The Special Charter Review Committee convened on Monday, November 27th, 2023, at 5:00 PM in Fall River, Massachusetts. The meeting began with the Open Meeting Law statement, the Pledge of Allegiance, and a moment of silence for the late Happy Heck Gauthier. After taking attendance, the committee unanimously voted to adjourn the meeting at 6:00 PM, a motion made by Laura Washington and seconded by Dan Robelot. The minutes from the September 25th, 2023 meeting were also unanimously accepted. The bulk of the meeting was dedicated to public comment from resident August Venice, who presented extensive suggestions for charter revisions. His key points included adjusting recall language, establishing a four-year term for the mayor, addressing city employees holding two paid jobs, implementing Ward counselors, strengthening charter enforcement, adding robust ethics and conflict of interest language, and promoting diversity in committee appointments. Mr. Venice also proposed that the City Council appoint the City Solicitor and City Auditor, and that a standing committee interview candidates for mayoral appointments. Committee members, particularly Dan Robelot and Reena Brown, expressed reservations about some of Mr. Venice's suggestions, such as the standing committee for appointments, citing existing charter provisions and potential for increased bureaucracy. Mr. Venice also highlighted a discrepancy in the draft charter regarding special election timelines (65 vs. 90 days) and the lack of clarity on who would serve as interim mayor after a recall, questioning the potential cost of multiple elections. Chair Reena Brown informed Mr. Venice that the committee's draft already included language for a three-member Charter Grievance Committee, though he suggested renaming it to a "Compliance Commission." She also acknowledged that the most recent draft of the charter was not yet available online and committed to ensuring it would be posted before the next meeting. Before adjourning, Reena Brown suggested allocating a few hundred dollars to hire an English Professor or graduate student to review the charter document for grammatical accuracy, syntax, and capitalization, a task Laura Washington offered to explore. The next meetings were scheduled for January 22nd and January 29th.
AI-generated summary. May contain errors. Watch the video to verify.
City Officials
Public / Other
hi everybody Welcome to the special Charter review committee meeting it is Monday November 27th 2023 it's 5:00 P PM we are in the hearing room at one government center in Fall River Massachusetts can I open up this meeting with the open meeting law statement which I think my vice chair has memorized send the send the mic so I would like me to recite if you could if Vice chair Dan robelot can do the open meeting law
0:36statement the open meeting what any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or missions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and I deemed acknowled and permissible not a boy thank you Dan if we could join me for the pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag
1:06of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice all thank you everybody M chair yes before we go any further could we observe a moment of silence for happy heck who's been a legendary member of this community for better than I don't know 60 years he's been the voice of WS he's been the foundation of that station uh and let's just say
1:39mornings will never be the same that's HEC Gothia right g a u t h i r yes okay if we could observe a moment of silence for happy heck
1:58gothier
2:06thank you everybody and thank you heck for about 60 years of service to the community isn't it I think he's been in radio for over 60 years uh with that said uh attendance and the members present starting with myself Reena Brown Laura Washington Kathy movich Mimi larvi Tracy Al and members absent Dan oh Dan I'm sorry I'm bad and our esteemed Vice chair Dan robard um absent from tonight's meeting
2:42is uh John Mitchell Paul Mado Tim Campos Campos and Alan Rumsey um with that we'll start out with public comment oh no go ahead I have a I making a motion to end at 6 because I have a engagement at 6 and so does Miss nikovic so we will not have a quorum is there a second on the motion and all in favor six and motion to end the meeting at 6 was made by Laura Washington
3:16seconded by Dan and unanimous I'm taking votes and saying it as I write it uh the September 25th 2023 minutes motion to accept motion to accept made by Dan seconded by me Mimi all in favor I I okay and public comment on the agenda public comment uh previously Mr Vincent submitted uh public comment and we attached it to the agenda was about 24 25 Pages we submitted them to all the
3:57members via email and hard C copied to the IT department at the city of Fall River for publication and uh with that Mr Venice did you want to just follow up with um a verbal statement on the record yeah about to exp can you just come up to the microphone and identify yourself please guys had it on R out my copy machine I I've got another hang on my name is August Venice 25 RightWay
4:40B of mass hello Mr Venice Hi how are
4:52you I don't know how many the last meeting that was didn't have a quarum there was no there was no last meeting we can't we do we meet without a quum right we need to have that on the record quar we yeah no we um took uh attendance the last meeting that was scheduled the last meeting that was scheduled was November November 27th I believe that's today 20 it was November 21 20 today is November 27
