guys us to be good are we recording all right let's open the meeting today is I can't read that date all right the 6th of March time is 6:03 we're starting a few minutes late all right today is a uh meeting where we're going to do uh some interviewing of candidates for our Council positions we'd like to start off with the Pledge of Allegiance please all right Mr Johnson we call roll call please yeah uh mayor hibon here council member Brian council member Glazer here Council M rainville present pres consultant boils here Administrative Assistant Johnson here and your interim City administrator is here right roll call is taken thank you very much uh we move on to uh um just got a couple key points I wanted to discuss and what I told uh the city as we've been talking about is that uh I would not do an appointment process we would go through a process and we would go through three rounds so I will not be appointing tonight that's not the intent at all I will not be appointing so I want to just make sure that's clear if there's motions that go forward it will be a majority rule and majority only so no appointments okay uh with that uh stated um I'd like to turn over to Mr Bo just a couple of words red green red green I'm red green color blind and I always miss it I apologize just a couple of comments um first of all I have nothing to do with the decisionmaking process up here uh they've simply put me up here um so you can hear my comments hopefully uh and I can come in uh and do some some work that's helpful for the city um I have about 50 years in local government that's good or bad depending on your perspective I've worked with uh an access of 20 different council members 10 uh different mayors and the reason I bring that up is because in the local government system right there is the miracle it's people and that's what we're doing tonight trying to slight a new miracle if you will the these are people who decide uh to provide their service to their Community uh as opposed to necessarily their service to themselves and we should all be very very grateful uh for them so thank you guys for the work you do and thanks to our originally seven candidates who expressed an interest in serving uh this s city council role this is an open meeting often times you'll see meetings that take place on a closed basis this is an open meeting as you can see but that being said um we it's it's not a football game it's not an athletic event um so the idea is not to show one's perspective one way or the other cheering uh or or booing literally I've been in meetings where that sort of thing has happened um if a candidate your candidate is not appointed tonight what is the appropriate way to deal with it I'd go to my council members this is a representative form of government I'd say well J was you missed the person or good job uh you've got the right person in mind uh and they understand what that is about a drawing will determine the order of the three remaining candidates we have we had two candidates that four candidates yes yes okay we had candidates that had to leave town early we actually put them through the interview process you will hear from them as the last two uh uh interviewed candidates today one candidate dropped out felt it wasn't the right mix for him and so now we are down to six I see okay so it's the two at the End plus uh those that remain we will take the applicants prior to their uh interview back into the lunchroom and the purpose of course is to try and not have anyone have undo Advantage by having been able to heard hear the question and think through what their answer might be trying to keep things here uh on an even Keel for each person each candidate has two minutes to answer answer each of the questions overall there are eight questions uh council members will be doing two questions each uh but again it's it's in an order that we predetermined the council uh at the end will then um just determine where each candidate is on their list uh and take whatever appropriate action might be for for that time as you've heard the mayor has the authority to unilaterally make the decision but he has said he will not do that not just this time not the second time uh not even the third time but the fourth if the council can't is is just uh unable to uh make any kind of decision together then he will Reserve that power which he has the right to um the person who is appointed we will try and and get them to take their uh oath as quickly as possible as we do we're very anxious to get the council with five uh persons as it was intended to be if no one is appointed each council member uh might share their fourth fifth and sixth rankings and see if the number of candidates can be uh revised or reduced uh in hopes that will make the decision making EAS year for future meetings mayor members of the council that's the background as I understand if there's anything I've missed please uh feel free to cover that you want to just talk the time for the time they have available for each question sure I think that would be helpful yeah you bet um we talk about having two minutes for each question I know that's difficult to do uh because they're coming at you and you've never seen the questions before but I'm I'm confident you you'll be able to respond to that um when there's 15 seconds left in your response to any question Natalie will what will you do wave okay good to try and let you know you're time to wrap it up in that perspective other other comments mayor members of the council nope I think that's you've covered it all okay so at this time uh Lexi is going to be our here is just like taking off and going com to see you can uh she's going to select the candidates so we'll know the order first one you select will be first up followed by the second one will be the second one up um second third and fourth candidate will all go into the kitchen area all right first candidate is Paul ragard second candidate is Don Phillips going third is Dan Swinson and fourth will be Sushi and Frankie we gonna go in the kitchen with him okay Paul how do we pronounce your last namei RI rickord I would have got it incorrect Rickard everybody Rickard all right now we're gonna real quick [Music] and then you want to make the green light is on so I guess we didn't talk about questions yet and I I should do that real quick so when we go to ask questions uh just for our council members uh the order and wrot them down mayor and then alphabetical order so we're all gonna ask the same question so I'll take question one followed by uh Council M Brian uh followed by council member Blazer followed by council member rainville and then when we go to the second page we'll do the same order of Mark so we all have the same exact questions for each and everyone all right are we ready for uh Paul to get started all right sir it's up to you first question what inspired you to apply for the city council opening so I understand the position that we're in currently you know with one member short and I come in with I've actually served on the council before so I come in with experience and being that this is kind of a short inm position until my understanding is the city has a special election I thought coming in that experience and knowledge would be able to help the council especially with a couple new members on the council being familiar with the policies the process and all that moving forward um and again I've served before I I was on a park and wreck committee years ago as well and that's how I kind of got involved in doing it um there's a lot of things going on in the city that I think need to be addressed and you know it be like to be a part of you know that decision-making process waiting for pens to move stop moving good I got I got all my Keynotes on that one thank you are there any issues that you can think of that would be a conflict of interest not really I guess the only issue that I potentially could see is I've been a member of the fire department for 15 years um so if there's votes or decisions potentially with something regarding the fire department I don't know if that would be considered a conflict of interest or not but that would be the only one I I don't know that would be a conflict of interest I'm not sure