City Council - Regular Meeting

so so Thank you. All right, acknowledge.

Acknowledging we have a quorum, we'll go ahead and call the regular City Council meeting to order. It is Monday, June 29th. The time is 6.05 p.m. The first item on our agenda is a motion to adopt our agenda. Is there a motion to that end?

So moved.

Thank you, Councilor McKnight. Is there a second? Thank you, Councilor Bergman. Any discussion? All in favor, then please say aye. Aye.

Any opposed?

That carries unanimously. We have our agenda. I'll note that we're joined by Councilors Grant and Carpenter online at the moment. The first item on our agenda after adopting the agenda is a proposed executive session. As is our practice, I'll turn to the City Attorney's Office to give some factual context as to why we would head into executive session this evening.

Thank you, Council President Travers. This is a proposed executive session for the city attorney's office to provide the council with an update about a specific zoning enforcement matter. And the open meeting law does allow for executive session if premature general public knowledge of this type of legal matter would put the city at a substantial disadvantage. So we would ask that you approve an executive session for this confidential information.

Thank you, City Attorney Brown. Based off of that, I would turn to you, Councillor McKnight, for the first of two motions on the executive session.

Thank you. I move that the council find that premature general public knowledge of legal advice and information concerning the details of pending and or potential litigation to which the city is a party or has a stated interest would clearly place the city at a substantial disadvantage.

Thank you. Is there a second to that motion?

Second.

Thank you, Councillor Schachter. Any discussion? All in favor, then please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That is unanimous. Councilman McKnight, can I turn to you for the second motion?

Yes. Based upon that finding, I move that the council go into executive session to receive confidential attorney-client communications in pending and or potential civil litigation matters pursuant to 1 VSA 313A1E and F and including representatives from the mayor's office, the DFA, DPI, DPW, and the city attorney's office.

Thank you. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Second. Thank you, Councillor Schachter. Any discussion on that? All in favour, then please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? That is unanimous. The council is now in executive session. We'll be in the conference room downstairs. Public forum is set for a time certain of 6.30pm and we will work diligently to be back before then. Thank you.

so so Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. do do Bye. Thank you. Bye. you Thank you. . .

Okay, we'll go ahead and call the Council back to order. Thank you for folks' patience as we were in executive session. The third item on our agenda is our public forum set for a time certain at 6.30 p.m. We'll go ahead and open that now at 6.36 p.m. As always, we'll begin here in City Hall with Burlington residents. We'll then turn to any non-Burlington residents. We do not have anyone signed up online this evening, so we'll do public forum just here in City Hall. When I call your name, please come forward here to the table. Make sure the microphone is pulled close. Hit the push button on the microphone and the green light on the microphone itself will illuminate. Every speaker will be provided two minutes. Please direct your comments to me as the chair and not to any other individual. We don't tolerate any individualized attacks, particularly those based on any individual's protected characteristics. We also ask that folks please refrain from vulgarities, obscenities, or otherwise being loud and disruptive when providing public comment. If I interrupt a speaker at any point in time, it will be to ask that they please continue in accordance with these rules. If any speaker continues to violate the rules, I reserve the right to end public comment for that speaker at that point in time. So with that, we have seven Burlington residents here in City Hall. And I will also note, as a number of folks know, whether you're here in person or online, we will be doing a number of board and commission appointments this evening. If you are a potential nominee for a board or commission please know that if you've been nominated you will generally speaking be provided an opportunity to address the council at that point in time so i do see some folks that have signed up for public forum now and certainly if you want to ensure that you have the opportunity here at the top of the meeting to address the council because Later speaking opportunities will be contingent on an individual being nominated. So if you want to ensure you speak to the council, please feel free to take the opportunity now. But I did just also want to flag that when we get to that process, that there will be another or perhaps a new opportunity for folks to address the council then. So with that, again, seven Burlington residents here in City Hall. The first is Bruce Wilson, who will be followed by Joanna Elliott. Bruce.

Hello, City Council Chair, Honorable Mayor. So I'm here today to talk about Youth on City Boards. I'm the founder of Youth on City Boards way back in the day, along with youth. And they seem like on police commission, planning commission, school board, these type of boards they sit on. And so it stopped. A lot of things have stopped. So we wanted to bring that back up. And then also we had when you formed boards, we had amended it. And nobody can see to find the amendment. But the amendment was that you've remember was that youth who um were on these boards um wasn't able to vote you know so they felt like what the heck you know i'm saying that we here we had to you know school board and whatever whatever the board they said on and their vote don't really count you know i'm saying just like yeah okay but now um with the amendment we we did and you voted to count it and so um It just fell off. I think it fell off because one of the reasons was, I think we still have a youth police commission, and I think that might have been the last position that youth might have held. But I think it fell off in a lot of ways because of COVID. Of course, a lot of things fell off because of COVID. A lot of things happened. I was talking to some administrators at VES, And so what we want to do is start getting youth back on the school board, all the different boards they sit on. And I just want you guys to support because everything that we do is all for the youth. And everything that they do, the high school kids do, they do it for the middle school kids. It's a chain reaction. We just want to make sure that they have a voice. We always use this famous question, what are we going to do in five years? What are you going to do in five years, Bruce? In five years, what are we going to do in five years? Instead of you on that board, they're going to tell us what to do in five years. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Joanna Elliott, who will be followed by Neil Hayes.

I press the button.

You just pull the microphone close, and as long as the green light on the microphone itself is on, we should be able to hear you.

Okay. Good evening, councillors. I'm here tonight because I'm deeply concerned about the precedent that this city appears poised to set at a time when communities across our country are recognizing the importance of environmental stewardship, climate resilience, and protecting public green space. It is stunning and reprehensible that Burlington is considering development concepts that would place housing on land which residents understand to be part of our public parks and community-owned lands. What is the most shocking is not simply these proposals. It is the precedent that they establish that when planning for housing becomes difficult, our city council, our public parks become development opportunities. And so I have this simple question for the council. are Burlington's public parks and green spaces now available for commercial and residential development? Yes or no? Because if the answer is yes, then every park in this city is now potentially on the table and every public green space becomes an asset which can be parceled off when someone decides there's a better use for it. If the answer is no, then the concept proposals coming to you on July 21st should not move forward. Over the last two weeks, I learned about the proposed changes. through Plan B TV to four parks in the new North End. The outreach failed. I knocked on over 120 of my neighbor's doors this week and spoke to dozens and dozens of residents out of whom two people had heard of these plans two people whatever outreach occurred it did not reach the residents most directly affected that concern is compounded by statements made during this process we heard acknowledges from at least one planning commissioner who had not even visited the neighborhoods under consideration and was under

You can finish if you have a couple more sentences. Thank you.

Unfamiliar with existing neighborhood conditions and housing density. And that should give all of us pause before we move forward. Burlington faces real housing challenges, and I recognize that. But selling off or building on public green space is not visionary planning. It's not creative planning. It is the easiest and least imaginative solution possible. And these decisions will become part of Burlington's legacy, and years from now, people will remember whether this generation of stewards, this generation of leaders, protected our public parks. The one we're sitting in was established in 1797. I'm sorry.

How much more do you have? I thought maybe you were very little.

All I would like to say is to end where I began. Are Burlington's parks protected or are they available for commercial and residential development? Yes or no.

Thank you. Thanks. Our next speaker will be Neil Hayes, to be followed by Annie Schneider. And I will say, given the limited number of public speakers this evening, there may be a little bit of flexibility there on two minutes, but do ask that folks please keep their comments to the typical two-minute timer. Thank you.

Do I do anything to the timer?

Sorry? Yeah, please go ahead.

Hi everybody. I'm Neil Hayes. I actually live on Star Farm Road right across from where this development is going to take place. And I live near Joanna and I again am kind of upset about the lack of information. And I talked with a legal fellow yesterday and he said the first thing that any project needs to do is to inform the people that live close to that piece of property and we live less than 200 feet from the road that is going to be street parking on and I was with Joanna and she walked down the streets and there's nobody in that neighborhood that knows anything about this new development going on in all of North Avenue. I feel like I've been living under a rock. I read the newspaper, I watch the news every day and I haven't seen anything about this. I helped Steve Blanchard And Rich Parkette flood the rink every winter at Star Farm Road. That's where we get the ice skating. And we went through this in 1990 when Vermont Housing and the city established the fact that we're going to build low income housing in Star Farm Park. But there was so much backlash, they decided not to. And I think they're going to be the same backlash this time when people find out about this. I think there are good areas to do that, but I don't think Star Farm Park is one of them where they'll take the soccer field away, they'll take the skating rink away, they'll put housing there. There's already a lot of high-speed traffic down Star Farm, and if you don't live in the north end, you have to drive south. You already realize what the traffic is like on North Avenue. And the interval is available. But if you're driving down North Avenue, you have to leave half an hour early if you're going to get to work in the morning or come home at night. So I think the first thing is to get the word out. And then the second thing is to deal with the ramifications of it. But we need to be informed of this. And it has to be a piece of paper in the mailbox of somebody stopping at people's houses to let them know this is going to happen. So that's my recommendation to the city council and thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Annie Schneider who will be followed by Jonathan Chapel Sokol.

Hello. Hello, counselors. My name is Annie Schneider. I'm a Burlington resident, and I've been a member of the board for voter registration for the last seven years. I'm here today to talk to you about Jeff Comstock, who applied to be on the board of registration, and I understand is being put forward for this position. I realize that it's unusual for a sitting member of a board to comment on the candidacy of a potential member, and that this could be extremely awkward, but I feel it's worth it in order to let you know information so you can have a better informed choice. It's already on the record and is public that Jeff Comstock, who's being considered for this board, has transphobic and anti-immigrant views. If you need proof of this, feel free to see the MPA transcripts and the recorded Board of Voter Registration meeting where he gave public comment to this effect. I'm not here to alert you to this, as you have already been alerted to this by progressive city councilors. And as I understand it, you're still choosing to move forward nominating Jeff while knowing this. I can only assume that you don't understand how BRV works or how a person with these views can obstruct people from voting while staying within the laws. That's what I'm here to let you know about. As members of the BRV, we help people unsnare problems with their registration on election day. Through this process, we have the ability to encourage voters or discourage voters through a number of ways. Imagine you're a member of our trans community here in Burlington. You approach the BRV table on election day looking to change your name in the system. This is a common thing. The BRV member can use proper pronouns or neutral pronouns and ask for the name that you no longer use privately, or they can make you say it loudly. They can make a fuss, they can get confused and have trouble finding you in the system. They can tell you they're not sure if you can change your name. Let me tell you, things like that make a big difference in whether people feel comfortable voting or not. People who have to go through this might just leave or not come back to vote. People are comfortable voting if they're treated with friendliness, kindness, and respect, especially with their identity. I'm very worried how much Jeff Comstock could influence our voters even just by purposely misusing pronouns for people. I have one more comment. Can I finish my statement?

Yes, I will say that I think that this is in a bit of a gray area of sorts in that, generally speaking, we would not permit public comment to reference an individual like this. I would say it's in a gray area because this involves the potential nomination of a particular individual where that individual is at issue. But I do think that this has been skating the line a bit, so if your last comment continues with respect to individualized attacks where the person at issue does not have an opportunity to respond here, I would ask that you be mindful of that. But yes, you can continue.

Thank you. Second, I want to talk about how we treat immigrant voters, both legal resident voters and naturalized citizens who are voting in the general election. As BRV members, we don't assume the immigration status of anyone who comes to our table and we treat everyone with respect. Imagine being a new voter and having to deal with an attitude that is against you. It would make you intimidated to vote. Being unwelcoming, assuming immigration status, or accidentally mixing up paperwork can have a huge impact on who votes. It is easy to be an obstructionist and still follow the law as a BRV member. I urge you to not put this person on the Board of Voters registration because this will disenfranchise voters through our whole city. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Jonathan Chappell-Sokol, who will be followed by Miriam Stoll.

Good evening. My name is Jonathan Chappell-Sokol, and I'm an applicant for a position on the Board of Assessors As in the past, I'm a multi-term incumbent. A BOE term expires in March, so I am actually applying to continue a term that I've held since April. I want to start by saying that for me, it is a privilege to serve on the Board of Assessors. I see every appeal as an education for me and an opportunity to make Burlington a better place. I hope that what I have to say tonight doesn't incent you to take my name off the slate. The following supplication is from both volunteer members of the BOA, Rob Gutman and me. To begin, Tracy Isham and Jared Rogers, along with Kenneth Nozick, have done a fantastic job with the appeals process and with working through conventional and unconventional property issues confronting the assessor's office. Nonetheless, the city is in dire need of an assessor. As one of the city's leaders charged with ensuring equity and fairness, the assessor, along with the city attorney and the REIB director, is critical to ensuring a healthy and just community. You can't achieve tax fairness without assessment fairness, and the already light staffing of the assessor's office makes the absence of an assessor much graver. The lack of a city assessor puts the city at risk over statutory as well as equity challenges. The risk could well have cost implications, along with the very real daily opportunity costs associated with the work not done by Tracy and Jared, who need to spend their time doing the assessor's work. We understand job postings have not yielded candidates for this complex and specialized position. We're not qualified to offer hiring suggestions, but we implore you to do all that is needed to hire an excellent city assessor. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Miriam Stoll, who will be followed by Myles McCallum.

Sound okay?

Yes.

Great. My name's Miriam Stoll. I'm a 30-year resident of Burlington. I was one of those folks that came to UVM and never left. Since living here, I have done a number of different types of community engagement work. First, I served on the school board here for a number of years and was finance chair. Secondly, I've been on two state appointed boards that are concerned primarily with equity for individuals with disability. I am the parent of a young woman with a disability. So I'm here tonight to put my name forward to be on the board of voter registration. And the reason is that although the number of people in the United States and here in Vermont who are voting is increasing, there is inequity in who actually registers to vote. The people that register to vote tend to be my age, white, and in addition, let me see, I'll get back to that. But what I wanted to say was that if you look at who votes, it's not representative of our community. And one of the things that I've wondered about for the Board of Voter Registration is why we don't see a bigger presence in the community. I think at this point when voting is really under siege we in Burlington need to be proactive. We need to be out there not just waiting for someone from the federal government to tell us we can or can't do something and to respond to that. We need to have a plan. We need to be out there and the people that we need to be focusing on are young people and people of color and people with disabilities. So I'm sorry that my two minutes is up. But what I did want to say is if appointed to the board my goal would be to focus primarily on the fourth point that the Board of Voters looks at which is it says on the website participate in board sponsored voter outreach activities. What I'd like to do is not just participate in them I'd like to create a plan that targets certain groups, and I'd like the board to take that on as one of their primary responsibilities.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Miles McCallum, who will be followed by our last Burlington resident here in City Hall, Nate Lantieri.

As for what you said at the beginning, all four go speaking now and speak before the cemetery commission appointment.

Understood. Okay. Our next speaker then is Nate Lantieri, who will be followed by Todd DeLuca.

Hello, everybody. Hello, city councilors and mayor. Good to see you all. I'm here today not as an applicant myself, but in support of a candidate for the Parks Commission. And that candidate is Carolyn Felix. If you don't know me, I've been a Parks Commissioner for the last six years, and I've been the chair for the last two. And I'm here today, like I said, just to give some really enthusiastic support for Carolyn. Carolyn and I have known each other since 2018 when we both worked for the city. At that time, she was working as the BTV stat analyst, so is intimately aware of kind of like what the inner workings are of the city apparatus. And Oh, I'm actually nervous speaking in front of you all. I apologize. Carolyn reached out to me last year, to myself and to the commission vice chair, saying that she had entered into a different stage. In 2021, she moved into international development for work. Last year, in the wake of the USAID cuts, was looking to find some ways to get involved locally, and that was when she applied for the commission for the first time. She reached out to me and our vice chair, and we weren't able to make that happen last year, but have stayed in contact. She reached out again this year before she applied, and we have already kind of like started that process of figuring out how we can potentially work together. Regardless, you know, all of the applicants are really great folks, and I think we serve the community well. But I think that Carolyn at this time would provide a really a great hand and voice and Really steady decision-making as we look towards the future for parks. So that's all I have. Thank you all for your time And thank you everybody who applied for a commission. It's great to be involved in the civic process. So, thank you.

