Well, but okay.

Great.

And then the um the next topic is uh it was sort of mine.

Um so we of course put lots of time and energy into coming up with this calendar for the this the rest of this year and next year that would become the standard calendar by which we would choose topics at this time of year, we would choose two to take us into next year um and do community engagement accordingly and really try to get into a rhythm where we did the same thing every year.

Um then we had a mayoral election, which I think we all anticipated the election, but maybe didn't fully anticipate the effects of a mayoral transition.

Um this audit committee was started, has has never had a different mayor or a different administration.

Um and as I started to think about the impact of a new mayor in a new administration, um, it occurred to me that it might make sense, and I wanted to bring this to the group rather than kind of plowing forward with our predetermined uh agreed to schedule to pause and have some time at this committee to meet the mayor elect and her team and or her team, share what this committee does, um, hear how the mayor elect thinks that we could be useful.

I know that she is really interested in auditing a lot of different functions and departments, and we've talked often about how we want to be working in concert with the administration as much as we can be.

I think we have an opportunity for that here.

Um then also we may probably will be uh seeing new department directors um in each department.

And so even if we weren't going to have that conversation with the mayor elect, um we will likely be working with new people in the new year, and it seems to me to make sense to um give some time to figure out who those people are going to be to see which programs are changing.

We've in the past wanted to shy away from auditing something that is in the midst of changing because what's the point?

It's about to change.

So for all of those reasons, I wanted to um suggest to the group for your thoughts and for your feedback that we um pause in our topic selection process.

We also have not gotten a great response to putting out our survey again.

Um so it's not like we're seeing not like we would be rejecting lots of brand new ideas.

Um, and instead plan to invite the mayor elect and her team to join us um at our February meeting and um work with her in between to hear her thoughts on how the audit committee could be useful and decide how to move forward based on those conversations.

Um and again with the hope of getting back into a regular rhythm and having our calendar figured out, etc., but not wanting to let that process be the enemy of um meaningful engagement with the new administration.

So with that, I will stop talking and I would welcome other folks' thoughts.

Um, both is this a good idea or not, and also other ideas about how we can engage with the new administration and sort of adapt to the new circumstances that we are in.

I will see Mr.

McVay.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh I think it's wise that we uh take a pause and perhaps that we can have uh the mayor elect and or her department heads come and meet with us just because A is part of our term broader terms of reference right, and also uh it gives us an opportunity to really co collaborate and uh see where we have shared priorities, both in terms of the council and um the new administration in terms of our uh audit objectives where we can uh improve uh service delivery.

The I will also say that this will probably help us with better planning for next year for 2026, because I think that we can actually align our calendar to the calendar that you propose for the whole committee.

I love that calendar.

Um civic engagement with the district councils this year.

And so I think that'd be incredibly valuable for that reason alone.

Because I think once we do sit down with the district councils, which I will discuss more in the next agenda item.

Uh I think there'll be a greater response from the community in terms of uh folks actually submitting uh topics for us to consider.

Because I'm not sure what the usual uh what's the usual corpus or body of topics that we get in a given year.

What has it been historically, Madam Chair?

In terms of how many topics ideas do we get submitted each year?

Yeah, how many submissions do we get in a given year usually great question?

Ms.

Vang, what would you say?

Um we get about five or eight viable topic ideas for the audit committee to consider, but most of the I the topic ideas that we end up selecting are those that's been voted by the departments um so that there's greater interest there, uh especially with the administration.

What the current administration actually it's not that bad of a number coming from the public.

Um five to eight, you said.

Can you repeat that?

Five to eight, coming for the public.

Yeah, that's not that bad of a number, actually.

That's quite impressive.

Like if you compile and compile all the information to kind of gauge exactly what topic they're seeking, it leads to that.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um duly noted, and uh, I think your your points about potentially right, like there being a virtuous effect benefit cycle on topic submissions um makes a lot of sense.

Um, and give the community engagement more time to work because I think the survey is one thing, but I as we were just sort of alluding to, it's often more helpful to get feedback in different ways, like from the community engagement because people are not coming in cold, they're aware of what kind of topics are really are viable, et cetera.

So I think Stephanie, I'm sorry, Miss Dilworth raised her hand.

Go ahead.

Uh thank you, China.

I I just wanted to add my voice to um, I think it would be a great idea to um have a conversation with the mayor elect and her team.

Um we want to be seen as a friend and not an enemy, and it seemed like um there was a little touch and go in terms of the previous administration in terms of that and how we were viewed.

