City Council - Regular Meeting

We have a quorum. So, I'm going to call to order the city of Burlington's board of finance meeting on Thursday, May 7th, 2026. The time is 5:32 p.m. And our first item is the agenda. Is there a motion from the agenda? Would move to adopt the agenda as amended on civ finance.

Thank you, councelor Barlo. Is there a second? Second by councelor Carpenter. Any further discussion before we vote? Seeing none, all in favor indicate by saying I. Any opposed? Nay. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Uh funny camera, but that's okay. The mayor is over here on the your left or your right or whatever, however you're viewing it. Um but maybe the camera will catch up with us. Our next item is public forum. This record finance to first go to members of the public in the room and then they go online. Uh and it's similar to our city council process. So except we're not upstairs. So if you haven't been here before, we'll invite you. Actually, if DCA, will you slide over a little bit? Usually we have a number of people come up to you with us. And so uh if folks are curious to address board and finance, we'll have to do a little bit share so the camera don't see you. We have about to address each and then we'll go online. We're not as quite as formal as upstairs. So, uh, my ins and then I'll roughly.

Okay. I'm roughly timed myself to wonderful. [laughter]

Um, thank you for letting me speak tonight. I'm Patricia Homelo. um a member of a fourgeneration Burlington family, a Burlington homeowner, and a property owner on Church Street. Tonight, I'm speaking in support of Burlington City Arts programming. I've run large companies. I know the budget cuts are sometimes necessary, and I know this board has an incredibly difficult job because I've been there many times. So, I'm not saying cut nothing. I'm here to give you a one fiscal fact. Art and street activities are not a luxury. They are operating expense of public safety, community health, and commercial revenue. You've seen the empty storefronts. Cafe hot is now closing. A personal heartbreak to me as I saw the brothers as critical players in our marketplace's future. Merchants today work on razor thin margins. Shoplifting, much of it from folks struggling with homelessness and addiction, eat those margins. But worse, the presence of disorder drives away the very customers who shop, eat, and pay taxes. Here's what the data shows. More legitimate activity means greater safety. Music, art, festivals, foot traffic, that's self-p policing. Bad behavior cannot hide in enthusiastic daylight. Every dollar cut from Burlington City Arts programming will be spent twice over on policing, cleanup, and lost tax revenue from empty storefronts. Arts are not an expense. They are an investment. Bringing both Burlington residents and surrounding towns back downtown to spend money. So, I'm asking you, do not cut the very thing that brings people

downtown. Burlington City Arts gives us vibrancy, charm, and revenue. We need to safeguard, safeguard our city center marketplace, not just for today, but for our children and our future. Thank you. Oh, right on. Just All right. Way to model. Thank you.

Welcome. Thank you very much for My name is Jean Keller. I've been a resident of Burlington for 43 years. Same house on Bill Parkway in Mark One. And I am a very proud and grateful member of Burlington City Arts Studios for 10 years now. Why should taxpayers and the city council and the mayor support Burlington City Arts, its programs, events, and studios? Because we are a community that is trying to be better, to help each other, to make life safer and better for everyone. Yes, that means decent housing, safe spaces, clean water, good schools. But note that Burlington mayors and city councils of all parties for decades have recognized that championing the arts is a huge part of providing a good quality of life. And because this makes Furlington an attractive place to live and to visit, BCA and the studios create a culture of arts in this city. Not only for the thousands over the years who participated in studios, visit the galleries, attend events. BCA actually weaves the fabric of our arts culture and we all benefit from this directly and indirectly. The arts culture means people want to be here to live and importantly to visit and enjoy. While BCA does a great job at events and spectacles, the unique and essential job it does is to bring the culture of art directly to people, BCA has grown and continues to grow the artists that make so many wonderful large events possible. SA's Southoun Arts Hop would not be what it is. probably wouldn't even exist without BCA as an incubator and a champion. Farmers market, crafts

markets, they wouldn't be what they are without the people honing their skills in BCA classes and studios and by those who learned from classes how to appreciate art and therefore the buy good art when they see it from our art producers here in Burlington. and school breaks would be an absolute nightmare for working parents instead of something a whole family can look forward to because of our youth camps. No department does more to make its benefits available to all income levels. BCA raises $75,000 a year for scholarships. there. There just aren't any other departments who do that who leverage so much city of the city's taxpayer money. So, please don't mess with the success. Don't pull on what you think might be just some loose thread and unravel this cultural and economic fabric that is so fundamental to what you love about living in Burlington. Thank you. And I just want to say that in three or four days down in studios, I had a petition out and I collected a lot of signatures um and comments from people about how much the studio to them. Um there might be clay clay and drawing stuff on it. Um and the whereasses are going to be wonderful.

Thank you. Thank you. We'll include this in our in our records. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Thank you. Is anyone else in the room in the public like to address? I'm see otherwise. Okay, I'm going to go online and I see former city councelor Sharon Busher on high. Good evening Sharon. The floor is yours.

Um, good evening. Um, I'm going to speak about two of your uh budgets tonight. The first one is parks and um one thing that I noted in the presentation um online is there is a reduction in recreation scholarships. I didn't see exactly how much and what the impact is going to be, but that is a huge concern for me regarding affordability. And I really hope that we rethink this. Um, as I said, I'm not sure about how much the impact is, but um, I am concerned about that. The other thing is that I understand we have to let go of flower planting being done by parks, but I think there's an opportunity here in the city to be creative and we can have it being done by volunteers and we can also offer it as community service. High school students are always looking for community service to write on their resume. So, I think there's a way to still have those flowers and flower beds planted. I know city hall park is covered but everything else isn't. So I'm just hoping that there will be some heads put together to resolve a couple of those problems. The last um department is the department of finance and administration and I wanted to thank that entity for integrating and prioritizing capital projects. That's welcomed. Um I think that it's been out there um but hasn't been integrated. And I think that now with that being uh now in place um the tracking and the funding and um monitoring projects and getting

things accomplished will be um more um trackable. So thank you so much for that. Um the last thing I wanted to say about this huge entity um is that I I know this year there are three uh vacancies that aren't going to be filled and and Katherine um mentioned them in her communication that they are from various from HR and from IT and from some place else I don't remember um but I think it would be really helpful to understand before you merged into this one entity if we saw how many employees HR had and that original org chart and then it and assessor etc. And then when you see the big org chart, I think you'd be able to understand how reporting changed, where the savings are. And I think why am I asking for this? Not just for an exercise, but I think it's once again, I think documentation of change and how that change has has made us better is really important. And I think visual documentation helps and coincides with the verbal. So, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Sharon. Is anyone else online from the public who'd like to address board of finance? And if so, just raise your your Zoom hand and we'll recognize you only once twice. I see no one raising their hand. So I will close public forum and we will move on to our next item which uh just a quick as I as I uh do the traffic control here my fellow board of finance members have heard this sound multiple times but what we will do for each of our departments is spend about 10 minutes uh for presentation I will gently time you here and I'll give you a gentle coach if we get close to 10 minutes uh and then we will do 10 minutes for Q&A we'll first give questions to board of finance members and then open it up to larger uh the larger council for any other council members here or online. Um, and then we'll move on to our next item. And all of these items are for information purposes only. So there's no anticipated votes uh for the rest of the evening, but it is constructive. Interesting. And I was going to say it was our last night, but it's actually not our last night. So we have more fun next week. Uh, so with that, we'll first start with our Burlington City Arts Department. And our team is ready to go at the table. So if you want to start, I will start the timer once you are ready.

Okay. Let me get my screen share. While you're getting that ready, I just want to thank our community members who came out tonight to support BCA and the work that we do. And and who are you? Who are you? Oh, I am Dorian Craft. Thank you.

And I'm the director of Burlington City Arts. Longtime director. I do many of you over the years and have worked closely carefully with all of you and enjoy it tremendously and appreciate um city councilors for the work as volunteers of the city that you give so much of your time and expertise to make us a great place to live work and play. Thank you for being with us tonight. I'll start.

Okay. So, um, BCA's role in this city extends beyond exhibitions and performances. We support year-round public programming, youth education, citywide activation, community partnerships, and creative opportunities that contribute to Burlington's civic life and economic vitality. At a time when so many people are experiencing increased social isolation and financial stress, accessible community-based programs also provide important opportunities for connection, for expression, for mentorship, and for belonging. And as you can see here in this slide, this is an earlier year of Festival of Fools. Um and it could even be what with me we called it last year.

It was the full block party. Fool's block party puppy. Yeah. Which was an amazing endeavor. We'll talk a little bit about later on in this presentation. So I think we're going to jump Sarah over the organizational chart and we'll come back to that as that's the next slide because I think it makes more sense in the context of discussing a little bit. Do you mind introducing Sarah or Sarah? I'm sorry. So Sarah Catz, assistant director for Burlington City Arts and uh good friend of the arts and Dorine. Okay, sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Um so just a little bit of moving beyond this chart Sarah to the um highlights of 26. Um and I'm not going to read through all of these. You've had the packet and a chance to digest that. I just want to um point out two important things. one that the Festival of Fools returned um in 26 as a block party and it really was because of the incredible work of the business community and the donor community who reignited this passion that this community has for this festival and we were a month out. um we had paused the festival and the community came together and uh by hooker by crook we got it up and running. It was a very localized festival in 26 and very successful bringing great crowds to the downtown. Um and also in um the events division we had the groundhog fest and downtown lights which promoted Burlington in a very different way to very different demographics. And I think that's really important when we look at the cadence of festivals across the year. Who are the audiences that we're bringing to not just to our downtown but to our entire uh community? Okay.

