City Council - Regular Meeting

Mm. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. so so Thank you. you Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.

same thing happened i had a great call with elaine wang today thank you i picked her brain i was 10 minutes late because of my computer but

Thank you. um

How did your Zoom, did you get back on to Zoom?

No, I just barely restarted mine. This is the quality machinery that we have here.

We can't do that until we can get Zoom on.

No, but I think I'm almost there.

What's a night without some technical area?

Yeah, I mean, that's how tonight's gonna start. As long as I have you sitting here, I'm gonna essentially, maybe while I'm sitting here, I'm gonna send you an email, so try to find a time. I'm hard at work, so I have quite a chance. Sure.

And everybody's moving on. Something you should know about me, because I'm very good at grammatizing. I can't take that information. You're going to send me an email.

I'm going to send you an email. And then we're going to talk about things far away.

When I read the email.

That's right. OK. So I'm going to move Lori's computer.

Thank you.

recording in progress

Recording in progress

Folks can hear me. If Town Meeting TV could start the feed, we can go ahead and call the meeting to order. Folks there at City Hall can hear me. If Town Meeting TV could start the feed.

Excuse me. Excuse me. We're going to call the meeting to order.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Barlow. Can you hear me all right?

Yeah, if you could turn your volume up maybe a smidge.

Can you hear me now, Councillor Barlow?

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay, great. We will in a moment pass the gavel to Councillor Barlow, hopefully here to serve as temporary president this evening, but I will go ahead and call this meeting to order. It is Monday, August 3rd, 2026. The time is 6.15 p.m. The first item on our agenda is our agenda. And in my role, I will make a motion to approve our agenda as amended by adding item 1.2, which is the nomination of a temporary president to serve for this evening's meeting. Is there a second to that motion to adopt the agenda as amended?

Second. Thank you.

Is there any discussion on that? All in favor, then please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. That now brings us to item 1.2, which is the nomination of a temporary president. I am away with my family this week and had every intention to make it back this evening to be with you all. But unfortunately, due to some travel delays, I was not able to be there. And obviously, being remote, the meeting will go much more smoothly if we have someone presiding there in person. And so I would like to nominate Councillor Barlow to, I would move to nominate Councillor Barlow to serve as temporary president this evening.

And I would second.

Thank you, Councillor Bergman. Is there any discussion on this motion? Seeing none, we'll go to a vote. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? That carries unanimously. And Councillor Barlow, I will now go ahead and pass the gavel to you. Thank you.

Thank you, President Travers. So, just to give a little bit of a roadmap for this evening, We have public forums scheduled for 6.30, time certain. In our agendas, we also have a couple of small meetings that we need to address, and since it's only 6.16, I'm going to go ahead and try to get those handled now. The first is a local control commission meeting, and the second is a board of civil authority, and those are both warned, and should only take a few minutes. I'll first turn to the Local Control Commission and I'll recess the City Council meeting at 6.17 and call to order the Local Control Commission. And I'll turn to the Chair of our Licensing Committee, Councillor Broderick, for a motion on the agenda. I move to adopt the agenda. Second. Seconded by Councillor Grant. Any discussion on that agenda? Seeing none, all those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any against? No, that's unanimous. And the second item on that agenda is a consent agenda. Can I have a motion on the consent agenda, please? Move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated.

Second.

And we have a second from Councillor Grant. Any discussion on that item? Seeing none, all those in favor indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? That is also unanimous, which takes us to our deliberative agenda, which is a first class liquor license application for Sherpa Kitchen 119 College Street. Can I have a motion on that, please?

Move to approve the 2026-2027 first class liquor license application for Sherpa Kitchen 119 College Street with all standard conditions.

Second.

Is there any discussion on that? All those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that carries unanimously. With no further business and absent objection, I will adjourn our Local Control Commission meeting at 618. And next, I'll turn to Mayor Mulvaney-Stanek to convene our Board of Civil Authority.

Thank you very much, Acting Chair Mark Barlow. I will call to order the City of Burlington's Board of Civil Authority meeting on Monday, August 3rd, 2026 at 619 PM. Our first item is the agenda. Is there a motion on the agenda? So moved. Moved by, was that Councillor Schachter? Thank you, Councillor Schachter. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Councillor Grant. Thank you. Any further discussion before we vote on the agenda? Seeing none, all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed nay? Motion carries unanimously. Our next item is the consent agenda. Is there a motion on the consent agenda? So moved. Moved by Councillor Schachter. Second. Seconded by Councillor Grant. Thank you. Any discussion on the consent agenda before we vote? Seeing none, all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Motion carries unanimously. With no other business for the Board of Civil Authority, I will adjourn the meeting at record time, 6.20 PM. Back to you.

Thank you. And so we still have some time before public forum. I think I'm going to move ahead to item number four, which is committee reports. Are there any counselors who have committee reports this evening? Nobody, no. Go ahead, Councilor Schachter.

I can just give a quick committee report. The Parks, Arts, and Culture Committee meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, August 11th at noon. We'll be taking a first pass at diving into ways to incentivize activating downtown parks and doing more downtown programming and events. So anyone's invited to attend. We are at Fletcher Free Library. Thank you.

Great, and I failed to mention earlier that Councilor Sanchez-Parkinson is also joining us on Zoom tonight, and she has her hand raised for committee report, so go ahead.

Yeah, thank you for allowing me to join. Can you hear me?

We can.

Great. Sorry, I'm also away with my family this week. I'm to be able to join virtually. You will find a memo in the consent agenda outlining an updated statement for the City Council Racial Equity and Inclusion and Belonging Committee. The statement, It's to clarify its purpose, which is, again, to advance equitable policy, strengthen accountability, and work to ensure that community voices help shape decision-making. The REB committee reviews, develops, and tracks policies and initiatives that affect Burlington residents, with a particular focus to communities that have experienced disparities and inequalities. Through this work, the committee is going to be working towards a striving to advance a Burlington where everyone has equitable access to housing, education, employment, health care, public services, and participation in civic life. I also wanted to take this opportunity as the chair of the committee that moving forward, I would really appreciate receiving at a very minimum advance notice before an item is put on the city council agenda. Establishing this practice This will just help to create a clear and respectful precedent for future REIB committee work. A more collaborative approach would be to discuss those potential referrals with the committee chair before they are proposed or placed on an agenda, allowing us just to clarify the purpose, time and expectations for the committee's consideration. The committee has been working through a number of different issues and the next RAAB committee will be August 18th at 5 30 p.m. The agenda will include a discussion about cultural festivals and events as a strategy for activating Burlington Central District. Cultural festivals have become an important gathering spaces where people from across the city and the state can build communities, celebrate identities, and strengthen their sense of belonging. but they are also a strategy to create economic opportunity by attracting a much more diverse group of visitors, supporting local businesses, and contributing to a more vibrant and welcoming city. I also want to just take the opportunity to thank the REIB office and BCA, who have been supporting much of the cultural festivals work. So as we continue to explore the city-wide strategy for cultural festivals, I also would welcome the partnership of the Parks and Arts and Culture Committee, all based on capacity and alignment, as alignment allows. So thank you and hope to see you and join us at the next REB committee in August 18.

Thank you, Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson. Are there any other committee reports? Councillor Grant.

Thank you, I just wanted to, as I periodically do, I'd like to encourage people. I understand we're all so busy, so, As you can imagine, we can't get to every committee meeting, but for those of you here, you're concerned about community safety, so I strongly recommend the Public Safety Committee. And you may not have time to actually listen to the meetings, but at the bare minimum, both our fire chief and our police, our interim police chief, create reports, monthly reports with a lot of data about what is happening in and around our city as well as what they're encountering. And it's really important information. One of the things that continues to disturb me is that there's misinformation, disinformation, and that is causing more angst and division in our community. So being able to look at these reports directly from the chiefs and if you have time to listen to the questions that we might ask them and listen to their presentation, we also hear from, for example, we had a very detailed meeting from the EMS team. and how they looked at the people that we've all heard the term frequent friars, repeat offenders, things like that. What is causing this with these individuals? What are the root causes to see the same people over and over again? What actions are they taking? SO THE MEETING IS USUALLY THE FOURTH THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH. WHEN YOU GO TO THE CITY'S WEBSITE, YOU CLICK ON THE AGENDA BUTTON AND THAT TAKES YOU TO A CALENDAR. AND YOU CAN EITHER AT THE TOP ISOLATE ONLY PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETINGS AND THEN PERUSE THEM AT YOUR CONVENIENCE OR JUST PERUSE THE REPORTS. OR YOU CAN TUNE IN AND SEE THEM LIVE. AND THEY ARE RECORDED AND THEY'RE ATTACHED IN CIVIC CLERK, NOT ON TOWN MEETING TV.

anyone has any questions about that happy to answer them and send out links and thank you for your time and thank you all for being here tonight uh thank you counselor grant uh thank you for just a reminder for counselors this is about committee reports right now um and we'll have a chance for city council general affairs later in the meeting go ahead go Councillor Bergman.

Yep. Ordinance Committee, you're going to have an item tonight from DPW, but the next item that we're going to deal with is at our next meeting on the 20th of this month at 4.30 down in the Bushyard Conference Room. And we're taking up, it's really going to be like a public hearing on e-motos. And for anybody who has been sort of out there on the bike path or in a number of other areas, This has been an area of serious concern and we are taking it up. Hopefully we'll have members of the police department, the school department, public works department, the parks department. This is a multi-departmental problem that includes the need for resources for things like enforcement. So it's critically important. And we allow, depending on how many people show up, we're pretty good at having public forum also allow folks to speak during the substantive item. But we'll figure out how to do it to maximize public input, but also allow us to really understand the issues that we face going forward. Because this is not an easy problem. So hopefully we can come up with something that will begin to make things a little bit better. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Bergeron. Are there any other committee reports? Seeing none, I'll go ahead and close that item. And now I am going to turn, even though I'm a couple minutes early, to public forum, because we have a lot of speakers tonight. I think there may be 100 in this pile. So we'll see how we go. We'll jump right in. Before we do I want to thank CIO Schad and Lori Ohlberg for helping me out on Zoom tonight. I know Councilor Travers does that but I'm not I'm not often the chair so I need a little bit of help tonight. Also I'd like to just tell everybody about our rules for public forum. Under our rules, we'll hear first from Burlington residents here in City Hall, then we'll hear from Burlington residents online, followed by non-Burlington residents here in City Hall, and lastly, Burlington residents online. Actually, I misspoke. After Burlington residents here in City Hall and Burlington residents online, then we're going to hear from Burlington property owners before we turn to non-residents. As a reminder, Online participants in public forum must sign up at least an hour in advance of the meeting. Whether in person or online, each speaker will be allowed two minutes. When I call your name, if you're here in City Hall, please come to the table. Make sure the microphone is on. There should be a green light illuminated on the microphone itself, and hold the microphone close. For those online, I'll let you know when you've been unmuted, and we'll share a timer on the screen. When providing comments, please direct them to me as the chair and not to any other individual. It's important that City Hall remain a safe place for those in attendance and for those watching our meetings. The Council certainly respects and values diversity of opinion on public issues. We ask, however, that all comments be free from individualized attacks, hate, harassment, obscenities, and other derogatory language about individuals, particularly any individual's protected characteristics. We also ask that public comments avoid conduct that is unreasonably loud, disruptive, or discourteous. If I interrupt any speaker at any point in time, it will be to give them an opportunity to act in accordance with these rules. If someone continues to violate these rules, I reserve the right to end public comment at that point in time. With that, we'll begin with Burlington residents here in City Hall. And I'm going to call speakers two at a time. and just proceed to the mic at the table here, and then you can go ahead and speak. So the first person we have is Bruce Wilson, followed by Romeo Von Herman. Go ahead, Bruce.

I'm Bruce Wilson. Hello, city councilors, honorable mayor. I'm here today to talk about U-form boards. I want to thank our councilors, Ali and Laura, working with youth on boards. Also, I'm Vermont Human Rights Commissioner. Everybody, I'm the commissioner. I work for the governor. And I'm also Vermont State Police Fair and Possible Policing for over 10 years. And so I just wanted to say that I saw the state police out in City Hall, around three of them, and I asked them more of their protocol, and they said they was here to... work with Burlington Police on patrolling Burlington. And I said to them, please don't say that. Say that you are FIP, Feral and Partial Policing. That's what you're doing here. You're on Feral and Partial, you're not patrolling Burlington. Feral and Partial Police equal to everybody, all right? And so I wanna also say, food not cops. Food not cops. All right? I want all you city councilors to support Sam and all the work that he's been doing for Food Not Cops. Hey, Sam, I'm gonna tell you, I know everybody in the park. I'm out there like three times a week hanging out with them. They all know me. I like them. I love them. You know, they need this. You know, they need nutritional values to get off the damn ground, to get up and go walk around, to find a job. Who else gonna do it for them? Thank you, Sam. Food Not Cops.

So it's our practice not to have applause. If you want to show support for a speaker, you can use the jazz hands or whatever that we often will use here. So please don't clap. And with that, our next speaker is Romeo Von Herman followed by Matt Messier.

Good afternoon, everyone. I am here to show my support for Resolution 6.5. This resolution recognizes the simple fact that compassion and public safety are not mutually exclusive. A truly compassionate city also ensures that its public spaces are safe, clean, and welcoming, accessible to everybody. It also recognizes that those experiencing homelessness, substance abuse disorder, mental illness deserve meaningful opportunities for long-term stability. However, those are not competing goals but complementary responsibilities. That being said, what makes this resolution particularly very compelling is that it moves beyond identifying problems. It establishes a framework that is built on measurable outcomes. It calls for performance-driven standards that are data-driven, decision-making rather, and a strong collaboration with our state government. That being said, that Burlington alone cannot serve as the primary provider for services that are challenging, that affect our entire state. I do have 55 seconds, so thank you.

Thank you, Romeo. Next we have Matt Messier, followed by Mary Muget. And actually, if we want to make this move along, because we do have quite a few speakers here tonight, If I call two names, maybe the second person can also come to the table so they're ready to speak. Thank you, Mary.

Go ahead, Matt. Mr. Chairman, I've lived at the Vermont House across from the City Hall Park since 1998 and currently serve as the president of the board there. Over the years, I've worked for many progressive causes. I volunteered for the Peter Clavel and Bob Kiss campaigns, the Sanders campaign, and I helped organize the Ralph Nader presidential campaign. I worked at Economic Services in Burlington for years and volunteered for the Peace and Justice Center over the years, most recently at Needle Pickups. I currently run the nonprofit Volunteers for Peace. I support the Burlington Forward Resolution as there seems to be a reduction in law enforcement. Many people don't seem to listen to patrol workers and the police. Organizations such as Food Not Cops can openly defy orders from the mayor. People can camp where they wish, tag buildings around the city, drive as fast and as loud as they choose. Smoke in restricted areas and drug use are up. Many ride their e-motors as fast as they want, and the list goes on. This increased lawlessness takes place at a time when Burlington seems to be receiving more people who need assistance with a variety of hardships. This seems to have contributed to a more challenging environment, and without effective accountability, many are not receiving the help that they need. Sometimes additional assistance is necessary to get people into proper treatment. We are offered help from the state police from time to time. We should help ourselves and pass the Burlington Forward Resolution so we can provide compassion to all in the community and tighten things up a bit so everyone can have a healthy deterrence over their behavior. I am happy to help with this process if the committee seeks citizen support. Thank you.

Thank you, Matt. We have Mary Muget followed by Meredith Labraccio.

Good evening, my name is Mary and I've called Burlington home for 32 years. I've raised four children here, watched them grow up on these streets, and once trusted this city enough to let them move freely through it. I am here tonight because the Burlington they knew and I trusted is slipping away. I'm asking you to support the Burlington Forward Resolution before we lose even more of what made this city safe, open, shared and special. When my children were young, I let them take the bus or ride their bikes to Church Street. That small freedom gave them a sense of independence and helped them learn how to move through their city with confidence. Burlington was never perfect, but I trusted that its public spaces belong to everyone and that my children could enjoy them without fear. This is not an argument against compassion. People struggling with addiction and homelessness deserve treatment, dignity, and real support. But compassion cannot mean looking away while people use dangerous drugs openly, live in unsafe conditions, or behave in ways that make public spaces frightening for everyone around them. Allowing these conditions to continue is not humane. It fails the people in crisis, and it fails the residents, families, business owners who all depend on this city. Compassion and accountability are not opposing values. We need both. Burlington should use every tool available to restore safety in its public spaces, and it should call on the state to bring far greater resources to bear, including treatment, recovery services, mental health care, and coordinated outreach. Burlington cannot carry this crisis alone. but it also cannot continue normalizing conditions that are becoming more dangerous. I still believe in this city, that is why I'm here, and that is why I'm asking you to act now while there's still time to restore trust, reclaim our public space, and change the direction of Burlington.

Thank you, Mary. Next we have Meredith Liberatio followed by Chip Mason.

Good evening. My name is Meredith Abracio, and I'm one of the four children my mother, Mary Muget, just mentioned. As someone who has worked in Burlington's hospitality industry for the last four years, I have conversations with visitors every day. Two questions come up far more often than they should. Are there any areas we should avoid, and is it safe to walk around here? Now, they're not asking because it's something they read online, they're asking because in the last few blocks before arriving at the hotel where I work, they've already seen people openly using dangerous drugs, individuals who appear to be in severe crisis, and conditions that make them feel unsafe. It breaks my heart because I know Burlington is so much better than what they see. I grew up here. I remember the Burlington that was safe and full of pride. Seeing visitors form their impression based on what they witnessed on tunnels just to get to Houndstooth to buy cat supplies. This isn't about judging people who are struggling with addiction or homelessness. Every person deserves compassion, dignity, and access to effective treatment. But compassion also means acknowledging reality. It is not compassionate to leave people suffering from addiction on our sidewalks. It is not compassionate to allow public spaces to become places where dangerous drug use happens in plain sight. And it is not fair to ask residents, workers, families, or visitors to accept these conditions as normal, especially when we all know what Burlington used to be like. As you consider Burlington forward, I ask that you remember the people who experience these realities every day. The workers walking to and from their jobs, the residents who are simply trying to run errands, the business owners who are trying to make a living, and the visitors who decide what they tell others about Burlington after they leave. Thank you.

Thank you, Meredith. We have Chip Mason next, followed by Leif Terrence, maybe? Go ahead, Chip.

Thank you, Acting Chair. My name is Chip Mason. I am a Ward 5 resident and the co-managing partner of Gravel & Shea, a law firm with 50 employees serving clients from our offices on St. Paul. I'm also a former city councillor with a decade of experience and appreciate the complexity of the public health challenges you're dealing with. I'm here to ask you to support the Burlington Forward Resolution and advance the conversation. For the past five years, our office and parking garage have been at the center of Burlington's crisis. Unfortunately, the situation is not improving. In just the last two weeks, I have helped administer CPR to someone who overdosed, witnessed and called the police on a second overdose, interrupted multiple drug transactions, and respectfully requested that people using and engaged in sexual activity leave our private property. Our employees and clients routinely encounter discarded needles, human waste, open drug use, sexual activity, and antisocial behavior that no one should accept as normal. I am in constant contact with the administration, the police department, street outreach, and am following their lead and instructions. It is not working. Our staff and clients feel unsafe. Telling us to wait is not an acceptable response. I support harm reduction and believe it has an important role to play. We've gone too far in a direction and not instilled any accountability. After five years, I believe we need a more balanced approach. The recent attention generated by the Atlantic article should be a wake up call for all of us and not met with derision. The tragic stories are not abstractions for those of us who work downtown. That's our daily experience. Time is running out for taking action. Vacancies in downtown are at a 20 year low and gross receipts are down year over year. My building is 50% vacant and the building next door more than 50% vacant. The new retail space at City Place has one tenant. I encourage the council to support the resolution and take meaningful steps toward a more balanced and effective response to the public health crisis. Thank you for listening.

Thank you, Chip. Please hold your applause. It's really important if we're going to get through 100 speakers tonight that we have a smooth process. So hold your applause. Next, we have Leif Terrence, and if I mispronounced your name, you can correct me, and followed by Julia Masuga.

Hi, can you hear me? I'm Leif Taranta. I'm part of a network of mostly marginalized folks who do community safety work and de-escalation. To us, safety means that every person has autonomy over their body, the people's basic needs are met, and that everyone can feel a sense of belonging. I agree that Burlington is not a safe place. There are a lot of bigots around here and in this room who want to limit whose needs are met and who can belong here. There is violence here. Sometimes it looks like the vigilante hobo hunters who rove around at night harassing and attacking vulnerable people. Sometimes it looks like the hate groups putting up transphobic and Nazi stickers and the ICE agents kidnapping our neighbors. It looks like police officers slamming people into the concrete like someone freezing to death in a tent because their landlord kicked them out in the cold, like someone overdosing because a politician decided that they deserved to die more than they deserved a safe injection site. It is true that compassion and public safety are not mutually exclusive. Compassion is the only way to get real community safety. If violence is the expression of unmet needs, then you make the community safer with mutual aid projects by building connections and meeting those needs. We don't need more police. In case you think I'm being naive, I want to be clear. While doing de-escalation work, my friends and I have interrupted knife fights. We have faced down bigots with machetes and crossbows, had firearms pointed at us, and prevented vehicular assaults. We have talked multiple people down from attempting to kill others or themselves. We don't have weapons, armor, or badges. All we have is snacks, med kits, and some basic training that focuses on slowing things down and building connections. In every single situation we've dealt with, everybody walked away. I cannot remember a single instance that would have been improved by a bunch of people with guns, immunity, and training that emphasizes the speedy exertion of control. The Burlington Forward Resolution is not about safety. It is about comfort, about building a facade where wealthy people can walk down Church Street without having to look at poverty. I know that for people living in luxury, discomfort can feel like danger. But sweeping injustice under the rug and treating people like the problem in favor of political theatrics and punishment is not progress. It is bigotry with branding. Vote it down.

Thank you. No clapping. I mean, I'm going to keep on telling you, please don't clap. You can show your appreciation for the speakers by using your hands. But if you clap, we're going to be here all night long. I mean, for a really long time. There's 100 speakers. OK, with that, Julie Masuga, followed by Vivian Bowes-Pine.