So I think it would be great to get on a good footing with her and her team and as we move forward.

Okay, thank you.

Any other thoughts or comments in general about this?

Um not seeing any.

Oh, go ahead, Mr.

Lester.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Okay, great.

Yeah, I'm figuring out how I raise my hand up here.

Um yeah, I'd like to just add to the chorus that I agree that it makes sense uh with a new mayor's uh administration.

Um I had wondered maybe if you had connected with her or uh anyone on the transition team specifically about you know coming to the February meeting.

Um but you know, I think as long as we don't have to push out our timeline too long, um, it makes sense to collaborate because you're gonna have better results with um you know willing uh audit partners.

Um that's that's always been my experience.

So I'm I'm hopeful uh from how you described it that that's uh what the situation is going to be.

Yeah, thank you.

And to that uh to your question, I haven't spoken to the mayor elect directly about the February meeting, but I did uh she has been wonderful about reaching out.

I know the council vice president, I believe councilmember Coleman and I have all had um one-on-ones with her.

We're also doing tours of our wards with her, which she wants to get done even before the end of this year.

Um, and in my last one-on-one with her, I did bring up the audit committee, and she got her eyes got wide, and she was like, that's that is really exciting.

Um, because again, that's part of her um the values that she's bringing to this role is to really ask a lot of questions, get into the details, understand what's working and what's not.

Um, she talked about that a lot on the campaign trail.

And when I said, you know, we have a vehicle to do that um with funding.

She uh she was happy to hear that.

So um we would need to reach out about February and wanted to bring this to this group first before we did that.

Obviously, it will depend on her schedule, and I hear you on we'd want to do that not much later than February, of course.

I think it also helps that our um current study, our audit is underway.

It did have a little bit of a slowdown, so it's not like we're in between things waiting.

Uh Wilder is working all this time.

So thank you for the comments.

Anything for my colleagues uh or any other comments from our advisors.

Uh-oh, the screen went away, so I can't see Nia.

Anybody?

No.

No.

Okay.

Okay.

They keep kind of keep going back and forth between the team screen and our room, just for everyone online.

No.

Um, okay.

Well, with that, then let well, that will be our plan.

So um, our beautifully laid out calendar will be uh slightly edited for now and maybe come back to as we get there.

Um, but our plan will be for the February 17th meeting to invite the mayor elect and um Ms.

Vangel.

Um maybe you can draft something and I can send it over to her team.

We'll figure that out.

I would do that.

Yeah, great.

And last but not least, um, our last agenda item is an update on the community engagement efforts with district councils.

I want to shout out to Mr.

McVay, who has been doing yeoman's work on this and eager to hear uh the update.

So we have actually made some progress.

I'm very excited that we've made some progress.

Um last time I was here, I think if any of anybody recalls, I had only been in contact with three of our district councils out of the 17 here in St.

Paul.

That has now increased to um nine.

And we actually 300% increase.

Yes, yes, indeed.

Yes.

Um actually we have things on the calendar.

Uh we have two more that I am that is to be determined in terms of the actual date.

And I have more dates I need to forward to uh the council members on this committee, the other community advisors are wonderful staff.

And uh I've been in touch with the council members that are not on this committee.

Uh so like in Highland Park with um where I happen to live with uh council member Joast uh that is set in stone at this point in February.

So um there's another one.

I'm sorry, in January.

There's another one in February that um is tentative right now that she may not be able to attend, so we will see.

But um as we are right now.

We have Como Park.

That is January the 7th.

Um there was a bit of confusion earlier with um Ms.

Vang um that there was a meeting happening tonight.

Um that actually got rescheduled for um personal reasons to January the 7th.

Um uh council member Coleman so gladly agreed to that um change.

I thank you, Councilmember Coleman.

Uh we have uh West 7th Fort Road Federation, which I'm glad to be joining with you, um Madam Chair.

That is January the 12th at 7.

Highland Park.

Um that is February the 5th at 7.

St.

Anthony Park, February the 12th, also at 7.

Hamlin Midway, February 24th at 6 15.

And um I have Capital River Council that is to be determined.

I have to talk with John more about that.

And um Summit Hill as well with um uh I'm trying to remember her name.

So it's slipping my memory right now.

I'm so sorry, executive director of Summit Hill Association.

I do not recall your name.

Uh and one other council, I forgot to write this one down.

Um McAllister Groveland.

Um I actually have a date for that one as well.

I just need to re-pull it.

I don't have it on my calendar, it's actually in my journal back on my desk at home.