I I don't know well City strategic plan because our actions have impacts of five 10 and even 20 years tell us about your experience in strategic planning so again I've had an experience being on the council before so i' I've dealt with a lot of this stuff before but also in industry I'm in an industry that has a lot of strategic planning based on um it's a m Arrow industry so depending on how the market generates and fluctuates we have to obviously always be evolving with how that market goes um if you go back to the city level obviously things to look at is you know budgets uh how things you know how equipment costs are going to change from year to year um does it make sense to acquire equipment you know now or wait depending on interest rates uh and how the things like funding or grants and those kind of things so it's there's so much there's a big part of it that always fluctuates that you always have to be evolving with that follow it is the same question telling how long the city council that's not all no but I think we got to hold that I think that would possibly come back in round two we got to ask the exact questions to everybody and I don't think it'd be fair to add any uh council member rainville to um to Paul how important is public engagement in the city decision making process City decision well it's important you know I've always said you know you you try to please as many people as you can but you're never going to be able to please everybody so you have to be involved to to try to understand what what people want within the city um and again i' I've been involved with the city with the fire department for a long time I've been involved with the city with Park and recck committee again being on the council prior but knowing and understanding What the residents or the majority of the residents want is very important so being involved from that aspect I think is again truly means a big difference you know you look at Facebook right now and there's a lot of talk periodically about taxes and incre what tax increases are I think one thing that the city hasn't done real well is plan for the future um and try to budget for in the future and I think that's what we're seeing today is we're trying to make up for some of that so it's difficult you guys are in a very difficult situation with the cost of infrastructure going up and the tax revenue coming in and and not any continued growth that the city sees either business or residential all right next question Paul how important is is it to you to balance your position with the desires of the different stakeholders and again that's kind of goes along with what I just said mentioned prior was you know I've always you know I've served on other boards and other committees and whatnot and i' I've learned through the years you're never going to appease everybody so you have to use your best judgment to do number one what's best for the city and all the other stakeholders involved um and you also have to go into it I believe with an open mind um you know I may have a firm thought on what I think is right but with having an open mind and listening to others and hearing their arguments they hopefully or can persuade you you know that your original way of thinking was maybe not the best way thank you um what are your top priorities to accomplish if appointed so right now you know again my understanding that it's an inter position so it's not a real long position which is fine um there are key elements I believe that the city needs to address right away obviously is the the city Administration position you know where where or what and how does the city plan to fulfill that position is it is it finding you know somebody from outside is it filling within is it what is it that's a obviously something very key to the city right now um you go to the fire department we have an interim Chief you know what does that look like moving forward um you know and some of the other things that I personally would like to see is is and I think the mayor had mentioned it in a previous meeting was bringing looking at the potential of bringing other committees back to the city and getting more residents and more people involved in some of the decision- making process you know in the past our committee prior committees were never committees that could actually make that final decisions but they were residents who could offer suggestions and recommendations to the Council of what others wanted to see within the city you know the council came can't talk to everybody and can't fully understand exactly what everybody wants or what everybody wants to see in certain Avenues so those other committees in my opinion do that and then they bring that to the council to discuss how do you balance the needs of the city when the issue often involves spending and again I it's a tough decision because what project deserves money and what one doesn't um again I look at it from a perspective of what can the city do or what can the council decide that will impact the most residents in the best way um some residents aren't going to be happy with those decisions some will but again you I believe you have to look at it from the perspective of as a council what do what does the council believe will impact the city the greatest get the biggest bang for the buck if you will but you know try to satisfy as many residents as you can and again you're not going to be able to satisfy them all rainville right uh to Paul city council Choice chooses cityil Excuse excuse me city council choices often involve multiple competing priorities multiple competing priorities give us one example of how you choose between them of how you choose between them can you repeat that question Mary I kind of yes I will I'm sorry um sorry y city council choices often involve multiple competing priorities multiple competing priorities give us one example of how you choose between them how you choose between them uh I don't know if I have a specific example but again it comes kind of back to what I was saying before is in my opinion you have to look at the city as a whole and and what priority or what project you believe is going to impact the city in in the most positive way or the best and what how how that decision can impact you know as many residents as possible um you know there's Road road projects you know that come up and and it's h how does the city fund them you know traditionally years passed it was 100% assessments then it was changed to in you can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it's still City pays 50% residents pay the other 50s you know are there other way you know so you have to look at it for example with that kind of project is what impact and what road project is is going to have the most impact how does it affect those people who are actually funding it versus those people who don't um so it it kind of checks and balances and trying to figure out again who benefits the most from what you're trying to do with the city funds all right Paul so we've got all eight questions answered at this point um I would love to open it up for questions but we can't we're going to just keep it to the exact eight questions for everybody but thank you very much for your time sir thank you question what inspir you to apply for the C well I decided that uh you know I had decid once before I had wanted to run for Council uh just be part of the uh Council and try and uh learn uh you know get experience out of being a council member uh just working for the community uh I guess uh this is brand new to me I've never done this before and politics wasn't exactly uh high on my list but uh you know I guess I thought that I like I work at the recycle center and uh I enjoy the people that uh work right now up in the uh office and I I like doing what I do and thought it would be nice to get involved thank you are there any issues that you can think of that would be a conflict of interest for you pardon are there any issues you can think of that would be a conflict of interest for you I don't believe so uh I guess not having the experience I don't know of any issues at this point that uh I would have John City strategic plan because our actions have impacts of 5 10 and even 20 years tell us