5:30uh the last meeting scheduled November 20th there was no Quorum the meeting was opened and could not proceed be the 13th November 13th there was November 13th yeah that's it on November 13th we did not have a quum the meeting was open closed after school committe um the uh Pledge of Allegiance but with that um public input is now open and it'll only be limited to right now so if there's uh stuff that you want to
6:04address Mr Venice we would ask you to do it now you confuse me what do you mean by Eliminator right now it's as versus during the meeting we'll just take public comment oh no problem thank you when I first spoke at the first meeting that you guys had I had four major issues one was the recall language that had to be U adjusted I wanted a foure turn for the mayor the
6:33people holding two paid jobs or two jobs was an issue and Ward counselors and the what w counselors oh Ward counselors yeah okay just trying to take some notes on your public input go ahead the list has grown to you know I think we have to have some strong language for enforcement of the charter because everything we collectively are doing here amounts to nothing if if the current situation
7:07stands the way it is that nobody enforces the chter nobody wants anything to do with the chter the chter is a bunch of unfortunately call toilet paper and what have you that uh if nobody's going to enforce the charter then you guys are just wasting your time so you know I think between now and the last meeting we got to come up with some language for enforcement of the charter I also think that part of the
7:34problem in Far River is uh ethics and ethics language and conflict of interest I think we need strong ethics language as a part of the charter I know I've researched many of the charters and they have ethics language if you're looking our Charter of the old the well it's not Charter it's the old charart but it's the the chart if you look in conflict of interest it is weak you know really there's no strong
8:09language you know and I think the only thing it says of substance is that the city employees are considered city employees under whatever chapter it is in the conflict of interest of all I think we have to do something on diversity get some language in there that you know these committees that are being Chosen and picked you know I think we have to you know go hand inand I guess with
8:37the the W counselors that there's got to be more diversity just look at the last elections look What's happen you know nobody's coming out you know as far as I know you know if we draw a line of 195 you know that divides the city we got seven out of nine counselors north of 195 I don't want to name names but uh we got one two three that I call Meridian Street then you have
9:12uh Joe Kamara Brad Kilby yeah did I think there's seven out of nine within a three mile radius of everybody so I think I think I think it's time for w counselors you know I'll come up with something you know for the next committee meetings but you know I think that's it's time like I said diversity you know that'll diversify things maybe if we have W counselors people can go to their
9:42W counselor and be a little more local and startop participating in government I mean to have a mayor win with only 6,000 votes you know and it's a losing well losing votes are losing votes but he he only got 4,000 votes you know that's poor with 57,000 people a couple of things that I had section 2.3 the prohibitions that you people have received on paper no member of the city council
10:16shall receive compensation for more than one municipal office of position of employee the section shall not prohibit a city employee from holding the elected office of city counselor nor in any way prohibit such employee from performing the duties of it's my fan club from calling in part receiving the compensation for such office provided however that no such elected city council shall receive
10:43compensation for more than one Minal office of position of employee but shall have the right to choose which compensation he or she shall receive that's right from state law you know and I don't know what happened well I don't know all the circumstances but you know in the head situation we never nobody ever stopped him from running you know he wasn't denied running in the election a lot of times people are
11:09saying oh he he wasn't allowed to run people didn't want him to run we didn't mind him running but you know when he ran then there was the conflict of the two jobs and how that was going to be handled then the next paragraph is the same what in there the next one is this section shall not prevent a city employee who has been granted a Lea of absence to serve as a member of the city
11:33council from returning to the same position upon the expiration of the chm for which that person was elected I think putting granted a belief of absence is important because the way the uh the way CH reach now said something about uh going back to the job he left which I think is kind of unfair but you know suppose you run for city council and you win well you're a c employee you you run
12:05for city council and you win then you're city counselor for 20 some years then you decide you don't want to be city counselor anymore after 20 some years and somebody sitting in your place for 20 some years you want to go back and do it I mean if you do it in parentheses legally and take a leave of absence you know then you have a right I would say that would make it
