you know.

So then I do a little bit of tax, I do like to re taxes, and she brings over a plate of stuff.

So we'll just go to the church on Friday night.

You know, it's it's just a way, it's it's a way to try to.

I've been really lucky, just right from the start, very lucky.

So I try to keep that in mind, and try to live my life in a way where I recognize how how lucky I was to have the kind of options I had.

So I'm in a position to help people.

How could I not?

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

What an awesome conversation.

I don't I don't see any hands up.

Um, uh, but before before we let you guys have to ask you a question.

Um, I'm I'm not familiar with this uh reference to Grey Rock.

Could you oh yeah, um, I suppose maybe that's a generational thing.

I don't know if that's that's me or anyone else, but when you're dealing with an emotional person, it it sometimes they don't want to go down, they only want to go up.

And if you engage with them in any way, they're going up, they're trying to bring you with them, right?

So if you know yourself to be a person of any kind of temper, you cannot engage at any level, you just must gray rock them.

You must be a gray rock, just impassive, just they're yelling at a gray rock.

They're not yelling at you.

You're they didn't, you didn't offend them, you didn't write them the parking ticket.

So you you gray rock them.

Um it happens in all kinds of stuff.

I do a little bit of uh bootleg, you know, New York City tour guiding sometimes when my wife or friends or people come into town.

I've got a tour.

I was getting yelled at by a town in Battery Park this weekend, and you just kind of okay.

Just you can yell, it's alright.

I know you're not mad at me, we just met, so whatever you need to get out, it's fine, it's not gonna affect me in any way.

A couple of my cousins that I was with were amazed.

They were like, why didn't you just tell that person this or that?

Because I said that then it's only going up, and I don't want it to go up.

I want that person to come down and go away and go about the rest of their day and leave us alone.

And the only way to do that is to not give them anything.

Can't trigger back on somebody because that's rude and disrespectful.

But you can gray rock them.

And it's it's not really rude, it's not really disrespectful, it's just a way to de-escalate.

Is that term a literary reference?

It's a psychological term, it comes.

It's really primarily used in conversations about autisticism.

Yeah, um, I don't know where I came to know it, actually.

It's just been something I've I've had in my subconscious in my vocabulary for some time now.

But I do yeah, um now that you say that, I do remember it uh finding its origins and dealing with difficult people, people who may be narcissistic personality disorder.

But I found it useful for pretty much anybody who's mad.

Don't give an excuse to get, don't need them.

Just and and don't ignore them.

You they need to be heard, so hear them, but don't give them anything, no fuel for that fire, just let it let it sit around.

Well, thank you for that education.

And thanks so much for stepping up to volunteer.

Oh no, I I think this is uh I think this is a good position for me.

I think this is a good way for me to help.

Just like the food truck and the food pantry.

Yeah, this is a way to be a part of my community, and I think municipal government is I particularly like this municipal government.

When I had a chance to talk to the mayor, I couldn't be more thrilled with the sidewalks and all the public infrastructure.

So this government in particular has kind of uh inspired me to get out of my comfort zone and do something a little bragging.

I mean, I live in the I'm one would represent this industry set up.

Oh, okay.

I'm not I'm not showing my angry.

I'm not terribly sure how all of the ah, okay.

Not terribly sure how all of the local government stuff works, but getting my it works great.

What if I getting getting involved very limited role now?

And perhaps, you know, perhaps it will uh lead to something larger in the future, but it certainly was not my plan to you just get into anything other than just this right now.

Being only a few months ahead of you uh in an experience of the city government, it's it's pretty remarkable.

Efficient, smart, energetic.

Stanford is growing, yeah.

So why not be a part of something that's over us?

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, thanks again.

Oh, no, thank you guys.

Uh thanks for rolling.

We can say we stay to the end that you wish.

Oh, no, no.

I do have another person in the room if you're all set with me, I'll say thank you and good night.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Good night.

Steve.

Yes, a little son.

It's a hot seat.

That's it.

Just so they can see you.

I'm Steven, by the way.

Nice, nice to finally meet you.

Yes, good to see you.

So uh welcome.

And uh, thanks for stepping up and and and uh doing this.

How how maybe just take us through how um you were approached?

Uh what what your thoughts were.

Uh uh, and uh, you know, how you how you hope to see this all play out for yourself.

Sure.

Um, well, I've been involved with the Stanford Police Foundation.

I actually formed it, legally formed it, when the uh chief of police at the time, approached me for help, and uh have been a member of that Stanford Police Foundation for 17 years.

Uh in working with the Stanford Police Foundation, I met Lou De Rubis, who is the assistant chief of before he took the job as the public safety person.

