Medford Firefighters say "Vote No on 6"

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I'm honored that a friend of ours who's
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worked so hard for firefighters to
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capture grants and take take the
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pressure off our citizens in our tax
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base uh secretary for our Union Daniel
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melino's here welcome
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Danielle um like George said I am the
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union secretary for the firefighters I'm
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also um I'm not just a secretary I
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actually am a firefighter I work up at
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um um I'm up at the heights now actually
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sorry so um I am here representing our
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Union on behalf of this subject
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obviously I'm sure many of you know that
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like George said we've had a lot of
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trials and tribulations in the city
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recently um and and I've been hearing
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from some citizens you know we've had
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discussions just with people I've come
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across that they think that we may just
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not want this headquarters or we don't
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like whatever is coming out of City Hall
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that with regard to us because we are at
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odds with the mayor currently and that
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is 100% not true um we would like
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nothing more than a new headquarters
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because if anybody has either walked in
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our our um current headquarters or if
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you've seen any of our media that we
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Post online is in bad shape and we would
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we are desperate need of the
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headquarters that being said
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um we do not stand behind the debt
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exclusion that is being um brought to
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the citizens because for several reasons
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um mostly because what is being rolled
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out and what the debt exclusion would be
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paying for is a severely inadequate um
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design plan for our headquarters for our
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department
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um we feel as a union that like we can't
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in good conscience ask citizens to pay a
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$30 million for a 30 million dollar
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building that doesn't even meet basic
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needs of our department um and sadly it
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it doesn't meet our needs mostly because
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we were completely excluded from the
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process to to design this um the
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building
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um actually they specifically um did
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they specifically said that we were not
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allowed to be involved in the process
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even though in the within the department
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the people that are living in the
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building we came together we formed a
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committee we discussed the needs of the
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department and you know what we needed
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as a department going forward to be able
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to grow and um and support you know the
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citizens as the city grows around us and
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they like I said they completely
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disregarded anything we had to say they
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never asked for our opinion and they
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actually told the old Chief uh Chief the
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former Chief fredman that he was not to
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let us know any information that he had
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about this building
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so um when we did finally get a seat
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with with the um Chief of Staff back uh
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last summer to discuss what was going on
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we were told that they were getting
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ready to Greenlight a project um because
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they thought it was wonderful so we got
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a chance to take a peek at what was
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going on and we found a building that it
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it didn't it wasn't um capable of
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supporting any growth within our like
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within our department at all like I said
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we weren't going to be able to add any
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more companies that you know could do
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extra um you know with extra skills or
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anything like that it was only what was
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currently there we also found a building
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that was going to have um rooms that
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were we call them dual occupancy So
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currently we live in um rooms that I we
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sleep in bunk rooms with multiple people
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like it's you know like summer camp um
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so this building was getting built and
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we were actually going to be sleeping in
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rooms together again I don't know if any
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of you go home with your co-workers and
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sleep with them but it's it's a little
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strange
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um I know
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sorry
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um but that's just been the way it's
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been at the fire service and that's
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that's fire service Nationwide it it was
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always like that in the past but
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obviously times are changing things are
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changing we have women we have um you
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know all walks of life want to be
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firefighters now which is is great and
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it's nice to see you know departments
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diversifying so that being said we need
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to be able to accommodate that and the
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building design that we had been shown
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last summer actually didn't accommodate
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that and um it was actually to me
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personally it was it was a little
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upsetting um and that was down to
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bathrooms uh bunk rooms showers locker
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rooms everything so everything was going
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to be like a shared space so um one of
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the other big concerns that we had as
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you know the fire unit had was when the
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police station went up I'm sure all of
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you knew that all that ended up going in
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a space that was where our former
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training Tower was in we were very upset
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about losing our training Tower um there
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I mean we posted about it everywhere and
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I think we picketed and everything but
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um so we were promised especially by
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this mayor that and we were promised by
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the former mayor that we were going to
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get a training Tower and when we saw the
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design plan for the new headquarters
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what we found was it was nothing more
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than a stairwell and they were calling
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it a a training Tower um for us training
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Tower our old training Tower we could
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actually burn we could you know light
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things on fire in it and put it out like
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the way we would do um in your in in
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regular homes this training Tower was