12:28you have a right to go back back to your job but just to say after 20 years all 5 years 6 years whatever the uh amount of time is I I don't think that's necessarily right so I changed that paragraph and you know that's about it so and two 2.3 and that would cover 2.3 and 4.3 for the uh school committee I'm looking at your email and what chairwoman printed out you wanted to talk about 2.8
13:05yeah soon as I find it for some reason I got CL stack of 2.3
13:27not all right in gu I made Ito I picked up the wrong 28 um of the all current Charter is appointments of the city council subject to appropriation the city council May employ staff as a deems necessary that's 28 now that's 28 like current 28 in the updated look get me on 28 in the suggested updated is also appointments of the city council subject to Appropriations city council employeed
14:07staff as it deems necessary I don't think I don't think we made any changes we didn't make any changes to the appointments this is just the the staff for the city council right they have a a quirk of committees and a vice Quirk and whatever other staff they we didn't make any changes sorry I found I found it which one is it 2.8 appointments of the city council correct one of them is the city council
14:35solicitor we did not make any changes no I know I'm I'm just listening because I I I okay go ahead I know you didn't make any changes no okay go ahead that's why I'm all right trying to convin you to make the changes go ahead uh for years the city council wanted a solicitor they got one through ordinance you know you make an ordinance you can always take it away but you know if you
15:01put it into Charter that's one of the appointments of the city council then it's a lot harder to change a charter than it is an ordinate so it might make some members of the city council happy that it's in the charter that they have a city solicitor uh one of the things I also found in uh a lot of Charters was the city council appointed the city auditor here the mayor appoint the city
15:27auditor uh uh maybe it's a time to look that you know should the city council appoint the city auditor uh you know we talked about the forensic Audits and various degrees of distrust of City figures or whatever you have but if the city auditor comes under the control of the city council and is appointed by the city council then the city council will have more access I I believe the city
15:55council will have more access to information and have somebody you that's in charge of the finances and would ask more of a check and balance with the mayor instead of going to the mayor and oh you're not getting no you're not getting that you're not getting that well now you have your city audited that you're hiring they said you know give me that information that we want so I think we should take a look at
16:17the city audit auditor I don't know what they do in other towns sometimes the city clerk you assist to the city clerk the clerk of the councel all the girls up on the front desk there I don't know if you know I don't know if they should be appointed by the city council or just leave it the same but it would seem that you know if they were you know the cler of the council probably should
16:48be then the section F other staff the city May establish priori other staff positions the salaries they established the salaries and they respond responsible for removing or suspending the appointments that they make so that you know my recommendations is you know get in the Char of city council solicitor and the auditor at the least next one that was on the agenda was a city council confirmation of
17:23appointments I remember the old days when people were up for appointment to very ious multiple member bodies and everything they they came to the city council meeting where they were when appointment or approval was to take place they sat in the ordinance if the city council wanted to speak to him they could uh they'd be called up and were hopefully happy to answer any questions that were asked of them and uh yeah
17:51there was input let me just rephrase because I'm taking notes so your suggestion is for these appointments to committees or Commission that when there's an appointment candidate so to speak that they come before the council and be available for inquiry well I'm changing 210 let me try and paraphrase what's here the the mayor shall refer to the city council and F with the city clct the name of each person that made
18:21decides to appoint at the city officer department head or a member of a multiple body mhm the city council shall then refer each each such name as submitted to it to a standing committee of the city council which shall interview each such candidate for appointment and make a report with recommendations to the full city council not less than 7even days no more than 21 days following such
18:45referral the committee may require any person whose name is submitted to it to appear before the committee or before the city council and give such information relevant to such appointment as the committee or the council may require I after this for a couple of years now and nobody nobody seems to want to do it but you know it makes s so so I because I'm taking notes mam your change is a suggestion to have a