And Lou approached me a few months ago to say that he thought I would be a good fit for the fire commission.

And so that's how I found out about it.

It sounded interesting to me.

Um I'm involved with six other charitable organizations where I volunteer in my time.

And I know you have talked to a bunch of people tonight who also do lots of things like the kinds of things that I do.

Um but one thing that I find with people who volunteer, the people who are the busiest are the ones who get the most work done.

I'm one of those kinds of people.

I still work a full-time job.

Um, I like to stay busy.

Well, I'm still affiliated with the New York Nets.

I work as a full-time CFO there for three full years.

Um, but now I'm just tangentially involved with that, it's an investment for us.

Uh so my my full-time job is deputy general counsel of 0.72 asset management, where I work there as a tax advisor.

Um so I'm an accountant, but I also have a law degree in tax, is what I do as a full-time job.

But I'm going to be 62 years old this year, and uh just thinking about the next stage of life.

I don't plan to be working full-time, and you know, until I die.

I'm planning I plan to retire at some point, and uh I need to stay busy.

I need to find something to do.

My wife told me so.

So uh, you know, any anything that I do, I do uh I try to do it well and I spend the time.

Uh on any of the charitable boards that I work on.

I I find there's really two types of people.

There's ones who just show up to the meetings.

Uh I'm not that person.

You know, for the Stanford Police Foundation.

I would have liked to actually exit that position after I formed it, and I actually funded it with some of my own money.

Uh, but I couldn't extract myself because I basically do all the work.

My administrative assistant helps me, but I keep the checkbook, I write all the checks, we do a lot of great things, but you know, it's literally a daily exercise for me working just for the Stanford Police Foundation.

Um we've taken over 70 guns off the street, talking about high-caliber automatic weapons.

We do that through a program called um it's a tip line.

It's called um forgot now, but it's it's a tip line, it's an anonymous tip line, and we provide a $1,000 cash reward for any anonymous tips that we get to take guns off the street.

So I'm the person not only funding it, but writing the checks and going to the bank, cashing the checks, getting a thousand dollars of cash to give to the informants who give us these tips.

And uh, you know, so that's what I do on a daily basis in addition to my regular job.

I I plan to do the same sort of thing with the fire commission.

There's a lot for me to learn.

I've never worked in any government organization, um, so this is a government activity that I'm not familiar with, but I'm the kind of person who is interested, will ask a lot of questions.

If if that's a skill set, I have that one.

I ask lots of questions.

I need to know everything.

I need to know what the rules are, how we operate within the rules.

And I know one of the functions of this commission is to interview people and either approve or disapprove of promotions and hiring.

And that's something I do on a regular basis.

When I joined the company where I work today, we were 150 employees.

Today we're over 3,500 employees, and I I do a hiring of employees or interviewing of employees literally every week.

I'm interviewing one or two people.

So that's something I'm very familiar with.

Um, but I don't know a lot about the fire commission to be honest.

Uh I'll learn it.

I'm interested if you you know you or anybody else, it points me to the information.

I'm gonna read every word of it.

That's the kind of person I think we had a chance to uh I think you were here early enough to uh hear uh a veteran of police commissioner, and uh, fire commissioner I'm sorry, fire commissioner and an applicants such as yourself.

Yes, did you take anything away from that?

Uh I did.

Yeah, I I actually was um impressed by the amount of detail that uh you know some of those people went into um because like I said I'm involved with a lot of charitable organizations and there are very few people who are that involved in that in depth a lot of people just show up to meetings but it sounds like the people that are involved with the fire commission are deeply involved and understand it and are working hard to make it happen so that part impressed me and it's encouraging to meet uh representative one of the issues that was on the fire commissioning when I served years ago so it might be remitting by now but um in the recruitment of the best talent some of that talent was female but uh some of the fire departments did not have any facilities of females and that created some some real problems with you know guys hanging stuff in the back from the that we had to have serious conversations about so you know I just wanted to share that because I think that the people that we've talked to they are all forward looking so um and I know that the board of reps is forward looking so we need to make sure that we can do what we need to do to serve all of our firearm personnel.

Yeah it's an excellent point you know just today I I took a sexual harassment training that took me 10 hours to get done so you know things like that on very promotible.

Even believe it or not with the New York Mets we had to talk about separate locker rooms for for females because we were one of the first baseball teams to hire an assistant general manager who was a female and we didn't have a separate locker room for her.

So like those kinds of things I'm familiar with you know being a lawyer I'm not an employment lawyer or a lawyer who specializes in those things but I've definitely been part of the groups that make decisions about how to deal with those kinds of things.