And I was just going to highlight a few um public art projects that were installed in FY26 um in collaboration with the Department of Public Works. We have new piece on um Bank in St. Paul, Dance and Place by Christopher Kojar and then here in City Hall Park anthology by Lydia Kern. Um, and these are really um special projects that that bring an identity to our downtown and really um give the sense of place of our uh experience here.

I also one thing I would also like to note is that um jazz used to be a 10-day festival in Burlington and three years ago because of many factors was reduced to a five-day event. And I think one of the things that we heard from our artists, from our neighbors, from our constituencies that was that there was not a lot of activity in the downtown, that a lot of that had moved to the marketplace, sorry, to the waterfront. And so our intention with some of the funding that we got through special projects was to bring jazz back to the marketplace. And so this year during the festival there's going to be four days and nights of great festival activity of over 30 performances and the top block will have the stage back and there'll be a smaller stage across from Lun. So we'll really be harking back to the things that I think the downtown loves so much and the community embraced. Okay. 27th fast on our heels. Um biggest event of uh 27 for us is bringing together pretty much every department in the city of Burlington to um create a main street opening celebration on July 17th and 18th. um they we are coordinating um the public programming and the promotion and the activation of many things. This is happening in partnership, as I said, a lot with CEDO and with DPW, but really touching on pretty much all the departments and working with the business community to activate their spaces both um inside and outside and um really hiding highlighting what this new great street is going to mean for our

community and the possibilities that it presents. So, put that on your calendars, the 17th and the 18th of July. Um, two more public art projects going in with that, too. Oh,

and uh, one of one of them actually is bringing um the company here from out of state. It's a YouTube production company and they're going to be following the installation of one of the major public art pieces. So, to be seen. Um, another new highlight of uh, 27 will be that we are going to expand a lot of what we've done through highlight and piloted last year with winter lights downtown into a new more expansive fourmonth embrace of uh, everything light and wonderful. in we're thinking of calling this illuminate Burlington and it will be lighting installations. It will be artist projects um a number of community partnering events, the incorporation of all the incredible work that the Church Street Marketplace does with the tree lighting and Santa and what else, Carla? All the

I gave my presentation. All right. Um, and we also are um expanding a number of our relationships in the south end at 405 with our community room and bringing together the arts and cultural district that has so many incredible u businesses and artists and studios that um will come together um in this expanded partnership with BCA. Sarah, I think you're gonna talk a little bit about the audience survey.

Yeah, we're um so much is changing in our in our community and in our world and um we're going to be working with the UVM community development and applied economics department to work with their students to help us better understand what our audience and the general population's arts and culture needs are in the future um to better inform our future uh planning. And we're we've been hoping to do this for a while and have made great contact with this group and they're incredible to work with. So, we're excited, strangely excited about surveying [laughter] about four. Oh gosh. Oh boy.

Okay, here we go. Cost savings. Um, our reductions are uh an eliminated uh position. It's vacant at this moment for our development director. Um this is the person who was responsible for fundraising and um what we are going to do during this time is we're going to transition this position to our foundation. I'll talk a little bit about that later. It's take a little while to ramp that up. That's $125,000 saving. We're going to hold open the curatorial position for a year while we pilot some alternatives. Um, we'll be working with UVM School of the Arts and other partners and bringing in guest curators. So, still having a robust program in our galleries, but um it will be a savings for the city of 74,000. And then finally, we're reducing the scale and the frequency of some of the higher cost events. And what we're going to do is prioritize the sustainability of some of the events that happen throughout the year. We'll be able to with that saved energy and funds, we'll be able to support some of the other businesses, arts organization to bring their events forward to aid in the facilitation of that and in the production. And that is a $68,000 savings. Next Impact. Um well, the Festival of Fools is when it was in its heyday and its glory, it was three days long. It's going to be two days long. Um, I think you'll still see people coming into town for the three days, but um, we're going to leave it to some of our other community partners to bring some of their great entertainment out on the street, but it will be highpacked energy and, um, an amazing

number of um, artists returning to Burlington, including our Canadian friends. Um, the city hall park programming is going to have fewer events. We've actually cut it 50%. Um but we worked on concentrating on some of the higher impact, higher attendance level events there and we are beginning to start partnerships with others in the community to bring and to encourage um those activities to take place in city hall. New Year's Eve, as I spoke to a tiny bit earlier, is going to be part of this illuminate Burlington, but it won't be the ticketed event that it was in the past. And um we are going to adjust our gallery hours to align with some of the staffing capacity that we have with again a focused on some of the highest attendance times. Um what are we doing um in from an operational perspective? Well, we're piloting a guest curator program that will still expand our exhibitions and uh allow for BCA staff to focus on the production, the partnerships and the support needed by the curatorial program. The senior staff will be absorbing some of the managerial duties for these exhibitions and for fundraising. And we'll be reallocating um staff to some of the programs that continue to support our youth and our intergenerational program both in the downtown and at our Pine Street site. Um a lot more to say there, but uh FY26 budget change. You've seen all of this in your packet, but essentially the proposed uh FY27 budget reduces our impact on the general fund by $176,000

um reflecting the combined effects of the reduction in staff salaries and program expenses and an increase in the cost benefits. Um how do we move forward? Well, um we are going to work on multi-year artist grants initiatives through a new foundation that we're working with which will bring approximately $100,000 in that grant. 60,000 will be awarded to artists in the community and 40 will be able to support administratively BCA. Um, we are working to create a coordinated event division within BCA and Zach on our team has been working cross develop cross [snorts] departmentally with a team around safety and production, permitting, innovation with CEDO and other um departments and that will facilitate a lot more communitydriven events. Um, yeah, it's hard to go fast. How many minutes do I have left?

You're at time. Okay, I'll leave the rest to question. Great. Thank you, Dorian. Thank you, Sarah. And we'll open it up first to board of finance members and then we'll go to councilors of finance. Councelor, um you mentioned your while we're here, you touch 4,000 young people in your program. Do you know how many of those folks are from Burlington versus

um each program is a little bit different? Um we just looked at the roster I believe for our SC scholarship program. So that would go for camps and classes and 70% of those scholarship went to Burlington. If you look at our philanthropic program, about 50% of our funding comes from the community of Burlington and about 50% comes from outside Burlington.

You just talked about scholarships. So there's some amount of resource going to outside Bington. I was just we're generally thinking how many of those 4,000 people would be and growing or not be I think when we have gone through each program we end up somewhere between the 49 and 52%. Um the last time we would need to do a new zip code review for that and we can pull we can pull that down

that would be helpful. I'm trying to sort of um scope it relative to the general fund contributions. We do understand you do a lot of fundraising and that compensates. But I think it's really important to understand how our property tax dollars are being spent and how many people sort of from outside the city participate with it.

Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we've never looked at the city contribution, which is approximately 40% of our budget. We've never looked at that and said it goes to this department or to this program. It's really put into a larger bucket and then we go out and we fund raise the rest. And there of course are fees that come in from those programs in the studios. And whenever there is a um a desire to create a shift in the programming there because it usually comes from a Burlington concentration that is speaking to the type of programs that we have and their participation in so

and I but I will I will go back important I get asked that question. I think it's I think it's a legitimate question. You know you spent several million dollars And I understand it's not one to one, but I really would like to understand how much of that is targeted to Burlington participants. And I understand the community events, so to speak. Yeah. Yeah. Get that. But they're more participatory events. Sure.

We do hope to have more data by the end of this year through our audience survey. [clears throat] Actually, get a little bit more. I mean it's going to be um you know audience or survey style data. It's not going to be every single participant but we should have a better sense of who's coming to everything. I think that's very important. Yeah. Let's move on to other questions if okay

thank you for everything. I think it's it's real treasure that we have this city supporting all the the audience and and the events that you do and specifically around events. I wanted to um dig in a little bit more to um the um the sort of transition away from BCA um coordinating events of trying to trying to do some you said as trying to facilitate some community more community ser is that going to be up and running for um this this season on the marketplace? place because I think it's really important if it's not going to be that we make sure that um I think as we heard in public comment had people are great um that we need a lot of programming that make the space brighter and invite people in in the downtown and it drives as we know a lot of economic activity a lot of our our businesses are desperate. So, do you think that that that I guess question one is will that be in place for in time for the summer season? Um, and question two is I think last year we decreased the number of concerts in city hall park and we're doing it again this year as well. And so I know that when we program the park we also deter a lot of unwanted behavior there. So for for the duration of the programming, you know, a little bit beyond even. So I'm just hoping that we can find a way to to fund those things because I I don't think that they're direct expenses. I have to agree is there investments in trying to preserve the vitality of vibrancy of our downtown which which is you know

is is experiencing as I said other of these departmental budgets um you know we're in a reputational racism so it's we need to work ourselves out I think it's doable but we need things like like the event program so you can respond

yeah so let me try to answer your first question which is will we be up and running we really have been honest track for a year and a lot of this collaboration between departments which I described as in the main street project for example and in what we're doing called summer in the city this year these are collaborations across departments that are bringing the resources together and creating the one plus one equals three scenario um a little bit more of what what Zach is doing now is internally looking at our processes for how we provide public safety. How does someone coming to the Burlington community who wants to create a new event like like the Brewers Fest on the waterfront or um the downtown street

or close the street? How are we as a city united? How do we create one-stop shopping for individuals to be able to do that so that it is a very clean, efficient process? That's what we're working on internally. But we've already got in motion all of the facilitation and co-production. We're all working together on Junth as an example. So I think there's a lot more coordination, collaboration that's happening and it's just going to get smoother and more efficient as we finish doing this analysis study and working with all the departments. Um, I do think it's incredibly unfortunate that we have to cut back some of the funding for downtown events. We are really working with other partners to see if we can encourage their engagement. Something that perhaps would have gone somewhere else to bring it into Burlington or to take to work with other nonprofit organizations. for example, the youth orchestra to bring them to do their event in downtown Burlington or the celebration of what is it called um America 250 with um that event which is going to bring thousands of people into the downtown that was happening out on the interval and bringing it into Burlington. So I think it's encouraging our friends and partners um

and providing them that production support which is what we are what we do well and that is a benefit to bringing an event to our downtown and also I would add to what you've said the um real focus on bringing all of our interdep departmental groups together to u promote and market all of our events as with a unified voice so that we can have a bigger um impact and presence together as opposed to trying to do like little things individually. Um just trying to have a bigger voice in our marketing and a more sustained voice. So really starting it sooner instead of the month before.

