City Council - Regular Meeting

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It's Monday, May 18th. The time is 6:07 p.m. Uh, I will first ask for a motion to adopt our agenda uh with the proposed amendments on civic clerk. So moved. Thank you, Council Mcnite. Is there a second? Thank you, Council Bergman. Is there any discussion on that motion? All Actually, I'm so sorry. I haven't been on civic clerk in the past few hours. Could somebody please let me know what the amendment is? Yes. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you. Uh the proposed amendments to it are to remove from the agenda item number three, a work session regarding the OPC update to council per car also. Removed from the deliberative agenda item 7.5 a resolution advancing indigenous equity recognition and community partnership from councelor Sanchez Parkinson and Shakar per counselor Sanchez Parkinson. Thank you. Any further discussion on that motion? All right. All in favor then please say I. I. I. Second by councelor Burton. Okay. Sorry. All right. Any opposed?

That is unanimous. So, we have our agenda. The uh first substantive item on our agenda is a proposed executive session. Uh do we have a representative here? Yes. Okay. City Attorney Brown, I see you on there. As is our practice, uh this is um labeled as a union negotiation update, but City Attorney Brown, could you provide us some factual context to support our going into executive session?

Yes, thank you. Good evening, everyone. Um, this is a proposed executive session for the council to receive an update from the city bargaining team about the status of bargaining the successor uh contract with our ASME union employees. Um, and because uh this contract is not finalized yet, bargaining is still ongoing, um, it would be premature to discuss this publicly. So that is a valid basis for an executive session pursuant to the open meeting law. Thank you, city Attorney Brown. Um, Council Mcnite, could I turn to you for the first of two motions on the executive session?

Yep. I move to make a specific finding that premature general public knowledge of the status of the city's labor negotiations would clearly place the city at a substantial disadvantage. Thank you. Is there a second to that motion? Thank you, Councelor Bergman. Any discussion? All in favor then please say I. I I. Are there any opposed?

That's unanimous. Now Council Mcnite, could I turn to you for the second motion? Based upon that finding, I move to enter executive session pursuant to 1 VSA 313A1B to discuss the status of bargaining a successor labor relations agreement with AFSME local 1343 and to include in attendance the city's bargaining team and staff from the mayor's office, the human resources department, the department of finance and administration, and the city attorney's office. Thank you. Is there a second to that? Second. Thank you, Councelor Bergman. Any discussion? All in favor then, please say I. I. I. Any opposed?

That is unanimous. The council is now in executive session. We have public forum warned for a time certain of 6:30 p.m. and we will plan on being back before then. Thank you. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Wow, round. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat.

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Heat. Heat. Um, I know that some counselors are returning here to the table, but we'll go ahead and, uh, introduce and and open up public forum here. Um, the time is 6:37 p.m. We will open public forum now. Uh, under our rules, we will hear first from Burlington residents here in City Hall. will then turn online to Burlington residents who are online. Uh we then come back here to city hall and repeat that process for any non- Burlington residents who signed up and then we turn online to non- Burlington residents. Uh if you're here in person when I call your name, please come here to the table, pull the microphone close. There's a push button on the microphone where when you hit it, the green light on the mic itself illuminates. If you're online, I'll let you know once you've been uh promoted on Zoom and are able to speak. Every speaker, whether here in person or online, will be given two minutes. I ask that speakers please address their comments to me as the chair and not to any other individuals. Yes, Councelor Grant.

I wish to recuse myself from public form.

All right. Um, I ask that speakers please direct their comments to me as the chair and not to any other individual under our rules. We do not tolerate any individualized attacks to folks here at the table. It's important that city hall remain a safe place for those who serve, those in attendance, and those tuning in. So, we certainly do not uh tolerate any comments that are uh discriminatory, harassing, or based on any other individual's protected characteristics. We also ask that comments please refrain from vulgarities or obscenities or being overly loud or disruptive. If I interrupt a speaker at any point in time, it will be to ask that they please proceed in accordance with these rules. If someone continues to violate the rules as I've described them, I reserve the right at that point in time to end public comment for that speaker. So, with that, as mentioned, uh we begin with Burlington residents who are here in city hall. The first Burlington resident that we have is Representative Troy Hedrickk, who will be followed by Brooke Fleshman. Thank you, President Travers. Councilors, before you hear public testimony tonight, I want to encourage you to become deliberate. Deliberate about something that can sometimes be a little difficult. It is still for me, and that's the process of decolonizing our minds as we consider this decision. You will hear comments tonight suggesting that the voices of the Abnaki First Nations at Odinac and Wallenac should somehow matter less because they are quote unquote Canadian. But that framing itself reflects the colonial mindset we are obligated to interrogate and to interrupt. There are not, I've said this before, Canadian Abnaki. There are not Vermont Abanaki. There are only Abanaki. The borders imposed across Indakina, the Abnaki homeland that spans what we now call Vermont, Quebec, and beyond do not erase indigenous sovereignty or identity.

And Vermont's state recognition process did not and cannot create sovereign indigenous nations. The groups recognized by Vermont statute are not sovereign first nations. Odinac and Wallenac are sovereign Abnaki First Nations and they were excluded entirely from the state processes that purported to determine indigenous identity and represent representation in this state. That exclusion matters because tonight you are not simply deciding whether to place a statue. You are deciding whose voices this city believes should be centered when interpreting the history of this land and the legacy of Chief Greylock. And as you listen tonight, I ask you to pay very close attention when you hear from direct descendants of Chief Greylock himself. That voice matters perhaps the most. We should have the humility to listen carefully when descendants of the very people we claim to honor ask us to reconsider how we proceed. This land was indina long before it was Burlington. The original caretakers of this land still exist at Odinac. Their voices still matter and they must be centered in the decisions that affect their identity, their representation and their cultural history. Thank you.

Thank you, Representative Hedrickk. Uh, our next speaker will be Brooke Fleshman to be followed by Guy Magcguire.

My name is Brooke Fleshman. I live at 375 North Avenue here in Burlington. I am here to speak against the installation of the statue that one of the Vermont state recognized tribes seeks to donate to the city. I am not indigenous myself. I work as the statewide sea coordinator for based at the Interville Center. And so I'm deeply interested in the land that I work on, the native seeds that I work with, and of course the people who originally occupied and cared for this land. They are still here. I would urge the council to listen to the voices of indigenous leaders from the Abnaki nation of Odinac. They have been left out of conversations like these in Vermont for way too long. As a citizen of Burlington, I agree that the city should collaborate more with Abnaki artists for their work to be shown in public spaces, but please let it be made by true Abnaki people and not the self-proclaimed groups that we have in Vermont. If the council let this statue be installed in Battery Park, it would show how uninformed and uncommitted the Vermont leaders are to repairing the relationships to Aban, the Abanaki nation of Odinac that still call this land home. It does not take much effort to see the truth here. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Guy Magcguire who will be followed by David Mel.

Hi everyone. My name is Guy Magcguire and I'm a resident of Burlington Chi Chalagi Chalagi Ayeti. I'm an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and I'm here today to ask you to please vote no on accepting this statue. Uh for most of my life, I generally wouldn't tell people that I'm Cherokee because I get one of two responses. Yeah, I'm Cherokee, too. My Cherokee, you know, grand great great great great great great grandmother was in like hiding or I get the Yeah, you're you're like a white guy. You're not actually Cherokee. So, I learned to kind of keep it to myself. That was until a couple of years ago when I became aware of the issue of the controversy around Abnaki identity and I started to question my own family stories. What my dad had told me and I went on a period of discovery and I learned a couple things which I think are relevant to this discussion which is that first most Americans don't really know much about issues like tribal sovereignty, tribal belonging, indigenous history, the history of federal Indian law. And the other thing I learned um is that most of what we uh do know is based on racist caricatures, mostly from like Hollywood, this stories about Thanksgiving. And um we oftentimes act of a place that we think we know, but we don't. And when doing that, we actually cause more harm than good, even if our intentions are good. The other thing I learned that is it's okay to ask questions. When I tell people I'm Cherokee, other Cherokee people say, "Great. Who are you like, who are your people? Who are you like related to?" This is not racism. It's not oppression. It's it's simply asking who you are and how we're like related. And so I've encouraged you to take this opportunity to ask questions. And I would take this opportunity um to to like listen to the actual descendants of Chief Greylock who um whose unseated land we are on today um who are here today who are here and able to speak and this is a gift that I would encourage you to accept and not the statue. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Uh our next speaker is uh David Mel to be followed by an Tukesberry Fry. My name is Dave Meel, Ward Six resident and professor of history at UVM. I helped organize the public forums on indigenous identity at UVM that brought this challenging issue to a larger public. I've spent the last five years interrogating the historical record on this issue with colleagues and students. This is what I know to be grounded in evidence and true. If you vote yes to accept the REIB's recommendation, you are voting to erect a public monument in a college town that commemorates and celebrates a modern invented tribe. one of four in our state, none of which none of which was ever required to demonstrate Abnaki ancestry before being validated as such by our legislature. You would be endorsing bad state law, bolstering the claims of white people with unfounded claims to Abnaki identity. And worst of all, from my perspective as a teacher, you would be actively misinforming the Burlington public about Vermont's history. You would also be doing so over the strenuous objections of our region's indigenous people, the Abenaki, and so engaging in an anti-indigenous act that violates at least four articles of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They are the Abnaki, not Canadian Abanaki. No such thing. They predate modern colonial borders by several thousand years, calling them Canadian to adopt nivist rhetoric demonizing native people as foreigners to exclude them from decisions that affect them in their homeland. For 250

years, colonization has meant democratic institutions backing settler claims in Indian country, whether claims of land or precious metal. What settlers want now is identity. With a vote to erect the statue, you're backing those claims. And if you do so, that is what colonization looks like in 20126 in the purportedly enlightened city of Burlington, Vermont. Please think carefully about the consequences of your vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker is Anne Tukesbury Fry. Will be followed by Sky Mandel. Good evening everybody. You sorry. Could you make if you could pull the microphone closer? It needs to be Sure. Thank you. Perfect.