19:17standing committee of the city council standing committee interview may all appointments and then make a recommendation to the city council and then the city council can vote yet or no okay I'm sorry yes just one brief comment as a member of a uh commission right now that has to be approved by the city council there's a lengthy process in place right now we have to submit a resume we have to submit
19:50documentation and the city council right now can require any appointed person that's subject to a vote for confirmation to go before it right now it now that doesn't doesn't happen very often but it's within their jurisdiction right now so I don't I I think Mr Venice has every right to go to go through every section of the chatter and and make 95 recommendations if he wants but this I think is it is a
20:30duplication it it would be more burdensome it would hold up a confirmations uh to boards and commissions and uh personally if this come before me I'm just going on record right now I'm going to vehemently oppose it because I think it's duplicate uh a duplication of what takes place right now it's too complex and it's unnecessary thank you why and I I certainly would concur because this the
21:08um the language in it is that it does go before them but there's other language in other parts of the charter that say the K city council has the authority to to summons anybody before them to answer any questions and I think that that catch all except for school commit except for school department business I think that that catch whether the city council wants to exercise the right to
21:34interview potential candidates for commissions or departments or all that I think it's up to the council if they want to exercise that right but there's language in the charter now that allows for the council to bring anybody before it and for for for if I might just make one quick Point th this idea of of of of board and commission candidates being confirmed by the city council was something that I advocated for uh
22:03heavily in the last chatter I was happy to get it in it's probably the only section of the current chatter that I can actually say IW but to to go as far as he wants to go I'm just putting everybody on record we can have the discussion but I will oppose it till the cows come home and if it made an end to the final report I I'm so opposed to it that I would
22:31oppose the whole final report if this goes in well the language the language now the language now of section 210 city council confirmation of certain appointments the language is this the mayor shall refer to the city council in simultaneously filed with the city clerk the name of each person the mayor desires to appoint as a city officer department head or as a member of a multi-member body appointments made by
23:06the mayor shall become effective on the 45th date after the notice of the proposed appointment was filled with the city clerk unless approved or rejected by the city council within the 45 days all individuals appointed to the multi-member body shall be residents of the city and if an appointed individual remove moves the city shall be immediately deemed vacate so that language gives the city council already
23:36the jurisdiction to say Hey listen Dan robelot yeah no and the council president can tell the clerk have Dan come down for this Tuesday meeting and they can ask him anything they want because and there's another uh section in here in the same in the same area cuz SE section article two of the charter deals with the legislative branch which is our city council and it has in there the powers
24:07that they have and it's delineated in there that they can have anybody come down they have the authority to ask anybody from the mayor's office to Dan to come before them for inquiry so I I kind of echo your comments to create another board that does this investigation and background check I think is honorous I think people would and the other problem is they have a hard time filling a lot of multi-member boards
24:37now so Madam CH can I say something I just want to say that uh Mr Venice has provided us all with a copy of this he's provided and we also have now it's up on the website so we don't have to um debate that all here we all have that information I want him to be able to say what he has explained why he has the rationale behind that and we can choose
25:02to to pick it up or not so I thank you for all the diligent work but we have all of that information so if we choose to pick that up and go but the um explanation behind it is helpful of why you want that I want to say I'm reading it right now and you also talked about your citizens rights I want to make sure that you discuss that while you're here
25:21because you sent that pack and we have that um you have a the your citizen right to place items on the agenda and the citizens to call a special meeting to the council that was a PDF that you had sent to us I don't know if you wanted to discuss that here as well while you're sitting here I yield well I was told I was not supposed to discuss anything that's not on the agenda
25:44so no that's everything you sent in is on our agenda tonight yeah everything you sent in everything we have copies of is on the agenda everybody received it by email the city posted it and if they didn't as that's out of my hands cuz I personally hand delivered it to the IT department we talked about that last time yeah I just want you to feel Mr Venice that you have been heard and that