Why the heck do property owners get special treatment in this forum? And beyond that, in a press conference, Democrats talked about the history of compassion in Burlington. To all the Dems, have you ever voluntarily, without any political agenda, had a conversation with someone homeless? The history of compassion for unhoused neighbors in Burlington is almost solely rooted in non-government and community safety networks that have been built by volunteers, not a police state. If Dems want to claim compassion, then we need to look at their failed history. Sears Lane, the Dems offered a two-week RFP window for people to come together with solutions. All entries were ignored. Cops with bulldozers arrested my friends at gunpoint. The former mayor's office refused to respond to calls from city councilors until most of the sanctuary had already been bulldozed. CVOEO didn't even know it was happening. It was freezing outside. COVID was rampant. 2022, the city sent militarized cops instead of compassion. Three bullets were fired to take down someone with a kitchen knife and came inches away from killing a bystander. Do you know how many times I have seen similar situations get de-escalated with words, eye contact, taking a walk? This is at least the third incident since 2015 where they shot someone for having a mental breakdown. We remember Melly. We remember everyone impacted by the actions of police officers that led to the Battery Park encampment. When a UVM student freezes to death because they are afraid to face campus security, it's treated as a tragedy. When my friend Perry Thornley dies of exposure after trying to go through every avenue available to him, it's his fault. It's a crime. He must have deserved it. Ironically, one of the few times I saw him at ease was during that encampment. He had food, community, and for once was not alone. The data shows that policing isn't the answers, but more than that, our lived experiences show us the same things. When the Bell riot starts, I hope to see some of you on the side of Gabriel Bell.

Thank you, Julie. Next, we have Vivian Bows Pine, followed by Amber O's Morrow. And if I call your name, you can come and sit at the table and wait your turn. That way, this process will move more quickly as well. Go ahead.

Totally. I will also go quicker if you stop telling people not to applaud. I think that's taking more time than the applause itself. I'm Devon. I live in Burlington. I was going to talk. I am formerly director of the Safe Recovery Program. I was going to mostly talk about that. Part of my job, I had to get like 444, 445 calls from business owners, landlords, et cetera, who were saying that they felt afraid or threatened by homeless people surrounding them. And one of the questions I had to ask as a follow-up was like, what is it about that made you feel unsafe? And the most common, the number one was, they're standing there. They're just standing there, which I thought was pretty funny. I was going to talk about that, but something else happened that made me kind of take it over, which is that one of the Democrat counselors approached me right before public comment started and sort of cornered me with a lot of security. I won't name them because I don't want to make them feel unsafe. But they told me they felt really unsafe because of the rally outside because we were raising our voices really loudly. We're pointing out that there's Democrats over there. And I mean, that's wild, right? That's wild that a bill being proposed to steal people's houses and throw them away. Increased police. Have you been... Have you been shot before? Have you been shot by police? Have you been raped by police? I'll tell you something, I don't feel safe around police. I don't feel safe with surveillance cameras on Church Street. That doesn't make me feel safe. I know you do not care. I know you don't care. Just so you know, you've made a massive miscalculation. The people behind me and the people of Burlington are two steps away, and the people of Burlington include the homeless people of Burlington, but beyond that, are two steps away from being homeless themselves. Rising Medicaid prices, hospital closures, we are fucking homeless. We're gonna be homeless, right? So these bills that are attacking those people are attacking us. Nobody is going to be behind this, so I have to ask about the motives. of a bill like this, and it lines up extremely well with Trump's executive orders. That shouldn't surprise anybody, Democrats lining up with Trump's executive orders, but it just sort of brings this deeply moral question of safety, of what is safety, and I don't know. I think that some look in the mirror about what it means to say that you feel unsafe by somebody else's existence, and where are they to tell you that they don't feel safe with you stealing their house?

Thank you. Next we have Ambrose Morrow, followed by Paul Fleckenstein.

Hello, I'm Ambrose Morrow, a resident of Ward 8, and speaking on the item 6.5 regarding its anti-Burlingtonian approach. One thing I would like to highlight is we're all talking about accountability. So let's hold the city accountable, because enforcing housing prices are rising, both rents, and I cannot even dream of buying any form of apartment, condo, any of that. Why? We are punishing those who do not have accessible resources, and then we are punishing the organizations who actually do support the community, do support accessible resources, and you are punishing them. Humans are social creatures. Everyone deserves a home, right? So why are we throwing them out whenever people in the community that they are making to be safe? We talk about the need for less drug use in public. Okay, where is the opioid prevention center? The city is the fault of this at this point. We talk about accountability. These people do want help. They want resources and accessibility. They want to be off the street. They do not want to be homeless. The city has not provided enough and we keep on targeting. This has been a technique for decades, centuries of finding an other The Burlington's other in this situation now, the other in Burlington are the homeless people because they cannot control their situation. They cannot control it and the community, the people behind me, the people upstairs, counselors, we are Burlington. Whether we are homeless, whether we are not, we live here and we deserve to have a home. Housing is a right, the city is supposed to be held accountable. Stop making it about the individual and make it about the system who has forced people off the street, who has forced people to be in these situations. If you are not going to give accessible resources, if you are not going to push for change and push for a better Burlington, that is the fault of the city. We are the circumstances that made us, so you fix it yourselves.

Thank you, Ambrose. Next we have Paul Fleckenstein followed by Gina Zolman.

Paul Fleckenstein, longtime resident of Ward 2, part of the Apartheid-Free Community Committee in Burlington. Over the years, I've seen many similar resolutions coming from the Democratic Party majority, and they're all characterized by a rejection of Democratic participation, and a contempt for political disagreement hidden by nice phrases. Most recently, the Democratic majority rejected free speech rights, rejected putting the apartheid-free community resolution on the ballot. This is motivated by support for apartheid Israel and for protecting those who are carrying out the erasure of Palestinians. Erasure is the key word here with the Burlington Backward Resolution. It's erasure of people who are interfering with the intensification of the capitalist status quo. That's going in the direction of more inequality, more injustice, more lack of democracy. This resolution, Burlington Backward, is designed to fail. How do we know this? I was for an hour standing outside listening to people and organizations excluded from putting this resolution together. People who are working for dignity for all working class people, who are working toward social justice, who are working for greater freedom in this society, and we're going to hear a lot from them tonight. And when this fails, the Democratic Party majority is then gonna move toward more police responses, more authoritarianism, and reinforcing greater apartheid in US society, just like it supports in Israel. The place for this resolution because of how it got here is in the trash. And I hope that the Burlington mayor vetoes this and that we can get back to a serious approach to the issues at hand.

Thank you, Paul. Next we have Gina Zolman followed by C.D. Madison.

My name is Jenna. I'm a nurse practitioner who's been providing health care in Burlington for the past 14 years, and I volunteer with the BTV cleanup crew. I care deeply about the city and the people in it, and I'm here tonight in fierce opposition to the Burlington Forward framework. It's clear to everyone that things need to change. It's heartbreaking to see my neighbors sleeping out in all weather, to worry if they're overdosing, to witness folks in mental health crisis. Residents like me want our public spaces to be safe and welcoming for all, and for our city leadership to collaborate to address the root causes of this suffering. Despite repeated mention of compassion and meaningful support within the Burlington Forward framework, it ultimately prioritizes surveillance and policing, two things that simply create the illusion of safety for some of us while actively harming the individuals who need our support the most. The good news is that there are already Burlington organizations that show us what compassion and safety truly look like. Food Not Cops has been serving free lunch daily with no budget for six years, and I want to speak in support of Vermont Cares, who's under scrutiny in this framework despite doing life-saving harm reduction work since 1985. I've had the pleasure of volunteering at the Syringe Service Program, and I encourage anyone in this room to do the same. Here's what happens there. Staff engage in the radical act of treating people who use drugs as people. Full, dignified, intelligent, resilient, strong people. And it turns out, when you treat people with the respect and care they deserve, they move closer to stability, treatment, and recovery. Folks who visit Vermont Cares pick up Narcan and clean injection supplies to reduce the risk of HIV and Hep C. They talk about what they've been experiencing in the park, harassment from the police, witnessing violence, the stress of finding food and shelter. Nobody wants to be in these circumstances and when you lack transportation, housing, and money, these resources need to be centrally located in downtown. Places like Vermont Cares help create actual public safety in Burlington and they need our support. As compassionate city councilors who want to see Burlington thrive, I think you can do better. None of us get it right all the time. I understand the alluring simplicity of arresting people for doing illegal things, but we know that this only serves to push people deeper into poverty, substance use, mental health crises, and fails to solve the problems facing the city as a whole. Thank you.

Thank you, Jenna. Next, we have C.D. Madison, followed by, I think it's Jack Lavalley, maybe, or Lavalap. Go ahead, C.D.

My name is Madison. I love Burlington enough to tell it hard truths. In 2021, we closed a Sears Lane encampment. The city tried a tiny homes proposal, a search for a nonprofit partner, but the plans kept falling apart and most people left with a hotel voucher good for only 28 days. That same year, we were still living with a police force cut by 30%. Two decisions, one result. People moved into our newly renovated city hall park. Open air drug use became routine there. Shoplifting spiked one street over on Church Street. Boston does this differently. Before Mayor Michelle Wu's administration clears a single tent, the city has to offer shelter, transportation, and storage. If there's no shelter open that day, the tent stays. We didn't build that guardrail. Burlington dispatchers started telling crime victims on the record that there was nothing police could do because the department had been defunded. That's not a rumor, that's real, and it was an invitation to criminal opportunists. These were good intentions with unintended consequences. They had real victims. An article last week in the Atlantic featured Burlington as one of the cities that said yes to drugs and put it simply, harm reduction done wrong becomes harm enhancement. I'm not here to relitigate the past. I'm here so we don't repeat it. A friend of mine, a doctor told me addiction is born of trauma. People carrying that trauma are trying hard, but trauma doesn't let you build your own structure. People need help doing that. They need boundaries. And right now, we treat boundaries like they're uncompassionate. They're not. Boundaries are what make compassion last. This isn't about who's more compassionate. It isn't about who's more right. It's a moral failure and lack of community accountability in the wealthiest nation in the world that people are sick and unhoused while we argue about who's done what and who gets the credit. This work is hard and I'm grateful for everyone who shows up to do it. We all acknowledge that Burlington can't do this alone. We need state, federal, and municipal partner support because these are state and federal and shared community issues. To the mayor and to the members of city council, you didn't take this job to win an argument. You took it to serve the city. I implore you all to do better. Thank you.

Thank you, Madison. Next, we have Jack, and you'll have to correct me on your last name.

LaValley.

LaValley, followed by Nathaniel Madison.

All right. Hi, my name is Jack. I'm a Burlington resident, and I'm currently working on the No Ice Surveillance Center campaign focused on shutting down ICE's National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center in Williston. Reading over the proposal immediately makes me question the nature of the public safety cameras that are being planned to be implemented. The proposal seemingly leaves the constant potential of your Fourth Amendment right to be infringed upon no matter where you go in Burlington. By launching a surveillance program to survey Burlington's homeless population, you'll inherently and disproportionately target minorities and those without a strong enough support system, which to me sounds more in line with the actions and rhetoric of the Trump administration more so than it does the compassionate progressive agenda. And the buck doesn't end there. By filling out the gaps in our city where a surveillance camera is missing, we all become more susceptible to the abuses of their power. What does it say about our city that our solutions to homelessness, substance abuse, and behavioral health is pushing out those in need and facilitating an increased surveillance state? This feels more like a capitulation, is this working? Sorry. This feels more like a capitulation to the interests of ICE than an attempt to actually address Burlington's systemic issues. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Nathaniel Madison, followed by James Ramey, maybe.

I can start whenever. Go ahead. I was here for the press conference organized by UVM MC worker unions during which the concept of social murder was brought up in relation to the lives that will be lost due to understaffing at the cancer clinic. That reminded me to bring it up here in relation to unhoused folks suffering from opiate use disorder A quick reminder, social murder is when a society knowingly allows preventable, premature deaths to continue because addressing them would require sacrificing the interests of those at the top of the socioeconomic structure. Every life lost to opiate use disorder is social murder. I've personally had two friends die of overdoses which could have been prevented. They did not want to die. I hope the Burlington Dems agree with me on this, that folks suffering from opiate use disorder who are unhoused or otherwise marginalized here in Burlington and either suffer permanent injury or lose their lives due to inaccessible or ineffective healthcare for opiate use disorder fit within this framework of the socioeconomic complicity and the loss of life that was made famous by Engels. But I find the framing that Burlington has lots of compassion for unhoused community to be untrue. From my perspective, compassion hasn't even gotten started here. Simply tolerating the existence of unhoused folks without having them immediately arrested or otherwise harassed by the police is progressive, I guess, for the United States, I'll give you that. However, it's still not compassion. I'd love to hear for anyone to try to defend the decision by our city to only allow emergency shelter during the winter at negative 10 degrees Fahrenheit wind chill as being something that is what compassionate people do. Have you ever tried spending much time outside in the winter, in the morning? I guess we're moving in the right direction, as I know the trigger for the emergency shelter used to be negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit until recent change. So I'd say let's keep moving in that direction rather than more cops in prisons.

If the applause continues, I will call recess. Okay, next we have James Ramey. Did I pronounce your name right?

Yeah, nailed it.

Followed by Lena Greenberg.

Go ahead. My name's James Ramey. I'm from Ward 5, and I work as a rapid rehousing service team lead now for 20 of the last six years. I have been working to work with the population that's targeted by the poorly named Burlington Forward Resolution. I think this is moving things backwards in a dangerous way at a time when it's way worse to be home. It is an absolute nightmare to exist while homeless. I think aligning ourselves with the Trump administration and the Supreme Court of the United States is particularly flawed and not where most Burlington residents are at. The crisis of unhoused, of unsheltered homelessness that exists right now is in large part due to a massive increase in evictions that have happened. And the hotel program being shut down Those are those are problems that should be addressed and I don't think that this resolution addresses them in any way whatsoever I Welcome the opportunity to speak more certainly with my counselors about this but we I did not hear about this resolution until a press conference was called declaring it. So I really would love to engage more in this conversation. There's lots that we can do. None of it is in the resolution.

Thank you. Next, we have Lena Greenberg followed by Ashley Smith.

Hey, good evening. My name is Lena Greenberg. I am a proud resident of downtown Burlington. So many members of this council have run for this office, claiming that they love Burlington. Love is often characterized by a strong range of positive emotions and mental states, perhaps even kindness and compassion. Sometimes other things get called love, like obsession and the desire to control and even hate. Unfortunately, this seems to be a better description of the mood behind the Burlington Forward Resolution. And this resolution criminalizes, seeks to criminalize acts of public love, like the daily lunch served by Food Not Cops and the outreach work done by friends and neighbors. Across the board, this proposal is motivated by a sick obsession with an outdated oversimplified story and neglects to engage with the root causes behind Burlingtonian struggles. It is an embarrassment to see a majority of our city council endlessly harp on issues while only ever presenting old repackaged solutions like increased surveillance and policing. This plan is neither forward nor is it Burlington. Our community actually does know how to take care of each other, even in the face of relentlessly applied carceral logic and abandonment by the state of Vermont. It is shameful to see Democrats fail to grasp the complex issues behind our current struggles and to see them, in fact, embrace the same strategies as the Trump administration. I invite the majority caucus to table this poorly considered legally dubious resolution. Please focus on the real issues and collaborate not just with other counselors and the mayor, but with us who are practicing a kind of love many of you could stand to learn from. Thank you.

Thank you. Seriously.

Go ahead, Ashley.

And Ashley will be followed by Samuel Diliberti.

My name is Ashley Smith. I'm here to speak against the so-called Burlington Forward Resolution, which really must be called Burlington Backward Resolution. This will make everything worse in our city. It's in line with the Trump administration. It's law and order policing as if Black Lives Matter didn't happen. Are we really back to square one of mass policing, mass incarceration, victimization of the poor who most need help? Are we really there? Is that what the Democratic Party, in line with the Trump administration, wants to do? If we're serious about our social crisis, we have to understand where it comes from. It does not come from the victims of our society. It comes from the rich and their two parties at the top of our society who've shredded our social services, who've cut taxes on the rich, and have deployed police and mass incarceration as a false and brutal fake solution to the real problems of homelessness directly caused by cuts to government programs. Drug addiction directly caused by poverty and abuse by the system of the most impoverished sections of our society. The Democrats' proposal will do nothing to solve any of that crisis. In fact, it doubles down on the failed law and order strategy that has led to the epidemic of police violence, mass incarceration, and brutal police brutality. Do you really want to do that? Instead of doing that, we should do the obvious. tax the rich, fund social programs, fund job programs, fund education, fund services directly targeting homeless people, affordable housing. That's what we should do. I demand the mayor veto this resolution, and I encourage everybody to turn out at the next public hearing of this in greater numbers. And the Democrats that endorsed this proposal should be voted out of office at the next election.

Next, we have Samuel Diliberte.

I'd like to move for a recess.

There's a move to a recess. Is there a second?

I'll second.

OK. Is there any discussion on this?

It just seems that the public is having difficulty following the rules of our meeting.

I have a comment. If there is discussion allowed on the motion.

We'll do a short comment. do a short discussion on this, but I would agree that the public is having a problem complying with our rules. So go ahead, Councillor.

Well, I appreciate it. I encourage everyone to be mindful of the rules, and I appreciate you raising them, Council President. I also think this is public comment, and we need to be allowed to hear from constituents, whether they agree or disagree, and calling a recess to I don't know what that actually does. I want to hear from the 100 folks who have signed up. Yeah, anyway, that's my comment, I guess. I think it's wild to try to delay folks from giving feedback to the council on a proposal that you all dropped without any conversation with us. Can I? Hold on.

Council Bergman, and then we're going to go to a vote on a recess, I guess.

So I actually think that despite the heat of the issue and the passion of the folks who are speaking, that the applause have been really pretty, have been under control. And it is, as a speaker did point out, and I think correctly, more time is wasted by us telling people not to speak. I would ask folks to just know that We've got serious work of governance. And we need to be able to do that. And that means you need to help us do that. So I'd ask you to try to tamp down that as much as you can. But for us to go into a recess which drags it out more and which doesn't deal with the humanity of people in their responses, I think is a big mistake, and I will vote against a recess.

So...

Can I have the floor?

You can have the floor. And then we're going to go to a vote and then we're going to either have a recess or we're going to continue on.

Point of order, Acting President Barlow. Go ahead. Go ahead, Councillor Travers. A motion for a recess is not a debatable motion. But we should just go to a vote on it. OK, let's go to a vote on it then.

All those in favor of a five minute recess is motioned by Councillor Brown-McKnight indicate by saying aye.

Point of order, or point of inquiry. Am I allowed to amend my motion?

Sure.

I would withdraw the motion if Councillor Barlow would be allowed to reread the rules of public forum so that people can remember what they are. Thank you.

I will read the germane part. The council certainly respects and values diversity of opinion on public issues. We ask, however, that all comments be free from individual attacks, hate, harassment, obscenities, and other derogatory language about individuals, particularly any individual's protected characteristics. We also ask that the public comments avoid conduct which is unreasonably loud, disruptive, or discourteous. So please, if you could just comply with my request for you not to clap, then we could get through all of the speakers and still have time to conduct the council business later this evening. So thank you for that. We'll continue. So the next speaker is Samuel Diliberti, and correct me if I mispronounce your name, followed by Dee Graham.

Good evening. I'd like to start where everybody in this room surely agrees. I believe that it is harmful to the community that People are out on the street suffering, people are out on the street dying of overdoses, and everybody wants this issue to be addressed. Now, there are correct ways to address these issues, and there are ways that have been proven not to work. And what this proposal represents is a series of things that have been proven not to work, okay? Increased policing, relocation, and incarceration of people experiencing homelessness has been proven ineffective and will harm our neighbors physically and mentally. Now, there are things that work, right? You can look at the data. This is very well studied because it's a public health issue. Housing First initiatives work. Housing First initiatives help folks attain permanent housing with support from the government and data has shown that it helps them address mental health issues, substance abuse issues, and works far more effectively than punitive or abstinence-based programs. And the city council has written in this proposal that they do not have the resources to keep supporting our community. Well, first of all, I would say, let the people that are supporting the community continue to do it. Stop trying to relocate Food Not Cops, stop trying to undermine their services that they do every single day to keep our community safe by ensuring that everybody, no matter who they are, has something to eat. Further, programs that support people like Housing First initiatives will save the city money in the long run by taking load off of other public services. So I would just say that do not listen to the city council when they say that increasing policing, which they always have funding for, is the most resource efficient way to deal with this issue. It will hurt your neighbors and it is inefficient. So thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Dee Graham followed by Nico Oldfield.

Hi, my name is Dee Graham. I'm a Ward 3 Burlington resident, a PPN and a United Union member, a healthcare worker in downtown, and I volunteer with the BTV cleanup crew. So I spend almost all of my waking hours in our downtown. I vehemently do not agree that the Burlington Forward framework would do anything to provide or aid in meaningful systems of support to our community and in fact would really harm our community as a whole. Many speakers before me in this meeting as well as community members outside before the meeting spoke really powerfully and eloquently with their own testimony and personal experience about how incredibly dangerous this resolution is. And to echo just some of the points and to Put it down for the record. Sharing food with community is essential. Providing safer spaces for people to use is essential. Places for people to live and survive and exist is essential. Pushing people already on the margins further into the margins just because it makes people feel uncomfortable or makes less of a profit is disturbing. People need affordable housing, healthcare, and centralized access to resources and mutual aid. As I said, I spend most of my time in our downtown, and I do not think this resolution is actually about safety, but more about protecting property. But for the record, I feel safe here. I walk around all the time, all hours of the day, all hours of the night. I go for a night walk every single night. I feel safe. More policing, surveillance, destruction of mutual aid, and disappearing community members to the margins sure do not make me feel safe in our home. Burlington Forward undermines and weakens our community, and never forget, strong communities keep us safe. Please reject this proposals. And I'd invite you to come join us at the BTV cleanup crew, but maybe that's too compassionate for some of you.

Thank you. Next we have Nico Oldfield, followed by Brooke McLean.