I'm Ant Tukesbury Fry. I've been here before to speak with you. I'm a resident of Burlington and I am president of the board of a small nonprofit in Burlington that's been going for 38 years. We call ourselves Jump, Joint Urban Ministry Project. Um, and last week I heard the mayor speak and saying that the cuts that you all made to the city budget for 2027 were designed to take a minimum in as much of a minimum impact as possible. I come to you today to speak to you to ask you to make the maximum impact that you can by supporting Jump. Last year, you awarded us $1,500 for the year. I'm here to ask you for another $1,500 to support what we do. $1,500 means a cost to the city of $4 a day. $1,500 means uh that you can help us to complete what we did in 2025, which was to serve 1,700 households, 2,000 individuals from cradle to grave. There are no requirements to come to Jump. If you need help, it's a safe place to come. In 2025, we distributed 135 um services include $135,000 worth of services, including food, utility assistance, bus patches, g vouchers, all of those things to help people to get a lift up. We're on target to discrim distribute at least $147,000 more this year. We ask that you help support families and children to give them a leg up. At Jump, we're not standing by. We're standing up. We can't do enough, but we can do something. So,

please join us and help us lift our neighbors up at 400 at $4 a day. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Sky Mandel who will be followed by Richard Whitting. Yesterday I graduated from UVM with degrees in environmental studies in critical race and ethnic studies. I spent the last four years studying issues of indigenous sovereignty, land rights, and history, examining the various ways that colonialism shows up in culture, law, rewritten history, and institutional violence. I've spent time in and outside of class learning from professors working with citizens of Odinac and Wolenac First Nations, the true living descendants of the Abnaki, and have visited Odinac and other indigenous communities abroad to learn the impacts of ongoing colonial legacies. Because of this academic background, I understand how the proposed statue highlighting the so-called Vermont Abanaki is a form of erasure that threatens the sovereignty of the true Abnaki people. This should bother you as city counselors of a university town. It's a source of pride that Burlington is home to UVM, a top tier R1 research institution, and Champlain College. I would imagine that the city would consider it important to value the knowledge produced in Burlington, the knowledge of its academic residents and senior professors, to value historical accuracy and integrity. Instead, some very loud and prominent individuals in the community have been empowered to exert social and political influence to overshadow the expertise of historians and faculty with extensive credentials on topics of native history, relations, and struggles. Burlington institutes institutions give land acknowledgements then devalue the voices of the native people they reference instead prioritizing self-identified people not recognized by those groups. This violates First Nations sole sovereign right to claim those relations to recognize the identity and citizenship of their own people. Until these rights

are respected, these acknowledgements are clearly performative. Furthermore, what message does the city send to current and prospective students by allowing stories that clearly contrast genealogical and historical evidence to negate the work of faculty and students at the institutions and by propping up factual and historical inaccuracies front and center in its parks. It says that the research conducted at UVM and Champlain doesn't matter. It won't have any bearing on the real issues facing Vermont and beyond. As a Burlington student, this is discouraging and I imagine that this is not the narrative that the city council of a university city wants to project. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Richard Whitting. Will be followed by Abby Mel.

Hello, my name is Richard Whitting. I'm a near lifelong Burlington resident and historian who has studied Vermont's native past and the eugenics movement in our state. Like many Verers, I grew up believing that the groups who call themselves the Vermont Abanaki were what they claim to be. People of Abnaki and Native descent. It was a shock when I learned that the evidence does not support this. This is not just my opinion. The Vermont Attorney General reviewed this issue as did the indigenousled Bureau of Indian Affairs. Both found that the evidence to support their claims was completely absent. The history of how we got here is not simple, however. Members of this group do have deep roots in Vermont, though the evidence tells a different story. Largely of French Canadian heritage, many of their forebears were impoverished, marginalized, and discriminated against. But there's no evidence that happened because they were indigenous. In the 1970s, this group began claiming to be native. Through that identity, they found cultural pride and received much neededed resources. Many well-meaning liberal vermoners stepped in to help, believing they were doing the right thing by standing with what they understood to be a native community, while at the same time addressing outcomes from real harm done to these families, if for different reasons. These efforts came from good place, even though we got it wrong. Good intention, however, is not the same as historical truth. When we put up public monuments, we have to get the history right. Right now, the city does not know enough to make the right decision. You may be thinking, "As a non-native person, it is not my place to decide who is or is not Abanaki." But as a non-native person, it is absolutely my responsibility and yours to learn before making decisions about native people and native representations and to listen when native people speak. The Abnaki nations of Odinac and Wulanac has are speaking. Are we hearing them?

Thank you. Next speaker is Abby Michelle who will be followed by Laura Meel. My name is Abby and I grew up and live here in Burlington. I urge you to vote no on accepting this replacement statue. By now you have been made aware that the process by which groups including Mrs. sky were recognized by the Vermont legislature as Abnaki was deeply flawed and purposefully excluded the region's Abnaki First Nations. I admit when I first heard about this several years ago, my first thought was, who was I as a white Vermonter to decide who was and who was not Abnaki? Wasn't indigenity like gender or sexuality something that could be self-identified? But as I read from indigenous scholars on this topic and learned from Abnaki citizens of Odinak about their history and their experiences during and since state recognition, I came to understand that we are in this deeply uncomfortable situation today because the state of Vermont chose to decide who was Abnaki back in 2011 and 12 and in doing so violated indigenous sovereignty. This statue that supposedly depicts an Abnaki person was realized by a group that Abnaki First Nations unequivocally state do not share any evidence-based kinship with Abnaki people. How could we possibly allow this statute to be placed in one of our city parks knowing that context? As long as Burlington keeps deferring to these self-identified groups and the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, we prop up a false and dangerous rewriting of our region's history and present. Accepting this statue would continue the state's tradition of shutting out indigenous voices because they are politically inconvenient. Interrupt that tradition. Be curious

about what Abnaki First Nations of Odinac and Wolak have shared with us. Burlington can be a leader in making decisions based on evidence. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Laura Michelle. Will be followed by Miranda Post.

Hi, my name is Laura. Thanks for having us. Um, I had a long sheet of comments which I almost don't have to say because they've been most of them have been said already. I'm going to endorse that. But I also want to bring up um something that occurred to me when I went to the REI meeting and heard the discussion of this question. Um a word momentum is what came to my mind as I was listening to this. Was the board going to move along this process because so much had already been done? The statue was made, the commitment was made, the money has been exchanged. There's a lot of tacit and explicit um action made so far. And I in reflecting a comment that I will pull from my previous comment was in midstream the Vermont legislature changed the criteria required for rec state recognition. They removed for expedience's sake the requirement that genealogical connection be documented that other facets like family lore and other uh stories and connections which people or there's no nothing wrong with doing that when you're doing it on an individual level but at the state sovereign level there is an issue. So my worry and my concern is that the Burlington Council is considering a certain momentum and expediency if they were to consider accepting this statue of public art because it's in motion. And I urge you to be brave and just say we have new evidence. We have

information now that wasn't available, wasn't linked, connected, and um readily accessible for people. So, please consider that. Thanks. Thank you. Our next speaker is Miranda Post, who will be followed by David Collie.

Hello. Uh my name is Miranda Post. I'm a homeowner on North Street in Burlington and I work in Burlington as well. Um, I do not support the placement of this Mrs. Koy statue in Burlington. I assume that you want to do the right thing to honor indigenous people who lived here, who were removed by colonial violence. You understand already why that's important. And of course, you're thinking, I'm in the uncomfortable position to decide who's Abanaku or not. Who am I to make that decision? The good news is you don't have to just decide. The research has been done. the indigenous voices have been heard. You only need to believe the research and to listen. When the Vermont State Legislature recognized these groups in 2011 and 2012, they made a deeply harmful mistake that was likely made in good faith, but they ignored the evidence then. The body of evidence proving that it was a mistake has only grown since then, and I don't want to make that mistake again today in Burlington. I also wanted to touch on the statue itself, which I hope you've all seen depicts a ridiculous cartoonish stereotype of a native person. This is an image that the Missiscocoy group has no right to claim or reclaim because they were never targeted or harmed by this imagery. So, what we have is a group of white verters who have attached themselves to Abnaki identity, who have commissioned a white sculptor to create a ridiculous stereotypical image of a native person. And then we have the largely white city of Burlington who will potentially validate and codify this statue. And then we pat ourselves on the back for honoring the Abnaki people while we've excluded the Abanaki of the Odinac and Wallac the entire time. That's a really embarrassing and shameful situation for us to be in as Vermonters and Burlingtonians. And I would feel really ashamed to make that mistake again and see the statue placed

in Burlington. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is David Collie who will be followed by Milo Grant.