So I cannot give you the exact date right now for the public record, but I will make sure that all the committee members are aware of that at this point.

In a similar vein, I am updating the slide deck.

I was really wanting to get it done for our committee meeting today.

But um I had finals last week and the week before.

So I've been very busy and I was not able to get to that.

So my apologies to colleagues.

So I'm going to have that done in the next couple weeks.

It might even have it done this week.

I'm going to share it anyway with the rest of the committee members so they can look at it.

So my hope is that we have a I'm not sure how this is gonna work as the issue.

I don't know if the committee needs to approve the whole presentation before I start sharing it with the district councils.

That what are your thoughts?

We don't think I don't think we need to do it formally.

I think you can send it out via email for comments, okay, make changes and then start using it.

Awesome.

Awesome.

I have no idea what Mr.

Farnsworth was out saying.

No, I'm just kidding.

We we approve that presentation.

Okay, okay.

Well, then I will hopefully have that done in the next week, week and a half, so that way you can all look at it and I would very gladly appreciate your feedback.

And so uh that's all I have at this moment.

I do want to get I should mention one more thing.

Now I think about it.

I have uh primary literature that I've been meaning to send to the committee members that I have not done so yet regarding um uh governance related to um uh external and internal audit with the municipal levels of government and how it um the structuring civic engagement, how that impacts their functionality, and I have not gotten to that yet because I still need to put that um compile that uh uh that uh set of references together for everyone.

So I will try to do that over the holidays.

So I will be busy.

Mr.

McVay, thank you again.

Huge amount of work at a very busy time for you.

I hope finals went well.

I hope we were not the reason for any lack of academic success on your part.

I know we wouldn't be because you can multitask beautifully.

Um I try.

But really really appreciate it, and I'm really good.

I I love also the idea of inviting other council members to be part of those presentations, not just the audit committee members, because that also helps um increase buy-in among the whole council.

Um Ms.

Vang, do we still have our friends online?

Yes.

Okay, I just can't see them.

Oh, they're there.

Okay, there we go.

Um, yes, so I see yeah, they're here.

Um any questions or comments for Mr.

McVeigh.

If you are a council member or a community advisor and would like to attend, I would more than happily take your company because I don't want to be lonely.

Would you um oh go ahead?

Go ahead, Ms.

Dilwick.

Are the meeting thank you um Shermacher?

Are the meetings um by virtual or are they in person?

Um will we send out a kind of a calendar of all the meetings so that um I was listening to them, but I you know um but are they virtual or how are they?

So most of the meetings are being structured in a hybrid format.

So if you want to attend vert um remotely, you're more than welcome to.

Or you can come in person.

And my goal, um, Ms.

Dillworth is definitely to have a calendar put together for all of the council members and community advisors.

I just haven't gotten around to that, and I'm really sorry about that.

So I would more we would gladly welcome your company if you would like to come, whether that is in person or remote.

So same goes for Mr.

Lostetter.

And the other um, the council members on our committee as well.

So thank you.

So we'll send that out as a follow-up of this.

Okay.

Um, and I would also just add if you're having trouble hearing back from any district councils and you want help connecting with them, let us know.

Um, council members can also help with that.

That is definitely happening with some of the district councils.

So, yes.

I will be following up with the council members on that.

I will wait though until um after the holidays because I don't want to disturb any of you folks.

So it also might make sense.

As someone who just um said, I know we should go talk to every district council about the tree preservation ordinance that I'm sponsoring and forgot that there were 17 of them and that they might all want the presentation in the same two weeks.

It's also okay to wait a beat before you reach out to the other ones because um maybe you want to spread them out a little bit over March and April.

And so I think that that is also fully warranted.

Um I add one other thing.

Yeah.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh at this point, our calendar is probably going to be taking us into April.

I just want to make the committee aware of that.

So we're gonna be running basically from January through April at this point.

So that is totally fine.

And again, um, especially if we're kind of taking a pause meeting with the mayor elect, like we we will need topics for the end of this year for the beginning of next year as well.

So all right, that is everything on our agenda.

As we said, it was going to be a relatively short one.

So uh thank you all for being willing to come join us in this format.

I want to thank you from um everyone here at City Hall, uh, and for and all of our millions of viewers at home as well for all of your hard work this year.

It's been a joy to get to work with you on the audit committee.

Um I hope everyone has a very safe, fun, healthy holiday season and new year, and we will see everybody back in not January, but February.

All right, thanks again.

We are adjourned.

Everybody, happy holidays.