Hi, before my time starts, can I just request that you speak people's names into the mic louder? And I think we could move faster if you read an extra, like a third name out so we can line up a little quicker. Thank you. My name is Nico Oldfield. I'm here to speak out against the Burlington Forward Resolution. I've done de-escalation work in Burlington for as long as I've lived here. I also run a residential mental health program for people in psychosis. The primary ethos of the work that I do is that people in crisis do not need to be locked away from society. They deserve to stay in community where they have the best chance of healing. When we support people in the ways they need, with stability, resources, and relationships, incredible transformation is possible. People who are struggling fall through the cracks in our systems or are deliberately shoved through those cracks. Every time that happens, a person becomes more likely to fall into crisis and more likely to do the very things that others decry as dangerous. People deserve to be safe in the place that they live, all people. But when I hear people say they aren't safe because they're seeing people do drugs or have interpersonal disputes in the park, or because people are doing strange things in public, it sounds like we're talking about discomfort, not safety. Our homeless neighbors, our neighbors on drugs, our neighbors in mental health crisis are our neighbors just the same. They are people deserving of dignity and whose discomfort most of us can barely even imagine. We need wraparound services that meet people where they are, that acknowledge that our failed systems are at the root of their suffering, and that do not lock people in jails and psych wards when they don't maintain social decorum. We need programs that support people in navigating discomfort and give people de-escalation skills. For as long as our society is structured the way that it is, we will have people who are suffering loudly and openly on the streets. And for as long as we have people suffering loudly and openly on the streets, we will have other people who can't bear to witness that suffering and demand that it be taken out of their view for other people to deal with. We cannot bend to those demands. We need city leaders who set that tone and deescalate people's fears instead of stoking the flames. I urge the council to reject the so-called safety plan that relies on ineffective and inhumane punishment, policing, and imprisonment, and instead come together to make bold choices that actually work and are actually grounded in the values we pride ourselves on. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Brooke McLean followed by Sasha Rosen. You can come to the table when I call your name.

Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Good evening. My name is Brooke McKean. I am here to speak tonight as a resident of the downtown Burlington section of Ward 8 for the past three years. A word I hear thrown around a lot in discussions around downtown and the very clear struggles that are facing our community and thousands of communities nationwide is safety. This word is often weaponized in these conversations and I've noticed that claims of feeling unsafe in downtown Burlington or walking on Church Street are typically coming from people in our city who hold a lot of privilege and resource and who have a goal of protecting material and financial interests. and also from people who actually don't spend a lot of time in Burlington, if any. And I think that if they actually engaged with our downtown and engaged in real conversations with people and struggle, that they would feel differently. Everyone deserves to feel safe, but too often I hear people conflating safety and comfort. They're not the same. It is uncomfortable to see neighbors in deep struggle, in the throes of addiction, living in inhumane conditions with true lack of safety. Witnessing these unfair realities causes discomfort, and it should. We should feel things about this. Too many among us have become numb to these problems. But these feelings of discomfort are not the same as feeling unsafe. and we have failed to meet these issues with the urgency and real compassion they require. Our country, state, this council has a long history of choosing to approach these issues punitively, to fund carceral initiatives and increase surveillance, to throw our money at the police and solutions we know will not work. They have proven they don't work, right? Like, here we are. And this resolution feels like a cyclical repetition of these same failed approaches, just rebranded as a false compassionate approach. I don't see any creativity or new approach here. I see a lot of band-aids trying to cover up the symptoms of the situation we've created. instead of focusing on the very real root problems. These problems require expertise and care and this resolution is not doing that.

Next we have Sasha Rosen followed by Ernie Palmerlow.

Hello, my name is Sasha, and I want to make sure you're aware that many of the people who you're making decisions on behalf of tonight would be here to advocate for themselves, but can't because they have more important things to worry about, like trying to stay alive for the night, or they can't be here because they can't leave their belongings unattended outside, or they simply feel powerless knowing their experience and opinions wouldn't be taken seriously here. If you're not going to make the effort to go outside and talk to the people whose lives we're debating tonight, the least you can do is trust and believe what their friends have to say who are sitting all around you. I've been volunteering with Food Not Cops for about two years and before that I was a housing case manager of Safe Harbor. Through these experiences, I've built deep and authentic friendships with my homeless neighbors. And to me, food is spiritual, and I believe that there is no better way to connect with one another than sharing a meal together. I want you to all to reflect on all the dinner parties that you've ever been to over the span of your life and all the people who you didn't know at the start of those dinner parties that you're still friends with now or you still think about to this day. Food is a unifier. Food is community. And if you had nothing else to talk about, you could at least curb your social anxiety talking about how good the food is. There's a misconception that Food Not Cops is only for our homeless neighbors or for the food insecure, and that is not true. Free lunch is free lunch for everyone and can be a conduit to genuine community across classes if you confronted what you're resisting and shared a meal with people who are different than you. I guarantee you'll find something in common, and if not, just talk about how good the Food Not Cops food is. So to the Dems here, I'll see you at 1 p.m. at City Hall Park for lunch. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Ernie Palmerlow followed by Ryan Nick.

Thanks. Good evening. I was born in the old North End and have been a lifelong resident of Burlington and have worked hard. I'm here tonight because I believe the resolution that's being presented will be a map to navigate changes back to a city that we've been very proud of and need some change. I've had my hands in downtown working hard to Improve it since the days of the marketplace I know firsthand what dealing with the issues in our community are I had to close two of my daughter's shops Because not for lack of trying her people her mature Tenants that not her tenants, but her customers simply didn't find Burlington safe As I look around this room I know that we all share the same love for this city and want it to thrive. We differ a little bit in detail. It's probably a little bit of an understatement, but I think together we can make headway. Part of that means holding compassion for everyone. We proudly support, as many businesses do, all the things that the city has done with the police, with the security, City Hall Park, with Spectrum, with Turning Point. I could go on forever. There's just a massive amount of people that we work with very closely that make the basic fabric that we can improve on. Compassion for our neighbors in need matters deeply to us. But so does compassion for the families who don't feel safe anymore. For our employees, for our businesses hanging on by a thread, for the customers we've lost. One striking example yesterday was a mother came to visit with a friend to show her son UVM. She came downtown. She went by the park and told my friend that Burlington was an option for them anymore. We've done good. I hope this resolution passes. It'll navigate and be a map for the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Next is Ryan Nick, to be followed by Marissa McDonald.

Thank you, Councillor Barlow. I'm here tonight to urge the council to send the Burlington Forward resolution to the committees. the city has made some progress in addressing our public safety drug and mental health crises we continue to be overwhelmed by these issues you can see this drag in the data with record high retail and office vacancies as well as a 7.7 drop in demand for hotel rooms over last year as of late june we've ranked last in hotel occupancy amongst our regional peer cities a ranking we've held for four of the last five quarters Finally, gross receipts tax revenue is down 4.8% this year alone and has fallen every year since 2023, where we're down nearly 20%. If Burlington is back, we have yet to see it show up in the data. Despite what has been said about this resolution, Burlington Forward is a re-emphasis on what is working and an honest look at what is not. Anyone who looks out that window and sees success, compassion, or any sort of accountability is lying to themselves. We need to do better. Burlington Forward will help restore confidence in existing programs and help find new approaches to these problems that reflect our values as a community. It has been extremely disappointing to see the reaction to some of the introduction of this resolution, which, to be clear, only starts the conversation. The bad faith attacks against this resolution and its sponsors are an unfortunate spillover from the lies and personal disparagement we've seen in our local campaigns. if you oppose this resolution in its current form then let's work together to amend it let's make it stronger we should expect more of each other and actually provide the help needed to our most vulnerable instead of wasting time on partisan attacks i hope the council can do better thank you thank you next is marissa mcdonald followed by cheryl green

Good evening, everyone. I'm speaking to you as a Burlington resident, a mom of a young child, and a partner of a business owner, and I urge you to adopt Burlington Forward, the resolution that we're all talking about today, to revisit downtown public safety, to strengthen accountability, and to press for greater regional and state support. Burlington does not need to choose between compassion and enforcement. It needs both, and it needs to consider all members of this community. This resolution is a reasonable step forward to trying to do that, to trying to do something different. Burlington Forward does not propose a single new program. It lays out a coordinated framework, expanding visible public safety presence downtown, restoring and actively programming public spaces like City Hall Park, strengthening partnerships with nonprofit providers and property owners, and building a sustainable, regionally shared approach to homelessness, behavioral health, and substance abuse. all backed by performance data that the council and residents can actually track. This spring, just last week, the owners of Ready Funeral Home published an open letter after having to plan a funeral for a local student who is also accounting for public safety concerns at the service itself. The funeral homes letter argued that compassion and accountability aren't intention, they depend on each other, and that this city needs housing, treatment, and behavioral health services alongside laws that are actually enforced and public spaces that belong to everyone, not those who just ignore the rules. The King Street Center serving children and families made a similar case. The idea that Burlington must pick between prevention and enforcement is a false choice. Strong communities need all of it, compassion, accountability, prevention, enforcement, and they're right. Public safety has to start with protecting the children and the families who live here. I recognize this resolution. isn't the only option on the table, and that harm reduction advocates argue services like needle exchanges are important. We do too, but we need to think about all members of this community, specifically the children. Thank you.

We have Cheryl Green followed by Peter Lukowski.

Good evening. My name is Cheryl Green. I'm speaking to the proposed Burlington Forward resolution. My goal is to call you in rather than call you out. Our city government is filled with those who are good at calling people in, outside of government as well. They're resources. Thinking out of the box. What if a petty thief on Church Street was hired by the owner they stole from to work part-time in the same store? They could both learn a lot. What if the person whose leashed dog is creating havoc downtown was connected to the Humane Society, maybe as a volunteer? What might they learn together? And what if a person who is perpetually hungry is invited to volunteer where food is served up to anyone who is hungry? Maybe that's already happening. And when you lock up a person, you think, well, now that we have taken care of that problem, here's a true story. One day, a nine-year-old student of mine got wicked angry in the middle of class. We walked outside to the hallway and closed the door. Jack, I said, what's going on? I just found out my father won't be out of prison until I am 19. I was able to help him calm down and we returned to our classroom. All those 10 pubescent and teenage years when he would not have a day-to-day support from his father. Whatever that might have looked like, it was important to Jack. That happened right here in Burlington. And how did that play out in his own lifestyle as Jack grew up? The turn of that prison key implodes and explodes all over this city. There are many kids like Jack.

Can you wrap it up, please?

And we figure out how to include every one of them. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Peter Lukowski, followed by Sherry Wormser. Sherry Wormser, it looks like. Go ahead, Peter.

Just a moment.

Okay.

Everywhere in America, the low wages, the tax on the social safety net, That's all leading to increased numbers of desperate people that can't afford stable housing. A lot of them gather in city centers where they hope to find some way of surviving. Of course, this results in inconvenience and disorder and stress. People of Burlington elected Mayor Emma to address these problems with creative solutions that are both practical and humane. And statistics show that her approach has been effective. But the city council's Democrats blame her policies for the disorder that's actually the result of the collapse of a corrupt, failing economic system. The Burlington Forward program ignores the fact that Burlington citizens elected Emma to do exactly what she has been doing. The Democrats want the mayor to spend the next few months busily enacting their schemes to get homeless people out of the city, to move shelters and safety injection sites camping areas, and other such services to more remote places where they won't be seen by shoppers or tourists. They arrogantly demand that Emma make a 180 degree turn, that she adopt their plan for more arrests, more harsh prosecutions, more people in jail, in short, to betray the people who voted for her. We have enough authoritarianism coming from the White House. We don't need more here in Vermont. If the Democrats use their majority to ram this scheme through in anything like its current form, I hope the mayor will simply use her power under the charter to veto it.

Thank you, Peter. Next we have Sherry Wormser followed by Michelle Ash. If I mispronounced your name, Sherry, you can correct me.

Hi, I'm Sherry Wormser, and I oppose this Burlington Forward. This is the Trump administration wrapped up in Dem language, and I would like to explain to you exactly why that is. First of all, these policies do not include things like racial disparity, racial injustice, housing inequities, food insecurities. It does not take into consideration mental health crises. Oh, but you kind of say you do, but let's talk about that. In the last few years, the Inpatient Mental Health Center in Central Vermont was closed. Where are people going? Howard Center has closed many of its services. So people have nowhere to go. Let's talk about more policing and you want to put a hub for the police right in Central Hall Park. That does not make me feel secure. That makes me feel threatened and intimidated. How many of our homeless brothers and sisters have had threats and violence from the police? How many of them will be re-traumatized by having more police there? How many people are food insecure? Let's talk about housing, okay? We also need to talk about those other issues that we've been discussing, racial insecurity, racial injustice. That is not in there. Putting more cameras in Central Hall Park, City Hall Park, excuse me, that means how many of them are gonna be flock cameras? How many of them are gonna have access to ice? And DHS will have access to them, even if you say they won't. I do not wanna be filmed when I'm walking down the street. That is my privacy and I do not consent, nor should you have that for anybody else. I oppose this and you are not, um taking into consideration the root causes and the needs of the people who are unhoused you are not taking into consideration the safety of anybody else in um Burlington there are other businesses not just downtown thank you um there's uh two minutes per speaker so I'm gonna cut people off after two minutes because

That's how much time every single person here will get tonight. So I want to just to be respectful of others, please keep your comments to two minutes. Michelle Ash is next, followed by David Churchill.

Good evening, everybody. As Mark said, my name is Michelle Ash, and I serve as chair of Building Burlington's Future. I'm here tonight to urge the council to support the Burlington Forward Resolution. Over the past year, I've had the privilege of speaking with people from every corner of our community, including people who do not get airtime in these public meetings. They are our childcare providers, educators, and the families and children served by organizations like King Street Youth Center, Spectrum, and AALV. My conversations with them have been remarkably consistent. They share one common hope. They want Burlington leaders to put our children at the center of all their decisions. Our children are the future. I believe that gives us a powerful guiding principle. As we make decisions about public safety, our parks, substance use, and how we respond to people in crisis, we should ask a simple question. Will this make Burlington a safer and healthier place for every child to grow up? Children don't vote, they don't hire lobbyists, they depend on us to make decisions that shape the city they will inherit. When children become our North Star, the path forward becomes clearer. It means creating a city where parents feel comfortable letting their children ride a bike, walk to school, play in a park, visit the library, or enjoy Church Street. It means that public spaces in all of our neighborhoods are welcoming and safe for everyone. the measure of a great city is whether every child in every neighborhood can grow up in a safe secure and thriving community i do believe that the burlington forward resolution moves us in that direction and i hope as this work continues we make one commitment together let's keep children first thank you thank you uh david churchill's next followed by

Leslie McKenzie.

I moved to Burlington 30-some years ago.

You might not be on.

Here we go. I moved to Burlington more than 30 years ago to the Vermont Hotel right over here overlooking the park. But I'm pretty old in my 60s, so I lived in a bunch of other places also in Philadelphia, South Carolina, New York. And one of the things that I saw, maybe by chance, but three times over, was living in a small city where the center of that city had been hollowed out. In that era, it was mostly because the Kmart, and then later the Walmart, showed up on the bypass. And the inner city, the original city, just couldn't hold on. And it was really a devastating thing for the core city to lose its economic engine. It really creates an environment where there's just no ability. It's an incapacitating turn of events, from a thriving city to one where everybody drives out to the interstate bypass and goes to Walmart. We don't have that here, but what I'm seeing looks like that. It smells like that. It smells like there's a turning point, and I think One of the things that I would love to see is city councilors and others in government who have lived somewhere else and who really have felt the fragility of a city and how easy it is for that city to slip over the precipice and become irrecoverable. And I don't know what the answer is. But I'm urging both sides to really understand each other and to figure out a way to achieve both goals. The city is thriving and the people who need help need that help and get that help. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Leslie McKenzie followed by Mike Conroy.

So there are positive things happening in Burlington. We celebrate the finish of the Great Streets Project and we've completed the Champlain Parkway. And I also recently had the opportunity to tour our new Burlington High School. And I truly congratulate Claire Wall, the Burlington School Board, Superintendent Tom Flanagan and the team who are involved in bringing this beautiful, innovative and forward thinking facility to life. Our students and our community will be well served for years to come. These are great accomplishments. However, we still have major work to do. And I do support the efforts of the resolution Burlington Forward and support your vote to bring it to committee to continue to vet those initiatives. The city's current initiatives are failing to address the well-known problems that we face. And as was referenced earlier, if you've not read Michelle Ambrosino's recent Facebook posts, you should. It's tragic, honest, and true. And truly enough is enough. So thank you for acknowledging that what we're doing now is not enough and not completely working. Please bring this to committee, continue to vet these initiatives and bring new solutions forward to compliment the work that is being done. I grew up in Burlington. My parents owned a shop on Church Street for over 15 years. I worked there in high school and through college. I know what hard work it was and how the margins are generally very thin. They were in business when we repurposed the marketplace and created the pedestrian mall. And despite risk and what assuredly did amount to a negative impact on their business for over two plus years, they still supported it. They loved Burlington, they believed in the vitality of this community. But they would truly be appalled and saddened by the current state of downtown. I live in Burlington. I raised my kids here. I run my business here. I'm invested in our community and in our nonprofits. For decades, I've supported the city, but I too am saddened by the current status of our streets and the parks and the impact. Please vote yes.

Thank you. Next we have Mike Conroy followed by David Call.

good evening my name is mike conroy i've been a burlington resident for 45 years been to a couple of these marathon sessions so i want to make sure i say to you all of you up there thank you for your time and service to the city we certainly appreciate it be a long one tonight i'm sure so i'm going to cut to the chase here and just cut out about half of the two minutes i wrote up No judgment. But what we've been trying here in the city to make to address these complex problems it hasn't been working out that well. Some successes here some failures not failures but not as successful as I think we'd all like. The people that obviously need so much help they're not getting it. We're not making what I would think of as meaningful progress. Walk through downtown any day any time and that's as clear as a bell. I hate to say it's not getting better, but it's not, and I think everybody generally would say that's true. In the meantime, we reduce the quality of life and the safety and security of so many of us that used to look to Burlington as an example of what a vital and vibrant city can be. It's long past time to make the changes we need and get on with it. No one solution's enough, but more of the same, only the same, just delays a better future for those in need, for all of us that want our Burlington back. I've read the Burlington Forward Resolution from front to back, and it's not perfect, but it offers some new solutions that can be added to some of the things we're doing that are working, and I think that's where you want it to go. It's clear we need to change course, so I'm in support of You, pushing this forward tonight, let's get it to committee, sort it out, make some changes, make it better, bring it back in a month, vote on it, and then get after the work that we need, because the time is up. We need to do it now. Thank you.

Thank you.

Am I on? Oh, good. I'm David Call. I'm a community activist. I've been here for a long time. I've seen some really good things in this city. all the social programs, all the people, the churches, all the organizations are pitching in to make this place a better place. I work with the community a lot, and I see a lot of programs, a lot of things happening in our beautiful city. If we all look at the bad all the time, then we don't see what's really important, the gratitude and the beauty of our city. We all have issues. I don't wake up every morning and get out of my house to go, oh, there's problems. I see solutions. Maybe small ones, but at least we're trying in this city. I appreciate the city council and the mayor. I appreciate all the people and their diverse opinions. I just wonder if we can't just take a moment and just be thankful for having something nice that belongs to us and our hearts. Hope is never, hope is ever. We have faith, we have joy, we go to every extreme to have a better life. The pursuit of happiness is exactly where we need to be right now. Let's deal with it. Let's deal with the subjects and issues one at a time. Everybody's an individual. If we put everything in a box, then we just have a mess. If we take time in our hearts to just do one kind act and one kind thing in life, that's the greatest gift we can give. Thank you.

Thank you, David. Next we have Oakley Borskin followed by Remy Gessler and Chris McGrath. Is Oakley Borskin here? Okay, excellent. Thank you.

I had a speech prepared tonight. I had things written down. I'm not going to do any of that. There are people out here struggling with addiction, struggling with mental health crises, who have been kicked out of their homes, who don't have accurate, compassionate and reliable support systems. If we are leading with compassion, if we are Burlington, the crowning city of Vermont, we should lead by example. We should lead with compassion. A safe injection site helps people. These people, everyone here has families. Imagine if you had your kid or or whoever has some terrible misfortune, gets in an accident, gets lost and has no way to access their bank account or loses all their money and is put in poverty. We have people we care about here. Anyone could end up slipping into addiction. And it is so very important that we treat them with compassion. If we cannot provide accurate treatment, compassionate treatment, what good is our position as the crowning city of Vermont if we cannot lead by example? And that is all I shall say. Please lead with compassion. That is all I ask of you. Every one of you came here today because you care about Vermonters here in Burlington. Don't leave these people behind. Don't send them to prison. They're struggling.

Thank you. Next we have Remy Gessler, followed by Chris McGrath. Go ahead.

Hi, everyone. I'm going to start this with, I actually didn't write a speech because I feel like I don't need to think that hard about what I'm going to say here. I am legally homeless. I have been struggling with it for months. Trying to get work has been hard. Trying to get food has been hard. And Food Not Cops has been a saving grace for me. I have been on both ends. I have been taking food and helping provide. And I have seen so many people, myself included, I am living proof that this works, that this helps people. I've seen so many people benefit from this. I've heard anecdotal evidence from these homeless people that are struggling that if not for Food Not Cops, they would be drinking. And it's embarrassing to think that we would be shutting down these resources for people that just need nutrition, just need help. And on the topic of homelessness, The property owners in Burlington and skyrocketing rent is just completely unacceptable. Vermonters of every part of life are being priced out by these people. People like Handys and Bissonnettes, you know, I'm surprised they haven't been fined into the ground already because the housing that they provide people is run down. It's embarrassing. Anyways, food not cops. Please, reject this. Let them do what they need to. They are doing good things. That is all. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Chris McGrath, and I'm having a problem with the handwriting on the next one, but I'm gonna guess it's Dream Grima, maybe? So if there's someone who sounds like that, you can come up to the mic. Go ahead, Chris.