I'm a problem solver so I you know I I enjoy encountering new things and trying to figure them out but something like this is actually something I have some experience in and uh I am absolutely in favor of helping women get ahead and at least have an equal chance not just women but you know people of all groups I have more uh over 20 people that work for me right now I think it's actually 23 people and who report directly to me about 80% of them are women so and and some of them are non-binary people I have uh people who work in foreign countries uh I so there's all kinds of issues with all kinds of people uh I I I sometimes say I wish I majored in psychology so I can learn and how to deal with people in a in a way that's uh like just more uh I'll say with with a background of more formal education I don't have the formal education in some of this stuff but I have the school of hard knocks in dealing with it and some of the practical things that we all have to deal with today which is not necessarily stuff that we've been trained in you know if if you're a person of my age you know we didn't necessarily grow up with that kind of understanding right but today you know we we we do and we're getting better at it um I think that there's a long way to go to get good at it but we're getting better and you know I think the more we talk about it and the more we listen uh the better that we will uh get at this so I don't know the specifics of the fire commission issues today but I really enjoy working on those kinds of things I yield well thank you uh any other board members have any questions?

Well I think it's great that you stepped up and uh want to continue your service to the city and and uh you know I grew up in North Stanford and uh I had a brother who was just a pyramidiac and and I can't by by by the time he was about 14, uh those uh the North Stanford volunteer, I was at the Long Ridge, I think volunteer fire department was on a first name basis with my mom.

Oh hi Barbara, yeah, yeah, we're back and uh yes, yeah.

I grew up I grew up in the middle of the state in the country.

I worked on a farm for six years when I was young kid from the time I was eleven years old, and there wasn't a lot to do in the country, but uh one of the things we like to do is go camping and hang out.

You know, when we were young kids, we camped by a river bank, and one of the most fun things we did was make fires.

You know, that was before you know we had cell phones and there was nothing to watch on TV, so I I can understand where your brother came from, and he was blowing up model airplanes and things like that.

Well, those things too.

Yeah, yeah.

But uh well, thank thank you again.

Uh really uh just uh great meeting you and speaking with you.

Thank you for having me.

It's a pleasure simple with city, so I'm very uh very excited about it.

Thank you.

That's the last one.

Sounds good to me.

So this is uh item number nine, uh A32.053.

Uh and uh this is a position also uh for the fire commission, uh John Delski, who is uh would be a new member uh and uh for a term that expires December 2029.

So welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Thanks again for sitting and waiting.

And uh I've stuff as well, so I find these meetings interesting.

And it must be no, it's been very interesting to hear the different perspectives of past commissioners and past principals, and you know the different backgrounds people bring to the table, which is what I'm hoping to bring.

New set eyes, you know, fresh ideas, open-mindedness, no prejudices, no preconceived notions, kind of figured things out, you know, get my feet wet, understand what the situations are all about, uh listen, learn, and then contribute in whatever way I needed.

Well, that's uh that's a good start, right?

And uh what what have you what have you learned?

What is from some of your observations of some of the uh other candidates?

You know uh one of the earlier candidates, the telephone lady, she's like, you know, you go, you meet, you learn, you talk to people, and that was one of the things when I was thinking about coming into this was you know going around to the fire stations myself, meeting because I know a bunch of guys can stand for their own fire department.

Um but you know, every station house is different because we do have that split dynamic of paid versus volunteer, you know.

I'm great at talking, listening, connecting dots.

You know, if I hear something a light bulb might go off and be like, oh, let me go talk to him because I might be able to put them together and this, that, and the other.

And my wheels always spin, but um the principal, you know, you talk about the fire company, you know, getting the community more involved.

You know, I'm not you know, getting the key to obviously the fire department goes into the schools, but things like teaching kids young, like, oh, today's the day you change the battery in your firearm.

That's something kids learn forever and ever.

You know, you know adults don't you forget.

But if kids like, oh, you always do it on Valentine's Day, like they'll remember that forever.

Um getting younger kids more involved, especially on the volunteer side.

You know, the city's growing.

Do we have enough firemen?

Do we have enough?

Not just you obviously you don't want young kids fighting fires, but being able to help in natural disaster situations if people have to pass water, build sandbags, you know, you need people coming out to do that.

People that are interconnected.

Does the fire department have the resources it needs?

You know, fires aren't just structural fires anymore with wood.

You know, we have lithium batteries.

Are the battery for cars that sometimes they just let burn them because they can't put them out?

You can't put enough water on.

So are these batteries going in?

They're going in homes.

What's you know, if you let a single-family home burn that's in the you know, in a lot by itself, that's one thing.

But if you can't put out a fire that's in a row of houses, you know, what's the plan?