26:04you will be heard and that everything that you are you put before us you had a chance to give an explanation to I yield well one of the comments I would have is that you know I'm this is public input and I'm supposed to give the public input and then you listen to what I say and then comment after and that well we can comment we don't have to comment but
26:24we want you to have plenty of time I'm good with that the next section that was on the thing was 913 felony conviction M an elected official or an officer or employee of the city or a member of any Department board commission or agency thereof who has been finally convicted of a state or federal felony for misconduct in such office or employment of a misconduct than any elective or appointed office trust or other
26:56employment anytime help help by him shall be deemed to have vacated the position as of the date of the conviction I think it's important that we have the term misconduct in office because somewhere along the line I have there was a Michael Noella was a city employee of weights and measures and uh he was suspended for uh misuse of city property and what have you he was uh he was granted the right to have a
27:33city vehicle and he was using the city vehicle after hours they suspended him and timately he filed the something with the ethics commission the ethics commission said well it wasn't related to your job drunk driving wasn't wasn't related to your job and he had no right to suspend you when he got his job back so I would like to see the word mcot condu in such office or misconduct in any elective office in
28:12there I got section 9-14 enfor I'm sorry section 9-14 enforcement of the chart of Provisions
28:26uhuh a little lengthy but well we received your suggestions and we did put um we changed enforcement of the charter we put new suggested language in there our suggested language uh creates a that's not any of the minutes of the meetings or anything I haven't seen anything on this yet well I don't know if the charter draft again everything submitted to the city and it how it makes it there is out of my control
28:57I will certainly follow up with it um Paul uh our clerk is away and I don't think he's back till December 6 but I will make sure before the next January meeting what we have as a draft is on the city website and we get them regularly what happens is you know the clerk is taking notes so these are kind of fluid documents we do have a semi updated draft and in that
29:28updated draft is language about a charter grievance committee we put language in it creating um we did that a while we did we did it a while ago so when I'll tell you what we could do if you want to revisit it because you know we have more meetings more public input in December I will guarantee that whatever working draft we have now is up and in our working draft 914 has language that creates a griev
29:57committee three member grievance committee one appointed by the mayor one appointed by the city council and one appointed by the school department and their sole job is to investigate and report on any allegations of Charter uh violations it's in the latest it's in there it's in the latest one but I don't think Mr I don't think it's online Mr Venice doesn't doesn't get that's what he's
30:22talking about is that he didn't see one I know the last meeting last meeting I went to you know you're talking about arbitration you know we I suggested arbitration grievance and you still a form grievance committee yeah so we did we uh we did put language in there but I'll tell you what for that one if I get anything out of this you know instead of grievance committee CH a compliance
30:42commission or committee right I don't like the word you don't like grievance yeah right I know that's what we talked about but it is in there and I will absolutely make sure that that you that the website has a draft cuz that's what I have called them when I send out the emails it's draft of the report and draft of the charter and if it's not on the website I'll make sure we're also
31:10working with two websites right now right they're in transition right Madam chair um I caution that um we go too de depth into this without our secretary here yeah no no no I'm taking the best notes yeah I think that we should hear Mr Venice but because the the hearing that the draft is not even on the website people are coming down with some of the changes that we already
31:37have made and the secretary is not here I I caution how deep into this meeting we go and that we should well I I know the clerk takes notes and then he goes back listens to the tape about 25 times which must be fascinating for him to watch our meetings 25 times but um he does a great job of it I take I'm taking notes now the best I I can and I'll T
31:58type them up and send them to him but he'll kind of supplement it but you're right we can't get into it that's too much good notes at the last Charter commission meeting reviewing the films discussion of the charter griev Comm Mr V suggested language okay go ahead Mr the uh the last thing that I came prepared to talk about and I talked about it numerous times it's recall M uh the
32:24draft Charter that I seen the draft recommendations had recall provisions and it ended that if the person is recall you shall be considered removed period and there's nothing after that se I think it I think it was page 21 of the draft Charter so section 8-5 of our draft and that draft is Oh by now um it talks about a recall petition in a recall election the chair gave a very