I have other questions on this topic, but I can I can email them to you. Great. Thank you for sharing finance members. All right. I'm gonna add a few more minutes for the sake of Oh, then I'm gonna add a few more minutes for the sake of our other board of finance member and probably we'll say uh to other city councilors. We'll probably have like a brief moment or two because there's been a lot of questions so far in the BCA. Councelor Travers, go ahead.

Yeah, thanks. And I think I just have a quick question as a followup to Council Braos and apologies for not being there in person. I've had a number of professional conflicts that have been unfortunately pulling me in different directions. But um the followup question is as we think about the past year um and the monies that were put towards events, particularly downtown events and the budget resolutions initiative that those monies be sort of spread out over the course of the year with smaller events as opposed to put towards larger events. I'm just I'm curious if you can speak to based on that experience what the impact was of sort of spreading it out over more events, but perhaps more importantly the the the sustainability of it all from uh from your perspective, you know, do you think from a sustainability component as well as a like bang for your buck perspective um did it did it make sense that those monies be doled out um more evenly over the course of the year to to smaller events or or do you think it could have a bigger impact if it was going to uh a larger blowout like like the uh Fourth of July celebrations or like highlight or like a Festival of Fools type event.

That's Yeah. Well, I I think you need largecale events that are magnets for bringing people to travel from afar. like Festival of Fools is an example of a time where people come from four to five different states surrounding Vermont and we need I mean that's a different kind of revenue driving scenario for the city of Burlington but I think these smaller events that we did this year really brought a lot of our community together there a lot of the 054 if you will and we're beginning to be able to track some of this the Um, Hello Burlington has software now that can actually know who's in town and who's at restaurants and and um downtown shopping. So, I think both of those are necessary to create a sort of an ecosystem of activity in the downtown. I I don't think we can do without either of them. I think um mayor had a wonderful uh illustration of sort of like two giant poles are the are the festivals and then there's a string of lights

that are all these little things that happen but they add up to and are important about that vitality livability and constancy. I mean it is really important to have a small event on the marketplace and sometimes it was what was it a few weekend ago was the the tasting the maple fest but we it was unbelievable. Yes such a busy day.

So you know sometimes you don't need a giant festival. You just have to be very smart targeted and really good marketing to get people to come. We have to spend more money on marketing as a community. I think we all know that that Burlington needs that as uh the competition grows.

Yes. Thank you, Darine. Then I'm going to go to another counselor if that's okay with you just to see if we can get one more question. Uh time for a question. Any other city council who's not on? Councelor Shakar. Um I'll keep it clear. It's really echoing a lot of what's been said um around the importance of bringing people downtown. deep gratitude for all that PCA does um to support our community and I'm very partial to the arts as being core to a thriving vibrant community. Um and it's really essential. Um I it sounds like there's I think you alluded to it in the presentation that there's different departments coming together around downtown events and festivals which I just want to say is great because I do think the church marketplace is doing really great things make best in all that and you all and to know that there's synergy and that we can leverage maybe shared resources marketing all of that to try to get the word out. Um yeah somewhere in the city is a great example. I I just I want to plus one doing that and also encourage us to be thinking lowcost creatively about things like maybe we put out a call for street artists to perform right on Church Street this summer or like ways that we could um that don't really cost us much but could be like more marketing tactics to try to get more art here um because I'm really sensitive to the fact that we as city government cannot be the sole kind of programmer of these efforts. We can be a convenor, we can be the amplifier. Um, and so how can we lean into that role? Um, I appreciate the nonprofit partnerships, but like, you know, just continuing to think about ways that we can just So, I just kind of wanted to put that out there as well. And I would be interested because it's I don't know if we can get to this, but adding up sort of in your budget, what's happening for downtown, see it with Churchy Marketplace, CEO, other departments, like is there a way for us to really grasp like how much are we investing in drawing people downtown?

Um, and maybe that's a something that this interdep departmental group could sort of talk about. And I'd be interested in just comparing what was last year versus what we're proposing for this year. And does it feel like there's sort of enough partnership and collaboration and creative things we could do to sort of keep uh investing in dabot events and festivals at the level we have been. And if not, when we're sort of looking across departments, I think that would be helpful information to know going into sort of the final home stretch of the budgeting season.

That will have to come to you in writing. I've been very extra generous with my timing here. Just going to make sure I get as many questions as possible. Council Grant, I am so sorry, but we are well well over time for VCA. So, if you didn't mind emailing our director and assistant director with your questions, and they will happily get back to you. Thank you for your move forward. ACA, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Our next department, our our Burlington Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront Department. We're gonna be extra friendly because this is our director, Phil Lewis's first budget presentation, and he's gonna have a fabulous time as he comes up with like [laughter] whatever. Got it. Okay. Very helpful the wayong. Well, Phil, welcome. If you want to introduce yourself and as you set that up, I will start our friendly findup.

Yes. Thank you so much. Uh, my name is Bill Lewis. I am the director of parks, recreation, and waterfront for the city. Thank you so much for your time today. All right. So, thank you so much for your time. Very much appreciated. Um, starting with uh introductions of my team, uh, want to introduce our director of waterfront and our harbor master, our director of parks and central services, Groach, and our director of planning and development, do so. And I always say it incorrectly, right? At least I get nervous about saying it incorrectly. So, um I also want to highlight uh appreciation for our staff within the department at all levels of the organization that worked uh to put this uh budget forward. Also would like to recognize the the leadership of our staff and to provide leadership for this presentation. Thank you. So starting off uh with a quick overview of our organizational structure. Uh by division we have four unique divisions. Uh waterfront um recreation which uh currently is uh does not have a director. So the department I do serve as the director uh for leadership for the recreation division. Uh additionally planning and development and parks and central facilities. our organizational chart. This is a copy of our overarching structure um showing me as the department head each of the division directors and then showing our

recreation division there on the right hand side. Um you may note uh that we are currently we have quite a few vacancies in our recreation division and so we are um currently in a hiring process of one way or another position in order to make that that team whole and are very excited to begin uh moving forward. We should have hopefully all the positions filled by uh midsummer. Um this next page shows our waterfront division and our planning development division. Um the uh oh and I apologize. I'm going to go just back super quickly. So our recreation division, I just want to highlight the um the work that's happening uh within each of the divisions so that uh folks understand the scope of work. So with recreation uh we manage the Miller Recreation Center at Lady Ice Arena and we do facility rentals for both facilities as well as athletics and camps and recreation programs for all ages and abilities. Uh we also work very closely within this division with our partners at the school district and regional providers. For our waterfront division, uh they manage our marinas and harbor as well as parking in the waterfront area. uh the boat house, beaches, campgrounds, events at our waterfront as well as uh now events uh within the department as well and departmentwide pieces. So we do a lot of work in trying to activate uh different spaces along the waterfront and we have an expertise in that area and now also utilizing those resources for all of our lease spaces across the system. Additionally, with our planning and development division, uh they do short long-term planning, short long reach planning, uh such as the department plan, uh park site golf plans, uh being less on for some of the regional

uh both internal to the city as well as externally. Uh also managing capital project management. U for parks is an example of some of the funds that that group works on. u making sure that we have projects moving forward. Um this next page is our parks and central facilities division and so obviously parks is a big piece of it. Uh but parks includes our grounds maintenance uh facility maintenance um cemeteries conservation team, our urban forestry uh division, our work unit and greenways, our park rangers program. uh central facilities including supporting all city facilities uh capital project management and our custodial team supporting the all city facilities and we'll get into that uh that work a little bit more in the presentation. I wanted to go over a couple of highlights for this last fiscal year or current fiscal year. Uh the first item on there seems like something that's pretty regular for the July 3rd event, but it's something we do on an ongoing basis annually. We wanted to highlight it as a state a transition period uh with staff as well as uh we went through an emergency weather evacuation during this year's event. And so it was an opportunity for us to um really see how our emergency planning efforts uh took place and allowed us an opportunity to really move planning forward going into future years to make sure that we're accounting for all the things that could happen uh during those large community events. um rolling into summer uh which is not identified on here but I did want to recognize that a lot of our recreation programs uh operated at at capacity during our summer season. So looking forward this year to uh continuing that that strong effort. Um in September we

reached 10,000 Instagram followers which is exciting. Obviously, marketing and communication is extremely important as we're trying to create opportunities for people to participate in our programs and activities. Um, the bike park opened at Ley uh Park in October phase one, which was uh very well received. Uh, I on boarded as the new director of the department in November. So I very exciting for me personally and hopefully for everyone else within the department and the city. Uh in December uh we adopted the Burlington open space plan and this was a huge lift and the collaborative effort of uh multiple departments and community organizations to bring this work forward to highlight that um in the winter uh we helped to support the emergency cold weather shelter operations at Miller Rec Center. uh we had 239 unique participants served and 773 bed nights uh operating over 12 days. So, a lot of staff uh from the department and a lot of cross-dep departmental support including um our our partners with CBO external. In April, uh we did reassign staff reporting structures and uh gained approval from board of finance and commission to move forward with the ice arena manager position. Uh that also allowed us to make sure that we have support appropriately for uh staff operating each of our work units. And then we will be coming back in in June uh to finalize our organizational chart and to finalize work distributions as it relates to our job descriptions uh that uh may have been adjusted during times as we have consolidated during our processes. And then the last item on here that we'd like to highlight is the uh expanded vendor permit program. um our waterfront

group that worked very closely with our partners in Cedo to identify business incubator small cart or truck u vendor spaces within the system really activating on the bike path primarily and so you'll see um coming soon very shortly opportunities for vendor space at Lady Beach Starform Park and the skate park in order to create these um o these opportunities for activation and really a need that we've seen both in the community as well as the business community.