about experience you've had with strategic planning I'm say that again I I have this year is plugged I guess I'm sorry I have a hard time my it's okay City strategic plan because our actions have impacts of five 10 and even 20 years tell us about your experience in strategic planning uh I had worked for uh uh commercial industrial company for 50 plus years I spent uh a lot of those years supervising uh had to work out uh you know planning budget uh planning uh projects for uh the uh employees and uh you know work with uh uh not only vendors but customers uh so I that basically I mean that that's the experience I've had had with uh you know that if if that's what you're asking yeah I think that covers okay yeah thank you so I you know and I enjoyed what I was doing so and I got along pretty much uh I believe I got along with everybody so thank you so don my question is how important is public engagement in the city decision making processing process uh I believe uh public engagement I believe is critical I mean uh this the council works for the public or for the residents and I believe that uh the council needs to understand the residents needs uh they need to uh be able to work things out with them without uh a lot of uh controversy a lot of issues and each needs to understand one over the other you need to understand what the resident is asking and what they want and they also need to understand know what the council is able to do hey Don how important is it to you to balance your position with the desires of the stakeholders of let me reread this I messed it up how important is it to you to balance your position with the desires of different stakeholders yes I'm not sure I understand that one all right I'll just read it again for clarification how important is it to you to balance your position if you were elected as a council person with the desires of the different stakeholders I get I'm sorry I guess I'm not sure I understand how a better way to clarify that maybe I can ask it like this and say as similar to the last question the residents are your stakeholders you might have businesses as stakeholders how important it is for you to uh balance the position of the council person with the different stakeholders how would you how would you handle that uh I guess I would say that is very important that uh you know I as a if I was a council member I as a council member would uh want to be able to understand work with the resident uh and I'm assuming we're talking the stakeholders a resident and uh you know my my goal would be that uh you know the resident uh needs to understand what the city has to go through but I as a council member would have want to understand what they their needs are uh what they're asking of us and make sure that they understand uh codes uh uh ordinances and everything that the city has to uh go through with the budget taxes and so on and be very transparent with the resident thank you oh what would you say what are your top priorities to accomplish if appointed my top priority for what what are your top priorities if you're appointed uh my my top priority be to try to understand what uh you know how how why you know taxes what uh uh why they're where they're at how you know budgeting is done how how the numbers come up in the uh budgeting uh I know that there's a lot involved uh you know I guess those are the probably the priority would be understanding taxes and how the budgets developed how you know how a person can uh reduce the budget if that's at all possible determine what you know what uh the city has to you know put that money into thanks Don how do you balance the needs of the city when the issue often involves spending I I guess that that's one of the issues I you know when it comes to taxes uh I'm I'm not a a lover of taxes I'll be honest with you but I mean uh you know working in a recycle there a lot of people have brought up this issue with hearing about a tax increase and I you know my my uh feedback is that you know it costs go up and in order for us to maintain you know the services the city provides you know there's going to have to be uh the costs have to come from somewhere and so taxes may need to go up the other thing is you know maybe development within the city but uh you know personally you want you know we want a surplus we don't want to be in debt so it's uh you know trying to get some people to understand that uh it's a little difficult but you know it I you know you talk to them they you know they listen thank you you ready right so don this a two-parter city council choices often in involve multiple competing priorities give us one example of how you choose between them so can you can you repeat that again yes city council choices often involve multiple competing priorities give us one example of how you choose between them between them that's a tough one I I guess uh it it depends on what the situation is uh it uh I I would have to look into research and uh you know I guess learn uh learn what it is but uh you know any priorities I mean I would try and initiate uh something with the council if I thought something was more important than uh something else that they had on their plate but uh uh you know I'd be you know willing to work with whatever it takes to get whatever has to be done done hey Don uh thank you very much for answering the questions I'd love to answer ask more questions of you and do an open form but we're all sticking for just these eight questions for tonight thank you sir for your time right there that's your spot hey Dan uh thanks for uh coming out tonight um we're gonna ask eight questions it's got to get to them we'll do it in a round robin format so Shan can find the questions and I'll start off with the first one what inspired you to apply for the city council opening well I've always been I guess I don't know civic-minded I've always wanted to uh be involved in some sort of local local politics I have no desire to be some you know bigger politician I just want to be involved in my community whether it's through you know city council like this or other activities through my kids uh schools or sports or you know I've looked at applying for the Lions Club you know different stuff so I just I want to get out there and at this point in my life I feel like my skill level is at a point where I could actually have a good contribution I feel like I could have a good impact you know I have life experience I have education um and I just feel like I would I don't know I just feel capable of doing it now whereas maybe 10 years ago you know I wasn't quite there I didn't have the confidence certainly didn't have the free time um and now I do you know I'm sort of settled into my career my kids are getting older and um I just it it feels time like I I feel like I could have a a positive impact here I don't have any one you know individual uh thing I feel you know super passionate about I I don't have like one motivation for getting on of the council to make some specific change I just I think I could contribute in a positive way and that's what I'm looking to do I guess thank you um are there any issu issues that you can think of that would be a conflict of interest to you um no I don't think there are any issues that would be a conflict of interest to me um and I guess let me follow that up with a question are you are you saying like if I were on the council making decisions or doing whatever Council people do could I see a conflict of interest arising on one of those issues is that sort of what you're asking the question is kind of is it is what it is what you're doing yeah yeah so no I I don't think I have any conflicts of of Interest I like I said I don't have any one you know burning passion you know project or issue where I'm coming in here because I want my street fixed or something and I'm going to come in here and only focus on that forget everything else so I I don't have that I just have a desire to help out generally here um you know when I hear conflict of interest I'm a lawyer so I'm thinking like legal conflict and so that's immediately where my mind so I was trying to think of legal conflicts of interest but none of those exists either but ethically no I I can't think of any ethical conflicts