I’m Having an Effect!

As close followers of the City Council know, I’ve asked that staff and my colleagues refer to me as “the chair of the Council”, or “the chair”, rather than “the mayor”. That’s because the overwhelming majority of my responsibility is to coordinate and run the meetings — chair them —

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Chair’s Remarks on the Year Ahead

The Council chair (aka mayor) traditionally offers thoughts on the year ahead when he or she is appointed. I chose not to do that last December because three Council members were stepping down, and three new Council members were being sworn in, and I didn’t want to shift the focus

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Giving Back to the Community

At our November 13th meeting, staff presented the audited financial results for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018. The Council ultimately ended up accepting staff’s recommendations as to how to allocate the surplus to various reserves. But the more interesting part of the story was in the size of

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Halloween and Honeybees

I received a well-written email from a Central middle school 6th grader on a topic which I would never, in a million years, have expected to receive. I thought you might be interested in both the issue and my reply. Because it was a great opportunity to talk about being

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Should the Council Get Up to a 145% Raise?

At last Monday’s Council meeting, a discussion requested by Matt Grocott, to consider changing how much council members are paid, took place. Although no specific dollar changes were proposed, all four of us (Bob Grassilli was out of town) agreed to bring such an item forward for action at a

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