City Council, Chair, my name is Chris McGrath and I am a resident of Ward 3. I live here in the downtown core. I wish to express my concern and disagreement with the Burlington Forward Resolution being proposed today. This resolution calls for the rapid recruitment of more officers and a return to visible policing. It calls for more arrests. It calls for social services to be regulated out of the downtown core. It calls for the ability to effectively expel members of our vulnerable, unhoused communities to other places. As written, this policy rejects the American truth that we all have equal rights. Visible policing make white property owners like myself feel safer. However, I understand a fundamental psychological truth. Feeling safe is not the same as being safe. If my unhoused neighbors are subjected to more harassment, physical violence, and discrimination because of increased police action, then they are not safer. Removing social services from the downtown core does not make them safer. Expelling my neighbors from the city does not make them safer. The Burlington Forward Resolution threatens their rights. By extension, it threatens my rights. Freedom, like peace and security, cannot be maintained in isolation. It involves being alert and on guard against the infringement not only of our own freedom, but the freedom of every American. If we permit discrimination, prejudice, or hate to rob anyone of their democratic rights, our freedom and all of democracy is threatened. I would be remiss in my duty as an American if I did not speak up for my unhoused neighbors. They are citizens of my community, my nation, and this world just like I am. They deserve all the rights and protections that I do. Incarcerating and expelling them simply because they are unhoused or visibly struggling with addiction and we are uncomfortable seeing them in our public spaces is not only unacceptable, it is un-American. I humbly ask that you table this resolution so that we, as a city, might come together and help you find a more egalitarian and collaborative solution. I, for one, stand ready, willing, and able to lend a hand. Thank you all for your consideration and your attentiveness.

Thank you. Next, we have the Driem Grima, you can correct me if I, hopefully I'm close, followed by Jessica Blackman.

Sorry for my poor handwriting. Liam Grima, Mr. Chairman. Mayor Stanek, members of the council, and Mr. Chairman, thank you. My name is Liam Grima. I'm a doctoral student at the University of Vermont in their sustainable development program. And in my humble opinion, Burlington Forward Resolution in its current form is an abdication of civic responsibility. After years of levels of all government failing to ensure residents have access to the essential goods and services needed to survive, housing, food, clothing, shelter most prominently, the city is now choosing to criminalize the way in which poor and marginalized people respond to those very conditions. we're not addressing the structural conditions that give rise to conflict and substance use. The resolution is treating unhoused and hungry people as inconveniences desecrating public spaces, as if they themselves are not members of the quote unquote public who are part of that public good and have rights to that public space. I've recently become a member of Food Not Cops, run by my friend and colleague Sam Bliss. And we gather in City Hall every day to share lunch with low income and unhoused members of our community. And it's fulfilling a basic need that the city is neglecting. And we're ensuring that the most disadvantaged residents have access to nutritious food, a resource every human being needs to survive. And I just want to say that the failure carries consequences that extend beyond hunger itself. This proposal is ostensibly a public safety measure. While substantial bodies of research from criminology to sociology have shown an unequivocal link between chronic food insecurity and crime, It undermines cognitive functioning. It impairs impulse control. It leads to poor emotional regulation and undermines decision making. When people are denied their basic needs, the resulting behaviors such as conflict and substance abuse are predictable consequences of deprivation. I ask you to let us continue our work in the City Hall Park. Thank you.

Thank you, Liam. Next we have Jessica Blackman followed by Celine Colburn.

Thank you council. Good evening. My name is Jessica Blackman. I am a mother and resident in the Burlington community. I have a Burlington High School sophomore and Edmonds Middle School seventh grader. And my husband recently opened a family physician practice in Burlington because we believe strongly in this community. One of the things we love about living here is our kids spending time downtown with friends spreading their wings flexing their independence. However, I am deeply concerned about what they increasingly and continue to see when they are in downtown spaces. They see open drug use, they see people in obvious mental health crises, they are exposed to aggressive confrontations between parties, and people often unconscious or worse in public spaces. These situations aren't good for anyone, not for the people experiencing them, nor for the rest of the community. I know that Burlington is a compassionate city. The people here believe that we have the responsibility to help people struggling with addiction, mental illness and homelessness. However, I fear this crisis continues to grow beyond our resources. I worry that our existing policies are not working. Other cities with resources far greater than our own are rethinking their approaches, specifically those that relied on harm reduction policies alone. They are moving toward policies that encourage stronger accountability. And if far larger, better resource communities are doing that, I believe Burlington should consider it as well. I think this Burlington Forward proposal takes meaningful, actionable steps that move us toward the marriage of compassion and public safety and continues to support access to treatment, accountability, and asking for regional partnership. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Celine Colburn followed by Emily Robinson. Go ahead.

Hi. I feel like this might not be on.

It's not on yet. It should have a green light.

Sorry, I thought you were in control of that. I apologize. Hi, I'm Selena. I'm a former city councilor and state rep. And it's hard to know just what to respond to in the regressive Burlington Forward resolution before you tonight. From the construction of volunteer police forces to patrol our downtown to the villainization of mutual aid groups who are making sure everybody has a warm meal. to the doubling down on carceral responses that haven't demonstrated their effectiveness to respond to the challenges at hand. So I thought I'd focus on something that appears to me to be in short supply in the resolution itself, evidence and science. Peer-reviewed research shows again and again and again and again that syringe service programs and overdose prevention centers prevent overdoses, link people to substance use disorder treatment, and reduce, that's reduce, substance use, prevent the spread of infectious diseases for all of us in the community, and they also reduce, reduce syringe litter and public drug use. By proposing to zone these life-saving services out of the heart of our downtown and creating new resolutions and obstacles, this resolution carries the possibility of setbacks and further harms with regards to the very so-called quality of life issues it seeks to address. It's really that simple. Research suggests that Burlington Forward will take our downtown back. we can do way better than this there is a path forward that involves collaboration collective resourcing and close attention to public health approaches that are actually rooted in science so let's get together and follow it thank you thank you selena next we have emily robbins followed by ed baker

Hi, council members. My name is Emily Robbins. I am a mom of a four-year-old and a one-year-old. I'm a board member of the Janice S. Munt Family Room Parent Child Center. I am a proud class traitor and a homeowner who has no fear of my property values being affected by people downtown and frankly really supports my neighbor. And while I think the Burlington Forward Resolution is short-sighted and too focused on the comfort of folks who dress, talk, and look like me, I feel like the cat is out of the bag. If our state and federal government are unwilling to collaborate and to contribute a significant cash infusion to solve our city's own unique flavor of our nation's decline, the harm reduction won't work. Our federal and state government have left those at the edges of society behind, and I don't blame individuals for their so-called anti-social behavior in our city at this point. We broke the social contract with them long ago, and we are still breaking it as we struggle to house, feed, and nurture many of our children who will grow up to tumble through the cycle of shooting up on the street, spend a year in prison, get out, and tumble, tumble, tumble on they go in the spin cycle until their skull shatters against the drum due to the ever increasing speed of the agitator. And with no one to Narcan them, they become the next statistic of failed harm reduction due to lack of funds. Isn't it reasonable that someone would decide subconsciously or not that it isn't worth participating in the social contract, whether illegal or not, if they aren't reaping any benefits from the state's imposed society? This is bigger than the people sitting at this table, and I find it frankly shocking that you think this is your and a vigilante response team's force. and didn't sign up to solve this issue, and it's very surprising to me, and with my last 10 seconds, I want to say I don't necessarily think that these statements are going to change votes, but my final plea to each and every one of you is to please, please, please do not contract with Flock or any other ALPR system for your security cameras. I have some information for you here about Flock cameras. A one sheet for you guys if you want it.

Next we have Ed Baker followed by Pardah Saradhi Namburi. Go ahead, Ed.

OK, thank you, Ahmed Baker. And I just want to say, first off, that I turned 21 in San Francisco in 1967. And you all don't know what disruption is, believe me. I'm here as a person with lived experience and severe, persistent, and chaotic drug use disorder. I have injected drugs on the street. I've boosted. I've contracted hepatitis C. I've been in recovery for 42 years, and I owe my life to Vermonters with severe substance use disorder that saved me. And I will never turn my back on them. I want to say, I want to commend Selena. I want to agree with everything Selena Colburn said. And I want to appeal to you because I know you're trying your best and I admire you and your stamina, your service. I'd like to ask you to please consider to extract the Overdose Prevention Center and really take a look at it with some expert advice. This is not just some haphazard thing that happened. This has been in the making since 2017. It has overcome a governor. based in stigma and firmly opposed to it. The state legislature overturned a veto that the Department of Health has developed very extensive guidelines. We secured money from the Opioid Settlement Advisory Council, not state taxpayer dollars. The city has entered into a contract with the state of Vermont. We have a provider. And we have an entire population of people that are getting ready to die, and we can save them. I want to end by saying some names. And I would like, I'll give you a chance to join in with me and repeat these names. These are the names of people lost to drug overdose, children and family members of Aaron, Dan, Sean, Christina, Peter, Dustin, and Tommy.

Thank you. Next we have Pardasaradhi Namburi followed by Karina Driscoll. Go ahead.

Hi, everyone. My name is Pardu Namburi for short. And I came here because I'm actually born in Burlington, Vermont. I'm now a resident. I just moved back here. I graduated from Northwestern University with my master's degree in public policy and administration. I'm here not to talk about problems. I'm here to propose a solution. And basically what it is, and I have spoken to a couple of you here, is it's a direct democracy platform where people vote on major city policies. before they vote on major city policies, they see objective nonpartisan pros and cons of a policy, so they can see both sides of an issue, and that's from subject matter experts. And after they vote on the policy, they could basically, there's a real-time program evaluation that's taken place as soon as possible, available to the public in real time. So I am here to actually propose to see if I'm looking for a sponsor so we could get this on the agenda for a next meeting so it could be voted on and in a pilot program so there could be a proof of concept. So that's one of the things I wanted to talk about. The other, and I do want to thank, I spoke to Evans Aid, Ranjit Buddy Singh, Lisa Gerlach, I spoke to many different people in the government and I have emailed many of you. If you, like if anyone here is interested in volunteering for this effort and also if anyone didn't receive my email who's a city council member, my email address is p-a-r-d-h-u-n-a-m-b-u-r-i at gmail.com And one last thing is I do propose that we have an AI governance council for the city because we are lacking in AI governance protections. Whether there's cameras with AI in it, we need to have something like that. I propose a sponsor for that.

Thank you. Next, we have Karina Driscoll, followed by Bella Fern. Go ahead, Karina.

I'm hoping someone will shut the door. My heart actually hurts right now. And this is a hard moment for our community. We need to find a way to talk with one another. This important community conversation should not be politicized, but it does need to be had because lives hang in the balance. I'm sure many people in this room have lost someone they love to substance use disorder. And I am sure everyone here feels Burlington is their home and a place worth protecting. Anyone with compassion living here, regardless of where you land on this debate, can feel how not okay it is. For me, it is very dear to my heart that letting people struggling with substance use disorder exist without helping them to safety is not okay. Narcon keeps people alive and clean needles reduce the transmission of pathogens. Well-intentioned free meals in the park, free socks or blankets do not provide a bridge to recovery. There is no effort to get people into treatment. In the name of harm reduction, our decision is not to act but to leave people unhelped, which is about as harmful an action as we can take. There are zero tools for families to receive support when they are attempting to support a family member struggling. And there are few options for a person living with substance use disorder who is ready to take action to change their lives. We are falling incredibly short and people die. I believe two very important things are true. People with substance use disorder can live rich and full lives, but not in a state of their disorder going untreated and left to die slowly or suddenly in our community. And I believe people who are living with substance use disorder need help from their community to get into a state of mind where they can choose recovery. We need to shift our efforts from permissive and ineffective harm reduction policies to a model that puts recovery as the first and top priority. We should not kid ourselves when people are deep in the cycle of abuse, they are not making their own decisions, their addiction is. Please pass this or some form of this resolution. Work together.

Thank you. Next we have Bella Fern followed by Tess Gelbko.

Hi, I was going to read something, but I'm just going to talk and then maybe read a little bit too. I just also wanted to invite you all to come to the cleanup crew. We have incredible conversations every Thursday at 7.30. And I just also want to say that an aspect of this echoes the concept called forced treatment or coerced treatment. There is no evidence to say that this is successful. In fact, in Massachusetts, they have tried this and it is incredibly unsuccessful in getting people into long-term treatment and getting people into long term recovery, it actually increases the likelihood of somebody overdosing after they exit that forced treatment, a coerced treatment program. So I just want to be really clear about that. I'm here because I strongly oppose sections 403 and 404. While the resolution states that public policy should not be guided by objective evidence, or excuse me, should be guided by objective evidence, measured outcomes and transparency, it recommends, oh sorry, it's so hard to read. It recommends regarding OPCs and syringe service programs disregard the most comprehensive community engagement and disregard the most comprehensive community engagement process. The city of Burlington has already undertaken these interventions. Rather than following the city's own research and public health recommendations, the resolution proposes additional zoning barriers and location restrictions that could delay life-saving services and make less accessible for people who are using them. If you would like people not to use substances out in public spaces, I recommend you focus on opening an overdose prevention center as quickly as you can and not bring more zoning restrictions forward. Overdose prevention centers are the safest, fastest, and most sustainable way to prevent people from using substances as well as dying from an overdose. I implore you to consider the evidence in supporting people from struggling with substance use disorder before passing overarching resolutions that could very, very much harm them and increase the likelihood of someone contracting hepatitis V and HPV in our communities. which other restrictions of the syringe service programs would also really harm those services as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Next is Tess Galbko, if I pronounced that right, followed by Mary Rivers.

Are you Tess Galbko? No. I'm Tess Gallucci, not Galbko.

Oh, I'm sorry.

You're good. Throughout history, we have seen people try to define and defend the image they force on the public that a community is a single, shared identity. That the background of its constituents are best represented through defense of business and real estate, while taking away the rights of citizens and putting them further under surveillance, abandoning the representation of our most struggling neighbors and friends within our community. we are seeing this play out before our own eyes with burlington forward this proposal wants to use propaganda-based paint to give imagery to the idea of the homeless boogeyman to deflect away from the reality that cost of living and affordability is the root cause of all these problems here in our city and emma i'm sorry landlords keep attacking you for it This is a rapid descent into fascism. Burlington Forward, simply put, is the diet right of Project 2025. It wants to blame the unhoused for the decreasing rates of tourism and not the march of fascism happening in our country. members of our council are the people here today and those listening at home your neighbors and friends some of which came up here for sanctuary and to protect their rights to simply survive or are they voters and constituents to help push forward the initiatives of business interests in real estate Bernie has been speaking tirelessly across the country about the march towards oligarchy and fascism and the systemic problems that cause affordability, housing, and healthcare to be taken from us as human rights. Burlington Forward does not make us safe. It puts us in danger from losing the only sanctuary some of us have had in our entire lives. Two executive orders were released by the Trump administration I want to highlight. One criminalizing the homeless and one saying trans people don't exist. How can I know that Ben and this council, when the time comes to stick up for our transgender community, that they won't just throw us away to fascism? We may not share a common identity, but you know, we may not all be queer. Some of us may be straight in the room, but I support you anyways.

Thank you. We have Mary Rivers followed by Tammy Brownell.

Hi, my name is Mary Rivers, also known as Terry. I just want to be very simple. I support the Burlington Forward Initiative. I believe there are many harms being done in our community, and I believe harm reduction includes all of us, the community and other people who are suffering. So I'm in favor of the resolution. Thank you.

Thank you. We have Tammy Brownell followed by Lawrence Saveall.

Hi, I'm Tammy Brownell. I'm a homeowner here in Burlington. I'm Burlingtonian. I've worked for a local business for coming up on 38 years. I have a lot written here. I feel very, very passionate about Burlington. I'm going to try not to get emotional. But I just want to quickly, in my two minutes, say that Burlington is not safe. I feel that. I was working at the restaurant that I manage, and someone who was struggling with addiction basically asking her to leave the patio while we were trying to conduct business. And what she said to me is, you better be careful who you mess with, bitch. And the thing is, is that, like I said, I'm a Burlingtonian, but I've also been a sober member of the Burlington recovery community for over 17 years. And my heart goes out to what I see happening in Burlington. And about two and a half years ago, I spoke to a couple of counselors here, and I was trying to make the statement that We have two groups of people here who are really, really struggling and need a lot of help. One, our homeless population, and the other, our addicted homeless population. And there is a difference between the solution for those two groups of people. I'm sorry, I can't believe that I'm getting a little bit emotional, but what I want to say is that I also am an Uber driver, and I've been doing that for 10 years. I drive a lot of people back and forth to the methadone clinic. I have conversations with these people at least three times a week, and in my recovery myself, I've had conversations... Thank you very much.

Thank you, Tammy. Next is Lawrence Saval, followed by, it looks maybe like Laura Garvey.

Hi, I'm Lawrence Saval. I come here from a working class family. I was born here, I go to college here, and we'll see what the future holds. I've flirted with housing instability my entire life. When my father was hospitalized for a traumatic brain injury and became unemployable, erratic, and violent, when my mother and I fled domestic abuse and when I became a student and a worker. I've been housing unstable. I volunteer where I can as a street medic. I cannot help but think of my childhood apartment on Ethan Allen Parkway, an old brick apartment with lead paint and smelling like cigarettes and sweet tea. My original birth certificate that was signed in the city sits in a drawer somewhere. Now, I invite you to imagine your own childhood home. And what if, in an instant, it's walls, the floor, the roof, torn up and away, discarded in the trash, with every memory and even beyond sentimental objects, you're identifying documents thrown in the trash. That is the reality that comes with destroying encampments. That we've seen and documented across cities. is not a neutral action, but one that serves to create a permanent underclass. Now imagine the experience under mass surveillance that, for all intents and purposes, serves the federal government, that serves ICE. I fear for the lives of those who have had their documents destroyed, especially people who aren't white or aren't white passing, especially for people deemed social undesirables. I fear for the people who have not been as lucky in life as I have with my incredible strong mother to guide and inspire me. You are destroying their home and erasing their personhood, legally, physically, emotionally. This is an escalation of violence against our neighbors and we can't stand for it. It's another aspect of this initiative that erases homeless people. Thank you.

Thank you. Laura Garvey, did I get that right?

That is me. Hi, I'm Laura.

This will be followed by Lily Benga.

I think there's gotta be another way for Burlington to move forward that does not put our unhoused neighbors at risk, nor our personal security. I haven't worked with Food Not Cops directly, but when I worked with Habitat for Humanity's Williston Restore, we did divert a lot of our tents and sleeping bags to them so we could help our unhoused community members. know kind of just feels like destroying somebody's home and leaving them without resources and then expecting them to jump through really really unaccessible hoops to get help isn't the way to go i don't know um i hope we can find a way to make resources actually accessible instead of dangling a carrot over people's heads and then judging them for not being able to jump through those hoops and perform, I don't know, as members of society as we expect. I still have a minute left. Food not cops rocks. Go volunteer, hang out, get some food. And also, flock cameras don't seem great. I don't know, when I'm walking down in Burlington, I don't feel great knowing that there could be a camera with AI following me, keeping track of my face, what car I'm in, where I'm going, who I'm with. I don't know, that's kinda icky. Also, with my last 30 seconds, support your local library. Get a library card. Libraries are some of our last third spaces. Everybody deserves access to our public libraries. I think we have some pretty damn great libraries in Vermont. Love the Fletcher Free. Yeah, but I don't think Burlington Forward is the way to go and I think we need to find another way to move forward. Thank you so much, have a great night.

Thank you.

um next we have lily bengaf did i get that right yeah hi there followed by uh catherine connelly um i'm here tonight during my break not gonna lie i'm a little annoyed by that um this feels sneaky this seems to have a lot of sweeping things with it and it was brought forward in a way in which the mayor wasn't necessarily consulted and i found out about it through a friend And there's a lot to this, which leads me to believe the people that brought this forward know it might not be all that popular. I don't feel unsafe by the unhoused population in Burlington. I go on Church Street weekly. I love it here. I moved out of rural Vermont to feel safe, because I didn't feel safe as a queer person. You know what doesn't make me feel safe? Cops everywhere. Flock cameras keeping track of my face and my license plate. Seeing cops stationed at the crosswalks walking up and down. That makes me feel incredibly unsafe. Somebody asking me for a buck, I think I'll live. I just have to say, I've been feeling a range of emotions since this was brought to my attention and I read this resolution for myself, and I've moved past anger And I think I've reached that point. I understand where my mom was coming from now when she used to say growing up, I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed. You have resources, you have my tax money. You could be helping these people. In the meantime, I'm walking on Church Street and I see benches with things bolted in so people can't sleep. I hear music being piped through. I see the places where people wait for the bus. I see the glass being removed because the unhoused were sheltering there. Many of us are one bad week, one day away from homelessness, missing one paycheck, one paycheck short of being one of those people. And we're your constituents. What are you doing?

Next we have Catherine Connolly, followed by Thomas Connolly. Are they here still? They've left. They've left, OK. Then we'll move on to Elise Pecor, to be followed by Scott Anderson.

Not here either.

Okay, we'll move on then to Bruce Baker, followed by maybe Dean Dudette.

Nobody?

Dean Dudette. So we don't have Bruce Baker. No? Dean Dudek? Did I get that right? Yes, that's correct. Thank you. Followed by Emma Gelbin.

Good evening. My name is Dan Dudek, and I've been involved with Vermont in one way or another for over 65 years. Needless to say, I have seen changes, but not of the magnitude of the crises we face now. Ten years ago, I was traveling the region, visiting schools with my daughters. My oldest was interested in the University of Vermont. Ten years ago, there was no evidence of the social problems we face today. I had no reluctance in sending my daughter to UVM. For the past six years, I've made Burlington my home. I do business downtown almost every day. At this time of year, it's customary to see parents with college-age children checking out the city. I saw then, if I saw then, what I see now, and especially at City Hall Park. There is no way I would have felt comfortable with advising or sending my daughter to UVM. Discussion of Burlington's present condition inevitably brings up the problems that local businesses and the city budgets face. We need to broaden our focus to account for the key position that UVM, and I would also add the hospital in particular, have in terms of the city and state. Colleges are facing much greater competition for students. We need to remain attractive to families, considering four more years of engagement with Burlington. Our current conditions do not meet that test. I urge the council to adopt the resolution. We've had ample discussion. We need to broaden the focus beyond just the homeless and people suffering from addiction to include the entire ecosystem that supports this city. Thank you. Thank you.