of interest either I guess you know well let me back that up the one conflict I could see I guess and this is just people in general I think you know I'm younger than some people and I have younger kids that are still in school so I might feel a certain way about about you know issues with relation to that as opposed to like a retired person and now then you know they might feel differently on that certain subject so I wouldn't call that a conflict of interest so much as a different view um and so I guess you know just to throw something out there if anything it would it would be something like that um but I again I don't have any one you know burning issue that uh that I think um is going to be you know create some sort of conflict of interest Dan uh City's strategic plan because our actions have impacts of five 10 and even 20 years tell us about your experience with strategic planning well I think anyone just in their life in general has experience with the Strategic plan I mean most people don't go through life just sort of blindly hoping hoping you know something changes or or happens and so you know just generally in my life my plan of of uh you know going through law school and and becoming a lawyer you know there is strategic planning in that certainly you know sort of a long paay but then in my job as an attorney you know we have quite a few cases and some of these cases take a number of years and so I mean it really does require sort of strategic planning in those cases you know the the things that occur you know what you want to occur first what needs to get done in what order in order to you know move the case along um and so I you know I I do think I have experience in strategic planning through my job and just through life in general I guess I that's not super specific as as it would apply to you know a strategic longterm plan in the city uh or for the city that is but you know I think it's sort of the same concept you know you got to think both short and long you know what is the immediate payoff and what's the immediate need but also you know don't forget about that long 20 years out how is this decision now going to impact x 20 years from now and so I I mean I I do think I I do think like that you know I I try to think through things and try to figure out what both short-term and long-term impacts are going to be of these decisions and sort of uh weigh it appropriately thank you I don't know if she heard you are you ready no I was just Dan was still yes yes ma'am writing right um so Mr Swanson um how important is public engagement in the city decision making process process I think it's very important I mean uh you know a city I mean what is a city it's just a collection of residents who sort of organized together and so it's not some independent entity lording over you know its citizens I think public engagement is extremely important especially at this level of politics you know public engagement is maybe a little less effective or um I don't know less directly guiding in a a bigger uh setting such as like a whole state or a nation obviously but some this small I think certainly that with fewer than 5,000 residents that we should be uh engaging with the public and getting their input and you know seeing exactly you know what is it that the citizens uh want to happen and that's largely how I would how I see myself operating if I do make it on to the council you know like I said I'm not coming in here with a bunch of pred decided issues you know I I would like to hear what's going on what needs needs to be worked on what's what decisions there are to be made then I would engage the public in seeing how they feel about it because I'm not trying to impose my will onto a city I'm trying to have the citizens will I guess guide the city essentially and I'm just essentially a conduit through their through which their will is is made I guess and so yeah I think it's very important city or uh public engagement give it a minute for everybody finish ready okay all right Dan I get the next question how important is it to you to balance your position with the desires of the different stakeholders to balance can you repeat that one more time absolutely how important is it to you to balance your position as a council member uh with the desires of the different stakeholders well I feel like that's sort of similar to the question I just answered maybe I Mis anwered it but um I I would I would definitely try to consider other stakeholders um interests and viewpoints and um and you know use those viewpoints uh of those stakeholders and sort of guiding my decision making I guess um I yeah I mean again I'm not pretending I have all the answers or know all the issues um you know I'm essentially to sort of view myself as as maybe having just the capability to be sort of a problem solver um you know something to that effect and so I I guess I don't I mean I would certainly listen to the other stakeholders positions and I would weigh those you know just as heavily as I weigh the thoughts in my own head because I'm never going to assume that I'm right and everybody else is wrong um certainly because pretty much everyone else is can to have more experience than me if by stakeholders you know I'm you are referring to my counterparts or the citizens or the employees of the city and now then um you know there's many different types of stakeholders in the city and so yeah I think I would weigh um you know their viewpoints you know just as heavily as as mine and I would take those in I guess revising and crafting my viewpoint on an issue good thank you all right next question what are your top priority what are your top priorities to accomplish if you were appointed if I was appointed to the city council my top priority would really just be to be an asset to the council you know I just I I want to I would want to come in and Aid and assist in in problem solving and sort of cre creative thinking um discussing through issues I think that's a strong point um that I have through my job um is uh sort of creative problem solving um and so I I think my my main priority would just be sort of participating and helping Foster U it's like a civil uh city council that's representative of its citizens and make sure that it's actually representative of the citizens there's not you know many fights going on in the council um my second priority would be uh just generally to keep now then like the way it is you know I think everyone who lives in now then or has moved to now then has moved here due to its rural character and so I think probably every person you interview tonight is probably going to say something to that effect because it's true you know we want it to maintain its rural character but at the same time you know we need to keep up with real life with you know other developing cities you know and so we need to keep up with an advancements and make sure that we're growing so that we have um you know additional entities and businesses paying taxes to hopefully lower the tax burden on the rest of us um sort of spread it around there and so I think that's probably my second priority is helping now then keep its character um while at the same time keep moving forward um uh my third priority probably would be all right I'm almost out of time third priority um let's call it uh I don't know I mean like I said I'm sort of an open book I I really don't have very very strongly held issues that are specific to a councilman's job it's the first person that's hit time so far tonight how you balance the needs of the city when the issue often involves spending yeah so I think this is a really tough issue because I think you know just like with the keeping the nature of of now then probably another thing that probably every person interviewing up here is saying and feels is that uh nobody wants higher taxes um and so so you know it's weighing the the needs of the city against um you know we need to keep up with with modern day keep the city moving forward but we don't want to have to raise up taxes so much that it's it's costing everyone an arm and a leg can I have you repeat the question sure sure how do you balance the needs of the city when the issue often involves spending yeah so the needs of the