Thank you, Nate our last public forum speaker is Todd DeLuca and

Hello, Mayor, City Councilors, Mr. President. Tonight, the renewal of the Chocolate Thunder security contract is on the agenda. I've come to ask you to add language to the contract to protect people from being unlawfully trespassed from City Hall. On June 1st, I was in City Hall covering a story about potential First Amendment retaliation by the mayor when I was trespassed. while waiting to speak to someone in the mayor's office. Since then, I've gathered evidence showing that I was trespassed at the request of the mayor's assistant, Sam Powers, who was in close contact with the mayor. After the trespass, Chocolate Thunder owner, Mikey Van Golden said, quote, that should keep him out of the way of the meeting tonight, referring to the city council meeting. They didn't want you to hear what I have seen. On June 12th, another citizen who exercises his First Amendment rights was trespassed from City Hall while waiting for public records, allegedly for making threats. However, he published the entire encounter, and you can see that no threats were made. The real reason was that a security guard did not want to be recorded in public. I'm asking City Council to please add language to the contract to prevent civil rights violations and First Amendment retaliation by the mayor's office, Chocolate Thunder, or anyone else. Encouraging citizens to ask questions will make our community stronger. Retaliating against them won't. Thank you.

Thank you. This is the last individual we had signed up for public forum, so we'll go ahead and close public forum now at 7 o'clock. Just so folks know the next order of events, and Mayor, if this sounds good to you, I think we'll turn now to Mayor General of City Affairs, then do committee reports. Then we will briefly recess the City Council meeting. Excuse me. Yes. Okay. I think we will do We'll do mayor general city affairs, then committee reports, then our consent agenda. Then we will briefly recess the city council meeting to turn to our local control commission meeting, warned for 6.55 PM. We will return to the city council meeting to do our city council appointments, and then we will recess to turn to the city council with mayor presiding. Does that work for you, mayor?

Sure. Okay. I think I followed that.

I think just so we can try to do the appointments and back to back. Yeah. Okay.

Oh, I see.

Yep. Now we'll turn to Mayor, General City Affairs. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, President Travers. So today, after 61 years, I had the pleasure of participating in the ribbon cutting to open the Champlain Parkway in the south end. I even got to drive in a 1965 Mustang, and that, in case you're curious, was the year that the Champlain Parkway was first conceived, at least conceptually, of being a possibility for the city of Burlington. I want to thank Dan, who I believe was the driver. He was very proud of that vehicle. And while I had no air conditioning today, it was a real pleasure to be able to drive that stretch and be able to be with everyone for this big, big moment for the city's history. I was also joined by U.S. Senator Peter Welch, Vermont Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn, Of course, City Council President Ben Travers, who represented the South Bend Well, and Public Works Director Chapin Spencer. On June 21st, before we had this big opening today, we also, many of us in the community, participated in the Parkway Mile and Community Stroll, organized by Run Vermont. I even dragged my poor children to that, and I don't think any of us are runners, but we really enjoyed the opportunity to be able to be on that roadway and see what it would be like when you're not actually in a car to experience that section. And I really want to thank Run Vermont. It was a great community event. Hundreds of people apparently are runners, and they came with great enthusiasm to do that mile run and to participate in, again, another way to open up this very long-term project. leading an effort of this scale has required years of coordination persistence and partnership with residents contractors state and federal agencies the governor city officials and countless members of our city's public works team and i want to i said this in my remarks earlier and many opinionated city councilors and mayors alike for 61 years this really represents quite an achievement and this today's celebration was a true testament to all that work of all those people It's also a testament to our ability as a city to wrestle with difficult questions and build something that better reflects who we are today. Over the years, residents have raised crucial questions about the impacts this project could have on neighborhoods, on our environment, and on communities that have too often carried more than their share of the burdens of public infrastructure. Those voices mattered and helped to shape the final results. Over time, this project changed substantially. Its scope was reduced, and its design evolved. This doesn't mean that all of those challenges were resolved, and our city team will be closely monitoring the impacts of the parkway on traffic patterns and on residents' experience of their neighborhood. The opening of the parkway isn't the finish line, of course. It's the start of a new chapter with investments that will support Burlington's growth. It will also help build more housing, improve mobility, strengthen our neighborhoods, reduce environmental impacts, and continue to create a city where people have real choices in how they live and move around the city. And today is evidence of that momentum that many people of Burlington have been feeling. This feeling of Burlington having tangible results and tangible positivity as we move forward. And also one last word on the Champlain Parkway. One of the evolutions of this has really shown how we've evolved as a city from a car-centric way of thinking about infrastructure and one for which we put people and housing and climate more at the center of our thoughts around how this road was designed. Remember, it used to be a four-lane highway, and it was down to a two-lane with a multi-shared path along almost the entirety of it, which is truly a testament to, again, our ability to adapt as a city to our priorities here today. Earlier last week, we held a press conference on Church Street, speaking of the momentum that we've really been starting to feel here in the city of Burlington. I held a press conference outside of Homeport. Thank you to Mark for hosting us in his front yard, if you will, on Church Street to celebrate this city and all of our achievements so far. There is a growing sense that Burlington is truly turning a corner, that the energy is back, and the confidence is returning in the Queen City, that our city is moving forward together. Over the last few months, I've heard from residents, from business owners, from visitors, and from the people who've been cheering on this city through its challenges and now into its successes. Burlington is truly back. And let me be clear, we still, of course, have challenges to address, and we will continue to meet them head on. But it's important to recognize how far we've come and the progress happening across this city. Downtown Jazz kicked off our summer season with packed streets and thousands of people enjoying the downtown together. I heard from countless residents who said that they felt like the old days. And I heard from business owners that this was one of the best weekends in years. Throughout the summer, Burlington will host a strong lineup of events that will bring people together, support our locally owned businesses, and showcase the energy of this community. And by the way, if you haven't seen it online, loveburlington.gov.org. someone will correct me on the dot portion of it, has over 100 free events listed. And I really encourage people to check that out between now and Labor Day in particular. Onto our parks and beaches and waterfront. I was just at Letty Park this weekend with my kids. It was packed and it was clean and beautiful and ready for the season. Thank you to the incredible work of city staff and community partners to keep these places among Burlington's greatest assets. Under the leadership of Chief Police Chief Sean Burke, the Burlington Police Department is steadily rebuilding and we're seeing meaningful progress in community safety. I am also incredibly proud of the work that residents, businesses and community organizations, city staff and electives are doing to help us bring us to this moment. Finally, last week on the mayor's monthly town meeting TV show, I had a lively chat about Burlington's momentum with Church Heat Marketplace Director Samantha McGinnis, our Waterfront Division Director and Harbormaster Erin Moreau, and BCA Communications Director Elena Rosen. You will find a recording of this on Town Meeting TV, one of our great partners here on the YouTube channel, where we talk a great length of what's coming up this summer, some highlights, and you really get an insider scoop of three leaders within our city who've been really putting a lot of efforts in with their teams and even a little plug about where to get the best creamy so you can watch the whole 30 minutes through. don't want to give the spoiler there all right on to this weekend is a big weekend for burlington we put on a big party on july 3rd and i want to make sure to invite everyone down to the waterfront and everyone locally here in vermont as well because on july 3rd is independence day celebration for the city of burlington and it's a highlight in in terms of our summer programming this will be even more special as we join with communities across the country in celebrating america's 250th anniversary Our Department Parks Recreation Waterfront is proud to host the big celebration again Friday, July 3rd from 5 to 11 p.m. at Waterfront Park. This is a family-friendly event which will feature live music on stage, an aerial parade from our partners over at Beta Technology, and great food and great drinks from local vendors, and of course, the fireworks over the lake. You can visit btvjuly3rd.com for more event details. And I encourage people to come by foot and by bike if possible. Recent community events I want to highlight, we heard at Board of Finance a little bit about Burlington High School just on the financial side of it, but this is truly a milestone as well to celebrate as the city because earlier this month, Burlington High School students marked two important moments. Of course, celebrating the graduation of the 2026 class of BHS graduates who are a once in a generation moment. Well, sorry, this is a once in a generation moment to not only celebrate their graduation, but we celebrated inside the new BHS building. It's a great moment to see our community, hundreds of people in the new gym at BHS proudly celebrating our new graduates, but also saying goodbye to the Macy's building in the downtown location. I was able to offer a few remarks to the families and the students. And I will tell you each one of the hands that I shook, the students were so excited about obviously what's coming next in their lives. But this is a real celebration moment for all of us to be proud of that building that we invested in locally as a city. This is truly our high school. And I encourage folks to take part in some of the tours being put on this summer to take a look at the building inside. Because regardless of whether you have a student going to that building, this is our building as the city of Burlington. Also earlier this month, REIB, our Racial Equity Inclusion and Belonging Department, hosted the city's sixth annual Juneteenth Awards ceremony and celebration, and was focused on the concept of freedom. I was able to be at that event as well, and we celebrated some real leaders in our community, ranging from the Vermont Language Justice Project, who does a lot of work on language access for the city, as well as community partners, We're able to celebrate and appreciate AALV and the Vermont Garden Network, among others. These are all important leaders in our community. This was a celebratory moment for REAB also because officially it has now been added to the Burlington City Charter thanks to the work of the legislature and the signature of the governor in late May. And I'm so proud that this now it will become permanent work for the city of Burlington in terms of city government operations. This was a high priority for my administration to make sure we saw to the end, not only elevating this crucial work for this department, but making sure it was instilled in our most important document, our charter, to make sure that we prioritize as a city racial equity, inclusion, and belonging in everything that we do, regardless of who the mayor is and regardless who sits around this table as city councilors. finally one last update on the agenda tonight i would like to well acknowledge that we've just concluded bargaining with ibew who represents our burlington some of our burlington electric department employees and we have successfully reached an agreement between the city and the ibew local 300. this negotiation work wraps up several months of work led by our hr director lynn reagan and our capable city attorney jessica brown as well as the leadership team over at BED. Tonight, the council will vote to approve a new three-year contract which builds on the strong existing relationship IBEW Local 300 and BED Management have, including through their regular labor management meetings that they hold to make sure that we're continuing to be strong partners even outside of bargaining. I really appreciate that we were able to actually settle this contract just within a day or two of the current one expiring, To me, that shows a strong commitment as a labor-forward city to make sure we're being respectful and diligent in our work to lead fair settlements with our city employees who are represented by unions. Finally, thank you to Jeffrey LeMet from IBEW and Darren Springer from BED for their leadership and professionalism during that round of negotiations. And with that, President Travers, back to you.

Thank you, Mayor. That brings us now to the committee reports portion of the agenda. Is there any counselor with a committee report?

Council bergman Thank you, I have to. One is the ordinance committee, we will be meeting on inclusionary zoning in the collaborative group with the the planning Commission on the 14th of July it's just something that is a monthly activity that we are doing as we're looking to. We are reviewing and debating whether there should be changes to the inclusionary zoning ordinance. Which is a key pillar to our affordability agenda, the second meeting is on the 16th that's a regular meeting and we will be continuing to. To look at I hope the the motorized vehicles, you know the those mopeds or motor little motorcycles that are going on, we had a significant meeting on the last month on that because we're. really serious about regulating them. I've heard lots of issues, particularly on the bike path and in the north end. So we're looking at that. The other thing that is coming down the line, and I think that we will be bringing back early in July, is a revamp of the industrial storm wastewater pollution ordinance. Which is necessary because we have a booming brewery industry and the taxes that they the taxation on our system is is significant and we need to be prepared and there is work that's being done in collaboration with the state. And this is going to frame up a very forward-looking approach to dealing with our wastewater effectively. So more on that coming up. That is the ordinance committee, those two meetings on the 14th and the 16th of July. I want to then just turn your attention to a written report that is on our agenda regarding the F-35 resolution. Believe it or not, It's taken quite a long time between the time that we passed on August 12 2024 overwhelmingly I think it was an 11 to one vote on the F 30 fives asking for a new mission or asking at least for the Congressional delegation to to request the Secretary of Air Forces. To request a new mission, and it has taken us a long time clearly. There are a lot of political developments since August of 2024 that would validly lead to a delay in us meeting, but this report that I have as the chair of the ad hoc committee of which President Travers and Councilor Barlow are also on speaks to the meeting that we had that I had on June 11th with the chiefs of staff of all three representatives and what we are looking for and the written report. talks about the different things is a formal written request because they need to explain to to the council and to the citizens what their position is with regarding to the f-35s which continue to be in my estimation as they fly over my head as they my house as they fly over my garden as they disrupt things that a continued health problem particularly for the kids in the neighborhood so that that are effective they did not have a written response and that was not surprising since that was the meeting, the first meeting, but there are some comments that are in this report. I will not go through the details. It's written for the public. It's in our agenda, so it's accessible through that, and you can look at this. And what I have asked for is the written report, either collectively or individually, by the end of the summer so that we can deal with this. It's my belief that this administration, this federal administration, will not be a partner with regard to the F-35s, and that is just something that we have to recognize. But that does not mean that activity cannot be done and that we cannot let the world know that the basing of those planes in an urban area is just fundamentally wrong and we need to change how we get there that's the big deal and i i expressed and continue to hope that the delegation can be a partner but we will find out um as as time progresses thank you thank you council bergman is there any other counselor with a committee report

All right. We will move then now to our...

I'm sorry, I had my hand raised.

Sorry, Councillor Grant, I did not see you there.

That's okay. Thank you. I too wanted to thank the REIB team for their fantastic work with the Juneteenth event. A little nerve-wracking in the morning with rain coming over, but once the day cleared up, members of the public really came out to see some of the events. And the community dinner, which is my personal favorite part, was so well attended and there was such energy and all the different food vendors were so happy to be there and interacted with members of the public so well. There was just a variety of choices. also having music playing during that event. And it brought a lot of people into the community. I shared a lot of video from the event and got some fantastic feedback. So I really want to thank that team, especially for being able to raise money to help sustain the community dinner. It's just beautiful to see so many different types of people that live in our community, that live in Vermont, get together and share space. I wanted to also talk about this temporary committee that the JoAnne Hanrahan- Council has, which is to go through the applications for the boards and commissions and discuss them and make decisions I. did see improvement in this process. I had been concerned the last few years with how extremely politicized the process was, where we weren't always making decisions that were best for the residents of Burlington. um so we did have some very detailed conversations that i think are definitely worth it i know members of the public don't always have time to watch these uh meetings or the committee meetings but i do think it is uh meetings are well worth watching especially if you have a future interest in being on boards and commissions i do want to say we do still have some work to do just to really depoliticize some of uh the commissions i think we we um we have to take an honest look at that and have an understanding of how it affects the residents of the city um i'd like to talk more on that but that would be it for now thank you is there any other counselor with a committee report

All right, we will move then now to item six, which is our consent agenda. Is there a motion to adopt our consent agenda and take the actions indicated?

Actually, sorry, I have a motion. I'd like to pull the Chocolate Thunder contract from the consent agenda, and I'd like to make a motion to postpone to our next meeting, which I believe is July 12th.

Okay. Um, so any counselor may, so you don't need to move to move something from the consent agenda. Any counselor may as a matter of right, pull any item from the consent agenda. So there's a request from counselor Litwin. to remove item 6.3, Security Services for City Hall, FY27, Contract Extension, DFA, HR. Is that correct, the item you're referring to, Counselor? Yes. And if I could have the floor back after a second, that would be appreciated. OK. So Counselor Litwin has removed item 6.3 from the consent agenda and has made a motion to postpone that item until our meeting on July 13. 13. Thank you. Is there a second to that motion? Second. All right, second by Councillor Singh. And just one moment here, Councillor Litwin, I do just want to confirm with the City Attorney's Office, would a motion to postpone be in order at this point in time? I mean, absent objection, I'm happy to consider it at the moment, but I did just want to confirm that we're doing things correctly here.

