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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBERT 28, 2013 <br /> <br />amendment that was mentioned earlier, that we would be talking about $1.9 rather than $2.3 in <br />the Loss Recovery going towards Smart Streets if we were to take that $350,000.00 out and <br />instead lay it aside for wells at New Energy. I don’t know if that fully answers you question but <br />I think that part of your question might be one on procedure which I will do my best or defer to <br />Council Attorney expertise or our Counsel, depending on which is more appropriate depending <br />on what decisions your fellow Councilmembers might make in closing remarks to the budget. <br />Councilmember Schey: Based on the question, and I’m sorry if it was vague, but your intention <br />as the Mayor will be to come before the Council on Wednesday, not with necessarily an <br />amended Smart Streets Budget, just to support Phase I A and Phase I B, but to in fact, come <br />before Council with. <br />Mayor Buttigieg: We feel that the package that is now been laid out including the amendments <br />that were discussed earlier is the right the package for Smart Streets to get us on the right <br />direction going forward downtown and the surrounding area. <br />Councilmember Schey: Ok, that was my question. It is not going to be amended and reduced <br />just to support the first two. <br />Mayor Buttigieg: That’s right, that’s not in our plan. <br />Councilmember Henry Davis Jr., Thank you Mayor for presenting. I am going to have few <br />questions actually because in reading e-mails and listening to you know news and reading <br />newspapers, and I have also said this out loud in Council Meetings, I don’t know if you were <br />present or not. I am still confused on the project itself and the validity of it. I am not saying that <br />it doesn’t deserve these merit idea, I’ve seen it in other cities, I get it, I have seen it work well in <br />other cities, I travel quite a bit to these cities and I see it. But one thing that you know I am <br />going to question first, why the rush? <br />Mayor Buttigieg: I don’t believe that the community right now wants us to move slowly when it <br />comes to creating jobs and investment downtown. I have had very few people come up to me on <br />the street and ask me to see to it that City Government move slower than it does now. I certainly <br />respect that there is some time reason to take pause and make sure that we are doing the right <br />thing. I even admit that there have been times when I have been in a hurry and the Council has <br />slowed us down and that has been better for everybody. I would say that some of the things that <br />we have done to shape and adjust this budget absolutely reflect that give and take. But I also do <br />think that the city is looking for action, the community is looking for action, and the community <br />would like to see something done sooner rather than later. Because we have waited for so long <br />to get downtown into the shape we would like it to be in and we certainly see signs of <br />momentum, thirteen (13) new businesses with $2 million dollars of private investment, quite a <br />few jobs in the downtown area just in the last month or so. But I don’t think any of us believe <br />that it is moving quickly enough and I would suggest the answer to the question why the rush is <br />that we don’t have any time to lose, when it comes to the economic impact that we could be on <br />line with. <br />Councilmember Henry Davis Jr.: Ok, now that leads me to my next question. You stated that the <br />community wants to see downtown in a better condition and better light the way we want to see <br />it, I was not offered the opportunity to sit at these tables you know working groups or anything <br />nd <br />and most of this is in the 2 District, like almost all of it is. And, I have not had the opportunity <br />to even share in the conversation with you about these changes as a representative for those folks <br />and so why I am going to go down in detail these questions is because I’m still confused? What <br />is the way that we want to see it? I don’t understand it? You said that there is a way that we want <br />to see it, what is that way? <br />Mayor Buttigieg: I wished that you would have attended some of the public meetings where that <br />was detailed and where there were opportunities for a lot of people from the community to come <br />to. We have learned quite a bit, I think that there is a variety of opinions around our community, <br />6 <br /> <br /> <br />