Thank you. Good evening. Um I'm Dave Collie. I'm a resident of Ward One. Um and I'm here to to bring something to your attention that may be timely because uh it's relevant to the Wookski the Burlington Wooki Bridge project. And I know there's there's a site visit coming up this week. Uh a couple weeks ago I went to an open house that was put on by uh uh Vermont Transit uh to talk about show the progress on the design of the bridge. At that uh presentation I learned that there's a feature that was dropped and it wasn't something that was publicly announced. When the bridge was originally designed there was a lot of public feedback about not mixing pedestrians and bicyclists. And due to the constraints of the width of the bridge, the downstream side, which is the west side of the bridge design, is a 15t lane that will accommodate two lanes of bicyclists and one lane of pedestrians. But the upstream side, which is the east side, only has 12 feet and that only accommodates one lane for bikes and one lane for pedestrians. So the the uh design was to compromise that situation was to be able to put a bike path underneath the bridge that would direct north brown uh cyclists over to the uh Riverside path and travel on the multi-use path on that west side. So that was a good safety feature and it it was proposed um if feasible. Well, I found out that the design was dropped because Redstone, which owns the property where some of the bike path would have to go, has concerns uh for their property. And I think this was a uh mistake, you know, particularly in light of the fact that the public was very concerned about not mixing or trying to reduce as much as possible the interaction of cyclists and pedestrians.

So, on your site visit this week, take a look, ask some questions. I I think it's important that we learn more about this uh potential uh decision. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Milo Grant who will be followed by Morgan Lampier.

Hello, my name is Mila Grant. uh live in war I represent central districts ws two and three. Um, I continue to come here and speak at public forum because, um, I continue to be targeted with political violence and I continue to have people talk to me, be it walking up to me when I'm shopping for groceries, uh, sending me direct messages on social media or just, uh, insulting me on social media. And uh maybe next time I'll just read uh some of the insults that come my way. But I wanted to continue to say with regards to my experience, it includes I you know I wish I had um kept track of the hours, hundreds of hours uh working with the community, hundreds of hours reviewing the consultants report with CN CNA and what they had done. having uh push back from the former mayor and the former police chief, having to actually fight with them to do the right thing, having to fight for CSL positions, having to fight for CSOS's positions, having to fight for the CARES team, uh which we've lost because we should have stood it up and fired knowing full well that at that time the Burlington Police Department um wouldn't be able to give it the best start that it needed. Um also in the police commission there was an excellent mental health summit uh which we proposed and which was led by Lacy Smith that uh gave us tremendous amounts of information with regards to how siloed our agencies were with regards to dealing with um mental health issues. Expanding the public safety committee was my idea. I wanted four counselors. I wanted to remove politics from community safety discussions. I

wanted those discussions grounded in fact, backed by data provided by the agencies and teams that provide law enforcement ENS services and services across our community safety spectrum. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Morgan Lampier who will be followed by Tyler Pastor. My name is Morgan Lanir. I'm a resident of Burlington, citizen of the Abenaki Nation of Msiscoco and in Dakana, resident of the state of Vermont and a citizen of the United States of America. My family has lived here since before Vermont existed and has never left. To suggest that all the Abanakis have historically disappeared and could only be valid through outside lenses would be ludicrous and damaging when applied to any other racial equity, ethnic or minority group. This sounds like native colonialism. Colonialism, it seems, isn't going anywhere, but is being employed to spread misinformation, to attempt to expand resources for capital gain. We have proven who we are to our tribes, our communities, state, and federal organizations through ancestry, genealogy, history, archaeology, and public records. The state law protects our state recognition. We are a sovereign nation in the United States. They are a sovereign nation in Canada. After 400 years of segregated tribal lives, we do the best with how colonialism has impacted all of us. We do not dictate to them or attack them 150 miles away in their area. But to take advantage of the compassionate nature of Vermoners and the institutions they work for, which unites our communities and to tear us down publicly is shameful, tragic, and is comparable to hate speech as well as being outright misinformation. We know who we are. We know who they are. You know who we are. You know who they are. We are Miss Ciscoy. We are at

Vermont Abanaki. Vote to allow the approval of 7.4 and the erection of the statue. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh our last Burlington resident here at city hall is Tyler Pasok. We'll then turn to Burlington residents online. The first Burlington resident we have online is Britney Helzer. Um, I will note to the extent I can share my timer online, um, I see folks continue to want to promote me as a panelist, but it keeps going back down again. So, I don't I don't know if someone could try again to promote me, uh, as a panelist. If we can share the screen, but I'm I'm looking at it now. Uh, but it's fine. Okay, there it is. Thank you. Um, Tyler, thanks for your patience. Go ahead.

Yep. Hi. Uh, I am a W 8 resident and I steward and teach about land in Burlington that we call Rockpoint. I'm here to urge the council to not accept and display the donated statue because direct descendants of Chief Greylock have called the depiction of him offensive and as I understand it have not been engaged in the process. This question of course relates to the debates that have been mentioned about Abanaki heritage and identity and I want to recognize how difficult it probably feels for members of this body to navigate that right now. Uh but while the truth of those questions is of course relevant here uh I think the current question about the statue of Chief Greylock is much simpler than that. There are leaders and members of Odinac Abanaki who are direct descendants of Chief Greylock who are telling us that this statue is offensive. There are not direct descendants of Chief Greylock supporting this display. If one objective in displaying a statue of someone is to honor their legacy, it seems pretty plain and simple to me that we are failing to do that and even desecrating his legacy if we ignore the voices of his descendants telling us that it is offensive. With the information and voices present, I think that choosing to display this statue would be seriously disrespectful and the antithesis of honoring Chief Greylock and Abnaki heritage. Please don't let momentum lead you to act this way. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, as mentioned, that's our last Burlington resident here in City Hall. We'll now turn to Burlington residents who are signed up online. Um, I should have mentioned this earlier, but this evening once we get to our deliberative agenda, we do also have a public hearing warned for the um waterfront TIFF uh substantial change request. So, if you are here for that public hearing, we'll certainly provide you that opportunity when we get to it. Uh, we have three Burlington residents who signed up in advance for a public

hearing online. They are Britney Helzer, Sharon Busher, and Evan Gold. Uh Britney and Evan, I do not see anyone by that name on our Zoom participant list. If you're here under uh a different name, if you could please use the raise hand function. Otherwise, if we could go ahead and promote Sharon Busher, I think we'll start with Sharon and then see if Britney or Evan join. Sharon, I just need to share my screen here and then you should be able to go ahead as soon as you see the timer.

Yes, I can see it. Thank you so much. President Travelers, I'm going to speak about um seniors and youth. Um so these are comments regarding the budget. Um the first has to do with the Hunenburgg Senior Center, which has um been in existence for a long time, but has um now is the sole senior center in the city of Burlington with the closure of CORE. And their request is because they now serve more people to get $38,000 more for their budget in order to expand meal hours through uh and include Friday and just meet the needs of trying to um accommodate all these new seniors who want their services. And so I hope that there will be an opportunity to find those dollars and support them. The second item has to do with the library and that was I learned this during the uh budget presentations that the youth librarian is going to go from full-time to part-time. So that seemed okay until I read what would what the library would experience and there'd be a reduction in youth programming including afterchool activities and reduced capacity to support children. To me that is really significant. So this community needs to support young and old and everyone in between. And I feel that the budget is um complex and the mayor and um and her administration has done an excellent job. But I I point these two items out because I think these are populations

that are going to not benefit if the budget doesn't accommodate dealing with youth services and expanding funds for the Heineberg Senior Center. Thank you. Thank you, Sharon. Uh, again, the other two Burlington residents we had signed up online were Britney Helzer and Evan Gould. Again, I do not see those names on our attendee list, but if you're under a different name, if you could please use the raise hand function. If they are not here, then we're going to return here to city hall to non Burlington residents. All right. And that's what we will do. Um, so our first non-Brington resident here in city hall is Zachary Bennett, who will be followed by Margaret Cbeco. Hello, I'm speaking on the Abanaki statue. Um, my name is Zachary Bennett. I'm an assistant professor of history at Norwich University and I have published on Wabanaki history. Uh 2026 it's the 250th anniversary of independence. Uh it's also the 300th anniversary of Greylock's war or something called Dummer's war. Um with this what which is what this proposed statue intends to honor. Um kind of a open question. How many of you knew that? Um, I'm a history teacher and you didn't sign up for a pop quiz. Uh, so, um, if you don't know about Greylock or Dummer's War, which happened in the 1720s, um, which is probably the most important Indian War in the history of this region, then it should give you serious pause about approving this statue. uh in two minutes. Uh a lot has already been covered and I'm not going to presume to persuade you on this Vermont Abanaki controversy, but I will point your attention to this. Uh think of

other monument issues in this country, uh Confederate monuments in the south, the uh cannons that from the SpanishAmerican War that flank our state house in Montpielar. Um, in all these situations, we can acknowledge that commemorating those events in that way, um, at best was not a good idea and even embarrassing. Um, as a professional historian on this issue, which is, uh, New England's colonial history and indigenous history, I would advise similar caution. Honoring indigenous people is an important and good thing. Um, but it's also very important for us to listen to indigenous people and the opposition of so many people who are indisputably descendants of Greyhawk. Uh, Greylock should make this committee's decision uh, I think an easy one. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Margaret Kbecco. Will be followed by Denise Watso. Is Margaret Kbecco here? She's in the bathroom. Ah, we'll come back to Margaret. Uh, could we turn to Denise Watso and then that will be followed by Cha Kota? I'm almost tall enough to just stand. Maggie's back. Okay. Yeah, no worries.