City when I hear that I hear needs of the citizens I mean needs of the city what is that like a a shiny new office a better truck for you know whoever to drive around no it's the needs of the citizens and so whatever it is that the Citizens need I think that's what we're discussing here and there's always going to be a cost to that and you know the goal is to keep that cost down but um you know it's an issue you know I don't think anyone can guarantee that uh spending or cost or are are not going to be a problem that they're going to create some genius way to lower taxes and have you know super awesome stuff happen in the city and all sorts of uh uh you know new technology or new Services I mean it's definitely a balancing act and it's just sort of finding that balance just like the the keeping the nature of ruralness versus uh urbanization you just got to find that balance and and make sure reflects the will of most of the citizens hopefully thank you whenever you're ready C brainville all right all right thank you city council choices often involve multiple competing priorities give us one example of how you choose between them yeah so prioritization um obviously people are going to have different ideas on different priorities and like I said you know my goal would be to reflect what the citizens are feeling but that also is going to be impossible because all citizens are going to have different balancing of of priorities and so it it really just is a matter of of I don't think you necessarily have to rank priorities I think you can you know sort of set them next to each other and work on them I mean sometimes you have to focus on one more than another and sometimes it is a decision on one versus another um but I I think there's room to sort of consider it at all and not uh take a a super I guess dugin position on a priority um as far as like a concrete example from my history if that's what you're asking um you know I I have to prioritize and have work against Computing priorities all the time um you know I think anyone who has a job does that in my Law Firm we have Computing priorities you know I have my staff and then I have my firm above me and so I have this competing priority of of you know making my firm happy keeping my staff happy keeping my clients happy you know making sure I have the resources that I need to do my job and so there's definitely competing prior there that you have to think through you have to have you know the ability to I guess empathize with the other position and actually put yourself in their shoes and think through it because it's so easy just to dismiss it because it's not important to you but I think if you do have that ability to empathize and think of it from their perspective that um you know it enables you to have a more constructive conversation on priorities I think right Dan we'd love to ask more questions but we're going to stick to the eight thank you very much for your time sir evening good evening so we're gonna uh ask you eight questions in total it'll be round robin type approach so I'll start with the first one um what inspired you to apply for the city council opening um Mr um I love the city now then I think it's really important for the citizens to get involved in what's going on um and I figured that I would be a really good fit I care a lot about the city I know a lot of people in the city I participated in a lot of different events and organizations in the city and so I figured that that would be a a good thing for me to do okay thank you all right next question Sue are there any issues that you can think of that would be a conflict of interest to you not that I can think of I don't have an agenda of my own so I don't think so I think that whatever works out best for the city and the citizens and is in the best interest of the city would be what I would be most interested in and nothing of my own personal agenda thanks so City's strategic plan because our actions have impacts of 5 10 and 20 years tell us about your experience in strategic planning um I can think of two examples um my husband and I owned a towing company for 39 years and we had 37 employees and we were quite large and every year we had to come up with a plan for the next year the next year the next year what would be in the best interest of the company and for our future and for the employees and my second example would be um with my husband and I both being retired we are definitely involved in strategic planning every day with um our future our finances our kids and just planning for the future in every aspect of our life thank you Sue how important is public engagement in the city decision making process making process I would I I believe that it's very important but I also think that the whole picture needs to be taken into account so um obviously what the city of now then and the people of now then want sometimes may be different and I think you need to work with both sides engage the community find out what they want what their needs are um I guess I would like to be in my position if I am am appointed kind of maybe a bridge between the council and the citizens in the community so we can all work together for the end goal there we go okay next question to how important is it to you to balance your position with the desires of different stakeholders so the position of the city say you were appointed the city council um with your position the city council I'm going to re read the question how important it is to you to balance your position with the desires of different stakeholders oh I'm assuming when we're talking about stakeholders we're talking about um City staff other council members the businesses and now then the citizens of now then and I I again I would revert back to I think that it's it's important to work with everybody and to try to have a bridge between all the different entities and all the different stakeholders in each and every situation and so I think that you know learning what each party wants and what each party's needs are and what the actual reality is and trying to put that all together and make it work so what would you say what are your top priorities to accomplish if you were appointed um I have a a large desire to keep now then simple and kind of Rural and um which is why I assume that most of us live here um my husband and I grew up in South Minneapolis and have lived in big cities and worked in big cities and as we got older we just kept moving further out because we wanted more of this simplistic lifestyle um I think that you know providing amenities to the citizens while keeping within a reasonable budget would be important um I understand that there are times when um raising taxes is needed to provide different services and different things but I would like to have that be done in a in a very um deliberate and uh conscientious way so we're not just randomly throwing money out how do you balance the needs of the city when the issue often involves spending I think I kind of referred to that in the last question but um I think that I mean there there are things that have to have money spent on them and things that need to be prioritized and then I think there's other things that we need to think about the the residents you know there's a lot of people that have lived here for a very long time that are older that are maybe on fixed incomes and things like that and I think it's important to to think about the the city as a whole and not just a particular desire of a particular person or group and I think that we can you know continue to grow at a reasonable rate keep the taxes reasonable but still get what the city needs to function and that I guess that would be how I would look at it I said I think that the budget needs to be looked at you know and and just decide which is the priority and which can be you know maybe moved to side or maybe there can be a reduction in a certain item and you know figure out a different way to maybe spend that money or spend less money on that project and move it to somewhere else thank you I mean we had to do that a lot in the towing company because you know there could be a need for a new truck but maybe the new truck wasn't in the budget but the repair of the truck or getting