About four minutes trying to move forward a little more quickly. Uh so next page, cost savings for this uh fiscal year. We're freezing one custodial position. Uh we're really looking at um at this uh trying to allocate resources appropriately across the different facilities in the city. And so uh we may have uh altered impacts at different facilities based on uh that one FTE that will be frozen for the current fiscal year. Uh we're also looking at uh reducing part-time seasonal positions at Oakidge Park uh which will be a $40,000 reduction that will move coverage from 7 days to four days. Uh we're actively working with um additional work units and other departments for gap coverage. And the the larger item uh for reduction package uh that we're moving forward is uh $271,000 reduction in departmentwide services. Uh this really is hitting um multiple uh all of our divisions and different budget lines. And so you'll see a reduction of of staff training, recreation um scholarship program offerings. Uh I will say as was brought up earlier uh it's a 4% reduction in scholarships uh which is about $1,500. Uh it was difficult for for staff to move that forward but we have a lot of very difficult decisions that were made uh with with these reductions. Um we are eliminating flower landscape beds and plantings in all parks excluding city hall park and primarily the um the challenge there is uh material supply costs. So um you very happily work with volunteers and uh staff to to make sure that those could be could happen but uh

currently we do not have the materials and supplies to to have that as appropriate. Uh also you'll see reduction in water and turf materials, grass seed fertilizer as well as small tools and equipment um facility maintenance components of replacing things as they become broken um or unusable to you may see things that stay sit a little bit longer than they typically would previously. This is an overview of our budget. Um you'll notice that we have um a revenue impact of 5.6% uh tied closely to the closure of foreign associated revenues as well as looking at trying to activate Lenny Arena uh a little bit more. We lost a lumberjack which was a large contributor of facility rentals and so with the new manager there we're really hoping that they can pick that up and try to schedule that more effectively. Additionally expenditure impacts uh you'll see a 3.4% that's driven primarily by salaries, wages, benefits and utility expenses. Moving forward we have a new organizational structure which we're very excited about. Um, additionally, our comprehensive plan which should be adopted during this next fiscal year, uh, which shows the, uh, vision for the department for the next decade and how it fits nicely with overarching general plan for the city. Uh, we continue to have areas of concerns including our loss of Canadian tourism and the associated revenues as well as impacts of encampments on staff resources, uh, capital assets and revenue producing operations. more opportunities because I always like to have opportunities. Uh the return of summer concert nights at Waterfront Park. We're very excited

to to go back to historically what we've seen for our concert series and the activation that occurs with that. Uh we will also see uh our beach fights and additionally two nights of free waterfront jazz concerts. Uh the arena manager again at Ley hoped to bring additional focus and attention to the facility and the customer experience and um our recreation division really coming together and trying to attain opportunities that they have in front of them in activating creating additional programming. So in summary again we will continue to provide a very high level of service to our community within the resources that are allocated. uh we have 63 full-time staff that are moving towards that and uh up to 100 seasonal staff um over the course of the year. Uh we're we are seeing that reduction by one FTE in this budget cycle. Uh but are hopeful that we be able to bring that back on the budget cycle. With that, I very excited to end my presentation and answer any questions you have.

Well done, Phil. Thank you. All right, moving to questions and service members of board of finance. a director sense. I'm looking at your budget. Maybe I'm just not looking at it right. But overall, you're you're going to have a higher amount of money. You're going to need general fund this year.

Yeah. Um so our our current our current trend is that we we should be online for this current fiscal year. We are showing that we're going to have additional um requirement from the general fund. Again, that's tied uh somewhat to our um to our historical revenues that we've attained and expenditures as well as the um facil the personnel expenses that we're anticipating going into this next year.

Again, maybe my math isn't too quick. Last year you got 400 4 million 600,000 from general fund and this year you're going to get 5 million 300,000. Am I reading that right? I just don't there is a um correct yes so you will see that uh that difference. Um we do have uh the looking towards our CAO for confirmation the um personnel.

Yes. One other um uh two other comments. Um I we've had a conversation about adult programming on I understand what you're doing and I just want to call that out but I think it's still a deficit

amount of programming in total and and so I'm just calling that out the other much more minor thing but we have to resolve night and I don't know who gets to resolve it but for for some reason the growing concert band has been stuck in the no man's land of regional programming it's been around for decades my comment to Cara was I think it would be much more appropriate just to put it in charge of regular line item. They programmed City Hall Park. There's dedicated volunteers. It's a $5,000 expense and we shouldn't be batting them around. And I'm just saying that publicly beside this, but you know, you talk about new programming for the waterfront. We need to support that group and do that work at the van shelter. So I hope internally you can have that discussion about where where do we put that now? Shouldn't we kick them around?

Um and I'll just answer that question that yes, the net draw proposed for FY27 from this department would be an increase from last year was 4.6 6 million and the proposal is that it would go up to 5.3 and as Phil alluded to that is both um a slight increase on expenses from 10.6 [clears throat] to about 10.9 million and then also a slight reduction on revenues from 5.9 million down to 5.6 million as we have figured out what is realistic and not in our budgeting. Councelor Trappers,

thank you. Um, I have a pretty specific question for you, Phil. I haven't had a chance to follow up with you via email, but a lot of gratitude for you and the city arborist for recently meeting with neighbors in the Five Sisters [clears throat] neighborhood to answer some questions and concerns they had around our green belts. Um, I do think that as you look at the city tree database and the green belt trees, which I know the parks department is responsible for, um, that, uh, because of C sort of tree management plans, there are more stumps out there than there have been uh, historically. And one item that I'm continuing to hear more about from constituents is is this question of of stumps and stump removal um and feedback they've apparently received from the city that while some trees in the green belt needed to be cut down that there was no money in the budget for the city to then come back and to do uh stump removal for those. And so I'm it doesn't necessarily have to be now, but I would be curious if you could um follow up on that and then further curious whether or not looking towards FY27 and the tree database and those um stumps that are still within the city's management whether or not there's money in the budget for us to go back and to do stump removal in FY27. And if not, um I'd be curious to know how much something like that would cost. uh because I I am hearing from a number of neighbors with uh concerns about that its its impact on their property, its impact on their property value um and would be interested in following up on that. So, thank you and again, gratitude to you and VJ for uh meeting with uh a number of our South End neighbors recently.

Thank you so much. I can um I can speak to part of that question. I'd be happy to to get through some numbers uh later, but um we we have identified that as a need. Uh staff were currently looking for grant funding opportunities for city arborist uh had has secured a number of of decent sized grants over the course of the last several years in order to support the tree program. And so we're hopeful that we'll be able to identify funds for for that. Um we currently don't have a stump grinder as a piece of equipment in our system. So there is monetary cost to either hire out or to um rent out the equipment to to do that work.

Thank you Phil. Thank you then. Uh we you are still yes go ahead. my question and you don't have to answer it tonight because I haven't looked at the budget sheets. So I probably should should I [clears throat] presentation but revenue is down um this year and you had mentioned one source of revenue checks. Yeah. Uh but are there other significant revenue losses this year because I know like the prior year we had raised fees on park provided services. Uh so it just I'm wondering about sort of the narrative around that. You know what I mean? If you don't have that that

Yeah. No, I can uh so the the core center did have some uh revenues attached to it for facility program that happened out of that space. You'll see um that that drop. We've also looked at historic numbers and try to be more realistic in what the numbers would look like this year. I think you were very conservative and we're hopeful that we'll be able to to over revenue come back with a great story in this next cycle. Okay. Thank you, Council. We have time for um a couple more counselors on this one. So, I see councelor Sanchez Parkinson. Welcome.

Hi, everyone. Sorry I couldn't be there in person. Um and thank you for the presentation. Look forward to connecting also um to just learn more about your work and and your team. Um, I wanted to point something out that I'm sort of hearing on from like presentation to presentation, which is communications and marketing. Uh, and in your presentation, you highlighted being able to reach 10,000. I just looked and I think you're at 12,000 now, which congratulations. And I've also noticed that the parks and wreck social media channels are the ones that are connected to the city website. Um, and as we think about sort of creating collaboration and efficiencies across the city, I wonder if there's been any conversations around um, strategizing of communications um, across the various departments and what sort of uh, clear comm community commun sort of clear messaging do we want to send both to our residents and our and our visitors. So I I guess I'm sort of more specifically I I was curious to know why the parks and racks is sort of the centralized um sort of platforms for the city and then how that's being I guess um related or connected to some of the other efforts like BCA uh CEDO also talked about marketing as well.