33:02good uh explanation of this uh last week on WS which I can't recite right now but that was a very good show I Tred I and I was working without Notes too but um we do have suggestions it's it'll be we our draft calls for two potentially two um we simp the language of the question we thought that was confusing potentially the two what ma'am two elections so one will be I if if 10
33:35registered voters that are residents of the city want to petition for a recall they get their signatures they present it uh and it's titled a recall petition that recall petition will then be submitted to the city clerk and um after it goes through the process the elections uh department will schedule an election it's not an an election it's a recall it's really a recall I mean I got nothing wrong with
34:03the recall election you it's it's only going to be the recall though it's going to be below yes or no and then uh with that election and then we refer turn can I finish y send to turn around and immediately have or have an election to find a replacement we don't have a bottom ballot we don't have a bottom ballot on that we have a separate election I understand that you know to have to have another
34:30you know to vote somebody out and then give them an opportunity to run again to get voted back in they can't go on that ballot until the regular election they can't be on the recall ballot they can only run for that office at the next two years later two years later can't prevent them from ever running against against the law it's unconstitutional I'm not trying to prevent them from running again but they
34:54can't their name will not be on the recall election ballot they will the recall election ballot is only the yes or no then there's another election later when we have the next election if it's yes I just want to I I just want toess I just want to skip that first next election you know if he wants to run two years down the road for mayor again all well and good he's got every
35:19right and will but it's ridiculous to have a recall election to say 6,000 people don't want you and then you get re then you run in an election and and you get back the last let me finish I mean it is public input no goe the uh the last I knew I lost my train of thought the last I knew was uh what I know uh the person being recalled person being recall I don't think
35:57should be allowed to the people already spoke they spoke they said we don't want you as our mayor we don't want you as our mayor get out and they voted overwhelmingly to get that person out and they probably did so in the last one with flig again too we corrected it you and you know the people voted now we want to give him another chance let me finish I may starts getting back to
36:28me what I'm saying is go back to the language that I know you people don't like but I'm having my say to uh have the city council president fill that gap for the rest of the year now we've had one city council president filling for certain situation for the mayor last time around and he performed okay there wasn't any substantial problem and uh one of the one of the gaps that I
37:04find now in the recall language whoever recall language you want to use is that you have that first recall language okay you're out and then the language there's a disparity in the language the recall language says you have a election for a success I call it a replacement I don't like the word successor within 65 days well who you know then the uh the other language for a special election
37:39that you know you want to have a special election to uh elect somebody that's been recalled in the special election language say special call election within 90 days so there's a conflict between the 65 in the 0 so you know that's got to be resolved and then there's no resolution as to who is mayor you know the guy has a recall election he's elected out and the last words of the current
38:17language that you people are proposing is he is removed so we no longer have a mayor well who's going to be mayor between the day of that man that may have being removed and the election either 65 or 90 days after there's a gap there two or 3 months and if you're going to if you're going to have the city council president fill that Gap with 65 days or 90 days why not
38:42just let him do the whole thing you know you're going to take a man out of the city council president's seat and put him in a position for 65 days or 90 days and then say okay thank you and then you're going to run an election for uh the mayor and and rightfully so and I'm in agreement with it you want a preliminary election and you want a final election so you know the city the cost
39:14of Elections to the city is about 50,000 to run an election from what I'm told so you want to spend $100,000 not to have the city council president you know be here but I hear continuous complaints of how the Consultants cost the city $40,000 but you guys want to spend $100,000 in this case and then that $100,000 will repeat itself every two years from then on if you have the city council president come
39:44in then there's no election okay we can't we can't have another election we can't go through the embarrassment of having that person that we just 500 votes said no we don't want you and then for a fluke get reelected again we cannot have an election to have that guy run again I'm s is there any is there is there any any other any other woman any other um other than the recall