a used vehicle or something you know there might have been an alternative to just running out there and buying a brand new truck because they're very expensive thanks are you ready city council Choice choices often involve multiple competing priorities give us one example of how you choose between them between them um without you know a concrete example but I I would like maybe look at it this way if there's an emergency thing that has to be done so something can keep moving along or keep functioning I would say that would take a priority over something that doesn't need to be done right away um if it's uh involves um roads or sewer systems or you know different things like that safety of the C cens I guess I would you know put that before you know something like having a party I mean I know that's a weird example but you know I mean there's things that can that have to be prioritized and things that don't and I guess I guess I would want to look at it with my fellow council members and the citizens and kind of figure out well is this a dire need and or is this something that can wait because we've got an emergency situation or something that is more dire like a Calver needing to be repaired or something like that and we would need to spend the money on that versus something else I hope that answered the question Al so we we'd love to ask more questions but we're going to stick to the eight for today um and and go to that point so that'll be all the questions that we have for you tonight thank you very much Mr Mayor and council members thank you for your time Lexi are you going to cue the next ones up yep the next the next person is Shawn is that correct um Cheryl it's Cheryl is that we don't get to ask the questions this time somebody else y all right are you all readyy can see this also um initially I had went for the election November and I came in place and wanted to really still pursue it even though I was elected and I will be doing that in a are there any issues you can that would be a tell us about your experience my the same thing so that we can succeed and that's basically what the counties and state and government have to do in order to um do well with the that they get in from the cons they have to plan if you don't plan all right how important is public engagement in the city decision making process how important is public engagement in the city decision making process I think it's huge because you know it's an elected um position and I think people should have faith in who represents them because that's what we're there for um it's sometimes difficult people think that well they're in there for this position and you know he'll me to this well you have to go by the rules you have to stay by the rules of what why does that mean we've taken all the bandwidth from our WiFi I think so and it's supposed to be high speed e e and I will be doing that if you don't plan St we can change rules with you know conation of coun but and then that go forward but you know you have to within consti and are we still question for yes um me you shouldn't be able to just you have one person that wants something you shouldn't bend over for just one person um just because it makes sense or would benefit maybe five or 10 people you have to look at it as a whole as the city of now we still want to be rural people come out here for that and you know somebody wants an apartment complex or some sort of complex where there's multi um people wanting we've had that issue before and we've turned them down because we want it to be this is this is what we want what are your top priorities to accomplish if appointed um to go along with what the um people elected you know PE the council for um to be to help now then be more Rural and to help those people sometimes get what they need for their land ownership and everything um to me that's kind of huge because I've heard throughout the times that there's been some people that okay well this person got it how come I can't get so I mean you have to keep it where it's fair and it's towards the rules so you can't bend them so much um I also want to try to keep the Met accountable out because they don't really know us that well they just know that they want to spread out and that's their Theory um so that's another big thing that I would like to try to keep out all right how do you balance the needs of the city when the issue often involves spending that's a good one too uh to me you should kind of go towards where if you're going to spend maybe take from something else because um I know that in certain instances that some people want a new fire want this do that um to me if it works don't fix it it's it's working just fine with what we have if something's failing if something's you know deteriorating that's a different story um if you want to do it just because you want brighter newer you know shiny something shiny um I don't think that that is the the way to spend the cons m city council choices often involve multiple competing priorities give us one example of how you choose between them basically common sense and just kind of STI with what um do you have any last comments that you'd like to share um not at this time I don't okay thank you thank you before we start I don't believe so no I appreciate you accommodating me virtually here and apologize for for being out of town this week yeah no problem at all so um let's start with stating your name um just for the record yes my name is Sean Patton great and Sean what inspired you to apply for this city council opening yeah so I have always had a uh I guess tangential interest in in politics a little bit um and I guess as I've matured and kind of gotten to you know an adult age now with two younger kids I have an 8-year-old son and an almost four-year-old daughter at home um and then moving out to now then I guess it's a unique community in the sense that it has some Suburban characteristics some rural characteristics and my main motivation I guess really is to to try to make it a place that um myself as one of its residents and its residents can be proud of and is a place where my kids can flourish and have everything that I'd like them to great um are there any issues you can think of that would be a conflict of interest for you no no truly there there shouldn't be whether work personal anything like that um nothing nothing that I can think of that would would come into play at all as a conflict interest great um City's strategic plan because our actions have impacts of 5 10 and even 20 years tell us about your experience in strategic planning yeah so most of my professional career there has been a pretty significant focus on strategic planning although not in the public domain um it has been in the private domain across a few different Industries so I have had experience both in manufacturing um services and then now is kind of a mix of the two um whereas we do provide some some services in my current role as well as infrastructure Hardware type uh Solutions and so I guess in in all of those capacities managing teams um building out actually new divisions and parts of organizations it's taken a lot of strategic planning both in terms of current year but where that future state is going to be as well um for for instance in one of my roles we basically I was tasked with starting up a division from uh zero essentially it was an exist an non-existent division in my Marketplace um so I was tasked with basically building out the vision bringing on a team that kind of saw that same vision and growing that into a successful uh Division I guess sorry I feel like I'm using division a lot but a successful program and and I think all of those would apply although there'd be a learning curve with the public domain and learning about you know some of the specifics underlying current budget and revenues and expenditures of the city I think the skill set that has allowed me to be successful in my professional career would lend itself very well to this position and to be able to allow me to be successful in the role and help move now then in the direction that um you know I think we all wanted to right we all wanted to become as successful as possible and grow and flourish and um be able to be everything we we