I don't see any reason why that motion can't be considered now. I mean, what's happened so far is it's just been pulled and put on deliberative. So I think you can either address the motion to postpone now, or you can address it as a deliberative item when you get to the deliberative agenda.

OK. Thank you. So I'll turn to the motion now.

Thank you, if I may, and I can address also why I made the motion to postpone rather than wait until the deliberative item. Yes. The issue that I have at hand was actually kind of flagged by the comments by Mr. DeLuca. I had overlooked this when reviewing the consent agenda, but it does not appear the full contract is attached. So we're not able to review contract language. There is a one page contract extension. However, I'm unable to review the language of the contract as indicated by the speaker, Mr. DeLuca. And so I think it's important for us to do our due diligence before voting on a contract extension to have the language of the contract.

Thank you, Councillor Litwin. Is there anyone else that wishes to be recognized on the motion to postpone this item? Councillor Bergman?

My question is that it would appear that the contract that we have will expire at the end of June, so we will not have a contract for security services, which I think is a terrible idea. And I understand the desire to address some of the issues that were raised. My sense is that there given the nature of them and sort of a complicated conversation that we've got to have about that, that at the very least, that could be dealt with in an addendum to the contract. And I am not in favor of us not having a contract, having a gap. in the contract. They provide very important services here, and I think it would be a big mistake. This is not to say that we could not be dealing with issues that were raised around the questions of First Amendment, but that is something that we should do in consultation with our attorneys And we can, I believe, do it without there being a gap in services. So I guess that is my reasoning for while I will oppose this and do not think that it is a wise move to take and why I would actually oppose when we deal with it, if we deal with it at the the deliberative agenda, doing anything on the fly now. Again, I'm open for having a conversation about legitimate First Amendment principles and putting them into contracts, but I don't think this is the way we do it.

Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Bergman. Mayor, did you want to be recognized?

Thank you. I see you have other councillors. Do you want to come to me last?

Sorry, I did not. We'll go to, did you want to be recognized too, Councilor Schachter?

I just had a question that maybe will pertain to your- And then I see Councilor Carpenter.

Do you mind if I, or Councilor Schachter, why don't we go to you first, and then we'll go to Councilor Carpenter?

Okay, sure. I just have a quick question, which was, is there a world, I agree I don't want to see a lapse in security services, and I'm wondering if there is a world in which we could reconsider a motion that extends the current contract through our next meeting, which will give us time to revisit and I'll have time to view the full contract prior to then. So that feels like another path I just wanted to put out there.

Okay. I think we'll return to your question in a moment and ask and turn to Councillor Carpenter.

I was going to say something.

Go ahead, Councillor Carpenter.

something similar to um council bergman and actually council shack too which is we cannot have a lapse um and i do kind of support council bergman's concept which is some of this some of this is protocol that our internal operations they're not really in the contract they're you know it's the city it's right to do trespasses or not just exists independently of the contract If we had no contract, we still could do this. So I just want to caution that we figure out a way to not have a lapse. And maybe that's an extension for a month. If we're going to change the contract, that's a two-party agreement. So we have to have enough time to have a two-party conversation.

OK. So I'm going to offer a suggestion and then I'm happy to turn to you afterwards. I think my suggestion would be this item has already been pulled from the consent agenda so it is now on the deliberative as item 8.4. I think there are some outstanding important questions here that I don't want to put the city attorney's office in a position where they have to answer them on the fly. So if we were to table this discussion until later in the deliberative agenda I think at the very least It will allow the city attorney's office to be able to hopefully give us a more informed response at that point in time about what the consequences would be of our postponing this item if it were given that the existing contract extension lapses at the end of this month. But Mayor, did you want to get in the queue? I think that would be my suggestion, though, would be to table the conversation until the end of our deliberative agenda.

Yes and then I can raise my concerns my strong concerns about this and during your debate later at item eight point whatever item that you just gave because there are some serious considerations here on this motion.

OK. So if there is no objection then I will consider this item tabled until the end of our deliberative agenda and we will take it up as item eight point four when we get there. The motion then is on the consent agenda, which we did not have a motion on the consent agenda yet. So I would invite a motion to adopt the consent agenda as amended now, removing item 6.3 and to take the actions indicated. So moved. Thank you, Councillor Litwin. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councillor Schachter. Is there any discussion on that item? All right. We will go to a vote then. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. That carries. So we now would turn to item 7, which is our board and commission appointments. But as mentioned, we had warned our meeting as the local control commission at 6.55 PM. So we'll briefly recess the city council meeting and call that meeting to order at 7.30 PM. And I would ask for a motion to adopt our agenda for the local control commission.

I would move to adopt the agenda as indicated on civic clerk.

Thank you, Commissioner Broderick. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Commissioner Grant. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

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Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All in favor then please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Seeing no other business before the Local Control Commission, we will adjourn that meeting at 7.31 p.m. and return to our regular City Council meeting. And now we are at item 7, which is the 2026 Board and Commission appointments. The first item here is item 7.1, and the Document attached to that item is a slate of appointments agreed to by the Board and Commission's Nominating Committee. And I want to take an opportunity to thank Councilor Grant, Councilor Sanchez-Parkinson, Councilors Carpenter and Barlow for taking part in that process, as well as the Mayor's Deputy Chief of Staff, Jen Tsakaris, who chaired that committee. In the interest of transparency, as we now move that slate of candidates, posted on Civic Clerk. That slate is as follows. For the full appointment to the Chittenden Solid Waste District Board, Joseph Lee Perry. To the Church Street Marketplace Commission, Rebecca Holt, Eric Munson, and Mary Kate Moore. As fence viewers, Charlie Ginoni, Shay Totten, Vikas Manjapudi. To the full appointment to the Green Mountain Transit Board, Andrea Suozo, and the Alternate Green Mountain Transit Board, Larry Lewak, and on the Housing Board of Review, Dylan Shelby. And in a moment, once we have a motion on this slate, if any of those individuals are here or online and would like to address the council, we'll provide you an opportunity to do so. But first, the ask would be for a motion to approve that slate of 2026 City Council Board and Commission appointments as I listed.

So moved.

Thank you, Councillor Schachter. there a second second thank you counselor grant and again just for folks following along our agenda the rest of our agenda here up until 7.11 all of those items are addressed by the slate that has just been moved so first before turning to counselors for any comments or questions that they have regarding this item Are any of the individuals who I just mentioned there who have been appointed as part of the slate, are they online or here in person in City Hall? And would they wish to address the City Council regarding their nomination? Is there anyone online? OK. I'll turn then to the Council. Are there any comments or questions on this item? All right. Seeing none, we will go to a vote. And again, these are on the regular city council appointments. We'll turn in a moment to those appointments made by the city council with mayor presiding. But these are just those appointments that I listed. All in favor of the motion on the slate, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Congratulations to those applicants that have just been reappointed. Thank you to others who applied and hope you continue to stay interested. We did not have applicants for the Chittenden Solid Waste District Board alternate position or one of the Church Street Marketplace Commission vacancies as the Church Street Marketplace Commission has clear criteria from where certain applicants need to come from. And we did not have an applicant that met that criteria. And so both of those positions will be automatically re-advertised. That completes the City Council's Board and Commission's Nominating Committee. And Mayor, I think I will now recess the City Council meeting again and turn it to you to call the City Council with Mayor presiding to order.

Thank you, President Travers. i will call the count a call to order the city council mayor presiding on monday june 29 2026 at 7 36 p.m our first item is the agenda is there a motion on the agenda move by councillor bergman is there a second second seconded by councillor travers thank you any discussion on the agenda before we vote see none all in favor indicate by saying aye aye aye aye any opposed nay motion carries unanimously thank you very much we have a second item tonight for public comment is there anyone who would like to address the city council of mayor presiding in terms of public comment we didn't do a sign up for this but reminder in terms of process that if you are an applicant for one of the appointments later in this agenda you'll be given a chance to address the board i'm sorry well the council with mayor presiding so anyone who is not one of those candidates who would like to address the city council mayor presiding This is your opportunity on this agenda item. Hi, welcome. If you introduce yourself, we'll do roughly the two minute thing. Someone will help me with the timing if necessary. Actually, I'll just use my old school phone. Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor and Councillors. My name is Grace Grunhauser. I'm speaking tonight in my individual capacity, not on behalf of the Board for Registration of Voters. Today is my last day serving on the BRV, and I wanted to offer a brief comment in support of David Cauley's application for the open seat. I understand the boards and commissions selection committee did not reach consensus on a recommendation for the second BRVC. And that appointment is coming to the full council tonight. I also understand that the council has several good candidates to consider. And I appreciate everyone who has put themselves forward to serve. My comment is not meant to take away from any of those applicants. I think it is important that the open seat be filled before the August primary, which is just over a month away. The BRV has important responsibilities in elections, including making sure there is someone prepared to support each polling place and help address voter registration questions in person on election day. David would be a strong appointment because he has already worked multiple elections as a volunteer with the BRV. He has attended the BRV's recent election preparation trainings, understands the BRV's procedures, and has firsthand experience with what the work looks like in practice at the polls. If the council needs consensus on a strong candidate for this seat, I think members can feel confident voting for David Cawley, whether as a first choice or a second choice. He would do a great job supporting the BRV's election work and helping ensure Burlington is prepared for this year's elections. Thank you.

Right at two minutes. Thank you so much. Is anyone else from the public here to address the city council with mayor presiding? If people are nominated later, you're able to address during the nomination process for any applications you have for boards and commissions. If you're unsure about that, you are more than welcome to provide public comment now. OK. Thank you for that clarification. Please, yeah. Again, two minutes with my little fancy phone.

Hello, everybody. Thank you, Mayor, for the additional time. There were two details, as I mentioned, I was nervous before. There were two details that I wanted to share about Carolyn that really go towards her specific qualities that make her a great candidate for the Parks Commission. And that is that she's been a community gardener since 2012. And an interesting detail that I didn't even really know was a possibility is that she actually lived not quite in one of Burlington's parks, but one of the adjacent ones. As the caretaker of Ethan Allen homestead for 12 years so her and her family actually like we're interfacing with the public in this really direct way and seeing kind of the impact of public parks. And in that instance, you know she experienced something that and her family or kids experienced something that. What a lot of people in the city experience with public parks and that that was where they recreated that was where they you know, had the opportunity to be in green space so. She since moved to the new North End, but it's shared that, you know, with her daughter, they walk to Letty Arena for her skating lessons. So just a little bit more to kind of round out some of the, you know, real world characteristics of Carolyn. So thank you all again. And again, I'll say it. Thank you all to everybody who applied for a commission.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to address the council with mayor presiding for public forum? Okay. And I assume someone would tell me if there was an online element. Okay. Seeing none, I'm going to close public forum and we will go on to our consent agenda. Is there a motion on the consent agenda?

Move to adopt the consent agenda.

Moved by Councillor Travers. Is there a second? Second. Second by Councillor Singh. Thank you. Any discussion on the consent agenda before I call the question? Seeing none, all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Now moving on to our deliberative agenda, which is item number four, which is the 2026 boards and commission appointments for council with mayor presiding. Just a quick orientation on our process. Similar to council-only appointments, there was a slate of applicants that were agreed to by the working committee, which will be item 4.1. You'll see on the agenda every item, every board and commission listed. So I will help to try to give you an orientation as we go through. We will move this slated of applicants. I'll read them off for the record before the vote on item 4.1. And then we'll go to individual items for which there was not agreement on an applicant. And at that point, On the first one i'll remind you about this process, I know the Council has been through it before, but we will take nominations from the floor for any position that did not have consensus on the slate. will provide an opportunity for anyone nominated on the floor to address the Council with mayor presiding. Then the Council will have deliberations and then we will call each of the nominations based on the order that they are presented on the floor by a member of the Council. clear as mud, as we like to say in Burlington and in Vermont. But if there's questions, people can, of course, ask for a point of information or order as we get further into the process. So with that, our first item is item 4.1, which is the worksheet, which, again, is the slate I mentioned before. I will read this off for the record, and then I will see if there is a motion and discussion by council. Everyone with me on the council so far? Great, okay. All right, so for the slate which is posted on Civic Clerk so you can follow along, I will read what again was agreed to and anything where there was no applicant, I will also make a note where we need to repost. So to the first commission and board, the Airport Commission with the term expiring on June 30th of 2029, William Chip Mason. For the Board of Assessors, term expiring on March 31st, 2029, Jonathan Chapel Sokol. For the Cemetery Commission, term expiring June 30th, 2029, Mary Wesley. To the Cemetery Commission, there's a second seat, expiring June 30th of 2029, Miles McCollum. For the Conservation Board, term expiring June 30th, 2030, Lee Toomey. And I apologize if I'm pronouncing anyone's name incorrectly. Please forgive me. To the Design Advisory Board, term expiring June 30th, 2029, Richard Martin. To the Design Advisory Board second seat, expiring June 30th, 2029, Jay White. For the Design Advisory Board, which is an alternate seat, term expiring June 30th of 2029, we received no applicant. We also did not receive an applicant for a second alternate seat for this board, so we will repost those positions. On to the Development Review Board, with the term expiring June 30, 2029, Chase Tyler. Second seat for the Development Review Board, term expiring June 30, 2029, Sean McKenzie. Alternate position for the Development Review Board, term expiring June 30, 2029, Marina Campbell. to the Electric Light Commission, otherwise known as the Burlington Electric Department's board. Term expiring June 30th, 2029, Laura Bon. We were not able to come to consensus on a second seat for the Electric Light Commission, so we will come back to that seat for a nomination from the floor. On to the Fire Commission, term expiring June 30th, 2029, Ashley Bond. Second seat on the Fire Commission, expiring June 30th, 2029, Monica Chapman. On to the Board of Health. For the Board of Health, term expiring June 30th, 2029, Celia Bird. To the second seat of the Board of Health, expiring June 30, 2029, Jennifer Tomczak, I hope is how you say that. On to the Parks and Recreation Commission for one of the seats, expiring June 30, 2029, Katie Flanagan Mobley. The second seat for the Parks Recreation Commission, we were not able to reach consensus, so that will be heard from the floor for a nomination in a moment. On to the Planning Commission, one of the seats aspiring June 30th, 2029, Erin Malone. The second seat for the Planning Commission with the same expiration date, we were not able to receive consensus and that will go to the floor. To the Police Commission, one seat expiring June 30th, 2029, Michaela Finneran. The other seat for Police Commission expiring on the same date, there was not consensus. We will take that to the floor. On to the Public Works Commission, seat expiring June 30th, 2029, Julie Hayes. Second seat for Public Works Commission expiring the same date, Marcy Gallagher. on to the retirement board first seat expiring june 30th 2028 david mount second seat for the retirement board has a different expiration date of june 30th 2029 we were not able to receive to achieve consensus so that will go to the floor Almost there. Board of Tax Appeals. There are four positions, all expiring June 30th, 2029. First, David Marr. Second, Dorothy Como. Third, Margaret McGovern. And fourth, Sean Hurley. Onto the vehicle for higher licensing board term expiring June 30th, 2028. We had no applicant and need to repost that position. Finally, with the Board of Registration of Voters, we have two positions. The first, both expiring June 30th of 2031. first uh michelle uh uh how do you say that let the whips thank you um is on the slate and for the second position we did not receive because we did not achieve consensus so that will go to the floor that is the slate of applicants and so after there is a motion on that slate we can see if any of those nominees are wanting to address the council with mayor presiding and then we can go to further deliberations is there a motion on the slate

So moved.

Moved by Councilor Schachter. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Councilor Grant. Thank you very much. And before we go to deliberations by council, is anyone on that long slate who would like to come up and address the council? We'll just take one by one. Miles, welcome. Come on up. And about roughly two minutes or so, just for time purposes.