40:15and your I took notes and the clerk will go through the minutes is it is there anything else in your uh public input documents that you want to discuss cuz I bring them with me tonight I thought I thought you asked me to bring what I submitted in the public comments yeah I mean is there anything else what I got off the internet was those four that really dealt with the city council I
40:38didn't do the others there were other sections in the CH of that Well what we'll have more meetings too I think the enforcement of the charter ethics language yep we got it I mean we we and I me I mean I'm serious when I say this we got to we've got to do something with the charter and the people in the City FL have to understand that this is the chart and the elected officials have to
41:01understand this is our chart this is what we proposed and we have to follow it okay and if it says the mayor shall do this and you bring and you bring it up say h we we don't like that we're not going to follow it well that's not your choice to make I understand that you um you put a lot of work in the documents you sent us and I don't want you to not
41:22have an opportunity to address them all but we're this meeting is over at six and I'm going to ask you to reserve the rest of your public comment for our next meeting I the last one the four major issues recall fouryear term paid position board counselors and I've taken copious notes and the clerk will go through foure term the last time I checked through all the minutes that Paul has on the website the
41:46fourar term was tabled so um consider still there other than that anything else yeah I have other issues but that's not for tonight yeah no okay thank you Mr Venice thank you Mr Venice and I um I just want to say that I went through the notes that I made and I didn't mark where we left off because I know that the the draft he sent us the last one that this committee has um I
42:23didn't get an update after that September meeting because the last time that we really went in and did stuff was that September meeting I don't have the draft after that so what I would like to do is I'll get on Paul I can't get on them till after December 6 and I don't mean literally I mean you know on the email get on to send us the post September 25th draft because that's the one that would
42:57be the most updated the very last time that we went through this line by line you know because there were typos was September right right was September so I think one of the things is before we go any further tonight um I hope you're all in concurrence that we need the SE the post September 25th draft so what I would like to do is yes well I wanted one one more thing before we Jour could
43:22do save two minutes one the next two meetings that are scheduled in the hearing room are January 22nd and January 29th y everybody have that January 22nd January 29th I guarantee before January 22nd we will have the post we need the post 925 drafts of both the report and the charter but I did want to run this by my fellow members while I have a quarum I know that the last Charter commission
43:59had a went and got a substantial amount of money for a company to review this I wanted to make the suggestion that although everybody has levels of Education that we at least get a few hundred dollars to have an English Professor review our document just for grammatical syntax capitalization I just wanted to run that by the committee what your your thoughts were I don't I don't propose hiring a
44:32company to the tune of thousands of dollars but I'm a stickler for you know the English language and that's grammar syntax sentence structure um we all agreed that the charter is wordy where four lawyers thought I don't even know what those words mean I wanted to propose that maybe as members I we have a member in the educational community that we pay you know a professor or somebody that is educated
45:04Beyond Us in just that area there are professional editors we also have a graduate program and professional writing so graduate students that are in master programs May for free yeah well for a nominal fee I mean I don't doubt that if we needed a nominal amount of money to have somebody review it just in that area I I think it'd be beneficial to the clerk it'll be beneficial to us
45:27we'll have a very professional you know grammatically correct document I think that's grad student usually I don't know what their hourly wages um they're more accessible than a a college professor would be and you know studying you think that's something you wouldn't mind taking on yeah I can do that all right so and then maybe you can report back to us graduate student at you know 20 hours
45:53at whatever you know whatever do you do you have a set number of hours that you'd be willing to pay no we'll go to them I'm I'm not worried about um funding I mean cuz if they say no to 500 bucks we're going to yell at them about the 40,000 they spend yeah right not that I'm going to Blackmail anybody and I'm not pointing at you cuz I know you objected hey I'm going to you just
46:17pointed to him I did no she didn't I I wouldn't have given the Colin sense of one penny um can I make a motion to adjourn because now okay yep let's get let's get this party started thank you Tracy motion to adjourn second all in favor all righty I'll see you guys