Next we have Emma Galvin followed by Gail Anderson.

Testing? It's golden. Okay. Are you kidding me? Burlington forward? Do you know what it's like to be homeless? Do you know what it's like to sleep outside? Do you know what it's like to have to be outside when it's over 90 degrees, 100 degrees? Do you know what it's like to not have anywhere to go when it's winter out? Or just to try to survive? Have you ever felt hated for people just by existing near them? You know, like, you talk about these things, like, it's the most, like, like, you know, seeing people suffering is, like, so dangerous and hurtful to you, but that's, like, that's all it's doing is making you feel uncomfortable. Like, like, like, this is, like, reader... The homeless are not responsible for depleting revenue for your quarterlies or whatever. No, it's because we're diving headfirst into fascism with a madman at the helm. And he's looting the country left and right, just pillaging. We're going further and further right. All these far-right policies and over-policing and soaring costs of living from the economic collapse is what's causing this. People don't want to have to live out on the street and suffer from addiction and mental illness. People want dignity and compassion and community. I strongly suggest you reconsider the Burlington backwards resolution. It seems to be in lockstep with fascism, fearmongering, and extraordinary greed. Wow, already time. Thank you.

So it was brought to my attention there may actually be an Emma Gelbin here. Is that true? Okay, go ahead. You're next then, followed by Gail Anderson. Okay, go ahead.

Hey, my name is Emma. I live in Ward 2. I grew up here. I moved away for 10 years and I chose to come back. My family is here, my partner's here, and I would like to live here for a long time. It's hard to imagine that future when I see our leaders and power holders in this city performing such a cruel mass delusion about the reality that we're facing. When you strip away what this is about, and it's clear if you listen to the comments, this is about a small group of businesses and power holders sanitizing our downtown quarter so that business can go on as usual. This is about making Burlington great again. It's not about keeping one another safe and the people who are here who show up daily for their neighbors and for their loved ones are clear in their disagreement with this resolution. This is about not wanting to be uncomfortable and not wanting to see suffering on the street. And I sympathize with that. I am often uncomfortable and sad when I move through downtown Burlington. I do not feel unsafe. I spend a lot of time downtown. I have never felt threatened by an unhoused person. I wish we were just more honest in what this is about. It's about increasing police presence. It's about deputizing vigilante groups to enforce and move unhoused people. It's about more surveillance. It's about more incarceration so that we don't have to confront the problem. And then we wouldn't have to go through this collective farce of being asked to hold compassion for people who are sleeping on the street with compassion for a real estate giant who had to close two of his daughter's shops as if those are equal things. Table the resolution.

Next we have Gail Anderson followed by Ashley Jeskowski.

I'm Gail Anderson and the effects of drug use and sales downtown and parks have been long presented and studied and you know all the things that people complain about that people are uncomfortable dining and shopping downtown and the parks and the business owners sometimes get demonized because they want to make a living all that I'm not going to talk about that tonight my focus tonight is the young neighborhood children downtown many are immigrants are experiencing economic hardships I volunteer at the at King Street and I know a lot of them the drug use is Dealing and occasional violence they see on a daily basis must be traumatic. People passed out or lifting a pant leg, shooting up becomes normal for them, and the adults are accepting this. As they get older, I'm concerned this normalization could lead to drug use for themselves and even dealing. I realize that if you're an adult, maybe you can live with this, but children are traumatized by this. I wonder if any council members in the mayor's office expose their children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews to this sad situation. If you don't, then why not have equal concern for these children? And I don't believe anyone thinks that allowing addicts to be in a stoop or poisoning themselves in the park is actually helping them at all. I urge you to act on Burlington Forward tonight. Please enforce our laws and facilitate those afflicted in getting into the system, which hopefully will give them options about their health going forward. Staying in the park and on the street, they're tragically only going in one direction. I don't believe in punishing a person for their addiction. But they have to have some accountability. Alcoholics can't drive drunk. You can't smoke in this building if you're addicted to nicotine. There's got to be some accountability. Maybe some of the poor people who are addicts were exposed as children to this awful disease. And let's break the cycle. We need harm reduction for our Burlington children. We can't keep kicking the can down the road. And I'd also like to make a quick comment about people demonizing the cops. The first thing that people recall when there's an overdose are the cops and the firemen. You might hate cops, you may hate the businessmen, but they're coming up with money to help support these programs, which we need for these people.

Thank you. Ashley Jaskowski followed by Clayton Dykstra.

Hello. We know what this resolution is. It's a petition to jail and get rid of homeless people for the sake of aesthetics under the guise of public safety. It is an anti-homeless resolution surrounded by a bunch of disingenuous niceties. The number one remedy to crime is housing, health care, and general needs being met. What is compassionate about homeless shelters being shut down and social services being canceled and removed from those who need it? How does incarceration fix those issues? When we look at the statistics, roughly 79% of incarcerated folks reoffend after incarceration. So how is an increased focus on police who are already abundant here in Burlington help? My brother tried to kill himself because he was struggling with homelessness since he was 13. Cops had never helped him. Rather, they treated him with aggression and disgust. And not that it matters, but he was not an active addiction. I hear Vermonters say that homeless people are disgusting, that they choose their circumstances, and I've even heard they wish they would die or live at the bottom of the Lake of Champlain. That is disgusting. Opinions and rhetoric like that is what makes me feel unsafe, and I don't trust cops to make me feel safer when they consistently assault our community and when local cops and state troopers strangle young women and throw women onto the pavement in collaboration with ICE. I implore you not to vote for this resolution. I implore you to look at the history and the statistics on this issue. And I implore you to understand that we are watching you. And when election time comes, we will vote you out if needed. Thank you.

Next, we have Clayton Dijkstra followed by Max Schindler.

Hello, City Council. My name is Clayton Dijkstra. I live in Ward 7. I've lived in Burlington for who cares because I don't think the duration of time that you've lived here or done business here should impact the weight of your opinion. I'm a human person like everyone else here is. I'm here to speak about the Burlington Backward Plan. Reading the Seven Days article about this announcement, it sounded like the councilors were describing an issue with stray animals in our city. But we aren't talking about stray animals here. We are talking about human persons who have been oppressed by a system and who are unable to get their needs met. I hope that we can all agree that people with disabling conditions deserve accommodations. I hope that we can all agree that someone can be disabled due to a mental condition. I hope that we can all agree that when people use substances in a way that harms them, it is a good sign that there is an underlying mental health condition. If you agree with all these things, then you should see that this plan targets and punishes people for having disabling conditions. I will agree with you that our neighboring cities and our state do need to do more. I think the issues that you've described happening downtown are the result of much larger issues at the national and state level, and more people come here because they are more likely to get help here. But just as these issues stem from the national level, you're borrowing the logic from the Nazis and the White House to solve it. If you forcefully impose rules on someone without consulting them first, you might be an authoritarian. If you want to sharply increase police presence to enforce a set of rules, you might be an authoritarian. If you want to criminalize a certain group of people in the name of public safety, you might be an authoritarian.

So we're forgetting about the clapping rule a little bit, and what I'd like is people to refrain from clapping again, if you could please.

Next we have Max Schindler followed by Fareed.

Hi, City Council. Thank you for your time. My name is Max Schindler. I'm a Burlington resident. I'm here because in the Burlington Forward Resolution, there's language that would prevent Food Not Cops from giving out food in City Hall Park. As you know, Food Not Cops for the past six years has been giving out free food daily. We don't get any funding from the government. We do this because food should be a right, just like housing should be a right. And I ask each of you here Who has a voice here? And our friends and neighbors who are homeless, what do they want? What are their needs? And tonight we hear from the legitimate concerns of business owners and friends who work downtown. Yes, nobody likes the current situation. Too many friends and neighbors lack housing, lack good jobs, lack the ability to buy groceries or using drugs in public. I ask each of you, if you or I were homeless, What would we do to cope with the sheer insecurity? Would we shoplift to survive? Would we use drugs to deal with the stress of living on the streets? You on city council see what's happening in America, extreme wealth and income inequality, skyrocketing rent, Medicaid being gutted. Rather than push for housing to be decommodified, for food to be decommodified, why are we proposing to stick the cops on our homeless friends and neighbors? Has the war on drugs worked? Has mass incarceration worked? I ask you to vote no on the resolution tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Max. Next we have Fareed.

As we speak now, we Let's remember that a couple of elections ago, we voted for a police accountability reform that it's still in Montpelier. It's being actively fought by the police union, by the fraternal order of the police. I hope everybody can see the irony of identifying accountability as the problem, and then offering Burlington Police Department as the solution? Come on, we can do better than that. I mean, we spent $28 million a year, or more, for public safety. It's more like, well, 50-something million dollars. This is the best you guys can do? I mean, we've seen all of this stuff before. A lot of it is like it's already happening. Some of it we've tried in the past and didn't work or other places have tried and it didn't work. We gotta be able to come up with something better. What about if we just allocate like 1% of the public safety to a budget that is participatory and ask stakeholders, everybody in the community to come up with idea and to actually decide what's important to us. How about that? I mean, 1% of it, it's like, that doesn't sound like much, but it's actually, well, like $500,000, we could do a lot. I mean, I know we could do a lot to help people who are struggling because A lot of mutual aid groups have been doing it for no money from the city. If a bunch of regular people with no resources can do this, can actually help people who are struggling and actually make downtown safer. If you are full, you are less desperate, you are less likely to commit something that you would regret later. Please do better. We are better than this. And thank you. And please don't vote yes on this proposal. We can do better. Thank you.

Thanks, Fareed. Next, we have Kathy Allwell followed by Andre Clark. Sorry, I didn't call your name in advance, Kathy.

Hi, I'm Kathy Allwell. I've lived in this city for 34 years. I have three sons that grew up here and went through the Burlington schools, and I have four of my six grandchildren at SA in the Old North End. I have never before, since we've moved here, I have never felt unsafe in this city. even when we're having a lot of trouble. Now, I am a social worker. I opened up a youth center in the new North End to give kids a place to be, to keep them away from drugs, Drug problems have been in this city for the 34 years I've lived here and I've worked with it. So I'm not saying that it's okay that it's there. It's just that we make it sound like this place has become so unsafe. It is not unsafe. I feel fine living here and I will walk anywhere in this city. But this whole thing made me furious. I am a social worker. You didn't even ask any social services to work with you on this. You didn't call and get the schools to work on this. You didn't get the rest of your city council to work on this. I said, I mean, this is not democracy. And on top of that, I have to say, some of the stuff in here, I spent 13 years in Germany. From 1970, so 25 years after fascism was over in Germany, I talked and asked and read And we are sitting right now in the time that Germany was sitting before Hitler took over. And we, when you start talking about putting cameras everywhere, I just, it scares the shit out of me. And I am sorry.

We'll try a couple more. We'll see where we go. Andre Clark is next, followed by John Trigg.

Can you say those names again?

Andre Clark, followed by John Trigg.

Hey, and before I start, I just want to please nobody cheer. I'm just trying to get through this city council meeting. Thank you. Hi. My name is Andre Clark. I'm a current resident of Ward 2, and I have also been homeless and addicted to drugs and alcohol in this community. I fear that the way that people talk about our neighbors outside is the same way they talked about me. I am concerned that some of the language and ideas in the Burlington forward resolution will deepen stigma against and unfairly target our unhoused neighbors and the organizations and neighbors who exist in community with them. The resolution is heavily reliant on enforcement, removal and punitive measures against people who use substances are unhoused or who make people feel uncomfortable. Burlington Forward uses coded language like required permits and unpermitted social services to say that mutual aid organizations should leave City Hall Park. I have spent the past 10 years working in homeless services, studied homelessness in UVM's Master of Public Health program, and currently lead a mutual aid organization, Street Cats Burlington, that supports the unhoused community through outreach, advocacy, and supply drives. I don't claim to have all of the answers, but I do know that stigmatizing, criminalizing or displacing people is not an effective long term strategy. We need collaborative and person centered approaches that focus on the social determinants of health. This means safe and accessible housing for everyone, access to nutritious food, safe and welcoming parks, and positive social connections. These are some of the areas of support that mutual aid and nonprofit agencies provide people every day. This resolution would be more effective if it went through a process that more thoroughly engage the community including those with living and lived experience of homelessness and drug use social social service agencies working directly with people experiencing homelessness and people who use drugs and mutual aid organizations. There are real gaps in our system of care that are preventing people from accessing substance use treatment employment housing and emergency shelter.

We need to talk to those who understand where the gaps are and provide additional support and resources to help fill the gaps and needs of our community.

Thank you. Next is John Trigg.

Thank you. I'm a senior citizen. I've lived in Vermont about six years. I find it special here, very special. I call it a magic carpet ride. I've had special events happen here that amaze me. and blessed me. My landlady let me move in with no background check. She was like a grandmother to me. And I've had very special things happen here in Vermont. One of them was food, not bombs. I call it bombs, but it's cops. I've examined them. And I looked at them and examined them, and they are special, very special. I see their skills. I see their outgoing care. and it truly amazes me. You amaze me. You're overseers of a group of people that are very special. Not only are we American citizens, we're neighbors. I found housing here, I found work here, and I found great friendship here. I honor you and your service, but you need to be careful. You need to be careful. I'm 75 years old. I'm a son of a military corporal in World War II, and he was a solid underground miner. His name was Theodore C. Trigg, and he taught me righteousness and hard work. I worked on a ranch, and I worked most of my life in numerous jobs. One was construction, and I was injured here working on the marina next to the Coast Guard station, and I have a sore back, but medical care is extremely good here. I advise you to keep food bombs because I examine them. I donate a lot to them. And I eat there. And I don't find anything negative here totally, except myself. I work on my own program to better myself.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next, we have Amy Malinowski followed by Marina Rubio. Sorry, Amy, I didn't call your name out ahead.

Hi, my name is Amy Malinowski, and I'm a Ward 8 resident. I read all 21 pages. This resolution says it's about care and community, but the logics underpinning most of the policies have to do with fear and criminalizing economic precarity, which we know doesn't work. Our response to neighbors in crisis should not be about policing people. We should focus on getting really creative about tax fairness, housing, health care, et cetera. And speaking of which, I actually seem to remember a creative idea coming through city council just a few weeks ago on June 1st. The tax fairness charter change bundled together three proposals which we would have had the chance to discuss and vote on next week on the November ballot had some folks not pushed a delay. One of the proposals was a 5% property transfer tax that would activate When someone sells their million-dollar-plus single-family home, which is about 20-ish people a year, that revenue would be allocated to the Housing Trust Fund, which was created in the 80s and has been copied around the world because it's so effective. Taxing the wealthiest in our community and making historic investments in affordable housing is how we can create communal security and wellness. In opposing putting these proposals before the people, one city councilor said, and I'll paraphrase, you know, when we talk about the sale of a million dollar property, we make a lot of assumptions about the seller's situation. When we see that number with all the zeros at the end, I feel like we're drawing conclusions on something. We don't necessarily know the whole situation. which is showing a curious amount of care and concern for the financial security of the 20ish people who can afford a million dollar home. Where is that for the unhoused? City councilors also complain this was too much too fast and there wasn't enough public input to put this on the ballot and mechanism for public input. But now you're willing to use your voting block to push the resolution. We the people have no say on and you all just introduced a few days ago.

Thank you. Next we have Marina Rubio followed by Ray Beach.

Hello, my name is Marina Rubio. Thank you all for showing up for this long evening. I have lived in Burlington for almost 10 years, the last eight downtown. I have seen the rise of addiction, mental health challenges and precarity and its effects in our downtown area. Folks experiencing those things firsthand are the ones suffering the most. Yet I really do understand that witnessing those crises might feel unsafe too. drugs and yelling and behaviors that we don't understand can be scary and I share that discomfort sometimes. That said, this Burlington Forward resolution was painful to read despite containing a lot of compassionate language. The goal is clearly to clean up downtown while Things like support and services seem to be a mere tool to achieve that goal, along other tools like evicting people from their encampments, their homes, increasing surveillance and policing for all, punishing people for not having a home to do drugs in private, and utilizing permitting to displace harm reduction services like the New Needle Exchange and the food distribution done daily by the neighbors downtown. In a city full of people who experience addiction, homelessness, and other crises, I think the best way to make public spaces feel safe and be safe is to build relationships across all sorts of different people. I have long admired Food Not Cops and People's Kitchen for doing precisely this. Day in and day out, they create spaces that foster connection. people who enjoy stable lives, good mental health, and having a house to call home, working with and in support of people in crisis, and experiencing precarity by feeding each other. The more people are downtown building relationships of rapport and respect with folks in crisis, the more safe we all are. If a situation escalates, someone might be around with the comfort and established trust to intervene in a way that doesn't criminalize anyone. Instead of replacing these projects with kiosks and public safety personnel stations, why don't we support them? Why are we not bragging about them?

Thank you. Thank you. Next is Ray Beach followed by Juho Sampson.

My name is Ray Beecher. um and uh i know it was a long time ago but sit with me for a minute one year and 12 days ago a lawyer named jay diaz had sent a letter to vt digger after food not cops had moved to city hall park it explained that the act of serving food itself is considered expressive conduct with intention to convey a message um is prevent protected by the Hello, okay, is protected by the First Amendment. Protection doesn't end at the spoken word or the written word. That includes food, that includes tents, that includes the black armbands that was protesting the war in Vietnam, that includes the sit-ins at white-only lunch counters, tattoo parlors, topless dancing, all considered expressive conduct. all fully protected under the First Amendment. Food Not Cops and People's Kitchen is a protest, unironically protesting exactly what you are proposing. Public parks historically have been places of free speech. Food Not Cops is expressive conduct. People's Kitchen is expressive conduct. The Meal Train is expressive conduct. Even Jesus with coffee is expressive conduct. Just keep that in mind. Because we do have our First Amendment freedoms at the park. And just because you don't like us there, that doesn't change what the Constitution reads. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Chuho Sampson, followed by Sam Bliss.

It's on, right?

Yes, if the green light's lit, it's on.

Good evening. My name is Choha Sampson. I own the single pipe of downtown Burlington. 25 years ago, I come to Burlington for the first time to attend Vermont Boers Fest. I remember driving down Main Street, seeing the Lake Champlain and thinking, what a beautiful city. Later, I walk around downtown Church Street. Strangers smiled. make eye contact, and say hello. I remember thinking I would love to live in a community like this. Eventually I did. I came to this country with only $87 in my bank account. Like many people, I need help. This community welcomed me, it believed in me, it gave me the opportunity to build a life, a family, a business. This is why I care so deeply about Burlington. Tonight, many people will tell you this resolution is dangerous. I respect that. We all want a compassionate Burlington. I do too. But I also believe compassion should never require us to accept fear, disorder, or lose a lost public space that belonged to everyone. Years ago, after closing my restaurant late at night, one o'clock, a gentleman experienced homelessness who usually sleep near library. It will remind me, be careful around the corner. If you need me, yell at me. This memory remind me that homeless is not a problem. People are not the problem. Today I call my husband to stay on the phone with me while I walk to my car because on my way home I see people yelling across the street. A man beat up a woman chasing down Pine Street. I no longer feel safe. That's why I support Burlington Forward. I support it because it rejected false choice between compassion and public safety. It calls on us to pursue both together. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Sam Bliss, followed by Alex Olson.

Hi, I'm Sam Bliss. I live in Ward 8. I'm here to speak about Burlington Forward. And there's a lot there. I read the whole thing a couple of times. And I see why a lot of my friends here read it. cynically as just about pushing poor and unhoused people out of downtown so business can go on as usual. There's a lot of that in there. And that's not going to work anyway. I mean, if you're relying on panhandling for your living, you're probably going to be where there's people shopping and tourists with their wallets out. Or if you're relying on shoplifting, you're probably going to be where the businesses are at. And in Burlington, we're dealing with problems that are caused by systemic stuff that's way beyond Burlington, and I think it's important to acknowledge that. Like, this is a difficult situation, and I don't envy all y'all's positions on the city council. I don't know much about policy or programs. But our situation is we have to figure out how to share this place, and so I guess my, like... at least the values that are stated in the Burlington Forward thing, a lot of them I can get behind, care and compassion and accountability. It seems like it's a one-way accountability where the poorest and most vulnerable people have to be accountable for bad things they've done in their terrible situations. Others don't seem to have to be accountable for things they've done that have failed or the problems that have caused that. But again, a lot of the things that we're dealing with here are economic inequality that's caused by the rapacious form of capitalism that we have in this country. Damn, I've only got 20 seconds left. I really should have planned this better. I don't know what works in terms of policy, but I think we need to encounter each other to make friends with each other across class difference. And so pushing a bunch of poor people out of where the rich people hang out is gonna make things worse and not better. So we should see each other and have to deal with each other even when it's messy, even when it's difficult, even when it's not comfortable or fun.

Thanks. Next is Alex Olson followed by Logan Roots.

Hello, my name is Alex and I am housing impaired. So what I have to say really is that I do not feel unsafe. I am surrounded by street family and Food Not Cops is a savior completely. Feel safe there. The drug use is unbelievable at this point in city hall park. And it's just, it's, it still doesn't make me feel unsafe, but not everybody that's homeless is on drugs. Some of us are just not, I don't know. It's like, there are a lot of good people around here and a lot of people help out and the resources that we have in Burlington is just unbelievable. Because you live in Boston or where I'm from in New Bedford, Mass originally, there are not resources like that. If you're out in the street, you're living in a cardboard box. And this frankly can happen to anyone overnight. Me, myself, I lost my job and it was just circumstance. And one thing led to another and I ended up on the street. Getting housing right now, it seems to be impossible, even calling 211. 90%, 90% of Vermont is taken. The only places they want to send me to is Middlebury. I spent a lot of time in Middlebury years ago, but I don't know anybody there, and that's way far away from here. All my friends are here and this is where I live. So it's just like, I don't know, things need to change. They really do. But that's my piece.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Logan Roots, followed by Kelsey Adams.