You got it. Thank you so much. Hello, city councilors. My name is Miles McCallum, and I'd like to use these two minutes to present myself in person as a potential candidate, potential appointee to the Cemetery Commission. A brief background on me. I'm currently a part-time master's in history student at the University of Vermont. I'm a Ward 2 resident. I've lived in Burlington for seven years, and I've worked at restaurants downtown for four of those years. Some of you I've met at Zabian Elfstone Soup. I just arrived back in town yesterday from the Association for Gravestone Studies annual conference held in Michigan this year, where I met with cemetery stewards, scholars, and hands-on preservationists from across the country. While there, I presented as their adjet fellow on a rare model of cast iron grave marker that proliferated in northern Vermont in the 1850s. Additionally, that work is going to be published in next year's, pardon me, that work is going to be published next year in the association's peer-reviewed journal. I believe that I can bring an informed historical perspective on our city's cemeteries to the board, and in my capacity on the Cemetery Commission, I would like to jumpstart some projects on surveying and doing preservationist work, particularly in Elmwood and Greenmount cemeteries. One of the recommendations on my application that I submitted is the Vermont Old Cemetery Association, President Tom Giffen, who I plan on polling into Burlington to work on more preservation projects in our cemeteries here. Additionally, I serve on the advisory board for the Burlington History and Culture Center. Thus, I have institutional recommendations and linkages, as well as a research background that could be a valuable asset to the Cemetery Commission and with which I could wrangle up the manpower to work on some of these projects that I propose at no expense to the city. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, City Council.

Thank you very much. Are there any other nominees from the slate who would like to address the council?

Going once, twice.

OK. So with that, back to the council for any deliberations on the slate.

Councillor McKnight. Thank you, I just briefly wanted to respond to miles as comments it's hard to imagine a more qualified applicant to the cemetery Commission, I did not know that one could even be so. knowledgeable about cemeteries and and develop that level of expertise, so thank you we're lucky to have your application appreciate those remarks.

Any other comments. OK, with that, I will call the question. Again, we have a motion on the floor to approve the slate. So we will try this on voice vote, because unless it's divided, we don't have to go by roll. OK, so all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. any opposed nay motion carries unanimously and thank you i know it took a lot of work to move the slate forward so to the working committee members and to my deputy chief of staff jen maroza cars thank you very much for the heavy lift we will now move on to the second part of our journey So our journey now takes us to item 4.13. Again, for folks watching at home, other items, we're jumping to item 4.13 because the items beforehand were part of the slate and we will be jumping again when we get to the next place where we did not have agreed upon candidate for the slate and so item 4.13 is the second electric light commission uh position with term expiring june 30th of 2029 the process for this will be again taking nominations of individual individuals from the floor and then we will take all the nominations at once Then we will ask if those individuals are here to address the council. Then we will have discussion by the council on those nominations. And then I will call the question on each of the nominees until someone receives seven votes, which is the votes needed to prevail. And I will take the nominations in terms of the vote order based on how they're made from the floor tonight. any questions on the process actually one last thing as council knows well you get to vote yes only one time on a on a particular seat so keep that in mind you have the options of yes no or abstaining okay great so are there any nominations for the seat of electric light commissioner term expiring june 30th 2029. okay counselor travers nominate paul dawson Thank you, Councilor Travers. So Paul Dawson has been nominated. Are there any other nominations? Councilor Bergman.

Nominate Pike Porter.

Pike Porter has been nominated as the second nominee. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? I have to do that a second time, just so you all know. OK. So with no further nominations, are Paul or Pike here and would like to address the council? I am not seeing either one. So with that, we'll open for deliberations by the council. Would anyone like to address either nomination? I'll go with Councilor Travis first from the first nomination and then to Council Bergman.

Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. I will say that the Board and Commission nominating process is both one of my favorite parts as well as one of my least favorite parts of serving here on the City Council.

Not to interrupt, just a point of information.

Hold on, Councillor Newbeeser. Hold on. I have a point of information, so just pause one second. Councillor Travers. Councillor Newbeeser.

It just looks like one of the applicants is raising their hand online.

Yes, I was just notified of that. Thank you, Council. Councilor Travers, I'll let you finish your comment, and then we will go to one of the nominees, if that's okay with you.

Sure. The favorite part first, right, which is that it's through this board and commission nominating process that we see truly what a lean-in community Burlington is and how many folks we have in our community that are wanting to raise their hand and to invest in the betterment of our city. And that's an incredibly exciting process to go through. Least favorite aspect of this because we end up having to decide between multiple qualified applicants and someone ends up being said no to. And it's not a great feeling when you have someone who wants to raise their hand and to participate in this process. I have nominated Paul Dawson, both as a Ward 5 neighbor and constituent, as well as someone who, in reviewing his application and speaking to him prior to this, I felt was uniquely qualified for the role. Very briefly, Paul is someone who brings extensive professional experience in the field, particularly with respect to renewable energy. When I spoke to Paul after he called me up, he had just recently been on the roof of Champlain Elementary School, scoping it out for a potential solar project there. I'm not sure that that's actually happening, but not for lack of wanting on Paul's part. So it's exciting to have someone who's invested in the future, particularly the future of renewable energy here in Burlington, I think will be of great added benefit to the Electric Light Commission, and I'm very pleased to nominate him this evening. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Travers. Now going back just a little bit because we did not catch this on the first round, I believe one of the nominees is online and I'll give that nominee two minutes. I think it's Pike Porter. So if we can promote Pike and then Pike, you'll have about two minutes of which I'll time here. I will not start until we see you and can hear you.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I believe you've all received the various and lengthy emails over the years, so I'm not going to take my full two minutes, but I am offering those two minutes to answer any questions you may have. I know some of my comments can be divisive, so maybe that can be posed as a question if there's concern there. I do think Paul Dawson has a great resume, but I also think that kind of on the ground experience, weekly, monthly review of what's going on at the Burlington electric commission, as well as the joint owners committee meetings is also important. And for most of the boards, I think once there's a vote, I don't think that the city council really has a lot of knowledge about what's going on. At times, I think we've seen that some opposing ideas at the Burlington Police Commission has created, in the end, better policing. And I think, please consider that, that five commissioners all in agreement with what's currently going on at Burlington Electric Department might not be in the best interest of the Burlington community. Thank you.

Thank you, Pike. Checking one last time to make sure the other nomination nominate nominee is not OK. I'm seeing not so we will go back to council debate and I believe Council Berman you are next.

Thank you. And I would agree that Paul Dawson is very qualified. I had a chance to speak to him briefly today and I'm impressed with his qualifications, Pike has been one of those watchdogs that are particularly important for governmental bodies to have participating and actually close to the action because so much just works by inertia. Having somebody who has followed and is willing to say no, willing to say but what about this, and has demonstrated that is really, really important, I think, for these bodies. Pike has, been prescient in the way that he has been dealing with these issues, calling on us to honor our commitments and to look at new things and in new ways. And I really do think that having him on that board will be a very big advantage for the city. Um, and, um, I know, and he has acknowledged that he can, uh, rub folks the wrong way. But, you know, like, I rub folks the wrong way. Everybody at this table I've seen rubs folks the wrong way. That's okay. I see people questioning that. And, you know, that's, that's okay. That is part of the, that's part of the process. So, um... he would be a bold choice. But Pike has always impressed me with his ability to think very, very clearly outside of the box. And this is something that we continue to need, while also being practical in trying to do things that need to be done. So I hope that we might surprise folks and put them on the board. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Bergman. Any further comments in deliberations? Oh, sorry, Councillor Grant. Thank you. Thank you.

A couple of things I'd like to say about Mr. Porter. In terms of being a watchdog, Absolutely. And I think when we take a look at the recent audit, we have some things that might have been downplayed as being quote unquote basic, simple to fix, but also a concern that maybe they shouldn't have happened. They shouldn't have been things that needed to be fixed. And so that raised for me, just a lot of the issues that Mr. Porter has brought up and how some of this is coming to fruition. I hope he continues that work. I am a strong supporter and I'm still a strong supporter, but I will actually be changing my vote because I think that regretfully we don't have the support from Mr. Porter at this time. And I hope that we can work through getting there. I too recently spoke to Mr dawson and we had a very frank conversation which I greatly appreciate it because. Sometimes people aren't willing to do that and and he was so I will leave that there, thank you.

Thank you, Council grant any other comments before I call the vote on the first nomination. All right, seeing none, I hope the clerk is ready to do a few roll calls. So could you please call the roll on the nomination of Paul Dawson for the Electric Light Commission term expiring June 30th, 2029. Again, Paul Dawson was our first nomination from the floor.

Councillor Barlow.

Yes.

Councillor Bergman.

Abstain.

Councillor Broderick.

Abstain.

Councillor Carpenter.

Yes.

Councillor Grant.

Yes.

Councillor Litwin.

Yes.

Councillor McKnight.

Abstain.

Councillor Newbeeser.

Abstain.

Councillor Sanchez-Perkinson. Yes. Councillor Schachter.

Yes.

Councillor Singh.

Yes.

City Council President Travers.

Yes.

Mayor Mulvaney-Stanek?

Yes.

Nine ayes and four abstentions.

Thank you. With that, Paul Dawson received enough votes to receive the appointment to the Electric Light Commission term expiring June 30th, 2029. Thank you to Paul, thank you to Pike for applying, and everyone who applied for this particular position. I'll say that one more time at the end of this process, because I don't want to take up more time doing that every single time. So moving on to our next item for which we did not have consensus for the slate, we're going to move on to item 4.19, That is related to our Parks and Recreation Commission. It is the second seat from earlier. This is a term expiring June 30, 2029. The same process will apply here. We'll look for nominations. Then we'll give the nominee a chance to speak. And then we will go to discussion by the council. So are there any nominations for the Parks and Recreation Commission position? Councilor Newbezer, and then to Councilor Carpenter. Councilor Newbezer?

I'd move to nominate Frank Mamo.

There's a nomination for Frank Mamo. Thank you. Councillor Carpenter. I would nominate Carolyn Felix. Nomination for Carolyn Felix. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? OK, thank you. So closing nominations are do we either have Frank or Carolyn here who would like to address the Council or online? I'll wait a little bit longer just in case there's a Zoom hand that comes up.

You know Zoom hands from people?

Okay, thank you. So we will go to deliberations by council. Anyone like to speak on this matter? Councillor Grant and then Councillor Carpenter.

Thank you. I'd like to say that these are both excellent candidates. This was a little bit JoAnne Hanrahan, heart wrenching for me, but I. JoAnne Hanrahan, strongly support Mr mama I. JoAnne Hanrahan, I loved his interview I loved his energy and his passion. especially having a young family that utilizes the parks. And some of the ideas that he had, I think are really important. And just really thinking in terms of the vitality of our parks, which some people feel that we've lost. And so to have someone who I think would be a fantastic advocate for the parks would be really important. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Grant. Councilor Carpenter. Thanks. A couple of things I did want to pass on that I heard from Carolyn that her daughter is ill tonight, so she cannot join us. She did join us for a nice interview and our committee, which is unfortunate because she does bring lots of energy to the board as well. Again, this is always a tough decision, but I think Carolyn has really some unique perspectives about the Parks Department. one of which is coming from her time as the caretaker at the Ethanol homestead. She's in small. She's an active in the garden programs of the city. I think Commissioner Lantieri also pointed out some of the strong aspects that Karen would bring to the board. And I just think believe she'd be really an excellent commissioner for our city. You know she understands these are tough decisions but she's somebody who's committed to remaining active remaining active in the city.

ELLIE WILSON- Thank you Councillor Carpenter. Any other comments by the council. Councillor Bergman.

FRED PODESTA. I totally appreciate the work that the committee has done and the time that people have spent. I just want to point out on Mr. Momo's that Mamos. that he has a leadership experience dealing with capital planning and budget constraints and policy priorities as well as having direct connections with our um with our park system including the community gardens and down in tommy thompson where i've been for like 40 years so This is a time when we could really use to have somebody with that experience as we're going through the continued review of our budget. So that's an additional point in his favor that I thought should come out in this debate. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Bergman. Councillor Schachter.

Thank you, I just wanted to briefly chime in here and say that. First, just a kind of universal thank you to everyone who steps forward to serve who takes the time to apply it's a big deal, and I want to say for this. Commission in particular, but again this applies to multiple positions that are open this evening it's hard when we have as counselor travers said President Trevor said. many amazing candidates for one opening. And for me, this is a real, this is happening in this moment and it won't be the only time tonight. And I just want to say and strongly encourage that often because the spots are limited, that when folks don't get appointed, I just want to say for the record to highly encourage folks to consider applying again, that we have openings throughout the year and that every year at this time we do this process. So I just sort of want to say for the record, thank you. and that I think we've got some amazing candidates this year to work with. So thanks.

Thank you, Councillor Schachter. Any other comments? Seeing none, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll on our first nomination, which is for Frank Mamo for the Parks and Recreation Commission seat term expiring June 30th, 2029.

Councillor Barlow.

Abstain.

Councillor Bergman.

Yes.

Councilor Broderick?

Yes.

Councilor Carpenter?

Abstain.

Councilor Grant?

Yes.

Councilor Litwin?

Yes.

Councilor McKnight? Yes. Councilor Newbezer?

Yes.

Councilor Sanchez-Parkinson? Yes. Councilor Schachter?

Abstain.

Councillor Singh.

Abstain.

City Council President Travers.

Abstain.

Mayor Mulvaney-Stanek.

Yes.

Eight ayes and five abstentions.

Thank you. With eight votes, Frank Mamo receives enough votes for receiving the appointment to the Parks and Recreation Commission. Thank you both to Frank and Carolyn for applying. And we will move on now to our next opening, which is now on to item 4.21. related to our Planning Commission. This is also a second seat that we were not able to receive consensus on. This is a Planning Commission seat that is a term expiring on June 30th of 2029. And with that, are there any nominations for the Planning Commission position? Councillor Travers.

Nominate Andy Montrell.

Nomination of Andy Montrell. Are there any other nominations? Councillor Santos-Parkinson.

I nominate Henry Severance.

Thank you. A nomination for Henry Severance. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? OK. Are either Andy or Henry here to speak to the council? Not online. OK. Then we will go right to deliberations by the council. Would anyone like to speak to either nomination? Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson.

um first of all i just wanted to say thank you to everyone who applied it has been a privilege to be able to be part of this selection process i'd like to nominate henry for the planning commission he has applied now for the second time and that demonstrates both persistence and genuine commitment to serving for our city in this capacity he brings relevant experience and real estate along with clear commitment to affordable housing which I believe are two areas that are deeply connected to the future of our planning in Burlington. While I will not be voting for Andy Montrell today, I want to acknowledge Andy's service. He has been a steady and important presence on the Planning Commission, and I'm grateful for the role that he has played in serving to guide this work. As part of considering appointments, specifically incumbents, I really try to weigh both the contributes the contributions of those who are currently serving, but also the perspectives and experiences that new applicants may bring. So in this case, this was one of those struggles. I believe that Henry offers a strong combination of the practical knowledge and the values driven commitment that would be valuable for this commission. For those reasons, I would like to nominate Henry for the Planning Commission. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor.

Are there further comments or discussion on the two nominations? Councillor Travers.