Or are these batteries going in big apartment buildings?

You know, what kind of background checks are being done?

What kind of safety measures are taking place?

Because if you can't put the fire out for two days and you're in an eight story building, well, I mean, what do you do?

So, do we have enough technology to do that?

Do we have right resources?

Drones, things like that, the fire department practices, water rescues, wind ice rescues.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Does the fire department have a drone?

Can they fly it out and drop a life vest as they're skirting along the ice?

Just you know, random things I've been thinking about.

Um, but that's all part of the learning process going in and finding out what I can do, how it can help.

Let's open it up to the committee.

Uh coach, how did you find out about the job?

Um, public safety director, he and I go back 35 years.

Okay.

And we were talking, and I was talking to him about his new role because he's been here.

Oh, it's been a couple years now.

And I, you know, I'm born and raised in Stanford, left for a few years in the city, came back, and I got married, been here for the past 15 years again.

Um, Stanford.

I should be in a state, I should be more involved.

You know, my kids are in school, and this that, and then he called me a few days later.

He said, Hey, would you be interested?

I said, Yeah, I would be interested, you know, to kind of get in and see what goes on.

And maybe this leads to something else down the road.

Like the last gentleman just mentioned, you know, he's not gonna be working forever.

You know, I'm not gonna be working forever either, so and I'm also not gonna sit around, you know.

How can I transition?

How can I be of service?

Yeah, so preaching to the boy, yeah.

You know, Stanford, I find Stanford unique from my aspect.

I always people I meet from Stanford, you know, that lifelong like it's just something about Stanford that people stick around, like certain Stanford people, like you're just here.

It's like a community.

You know, I'll meet someone that's 10 years older than me.

They're like, oh, it's a matter of you know, three people that you mentioned, you know, you can act the dots.

Oh, you know that?

Oh, I know him.

It's like it's different lately because so many people have moved in, but if you've been here for 40, 50 years, you know, that was like the core, and you just know people, and yeah, you know, I know people here and there, and this and that, and you're talking about defibrillators.

How do you get defibrillators?

Oh, grants, but is it just grants?

You know, why why can't we go to the banks, the corporations?

Hey guys, you're in our community.

What can you donate?

Simple tax write-off for them, we cost them nothing.

Put a little plaque next to it, donate it by Henkel, donate it by network.

It's great publicity for everybody.

Yeah, in my opinion.

I mean, the fellows couple just went in, and then I think we have to like volunteer now.

What's that?

Uh yeah, one of the thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

One of the um challenges that uh that the fire commission had in the past, was that so many of the firemen can't afford to live in Stanford, and um the mayor has uh expressed a desire to build more workforce housing in the city of Stanford, which is the challenge, but uh police and uh fire persons are rapid responders and a lot of times when they live in Meradin or someplace like that, it really um affects the efficiency.

So uh that was one of the things I thought about when I was on.

Yeah, I I agree with you 100%.

Because you do, it falls on there's a horrible situation, and you need more people, and you're coming from New Haven or wherever you're a sheltered, it affects.

So that's why, even now, if you could start building that relationship with younger people who live in Stanford who might be able to stay in Stanford generation generationally because their parents are here.

Oh, and then they take over a parent's house or what have you.

Or can the city, this is a lawyer thing, can the city help municipal workers with tax breaks for their housing.

Obviously, there's the unions help with interest rates and loans, but you do.

You need people in your forces to be local.

They can't, you know, and it also helps build it builds that community.

Like you have the local guy.

Oh, my neighbor.

Oh, he's in Stanford Fire.

Oh, my neighbor.

Yeah, he fights the fires.

Oh yeah, my neighbor's the cop.

Yeah, and last thing before you visit the fire houses, you might want to have a conversation with them.

Because there's a photo.

Oh, yeah, no, I I wouldn't just walk in.

I would speak to Lou or Chief Morris.

Um someone wants to take me on tour or uh set it up, but you know, that's a good idea though.

I'd like to get you know, because there's many different stations, and I was trying to before I looked them all up online, I was trying to figure out where they all are in Stanford.

So yeah, I yield chairman.

Thank you.

Representative, well, I just wanted to mention that there are other nearby municipalities that provide some tax abatement of the you know of their municipal taxes, uh to um to police fire uh employees, and um candidly, point of order, sorry.

I I don't know if that was a point of order or not, but I can hear you, Representative Weinberg.

Well, you should be celebrating that, no, I'm not uh I'm sorry.

So that's okay.

It's late for once in my life.