all dream of awesome how important is public engagement in the city decision making process I think it's very important I mean at the end of the day you know the the public is is really what drives the whole process not only of the council but really any political landscape and and environment and so I think without public engagement you know you're kind of Running Blind a little bit um maybe that's the wrong way to put it but I think without them being behind it without them being a part of the decision- making process without taking into account as many of those points of view as possible and trying to find a solution that benefits the most people um I I think it's it's kind of a lost cause right because at the end of the day the the goal behind a at least in my opinion city council should be to position the community to the best interests of its residents and of the community and I think those go hand in hand right to to be able to do that you obviously have to have public engagement and and engage them and interact with them and understand what they want what their desires are and um and then ultimately come to a resolution of what might be the closest way to get there and and obviously make as many people happy as possible knowing that maybe not everyone can be in every single decision great and how important is it to you to balance your position with the desires of different stakeholders yeah I think that's a pretty pretty broad one in some sense so I guess I think it's maybe related back a little bit to the question I I just answered in some some format which is there are many people in the community obviously all have various stakes in and what their interest way may be whether that's personal professional um business owners people in political domains right there's a lot of interaction within the public domain especially it kind of crosses really in some context almost every aspect whether it's just like I said residence and Andor career type Ambitions and so I think being able to find a balance amongst all those stakeholders is important right it's at the end of the day the decisions you make and the decisions that the council makes you want to position to benefit as many parties as possible but again there is the caveat of not everyone is going to be on the same page with decision so it's trying to find the solution that um I guess one is is potentially where you see the best outcome but also does satisfy as many potential stakeholders as possible and what are your top priorities to accomplish if appointed yeah I think i' probably give a few different answers to that question so I I think one aspect of what I've seen that really seems to be a major focus of the current state of of you know the city of now then we'll call it or current strategy and kind of direction is really trying to balance the budget in some regard um or at least get it trending in that direction and I know there's a lot of I'd say a little bit more Community engagement maybe around that overall and so I think it would be working towards a common sense solution in there something that um can really evaluate the full scope of revenues and expenditures um trying to evaluate maybe Creative Solutions ways to utilize various Technologies um or or other approaches to you know in some sense this kind of comes back to the work smarter not harder right find some maybe low hanging fruit some opportunity there but then also dive into some of the other aspects that do require a little bit more Deep dive and again coming in from the outside there's going to be a learning curve there and I certainly foresee that certainly know it exists but I think also working with the individual stakeholders like you mentioned engaging the public to best understand what is important and and how can we drive ourselves to a future where now then can continue to flourish can continue to grow can can find a balanced budget and really you know I don't I don't know if I'd say lead lead maybe that's the wrong word but I do think now then has a huge appeal in the sense of kind of what I went back to where it's got this rural suburban mix and it's a very uniquely positioned community in that regard and I think that also lends itself to a lot of opportunities so through Community engagement and and growth and balancing the budget I think those would be my big things and how do you balance the needs of the city when the issue often involves spending yeah I I think that's that's one of the biggest challenges right it is finding a balance of um you know you you obviously have certain services that are required and and there is certainly a a minimum level there right of of kind of what's expected from the city and what the residents expect um but I think there's there's a lot of things that will underly the costs I know you know I've done some minor review of the budget obviously there's not details on some breakdowns and things like that but I think there is an opportunity to dive into what underlies some of those numbers and continue to get granular with that data to find what I what I referenced earlier some of the lwh hanging fruit maybe utilize some technological applications some digital aspects um maybe even moving things to a little bit more digital Regard in some some aspects maybe phasing in certain things for the future of of where things are headed because again I know one of the challenges too has been population growth right now then has continued to grow and there are more people and you know building and all this stuff that that do require additional Public Safety and public services and so I I think there's it is a balancing act I guess that's maybe the best way to put it but I think in terms of how to balance it I think it it's needs versus wants and some regard and that's what it boils down to and then and then prioritizing what really are the needs before any wants are considered especially while the B while the budget is is unbalanced and last question here city council choices often involve multiple competing priorities give us one example of how you would choose between between them yeah I think that question probably depends a little bit on the scope um because because there's going to be kind of a there's a lot of aspects right there's obviously a a quality or solution aspect of you know again it's I know it's very broad so it depends on kind of what you're purchasing so I don't want to boil it down to something too simple but like if you were looking at a you know a software solution the Count's using for you know let's just say accounting or Finance or something along those lines right you would want to over in my opinion have a good overview of the two competing products or the multiple competing products to understand the scope of what they offer and what is best suited but then I think price is a factor and so I think it depends on if they check all of the needs boxes going back to the needs versus wants then I think you can go into price and compare from there there could be some nice to have features that maybe and again this is I know I boiled it down to maybe something a little simple just as a general template but I think if you're comparing the features that gets you across that hump of what the minimums are that you need to get done there then price can become a factor and then you do maybe have to consider some Alternatives of where is the outlook for the next few years right is there something maybe that isn't a need today and price isn't prohibitive to not consider it right that there's a lot of pieces to balance kind of going back to that I know all of these decisions are are not necessarily always the easiest one but I think that's where I would start so it really comes down to does it check all the boxes of needs how do they compare on price if they're potentially within a similar range then it might be going in to look at hey how does this best suit us as a city moving into the future does it allow us to continue to grow with it or are we limited to where we are currently and again I know using that example was maybe a simplistic template but I think it generally overall at least kind of applies to a lot of decisions in that in that regard awesome do you have anything else that you'd