If only we had some more cops in this building, maybe we could enforce some of that accountability against all the people clapping. Anyway, the Burlington Forward resolution begins by saying that the city has already dedicated substantial resources to helping the homeless and with the implication that we can't do anymore. Meanwhile, many supporters of Burlington Forward have always been the biggest opponents of anything, the biggest opponents of anything to help homeless people. and everybody knows it, some going as far as pouring maple syrup on sleeping homeless people, allegedly. The resolution goes on to seek the suppression of a resource, namely people who give out free food that the city doesn't pay a dime for. Y'all who are concerned about money first and foremost, I wonder how much money Food Not Cops saves the city every year. But instead, we're supposed to believe that we need more surveillance cameras and more of the cops who beat people up on Dorset Street to assist ICE, and that's going to fix the problem. Let's be honest, this is political theater for Ben Travers' future mayoral campaign. This resolution is not born out of any interest in fixing the problem, only moving suffering people somewhere else where we can all go back to forgetting about them. BPD already has a budget of 21 million dollars that is way ahead of anything else you all give money to if you put that much money into helping the homeless, I promise you the Tourists keeping your bar in business won't have to see people suffering when they leave dinner last month And last month, I want to remind everyone that the city paid $150,000 to the family of a black 14-year-old who BPD beat up. You'll be responsible for any abuses that occur if you give us more cops.

Next, we have Kelsey Adams followed by Allison Keaton.

Is this thing on? Yep. Hi, I'm Kelsey Adams. I'm a community organizer with the People's Kitchen and Food for All. I'm also a lifelong Vermonter and a Ward 3 resident. The authors of Burlington Forward are lucky I only have two minutes. The resolution seeks proposals to occupy, excuse me, activate the northeast corner of City Hall Park, where a number of mutual aid groups hand out food and supplies every day, if not more than once a day. If any of the authors spent time in our corner of the park when we're there, they'd notice that we don't bring disorder with us. As people see familiar faces, pick up a warm meal, and get some supplies that they've needed, this is a little, there we go, they get calmer. They become more optimistic and more agreeable. We don't bring disorder, we bring just the opposite. Frankly, we're good for business, too. Every meal that someone gets from us is one that they didn't have to resort to shoplifting for or, God forbid, panhandling, where the wealthy shoppers are reminded of their existence. What we're doing in the park benefits everyone. Only one thing improves if we leave, and that's optics. I could spend hours explaining every way that this resolution ignores, demeans, and insults the people that it claims to be taking an empathetic approach to. This resolution has sought the input from business owners, cops, and unnamed nonprofits, but not once that I found in over 20 pages of writing does it seek input directly from actual unhoused Burlingtonians. Instead, it treats them, people that I see every day, I know by name, as an invasive species. I've barely scratched the surface here. Abandoning this resolution and all its uninformed and out-of-touch suggestions should be a no-brainer.

Thank you. Allison Keaton is next, followed by Stoney Thompson.

Did you say Allison Seeger?

Allison looks like Keaton to me.

Yeah, to start with, I think this resolution contains genocidal intent, targeting a specific group of people for removal, or they can die quietly and out of sight. The resolution makes a distinction between residents and homeless people, because there's all this talk about keeping residents and citizens safe. So I guess homeless people are considered non-persons and non-citizens. to be policed and contained who knows where. Yeah, I also just don't really want compassion from a dipshit liberals who don't know what's going on. I want liberation. I want whoever proposed this resolution to be stripped of political power. And you're treating humans like animals to be herded around and put in cages. I want to see the cage destroyed. And I want to see the people guarding the cage destroyed. Yeah. Also, I'm just sick of cisgender people coming in here and yapping about compassion. I think that's stupid. So yeah, free Palestine, fuck Israel, all power to homeless people, and yeah, that's it.

I'm gonna stop you right there. Stoney Thompson is next, followed by Caleb Barrington.

Can you say it again?

Stoney Thompson, looks like. Stoney, going once. Followed by Kayla Barrington.

I'm Kayla Barrington.

Go ahead.

I am a mother of a six month old. I had him in UVM Medical. I also, at the ripe age of 19 years old, had my apartment burned down. in the Old North End. I experienced seven years of being unhoused, in which time I was consistently treated poorly by the police. I was targeted by the police. I have had experiences to the point where when I got tested for PTSD, I had a higher level than somebody returning from their 10 years at war was the average. So I would like to say that these types of resolutions are not going to answer anything. The reason I came back to Burlington to have my child wasn't because it's affordable. It wasn't because you guys have the best payment for my job, okay? It was because I believed in this town and I believed that you could do something. But the reality is, is that I work for Pathways and I'm watching every single moment. I'm not scared for anybody else. besides my child because someday my child might be on those streets. I'm working for Pathways and I can barely make the bills, okay? I'm a mother. What are we doing to keep young families here? Your problem is you are losing us.

Thank you. Next is Emma Golden followed by Robert Farnham. Emma Golden.

Golden.

Oh, OK, got it. Robert Farnham. Please followed by Juliana Nira.

Good evening, I I'm Rob Farnham. Excuse me, I'm a homeowner and a native Vermonter. And I'd like to commend the committee. I think this is a very nice piece of work. It's thoughtful. It's well done. It has a balance, in my opinion, of the compassion and the accountability that a city like Burlington needs. And therefore, I really think it's a nice piece of work. I listened to many of the speakers tonight. I wonder if they've read the entire resolution because it doesn't read what they're saying about it, in my opinion. I've been here in my particular house for 11 years now, here in Burlington, and I've seen the degradation of the public spaces as well as the social structure And I believe what you put forth is the beginning of not only accountability, but it's a very compassionate piece. And therefore, it strikes me that it's a very nice amendment to the social structure here in Burlington. It promotes civility and it promotes togetherness and it also promotes help, assistance. It doesn't deny that in this particular resolution. So I will be brief. That's my brief statement to you. Again, I commend you for your work. I think it's well done, and I hope it passes.

Thank you. Next is Juliana Neera, followed by David Marr.

Hi, I am a graduate student at UVM, and I study the social dimensions of food systems. As part of my research, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Food Not Cops. Through this work, I connected not only with my neighbors experiencing houselessness, but also with a broader community that cares deeply about their well-being. which we are fortunate to have in our town and who you should be listening to and working with. I want to acknowledge that Burlington does face real challenges related to substance abuse and houselessness, but I remind everyone here that these individuals are not the problem. Rather, their circumstances are actually the consequences of long-standing structural issues, including economic precarity, lack of affordable housing, lack of access to mental health and overall health services, and these failures should be the true focus of policy if we want to prevent these outcomes. Fascism, weapons, ICE, war planes above us, the most expensive healthcare in our country, underfunded schools, large-scale private equities, et cetera. These are real threats. Lastly, the language in the Burlington Forward Resolution is open for interpretation and we know that vague policy language can be implemented in ways that reinforce biases or even justify violent approaches. I urge you to demand approaches that center care, dignity, and structural solutions rather than measures that risk further marginalizing those who are already vulnerable in our communities. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, we have David Marr followed by Jason Van Drash.

Good evening.

Good evening. My name is Dave Marr, live in the new North end of Burlington. A few years back, I remember someone from Burlington city government suggesting that we talk with mayors of other cities such as San Francisco to see how they combat homelessness and drug abuse. At the time, I thought this was ridiculous, since San Francisco had one of the highest rates of homelessness in the U.S. There is even a CNN special titled, What Happened to San Francisco?, in which a young couple explained that they moved there because of the generous services and cheap drugs. But now San Francisco has a new mayor, Daniel Lurie, who has made significant progress reducing homelessness and sleeping rough. His core strategies include enforcing strict bans on illegal camping, expanding drug-free permanent supportive housing, revamping a program to help transition individuals back to family and support networks, and emphasizing treatment and recovery rather than harm reduction. Because of his progress, Daniel Lurie is extremely popular, enjoying a 74% approval rating. Some of Mr. Lurie's strategies are similar to proposals in the Burlington Forward Plan. And as I read the plan, I see much overlap with the mayor's response, including getting more help from the state and developing a more regional approach to homelessness and drug addiction. So rather than turning this into a partisan squabble, let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. You might even want to call the mayor of San Francisco to get a few tips. Thank you.

Thank you, Dave. Next we have Jason VanDreyche followed by Rubiana Anjum.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Jason VanDreyche. I live in Ward 5. I've read both the Burlington Forward draft and also the mayor's responses. I agree with some of each. I have a lot of respect for the mayor and voted for her. I also have a lot of respect for our city council president, who is my city councilor, and voted for him. When I step back and think about what's going on here, though, it seems to me that Burlington's biggest problem isn't homelessness or drug abuse or affordability. It's a mayor and city council who can't figure out how to work together. The reality is the Democrats control the majority on the city council and represent the perspectives of many people in Burlington. And it doesn't work to ignore what they've brought forward or dismiss it out of hand. What I would like to see from the mayor in response to this proposal is a good faith point by point engagement with the proposal outlining what they agree with and are already doing because I think there's more overlap here than we're giving credit for. What the administration is not doing but is open to exploring and what it respectfully disagrees with and why. I agree with the mayor that we can't arrest and imprison our way out of this. But I see that as a sound bite, not a solution. And while I don't know what all the solutions are, I know what the first one is, which is acting like we're all in this together. Thank you.

Thank you, Jason. Next we have Rubiana Anjum followed by Charlie Messick.

Good evening, councillors and neighbors. I'm Rabena Anjum, a Ward 7 resident. I'm an economist and a PhD candidate at the University of Vermont. I'm a homeowner, if that matters to any of you. As a researcher and economist, it is incredibly frustrating and infuriating that this resolution has been put forth. because it demonstrates a complete disregard for evidence-based policy-making akin to the Trump administration's disregard for scientific evidence. It has really been a pattern with this caucus over the years. I still eagerly await the mystical data showing that crime reduced after Food Not Cops left the parking garage. There's been an interesting phenomenon nationwide. Conservative media, from traditional print and television to new media such as bloggers, have been spinning a narrative that depicts blue cities as centers of violent crime, retail theft, homelessness, and open-air drug markets. The horror. Democrats have not just failed to counter this narrative, but have completely bought into it. We're seeing the return of the war on drugs and tough on crime approaches with a big dollop of the surveillance state. And now here in Burlington, these approaches have surfaced cloaked in a veneer of compassion and accountability. There are researchers out there. I've written it all here. There's a complex relationship between substance use disorder and homelessness. There's evidence-based pathway. The housing first model has been associated with decreasing homelessness. This is all out there, and I do not understand why this caucus has not done their homework. Putting people in housing first. and allows them to then access the other services better. And this has been found as a success in Houston. And it's just interesting who we criminalize also. $900 in shoplifting, below $900 is a misdemeanor, but it's a criminal offense. And wage theft below $900 is a civil infraction. Thank you.

Next is Charlie Messing followed by Casey Seam.

Hello again. Well, I was going to talk about trees and a few other things, but I think the whole evening is centered around one subject mostly. Forward, I read 21 pages, Burlington Forward. A lot of good ideas in there, it's just a matter of how we do it. I used to, I was a kid in the 60s, we used to call cops pigs, we hated cops. And then in the 70s, they saved my life and I thought differently about them then. And my daughter married a state trooper. My ex-son-in-law ran the Bethel barracks. I have respect for state troopers. They wear their shirts too tight because it's more intimidating. It's like a rule that they all have to do that. And I talked to six of them on the street, and just talking to them, and we were talking about the people who yell. You know, there's about three people who really yell, and they keep yelling. And I said, I just called them Old Yeller. Sam Bliss is great. Food Not Bombs is wonderful. I support him. Totally, and the People's Kitchen, I think they're great. We have to find another spot, not City Hall Park, including the person in a good fancy modern car who comes over and meets 20 people every day. Thank you. Thank you, Charlie. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Casey Seam followed by Alison Segar. KCC? Go ahead, Allison.

Hi, hold on.

And Allison's going to be followed by Karen Long.

Hi, my name is Alison Seager. I've lived in Burlington for 30 years. I've been a social worker for over 45 years. Hi, Kathy. And I most recently founded the Vermont Language Justice Project some six years ago. I've changed my speech about 100 times because everybody said so many things that I want to say. So what is there to say? I'm not going to get into the debate about what strengthening accountability for unlawful conduct means. I'm assuming that it means more punitive measures, and I have to say, if the war on drugs, which started in the 70s, had been a success, we would not be where we are today. I have never experienced in my 30 years as a resident a golden age of Burlington. It sure is easier for me to pretend that things are so much better 30 years ago than they are now. But as a social worker, I saw and witnessed what was going on in the underbelly of the city. There's not much difference from 30 years ago to now, except things are more out in the open than they used to be. Rents were ridiculously high back then. I know, I was paying over three quarters of my low salary on an apartment. Drug use did take place on the streets back then, and in private homes as well. both on the hill and in the Old North End. I remember picking up needles in Pomeroy Park in the late 1990s, and mental health services always had waiting lists, but less so if you had good health insurance. There was acute racism back then, and there is acute racism and anti-immigrant migrant feelings now. That was not even addressed in this framework. Everything is just being exposed for what it is. A state and a town that is struggling through lack of funding cuts and resources to pay for the services that are needed to make a true difference. Trump, the fascist, is decimating the little that is left for people to survive with dignity, and we are not wanting to look at it. This is one thing that hasn't been said. Do you know that Medicaid is gonna end for non-citizens starting in October? Do you know, I'm gonna finish this bit because nobody's said this yet. Do you know that if you're on Medicaid and are working less than 80 hours a month and are actively looking for work, your Medicaid will end on January the 1st, 2027. No drug rehab for folks then unless you have private health insurance.

Thank you, Alison. Next we have Karen Long followed by Michael Long.

These chairs are dangerous.

Thank you.

I learned a lot tonight. I think that the council is probably learning a lot. I hope that you will reconsider what's going on right now. I do feel like you approach this I think I like this Burlington backward that people are starting to call it. Uh, the press conference really turned Burlington forward resolution into a media event. And I think that's what you wanted. It would have been more productive for the whole council to work together with the mayor, the police, the fire department, and our social workers. All the parties involved should come together. We need to be honest about problems or issues in Burlington, but we don't need a bullhorn to emphasize the negative. Party line votes and rancor on the council hurts the community the council should be serving. I walk downtown, ride my bike downtown. I don't feel unsafe at all. And I do wonder with like the troopers that are there right now when I walk tonight, they're just like three guys hanging out together in their uniforms. But it doesn't make me feel really safe unless they're going to be there because I have a problem. I'm not sure about that. But I just really I don't like things in this resolution. The idea of volunteer enforcement officers like how would you manage that. How would you control what was going on. And then when something bad happens we're going to get sued. I mean that that's one of the crazy things in there. Anyway, there's so many people that spoke tonight. I hope you will listen to them and I hope you will forget having a resolution by the Democrats that you will be able to vote through because of your numbers. And I think you like muscle that. I don't like that about it.

Thanks. Thank you, Karen. Next is Michael Long followed by Dave Hartnett.

Good evening. I want to address the Atlantic article that's been in the news featuring Burlington as a small town sidelight. I love the Atlantic, but this is a hit piece. I don't know about Seattle, but Burlington did not say yes to drugs. This article is a bit like an hysterical anti-woke diatribe. The reporter was here a year ago, and he had to fit Burlington into his preconceived Seattle harm reduction narrative. To do so, he cites 40 years of progressive rule, but seems unaware that Emma had been in office just a year and was confronting the city Mayor Weinberger left behind. Certainly Michael Powell's observations and anecdotes are disturbing, but they are selective to be sensational. I am downtown regularly, and my observations are quite different. The city surely has problems, but the city is addressing, not ignoring them. To make further progress, to move actually forward, the council and others with expertise need to work together, not in opposition, not apart, The Burlington Ford resolution should be tabled and revised collaboratively before being approved and sent to committee for fine tuning. Thank you.

Thank you, Michael. Next is Dave Hartnett.

Thank you.

Followed by Theo Wieland.

Thank you, and I will speak to the resolution, which I'm in favor of moving forward. But just an observation sitting here for the last two and a half hours, and I appreciate everyone that spoke. I've been where you are sitting, and I know how hard it is. to run a meeting, and especially when you're filling in, and to be mocked about trying to keep order, because I've been here when meetings have gone off the rails, and it's not fun. and to be mocked, not only by the speakers, but then also have city councilors smiling and former city councilors smiling like they thought it was humorous. I don't see anything humorous in that at all. I think you've done a great job tonight under very difficult circumstances. Now, the resolution itself, A while back, the mayor had a press conference and claimed that Burlington was back. I've never felt Burlington is gone. I've lived here all my life. It's the greatest place to live. And we do things so well here. so many things so well. This past summer, we've opened up the new high school. Thousands of people have come toward that school. We're so proud of that school. People from Massachusetts, New York, Maine, all over the Northeast have come in envy of what we've done here. This past Saturday, 600 kids, over at COTS, getting them back to school, haircuts, backpacks, you name it, we did it for them. We do so many good things in this city, and it is the greatest place to live. And we can come together, and we can find a solution to these problems. But to try and fail, that's okay. Not to try and fail is not. And this resolution at least starts the conversation. So I would like it to be passed by every city councilor here tonight in good faith to show that we will come together. Thank you.

Thank you, Dave. Next is Theo Wieland, followed by Kate Parlberg-Kamm. Go ahead.

Hi, my name is Theo, resident of Ward 2 and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, DSA. I'm speaking as a member of DSA and no other affiliation. First, I just want to say congratulations to Vermont Green FC, to the women who got second place nationally on their first season, Olay, to the Bohoys who won their second national championships back to back, coast to coast champions. That's beautiful. Second, I am opposed to the Burlington Democrats' so-called Burlington Forward. It is stale, belligerent, and backwards. Back to the 112 years of the monstrous war on drugs. Back to life before the George Floyd uprising. Back to broken windows policing. Back to the 1990s. Back to the glory days of shopping malls. Back to the gravy train for Church Street landlords. Back to brunch. This is the class politics of the landlord class in a backwards-looking section of the class of small business owners. Sore losers. All that is solid melts into air. Capitalism revolutionizes the means of production and distribution. Back to a nostalgic time before online shopping, before Amazon, before Etsy and Timu. Back to a nostalgic time before social media, phone addiction, the loneliness epidemic, and bed rotting. Back to a nostalgic time before young people en masse gave up alcohol. Back to a nostalgic time before DoorDash. Back to Trump's law and order. Back to scapegoating unemployed workers, addicts, and those without affordable housing. Back to deputizing far-right vigilantes. Regional consumers and tourists switch from church street shopping to online shopping, Amazon, Timu, Etsy, and Front Porch Forum. Scapegoat homeless addicts. Social media addiction, phone addiction, the loneliness epidemic, dating apps, and bed rotting got us isolated and staying inside. Scapegoat homeless addicts. Gen Z gave up alcohol, scapegoat homeless addicts. Council table this backwards resolution. Mayor Emma, I recommend you veto no appeasement with small business losers.

The last in-person Burlington resident signed up is Kate Parlberg. Please correct me if I have your name incorrect.

It's a tough one. I know. It's Parlberg Quam. My name is Kate. I live in the Old North End. I am a state employee, an immigration justice worker, an academic, and a mom. I was watching the beginning of the meeting on YouTube from home, but decided to bike down because I kept hearing people talk about the kids and families in the neighborhood, and I didn't know if anyone was here to speak for us. So as I was putting my kids to bed, I told them I was going to come down to the meeting, which was about whether the presence of unhoused people makes our neighborhood unsafe and about some of the proffered solutions. For context, my kids encounter unhoused people most days. People come by our house while we're sitting on the front porch. Sometimes they ask for money or whether they can take our returnables. If my kids are alone on the front porch, they say, hold on, let me go get my mom. Sometimes they find a needle in the tulip bed in front of our house or on their school playground. In those cases, they say, hold on, let me go get my mom. At school, they say, hold on, let me go get my teacher. They have learned to manage these things in the same way they learned to vaccinate and mask when they were sick out of compassion for their neighbors. A few months ago a fox had babies out behind the safe recovery office. We rode our bikes the two blocks over to see them and spent about an hour sitting in the parking lot. People came and went and asked what we were doing. We told them and asked if it was okay for us to stay. They said yes and some people watched with us. All this is to say my kids often encounter unhoused people in interactions with tourists and certainly with the police. People being poor in public is part of their daily lives. They know that we are closer to insecure housing than we'd like to admit because our rent is 70% of what I take home as a state employee. As I was putting my kids to bed tonight, I asked what they would say if they could come to the council meeting. My nine-year-old daughter yawned and said, Mama, I am more scared of the police than I am of unhoused people.

Thank you. So that completes all of the in-person Burlington residents. Now it's 943. Our council rules allow for an hour and a half of public comment, and we've gone over three so far. As chair, I'm committed to hearing from all Burlington residents who have signed up and Burlington property owners. We have 19 additional burlington residents online and one property owner um an absent objection i i object i'm going to limit so so if you want to make a motion you can but i want to limit um public comment to Burlington residents, and upon completion of that, I would invite non-Burlington residents to submit their public comments online. But go ahead, Councillor Rodman.

I would move for us to... Would this be an ignoring of the rules? He doesn't remember. I would move for us to... um complete public forum for all burlington residents burlington property owners and non-burlington residents okay is there a second to that okay we have a motion from counselor broderick and a second from counselor bergman is there any discussion on this point of information uh could i get a count on what what all those are those there are um

There are, I'm counting 19, about 19 Burlington residents online. Property owner, there were two, but one left, and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine in person, non-Burlington residents, and I think four online. Okay, does that answer your question?

I have another point of information. Okay, go ahead. And I'm wondering if the acting city attorney can speak to this. I'm not... respectfully I'm not sure if the motion that was made was in order I believe we would need to vote to suspend our rules in this case and I am looking for clarification on the vote threshold for that which would be needed to pass so meaning is it a simple majority or a two-thirds vote required to overturn the president's ruling

So I'm just looking for it right now, but I believe as you're the rules call for an hour and a half, it would be suspending the rules, which would be two thirds.

Does that answer your point of information? Other discussion? I saw Council Whitman's hand raise.