Uh thank you that is a that's a great question. We do have uh folks that that work in that space uh across the city and different departments that you meet regularly uh to exchange information and best practice, make sure we're on the same page with how and where we show up as a city. And I think there's always opportunities to expand and um do even more. So I I think that's a that's a great question. Thank you. Other counselors counselor counselor Sanch Sanchez Parkinson I see you all set. Yes, thank you.

Thank you councelor Shakar. Um I was just curious um the link between the is the adult recreational program position as a uh we are transitioning from specific um positions in adult recreation or youth recreation and creating more generalist position so that we can better identify gap programming. uh our adult programming will happen and we're we're very excited to to get that up and moving workerly without two specialist positions that are currently vacant and uh have you know we've made job offers or very close to make job offers for one position. So

great I guess I was just curious if you see a link between I don't know how much of the revenue decrease is due to less recreational program offerings associated with them. Do you think that that attributed? Um I I think we actually in gone through a lot of transition and so really looking at apples to apples with some of the numbers. It's kind of hard to really put it in place. I think over the course of this next year we'll be able to stabilize

and have those positions fill really start working on you know what's what's next for division. Um so we should hopefully uh through this fiscal year really be able to set that that base uh so that we start tracking see where the numbers are going. What I will say is um our programs are all operating at revenue or better um for direct uh costs associated with those programs and the programs that we have they're doing well. We really are trying to expand as much as possible and offer similar offerings and and looking at our programs that are maybe not um as popular and needed alternatives being able to start to get towards. So um probably over the next six months we should be in a better position to really start having a a broader conversation around how our revenue and what our program registration look like. Great. Um, thank you. That's really helpful to hear.

Thank you, Council Shack. I'm gonna give uh we're over time, but I'm gonna give councelor Grant the last question here. Councelor Grant,

thank you. Uh quickly picking back again on what councelor Sanchez Parkinson said because I think we need to look at I mean for a long time it's just the fact that the city doesn't have um consolidated uh website management and social media management is um definitely a cost issue as well as properly coordinating um how we advertise the city, how we educate the city um in addition to advertising for the events. And just a real quick question, uh with regards to some of the jazz shows on the waterfront, like exactly where those will be held on the waterfront? Is it the waterfront park where um the Jazzfest shows are held or is it someplace else on the waterfront?

Uh yes, it will be uh in in that location. Thank you. I I have not seen it in person myself yet, so I very excited to see that. Okay. And and how much does it cost to put on a show there? Because I've always felt for many many years now that we're missing that opportunity like by not doing something there at least every other week during the summer. Uh I I will say that the um you got the the act 15 restrictions. Sorry. Yeah. [laughter]

And and we have we have tried to maximize the um the allowable use in in that space as much as possible are pretty close to that this uh this year and I want to highlight um our director Maro and the team there to to really try to bring in as many hacks as possible maximize uh the activation of the waterfront. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council Grant, and thank you, Phil. Thank you so much.

Yes. On your side. Congratulations. We are now going to move on to our next item which is my office, the mayor's office that will be presented by my interim chief staff. little time here. Very very concise and very tiny very tiny.

Yeah. Uh I need Yeah, just took my computer back. Your

co-host that connects. We have regional programs after this and then we are wrapping up finance administration in case people signed on late. Items remember they were 7 8 9 will be heard on um Monday night. [snorts] Um this is um our org chart. Aside from the mayor, there are three of us in the office. Um the cost savings achieved in the mayor's office um resulted in a 20% reduction. It's essentially the removal of three positions. um the uh special assistant on housing which was slated to be a Q4 FY26 start date for that position due to modern gov and the reorg of CEDO it was determined that this position would be superfluous and no longer needed um as the director of CEDO I do feel that I have a pretty good strong capacity right now uh due to some very strong hires made in that department since my tenure started and as well as the addition of the planning team to CEDO. We're seeing um a lot of synergy and forward moving on housing and I don't I don't feel the need to add another position to that team. Um Ingred Jonas, our special assistant on public safety um after the launch of the situation table and the hiring of interim chief Burke, she exited that role. So that will not be continued in FY27. um as well as the special assistant on overdose prevention center implementation. Um this position is

moving to an external role and will have smaller more limited hours um and um will be moving into the CEDO department as that project will be managed now under CEDO. Um this is the 20% reduction from 800,000 to 650,000. Um and the mayor's office budget is primarily made up of the salaries of the four employees in that department. Um the savings were realized from the eliminated positions as discussed. Um and there are modest expenses and expenditures for travel and training, office supplies and membership to regional and national um mayoral uh organizations and questions and discussion.

You win. You win. I will win the short presentation award. There's no very very simple budget just for the record. All right. Questions from board of finance members. Council car, this is actually not a question and this is guess not to you to bring it up. I still feel pretty strongly that the mayor's office needs another position, what I'll call a real true uh chief of staff, which is operational as opposed policy,

planning, putting out fires. I mean, they're really two different jobs. you know, somebody who digs and supervises the department staff probably back room. And I only say that just publicly because I still think as a city we need think about that. I think we're shorting ourselves. We get battered around about you, not me. Uh, you know, did you look at this? Did you look at that? Did you look at this? And I I just think we're short staffed in that a professional position of somebody to do that operationally. And so I'm just tossing that out there for future ponderance. You know, we talk about it at the mayor's race or something. But um just a comment that you all work incredibly hard and I think we're so short. You the mayor's office supervises too many personnel. They just do. And in order to change that, you need a position to function with and we don't have it.

I really appreciate that, Council Carpenter. I will not put Car on the spot for that, but it is interesting to see the size and scale of what is expected in the modern day city and this office has not tracked with any capacity growth in over 15 years, probably even longer, uh or or at least at minimum what you've outlined. But I would also say on the constituent side of things, the amount of communication and expectation and response put on one staff person who who also is supposed to hold the schedule and the coordination and all the other administrative support,

it's kind of at an absurd level with the amount of of volumes of information that come to our office and get back to that expectation. And while we can optimize trying to prioritize Burlington residents, etc., it is it is endless and it it's it's a recipe for burning out staff in those positions. Um, and even when we have highly qualified folks who come in, it it's not a sustainable role and I've even seen that in my short tenure so far. So, I do think this is actually a very important conversation as a partnership between the mayor's office and council because we need to depoliticize the reality of what we expect of this position, no matter who is the mayor. And I think that will really take a bipartisan and tripartisan if if some there's another party on the on the council for us to really do this as a as a team uh to really look also at the compensation. I will say this here the compensation I will not advocate because of the politics around my role but it is also severely underpaid for the expectations expectations of a staff and to just advocate for whomever holds these roles for whatever mayor it makes it very hard to recruit the best and brightest and the best and brightest who I've been able to attract are doing it as a pure act of service to this um this office and to this community and it they just deserve a competitive like an actual professional wage that it is not currently marked as. So, um, thank you for letting me have that soapbox moment and I could I could very much welcome that partnership again by council because I think that is really necessary for the future sustainability of this office. Thank you, council.

I concur. I should have taken three minutes off of that, but anyway, I have lots of thoughts on that. Other questions or comments from um, uh, board of finance members before we go to other counselors? To other counselors, questions, comments on this very brief presentation. Councelor Sanchez Parkinson.

I just I I wish there was a way to like thumbs up and plus everything that councelor Carpenter said. So I just wanted to sort of put that on record. And also noticing that some of the positions that um are no longer there were also issue specific. And I think that there's something around being able to have someone who is doing the research, who is sort of offering um expertise in a way that is like evidence-based, like who's sort of like supporting the issue based work. Um, and maybe that is a not a specific topic like housing, but maybe there's someone that could be recruited to think broadly about the number of issues that your office is uh engaging in on a daily basis. Someone could who is able to bring in a level of analysis and research to inform the work. Um, so I just wanted to note that as a an area that I'm that I that made me think about.

Thank you, counselor. I would add um state and regional relations to that in terms of policy development and again the complexities that are facing the city and how much it is just by default that on the staff mayor and our comms deputy position it is uh it it just gets more complicated by the month. It's it's it's really difficult. You have anything to add? No, no. I mean, if anyone if if we choose to continue this discussion, I'm happy to. Having spent approximately three months now in the office, it is quite shocking the volume of work. I mean, I've been with the city for seven years, but it's really not till you're on the other side of the curtain that you really do see um the demands on that office and um and the demands of constituents and the speed with which that moves. I I um anecdotally I had coffee with Peter Cleell the other day who mentioned you know the Burlington Free Press was printed once a day. There was no social media, no internet, and the mail was delivered once a day. And that was your, you know, reaction process, schedule, and time. And it's at warp speed now. And it does, I think it does the municipality and the constituents a disservice because issues do get bottlenecked in the mayor's office and we literally cannot work anymore than we already do. So, I'll just put that there. Thank you, Cara. I see councelor Litwin and then we'll go to councelor Barlo and then Shector. Councelor Litman.