Right on time. hat. This is how I say thank you for being here and listening to my words as I speak them. My name is Margaret Kabako. I am a citizen of the federally recognized tribe Sika tribe of Alaska and a proud clinet woman. I'm here to ask you to vote no on 7.4. Four. I moved to Vermont three years ago from Sikka and began working as a lecturer in the education department at UVM. I am now a library director. What I love about Vermont is that Vermonters love to learn, verters love to read, and Vermonters think deeply about ethics and community. The most horrifying part of this whole situation, the misrecognition of those calling themselves Vermont Abanaki for me has been learning that people who are not indigenous have received indigenous human remains. This is a human rights violation and Vermonters are learning this. I have watched public opinion shift. Your constituents are not where they were five years ago and they are asking difficult questions now. Look, I get it. Indigenous cultures are beautiful. Our stories are beautiful. But our culture is not a costume for people who are searching for meaning. Our stories and our culture are how we survived colonization. Our stories are not separate from our survival. Our stories are our survival.

To allocate further funding to this group is to participate in the erasure of indigenous people here and everywhere. I know this situation is uncomfortable. I know it is complicated, but it is not too late to course correct. If you vote yes tonight, you are participating in the erasure of indigenous peoples everywhere. Ganokish for listening. Thank you. Our next speaker is Denise Watso. Will be followed by Cha Ka ini. My name is Denise Watso and I'm and I am a citizen of the Abdanaki Nation of Odin. Quai members of the Burlington City Council and residents of Burlington Olon for the opportunity to speak this evening. I stand before you today urging this council to vote no on accepting the donated statue from the 501c3 group calling itself the Abnaki nation of Mrs. Koi Sukoki. Let me be clear today. This group does not represent the legitimate Abanaki nations. The federally recognized Abnaki Nation of Odin and Wolenac have repeatedly raised serious concerns about the false identity claims of the Vermont state recognized groups. Extensive research research by genealogologists, historians, demographers, and investigative journalists have shown that the vast majority of individuals in these groups cannot document Abanaki ancestry. Their claims undermine our sovereignity, our identity, and our right as indigenous people to define our own citizenship and nationhood. This is simply not a disagreement between two communities. We are Abnaki. They are not. Greylock was a respected Abanaka leader who defended his people and homeland with courage and dignity. Many of his descendants are citizens of Odinac today and live in the capital region. To honor Greylock while

ignoring his living descendants and excluding the legitimate Abnaki nations from this process is disrespectful. A public monument is not neutral. It tells the public whose voices matter and whose identities are recognized. This proposal, this proposed statue was offensive to Greylock's descendants. It is also reprodu reproduces the stolen logo of the Odinac Abanaki police force patch, still worn proudly by officers in our community today. If Burlington accepts this donation, the city will give legitimacy and visibility to organizations whose claims are actively challenged by the very people they claim to represent. Do not legitimize more harm. Vote no. Reject this donation. Choose truth, accountability and genuine nation nation respect. Ol

thank you. Our next speaker is Tron Cota who will be followed by Richard Maynard. Thank you for the opportunity to address you. My name is Chonota. I am here today to ask you to not accept the statue for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, because the descendants of Chief Greylock are asking you not to. This statue is part of a much larger controversy which is causing harm to indigenous people whose territory is now called Vermont. I sent you all an email last Thursday telling you the story about how I grew up believing the lore that my French Canadian descendant family told me that we had native ancestry. Some of my family members joined the Missiscocoy group when it was first formed and I grew up believing that identity and it meant a lot to me. But when I began to do the research and the DNA testing, I discovered that the stories were just stories and we had no native ancestry at all. Recent scholarship has shown that 80% of French Canadian settler descendants falsely believe they have native ancestry when they do not. I do not believe my family lied to me intentionally. I think they genuinely believed it because it was part of our culture to want to have something that provided us with a sense of belonging to this land. I think they were confused and they had been told stories that made them feel special. I know how complex this controversy seems on its surface, but what it boils down to is that the Vermont tribes were denied federal status because they could not meet the requirements. The state then went ahead and created state recognition which does not confer federal status and requires no burden of proof to join. And that brings us to where we are today, addressing you and asking you to choose what a tribe with proven heritage and federal status is

asking you. There will not be many occasions where where you'll be asked to choose between what the Vermont groups want and what Odinac wants. But we are asking you to choose what the tri what the tribe with federal status is asking. Now, we're asking you to honor what the descendants of Chief Brillock are asking, which is to not accept this statue, which is a racist caricature with an emblem that has stolen from Odin on it. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Richard Maynard, who will be followed by Robert Richard. Hi, my name is Bridget Menard Mr. Sky Abernaki. Um, first of all, I hear everybody say I'm not Ab. I know who I am. Thank you. But the other thing is, um, years ago I met Chief Watso. Was a good man. He was carving a totem pole with uh chief St. Francis and I stood by him and talked to him. I asked him why do they have characters on there? What do they represent? And he said they represent various animals that represent part of their heritage. And I want to thank Chief Watson because he inspired me to carve totem poles. I've carved several of them and I've got one at UVM, Shawurn Farms, couple in Swan. In fact, the pole that Chief Watau had carved for our uh our monument down at Monument Road in Swampton. Uh he carved that and it was pretty well deteriorated like the uh the uh the one we had to replace here because it was pretty rotten for the birds getting in there and eating eating the uh all the little pest in there. So, I had to replace it, which I did. And uh so I do want to thank like I say Chief Wson for inspiring me to do that because that's part of my heritage as well even though I'm told I'm not from other people. My my relatives come from

Canada and I live in the US and I'm a US resident. So that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Robert Richard will be followed by Chief Brenda Kanye. Good evening. Welcome to Missisco Abnaki Territory deemed by the state of Vermont. The only people that can tell us what our recognition is. Nobody in this circle can. It's a state that does. And with that being said, we just got recognized again last month by the state of Vermont. Every state rep, Democrat, Republican, independent, all stood up except for one. Well, that being said, the genealogologist that the OddMac used since last time I've talked here, like, and I told it wasn't right who they were using, has been found guilty by the King's Court in Canada for fraudulent genealogy against another Indian and was fined $77,000. That's who they use for genealogologist. That kind of sets a precedent. And I want to thank the REI for getting involved in this. Since the 2022 resolution, we had to get their help because we could not get any response from any of the city departments and they've done a great job. And if things do go sideways, you guys can't blame this one on Montpielar. It's on you. You own it. And no and nobody ever said that the new totem pole representative represented Chief Greylock. This is all coming from them. This was a replacement totem pole to represent the Muscoay Abnaki. And

what else? That's about it for me. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is listed here as Chief Brenda Gier to be followed by Christian Breivik. Thank you for the time. The city of Burlington has historically made continued improvements with its relationship with Mrs. Guabanaki through the years. This has showed continuity and consistency which changed in 2017 to 200 2018 which it went off the rails. First of all, the state of Vermont has already said who we are as Missisco and they are the ones that have the power to say so. What gives anybody else the right to say anything different? And our citizens need answers. Now here we are another meeting over the statue that was created with monies that city city council gave us for REIB to work with us. When the last issue statue was put up in Battery Park, Odinac Mulanak did not have any issues and did not even show up. But now it's an issue. Chief Greylock was from Massachusetts. He came to Mississippi to lead us in the war. Read the history. It's there. I don't know if they're related to them or not. It's not my issue. But Greylock walked us through and fought with us as Mississippi. And that battle was started in 1722 when the English um were going against us and we made allies with the French. It was called Drummers War or Grey Greylock War. and he led into Mississippi territory or Swatan area which is both known as Vermont today. To have a few people show up and spread lies about the people is ludicrous to say the least. There has been a lot of lies spewed about

Missiscocoy. One of that Odinac did DNA on us is completely a lie. They did not they did do a fake genealogy report that they paid $7,000 for some of some of them to do on us that that didn't even put down who we were. My family isn't even correctly on the genealogy report that they put out. So, that is another lie. There's also a statement by the city council in an open meeting a couple months ago that said the state of Vermont, we're looking into recognization. That is not true. That is a lie. I have more, but I'll wait. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Uh, as always, I know that two minutes can be pretty limiting here. Folks are welcome to submit written comments to the council at city councsilberlington.gov. So please feel free. Uh our next speaker is Christian Breivik. We'll be followed by Jules Lees. Uh good evening. My name is Christian Brevik and I teach in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources up at UVM. This past semester I co-taught a course called Race and Culture in Natural Resources. As part of that course, I led a three-week unit on indigenity in Vermont for a class of some 300 freshmen where we studied questions of indigenous identity as they relate to environmental thought in Vermont and beyond. The point I want to raise is that while false claims of indigenity might seem like a situation unique to Vermont, they are widespread in the United States and Canada, especially when those identity claims are allowed to function as a credential for those supposedly holding indigenous knowledge. To quote Cicotin Wapton Oate scholar of indigenous identity Kim Tallbear, these people become thought leaders, institutional decision makers, and policy advisers to governmental leaders with regulatory and economic power over our peoples. They then shake shape academic and public discourse about who we allegedly are, what our lives allegedly look like, and what they think should be done about and to us. The debate over the statue is happening in this broader context. The temptation for settlers to take on indigenous identity to legitimize their ideas run deep runs deep in this country as far back as the Boston Tea Party and is reflected in popular culture from the movie Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all time to Dances with Wolves, Dune, Ferngully, The Last Samurai, Grey Owl, and others. I bring this up to emphasize that there is something about this idea of becoming indigenous that is deeply appealing to mainstream American society and that this is not a niche Vermont issue but a local expression of a much larger pattern. Please consider this

wider context in deciding about the statute tonight and in decisions made by this council going forward related to indigenous people and knowledge. Thank you. Thank you. Um our next speaker will be Jules Lees. I will note that including uh Jules, we have five additional speakers in the queue uh just for the council and for the public. If you're here for our local control commission meeting warned for 7 p.m. we will turn to that as soon as public forum is concluded. Uh but we have Jules Lee who will be followed by Brian Wiggins.