Thank you, Mayor. Let me first begin by acknowledging the other nominee here, and I completely agree with most of what Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson just said there. Henry was someone who proactively reached out to me, is also a Ward 5 constituent, I think brings a lot of new energy and ideas as well as professional experience to the table. And I do sincerely hope that although I'll be supporting Andy here, that Henry is someone who stays if he is not appointed this evening, engaged in the process and may consider an application in the future. enough cannot be said, though, about Andy Montreal as we look across the city perhaps there's there's no one who has dedicated as much of their life to the public service of the city, whether it be here on on the Council. For many years, as well as through his work for many years on the planning Commission. Um, when I was chair of the ordinance committee going through the slog that councilor Bergman and the ordinance committee members are now in many joint meetings with the planning commission, uh, we worked in, in collaboration together on really exciting initiatives with the prior administration on the south end innovation district, as well as on the neighborhood code. Um, it was with, uh, Andy's, uh, steady leadership as the chair of the planning commission and his, uh, interest keen interest in, in collaborating with us on the council that we were able to get those. Really generational achievements across the finish line he's he's been a steady hand in the chair role there for the planning Commission and given his service to the city, I cannot really see any reason why he should not be reappointed again, though I do hope that if he is appointed in Henry is not that Henry does stay engaged in the process. And I want to thank Andy as Councilor Sanchez-Parkinson did for his many, many years of service here and hope that they continue in this role. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor. Any other comments? Councilor Bergman.

Well, I've known Andy and worked with Andy for a really long time, and I think he does really important work. One of the things that this choice actually gives us is an opportunity to utilize the um the skills of both candidates nominees in service of the greater good of the city because andy is our regional planning commission representative and he is not being taken off of that and he has the opportunity to continue to work for us and with us in a capacity that is absolutely essential for all of the good planning work that we do. So this is actually an opportunity for us to have an add-on to the work of the city. given these choices and very rarely do you get to say yes and or whatever that phrase is. And so this is one of those times. It's a reason that I feel comfortable about supporting Henry. in this because I know that I won't be losing Andy in this exact role related to planning. So it's just a consideration that I hope that people will think about. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor. Any other comments? Seeing none, we'll take the first nomination and the clerk will call the roll on Andy Montrell.

Councillor Barlow.

Yes.

Councillor Bergman.

Abstain.

Councillor Broderick.

Abstain.

Councillor Carpenter.

Yes.

Councillor Grant.

Abstain.

Councillor Litwin.

Yes.

Councillor McKnight. Yes. Councillor Newbeezer.

Abstain.

Councillor Sanchez. Perkinson.

Abstain.

Councilor Schachter?

Yes.

Councilor Singh?

Yes.

City Council President Travers?

Yes.

Mayor Mulvaney-Stanek?

Abstain.

Seven ayes and four noes. Six abstentions.

Thank you. And with that, Andy Montreal received enough votes for the appointment to the Planning Commission term expiring June 30th of 2029. Again, thank you to Andy and Henry for being nominated, being willing to be nominated for this position. Moving forward on to item 4.23, which is the second seat to the Police Commission, term expiring June 30th, 2029. With this position, again, we're looking for nominations from the floor. Are there any nominations? Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson.

Are there any nominations?

I'm sorry. I'm nominating Erin Jacobson. Thank you. The nomination of Erin Jacobson. Are there any other nominations?

I'd like to nominate Romeo Von Herman.

Nomination of Romeo Von Herman. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? Seeing none, we'll close nominations and see if anyone either, sorry, anyone. If Aaron or Romeo are here and like to address the council, you would have two minutes to come on up to the table. Romeo, do you want to come to the table?

Thank you, everyone. I'll try to keep you short. For me, being a member of the police commission is not just serving public service, is a story of going back to when I was five years old. It's a story of growing up not seeing what public safety looks like until I was at the age of 22, if not 23. And for me, five-year-old, growing up in a Civil War zone, not having any police officers, not having any sort of public service, At the age of five, growing up in an orphanage, always was important to me what it's like to live in a public safety, in a place that is safe, in a place where the very folks that provide you safety do have the resources they need in order to provide you those services. For me, joining the police commission means bringing a fresh eye, fresh perspective, independent mind, a mind that is not tribalism, in part because I grew up in a place where tribalism existed, in a place where who you know was far more important to what you can bring to the table as an individual. I'm looking at five-year-old me growing up in Somalia, here today in 2026, pursuing what I've always wanted to do in being impartial, being celebrating what it's like to live in a public safety, in a place where you're celebrated for who you are and not where you come from only. So for me as an individual, I know serving in the police commission carry a lot of weight. I am very, very mindful of that. And through my work at Greenmount Transit, downtown core area, working closely with schools, The police department with social services gave me an open, fresh eye of what it's like to collaborate when it comes to the betterment of our city. And so for me, looking at this commission means to me that I care about public safety. And I put my name three times, and I'm hoping to make sure that my public service speaks for itself. Thank you.

Thank you, Romeo. Thank you. I don't believe Aaron Jacobson is online and not hear our presence. So with that, we will go to deliberations by the council. Would anyone like to make comment on the two nominations? Councillor Sanchez Parkinson.

Thank you. And thank you, Romeo, for coming. It's been great getting to know you through this process. For many years, I've worked to name and to understand the connections between policing black bodies and immigration enforcement because these histories are very much intertwined. In here in Burlington, those concerns have become even more urgent. We've recently seen the Burlington Police Department report that highlights the increased use of force against members of the black community, and we have also seen the fear, the harm, and uncertainty experienced by the immigrant communities and those who support them. The aftermath of March 11th and the ongoing concerns around immigration enforcement have made it clear that for public safety, we cannot understand it through a narrow lens. It must include racial justice, immigration justice, and accountability. That is why I'm nominating Erin Jacobson for this important role. As an immigration attorney, Erin has demonstrated the deep commitment to our city, to our residents, and to our immigrant community. She brings the legal expertise, the community engagement, and a grounded understanding of how policing and immigration enforcement intersect in people's lives. Her perspective and expertise would help ensure that police commission is not treating these issues as separate or isolated, but as connected questions. She brings the kind of expertise and perspective that I believe is urgently needed today. I understand that some council members have raised concern about Erin's prior service to the city as a chief of staff and her current employer with the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project. I want to be clear that these were not disqualifying factors in the selection committee's review. A person's current or former employer should not, on its own, determine whether they are able to serve in this community. If there's ever a specific conflict of interest related to a particular matter before the police commission, there are appropriate ways to address that, including disclosure if necessary. But that is very different from creating a broad barrier to service based solely on someone's employment or prior public service. I want to thank all of the applicants for their willingness to serve and for their commitment to Burlington. And today I'm moving forward in nominating Aaron Jacobson. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Sanchez Parkinson. Other comments by Council on the nominees? Councillor Lewin.

Thank you very much, Mayor. I thought Romeo's remarks did a much better job than I will do tonight of explaining one of the many reasons I think that he should be appointed to this seat on the police commission, including the fact that we just talked about the importance of folks who have applied multiple times. Again, Romeo has applied every year since I have been on the council, so three times. It's my privilege to nominate him. He's done amazing work when he was at the Burlington bus depot downtown and I think, quite frankly, it was never safer than when he was down there every day handling that he's now at the airport helping many folks on their journey. He also has been a consistent positive force on the marketplace Commission and intimately understands both our public safety issues and our downtown and, of course, is a long time very long time Burlington resident. He seems to fundamentally understand that public safety requires a balance of professional accountability for our officers and robust community support systems and a commission that operates without predetermined conclusions. I appreciated his comments about his growing up and the lens through which he sees public safety and particularly around what he called tribalism And in our context, it may be called politicization. And so I have every assurance that he will take this role very seriously, that he would provide a fair and balanced and impartial perspective. And additionally, I believe he brings much needed diverse voice to this board. that is in desperate need of more diverse voices at the table. So I think he's done an amazing job on behalf of our community. He continues to show up to city council meetings regularly and offers very thoughtful comments. And I have appreciated the independent nature of those comments. So I will leave my comments about Romeo there and hope that folks will join me in supporting him.

Thank you. Are there any other comments on the two nominations? Councilor Bergman.

Thank you. Thank you, Romeo. I really appreciate your persistence in being present throughout these years that I've seen you do that. It's really, really important. And the story that you told is is real and is heartfelt and is meaningful um i'm supporting erin because she provides us at this point in time with exactly the type of working experience with all the public safety issues that we've got she's you look at her resume and then you go okay We had this conversation about the Independent Police Board, which is sitting on the wall down in Montpelier. And we had a big conversation about our commission's ability to do the work of evaluating excessive force cases, for example. She brings the actual experience that will allow that board to engage in that activity. We had a mess on March 11th. And she brings the type of review and experience to not only be looking at the fair and impartial policing policy, but the excessive force policy, all of the other things that we are grappling with now. And we need a commission that is going to have somebody with that level of expertise It's expertise which is not just schooled, but is practiced over a long period of time, a long period of time. And her connection to communities that are affected by our policing is deep and continuing. That's why Jill Martin Diaz is one of her references. That's why the Director of the Civil Rights Division at the Attorney General's Office is one of her references. This is an opportunity that we should not pass up in appointing her. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor. Any other comments? Councillor Schachter. Oh, I'm sorry. You know what? Council Grant's hand was up first. I'm so sorry, Council Grant. Council Grant and then Councilor Schachter.

Thank you. I have a few things to say. First, I want to agree very strongly with the comments regarding Erin Jacobson. I think that we are incredibly lucky that she stepped forward to consider joining this commission, especially at this time in our country. She's qualified in dealing with A whole multiple of issues around Community safety, but in addition to that, in her work as immigration attorney has worked directly with migrants and new Americans in our Community, as well as the various organizations that work with them and that kind of. connection is really important at this time. We are going to continue to be talking about March 11th for some time. We are going to have to have a way to involve our police department in those conversations because the reporting that came out from that department showed that from the officer's own reports, they weren't fully, not even fully, they weren't thinking about FIP. And that is something that is really crucial. We have, our community trust right now is back to 2020 levels. people are reliving trauma, there's new trauma, and we have to make sure that we're addressing this. I do appreciate the fact that Mr. Von Herman has repeatedly applied to a position. But just because someone is repeatedly applied to a particular position doesn't mean that they would be the best choice. I wish that he was in the running for the Marketplace Commission. I would have been so happy to have voted to have him continue serving on that commission. I was very concerned about some comments that Mr. Von Herman said back in May when Lieutenant Governor Rogers was in Burlington. And I'm not sure Mr. Von Herman, despite his life experience, which I totally respect, When he became a citizen, things were very different. What is happening now is that paths to citizenships have been dismantled. So it is not safe to say that when someone turns 18, they can easily navigate a path towards citizenship. That does not exist in our country right now. all local law enforcement agencies talked about what ICE did. They were disappointed in ICE. We've all heard how our own agencies do not trust ICE, quite frankly. So I felt that the statements really didn't fully understand how our new American community is actively being threatened. You can be through it at many stages in a path to citizenship and that's being undermined. Judges, immigration judges are being fired because they refuse to just dismiss a case. If a case is dismissed, someone can be taken immediately. But if someone is going to court, working through the process, yet ICE can come and pick them up in court, that's not right. And we need someone who understands that and can work with our police department to get to a better case with regards to fairness and impartial policing. I feel like a vote from Mr. Von Herman honestly might be a betrayal to our new American community because we do need someone who even though they had a positive experience, and again, I respect the experience that he had, it is just not what is happening now. And we have to acknowledge that and we have to do our best to protect our residents. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Grant.

Councillor Schachter. Thank you. I just wanted to say this is another vote in which I feel like we've got two candidates, both with very important experiences and and professional backgrounds to help guide our city forward in this critical moment um and i'm really grateful uh romeo for the many you know the years of service you've given to our city in so many ways um and your sincere interests we had a really i really appreciate the outreach that we had and the conversation we had about um your interest in serving our city in this way and i'm glad to be supporting your appointment this evening knowing that I know you have a real sincere commitment to this work and to doing this right and to listening and that you bring a tremendous amount of experience to this work. And I also just want to say I have very, very deep respect and I want to say it on the record for Erin Jacobson and all the ways that she has served the city and serves our community. And that this is another instance in which I just want to publicly say for the record that I don't want the conversation to end tonight, regardless of the outcome of the vote. And that I think if anyone has access to being a part of ongoing conversations around things like FIP and use of force and a lot of the issues that we're continuing to reckon with post March 11th, that my hope is that we can lean on Erin and her expertise and her organization's expertise regardless of whether or not she's sitting on the commission. I don't see this as the only path to leaning on that expertise and experience. And we all know how to reach her. And she has shown up to city meetings recently in really important ways on this topic. So I don't want any of that to end. So I just wanted to make sure to state my deep respect for both candidates on the record. And again, I don't want this to be the end of the conversation for either. Thank you.

Thank you. Any final comments before we call the roll. Councillor Travers.

Thank you Mayor. First of all I want to take an opportunity I was surprised by something that we just heard a moment ago and want to take an opportunity to just from my perspective flatly reject any contention that supporting Romeo's appointment here given him his background and experience is somehow a betrayal of our new American community. And I am proud to support Romeo's nomination this evening. What I wanted to say was with respect to Erin Jacobson. I think Erin is immensely qualified for this role, would be immensely qualified really for any board or commission appointment. When Erin was your Chief of Staff Mayor, she and I had a very good working relationship. And as I continue to see her throughout the community doing good work in her current role, I am very glad that she is in that position and we continue to have a good relationship. My concern is just the limited amount of time that has gone by since she left the mayor's office and is now seeking an appointment to the police commission. This council, well more than a decade ago, enacted a resolution that for city councillors requires a one year cooling off period once they leave the city council. before they can apply for a board or commission. This is why last year as we were looking through the police commission and I was having discussions with the individual who served in the council presidency role before me as to whether or not they should apply for the police commission at that point in time, the answer was no because less than a year had gone by and it's why we waited until we did to appoint that individual to the police commission While the council resolution passed more than a decade ago does not extend to other municipal officers I think that the principle behind it extends the same way. And I'm concerned that as qualified an applicant as Aaron is that we're setting the wrong precedent for future city officers for the same reasons. And I actually think the council should consider revisiting that resolution back in 2013 and consider extending it to other municipal officers, including members of the mayor's office as well as department heads. And so that will be the reason why I will be supporting Romeo's application this evening.

Thank you, Councilor Travers. Before we go to Councilor Newbeezer, I am going to ask the city attorney to just provide a little bit of comment. This question came up earlier around our charter and the questions of rules and unwritten rules or formal rules related to individuals seeking boards and commissions nominations. And so I've asked the city attorney just to look at our actual charter for guidance on this matter because charter trumps resolution. It trumps other matters because it is our city charter. So city attorney Brown, can you just comment briefly on this matter?

Certainly. question was posed to me whether there was any language in charter with regard to a prohibition or a time frame in which before former city employees could be appointed to a city board or commission. And section 131 of the charter speaks specifically to dual positions being prohibited in certain circumstances for active city councilors or active city employees. It doesn't include any language, again, establishing any sort of time frame prohibiting former city employee from being appointed to a board or commission and and that is consistent certainly with what City Council President Travers has presented or has stated tonight and further and further consistent with the council president's comments obviously the any counselor can choose to abstain or vote no on an appointment including for the reason that they feel that not enough time has transpired between someone's employment with the city and their application to be appointed to a commission or board thank you thank you councillor new beezer did i see your hand earlier you have the floor

Um, thank you mayor and I will be voting for Aaron Jacobson for this position. I think she's immensely qualified given her resume and particularly we've had a lot of conversations around what happened on March 11th. It's been 1 of the. I think biggest topics of conversations when I speak to residents and when I speak to folks. Um, that all concerned with city issues and particularly public safety. I think we couldn't ask for a more qualified candidate in this moment than Aaron. No, just to be direct about it. I think it is kind of a strange objection. That she's a former city employee. We have a lot of different folks who have served in various positions, including a former council president who very recently served in this body. Who we appointed very recently. I didn't see an issue with that then, and I'm glad that that person stepped up from Mercedes counselor, Karen Paul to serve. In that role, because I thought she brought a lot to the table and does bring a lot to the table. And I know that a number of different city employees. Have served in roles I know that elected officials have served on boards and commissions. I believe the former chair at the Democratic Party locally serves on a board of commission. So, I am a little bit surprised to hear that as a sort of formal objection to appointing. A more than qualified candidate and 1 that would be. Really lucky to have, particularly on a commission that not only is the subject matter expertise there professionally, but at a commission that. Has really struggled if we're honest in the last year or 2 to function to the point where. really important priorities for our city regardless of one's political leanings have struggled to get through so I think this is a really important vote and and I hope that um my colleagues will will consider supporting Aaron thank you thank you counselor any further comments counselor sing I'm going to do first round just to make it very clear because we have more to go y'all so counselor sing

Thank you very much, Mayor. Thank you to all the applicants. And I also want to echo Council President Travers comments. You know, I had the we've all had the pleasure to work with Aaron Jacobson when she was chief of staff here at the administration. She was very professional. I really appreciated her being so welcoming when I joined the council and helping me learn a lot of the ropes, but I do agree. Yes, there's nothing formal out there, but you know, in a world where, you know, conventions dictated a lot of things in our political discourse. And then we begin to throw those conventions out the window because we're looking for hard and fast rules. I just think it would be more prudent for, as Councilor Travers put it, you know, having a cooling off period before serving on commission. Um, so in that respect, I will be, uh, supporting Romeo. I've had the pleasure to, um, work with him on many occasions and sit with him and talk, um, many times. And, and I know he's very thoughtful and he brings a perspective, um, that I really think can benefit this city. So I appreciate everybody, um, that applied and both these candidates are very excellent, but you know, I will be supporting Romeo. Thank you.