Thanks. Um and I just wanted to really ask a quick question that um because the microphone can be a little hard to hear, so I wanted to make sure I heard it correctly. So the uh the issue, mayor, that you were discussing was around the salaries of the folks that are remaining in the office or the salaries of the uh positions that were eliminated from the office. uh the salary the on the standing positions that have been in the mayor's office for uh the last 15 20 years they're all uh they're all underpaid I would say given the amount of work to what we've been talking about here are underpaid with the amount of volume and expertise and complexities that they're asked to do every every single one of them

and so I guess I guess I would say you know I feel like that's what we have the departmental director's expertise and so many departments that we have because I'm I'm just struggling ling to understand why $110,000 and $83,000 is not a respectable salary for those positions.

I I would encourage you councilwin to look at the other line items and other positions uh in the city. Also understanding that uh there are 15 14 direct reports still to the mayor's office in terms of appointments per the charter, even more even though we've done modern gov uh readjustments. that is uh highly unsustainable for mayor even with a highly competent chief of staff. Um and also looking at uh the private sector but also elsewhere in in municipal government and even in our region what city managers are paid uh for cities in our immediate region including South Burlington uh Essex etc exceed not only the mayor's salary but far and beyond what the chief of staff makes here in Burlington. Okay. Thank you.

Go to councelor Barlo. I just I just want to concur on the comments that others have made around um the need to at least look at resourcing in in the mayor's office. Um it should be part of modern maybe modern gov. It's uh modern gov doesn't mean just reducing the size of government. I think of it as meaning right sizing and resourcing it appropriately. And and I I can speak not just constituents get bottlenecked in the uh in the mayor's office, but there's been many times in my my time here where I have had to book time with the chief of your chief of staff like weeks out because of the volume of work that your office is dealing with. So, so I would uh I'd welcome that um that discussion and I think it's one we should

Thank you, Crow. I just want to first of all I just want to plus one that I I ever since stepping into this tool a year ago have constantly just been pretty much I know a lot of the quantity and volume of work that's flying through a really small office all the time and I think I just wanted to say I do see this I saw buddy right agree Laura up there in the chat like I do think there's bipartisan uh willingness to have this conversation because I think it's really important for the health of our city to be having this conversation. So, I guess just a comment, I don't know if that lives in the budgeting process because I feel like relative to the overall size of the city budget, we're not talking about uh we're talking about a very small number of positions. Um, so I think I guess consider it my openness to say like should we have this conversation now or I love the idea of like maybe it's part of a mo exploration that we sort of commit to collectively to say how do we sustain I also feel like city councilors are I mean we don't need to open the whole can of worms but like this all of this is a labor of love more than anything else and it's it's hard to figure out how to do it sustainably. Um, and so I just kind of wanted to name that. And then I just had a very tactical question. Um, which was the OPC coordinator position. It sounds like that's not a that's not a hire right now. That's a an external contractor is what's budgeted.

That is um that position is currently in the mayor's office as a temporary position. that individual, Terresa Bazina, who you've probably all met, um, has asked and would like to move to a consulting role that actually fits with the way the project's moving as well. Um, and so that's just coming out of that budget. It'll then be in CEDO as part of our consulting and and some of the OPC grant funds cover that. Yeah. Great.

And there's another part about the compliance part of that. So as Teresa uh sort of steps down, the grant compliance part which is required for a state statue of even giving Burlington this pilot is the work that CEDA will continue to sustain going forward and we have been in the process of uh how to staff that uh and the position just closed and we're in the process. So that's already funded for right now and it's already in my budget and that is it's a fairly complex grant project to manage. Um it would probably not be a permanent position. It would be someone who would be with us for a few years until we get the OPC up and running.

God has again designed by the statute where we would have and the states it's it's basically startup money for the first few years of the OPC operation and the whole design and expectation of a community partner or whoever is is operating the OPC would be to lean off of state funds and therefore city oversight of state funds make the pass through that year whatever once once they're up and running. But in the time being, that's the staff name. Y councelor Carpenter, I'll give you the last question and then we'll move on.

This is actually sort of a different problem, but I thought it's good to mention now. The other night, um, we had a presentation by the legal department. You're now going to be short a position, a position that had been elevated because of skill set. And I I just I'm encouraging you not to lower that staffing at the minute because I am concerned about availability of expertise for the legal office for you options in the marketplace. You know, is there somebody out there that has a maybe a higher level of expertise that we can do? So, I'm just cautioning about not lowering that position, but opening it up, seeing who's out there, and then telling us what you need to do because I I am concerned that that department doesn't have enough support for you. Thank you, council chair. All right, with that, Carl will stay right there and right here. switch to the next one which is a presentation on our regional programs budget which has traditionally sat in the mayor's office. Okay. Um regional programs um we divide our regional programs into three categories. non-discretionary regional services. I will go into detail on all these. Um core what we consider core responsibilities critical services and discretionary grants. Um before anyone asks you I will note that the sister cities budgets are not in here. Those have been fully moved to REI. I just ask you said they are divided and my observation is for this year we're presenting it that way but they haven't been divided. It's just been a pile of things we funded.

Correct. Although the non-discretionary have always been non-discretionary. Yes. For example, CCRPC and that sort of stuff. Yeah. Which I want to go back would be typically a mayor's line item. Yes. And I'll get to that. Yep. Um so exactly as you mentioned um

the non-discretionary um regional services these are all being moved to other budgets to be line items. Um Wooki Valley Park District is going to the parks budget. Um VLCT is going to um director Shod's budget in DFA. CCRPC, Chipna County Regional Planning Commission is moving to the planning budget and CATMA is moving to HRS. So, just as you suggested, we're sort of clearing that out of this and and housing them uh in the departments where we believe they actually should be housed. Um, this is what the mayor's office considers core responsibilities, critical services. um Howard Street outreach team, as you know, that was increased in the past fiscal year to support some of um the street level behavior that has been posing challenges for the community. Um home health and and hospice um the Heinberg Senior Center and the Turning Point. Uh just as a note, these commitments are remaining um the same as they were in the previous fiscal year.

Um for discretionary grants, there is approximately a 100,000 available for these. Um this will be moving into CEDO. We have already begun to create a competitive application process for these grants. Moving forward, this will create more transparency and more of an equitable process. Um, the grant program will be open to all nonprofits in the city. Um, and those who receive funds in FY26 are not guaranteed funds moving forward. I have listed the FY26 recipients here. Um, just so we're all aware of them. Um, Cedo will model this program. Uh for those of you who were here during ARPA, we ran the targeted nonprofit grant program. It's very simple application process. We offer technical support for non-native English-speaking uh organizations. Um the review committee will consist of city staff and counselors. There'll be a clear scoring rubric. Um be we will wait till the budget is passed. By the end of June, um it will be passed. Um, we will kick that process off this summer with the goal of getting applications in and funds dispersed by, excuse me, the fall of 2026. So, final highlights, uh, the non-discretionary, uh, remains fully funded as they need to be, but moved into corresponding departments. Critical service, uh, grants remain funded at the same level they were as FY26. Um and discretionary grants will be moving towards a more transparent process that will be managed by CEDO. Um and this is just letting you know uh we went from 813 to 8007 overall. I think that was my last slide. Yes.

Thank you Cara. Yep. We'll open it up for questions. Board of finance members first.

Councelor Councelor Barlo and then the council. Um, so we've been having some back and forth about some of these regional programs. I understand the notion that like historically they've been funded as regional programs and now we're talking about a competitive grant process before there was I think an assumption that these things were part of budget and they just sort of like this is was a convenient place to put them. But the city had always um committed certain amounts of money to some of these events. Um and and I think that maybe even though these things aren't considered critical, they are they they are important and they're um they're traditions that we should find a way um for some of these things to pay. I'm not saying all of them. Um but like the Vermont City Marathon, imagine if we didn't have we the Vermont City Marathon, which I know has has struggled. Um financially, if we, you know, I'd say that that pays for itself in spades. any investments the city makes in the philosophy, the number of people that come to the city on Memorial Day weekend. Um, you know, King Street Center, Sea Art Hop, another economic um, uh, another activity, another event that creates a lot of economic activity in the city. So, I think we have to maybe look at these things differently than than um, non-critical grant applicants. But, you know, part there there are things that we need to find a way to structurally fund year after year. My other comment is that there's there especially we've been having this back and forth around the Burlington Concert Band over email. They want $5,000. Burlington Concert Band has been in performing in this city for 175

years. They put 11 concerts on in Battery Park for five for a $5,000 contribution. And I've been told by by at least one, you know, uh, one member of the Bron Food Band, this is very important funding, very significant amount. So, I'm just saying that and their program starts like next month, I think. So, it's like they can't wait until they need to know where their funding's coming from ahead of our budget process. I think there's also a sort of a synchronization problem there. And so I just think we need to reook at re relook at this and try to figure out how to better fund some of these things. And maybe it's not all of them and maybe certainly we need to find critical ones, but some of these I think are really important. We need to not create a competitive process.

Um I'm sorry. So that's just my like I guess that's kind of a so

my thinking or you have a response reg counselor. Well, I would just like to articulate in this setting some of the discussion that we had via email, which is that I I would I would caution this body and I am expressing my personal opinion here that we all have nonprofits or charities or organizations that we are fond of and feel strongly about. When you are on the city side, we are inundated with requests from organizations for funds. And I feel that there needs to be a system for so you love the concert band. Okay. And you might love Heinberg, but like how are we this can't the the the reason we're starting this process is to make it more equitable and transparent. So it is not at the personal preference of the mayor or counselors where funds are going. Funds are limited. I would argue that if you gave $5,000 to CBO, they would also do great things with it that would also positively impact our economy as well. Um, so I I'll just express my opinion on that that I I I caution I also caution putting staff in a position where we are, you know, picking and choosing the favorites of currently elected officials um versus having a clean process.