Good evening. Thank you for making time to listen. Uh my name is Jules Lees. I'm a former Burlington resident and former Vermont teacher. I also taught the Abenaki language at Mbury. In these roles, I worked closely with the Vermont state recognized tribes until I was called to learn more about their history. In considering the Abenaki controversy, there are two possible realities and the harm to indigenous people in each is quite different. One possible reality is that the state recognized tribes are Abnaki, as are the communities of Odinac and Wanac who oppose them. In this reality, the harm is to the Vermont tribes whose identity is being questioned, and my role as a settler is to stay out of it. However, there is another possible reality, and this one supported by the historical and genealogical evidence. In this reality, the members of the state recognized tribes are not descendants of Vermont's original people, but rather their ancestors, like my ancestors, came on boats across the Atlantic. In this reality, the harm is to the Abenaki, who have suffered not only the taking of their land, but now also their identity. Bodies like the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs and the Abenaki Nation of Missiscocoy are arms of a decadesl long anti-indigenous campaign to rewrite Vermont's history, erasing the actual indigenous people. Predominantly white settler legislators are then collaborating with white settlers falsely claiming to be Abanaki to consolidate white power in Vermont. In this reality, my role as a indigenous ally is to hold settlers like myself accountable when they harm indigenous people.

There is no neutral on this issue. To understand what harm is being enacted, we have to learn our history. This is why I urge the counselors to reject the statue and the anti-indigenous ideology it represents. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Brian Wiggins. And then our last non Burlington resident here at city hall is uh Jeffrey Befe. Good evening. My name is Brian Wiggins. I'm a member of Missiscoco Abnaki. I can tell you that my great-grandfather never saw Avatar or Dances with Wolves. There was no agenda for him being Abnaki. He was just Abnacki. Um there's a lot of misinformation in the air. I agree everyone should should get as educated as possible. It's a difficult subject. I think it's clear that um you know people are dug in and that's for good reason. Um we've been called a lot of names tonight. Um that's difficult to take. Um, I hope you can all appreciate where the Vermont tribes are coming from. And I hope you ask yourselves why the change in attitude from north of the border. the current leadership um is opposed to us, but they weren't always. So ask yourself why, what changed and what's at stake.

Thank you for your time. our last uh non- Burlington resident here in city hall and excuse me if I'm mispronouncing that or misreading this but I have Jeffrey Betvey please correct me if I mispronounced it will then turn online are two non Burlington residents signed up online are Donald Nollet and Corena Corena I do not see anyone by that name online if you're under a different name please use the raise hand function on Zoom Jeffrey

my name is Jeff Benet um I had many years ago chaired what was called the governor's advisory commission on Native American affairs for the state of Vermont for 15 years. I chaired it under Governor Howard Dean, Jim Douglas. Uh I now have been serving on the Vermont Commission. Um but here's the thing. I don't feel that I ever wanted to be in a position like this because I'm not Abanaki. I've worked with the Abanaki for many years, for almost 45 years. But I'm hearing things being said um and I have to respond because I was there. Um and it's got to be said. It really does before you make certain decisions. You've heard, you know, how basically ODAC had no input into the process of recognition that this they were completely um stonewalled. This is not true. uh someone named Skip Bernier, Richard Bernier, uh Anak Abanaki approached me and he said he wanted to talk. We got to know one another and Skip had input into the process. Not only that, Skip asked that his nephew Tim Drual be placed on the newly formed Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs and he was. So Tim was on the commission. So when you're hearing that, no, that's, you know, there's nothing to be said about that, that just isn't true. It's not true. Odinac was there to hear that the Vermont Abanaki, you know, just appeared. Understand what the folks went through, you know, for a long, long time before recognition came to pass. This was about social justice and equity. These were the poorest of the poor. So what did they do? You know, when we talk about pretend Indians, this is what the

Vermont Abanaki and Mrs. Sway did in 1980. They were the first to build a section 8 housing project in the state of Vermont. First, Is that my two minutes? It is your two minutes. If you could please Oops. wrap up. Yeah. Okay. It goes quick. Yeah. So, it's a couple years later, the Abanaki, there was no public preschool kindergarten in Vermont. The Abanaki started them. Okay. So thanks.

Thank you. Uh we'll turn now to non Burlington residents online. If we could please promote uh Donald No. And are we able to promote Donald or have we tried? I am Donald No. Oh, okay. Go ahead. Thank you.

I am an Abnaki with family from and in Odinac, Canada. I am a direct descendant of Chief Greylock. The proposed statue is an insult to the true Abnaki and my heritage. I see a cartoon-like face that does not represent the Abenaki. Miss Discoy Abnaki is carved in a childlike manner underneath the cartoon face. Chief Greylock and I share the same Native American name, Wawa Nov, which translate to he who fools the enemy. The Missiscocoy Abanaki have fooled all of us after genealogy being cleared as the Abanaki through lack of genealogical or historical evidence as Abanaki. I am opposed to the placing of the proposed statue anywhere as a representation of my heritage. Please reject this proposed statue. worked with the Odinac and Wenac First Nations to replace the fallen statue with a tribute worthy of Chief Greylock and our heritage. Thank you.

Thank you. Um I do not see uh Corena online. Um there were two Burlington residents who were signed up online though in Britney Helzer and Evan Gold. And Evan, I see that you joined. So, uh, I think we'll go ahead and, uh, promote you, Evan, and, uh, if you want to participate, go ahead. Uh, yeah. Can you hear me? Sorry, I got wrapped up with some work stuff, so I didn't make the uh, piece.

Um, I left some, uh, some written comments about the the statue, and I appreciate, um, councelor Shaker responding and following up. Um, so I'm not going to say anything more about that. Um, but I did want to uh I was appreciative of the uh permit. It's in um the consent or um the yeah the consent agenda, but uh that the new rightway usage on Main Street for uh the wine bar includes separating out uh the bike lane because I think that was a problem when the Griffin applied for theirs. So, um, just wanted to say I was thankful for that and hopefully, um, more of the permits coming forward will also include kind of surrounding the bike lane and making it more active on on Main Street. So, that was all. Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, I do see I So, there were two additional folks that signed up online for public form in Corenita and Britney Helzer. I did not see either of them. So, I think we will go ahead and close public forum now at 7:43 p.m. I will note that I see some folks that have their uh hand raised on on public forum. It is our rule in practice to require that folks sign up for public forum online at least an hour in advance. And we have uh called the names of everyone who filled out our form uh within that time frame. Um before resuming our regular council meeting, we will adjourn the council uh not adjourn, recess the council at 7:44 p.m. and call to order our meeting as the local control commission and uh Commissioner Broadderick as chair. Oh, he's not here. Um

can I ask a question? We had Daniel. Yes.

Can you find him on he that name did not sign up at least an hour in advance. So I I do see some folks had their hand raised, but uh it is our uh practice to um require that folks have to sign up in advance. So uh I I apologize to Daniel, but that's the standard that we hold everyone to. If uh if Daniel or anyone who's not able to participate has any written comments, would welcome you're sending them again to city council at Burlingtonvt.gov. Um, and sorry. Uh, so now we're on the local control commission. Uh, and Commissioner Broadick, could I ask you as chair of our license committee for a motion on the agenda? Move to adopt the agenda. Thank you. Is there a second?

Second. Thank you, Commissioner Grant. All in favor, please say I. I. Are any opposed? That carries unanimously. Uh, Commissioner Broader, could I ask you for a motion on our consent agenda? Move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Grant. Uh, if there's no discussion, we'll go to a vote. All in favor, please say, "I." I. Any opposed? That is unanimous. We have, uh, four deliberative items. Commissioner Broadick, if I could turn to you for a motion on item 3.1. Move to approve the 2026 2027 outside consumption permit application for Bar Renee 202 Main Street. Thank you. Is there a second? Second.

Thank you, Commissioner Grant. If there's no discussion on that item, we'll go to a vote. All in favor say I. I. I any opposed? That's unanimous. Uh item 3.2, please. Um move to approve the 2026 2027 outside consumption permit application for Preppy Market and Eery 50 Lakeside Avenue. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Grant. If there's no discussion on that item, all in favor, please say I. I. I. I. Are there any opposed? That is unanimous. Uh Commissioner Broadick, item 3.3, please. Move to approve the 2026 2027 outside consumption permit application for the Wise full 260 North Street. Thank you. Is there a second?

Second. Thank you, Commissioner Grant. Uh if there's no discussion on that item, all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? That is unanimous. And now item 3.4. Move to approve the 2026 2027 outside consumption permit application for Wilder Wines Wine Bar 210 College Street. Thank you. Is there a second to that item? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Grant. Uh any discussion? All in favor then, please say I. I.