I would support suspending the rules only with that. particular guardrail that you just laid out so that we make sure that burlington residents and property and business owners are given their fair time especially the folks who so so there's a motion on the floor um so i rephrase your motion counselor broderick to say that you want to suspend our rules to complete point of order i'm i'm sorry and i i hate to contradict uh my city attorney uh but the the rule says that the okay

That public forum will go for no longer than 90 minutes. No, I'll read it exactly here. Unless extended by the president or the council. So I don't think that that means it's a suspension of the rules. It's within the rule for us to vote to extend the time. And that's what the motion is. I'm with all due deference.

No, I agree. And I apologize because I just found the language while you were. Understood. Yes.

Understood. So we have a motion on the floor. I'm anticipating a divided vote. I didn't get to be in the discussion. Go ahead, Councilor Broderick.

Yeah, so my reason for including non-Burlington residents is because we're talking about a matter of public and community safety. And as has been brought up, by some members of the public that does not just include Burlington residents and owners of property. It also includes workers of Burlington. And I think, I obviously don't know for a fact if those people are present, but I think it is a very important perspective for us to hear from those that commute to Burlington and still spend the majority of their lives in our city. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who wants to comment before we go to a vote? Go ahead, Councilor Newbezer.

Yeah, I'm supportive of extending public comment. I mean, it's only 13 people, and I want to hear from folks, and I think Yeah, it's just very frustrating, I'll say, to have a resolution dropped on us like this and then to hear repeated attempts to limit public engagement in this process because the meeting's not going the way that we want it to. I mean, it's really, really frustrating.

Point of order.

What's your point of order, counsel?

I don't think that's why. I think we're looking at the rules specifically, and that was impugning the character and the motives of those sitting at the table and those who made the motion. And I actually did not get to finish what I was saying because Councillor Bergman made another point of order to ask further questions of the attorney. I apologize. But what I would like to say— Can I turn back to you?

Are you finished, Councillor Newbezer?

That's great. So what I would like to say is that this is a matter of Burlington governance. Those people who have a stake in how our community functions, how we pay for that, those are the folks who need to be heard from and we need to suspend our rules for. But to go on and on for another multiple hours over this, I don't see why South Burlington and Williston residents need to weigh in on how we govern our city. I am not participating in South Burlington or Williston's city meetings.

uh thank you counselor uh litwin um so i'm the one who originally proposed this and i did so because i'm mindful that we have council business still to do tonight and it's approaching 9 50 and we will need to suspend our rules in 40 minutes and so i would like to move this ahead right now if i could counselor grant do you need to speak to this the irony that

we shouldn't listen to people in surrounding communities given that it has been brought up relentlessly the concerns of visitors from said communities. So they should, in fact, be able to speak.

to this it can't have your cake and eat it too thank you thank you um without any further counselors interested in speaking to this could i have uh the clerk call the roll please acting city council president barlow no councillor bergman yes councillor broderick yes counselor carpenter

I'm sorry?

No.

Councillor Grant?

Yes.

Councillor Litwin?

No.

Councillor McKnight?

No.

Councillor Newbeeser?

Yes.

Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson? Yes. Councillor Schachter?

Yes.

Councillor Singh?

No.

Councillor Travers?

No.

Six ayes, six nays.

Did I use so accurate?

Did 6-6.

Yeah. 6-6. So with 6-6, the motion fails. Okay. And we will continue then with public comment and we'll turn next uh, Burlington residents online. And I'm gonna thank, uh, CAO Shad and, uh, Lori Olberg for helping me through the timer, um, and enabling people to speak. Um, the first person we have, uh, Burlington, uh, speaker online is Lisa Black. And, uh, could, if you could enable Lisa's microphone, if you can find her. I do not have a Lisa Black. Lisa, if you're online, indicate by using the raise hand function on Zoom. Nobody? OK. Then we'll move ahead. The next person is Linda Fersing. You found Lisa? OK. And just to remind online speakers, you have two minutes for public comment.

Hi. My name is Lisa Lacks, L-A-X. And I'm a resident of Burlington. And I don't want to, you know, I think there's been a lot of really good points made. And I'm going to just say two things, two points that the conditions driving public safety crisis are complex. They're systemic, long in play, not easily solved. They're an extension of economic and political collapse in our society. And our efforts need to be grounded in research on what works, not based on emotions such as fear or our biases. And then second, as other people have said, I expect city councilors to work across political party lines with the mayor's office, include the voices of community members in a meaningful way to address problems of this magnitude. So that's all I have to say, and I want to just say I I really love the fact that so many people showed up tonight to talk, and even if I don't agree with them. Thank you.

Thank you, Lisa. Next we have Linda Furson. If you could enable Linda's microphone.

Linda, if you could raise your hand if you are still on Zoom.

Nobody? Okay, we'll move forward then to Andrew Kaplan. Andrew, if you're, use the raise hand function to indicate you're there so we can enable your microphone.

Nobody?

Nobody, okay. How about Jolita Sackmanite?

Yes. Thank you, Jolita, for raising your hand. Just having a minor technical difficulty. Hold on. Sorry, everyone.

OK. Go ahead, Jolita.

Hello, so 11 years ago I came to Vermont and before then I landed in USA at age of 19 after my both parents passed away with with just 2 suitcases. I believed in the opportunities this country has to offer through hard work. I build business and was most probably I am proud because I have. created jobs and then in return I invested the money into property that we own with my husband here in Burlington. And I believe that supporting vulnerable people and supporting survive, but And supporting survival businesses shouldn't be competing priorities. Small businesses create jobs, create tax revenue, and help fund the services that our communities rely on. So if we fail to protect them, everyone pays the price. I also grew up in a former Soviet Union country. where housing and health care were guaranteed. However, alcoholism remained widespread. My own family struggled with addiction. That taught me that treatment and housing are important, but they are not enough on their own. Lasting recovery ultimately requires a person's willingness to change. So I believe that harm reduction has a role, but it cannot be the entire one solution. Compassion must be paired with accountability, treatment, prevention and enforcement. Countries such as Singapore, for example, show that strong social services and consistent law enforcement can exist together. Even more recently, El Salvador demonstrated that enforcement can dramatically improve public safety. And I understand that Americans they strongly believe in personal liberty and freedom. And I believe in that too. And that's the other reason why I moved to US. But I believe at a certain time, we have accountability. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Rose Hawkins. Rose, if you could use your raise hand function on Zoom. We'll enable your mic. Do you have a CO shot?

Rose, you should be able to speak.

Go ahead, Rose. Hello. Are you able to hear me? Hello?

Yes, we can hear you.

Fantastic. Yes. Hi. I apologize if I'm not as articulate as I could be. I work very long shifts, and it's been a very long evening for me. I have worked 70 hours straight, and this has now officially made my day 14 hours long. and i'm saying that because i've noticed that several members of the council have indicated fatigue and irritation with the way that this council meeting has gone and most of them are people who were involved in introducing this resolution i am currently holding this 20-page document i have read through it three times it makes no direct mention of any actual meaningful services for community outreach no mention of helping human services, no addiction treatment. There's nothing directly in the language about that. It only makes references to policing, state troopers, and directly undermines the progressive wing of your own colleagues and the mayor no less than three times. I've sat here and wasted my time listening over and over again to people try and persuade this voting bloc when I know they do not care. There is nothing but contempt that I see in how you people interact with your own voters. I am heartbroken because I know how this resolution is going to go. I know nothing I say will change anyone's mind and it feels like politics at this point. It's just a matter of people speaking their minds what they already believe and seeing who has enough warm bodies sitting on a bench somewhere that has the power. Everyone involved in this atrocity should be ashamed of themselves. And God help us all if you all don't get voted out in the next two years. Good evening.

Thank you. Next, we have Mike Selick. Mike, if you could use the raise hand function. We'll enable your microphone.

Can you hear me?

We can, go ahead.

All right, great, thank you. Good evening, Burlington City Council. My name is Mike Selleck, and I'm the Director of Capacity Building and Community Mobilization at National Harm Reduction Coalition, and I live here in Burlington. I'm a resident, a parent, and a homeowner. I personally have more than 15 years of experience working with people who use drugs and developing and evaluating effective evidence-based interventions that save lives and support people to improve their health. As a national expert on homelessness and drugs, I can assure you that the Burlington Forward proposal would actually be moving Burlington backwards. The ideas suggested in this resolution are not new, they're not compassion, they are not accountability, and they do not work. They're the same old tired drug war tactics that President Trump has been pushing as an executive orders and have no place in our progressive city. Leasing surveillance bus tickets out of town or moving harm reduction programming from downtown will not make the situation better. They will increase overdose deaths, bloodborne illnesses, and disconnect people from care. The only way to end homelessness is with housing. The only way to end overdose is with harm reduction. As a city, we have dangerously under invested in housing for the homeless and supportive services for people who use drugs. Are we gonna force people into treatment when there isn't currently enough treatment for everyone who is seeking it? How can we expect people to get out of our parks and on the streets when there's no overdose prevention center and limited drop-in center capacity for people to go to? The ideas posed in this resolution will not get people out of the parks in any meaningful way. Why has this resolution been drafted without consulting the public, the police, the fire department, the mayor, and local service providers? The result of this opaque process is a document that ignores decades of evidence. It costs us $95,000 annually for each person we incarcerate here in Vermont. It'd be cheaper to provide people with actual housing and supportive services than misuse public safety as a way to manage public health. I urge you all to reject this resolution and engage with our local service providers and experts to develop a plan that will scale the programs we know are working. We are reducing overdoses and engaging more people in treatment with limited resources available. Let's get serious about making change instead of putting a bandaid on a gaping wound and then complain about having to see blood.

Thank you. Next, we have Donna Russ. Do you see, Donna, please use the raise hand function to indicate where you are, and then we'll enable your mic.

I don't think Donna is present.

OK. And I'm going to move on down. Donna, if you're there, use the raise hand function. We'll come back to you. Next is Sherry LaMarche.

Excellent, I've enabled your microphone, Sherry.

Hi.

Go ahead, Sherry.

Uh, good evening counselors spend 1 hell of a night. I do say. My name is Sherry and I was born and raised in Vermont with the majority of my life lived here in Burlington. When I search, what is the duty of the mayor of Burlington, Vermont? The 1st thing that came up was executive and administrative responsibilities. And the very 1st thing listed was enforcing laws. It reads, the mayor is to ensure that all city ordinances, local charters, and Vermont state laws are strictly observed and executed. Write off, to many, this is a fail. Law-abiding residents have become ignored. The people that fund the city have been ignored. Workers, businesses, and tourists have been ignored. They've been ignored by the mayor's office, basically given the title of second-class citizens over those that harm and bring harm to Burlington. Those that are openly breaking laws every day are allowed to, and are given more of a priority than the majority population of its residents. The resolution Burlington Forward has been a long time coming. It's what many of us have been waiting for. It's a way for us to get back to a livable Burlington for all. Burlington is not back, but with this Burlington Forward proposal, perhaps we can get there. Thank you for your time. Everyone have a good evening.

Thank you. Next is Dee Graham. Dee, if you could use the raise hand function, we'll enable your mic.

I believe Dee was in person, Councilor Farrella.

Excuse me?

I believe Dee Graham showed up in person.

Oh, okay. Then we'll move past. Next is Polly Vanderputten. Polly, if you could use the raise hand function, we'll enable your mic.

Great. I have enabled you to speak, Polly.

Go ahead, Polly.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Great, thank you. Hi, my name is Polly Vanderputten. I'm a resident of the Old North End. I've lived here for 20 years. I have a family here. I am a home owner. I'm a public school teacher in a neighboring district, and I am currently serving as the Ward 2 school commissioner. I would like to say, first of all, that what I'm going to say here tonight does not represent the views of the school board, that these are my views. And I also wanna add to you city councillors, thank you very much for your service. As I have sat through long public comments, I've thought that they're a sign of extreme dysfunction. And I think that's what we're seeing here tonight. I want to call upon councillors to support the Burlington Forward Resolution. It is not perfect, but it is a necessary starting point. I am particularly concerned about our green spaces, which are public spaces for the majority of people in the city who do not feel safe using them. They should be for all people. When is the last time you saw a family picnicking or suggested to your family to do so in one of our parks? Many of our parks, which are in the most densely populated areas, which is the area that I serve, are full of people doing illegal drugs and dealing drugs and exhibiting very unpredictable and violent behavior. I find this to be unacceptable in a city in which we want to raise our children. I find this to be inhumane to everyone. It hurts broken and vulnerable addicts to be left out this way. It hurts the people who love them and want to help them recover. It hurts the families across the socioeconomic spectrum who cannot spend time in our public spaces. because of these violent behaviors and the businesses who suffer from lack of business and from theft i've been impatient for city leaders to move in this direction i urge you to put aside theory and ideology and create a plan that thoughtfully mitigates our reality thank you thank you polly uh next is anna tolensky anna if you could use the raise hand function we'll enable your mic

Is Anna there?

No hand. I don't see Anna.

OK. Anna, if you're there and you can raise your hand, we'll come back to you. Next is Karen Durfee. Karen, if you could use a raise hand function, we'll enable your mic. Do you find Karen?

I don't see Karen raising her hand either. OK.

I'm going to move ahead to Sylvia Knight. Sylvia, if you're there, use the raise hand function and we'll enable your mic.

No Sylvia.

No Sylvia. Next is Sam Donnelly. Sam there? Sam, use the raise hand function. We'll enable your mic.

Yes, we've got Sam.

Go ahead, Sam.

Thank you all and good evening and thank you to chair Barlow this evening for chairing the meeting. I want to speak tonight in support of moving the Burlington forward resolution to committee. I believe this resolution is a decent start and not a finished product, and I believe it builds on the crucial work that our city is, and it's dedicated public servants are already doing in Burlington to respond to public safety to homelessness to substance use and untreated mental illness. It also contains provisions that deserve careful review, public input and improvement. And I think that sending it to committee is the right way to continue that work. Burlington needs a comprehensive approach that treats every person with dignity, connects people in a crisis to shelter treatment, recovery, housing and long term stability and responds consistently when harm conducts harmful conduct affects others. I also wanna make it clear that I hope everyone on the council agrees that homelessness and poverty are not treated as crimes by the city. More incarceration are not gonna solve our challenges. And we must also reject an approach that simply moves people from one place to another without meaningful support. More most importantly, though, I want to highlight that Burlington will not meet these reach these challenges without a regional approach and support from the state. The state must also provide more shelter support treatment capacity, stronger services and adequate resources along with sustained leadership. If we're going to meet all of these challenges. In the last week, I have heard and read communications from both major parties in Burlington that make it clear. Compassion and accountability are not competing values. A serious framework must advance both. That should be the common ground that we build off of tonight. I've already heard from multiple residents that have ideas on how this resolution could be improved and tweaks. So let me ask this again of the council. Please vote this resolution to go through our committees, hear from the public, hear from service providers, hear from other counselors and city staff, and strengthen it together. Thanks.

Thank you, Sam. Next is Maddie Posig. Maddie, if you could use the raise hand function, we'll enable your mic.

I don't think Maddie is here. Okay.

Next is Jason Giroux. Jason, if you're online, please use the raise hand function and we'll enable your mic.

No Jason.

Okay. Andrea Vietz is next. Andrea, if you're online, use the raise hand function.

I don't see Andrea.

OK. Next is Brooke McCain. Did you speak in person? They spoke in person? OK. Yeah. I recognize the name. OK. Cross that one. Which brings us to, that completes the Burlington residents online. And we have one Burlington property owner, maybe here in person, Robert Perry.

It's me.

Go ahead, Robert. You're our final public forum speaker tonight. Thank you for being so patient.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Robert Perry. My partner and I own 54 Clark Street. First, I'd like to thank Councilors Litwin, Schachter, and Barlow for the understanding and help with our efforts to return civility to Clark Street. The closure of the Howard Center needle distribution program has changed the street for the better. And I want to thank the Democratic Caucus for putting forth the Burlington Forward Initiative. This set of common sense action seeks to bring stability back to the city. The progressive agenda pursued by the mayor has great intentions. However, it has produced no results. As we engage with the Howard Center, a three year endeavor to get them to move their drug magnet from our street, we heard constantly that we need to wait until the drug abusers were ready for treatment. Now the mayor says we should wait for her failed policies to show success. Why should Burlington residents and businesses live on the timeline of those who are breaking the law? Why do we tolerate open drug use as we wait for them to be ready to join civil society? Why do we allow repeat antisocial behavior from a small group, many of whom flocked here to benefit from the no consequence policies of the progressives to control the timeline? As we engaged with the Howard Center, we learned that less than 10% of their needle customers entered treatment. This is emblematic of the failure of harm reduction programs. They may have the best intentions, but they have no results while inflicting tremendous negative harm on the surrounding community. We're already seeing open drug use and drug dealing around the new Bank Street location for needle distribution. The mayor speaks of compassion, but she has compassion for everyone but the law-abiding citizens and businesses of Burlington. Sit in City Hall Park and shoot up your victims. Speak up against the crime in downtown and your branded cruel. Burlington Forward strikes a balance between assistance with housing, addiction, and mental health while setting consequences for continued antisocial and illegal activity. That's how civil society works. We don't wait for the criminals to see the light. We engage and we use the carrot of treatment or the stick of punishment to stop the harm they're causing. Again, thank you Democrats for this bold initiative to return civility to the city.

Thank you, Robert. Well, that completes public forum. Thank you to all the speakers that spoke tonight during that marathon public forum session and Next we'll turn to item number three, which is mayor city city general affairs general city affairs if you're ready.

Yes, I am. All right. And I will try to be efficient here. So good evening, everyone. And I want to say two brief things that are important for the record before I get into the meat of what has been the big subject of tonight's meeting. I do want to take a moment. Vermont Green Football Club defeated the Flint City Bucks two to one. And I think that's a really important moment because there's a lot of great pride within Vermont on this. And I think it's an important, quick moment to recognize, as well as the hard work of city employees to put on the Festival of Fools. Maybe you can slow me down, you can slow me down on YouTube, because I'm gonna talk kind of fast here tonight. But this Festival of Fools is a tremendous success. It represents a lot of partnership in our community, showcasing energy, creativity, engagement of our downtown, intentional programming, investments that really make this a community that everyone can come down and celebrate with their families and visitors alike. The success of these community events reflects what we want Burlington spaces to be. active, inclusive, welcoming, and that requires a comprehensive approach to community safety that we've been building over the past two years. During my administration, we have moved towards a more comprehensive community safety approach. One that recognizes that safety for everyone in our community requires fair accountability and support. This has never been a choice between safety and compassion. We need both. Our community safety approach is evidence-based, values-driven, and very comprehensive. I want to move on to providing an overview of our framework, the administration's framework and strategies, to build a more comprehensive and responsive community safety over these last two years, which frankly has faced growing challenges over the last two years that have been caused by many factors completely outside the city's direct control. our framework includes rebuilding and supporting our police department based on the values we have as a city strategically deploying our limited community safety personnel building a strong partnerships with service providers and investing local resources to maximize the impact of available social services innovating with holistic and restorative strategies to address the root causes and repair harm saving lives and improving health through public health approaches. Improving collaboration with our neighboring municipalities and advocating for more ambitious legislation and action from the governor. We have strengthened coordination across city departments and community partners. Our Safe Outdoor Sites working group meets weekly to respond to sheltering on land, coordinate outreach and cleanups, and ensure our response is thoughtful, consistent, aligned with legal guidelines, and grounded in both compassion and accountability. We are expanding the number of people responding to community needs. This includes increased investments while I've been mayor in the Howard Center Street Outreach Team. two years in a row. When I began, we were funding them at about $75,000, which was the same amount when I was on city council almost 15 years ago. We have quadrupled that investment. We have shifted community service officers and community service liaisons towards mental health crisis and overdose response. This is a shift directed by interim chief of police, Sean Burke, last fall after being on the job for just a few months and realizing we did not have strategic deployment of those critical city resources. We've also increased the police visibility and engagement in areas where residents and businesses have asked for more support. We are adapting as challenges have evolved. We relaunched three weeks ago our cross department hotspot strategy, to bring the right partners together to quickly address emerging concerns in places like City Hall Park and Battery Park. These are building on approaches that have helped stabilize other locations back in 2024, which if folks will recall, was our library and our parking garage, and then also over on Buell Street. This is also going to be embedded in our situation tables, which started about a year ago, so that we can get into the root causes and also be effective with other strategies we have stood up in the last year in particular. We continue to push for shelter capacity and regional solutions to homelessness. The city has supported efforts to create a 100 bed low barrier shelter run by CBOEO. The biggest barrier they have right now is literally finding a location. This would be an amazing step for the governor to step in and help identify in a community elsewhere in this county to house and support this particular shelter bed with so many people simply trying to survive outside this door in City Hall Park night after night. The city has directly helped fund the new Bridges Recovery Shelter that added shelter beds to our community in the last six months. We supported COTS expansion of the way station and advocated successfully for increased state investments and municipal homelessness response from the state of Vermont, including continued funding for one of the only low barrier day spaces people can go to, which is the Community Resource Center on North Winooski. This is still clearly not enough when our homeless numbers keep going up, which is no fault of our city. We know shelter alone is not enough and we also need pathways to stability. That's why we're investing in approaches like the situation table, which has been going on for just one year, which is a weekly convening that brings more than 30 service providers and agencies together to intervene with individuals and families before crisis escalates. and City Circle, which has only been in operation for six months, which creates opportunities for accountability and restorative solutions for lower level ordinance violations when we were simply not having any accountability when I became mayor. On Wednesday, we'll hold a press conference to share more details on both of these particular strategies, given that we're at the one and six year mark, which is an important moment to report back to the community and offer our own assessment on how things are doing. We are also working to improve accountability for repeat and harmful behavior. The accountability docket, which was a temporary additional docket in our county court system, was a partnership with the state, demonstrated that we can create faster, more effective responses while also addressing underlying behavioral health and substance use challenges. The governor has chosen to move that docket to another part of the state. We desperately need those resources back in this county to continue to do the good strong work under the leadership of our state's attorney, Sarah George. The work is not finished. We will continue evaluating additional steps from improving maintenance and cleanliness in public spaces to expanding service connections and advocating for the resources our city needs. because creating safe, welcoming spaces requires sustained partnership and commitment. Collectively, these efforts are making headway and our progress has been incremental, but it is real. Police visibility has substantially increased due to more foot patrols and officer interaction with residents and businesses have gone up as well. Year end 2025 data showed that violent crime incidents were down to levels not seen since 2021, especially homicides, and that property and quality of life incidences have also decreased. Drug arrests have increased, in part due to more proactive enforcement. And just a few weeks ago, the BPD reported a months long investigation that resulted in the arrest of two out of state drug traffickers who were selling illicit drugs in downtown Burlington as well as the seizure of illegal narcotics. The accountability docket I just spoke of last winter cleared 78% of the docket's cases, reducing the significant court backlog and freeing up our legal system to do the better work of accountability. We continue to rebuild our police department, and we just welcomed on three new police officer recruits this week. who went down to the police academy to begin their training. And our community hiring committee just completed the first round of interviews with the potential police chief candidates, and finalists will be visiting Burlington later in August. On August 5th, again, we'll be holding a press conference at 9 a.m. It's my standing press conference that I hold, and then we will also be, I'll be joined by State's Attorney Sarah George and Chief of Police Sean Burke on my Mayor Town Meeting TV on Town Meeting TV. at 2.30 on August 6th, which is Thursday. What these results tell us is that community safety is not the work of any single program or policy. It requires consistent coordinated efforts across city government, true collaboration with community organizations, and real meaningful progress by regional and largely state partners. It also requires trying new strategies, assessing impact, and making adjustments as necessary. That is the commitment my administration has made since day one, and we recognize there is still important work ahead. Because serious challenges remain, as we see in our streets and public spaces every single day. These are not the conditions any of us want to see in our community. And I want to be clear, I fully acknowledge there is an urgent crisis. But what we are seeing is not a failure of our city's approach. This is what a historic statewide emergency looks like. The lack of decisive state leadership to address homelessness, substance use, and untreated mental health has meant that Vermont's towns and cities are being left to do the work alone. and with very limited resources. No one city can solve this crisis on its own. Our work last fall with the governor was a start, and there is much more to do together. This is why I'm encouraged to share the fact that following my request, we received a response from the governor's office and will reconvene that group that met last fall to continue building on last winter's 14-point plan. I am pushing for this renewed effort to focus on addressing the plan's most significant mission, for which I raised last fall with the governor repeatedly. We need an immediate and humane response to Vermont's homelessness crisis. We also have pieces of that plan. There are pieces of that plan related to substance use and mental health that simply have not been fully implemented by the state. We need more resources for our court system and stronger coordination of law enforcement and treatment options related to the opioid crisis gripping our entire state. On the topic of our partnership with the governor, many of you probably noticed the state troopers on Church Street over the past few days. On July 27th, the governor directed state law enforcement agencies to provide temporary support to the BPD through August 16th. Similar to last winter, this assistance includes high visibility foot patrols by the Vermont State Police focused on Church Street Marketplace, City Hall Park, Upper St. Paul Street, and Bank Street between noon and 10 p.m. daily. The DMV will also conduct track enforcement on Route 127, Champlain Parkway, and Shelburne Street, which is Shelburne Road. And finally, the Department of Liquor and Lottery will assist with compliance inspections. Our city welcomes any state partners that will help make our community safer, and I appreciate the governor's support and look forward to working with him on our homelessness response specifically, and we're working to schedule that meeting in the next handful of weeks. i'd also like to take a moment to deeply appreciate the monumental efforts of our city staff our police and fire departments our many community partners our businesses and residents who show up every day and bring tremendous care expertise and commitment to bear on our unprecedented community safety challenges You heard great love in the public comments tonight around the number of people who go out of their way to spend time feeding our neighbors, helping our unhoused neighbors have the support that they need. And I think this needs to be named time and time again because this is really what is at the heart of Burlington. On behalf of the entire city, as the mayor, I want to thank people for their continued work to support our community. And while the progress may feel slow at times, it is absolutely there, and you are all a core part of that. I'd like to end by saying that we need to acknowledge the serious challenges before us, but we also need to cheer the city on through the good and the bad if we're going to get through this together. We want folks to visit, to shop, to enjoy, to invest, to live in our city. We need to send a balanced message of hope and vitality. And we need to come together as one community to face these challenges together in true partnership and in solidarity. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. And you brought us to almost to the witching hour. It's 1029. And our council rules say that we have to end our deliberative agenda by 1030 without a suspension of the rules. So I would entertain a motion to suspend our rules to continue our agenda.