And thank you K. I just want to add that as we um at least in my [clears throat] time here as mayor as I see other granting programs that we have including within REIB the community celebrations line for example that has had a branding process whether it's rupture or whatever that used to make those decision there has been an application process that came through board of finance when those things are recommended there is a lot more process than any of these items had when I came in the door and part of this is uh really thinking about equitable access to city resources, how to even start that conversation. And it's not it's it's absolutely nothing about a statement of of value for those who've received funding in the past. Every single one of these probably if you you had the capacity and time to research had a different path towards getting that money and that resourcing mayor, through a counselor, through a resolution, something more formal. And so um as Takar respondents really wanted to underscore this is around consistency across the city from best standards and also engagement of many Canadian partners who have didn't even know that this was an option. And I mentioned RI very purposely to to note that those are um often uh bipokled organizations that as we look at how institutional racism exists in institutions like city government and others, we have to just be very thoughtful and open and open-minded to um what our history tells us and how we can make this more equitable and transparent going forward to make sure city resources are shared throughout our entire

my last comment. we should give these organizations more runway because I know we talked about this last year that there hasn't been a process yet and now we're like less than two months away from having to adopt the budget. Thank you, councelor or councelor Carpenter and then uh and then I'll see if it's and I see councelor traverse. So I'm going to go board finance first and then councelor chapter.

Well I'm going to discreet I don't see any sub is not personal preferences. Um he blew up the senior things we had study in 19 the study in 19 said keep it independent on profit. Don't move it into the city but support it. I mean that that's a was a long and in fact that number is a little off because they got an additional $28,000 out of that $50,000 that we set aside when we blow up core. So I think reooking at some of those as city services you know I think it's fair to say do we need a concert band or not but some and is this a good one or not? But I don't think it should be so much a competitive process. The REI process is fine. I mean, I think if if there's another group, I'm just using the band as one example that wants to program city the band shell battery um for 11 concerts, then we can be open to that. Maybe it's this for this group. But I think almost more oversight and for someone who comes out of social services, I know some of these asks are just historical and they had a gap and let's ask the city and the city and I've said this publicly not a social service agency. I think the 250 from to Howard ought to probably be in the police budget or somewhere. I mean, we specifically gave them money because we need their expertise on the ground just like we put OBC and CEDO's budget. So I'm just encouraging us to rethink about the necessary services, you know, adult programming the city, street outreach that we need to make our own departments

work first. So how do we make our own departments work? There are $2 million worth of asks we could get to social service agencies. We're probably not the right resource for it. We just can't be. um we already spend more than we probably can support in on the ground services and when we talk about needing the state to step in and some of that stuff. So I just encourage us to look you know are some of those part of the city more than they're just competitive.

Thank you councelor Carpenter. Councelor Traverse and then I'll go to councelor Shaker and then back to councelor Grant and that will be our time. Yeah, I just wanted to say that I respectfully disagree with any contention that the list of regional programs here is representative of a list of of personal preferences of elected officials past and present. um you know, these are really vital community partners and um events here and and I certainly understand and uh appreciate the interest in our more equitably opening up the process to um others, but you know, I really don't see the Local Motion Bike Ferry, the King Street Center, uh the Vermont Concert Band, the Vermont City Marathon, you know, these these real institutions year in and year out in our city as representative of a list of of personal preferences for uh elected officials. So I I wanted to say that to begin with. And then second uh while again um reiterating my appreciation for our standing up a more equitable process here, I want to echo councelor Barlo's concerns that as we work to stand that up, there's potentially some organizations here that are going to fall into a hole of sorts. Um, now the concert band puts their concerts on over this summer. The SBA ArtHop puts their event on in September. Uh, the local motion bike fairy um operates over um this summer as well. The VTIF International Film Festival goes on in in October. And so these are organizations that have historically relied on these monies to put on this event year in and year out by standing up a process where they may not have answers until um mid-autumn. That means that they may be missing out on a year that could directly have a negative

impact on their ability to put it on. So I I want to put my voice in in favor of um you know again focusing on those programs that are real institutions to this city and um you know may maybe giving another year grace period here for at least some of them until we can stand up this program and set up a clear process where it's not negatively impacting uh them over the course of this summer until we have that process uh available to them. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Council Travers, Councelor Shaper, and then to Council Grim.

Um, thank you. And yeah, having served on CEDO this last year, we've kind of been a little more in the weeds on this than I think the rest of the counselors. I just had a couple comments. one is on the sort of the four core responsibilities critical services one that receive um the kind of the largest grants of the pot and that we uh I think collectively feel are really core investments that the city makes um that there my understanding is there'll be an opportunity for them those organizations to present at an upcoming board of finance meeting in May which I'm thrilled is happening and that my only ask would be that sort Maybe following that process would finalize the amounts that each group is like I know that'll happen when we approve a budget. Um that will but I saw it in here as sort of the fiscal year 27 commitment and I I think Cedto's intention was uh and of course this doesn't have to be you all. This is your budget. Um but that really understanding both the impact of these investments yeartoear and sort of what's on the horizon ahead given the sort of dollar value associated with these investments in particular and the degree to which they're really part of our core values as a city to be making these kinds of investments then that will be an opportunity to sort of have those conversations as we finance the reputation secretion program. So I just kind of want to say that out loud. Um, and then for I guess this is more just a question on the discretionary side. I know I feel like CEDO is sort of mid conversation in partnership or sorry CDNR is mid conversation with your office Cara around what is the grant application look like that there's an example from Essex that we've pulled that we're sort of looking at and that we had talked about as part of um that application process that we include a question around the history of those funds and sort of the impact of those

dollars on the orgs that are currently receiving funds. So, you know, I I hear all the concerns on all sides. And I think um making sure that that's part of sort of the application process so that we can honor these some of these long-standing investments, the ways that they are really pillars of our city and that that can emerge from whatever application process is put forward. So, um I don't know if that means that I know CDNR will have its first meeting of this new session, I think later this month. So maybe that's an opportunity to sort of pick that part of it up. But just kind of want to acknowledge that I hear it. I live in the grant world myself professionally, so like I know how complicated these things can get, but I think I I think there's ways to do this that I think can can get us hopefully kind of taking all of it into account to where we hope to.

Thanks to your office for taking it up. Thank you, councelor Shector, and thank you for just mentioning CDNR's work because as we went through the budget process last year, uh it was a commitment with my office and council to put this to CDNR and there has been work being done by a council committee on this in in strong partnership with my office over the last several months that led to this uh this uh presentation and this proposal of how to find a path forward. And there's transition time and there's more to say. So with that, councelor Grant uh last counselor on this item and then we'll move to our last presentation. Thank you. Um I will keep a very very uh long topic. Uh I I think we have to be reminded of um intent versus impact. There is definitely been perceived in the community that uh certain things are related to personal preferences. that that's some people may not see that, but people in the community see that as work has been done uh the last few years to try to uh bring things and and and share these monies in a more equitable manner. And that includes um you know recent discussions that we've had about language access like people literally um either not being offered opportunities at all or offering opportunities in a way that they can't understand has been a real problem in our community. And I think we have to be real about being able to offer opportunities uh to other people, other types of events so they can too also be pillars in our community. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Gramp. That Carla, thank you. Thank you. I think you win the record of sitting in that seat so far. [laughter] That's my fifth budget presentation this season. All right, moving on to our last presentation of this evening. Uh, Department of Finance and Administration Steo Sean. Yes, last but not least.

Hey, I am CEO Katherine Shod. Um, I would like to thank and introduce my colleagues who have hung in here with me this evening. Brad Pukinberger, director of finance. Lynn Reagan, um, HR director, and Scott Barker, chief innovation officer. Only my own computer. Here we go. Um, this is our ORG chart. Um, as someone earlier tonight mentioned, um, it was just under a year ago that we decided to form um, the department of finance and administration, bringing together the clerk, treasurer's office, the assessor's office, human resources, and IT. And so you can see what that looks like here. Um, we cover quite a variety of functions. um with the um real focus being on continuity of government. Um I will not go through all of the highlights um from this past year. Um but I will go through some of them um there were some great financial highlights including an upgrade to the city's credit rating. Um, and why does that matter to the average citizen? Because that ultimately leads to lower property taxes. Um, also last year's audit um showed that we had exercised fiscal prudence and we were able to add $1.2 million of revenue to our rainy day fund. Um, we are also beginning a process of some not

glamorous but really important work of replacing the city's very aging financial software so that we will be able to even report out with more transparency in the future about where your tax money is going. On the HR side, um our wellness committee, which is a committee made up of employees across the city, um has been doing a lot of great work and has achieved the gold level of Sigma, which is uh one of our health partners, uh their healthy workforce designation and it um constantly working to make sure that we are all in the fence, so to speak um has done a lot of work with integrating police department into the city's IT systems and that is critical to improve security resilience and support. Um, former counselor Sharon Busher u mentioned some of the work that DFA has done with capital. Um, and this year we completed the city's first ever comprehensive tool to really look at all of our capital projects and prioritize them um using one tool. We're still experimenting with that. Um, we've also rolled out important new cyber security tools. We're in the midst of um, contract negotiations. Um, trying to wrap up with two of our unions. Um, we finished with our police and fire unions last year. Um, and so you can really see from this list, um,

DFA oversees a really wide variety of, um, services both for employees and for the public. Um, we will jump right into cost savings for this year. Um we do have three vacant positions that we are planning to eliminate. Um one from kind of each of our large service areas, one of our four customer service associate positions, one of our three help desk support positions, and then one position in HR, the assistant director of benefits and risk management. Like all of the positions we are planning to eliminate, they are all currently vacant. And you can see here what we expect those impacts to be. Um this will mean that the clerk's office will be closed from 1 to 1:30 every day because we don't have enough staff to keep it open and accommodate um union required lunches. um it um is going to move from an expected 10 business day turnaround to a 15 business day turnaround. That mostly affects those of us who are internal. And then we have three very talented HR managers and then without the assistant director, they'll still be able to keep up with their daily work, but they will be more limited on some of that proactive planning. they help the departments with um in addition to these three positions, uh DFA also trimmed over $80,000 from the non-personnel or operating lines.