Thank you, counselor. Any other comments? OK, with that, I will ask the clerk to call the role in the first nomination of Aaron Jacobson for the Police Commission position term expiring June 30th, 2029.

Counselor Barlow.

Abstain.

Counselor Bergman. Yes. Counselor Broderick.

Yes.

Counselor Carpenter.

Abstain.

Councillor Grant.

Yes.

Councillor Litwin.

No.

Councillor McKnight.

No.

Councillor Newbeeser.

Yes.

Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson.

Yes.

Councillor Schachter.

Abstain.

Councillor Singh.

Abstain.

City Council President Travers.

Abstain.

Mayor Mulvaney-Stenik.

Yes.

Six ayes, two nays. And five abstentions.

Thank you. And with only six votes in the affirmative, that is not enough to receive the nomination or the appointment to the position. So we'll move to the second nomination of Romeo Van Herman, and the clerk will call the roll.

Councillor Barlow.

Yes.

Councillor Bergman. Abstain. Councillor Broderick.

Abstain.

Councillor Carpenter.

Yes.

Councillor Grant?

No.

Councillor Litwin?

Yes.

Councillor McKnight? Yes. Councillor Newbeeser?

No.

Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson?

No.

Councillor Schachter?

Yes.

Councillor Singh?

Yes.

City Council President Travers?

Yes.

Mayor Mulvaney-Stanek?

No.

Seven ayes, four nays, and two abstentions.

Thank you. And with seven votes, Romeo receives enough to be appointed to the Police Commission, term expiring June 30th, 2029. Thank you to Romeo. Thank you to Erin for putting yourselves forward for a nomination. Congratulations. And we'll move on to item 4.27. We have two more to go on this particular agenda item. 4.27 is the Retirement Board for the City of Burlington. We have one seat that we did not receive consensus on for the slate. The term expires June 30th of 2029. Are there any nominations? Councillor Singh.

I'd like to nominate Alan Mattson.

Nomination for Alan Mattson. Are there any other nominations? Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson.

We nominate Deirdre Keenan.

Nomination for Deirdre Keenan. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? Seeing none, I'll close nominations and we'll go to deliberations on these two nominees. Would anyone like the floor? Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson.

As we have seen already play out on the floor and the selection committee knows very well that throughout our discussions, I have really wrestled with how to honor experience and expertise while also taking very seriously the need for broader representation across our boards and commissions. As a side note, this continues to be a reminder of why we need to revisit our processes, our evaluation, and our selection process so that we can very clearly be able to process and select individuals. Today I'm nominating Deidre Keenan to serve on the Retirement Board because she brings the professional expertise, interest, and commitment needed for this role. The Retirement Board is responsible for decisions that affect the long-term financial security of our city employees and retirees. As part of this discussion we have also looked at the historical lack of women's perspective on this board. At a time when women make up roughly half of those entering retirement it is significant that women's voices experiences and expertise are not currently represented in the board's decision making process. That absence matters not because any one person can speak for an entire group, but because the composition of a board shapes the questions that are asked the experiences that are understood and that trust that people have in those decision making processes. After much reflection and with legal advice and guidance that I have received, the council does have the ability to consider the full qualifications of each applicant, including the perspectives and experiences they would bring to the board. In this case, Deidre offers both the relevant professional expertise and an important perspective that is currently missing from the retirement board. This is really an opportunity to strengthen the board, to improve representation, and to better align our appointments with what our community and our workforce needs right now. I hope you will join me in supporting Deidre tonight.

Thank you, Counselor. Further comments? Counselor Singh.

thank you mayor i want to express my support for alan mattson he's been a neighbor for many years i'm sure a lot of people in the public have seen him on election day working at the ward 6 polling places he's been on the ward 6 mpa he served on the school board hunting edmunds element or middle school students will know him because he runs the math counts program You know, I've known Alan for all these years and his professional experience, and I've always thought to myself, how can we use his vast experience to benefit this city? And when this board position came open, I reached out to him right away. You know, as somebody who does also have an MBA in finance and has gone through the Chartered Financial Analyst Program, which is the gold standard in personal and institutional finance, I would stress to the public the difference between institutional and personal finance is vast. The managing of short-term, medium-term, and long-term liabilities of our pension fund requires somebody with vast experience in these areas. Allens has balanced these in the past with other pensions across the country. someone with his qualifications would be a huge benefit, not only for our city workers, retirees, but the city itself. Having this type of expertise, somebody who has been in this space of institutional finance dealing with large pension funds as a career will be a great asset to this city. He understands that the push and pull between current liabilities of current cash needs for current retirees and the pull between current workers and how that risk-reward aspects of their pension fund can affect how the manager handles the assets under management. He's had vast experience in this. He couldn't be here tonight, but I couldn't be more proud to nominate my neighbor, Alan Mattson, for the retirement board.

Thank you, counselor.

Counselor Carpenter. Thanks. This was one I struggled with a lot too. Learning how qualified Alan was, what skills he could bring to the board that are badly needed. And I think, you know, we've got a hole and we've got an opportunity to nominate somebody who's really qualified. I was bothered by the fact that there weren't enough women voices on the board. But part of that has been answered by the employees of the city, as I understand it, electing a new woman to a new position on the retirement board. will have a little bit more opportunity for women voices catherine chad our ceo also serves on the board and i do want to say directly to deirdre who i've not met personally but interviewed really well was i hope she does reapply i think she's got a lot to offer the city she's she's uh engaged and i think that will be important but as we've seen before um often people have to retire apply multiple times. So I hope she does. And I think we'll find a spot for her in the future. And we will have the opportunity to take advantage of Alan's great expertise in the more immediate future when we struggle and be reminded that the cost of the retirement debt very much affects our taxes. And so that we need someone who really understands the sort of institutional side of our retirement thing. So again, I will support Alan and I hope Deirdre will continue to be engaged. And I'm pleased to hear we've added another woman to the board.

Thank you, Councillor. Any other comments? Oh, sorry. Councillor Grant. You're all so tiny up there. I'm sorry. Councillor Grant. So

um i too many inconsistency to talk about but it's it's happening right it's happening again it's there's inconsistency there's personal relationships sometimes that um take more precedence

i'm reminded last year of how difficult the meeting was um and we had a qualified woman last year excuse me uh sorry counselor grant i'm sorry what come spring night well i'm sorry i didn't hear you i just these comments are do you have a point of order i didn't hear you i'm sorry yes thank you it's a point of order yes counselor mcknight thanks i'm recognized thanks um uh

Councilor Grant's comments are repetitive and seem like they're not germane to the particular nomination at hand. We've heard this over and over again, and I would just ask the chair to make a ruling. Thank you.

Councilor McKnight, I don't see your point of order is not well taken. If we started using that rule, we would have much shorter meetings, I think, but I'm not in charge of the council meetings. So for mayor presiding, I do not find your point of order well taken. Councilor Grant, you have the floor again.

Thank you, yes, I do repeat some things, because the same problems continue to come up and I believe they need to be documented in the meetings I. You know, last year we had a huge argument of trying to get more representation on this particular board and we ended up putting on someone who had to resign. In shame. Right for inappropriate behavior, so I do think we need to if we're going to say that representation is really good in one area, because we don't have a person that needs to search certain description which we're supposed to stay away from right. But we don't and that's a problem that I think needs to be called out, and I just feel that um. We want our cake and eat it too. We are not being consistent with regards to the process. And I hope some of you will go back and listen to some of your comments because you're not being consistent. And it's troubling. It's troubling to me. And I have a right to say that. I have a right to say that. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor.

Any other comments? Councillor Sanchez Parkinson.

I just wanted to confirm regarding Councillor Carpenter, you made a comment related to other women who are do sit on that board. I just wanted to have confirmation that my understanding is that if you're not a member of the board, you don't have the right to vote, and so there are women who are sitting in the room to provide advice and guidance and information and administrative support, but they are not deciding members.

I'm going to take that as a point of information, Councilor Sanchez-Parkinson, and I'm going to ask the city attorney to just remind me of the role of the CAO, but I will also let the, unless I missed an email, there is an election underway for one of the employee seats on the board structure. That election is not completed yet, so we don't actually have that role filled yet. I'm not sure of the candidates for that role, but just for clarification on that seat. Do you know if the CAO is a voting member of the retirement board?

I do not and I also don't know the outcome of the election yet.

Thank you. We apologize for not having that handy but hopefully we can continue debate and then and then move to the role. OK. Any other comments before I call the question on the nominations. Councillor Litwin.

Thank you. And after a lot of consideration in looking at the applicants backgrounds and applications I'm happy to be supporting uh, the candidate nominated by, um, counselor Singh tonight. And again, for me, this comes down to the importance of qualifications, particularly on a board, um, like the board of retirement, where, um, the very interests of all of our city employees and those that have retired, um, are decided on, on a regular basis. And that is where we need someone with decades of expertise, and high levels, some of the highest levels of certifications so that we can ensure the most robust retirement accounts that we can and that folks are making the best decisions with the most information. Respectfully, the individual that has been nominated, I believe her name is Deirdre, did not have those same levels of qualifications, including their educational background is in speech pathology. And so this is a relatively recent professional change for that individual. And while I am happy to support that individual in the future, should they have the qualifications and certifications that are necessary or that I deem necessary, I don't believe that individual is there right now. So I will be supporting based on the highest level of qualifications I think we could really ask for. Thank you.

Are there further comments before I call the question? Seeing none, I will call the roll on the first nomination, which is Alan Mattson.

Councillor Barlow.

Yes.

Councillor Bergman.

Abstain.

Councillor Broderick.

Abstain.

Councilor Carpenter?

Yes.

Councilor Grant?

Abstain.

Councilor Litwin?

Yes.

Councilor McKnight?

Yes.

Councilor Newbeezer?

Abstain.

Councilor Sanchez-Parkinson?

Abstain.

Councilor Schachter?

Yes.

Councillor Singh?

Yes.

City Council President Travers?

Yes.

Mayor Mulvaney-Stanek?

Abstain.

Seven ayes, six abstentions.

Thank you. And with seven votes, that is enough to receive the appointment to the Retirement Board term expiring June 30th, 2029. So we will not consider further nominees. With that, we're moving on to our last item. And thank you. Sorry. Thank you to Alan. Thank you to Deirdre. Thank you to anyone else I have forgotten as we've been going through this long process. On to our last item for which we did not have a consensus on the slate. Item 4.33, which is the second seat for the board for registration of voters, term expiring June 30th, 2031. And I will ask if there's any nominations. Councillor Travers.

Nominate Miriam Stoll.

Nomination for Miriam Stoll. Are there any other nominations?

I'd like to nominate Jeff Comstock.

Nomination for Jeff Comstock. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? Seeing none, are Miriam or Jeff here or online and would like to address the council? And I'm realizing I didn't offer that too.

Miriam's online. OK. Miriam is online.

Miriam, if you would like to address the council, can you please raise your Zoom hand? Thank you, Miriam. Welcome. We'll give you the floor. I have about two minutes for you.

Great. I think you've heard from me several times, but I just wanted to add to my prior comments from tonight. I think the role of this board is not a role that should be looked at through the lens of politics. It should not be looked at through the lens of party affiliation. It needs to be looked at in terms of how can we as a city ensure that all our residents are voting. And right now we know the residents that aren't voting. And what has been done so far has not increased that. So we still have many individuals with disabilities who are not voting. We have many young people who are not voting, which is really difficult to swallow. I am a psychologist. I've worked in a district here for the past 25 years, and I have observed systematically young people, and I'm talking people in high school, so about to be voting, when you should start feeling that excitement about your first vote, becoming less and less confident about the fact that anyone listens to their voice at all. And I've noticed that at this point, because of the uncertainty of what's going on, because of the pressure that we see from really strong, powerful people trying to take away people's votes, that many people who would vote might have voted before are now stepping back and those would be particularly the young people so i know that what i'm saying is not really traditionally what people say when they want to be on this particular board and i know very well how important the work is in terms of when someone comes to a polling place, making them feel comfortable figuring out what the problem is. Some of you heard a personal story that I talked about about my daughter who actually had some difficulties being able to vote the first time. And this has stayed with her some concern about whether each time she goes to the poll, she will be faced with these difficulties. So I'm not demeaning that work. That is critical work, and we need to do that. But until we have every person in Burlington voting, we are not getting the representation of all our people. And now more than ever, it's time to do that. So I've got a lot of energy. I really care about this issue. And I would love, even though perhaps I'm a somewhat atypical candidate for this commission, to be able to bring my voice to the commission. Thank you for listening to me yet again.

Thank you, Miriam. I appreciate it. And is Jeff online? Do we see it all? Okay. So with that, we will go to deliberations, comments from councillors on the two nominations. Councillor Travers and then Councillor Broderick.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. As Miriam mentioned at the top of the meeting, she previously served Ward 5 as our uh representative on the school board and that's where i first got to understand miriam's steadfast leadership for our community as a constituent of hers there in ward 5 and trust that she'll serve the board of registration of voters with the same steadfast commitment that we saw on the school board where she worked through a number of difficult issues in her service i should also mention that the board of registration of voters whereas your Board of residents I don't think necessarily should be a necessary qualification for all boards and commissions, I do think that on this particular board it's important there, there are no representatives on it at the moment from Ward five and I think that it's incredibly important that we get Miriam on there for the purposes of that that representation from our Ward. My hope. and belief is that Miriam has a sufficient number of votes on this council for us to move forward. I understand some of the concerns that have been raised earlier during public forum regarding the other applicant. My hope and desire would be that if we know that one of the nominees here has more votes than the other, that we can move forward to a vote and get her on the board. So thank you, Miriam.

Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Brodwick and then to Councillor Barlow.