like to add before we sign off here um I I'd just like to say you know I I certainly appreciate the consideration um I know i' I've been here and now then now for about two and a half years um so a little bit newer resident but starting to become a little bit uh more ingrained with the community um and certainly appreciate the the consideration but also the opportunity to to just kind of express some of my thoughts and and hopefully become a part of the council to continue to move the city now then in a positive direction and help it grow to where both new and old residents uh want to see it Go want to see it go that uh concludes all of our interview process um again this would uh we'll move on and we'll have some open discussion with our Council it would only somebody would only be appointed tonight by a majority vote um um if we are to that spot where we are able to come to a majority vote and that council member would be immediately sworn in tonight if they are here in attendance and if we cannot get the majority vote then we'll come back and can be next Thursday all right so let's open it up for um any motions or discussion C Brian go ahead all that again please yeah um The Challenge I have is is actually is is uh making a motion and looking for somebody appointing somebody tonight is as I was as we were going through the interviews I came up with about 10 more questions that I you know that theoretically I'd like to get some sort of answers on before making a decision personally okay thank you thank you for input um as I stated each member when they were done I would love to ask more questions and we're keeping it consistent down to the eight so um yes I I could definitely it's intriguing to be able to ask more questions any other discussion Mr Mayor I'll just speak for myself then since uh nobody's going um I did a uh Rank by criteria on so basically a criteria chart um just given the questions that I had and I was able to rank the candidates um from one I did end up having a tie somewhere in there but um it was a little bit lower down but I was able to rank them giving the information I had um and I would be ready to move forward with a motion with the information we had so that's my that's for myself Mr Mayor it has to go that way just Mr Mayor pleas please that's something that I have yet to do and would appreciate the opportunity to the time to be able to do that in order to um make a quality decision before before moving towards a vote would you recommend to adjourn further tonight then and meet back next Thursday with some additional questions kind of going in what council Brian said yes and and you know with a chance to if if council member Brian would share his questions that he wants to ask and um maybe also considered looking at some of the questions that were were asked by the League of Women Voters in the um the debate that we had is it last October I believe so so to not make a decision tonight that would be a recommendation correct yes rville do you have any thought yes I do Mr Mayor I thought there were good candidates I could easily rank them one to six um the problem with asking additional questions is every time mayor you're on mute I'm I shouldn't be okay I'm no longer on mute can you hear me now say mute up on the top we are really good at having audio challenges audio and video challenges I could call try now Mary okay can you hear me now can you hear me now yeah yes ma'am all right thank you um I would be able to rank them tonight um one to six rank them tonight my my concern with a adding additional question questions is that every time you add a question that can bring up another question and I I think that between what was asked on the application and what was asked of tonight was probably more information that residents have to to vote when they go to the polls during a normal election so I I just think asking more questions is going continue to open up more issues so I guess I'll just ask the council ask you to um council member Glazer has already said that he would like additional time to consider council member Brian would you like additional time to consider or would you like to move forward well I think we're you know going through our little process it was okay we're going to talk for a while but then we're going to have a chance to to go back and review our notes and I was taking a lot of notes just personally so I haven't gone back through all of them to to to do the ranking so should we so here's an option we can look and just say hey we can pause the meeting for 20 minutes um or even 30 minutes if that's what we need to provide enough time to be able to analyze your notes and do rank criteria would that would that work for you again I want the council to be in the majority vote we're going through a process we've never done before so I'm not trying to dictate by need I'm just trying to ask I'm not sure if I if 30 minutes would be enough to go through it to review the interview questions and go back through what was provided and come up with a ranking of six okay I think we're g to just open up for recommendations then um do you recommend convenient the meeting tonight then is that council member r a journey a journey a journey I think that if if I think that that's what would be most prudent to go through to go through everything and come up with a recommendation at another time all right so it sounds like we've got a split Council on that um I I would with two and two I would rather adjourn the meeting allow you guys the time um we're GNA have to figure out so councilman rainville you said hey no more questions councilman Brian you want more questions um we have to come to a conclusion on this or a consensus on this on how we were going to do it if Mr Mayor okay councilman Brian go ahead if we're not going to have more questions then I'll just have to use the information I have okay are you okay with doing that no more questions at this point and we would use the information we have I'd rather not I'd rather have more more questions that they could get into some more detail but um with eight eight questions is kind of hard to make to make a decision that um in my opinion when we're trying to appoint appoint somebody to the the city council council member glaz would you like to have additional questions also at minimum I'd like additional time to evaluate the notes that I took for each candidate in order to um make the best quality decision for the city so I I wouldn't I I I could forgo additional questions but I would like more time to to evaluate okay so if we did that and just did h a motion to say hey we would come back next Thursday no additional questions I think we could probably get a motion or a majority vote again I'm looking for a majority vote throughout this whole process I I know council member Brian would like to ask additional questions but it sounds like we could get a majority at least to say we'll we'll adjourn the meeting for tonight come back next Thursday no additional questions and then we could uh we could have a rank criteria chart and we could go from there so so we will not do any voting then tonight then on Mr Mayor on that note I'd like to ask a question I had um asked this question to Natalie late last week but we had something arise on uh on a family level where we have to be out of town next next Thursday is it possible to move that meeting to Wednesday so council members will you please uh look and see if we can move it to Wednesday I am I good to go I can meet next one I've cleared my entire month of March to make sure we can get done with this process C rainville would you be open next Wednesday the 12th yes I would Mr Mayor c r yes I would Mr Mayor okay thank you so sounds like we got consensus we would move it to Wednesday the 12th uh so if we all please make that adjustment um and we will meet back we will meet back here all right so I I guess I'm looking for I think we've got the majority on this uh will somebody make a motion to adjourn with uh no additional questions um coming into the the council packets that'll give way to review and deliberate what their what their decision would be so moved I'll second all right motion uh adjournment carries uh this will close our meeting for tonight