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like I said it was just a stairwell and
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it was actually a a means of egress so
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the rest of the building would be using
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that to enter and exit the building and
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um that is actually you can't can't call
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that training grounds if it's a means of
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EAS they have to be separate so we were
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rather upset when we saw the
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design um we you know brought these
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concerns up with the the chief of staff
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she brought them to the mayor they
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seemed
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surprised um and then uh they kind of
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went back to the drawing board
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and from then on we actually were not
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allowed again not allowed to do any any
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planning weren't allowed to talk about
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our needs so when we got another plan
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that was um kind of brought To Us by
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Chief fredman in early or late last year
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it again fell very short so we're
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missing space for for
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um we're missing storage space we're
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missing space to be able to add more
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pieces of apparatus so the department
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could grow we were missing space to add
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more um members of the department and
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again there were other shortcomings as
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far as um bathroom space Locker space
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things like that and um so you know we
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obviously are not happy with this plan
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aside from not being happy with the plan
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we were told the reason why this plan
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couldn't be any better than it was was
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because the budget that the city had set
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aside was $30 million and that they
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couldn't spend another dime more than
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the 30 million that they had so we were
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like okay if that's that's it we'll
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we'll try to work with this and we you
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know we walked around with the
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contractor we tried to you know we tried
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to make it work and then we found out
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that this debt exclusion was coming out
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and now we're finding out that the debt
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exclusion is actually for the entire 30
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million that um for the entire $30
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million project so our question for the
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city was why what happened to the money
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that you budgeted originally and if
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there was shortcomings in the in the
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budget that you had why wasn't if there
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was going to be a debt exclusion why
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weren't you asking for extra money
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excuse me extra money to be able to
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maybe make that happen maybe make you
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know meet the needs of the department
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we're not asking for luxuries we're just
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asking for basic in within the the um
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the headquarters and it's it's actually
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shocking to us to see that the city is
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not planning to spend a single Dollar on
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this building and they're asking all of
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our citizens just to foot the whole bill
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and so because of all of these things we
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100% don't want to see our citizens be
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impacted by this and then to turn around
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and actually know that the Project's
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also going to have some severe
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shortcomings and we are it's not going
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to fit the needs of the department so
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you know we're asking we're asking
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people to vote no on this
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[Applause]
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um
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we obviously like we George said we've
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had a tough year um we don't have a lot
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of communication with the with the
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city um and so you know these questions
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really we don't really have an
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opportunity to ask these questions sit
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down and talk to them we we did have
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conversations we did talk about things
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that were going to be changed and then
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we were told that we that we were to be
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excluded from that on our former Chief
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told us that he was at he was
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specifically told that we were not
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supposed to be told about these things
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so unfortunately we can't even help try
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to make make this better so
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um other than just the fact that there's
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just so many shortcomings we we really
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we we do not stand behind this tax
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increase at all um and we're asking all
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of you to to to vote no on
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[Applause]
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it we've had I've had a couple of people
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reach out asking us to come in in
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support of the tax increase and I've
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emailed back um I'm a little better when
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I have a little little bit Ah Head Start
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and be able to write it all down and
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edit what I have to say so um I had
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emailed back a couple of people and or
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one woman specifically at one of the
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schools and explained why we couldn't
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you know we weren't in support of this
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and I we didn't I didn't even get so
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much of a as a thank you for your time
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so um because we weren't supporting it
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you know nobody was interested in in why
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we aren't supporting or I shouldn't say
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nobody that specific person was not
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interested in why we weren't supporting
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it um so we feel like it's necessary
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that we want to get out there as to why
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we don't support it but at the same time
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it's a little difficult just because the
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current climate to to do so without
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sounding like we're just a bunch of
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angry people we just don't like anything
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um so if anybody does have any questions
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I
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I'm I'm available um the other Union
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officials are available if you ever have
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any questions I feel free to reach out
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to us um if you need our email addresses
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or anything you can ask me now yep
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George scell can also get it out to you
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um we would be happy to talk about any
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of these things we just um we and we
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greatly appreciate everybody's support
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um throughout everything that we've been
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going going through this year and um
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everybody's you know everybody's been
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wonderful about that thank you
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