I. Any opposed? That is unanimous. Uh seeing no other business before the local control commission. Absent objection, we will adjourn that meeting at 7:47 p.m. and resume our city council meeting at that same time. Uh item three on our agenda, as originally posted, was a work session regarding the overdose prevention center. uh that has been removed from our agenda and will be rescheduled to a later date which now takes us to item five uh mayor general city affairs and mayor when you're ready I'll turn the floor to you.

Thank you President Traverse. Want to provide folks a few updates uh from the city and there is a memo accompanying my updates with a lot more detail on things I won't be able to cover in my 10 minutes with you. So first to the BTV plan BTV 2050 uh comprehensive planning process that is underway. I spoke to this briefly last time, but we held a really successful open house on April 30th at one Main Street. We had overund 350 community members attend, which is quite remarkable when you think about planning and a planning conversation uh for something that's conceptual for the next 25 years of our city. But due to the hard work of our staff, it was interactive, it was participatory, it was available to all ages to interact uh with. And there was even a prompt that talked about what would you do if you were mayor for the day and designing the city for the next 25 years. What did you want to see? We now move on to engaging community in different ways. The next um highly publicly oriented event will be in July followed up with another one in September. So we're just getting started. If you were not able to participate in the one in April 30th, there's going to be more ways to engage. And currently uh our planning uh department and team is working with our REIB team to do deeper engagement with diverse community members including specifically utilizing our trusted community voices uh to make sure that we get feedback from our entire community and we go to them in terms of folks who may not be able to easily get out to an open house. We also went uh to on to celebrate uh bring back really since COVID we had put on hold a hiatus our celebrate Burlington awards. So organized by our CEDO department, we resurrected that those awards and held that event here in this room earlier this month. The awards first launched in 2000 and are a way to celebrate our residents and organizations who continue to make our city a great place to live, work, and play. This year's awardees and their names will be on a plaque here in city hall include Gail Shapnoise who is

uh who works at UVM and has been one a longtime leader on the town gown relationships uh in the ward 1 and 8 area. She reser received her Blumenthal award for community activism. Nor Ellen Nella Nablusi uh received the Peter Coll legacy award. Petell is a former mayor of Hero of the city of Burlington. And finally, Sally Adams uh received the Ken Shatz Award. And all of these three awards were established at various years um throughout Burlington's history, the last 20 years or so. And I'm so pl pleased we brought these back because it's important to honor folks who really provide great community uh contributions here to the city. About a week or so ago, I had the uh ability, really the privilege to tour our new Burlington High School. And I really want to emphasize this was a very special moment. And I'm really looking forward to the entire community having an opportunity to walk through this impressive investment in our future and our youth and the future youth of of this city. Uh the be the building is just simply gorgeous and beautiful and inclusive and welldesigned and and interconnects arms forest um which sits on the back of the building down all the way to the playing fields and everywhere you look in and out the building. It's full of life. It's full of um community community and convening space. It's so intentionally designed that I think every single Burlingtononian will be proud to say this space is now the place that we will have our high schoolers uh be able to be educated in and our educators be able to educate our youth in. Our DPW and other parts of city government are helping the school district do the final touches on things like moving the Green Mountain Transit um bus stop to the places where it needs to be. We're starting to consider renaming the road to really celebrate the kind of the new moment this this signifies for our community. Um, and even though this means absolutely nothing, I can tell when people are really excited about good news when we hit 50,000 views on a mayor post in social media and for some reason this

hit 50,000 posts. People, there are good things happening here in the city. Um, and this is certainly one of them. And I encourage you to uh to I believe it's August 22nd will be the community oriented event that everyone is invited to. So, next, our park our parks and public works department have been hard at work. I held a meeting earlier today with frontline workers to thank them for their hard work across the city. Um, about 35 employees between those two departments did the hard work of our seasonal cleanup around town as we move into the warmer months. This is what we do every year when the snow recedes and we see what has been left behind. 35 employees recently removed 11.7 tons of material from the urban reserve which is an area down near the bike path on the waterfront. And these results are very notable. Um and even so on this other thing that I don't go on called Reddit, we got a public rare public appreciation post on Reddit for the city for this work. So again, we can say good things as well in the land of Reddit, but I want to appreciate that those 35 employees, those departments, they do this annually, but that is such an incredible coordination across city departments um and a big improvement for what is a space that we are very proud of for the Burlington bike path in our waterfront. Also, a dozen employees recently completed a significant cleanup at the barge canal area, another uh big partnership moment. And we'll be partnering with a local contractor this week to address the battery shelf park uh or sorry the shelf off of Battery Park, which is the large um sloping hill downward to the waterfront, which has another um uh set of of areas that need to be cleaned by the city. This past Saturday, the city held its f 41st annual kids day led by our Burlington Parks uh recreation and waterfront department. It was attended by several hundred children and families, and my own children reported happily that it was a good event. So, they get the stars, the stars for my family. Uh, and at least 350 kids were counted when they were serving the ice cream. These

activities included all sorts of wonderful things. Uh, games, swag, giveaways, face painting, and an extra gratitude to our partner organizations who were there at the event, Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains, the Lond Center, the Parks Foundation of Burlington, and Fletcher Free Library. And a huge uh thank you to their sponsors of that event locally. Leonardo's Pizza, which is a locallyowned company here in Burlington, Market 32 Cares. Uh and they made they made generous financial sponsorships uh that made sure that event was able to uh take place over to our airport briefly. You know, summer's around the corner when Lehey BTV uh is able to offer seasonal flights and those kick off. We have flights to Charleston and for the very first time a flight direct to Houston. uh those are up and running and those direct flights now join make a total of 19 def destinations. Our airport really is an economic regional um hub that's able to not only bring people here to Burlington in this region but uh Vermonters and regional folks elsewhere in the country. Uh and we're proud of our team for adding those flights. Please mark your calendars. Burlington's annual Junth celebration will be on Saturday, June 20th. The theme for this year's celebration is freedom. Yesterday's legacies, today's promise, and tomorrow's hope. This theme honors the history of emancipation reflects the ongoing struggle for equality and inspires future generations to continue the fight for justice and inclusion. This is always a great event for this city and we have multiple departments supporting RIIB in pulling this off this year as we did in in the in the prior year. Um and in the spirit of these of this event, we are seeking nominations for the celebration awards attached to Junth to recognize individuals, organizations, and businesses who help whose work helps expand freedom, opportunity, and belonging in our community. So, you can find more information on the REI city's RIIB web page. Please nominate one of those very deserving individuals,

organizations, and businesses who help us advance inclusion and equity work here in Burlington. Before I go to a little bit on community engagement, I would tonight's agenda includes a very big moment for my administration. We will be presenting our fiscal year 27 budget, the administration's budget, the mayor's budget to the council. This reflects weeks and weeks of incredibly hard work by our finance department within the department of finance administration and our CEO who of course is not here right now, but I will just give her her flowers. Um because this was uh just incredibly long nights, long weekends preparing a transparent budget that's not only balanced but a incredibly fiscally responsible budget that includes strategic investments in what we need as a community while continue to bravely rightsize the kinds of services that are not critical and core in order to provide a balanced budget to our city that does not spike taxes in a way that makes them unaffordable for folks. So we are very proud of this budget. I appreciate counselors have engaged since January on this work with us and you and the public can see every single department presented in detail at various budget hearing nights that have been posted on our city website and you can learn more when we do the presentation at the end of this agenda you have. Finally, in terms of community engagement over the past six week, I've engaged many different community partners, residents, businesses, institutions. I've gone around to quite a few places um including up at the University of Vermont and Burlington School District. I also have participated in regional and national leadership conversations on climate, transportation, and municipal government, including presenting as part of the climate mayor's group on a national panel around BED's work to continue moving forward even when the federal government is abandoning funding for critical climate uh infrastructure work and also concluding my participation in the Bloomberg Harvard city leadership initiative where I've served along 46 other mayors from around the world to continue to build our

capacity to advance amp ableffordable housing in this city. Throughout April and May, I use media appearances, public forums, and press conferences to communicate endlessly about our budget. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you all can give the budget presentation tonight, but I've also spoken to substance use responses and long-term planning initiatives such as the Plan BTV 2050 event. Finally, I've attended a few different events. And if you attended um in particular the center city little league game which uh councelor Sanchez Parkinson and many others councelor Bergman were there. I will do better next year with my pitch. I just want for the record to show I pitched from the mound at the lake monsters better than I did at center city league little league and I will do better on behalf of the youth. But I also modeled that we can make mistakes and we can try again. My own six-year-old was there with me. I think he might have thrown a little better than mine. I did. Um but I just want to highlight that one in particular uh because it really shows such a wonderful program that has I don't know what was it again 20 30 years or so started under uh Bernie Sanders actually would be 40 years then and it's a great thing that has been continued by a lot of folks in the old north end and across the city to provide little league access to kids in the neighborhood and it's just was great to join them for their opening night the other night. So thank you very much.

Thank you mayor. Uh that brings us now to our consent agenda. Uh I will note for the record that councelor Shaker has informed me that uh because of a professional conflict of interest that she's recused from item 6.10. Is that correct, Councelor Shakar? Great. Thank you. Um is there a motion on our consent agenda? So moved. Okay. Uh is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Bergman. Any discussion on that motion? All in favor, then please say I. I. I.

Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Uh I should also note for the record that we're joined by councelor Newbieser online. That takes us now to our deliberative agenda. The first item on our deliberative agenda is a public hearing regarding the Burlington Waterfront Tax Increment Financing District. I do believe that it may make sense before opening the public hearing. Direct director Alice Rawi and David, do you want to present on this item first to the full council or I think that might make sense.

Okay. I I I think that makes sense. Um so if you could uh present on the item first just because it may spur uh comments for the public hearing. Yeah. Um, so if there's no objection to that, I think that we will uh turn to you first and then we will turn to the public.

Thank you, Council President. Okay, good evening. We're here today because um to discuss a sub substantial change request that we are bringing um for our waterfront tip district which um includes the city place project. Just to orient people, um we are bringing a substantial change request to Bepsi, Vermont Economic Progress Council, um on this project. We are bringing a collection of changes that have happened over the last few years, including the additions of grant funding, expanded public improvements, amendments to the development agreement, and our final uh permanent bonding for the project. In order for us to bring a substantial change request to VEPSy, we need to first bring it to this legislative body for approval and then we will present it to them. Uh I am joined today by David White who is the president of White and Burke and who is our um TIFF consultant.

Thank you Cara. Um, so the uh the Veron Vermont Economic Progress Council is responsible for administering the tax increment financing program for the state of Vermont. They approve all tiff districts and they have to approve any changes in the tiff districts and under the rules certain things rise to a level minor things don't require going back to them although you report on those annually and there are check-in meetings with uh staff of the council um larger things rise to a level where you need to go back and cumulatively we haven't been in front of them for the waterfront tiff district since 2023. So, in the last three years, there have been a series of things that have happened that cause us to need to go back to them. At this point, um it's important to understand that the waterfront tiff district, which has a history going back to 1997, um most of the district expired at the end of fiscal 25, that's June 30th of 2025. And the only thing left, as Cara um alluded to, are the three properties that are involved with the so-called city place. And that includes both the new building that fronts on Bank Street, the white building uh that's uh substantially complete and being occupied, and the one that's under construction that fronts on Cherry that has wings on both Pine and uh St. Paul Street. Um it also includes as so-called phase two uh the property, the remaining portion of the old mall that fronts on uh Church Street and the LLBAN building. So, it's kind of an L-shaped um uh area there. And um there in the substantial change application that we're taking to VPS, there's little or nothing that is new to the city council because you've

seen various things, changes in the agreements with the developer involved with the first two buildings, phase one, uh the amendments to the development agreements, you've seen the grant information and so forth. So, there's very little that's new for this city council. Um, and there have certainly been opportunities with each one of those things that have come before the city council for the public to be aware of it. Um, but the purpose of this particular application is to wrap all those together into this first application since um, uh, 2023. Let's see. There we go. Got it. So, um, very quickly, the waterfront tiff district, as I said, includes what's now called, uh, Burlington Town Center, the south and north buildings, and the phase two. The public improvements for the public's benefit. I know the city council is amply aware of this. The core of this is to reconnect uh, downtown, which was cut off during the urban renewal era by the mall. And so, it's the reconnection on Pine Street and St. Paul Street between Cherry and Bank so that you'll be able to get north south on those streets that have not been possible to get through for decades. It also includes rebuilding Cherry Street and Bank Street. Um, and the basic concept underlying taxment financing is that the new taxes that'll be generated by these new developments will pay the debt that uh is incurred to pay for the cost of those improvements. There's just an image of the south building, a little bit of the north building. Uh this is looking up St. Paul Street, the future St. Paul Street. Um so the changes that we're bringing before the Ron Economic Progress Council include there have been two major grants the city has received. The city's been very successful with this. This includes $12 million in congressionally directed

spending. It was one of the last things that Lehey did before he retired. uh and also a $22 million what's called raise grant from the Federal Highway Administration. And those collectively will help pay for this infrastructure. And they've allowed the infrastructure plan to be expanded to include a somewhat larger geographic area and a more thorough reconstruction with utilities and various other things. Um, additionally, one of the changes is that the Burlington Town Center designs have changed in detail. The overall images that I showed a moment ago and there's another one I'll show in a moment. On the exterior haven't changed substantially, but on the interior there have been detail changes in terms of the number of housing units and various other things. So we're bringing those before them. Also the uh affordable housing which is a key component here. 20% of the units will be affordable and those units when we last were in front of the Ron Economic Progress Council were being delivered by Champlne Housing Trust. But Champlne Housing Trust is no longer involved. The developer is directly providing those. And one of the terrific aspects of that is that the money that Champlain Housing Trust would have used, public funds it would have used to subsidize those housing units are freed up for other affordable housing projects. So in effect, it has the benefit of increasing the affordable housing production by freeing that up with the developer using um their own funds to be able to underwrite the the affordability of the 20% of these units. Um then in addition, we will be giving Vepsy the information about the final bond for the tax increment financing bond. The city council's aware that there have been repeated short-term one annual uh renewals of interim debt. We've now gone just earlier this month to permanent bond. will be providing that information to VEPSy along with the um the information update on the

investment earnings that have been made along the way because those funds had orig have been deposited in a depository account and earning interest for a period of time. So, we'll be reporting on those. Um, one of and perhaps the only change that may be new to the city council here which is not I don't think terribly substantial but we have proposed to increase the what's called related cost budget and that's the cost of operating the tiff district the administrative and management costs and part of that are the costs of audits for example and the costs um of the state audit which is obligated not less than every five years um have been substantially higher than we anticipated there would be and we also have had inflation. So, we think it was it's prudent because this budget has to carry the city through 2036. Um that um it's prudent to give a little bit more cushion than we've had in that budget up till now. Um we're also informing them of the amendments to the development agreement uh with the developer. Um, and as you may be aware, there are uh some legislative changes underway that the city has requested of the legislature we expect will be passed and we'll be bringing those informing Vepsi about those as well as we go forward and those are all in the packet of information. Um, I wrap all of that together and the financial projections uh show that first the public improvements budget has increased. That's part of what that we'll be asking them to approve. It's now at about $71 million for the Cherry Street, Pine Street, St. Paul, and Bank Street reconstructions. Um, we estimate that at the end of the life of the TIFF district, there'll be about a $4 million surplus. And I should be clear that this does not include phase two. Again, that portion, which is not yet under construction, that faces on uh Church Street and includes the LLB building.

And we've not included any new development on that site. Not because we don't think it will happen. We do think it will happen, but we don't know when and we don't know what the value will be. So to be conservative, we have not included that in the estimates. Assuming that does happen, and I think it's highly likely that it'll happen sometime within the next nine years while the tiff uh uh district is still active, um that there will be additional surplus beyond that four million. So those are the that's the gist of what we will be presenting to VEPSy. Uh the details are in your packet and uh happy to answer questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Uh before turning to the council on the recommended action before us, we will continue the public hearing. There is one individual who signed up for the public hearing uh in advance online. If we could please go ahead and promote Sharon Busher. Uh but we will then come here to city hall as well as online to see if anyone else wishes to participate in the public hearing. If you're here in city hall, I'll just ask that you please come here to the table. If you are online and wish to participate in the public hearing on this item, uh please use the raise hand function. Sharon, uh you've been promoted and should please go ahead.

Okay. Thank you so much. Uh first of all I wanted to say that this is the first report that I feel that um was written so someone who isn't a financial investor or someone who has that background can understand. So I want to compliment you on giving the history and bringing it all together. Um I think it's well written and easy to follow. Um and uh I just felt obligated to say that um you explained how in 2023 there was $39 million and now because of changes and because of just inflation it's now $71 million. And then you spoke you speak to the fact that you have secured all the funding with the exception of $14 million. And if indeed and you and you hope to secure that funding, but if indeed the city doesn't, it will result in a partial restoration of Bank Street. Um, and right now there it's proposed to be two blocks of Bank Street, but if it's only partial, you you have stated in the report that it will only be one block as opposed to two. Um, and you speak about the um great streets model that we use on Main Street coming to Bank Street. And I I have to be honest, I I feel that the sidewalks are beyond what I think is was necessary on Main Street, but I don't want to burst anyone's bubble. Um I'm not trying to be critical. I agree with the mayor that

the trees are a wonderful addition. Don't get me wrong. Um, I hope that the improvements work the way they were intended to work for Burlington. But my point is by making that comment is that rather than doing one block, I'm hoping that there will be consideration to accommodate right up until South Wooki Avenue. And the point that I made at the board of finance and the point I want to make tonight um even though this is not going to be a debate um that goes forward to the legislature um but it will be one that we will have is I'm hoping that emphasis will be put on the section that goes to South Wooki Avenue since that's the area that intersects with Church Street Marketplace. Um, and I think it's so important that we have those amenities there where the guests and the public and they're very visible and important for businesses also. So, I want to thank you. I know that I I didn't write down what I also wanted to say. I know in the report um as far as with tax increment financing, you hold back the money from um schools in the city and you use that that those dollars to pay down the debt. But in the proposal it was 100% of the school portion and I believe in the report now you're proposing to make that 75% so more dollars will be available for schools and I think for the community that is something that has bothered members in in my section of the city and I think that they will find they will be happier to hear that they still aren't

satisfied but they'll be happier to hear that. Um, so I want to thank you all um, uh, for all the work you've done and for David White, the other David White who's been part of the city for a long time. I thank you for your expertise.