Uh I was saying that there are other nearby municipalities that particularly for provide actually that have volunteer departments that do provide some tax relief uh for the for the volunteers, um to defray a portion of their of their municipal taxes, um, which I've always thought would be a you know could be a compelling recruiting uh uh to bodies uh for the for the volunteer forces, but candidly I have gotten essentially no support for it from um from the leader of the department, you know, of the finance departments or no the leaders of the public safety department based.

So if people on the board is I'm really speaking to my colleagues here, uh if people on the board believe that this is something seriously worth pursuing, um, count me in any other members of the committee have any uh additional uh questions for Mr.

Belski.

Well thank you so much.

Thank you all.

Thanks for coming.

Thank you for nice and my evening.

Appreciate it.

We appreciate uh your stepping up to serve the city.

Yeah, 52 years from the city, so time for my part.

Wonderful resume.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Take care, everyone.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Okay, so we got flooring.

So I I I will I guess we'll we'll we'll take the vote in the order that they appear on the agenda as opposed to the order that we interviewed just for the sake of not trying to confuse.

Yeah, trying to try to reduce confusion.

So, seven, so a full vote with seven.

Oh, full vote of sevenths.

Okay.

Um, representative pavy uh.

Representative did not, never made it.

Okay, all right, so um all right, so that means that uh the first one would be item uh 832-046.

And which is uh uh leash am that's for the environmental protection board uh for uh reappointment uh to a term that expires on 121 28.

Um, is a motion to prove second?

Uh any uh any discussion?

All in favor?

Aye, aye.

Uh any opposed?

All right, well then uh the ayes have it, seven nothing.

Um next we have um uh uh item um forgive me uh a thirty two dot oh four seven and this is uh uh laurie uh legrisi uh parking violation hearing officer uh motion to approve second thank you uh any discussion uh all in favor aye any opposed okay um point of order I I just want to throw in there because I don't know if there's any legality involved, but I think you also have to ask if there's any abstentions, not that it matters for this, but I don't know.

Oh, oh okay.

Um but thank you, Representative Caprelli.

You're right.

And uh I I knew I was bound to make a mistake at some point this evening, so keep my perfect record intact.

Uh okay, uh next item is um A30.

Well, actually, before I proceed, let's go back on those previous two votes.

Were there any abstentions?

I think so.

Okay.

Um eight.

This is uh uh Marnie uh Morance, and this is also parking violation uh hearing officer.

Uh, to approve.

So, uh all uh any discussion?

Uh all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Uh any abstentions?

All right, we'll move that one.

Seven, nothing.

Um is um uh A32 uh uh four-9, and that's Robert Willis, and this is uh parking violation uh hearing officer.

Uh new term expires uh December 2028.

Motion to prove second.

Thank you.

Uh uh all in favor?

Discussion.

Oh, any discussions?

I think uh all in favor?

Aye, any opposed?

Any abstentions?

All right, um item uh on our agenda, item number six, a three two-o five oh and this is uh Maria Linares.

Uh, this is a reappointment to the fire commission to a term that expires December 2029.

Uh motion to approve.

Thank you.

Any second, thank you.

Uh any discussion?

Uh all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

Okay.

Uh moving right along.

Uh item number seven, a three two, oh five, one.

Um that's Linda Darling to uh term on the fire commissioner that uh expires uh December 2029.

Uh motion to approve second.

Thank you.

Uh any discussion.

Uh all in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Uh any opposed?

Uh one of those.

Was there someone opposed?

No, it was just late.

I said aye.

It was just a little bit late.

I'm sorry.

You're forgiven.

Uh any abstraction.

Um, all right.

Um that passes 7-0.

Uh item number eight on the agenda, uh, A32, uh, five-two.

Uh this is a position on the fire commission.

Uh new term which expires uh December 2029.

Stephen Kannett.

Uh.

Motion to approve.

Thank you.

And thank you.

Uh any discussion?

Uh all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

All right.

Um, I don't think that's right.

Uh next up uh item number nine, uh uh A32 uh five three.

Okay, I'll go.

Uh John Dolski.

Uh new term uh to the fire commission, which would expire December uh 2029.

Motion to approve.

Thank you.

Uh any discussion?

All in favor?

Uh any opposed?

Any abstentions?

Okay.

Finally, uh item number 10 on the agenda, A32, uh, 54.

And this is uh Michael Hyman.

To a new term on the fire commission, uh, which expires December 2029.

Uh motion to approve.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh any discussion?

Uh all in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye opposed.

Uh any abstentions?

All right.

Uh we will uh we will move these items and uh with that at uh 844, Wednesday, June 24th.

Uh this meeting is adjourned.

The night.

Thank you, everybody.

Thanks so much.

Okay.

Good night.