Council President, I'd like to request a five minute recess.

Two minute recess, two minute recess. Is there a second? It's a motion for order. Go ahead. Go ahead. Counselor Travis, what's your point of order?

Our rules require adjournment immediately at 1030 absentee rule suspension. So a recess would take us beyond 1030.

So seeing that, I would move to suspend the rules to allow us to have a recess and then come back to have a consideration of a vote to suspend the rules further for the hopefully end of the deliberative, to allow us to complete the deliberative agenda and the consent agenda. You understand all that? it's basically we suspend the rules first for the small recess to come back um and the small recess and then another vote to whether we suspend the rules or not and then if we do suspend the rules in that in three minutes then we would we would be able to pick it up um and i think uh earlier i think counselor travers pointed out that um

A move to recess is not debatable. Is that true? Did someone mention that earlier? I don't want to overstep my parliamentary bounds here. Attorney Sturtevant?

So if there's not a pending question, then it is debatable. If there is a pending question, it is not debatable. So if I believe you're pending, have you already, if there's a question over the motion to suspend, then I think you have a pending question.

Hmm. Point of order? What's your point of order, Council Member Meezer?

It is 1031. Right.

So I would think that it would be good for us to just suspend our rules so that we can continue our conversation here tonight.

Can I make a motion to suspend the rules to complete our deliberative agenda?

I think there was at least a motion before that. I'm sorry.

You might get there. There was a motion.

A motion to suspend the rules to allow us to have a two-minute recess and then also allow us to come back to have another vote on the suspension of the rules to complete whatever we determined we should be completing.

Point of parliamentary inquiry.

If it's germane to this, I will.

I believe it's out of order. I think we should just suspend the rules and then they can ask for a two minute.

Oh, I'm going to ask you. I tend to agree with that. So I'm going to ask the we have a question about spending the rules were beyond our Meeting, we're sort of in this weird sort of meta space right now. So I need your input on this, attorney.

So I actually need to backtrack a little bit. There was a motion to suspend the rules. Was it seconded to complete the deliberative agenda? Yes.

No. It was a motion to suspend our rules to take a recess for three minutes, I believe, right? Two minutes. people want to be able to talk for a second for two minutes okay um i no well we're gonna just go to a vote you can do that but we need to vote on it so there's a motion on the floor to suspend our rules um an attorney attorney sturdivant says that is in order correct yes uh seeing how's our past 10 30. that is in order to suspend the rules to refer recess to to be taking this up after 10 30. yes it was in the process already very good um let's go to a roll call vote for a two minute suspension two minute suspension and followed by another vote for

Can I ask a point of information?

You may.

I do believe that Councillor Litwin had also made a motion to suspend the rules to complete the deliberative, and then we would consider a recess.

Was that prior to? It was after the motion was on the table. So, okay. Let us go to, can we go to a vote on this? I'm hoping this is in good faith, this recess, so. Okay.

Well, I'm just wondering if the motion is debatable. I wasn't clear on that.

No.

It is not. Okay.

Okay.

So, I suspect we're going to have a divided vote on this.

No, I'll say yes.

You're going to say yes to get us going? Yes. We'll try, then, a voice vote on this. I think we can do that. Well, we have two online, but we'll try. Trying to model good rule following for the community. Right. All those in favor of the motion for a two-minute recess, to suspend our rules for a two-minute recess, indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Are there any opposed? That's unanimous, so we are in recess for two minutes.

Thank you. All right. . . Two seats. Thank you.

So we're back from our two to three minute recess. And now we would need an additional motion to suspend our rules to complete our deliberative agenda. I would entertain a motion on that.

I will make that motion to suspend the rules and complete our deliberative agenda.

Okay. Council Whitman has made a motion. Second. It's been seconded by Councillor Schachter. Is there?

Actually, yes. I have an objection, which is I believe that you have... Unless we have adopted our consent agenda, then that would be a really poor motion.

To complete our... To complete our consent agenda and our deliberative agenda that would I will amend that I didn't realize we had for pointing that out a long night Okay, the old man can do it so the motion and is that Friendly to you. Yes. Okay. So we have a motion on the floor to Suspend our rules complete our consent and deliberative agenda. Is there any discussion? I Seeing none, all those in favor, indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? No. I'm sorry, who said no? Note that Councilor, I guess that now we have to go to a roll call, though. So will the clerk please call the roll?

Acting City Council President Barla?

Yes.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Broderick?

Yes.

Councillor Carpenter? Yes. Councillor Grant?

Yes.

Councillor Litwin?

Yes.

Councillor McKnight? Yes. Councillor Newbeeser?

No.

Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson?

Yes.

Councillor Schachter?

Yes.

Councillor Singh?

Yes.

Councillor Travers?

Yes.

11 ayes, 1 nay.

With 11 ayes and 1 nay, the motion passes, which brings us next to our consent agenda. Do I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated? So moved. Second. Hold on. I think it was moved by Councillor Bergman and seconded by Councillor Litwin. Any discussion on that? Seeing none, all those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye.

Any opposed?

Mayor Mrakas, That carries unanimously, which brings us to our deliberative agenda and the first item on our deliberative agenda is an indoor entertainment permit application for big lake recording company llc at 70 South new ski avenue sweet be. And I'll turn to the Chair of our Licensing Committee, Councilor Broderick, for a motion on that.

I move to approve the 2026-2027 Indoor Entertainment Permit Application for Big Lake Recording Company, LLC 70 South Winooski Avenue, Suite 2, view of all standard conditions.

Is there a second? Second. Second by Councilor Singh. Any discussion? All those, then all those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye.

Any opposed?

Any opposed? That carries unanimously, which takes us to item 6.2, a special event outdoor entertainment permit application for one day only for Queen City Printers Inc. at 699 and 701 Pine Street parking lot on September 11th, 2026 for the art hop.

I'll turn back to council project for a motion on that move to approve the one day only special event outdoor entertainment permit application for Queen City printers incorporated 699 701 Pine Street parking lot September 11 2026 art hop event second second who had a second Oh council grant okay council grant second of that any discussion

Seeing none, all those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. And that carries unanimously, which brings us to item 6.3, 270 College Street License Agreement with Omega Electric Parking associated with redevelopment of 266 College Street. And that we're going to have DPW here, and I see Director Spencer's here to present on that.

Thank you, Acting President Barlow. This is for a license agreement that would be through March 31, 2027, for the construction of the former Y redevelopment into housing. This is a license agreement to provide one of the contractors proximate access to the site, which will reduce the overall impact by enabling the project to proceed. as you'll see in the memo they are paying the foregone meter revenue for the two spaces that they need and happy to answer any questions uh thank you um before turning to counselors for questions could we get a motion on this from

Someone go ahead, Council Broderick.

Move to approve the license agreement application for Omega Electric Company at 270-274 College Street requesting reservation of two parking stalls as described in the agreement for work at 266 College Street and authorized the Director of Public Works to enter into a license agreement with the applicant for use of the portion of the right-of-way outlined in the application subject to review by the City Attorney's Office.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Councilor Schachter.

Any discussion on this? Any questions for DPW? I guess not. Seeing none. All those in favor of the motion indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Which brings us to Thank you. Which brings us to item 6.4, thank you, which I think you might be here for as well. It's an ordinance on industrial pollution prevention program update for BCO chapter 26. And this is something that we've dealt with in ordinance. So I guess I'll turn to you for an overview, and then I'll turn to Councilor Bergman for a motion.

Great. Thank you, Chapin Spencer, Director of Public Works. DPW Water Resources brought these proposed ordinance changes to Chapter 26 to the Council on April 27th. Chapter 26, as a reminder, is about the administration of the city's wastewater and stormwater systems. There are two main changes here to the authority for the city. One is adopting authority to adopt regulations that would guide the administration and fees for local wastewater connection permitting program. The second would be the authority to adopt regulations and fees related to local industrial pollution prevention program. This is basically enabling legislation that allows the city to choose, should we so desire in the future, to set up our own programs both for wastewater and water connections as well as for the industrial pollution prevention programs. We have on the IPP front communicated with industrial users and provided updates that you'll see in your packet to those users. And we have gone through the ordinance committee process. The ordinance committee did have two key changes. to the initially proposed language. One was around adequate public notice for upcoming policy enactment for changes to our program. And that would require a 15-day notice. And second, there was a requirement that the regulations be approved by the city council before the regulations would become final. The regulations would get first worked on and initially recommended by the DPW Commission, but through the ordinance committee process would require final council approval before it was published and then enacted. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. I think I'll turn to Councilor Bergman next for a motion.

Yes. So I move to waive the second reading of this proposed sewer use ordinance and adopt it as amended by the ordinance committee and have the floor back briefly after a second.

Is there a second? Seconded by Councillor Carpenter. Go ahead, Councillor Bergman.

We took this up for a significant amount of time in two different meetings and in our line by line really looked at the notice that affected parties would have and I think greatly improve that so that. folks should have the opportunity to weigh in while at the same time not creating an unwieldy and very timely adoption process which will gunk up the works, which is not what you want in industrial strength wastewater. So I think that this is a good process and shows the good work of the ordinance committee, and I thank Councillors Barlow and Carpenter for joining me in that effort and would hope that we can get a unanimous approval. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other Councillors who would like to speak to this item? I'm not seeing any. So I guess we'll go ahead and call the question. All those in favor of the motion as made by Councilor Bergman, indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That's unanimous.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Which brings us to our last deliberative item. Item 6.5, a resolution Burlington Forward, a comprehensive framework for safe public spaces and a stronger community. I'm going to turn to Councillor Bergman, excuse me, Councillor Travers. It's been a long night. I don't think I want to turn to Councillor Bergman on this one. I'll turn to Councillor Travers to introduce this and for a motion.

It's all right. Councillor Bergman and I are often mistaken for each other, so no worries. I would move to refer the resolution to the committees on Public Safety, REIB, CDNR, and PAC, and request a report back to the full Council on any recommended amendments on items within each committee's jurisdiction by September 14th, 2026, and further specifically request that the Mayor's Office collaborate with Council leadership on any proposed amendments to the resolution's state partnership provisions contained in Article 5 with any recommended revisions

also presented to the council honored by september 14th 2026 and would ask for the floor back on a second thank you um second from councillor letwin the floor is yours councillor travers thank you acting president barlow and thank you very much for your uh presiding over this meeting the premise of burlington forward is simple provide more help for those who need it and real accountability for those harming our community

At its heart, this resolution is about restoring the simple expectation that everyone in Burlington deserves to feel safe. That means children playing in parks free of discarded needles, families enjoying a waterfront free of violent behavior, employees traveling comfortably to and from work, and visitors experiencing the very best of our city. It also means ensuring that people experiencing homelessness, addiction, or behavioral health challenges have more meaningful access to shelter, treatment, recovery, and long-term stability. Over the past several days, many of us across the city have received multiple emails from the mayor's office regarding the city's existing community safety initiatives, including statements that a number of these initiatives just need more time. I disagree. Even if some of these initiatives have had some positive impacts, we do not have more time. Our city is at a tipping point.

I often hear agree, we should look to the data. I didn't I don't mean to interrupt you. But we're having you're cutting in and out a little bit if you could speak louder or closer to the microphone. I'm sorry for the interruption.

That's okay. Can you hear me? All right.

Yes, yes.

Okay. My point, Council Barlow is, we've heard quite a bit in the last few days from the mayor's office about existing city initiatives. and indications that some of these initiatives just need more time. But even if some of these initiatives have had some positive impacts, my perspective on this is that we do not have more time, that our city is at a tipping point. I often hear and agree we should look to the data, and here is what it says. Tourism is down. Gross receipts are down. Downtown vacancy rates are at multi-decade highs. Those numbers reflect people have lost and continue to lose confidence in our city. This data and the small businesses behind it are not faceless corporations. Their owners and employees are our neighbors, and Burlington's future depends on people choosing to visit here, shop here, dine here, and invest here. When our community loses confidence in Burlington, everyone pays the price. But this data only tells part of the story. You can't quantify a visitor recently held at gunpoint on our bike path. You can't measure the mother attacked while pushing her infant in a stroller along the waterfront. or the young woman who now drives to work and she could easily walk. Nor can you quantify the lived experience of those sleeping outside without shelter, those trapped by addiction, or those living with untreated mental illness. If there was one common thread I heard among tonight's speakers, whether they support this resolution or oppose it, it is that the status quo is not working. It is not acceptable. Too many people are suffering. Not enough are thriving. Burlington Forward is an acknowledgment that we must change course. and a call to change with more urgency. To be clear, none of this resolution is intended to diminish the hard work of our city employees, first responders, nonprofit organizations, or volunteers. They care deeply about this community. But if our current trajectory was producing the results Burlington deserves, we would not have introduced this resolution. Now, if you believe this resolution calls for quote unquote imprisonment, vigilantism, mass incarceration, mass surveillance, or the like, I encourage folks to read the resolution with a more open mind, both with respect to its words and the intentions of its authors. But more importantly, please engage in the debate to come. I could spend more time discussing the specific ideas contained in Burlington Forward, which contrary to some of the claims heard tonight, were developed with input from social service providers, public safety personnel, and other experts. Ideas around how to actually enforce the laws already on the books, more swiftly expand needed public safety resources, activate our parks rather than reduce funding for events, expand emergency shelter capacity, and build real partnerships within our region and state. But the truth is this resolution does not pretend to have all the answers. It was never intended to, and I expect the final version of this resolution will not look like it does today. The motion before us refers Burlington forward to our committees where debate will continue, where it should be debated, where it should be amended, where it should be strengthened. That is exactly how good legislation is supposed to be developed. I'd like to end here, Councilor Barlow, by saying I don't believe many of the more aggressive comments we heard this evening are reflective of sentiments held by most in our community. Honestly, I think many in our community are fearful of coming forward and speaking the truth of what they see happening in Burlington when those of us who are trying to do so here are called genocidal fascists and the like. Well, I'm not afraid of name calling. I'm going to continue to give voice to those who are devastated by the current state of our city. And most importantly, you won't hear me name calling for me in return. I believe the mayor and my progressive colleagues care about Burlington. Where most of us differ is not in our values, but in whether we believe our current trajectory is producing the results everyone in our community deserves. I strongly believe it is not. And I ask my colleagues to please support this in moving forward to the committee process for a discussion our community urgently needs. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Travers. I'd like to get an idea about who wants to speak to this. Councilor Bergman, you can go next. Who else will want to speak? Councilor Schachter?

Right.

Councilor Grant? OK, why don't we start with Councilor Bergman, and then we'll go.

One momentico. Yeah. um so i understand the frustration i'm frustrated too by the difficulty and the complexity of this problem and the fact that we cannot solve this problem alone or quickly or even completely forever i understand the desire and the need for action i feel we need I feel that need too, but placing the onus like this resolution does on the mayor and doing it in this way without looking at our own responsibility is wrong and harmful to effective action. I understand the sense of urgency to act, to do something new because what we're doing has not solved the problems. I feel that too, like I do for the silent crises people are suffering affording rent, feeding themselves and paying for medicine, making payrolls, buying goods. But let me be clear, this framework is not the way to move forward on these things. If it takes us anywhere at all, it takes us backwards. If we agree that we want security, health, and well-being, then know that we can't get there without the money, the people, the housing, and all the other things that are obviously necessary. We should be able to agree that much of what we've done has worked, while also agreeing that it is woefully insufficient to deal with the problems. Because as Paul Dragon says in his letter to us tonight, these are national, state, and county, as well as local problems. problems that are inherent in our system, I believe. This resolution does not strike the balance that Paul calls for. It's heavy on rejecting the good work or minimizing it. It's heavy on enforcement couched in the technocratic word accountability. It's covered in the calming word of compassion. an iron fist covered in a velvet glove. It is not the framework to move us forward through the frustration and the base our work upon. It calls for significant new work in short time frames because it reflects the cry for immediate action. But pull back the curtain and we'll all see that we are understaffed and underfunded right now. So it's a false promise, bad governance, even if it may be okay politics, which I question. Paul warns us to be careful not to over-promise what enforcement, relocation, or new standards can accomplish without the housing, shelter, behavioral, healthcare, Recovery support and income support required to make those standards meaningful. He adds, we simply cannot move people out of sight. We need to build a system where people have somewhere safer and more stable to go. This resolution created without the input of the broad community doing the work, including our police and fire chiefs, ignores this warning. It goes so far as to imply that it is the policy of the city to permit drug use and trafficking. That's false. Perhaps our interim chief would like to have some thoughts about that. It's ironic that the motion sends the resolution to committees led by the sponsors, committees that could have been addressing these issues calling in stakeholders, vetting ideas, and they haven't. The resolution wasn't even discussed at the public safety meeting the night before the press conference. The word compassion is embraced, but like I said, it's a cover. Again, Paul nailed it when he says the tone of the resolution risks treating service providers such as CVOEO as the cause of disorder rather than as partners in solutions. I would say the same for people using services who are not meaningfully named as part of the solution. The resolution is not the framework to serve as the basis for the work we need to do in committees and elsewhere. It is too flawed from the very first whereas to the end of the resolutions for us to be pushing amendments for. The action to refer has a month turnaround in the middle of the summer with a couple of state holidays in between and the siloing of review. It reflects the backwards approach we've heard tonight because Because we should not be using this resolution as the basis for dealing with our problems, and because we can do better, I move to table.

Second. Can we move to table when Councillor Traverse's motion is on the floor?

Yes. Okay.

And is not debatable. Not debatable. Thank you. So there is a there's a move to table, which isn't debatable. And it's been seconded by who? Council Broderick. Councilor Bergman made that move the motion. So I guess, I guess we'll have the clerk call the roll.

Acting City Council President Barlow?

No.

Councillor Bergman? Yes. Councillor Broderick?

Yes.

Councillor Carpenter?

No.

Councillor Grant? Yes. Councillor Litwin?

No.

Councillor McKnight? No. Councillor Newbezer?

Yes.

Councillor Sanchez-Parkinson? Yes. Councillor Schachter?

No.

Councillor Singh?

No.

Councillor Travers?

No.