You've heard me um refer to them as staplers in the past. It's not just staplers, it's travel and training, consultants, printing, all those sorts of things. Uh you'll see on this slide um how the department does with revenues. Um it will not surprise you to hear that HR does not bring in revenues and it does not bring in revenues but the clerk treasurer's office does. Um and you'll see it's right around $4 million a year. And you'll see how we make that money um on these lower bullets. about half of that um comes from indirect or admin costs. Um and then the other portion um comes from a variety of other sources including interest on taxes, investment income, and then some user needs for expenses. Um those come in at just over $8 million. And you'll see this year's budget has grown by a little bit um just over 3% over last year. Um and most of our budget just over 80% is personnel related. Um, but I do want to point out um that because we've got it in our budget, um, in addition to the $7 million of personnel costs, almost all of the rest of it is IT costs. And those IT costs are computer, licensing, and software costs. And those are housed in the IT budget. but those benefit the entire

city. So, it's a little bit disproportionate, you know, it makes the budget look a bit strange. Um, so I wanted to point that out. And then moving forward, um, this budget does include two new hires. Um, and I believe uh other than the two new firefighters, these are the only two strategic hires um that the city is contemplating in the general fund. And one of those is for a budget director uh because at this point it's really just me and we have a budget manager um who's working on this budget and then an accounts receivable coordinator. We've talked about the importance in this year's budget of collecting on money that is already owed to the city and we only have two positions that are currently that are collecting all of the property tax, all of the gross receipts and that accounts for at least 60% of the city's revenue. Um and so we are proposing to add a third position um a mid-level accounts receivable coordinator. Um other things we are looking forward to in FY27.

Just one second on that. Pause your timer because may your prerogative. I just really want to emphasize that first line of we take it very seriously around adding any new positions when we're reducing others. But as I've as I've um uh said in the prior two budgets I put forward to council, uh it is so important that our budget also uh reflect the investments we critically need to do, whether it's our policy priorities of community safety, housing, and climate or just simple city operations. And I have sat here now for over two years watching how this city puts together the budget. It is not sustainable uh for the CEO to be holding this level of work, especially with our concentration of essential core services within DFA. you saw that reporting line that we also have to work on in the work chart. Um, but for us to be able to uh address uh getting deeper into our budget, supporting departments on their development of their own budgets as well as ever getting to a place of looking at multi-year budgeting or anything that would be a new and holding process for development. We need um expertise and leadership and capacity in this new role. So uh so I just want to I Katherine and I collaborated on this but I really pushed for this. It is the mayor's budget. I see this clearly and I hope council will understand this need and obviously with accounts receivable with collections it's a different it's a different uh entity or a different concept because that position in of itself will pay for itself more times over by adding capacity for money that is owed to the city. So that's a different I don't want to say animal but my brain can't say [laughter] other than that it's a different thing it's um than than this other more direct investment in the budget director. Thank you for the mayor commercial. Okay, back to you.

It's a comment about budget director which I think is critical but I hope in that process there's a way either through it or that expertise to work with department heads particularly in larger general fund units. I asked BCA you know how many people from Burlington or not Burlington use studio or not. I mean, I think there needs to be a little higher nexus of um activity to budget and so I'm just tossing that out and that's the blue parts too as well.

Yep. Understood. I think that's a great idea and that is also didn't get a shout out in the or chart but Nancy Stson and Data also moved into DFA and we've already started some really fruitful work with her and that will continue also with the budget director.

Uh this is the last slide so we can get right to questions. Um I'll just say um we are still looking to hire and onboard a new assessor. Everyone warned me this was going to be the hardest position that I had to try and recruit for at the city after six years. I think that's probably true. Um, we will begin implementation of the new financial system and HR is helping us to implement I think the city's first ever citywide performance management system. So that is also really exciting.

Lyn's very excited back there. Um, so I'm not going to go over this summary slide, but I would ask you to read it because it's full of lots of fun stuff about everything that we do. And now let's get to questions and discussion because it's been a long budget process already. Thank you, Catherine. All right, opening time for questions from board of finance members. Councelor Barlo.

Um, thank you. I uh I had a question about the the surprise for Scott. Um reducing the response time for IT help desk having had to deal with help desks in my business. I know that there's a certain amount of triage that goes on if someone's computers working. You're not going to make them wait 50 15 days. to talk a little bit about

I was gonna say most of our uh oh I should say Scott Barter chief innovation officer uh what world mayor asked me to do that um probably between 80 and 85% of our issues are actually closed within two days uh or less of the things that you're talking about we have machines sitting there so we don't we don't have to we don't have to make anybody wait 15 days because their peer is broken or the software isn't working. What this really gives us the ability to do is triage a little bit differently. There will be some things that can we that maybe we would get to in five or six days today and now and these are all business days you well actually most of them are calendar days but so we may see some extension on that end as well. Uh okay. It's instead of five or six days because of the number of issues we have coming in with the with only two people handling them. Uh it may take six or seven days, seven or eight days to get to some of the low priority things. Um part of that is because we not only have one fewer position, but we also took on all 140 some odd people in the police department. They have significantly different systems that we're dealing with. oftentimes those system needs rise higher than some of the other system needs just because of the public safety issues and things like that. So when I saw that up there and I Katherine and I talked about this and and it it is going to extend our uh turnaround times on some issues but again 80 to 85% of them it's not going to impact at all. It's just going to be the ones with the longer tail anyway that may take a little bit longer to get resolved. Is that

Yeah, that that is so it's like someone can't do perform a work function.

That is that's considered a critical issue. If you can't perform your work function, that's critical. It's it's anything that gets comes in as as a low priority thing. It may be research for new uh tools. It may be looking at a process. It may be looking at a at a on a website or that doesn't impact the public safety and things like that. Those things may take a little bit longer, but we're going to do everything we can to kind of lean into technology as well. So, a lot of the results of moving to multiffactor, for instance, is going to give us the ability to almost entirely reduce the need for us to set reset people's passwords, people be able to reset themselves. And so, there's a lot of technology tools technology and tools that we'll be leaning into that will allow us to offset some of that work to systems rather than to people. Thank you. That's helpful.

Thank you, Scott. Other questions from uh board of finance members first? Scott, I was just gonna suggest on that when you see that headline that you make sure staff understands that it just, you know, because I'm sure staff thinks all their things should be done tomorrow, but like you said, an edit to the website or other things that could so that'll be important for them to understand. Yeah. Yeah. I think we we've got we do send out on a regular b on an annual basis our service level expectations

and what we are agreeing to in terms of uh what you can expect as an end user. So we'll make sure that we get that we'll have those conversations and generally speaking again it's it's going to be relatively transparent to most people most issues. Other questions from board of finance before we open to other counselors. Okay, other counselors questions, comments. Councelor Singh.

Uh, yes. Thanks for the presentation, Katherine. I I'm just going to make an assumption here and I just want confirmation. The salaries and wages total compensation contingency that's in the budget worksheet of 122,000, I assume that's the two new positions you're speaking of, or is that contingency for something else? Yes, that is for the new positions. Great pickup.

Okay. Yeah. And then my question to be, do we know if there's consultants that provide uh budgetary assistance to municipalities [clears throat] um rather than bringing on a full-time employee? I know there's a thought process that the administration, I'm sure, has gone through that, but I I was just wondering if somebody could speak to that, please. Um I do not know the answer to that question actually. Um I have not spent a lot of time looking for those consultants. Um but that is something that we could consider.

And I would just add that um really the thought process behind this is that this is ongoing permanent work for the city. And I think we have to be very cautious about using consultants for very specialized conundrum kind of things especially in the world of finance to make sure we build I don't know what that is running above our our heads right now in the room. Anyway, uh so I'm not at home. I thought my children running up down anyway shouldn't have said that. Now I've lost my train of thought. Um but simply saying this is a really strategic investment in our ability to support multiple departments to build the expertise within the capacity within our finance team um and to support all of our departments and it's the permanency is important here. Uh I'm repeating myself so I'll just stop there. Thank you councelor Sing. Anything else? I'm sorry. Anything else counselor Singh?

No no no thank you. I appreciate that explanation.

Thank you. Other comments or questions from other counselors? Going once, going twice. See no further questions. Katherine and team, thank you very much. Uh, that is our last item on tonight. Well, we're not totally done, but we're done all the departments, so we should celebrate. Sorry, Catherine. You go ahead and applaud. All of us all appreciate it. We should always find moments to celebrate. So, with that, there's no further uh business for the board of finance, and I will adjourn the meeting at 7:38 p.m. Thank you very much. [music] [music]

[music] [music] Hey.