Thank you. And thank you. I agree with a lot of what Council President Travers said about Miriam. I really appreciated what she had to say about outreach, especially to younger people. So I will be supporting Miriam tonight and I strongly urge my colleagues to not support the other applicant, Mr. Comstock. And now I will read in full a paragraph from the public comments section of the September 3rd, 2024 Board of Registration of Voters' Minutes. I will read it in full so as to make sure I'm not misconstruing anything based on what I'm reading. Jeff Comstock, Ward 7 clerk, quote, by the way, Jeff Comstock, Ward 7 clerk, shared that he was the concerned resident Karen Rowell mentioned at the last meeting. He is interested in learning what steps are being taken by the board to ensure someone is a citizen when they are registering to vote on the regular citizen checklist. Jeff Comstock shared that he feels one of our largest election vulnerabilities is not the voter ID issue, but his access to the checklist. His concern specifically comes from processing mail-in ballots. When doing this, he has processed batches of voted ballots from what appears to be a family unit. In these situations, he has noticed that the certificate envelopes appear to be filled out by the same person but with different signatures. His concern is about whether they are all citizens and about ballot harvesting from families or neighbors. Annie Schneider asked, what makes him think these ballots are being cast by non-citizens? Jeff answered that, based on the names, they seem to be new Americans, and he is questioning whether they have all obtained citizenship. Will Cunningham said that he thinks there are two issues Jeff Comstock is discussing and that the idea of ballot harvesting doesn't seem to need to be limited to new Americans and a voter's citizenship status. Jeff Comstock said that for the purposes of this conversation, he is only interested in information about citizen verification, not the larger discussion of the mail and ballot ID verification." Unquote. I find the comments that were made in that meeting based on my conversations with other members of that board at that time to be very disturbing. The Board of Registration of Voters' job is very clear. It is to safeguard who is and is not allowed to vote in the city of Burlington. And that job extends both to their regular meetings as well as on election day at the poll site where when there is a discrepancy or any sort of question on somebody's status to vote, it is the job of the two representatives of the board to make the proper verifications and make the proper adjudication at the poll site as to whether somebody can or cannot vote. And I find the comments made regarding providing extra scrutiny to names that seem to be new American to be deeply disturbing. I don't think our city should have someone with that belief. Sitting on that board and being able to exercise that capacity. To be clear this because there has been discussion about this in the past. This has nothing to do with political party. This is simply has to do with the the evidence that is in front of me, and so that's why I'm making my decision. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. Counselor Barlow.

Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I want to thank all the applicants to this board tonight, including Miriam, who I actually served with on the school board and agree with a lot of the comments that Councilor Travers made about her service. But tonight, the board of registration of voters is unlike other appointments we have this evening. It's the only board where political affiliation actually matters and must be disclosed on the application. We have a city charter with language that seeks to achieve a balance of political parties on this board and that charter of language is arguably a need of review, but it's what we have to work with today. Jeff as a Republican would help us achieve that balance and I think he's addressed in multiple times. Some of the accusations and concerns that have been that have been made about him. Um, more importantly, though, than just political party, he is immensely experienced and qualified as having served in Ward seven, um, as an inspector of elections and a war seven clerk. And so for those reasons, I'm nominating and supporting Jeff tonight.

Thank you, counselor. Counselor do these are.

Um, thank you mayor. I am going to be supporting Miriam and I just wanted to say, I really appreciated her comments. Um, I thought she was spot on and I've talked a lot about over my time on the council. Every time we talk about the board of order, the importance of it, uh, being a non political body that focuses on making sure that as many people as possible who are eligible, though, cast a ballot. That includes our new American neighbors that includes young folks, college students, everybody who makes up our community. I don't take pleasure in having to say this, but I think it's really important to say, because this is our democracy and our elections and. They have been called into question generally, I think, in this moment in time, more broadly that we're living through. And so we need to be really thoughtful about when we put up folks to serve on the board of voter edge who we're putting up. 1, I would just say that no matter who's put on this board, including Mr. Comstock. The partisan affiliation is required by charter will have met and satisfied and so that isn't a concern. I have real concerns with a colleague supporting Jeff Constock for this position. And I, again, don't revel in saying that or litigating folks past comments, but it is a reality that this is an individual who showed up to a border voter reg form, a border voter reg meeting. And that both, you know, we heard from somebody publicly today, but a number of different folks on that board have expressed privately real deep concerns about this person serving in this role. But didn't necessarily feel comfortable voicing those publicly at this meeting. This is someone who showed up. And specifically, I mean, we just heard the quote from a colleague. Said that he questioned the eligibility of voters based on if their names sounded like they were new Americans. To me, that is like, beyond the pale for. You know, just basic decency, but particularly if we're talking about the board that is entrusted with. Safeguarding our elections is a huge substantive issue. Um, that is, it goes to the core of serving in that role and has nothing to do with political party. Um. The 2nd piece I do just want to highlight is. Again, this isn't an accusation, this is just kind of a fact. That this is an individual at the center of a council resolution regarding the in which everyone on the 4, 7, literally every member resigned because of this individual's conduct. Because folks were so uncomfortable and it produced an environment of such conflict. Now, without getting into the details of that, this Council then passed a resolution as a body, as a sort of response to that, talking about the need to understand, you know, protected classes and how we treat each other with respect as we're going about participating in civic life in our community. so i'm really concerned about that if someone again if someone shows up and and a border commission or city body of civic engagement ceases to exist as a result of their con conduct to me that is a substantive issue um that we should take really really seriously and so i i can't in good faith uh support jeff unfortunately tonight um And I'm really, really glad that I'm hoping there's consensus around Miriam because she seems really committed to making sure that college folks, new Americans, folks with disabilities, et cetera, everybody in our community has the opportunity to vote. And that takes a lot of energy and commitment. So I appreciate her stepping up. Thank you.

Thank you. Councillor Grant.

So here we are again. We are not protecting our residents. We're not. I don't know whether the thought was, oh, there's been enough time. Maybe people have forgotten. People have not forgotten. The issues with Mr. Comstock are well-documented in addition to what was discussed about a issue of ballot harvesting when asked directly, it became an issue around discrimination against immigrants and new Americans. He was not reelected as ward clerk in part because of how he treated some people. We also have documented in the form of a recording extreme, extreme transphobia. Including saying something to the effect, and I did not have time to go back and listen to it again, but something to the effect that a trans person's rights end in front of his face or in front of his nose, like literally saying that to an individual. So it is not an issue of having to fill the spot of a Republican. That should not be First and foremost, right? We're not going to be violating the maximum number for a party because there are progressives, there are independents, and there are Democrats, and neither one of those parties has gone over the number. We have to concentrate first and foremost of knowing that people are qualified, of knowing that people do not have prejudice in their hearts, that they will be willing and able to work with all eligible residents who can vote and protect their rights. This is not an individual's willing to do that. The entire 47, almost the entire 47 steering committee had to resign after that incident. Because most of them were complicit in the behavior. It changed the four seven MPA it became more welcoming even former counselor Ali dang said that his MPA wasn't welcoming for him. In that changed. And to just disregard that it's not irresponsible. It's other things. And we got to figure out why we're broken in that way that we keep letting that happen on this council. It is deeply disturbing. Thank you.

Thank you. Any final comments before we call the roll on the nomination. Councillor Litwin.

Thank you. A couple of things. One is I will ultimately be supporting Miriam this evening. She sounds fantastic. I appreciated everything she had to say this evening and her experience. I also do so with serious concern for the city of Burlington and thus the ratepayers because we do have an obligation to appoint Republicans to this board. And while Mr. Comstock clearly does not have the votes for this evening, and so I will support Miriam to ensure her appointment, I also think that we have work to do to make sure that we are meeting our ethical obligations to make sure that all parties parties is the word that is used in the charter, are represented. We have appointed several independents over Republicans. And we only have, I think, one Republican on the entire board at this point, and I could be wrong. So I believe the path forward, much a bit to Romeo von Hermann's comments earlier, I believe the path forward is through moving through this sort of politicization and our country is in a really serious state of affairs, and I don't see us improving upon it by not trying to bring more folks in, folks certainly that will also make sure that people are welcome, that they feel safe registering to vote, that they feel safe and comfortable coming to vote, and in the years that I was in the New North End, I never heard any complaints about Mr. Comstock's work as a ward clerk or inspector of elections. However, I could be uninformed. And then lastly, I would just say, I haven't really appreciated the tenor in which this meeting has been moving. There's been a lot of really negative aspersions and comments made to people that really just don't deserve it. when they're stepping up to volunteer. And this has gone on throughout the evening, including comments that was just made to a new American that putting them on a commission would be an insult to new Americans. That in and of itself is disturbing to me.

Point of information, that's not what I said. I said something very specific.

Hold on, Councillor Grant, Councillor Litwin, there's a point of information. Councillor Grant, what is the point of information?

I said it would be a portrayal.

That's a very different word. Oh, excuse me. Excuse me. I am chairing this meeting, Councillor Litwin. Please respect that. Councillor Grant, if you have a point of information, it's about the process or point of order related to the process. That is not a point of information. We will go back to Councillor Litwin respectfully, please.

Thank you. I'll correct the record to say that a councillor said it was a betrayal. So to make sure that I'm accurate. And I think some comments here have been Just unnecessary. So while I will be supporting Miriam tonight, I would hope that in the future we can work to appoint some Republicans to this board, a party I have no affiliation with and no interest in having affiliation in. But we owe it to our city and to the diverse voters that are here and based on our charter. So I will leave that there this evening. Thank you.

Are there any other comments before we call the roll?

Point of information.

Counselor newbies are point of information.

I'm just wondering if the city attorney could comment on whether or not we by not appointing a Republican this evening are within. You know our charter responsibilities in terms of partisan makeup of this board.

I'm going to call for a brief recess because the city attorney has just stepped out of the room for a moment. Is she right behind me? Oh, she's right behind me. Can you restate your question, Councilor Niebuhr, unless you heard that city attorney? Okay. Could you restate your question, please?

Yeah. We were just discussing some question around the partisan makeup of the Board of Voter Reg. It is one of the only boards, to my understanding, that we take that into account. And so I'm just wondering if by not appointing a Republican to the seat that we're discussing right now, if we would be in violation of our charter requirement or any sort of legal requirement around partisan makeup of the Board of Voter Edge.

No, the requirements for the Board for Voter Registration are that no more than six members be from the same political party there is no requirement that that there be a member of every identified political party on the board thank you that answer your question so as long let me just finish by saying so as long as neither nominee tonight would put a party over six members of representation on the board, then there would be no violation.

Thank you. Thank you, City Attorney Brown. Are there any final comments before we call the roll? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the first nomination for Miriam Stoll?

Councillor Barlow.

Abstain.

Councillor Bergman?

Yes.

Councillor Broderick?

Yes.

Councillor Carpenter?

Yes.

Councillor Grant?

Yes.

Councillor Litwin?

Yes.

Councillor McKnight?

Yes.

Councillor Newbeezer?

Yes.

Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson?

Yes.

Councilor Schachter?

Yes.

Councilor Singh?

Yes.

City Council President Travers?

Yes.

Mayor Mulvaney-Stanek?

Yes.

12 ayes, 1 abstention.

Thank you. And with 12 affirmative votes, Miriam Stoll is appointed to the Board of Registration of Voters, term expiring June 30, 2031. Thank you to Miriam. Thank you to Jeff. And we are moving on. We are now moving on to our deliberative agenda item of 5.1. Switching gears, y'all. So 5.1 is the Colchester Avenue, Riverside Avenue, Barrett Street, and Mill Street Intersection Project, STP 5000 parentheses 29, which is our decision on the condemnation proceedings. This is not the hearing. This is the decision. So we are joined by city staff here tonight. I'm going to turn it over to city engineer Laura Wheelock and her team as needed. to get us through this next item.

Yes, good evening. So we are bringing forward to you the two decisions or the decision and the orders for the necessity and compensation hearing for the intersection project. This is presented in front of you so you have the opportunity to review it. And then just to make all of our lives a little simpler, we're asking that you provide support for the mayor to execute the documents as necessary so that we do not have to seek everybody's individual signatures. If you have any questions on the decisions as presented, our outside counsel, Kristin Shamus, is also here and can answer any questions. It goes through the evidence of each of the hearings and then restates the compensation that we offered the property owner.

Thank you, Laura. Are there any comments or questions on this matter? Is there a motion? Councillor Bergman.

I'll start by turning it on. So I'd move to approve and authorize the Mayor of Burlington to execute the following decisions on behalf of the City Council with Mayor presiding for the condemnation of land for the Colchester Avenue, Riverside Avenue, Barrett Street and Mill Street intersection project, STP 5000 parentheses 29, And the corresponding easements and other documents necessary to effectuate the decisions and easements after review and approval of the city attorney's office. And then we have subsection a decision in order of the city council with mayor presiding city of burlington Vermont. for the alteration of a public intersection known as the Colchester Avenue, Riverside Avenue, Barrett Street, and Mill Street Intersection Project, STP 5000, parentheses 29, and for the condemnation of a portion thereof, and B, decision in order of the city council with mayor presiding city of burlington vermont determination of compensation for the taking of land for the alteration of a public intersection known as the colchester avenue riverside avenue barrett street and mill street intersection project stp 5000 parentheses 29. thank you councillor bergman is there a second second

seconded by councillor singh thank you for getting all that technical information out there council bergman is there discussion on the motion seeing none i will call we're gonna try a voice vote on this so um all in favor indicate by saying aye aye aye any opposed nay Motion carries unanimously. I don't have a gavel tonight. I don't know if I'm supposed to do a gavel thing, but we're just going to use my knuckles. All right. So moving now on to item 5.2, which is the reconnecting of Bank and Cherry Street CDS CD 23, parentheses 1, compensation hearing continuance. So I am reopening the hearing. Great. OK. That's the right word. Reopening the hearing from a couple of meetings ago where we received evidence presented to counsel with mayor presiding on this particular project. We heard from interested parties. We heard from counselors. We heard from our outside counsel. And with that, I'm not sure if there's some additional evidence, but I'm going to turn it over to our team to take it from here, and then we will see where we are.

Thank you, Mayor and Councillors. So we are continuing the compensation hearing tonight. Last, or two weeks ago, sorry, we had presented our evidence and had some testimony. Tonight we have Jeff Blanchard from B-Trans and Israel Maynard, excuse me, from Stentec available if anybody has questions for them. We don't have anything additional to present from them. We do have another updated waiver valuation form that we've submitted into evidence that has increased the value from $6,380 to $6,850 to reflect the current CLA as requested by the property owner's attorney at the last hearing. But if you have any questions for us, we're happy to answer.

Thank you very much. Questions or comments from the council? Is there a motion? Councillor Bergman.

So I would move to approve a motion to close the compensation hearing and direct city staff to prepare and order determining damages for all properties considered at this hearing and note that that decision should be updated to include the new compensation that reflected that I think $6,850 that is noted in the memo where we mentioned where it says additional information. So that should be clear in the motion.

Yep. Thank you, Councillor Bergman. Is there a second on the motion? Second. Second by Councillor Schachter. Thank you. Any further discussion on this matter before I call the question? will remind counselors if you were not in attendance at the last hearing and we're not able to view the hearing we'll ask for you to abstain from the vote uh and so is anyone with because i might call a voice vote here actually maybe i'm just gonna call the role i'm just gonna call the role it's been a long mayor presiding meeting all right so with that i'm going to call the question and will the clerk please call the role counselor barlow

I think you may have stepped off.

I don't think he's online anymore, Lori. Thank you.

Councillor Bergman?

Yes.

Councillor Broderick?

Yes.

Councillor Carpenter?

Yes.

Councillor Grant?

Abstain.

Councillor Litwin? Councillor McKnight. Abstain. Councillor Newbeeser.

Abstain.

Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson.

Abstain.

Councillor Schachter.

Yes.

Councillor Singh.

Yes.

City Council President Travers.

Yes.

Mayor Mulvaney-Stanek?

Yes.

Seven ayes. Two abstentions and two abs, no that's wrong.

I believe it's fourth abstention. It's seven. Four abstentions, two absences. Thank you, Lori. So with seven, that is a majority for this body's composition. So the motion passes. Thank you very much, team. We appreciate it. Thank you for all the technical coaching as well for the chair here. And with that, friends, we have made it to adjournment of the mayor presiding city council at, I don't know, I can't even read my watch anymore, 9.35 p.m. Councillor President Travers, are you ready to take it back, please?

I think so. Let's do an outdoor seating permit for Wilder Wines. How does that sound? So we're here on the deliberative agenda item 8.1, 210 College Street, an outdoor seating encumbrance permit application for Wilder Wines. Is there a motion to I would welcome a motion to take the actions indicated on Civic Clerk.

So moved.

Thank you. Second. All right. Moved by Councillor Broderick, second by Councillor Grant. Any discussion on the item? All in favor then please say aye. Aye. Are any opposed? That carries unanimously. That brings us to item 8.2 now, an ordinance regarding gross receipts, section 2131. Councillor Bergman, could I turn to you for a motion on the item? Okay. I will note, as Councillor Bergman is pulling that up, I'm anticipating a motion to suspend the rules in this item, reason being that under our rules, ordinances generally require two readings. The rule suspension here would be to waive the requirement of two readings.

So I would move to waive the reading, suspend the rules, and place the ordinance in all stages of passage, and have the floor back after a second.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Second by Councillor McKnight. Councillor Bergman, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Okay. Hang on for a second here. Okay. So this is the last piece of the budget. Right? And our budget was based in not in large part but in a significant part on this action. And just to summarize, we know that the increase, the The 0.5% increase of the gross receipts tax is very small on the individual customer, just 50 cents on the $100 tab, but cumulatively it is hugely important in balancing our budget. It raises about $1 million. We know it's placed on the consumer, the customer, not the business. We know it's raised from discretionary spending by people with disposable income to eat and drink out. based on an ability to pay, which is not what is the case with the property tax. It's not based on an essential need, which is housing, and it does not give landlords another excuse to raise rents in this housing crisis. It is clear that eliminating the sunset of the half 1% allows us to avoid even more cuts than the $3 million in cuts that the mayor proposed and we adopted this year. It allows us to avoid even higher property tax hikes than the 5 cent public safety tax increase that over 70% of voters approved in March. As I noted at the very beginning of these comments, the revenue raised by the elimination of this sunset is part of a budget compromise that we made, that the mayor made, when we passed the budget at our last meeting. And that compromise eliminated the gross receipts tax on admissions, on tickets to for-profit entertainment. And while I opposed that, and I still disagree with losing $100,000 in revenue, raised by that admissions tax, because it cuts revenue that we need and that the tax didn't deter, doesn't deter people from buying tickets or putting shows on. But it's part of the agreement that we made to balance the budget and avoid more drastic cuts. We need to pass this tonight so that we avoid creating, at worst, a million-dollar hole and even any gap. We need to do this tonight so that there is no gap. Let me just end by saying I believe that we are falling behind in the provision of of our providing good infrastructure and services for residents, for people who visit and work here, who depend on the city, that includes our aging population, it includes spending on our sidewalks and parks and even on things like public record systems like the land records. Austerity is not the way to bring Burlington back and so I look forward to the council tonight moving, voting to keep Burlington moving forward by backing this change. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Bergman. Is there anyone else who wishes to be recognized on this item? Councillor Singh.

Thank you, Councillor President Travers. And thank you for the work on the ordinance committee on this compromise. And again, to Councillor Bergman's point, I agree. There are parts of this that I don't like either. And I am grateful that the admissions tax has been removed from this. Again, and I'll say it, and I've said it before, it's my concern not whether the consumer feels it, but whether a business chooses to locate in Burlington. I saw just today, You know, one of the favorite restaurants of Church Street is opening a satellite in an adjacent community. A longtime jeweler has left the marketplace, and today I believe a toy store is also leaving the marketplace. You know, these things are, you know, these types of gross receipts taxes are things that businesses consider when they locate in a municipality. I hope, and I want to be as optimistic on this as I can, I hope there are entrepreneurs out there that see these new vacancies and what's going on in Burlington is an opportunity to reinvest into our city and to be part of the next phase that will be Burlington. So this was part of our budget compromise, so I will be supporting this this evening. But again, what I'm most concerned about is when businesses have choices to locate, that this is just another hurdle that is put in front of them when making that decision. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Singh. Is there any other councillor that wishes to be recognized on this item? We'll go Councillor Grant and then Litwin.

Thank you. As someone who buys tickets, the admission tax isn't the issue that at times it's been made out to be. The issue is fees. The fees are, I think if you ask the average person who purchases tickets, the level of the fees are astounding as opposed to the tax. And the fees are what need to be um looked at and then there's there's work that um needs to be done about resale that is what really drives up uh tickets i do believe that this overall when we talk about a consumption tax so people are Who are paying it it's like they can either do these things afford to do these things or they can't so it is different from property tax, and it is important to diversify. The the revenue options in our budget we can't. fully. rely on businesses or burden businesses. We cannot fully burden the taxpayer and that includes renters. And we cannot, you know, have an austerity budget that removes cost of living increases for our employees who are so important. to the city. So I will be supporting this, but I do want people to, you know, think about what we're doing when we sometimes talk a little bit too much about austerity. With regards to the changing of businesses, I'm definitely concerned about some of the empty storefronts, but some of the businesses that are moving. I mean, when we talk about the market for estate jewelry in Burlington, given the economics and how hard people are working to get by, it's not surprising that a business would go to a location where they then become appointment only. So I think that that's a whole other conversation with regards to how we recruit businesses to Burlington because that's something that we could definitely be working on in different ways. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Grant. Councillor Litwin.

Thanks very much. It's no secret I have been on the voting side of this, of keeping the the gross receipts tax where it is, but I do believe we need to continue to reassess it. And I definitely see an opportunity for us to revisit that this year, given I'd like to see more data and the numbers on how much is this really bringing it in and what really are the impacts. Additionally, I think this has continued to get framed within the context of a conversation around austerity. And it's interesting to me that we can talk about austerity. We can also talk about right-sizing the city budget, which we hear a lot about. I'm not sure who gets to define what right-sizing means. And so my position has been I voted no on the budget because I don't believe that we're right-sizing the city budget, but I also don't believe that making cuts and making thoughtful cuts is leading us towards an austerity budget. What I do think, though, is that we will have to look at this at this issue this year because we're not going to be able to balance the budget on the gross receipts, reading the tea leaves, as they say. And so we're going to have to make, in my opinion, as I said before, more substantive cuts for FY28. And if we can't get there, we may need to consider changing, at least I may need to consider changing my position on the gross receipts tax. So for now, I will... continue to support this. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Litwin. Is there any other councillor that wishes to be recognized on this item? All right. We will go to a vote then. I'll ask for a voice vote on it. Well, actually, the clerk will please call a roll.

Councillor Bergman?

Yes.

Councillor Broderick?

Yes.

Councillor Carpenter?

Yes.

Councillor Grant? Yes. Councillor Litwin? Yes. Councillor McKnight? No. Councillor Newbeezer?

Yes.

Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson?

Yes.

Councilor Schachter?

Yes.

Councilor Singh? Yes. City Council President Travers?

Yes.

10 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent.

With 10 ayes, 1 no, and 1 absent, the motion carries. Thank you. That brings us to item 8.3. There's a resolution regarding the ratification of a tentative agreement and authorization to execute a collective bargaining agreement between the City of Burlington and the IBEW bargaining unit. And on this point, thank you for your patience, HR Director Lynn Regan. Would be happy to turn the floor to you if you want to introduce the item, and then we'll turn to the council for a motion.

Okay, thank you. Yes, i'm here to bring forward the collective bargaining agreement with ibw the international brotherhood of electrical workers. And they are employed over at our burlington electric and mcneil locations they ratified the contract with their Members on June 11 and so now we're bringing it forward for city council approval. We wrapped up meetings in late May, very productive, collaborative, which brought us to a very fair and competitive contract. It is going to be a three-year agreement. Our current contract does expire on June 30, 2026, and we're looking for approval to have this go into effect immediately July 1st.

Thank you, Director Ragan. I would typically turn to Councilor Barlow as chair of the two. Councilor Bergman, could I turn to you for a motion on the resolution here ratifying the tentative agreement?

Of course. As a proud Labor supporter, I would move to waive the reading and adopt the resolution.

Thank you.

Is there a second to that motion? Second.

Thank you, Councilor Broderick. Are there any comments or questions on this item? All right. Seeing none, we'll go to a vote. With thanks to you, Director Reagan for a relatively short discussion for you waiting a number of hours to be here this evening. Thank you. All in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Thank you. We now need to turn to item 8.4. This is this was Item 6.3 on the agenda, this is the security services for city hall f y 27 contract extension. The motion that was put on the table at the time was a motion to postpone this item to our meeting on July 13 and that is still on the floor, thank you point of order, if we could get a 10 minute recess, that would be. helpful it might not be as long as as 10 minutes but and given the time I think we we we do have the time why don't we try five five how about seven okay uh if we can come back earlier fine absent objection uh the city council will stand in recess for uh seven minutes as a reminder to folks the ambient mics that are in the room as well as our mics remain live on Town Meeting TV. So I do just want to mention that to folks. Thank you. right the council will uh come back to order thank you for folks patience uh again um this is on item 8.4 it was on a consent agenda item 6.3 uh we tabled it at that time the motion that was on the floor was a motion to postpone the item until our meeting on july 13th the council that when my understanding is that you may be withdrawing that motion or

yes i'm certainly happy to withdraw the motion given that certainly i don't think any of us want a lapse in security at city hall or anywhere else that's important um is is there an opportunity to address a question to the city attorney or if you're withdrawing the motion then i would then turn to counselor bergman for a motion on the underlying item and then the item will be up for debate so i'd be happy to recognize you then i'm happy to withdraw my initial motion from earlier in the meeting okay Thank you.

I will also note before turning to Councillor Bergman for a motion I know that the underlying contract here is one that the council has dealt with a couple of times now in recent years and so it is on past agendas but I do recognize the desire for the underlying contract to be attached to this item and so I've asked the administration whether or not for our next meeting the contract will be sent as a communication to appear on our consent agenda even if we take action on this this evening. And I do anticipate that there may be some questions for the city attorney's office once we have the underlying motion. So, Councillor Bergman, could I turn to you for a motion?

Sure. I'd move to approve and authorize the exercising of the city's second one-year renewal option under its service agreement with Chocolate Thunder for City Hall Security Services for a total approved fiscal year 2027 amount not to exceed $206,000 and further authorize the chief administrative officer or designee to execute a contract amendment and all documents necessary or convenient to carrying out the same subject to the final review and approval as to form by the city attorney's office.

Thank you, Councillor Bergman. Is there a second? Anyone? Buehler? Was that you? OK. Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson, thank you. Councillor Bergman, did you want the floor at all on the item?

No, I said what I said early on. I think that we should not let this lapse.

Thank you. Counselor Litwin, did you want the floor? Sure. Thank you. I'd appreciate the city attorney's input because I cannot review the contract and I can't find it on the fly. It would be helpful if I could hear about any indemnification clauses that may exist. There have been some trespass orders over the past few months. And my question would be, is the city protected from litigation under what circumstances, I guess? Is that fair, that question?

I think that's going to be a little tough to answer on the fly. What I can say is that. Director Reagan. Helped or has found what I believe is the original contract that this would be the second extension and we can certainly share that so that you can read the full contract. We will certainly share that with all counselors and then if you have specific questions about Any provisions of the contract, I can certainly try to answer them. And I will say, I can say broadly right now that it is standard that we include. I did a quick review of the contract when Director Reagan sent it to me. It's a pretty standard city attorney's office contract. And it's standard for us to include indemnification clause. So I guess I'll leave it at that for now. And to say that we will get the full contract out to the council probably tomorrow.

Thank you.

All set, Councillor Litwin? I think so. And I appreciate receiving the contract as soon as possible.

OK. Does any other councillor wish to be recognized on this item? All right. Go to a vote then, with the understanding being that, again, the full underlying contract will be placed on the consent agenda as a communication for our next meeting. And we'll look forward to continuing the discussion, as you just mentioned there, City Attorney Brown. All in favor of the motion made by Council Bergman, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Are any opposed? That carries unanimously. Thank you. So that brings us to the end of our deliberative agenda. And it is not 1030, so we can continue. We have City Council General City Affairs. Is there any councillor that wishes to be recognized on General City Affairs?

Councillor Litwin and then Carpenter. Thanks very much. I'll start off with the higher note. I had the opportunity to attend the GBIC annual meeting, and it seemed quite fancy, but I would say the highlight of my night was the opportunity to meet a Burlington Technical School graduate who just graduated, who was receiving an award, a scholarship from the Palmerlo Foundation through the Boys and Girls Club and the good work that the Boys and Girls Club does to connect their students with resources. And I met Abdi, who was there with his whole family. And it was just incredibly remarkable and exciting to meet this young person who is so smart and thrilled and clearly deserving of every award. And one of the things that I found remarkable was that he was graduating from Burlington Technical already as a nurse's assistant. And what an opportunity that we have here in Burlington for students to go and seek very hands-on, career-oriented pathways, which is not available to many communities in Vermont, certainly to the degree we have. So big plug for Burlington Technical. And he's going on to college to pursue his dream of becoming a physician's assistant. Abdi, if you're out there, congratulations. And I thank everybody involved in his award process. And I truly mean that was the highlight of my evening. It's really great when I can meet Burlington youth. The second part, I just, and I, you know, it's a little, I hope not to ignite a whole debate over this, but I am receiving more concerns, and I also hold some concerns, some serious concerns around the state of affairs in and around City Hall Park. And that includes the section of College Street, you know, from basically South Winooski down to City Hall Park. The section of Bank Street has become pretty increasingly problematic. I've received reports from business owners who have been threatened when they try to get folks to move on. I have seen multiple instances now in the past several days of open air drug dealing of pills of cars being pulled over and people coming up to the cars and dealing pills out of the cars right in broad daylight, even while our street team is out there. We have I have seen it in front of the Baptist Church on St. Paul Street, which is becoming a pretty big hotspot recently. and the owners of the building adjacent are struggling with the maintaining sanitation of their parking garage and maintaining kind of the safety of that area. I had to call police at one point actually because of some of the activity that I saw and we desperately do need a police presence visibly in that area and around these hotspots day and evening. That is where we're at. I know that we do not have the police resources. In fact, I just saw that we're losing someone to another department who's being promoted to become a chief of Williston. So I get that we have these constraints. But I believe we've seen it covered in Burlington Free Press. We've seen it covered recently. Folks are talking about it on social media. There's just an extreme amount of open air. I mean, we walked out here last meeting, and someone was being reversed from an overdose right in City Hall Park. Now, I'm very glad we had those resources available to save that person's life. And thank you, Burlington Fire, for being there so quickly. but that is what is going on and it's not hyperbole and it doesn't mean that there's not wonderful events happening downtown and folks shouldn't come downtown, but I think we need to be honest with ourselves that it's gotten pretty serious even so the Burlington Free Press has said it's pretty serious. So I hope that we can continue to work with Chief Burke and the administration to see what we can do to regain some ground particularly in that sort of stretch from Church Street all the way down to the new Vermont CARES, Vermonters for Criminal Justice location. So thank you very much for the time.

Thank you, Councilor Litwin. Councilor Carpenter.

Thanks. Earlier this evening, we heard some testimony about Berlin's plan Plan BDB New North End. And I just want to sort of preface, I think people have not maybe understood the plan as it should be. There are some specifics, but it's really a high level visioning. And so I heard those comments and very immediately spoke with Charles Dillard about my concerns that people were feeling they weren't communicated with. And we, or Charles, very quickly, he and I have set up a public meeting for July 22nd to try to answer very specifically some of the concerns that people have. We're still trying to confirm the time. It'll be at the Miller Center. I think folks have made presumptions about what's in the plan as if it was a permit application and it really it's very distant from that it does raise the discussion some about whether we should look at what city lands to promote housing whether there's the ability for land swaps that's something we're going to have to have to think about But I just wanted to get out there that we have set up this meeting for July 22nd to really try to answer specifically concerns of people. And there'll be notice of that. We're just going to pass that on.

Thank you, Councillor Carpenter.

Any other councillor wish to be recognized on general city affairs? All right. And, well, that then brings it to me, City Council President. I will say, folks, any sort of council update. And with no other business before the council, I, absent objection, will adjourn us at 10.10 p.m. So thank you all.