Thank you. Uh, I'll turn now to city hall as well as online to see if anyone else wants to participate in this public hearing. Is there anyone else here in city hall that wishes to participate in this public hearing on the substantial change request? And is there anyone online? If yes, again, please use the raise hand function on Zoom. I'll ask one more time if there's anyone here in person or online that wishes to participate in this public hearing. All right, seeing no one, we will go ahead and close that public hearing then at 8:15 p.m. And now turn to the deliberative item on this issue, which is item 7.2. My assumption is that your presentation is all set. Okay, great. Um, this item comes to us uh after action before the board of finance earlier this evening. Um, council Barlo, as a member of the board of finance, could I ask you first for a motion on this item if you're prepared?

Certainly. Um, I would move to approve the city's um substantial change request to VEPSy for the waterfront tiff district and authorize city council Ben Traverse and chief administrative officer Katherine Shaw to execute the attached formal request letter. Thank you, councelor Barlo. Is there a second? Thank you, councelor Bergman. Are there any counselors that wish to be recognized on this item? All right, seeing no one, we'll go to a vote. Uh, all in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? That is unanimous. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Uh, item 7.3 is the FY27 proposed budget presentation from CSWD. Uh I know that our friends at CSWD are on the circuit right now going municipality to municipality. So Sarah, thank you for uh joining us. Um and uh happy to turn to you now if you're prepared to uh present on the item. Yes, indeed. Thank you very much, Council President. I appreciate your time. Um I would like to share my screen if possible. You should be able to do that.

Okay, let's give this a go. That's the one you want to share. Are we seeing we can see your preview screen? I mean, we could see the presentation, but it's not full screen. It's just

I think I think if you go to u display settings up in your top bar there's a drop-own menu and it'll give you the option to swap screens to the presentation.

Sorry about that. I think I'm sure the external display is disconnected. Apologize for the technical difficulties. All right, let's try this one more time.

There we go. Ah, okay. Great. Thank you very much for your your patience. I appreciate that. No problem. And I want to thank Lee Perry, our commissioner, for being here with us as well. Thanks, Lee.

Uh, again, my name is Sarah Reed. I'm the executive director for Chasing Fellow Waste District, and we are municipality chartered in 1987 um by the state of Vermont to manage the waste generator within Chining County. Burlington is a member of CFWD. Uh, I show this slide for folks who may not know who we are and and kind of what we're about, but also to emphasize where we do receive our revenue from and where we do not. Uh, we do not receive revenue directly from our cities and towns in the form of um a a line item on your budget from say property taxes or anything. Um, our revenue is generated in three main buckets. user fees or tip fees, the sale of of materials and products, and a cell waste management fee, which is the tax on trash that haulers pay. And again, we are here to ask you for your vote um on our on our budget for the next fiscal year. And each select board city council has one vote and the votes are not weighted by population. So um everyone's vote uh on this particular item counts the same. I am generally asked when I come to talk with you how we're doing uh as as a district and in the last year uh this is believe this is for 2025 um calendar 2025 we generated as a district um in total over 318,000 tons of material that's that's everything of that we diverted from land to landfill just over 194,000 tons. So, of that 124,000 that is left, we want to look at the items that were in that 124,000 tons that went into the landfill, what could be pulled out and further diverted. So, you see there, that green bar, that's nearly 31,000 tons of food scraps. And so we are focusing quite a lot of our outreach and education material on helping folks to understand um how to best reduce the amount of food waste that they make and then what to do with those food scraps

instead of putting them into the trash because they do make up a significant amount of material um in the landfill from the state and we want to keep that stuff out. I do want to also address head-on um an incident you may have heard about in in the news. Um we CSWD is building a new materials recycling facility. It's one of the largest infrastructure projects um infrastructure projects in in the state. Um we were just about finished with our draft budget. We have presented to our finance committee and within about a week or so we were the victim of a pretty significant fishing scam. Uh we had $3 million in payments that were meant for our construction partner diverted to the monster. Um it was clearly a devastating uh incident and um it it significantly affected our budget. So we had to reconfigure our budget. It continues to be an ongoing and open investigation um led by law enforcement and we are cooperating. Our board of commissioners is also conducting an internal review of the incident and they should be wrapping that up within the next few weeks or so. Um, and we anticipating that there will be recommendations um coming out of that report. Uh, and we will be happy to share um what we learned from that uh with you all. So, you can also take any precautions that you may need to take as well. Um, but we really want you to know that we are not going to be looking to our member municipalities to bear the burden of closing the project funding gap. This did uh obviously represent $3 million of of cash needed for uh this project. We will likely need to take out a short-term loan uh to help with that um finishing that project. I think the building is I'd say it's about 3/4

finished. Um excuse me. we will uh be starting to install the equipment uh that the the in about the beginning of August. So the project is ongoing. It is it is not stopping and we are finding other ways to fill that gap. Uh we did like I mentioned earlier take a significant um uh relooked reexamination of our budget. Uh we made quite a few cuts. We've further deferred capital um and we've taken another look at our revenue and um expectations. Um anything that is uh conserved preserved uh is going to be directed towards that MURF project and it is anticipated that the recovery to our reserve funds um will take at least two fiscal years, possibly three. But I'm hopeful that on fiscal 30 we'll be back to where we thought we were going to be at the beginning of fiscal 28. This is a very very busy slide. So I will point you to the top three lines and then that bottom line. So the budget is proposing revenue in the amount of 19,255,2. We are projecting expenses in the amount of 16,136,738. The difference will be um moved to the MURF project fund um to help with that build. And we've been asked um well where does that leave your reserve funds? And so at the end of fiscal 25 we're projected to have just over $12 million nearly 12.5 million in our um our reserves our total reserves. At the end of this current fiscal year um we're looking at just over $8 million and you can see in that undesated line the third line from the bottom that's where we've parked that $3 million fraud law. Um the MURF build drawdown will consume just

over $9 million um of the the the reserve funds. Um and we're looking at being just under two million in total reserves um at the end of fiscal 27. Um we do we're taking from the unrestricted um reserves and we are not touching at all the restricted reserves. So um you can see where we're looking at the Southwest nature fund, operating fund, capital fund, and then that MMURF project fund, which goes away when the facility is constructed. This is just a visual representation of where our revenue stems from. Again, tipping fees, which are user fees, so fees that folks pay directly to us to manage materials, whether it's at a drop off facility or compost facility or the recycling facility. the sale of materials. So the sale of the recycling that's been sorted, sale of compost, sale of local color paint, and that's all waste management fee, which again is a tax on trash that is just brought to the country landfill. And that tax is paid by Holiday. And then the visual representation of our expenses um roughly split almost 50/50 between payroll expenses and materials management. And materials management expenses are the fees that we pay to haulers to move materials either to market or to disposal. And this is for folks who prefer um percentages. Um the change from last year to this year, I'm anticipating about 11% more in revenue. That was after our um revamp of our um expected revenues. And the expenses are roughly staying level expenses. Um you can see where we've taken some um significant reductions in administrative costs, promotion and education, professional fees like consulting equipment and fleet and travel and training budget. We do have some fee changes this year

and these fee changes were all proposed prior to um the fraud incident. So these were contained within the budget that our f finance committee saw previously before the incident. The big one um that is new uh and has been talked about for several years is a new facility use fee for our drop off centers. And this is being um implemented as a way to help our drop off centers uh be able to contribute directly to a capital reserve fund to meet their needs. Uh for the last 20 25 years, the existing materials recycling facility has been um contributing all of its its revenue in excess of its operational needs to the district's general capital reserve fund. And so when the new MURF is built, it will be utilizing all of its revenue generated for its operational needs, paying its debt service associated with that facility, and for contributing a small amount to its own capital reserve. So each of the other operations um had to start to think of ways to uh to build up their own individual capital reserve funds. So we've been talking about this for a couple of years and um this late this early this spring in March we uh put out a survey to our drop off center customers over the course three weeks in March and we asked them um to help us. uh we said we need to generate a dollar somewhere uh to help with the capital needs for the drop off centers to make sure that they are sustainable and paying their own way. And so we gave them four options and the two options that rose to the top which were pretty neck andneck were a facility use fee and adding a dollar to every bag's trash and we landed on the facility use fee. So, what that means is that anyone um who uses our any of our dropout centers will pay a dollar. Uh and we did this because

we want to make sure that we're capturing all users for all materials. There will be some items that are not subject to this dollar fee. So, if someone is coming into our dropoff center and all they have, for example, um are electronic devices that are covered by the state's electronics extended producer responsibility law, those products will not carry the the dollar fee. Um they will so if you are only bringing in your bucket of of dead batteries, um those batteries will not carry that fee because they have an EPR law attached to them. We are also not charging the fee right now on textiles because we want to continue to incentivize folks to bring us their textiles. So, if all you have are bags of clean textiles and you want to recycle those, you will not be charged that fee. But otherwise, um, every trip will carry this u this gate fee or this facility use fee. We're also going, this doesn't actually affect, um, Burlington, um, but we're also going to be implementing a leaf and yard fee. Uh this is new and it's again to cover the cost of of moving that volume of material. Um Burlingtononians can um utilize the uh the leaf drop at the making station. The materials recycling facility uh that that typically has already increased that was took effect on April 1st. The organics recycling facility will t increase will take effect on July 1. No increase at the household hazardous waste depot. And then that tax on trash will increase from $40 a ton to $41.92 per ton. And again, we do ask our cities and towns to um to act to approve our our district as presented by staff. And I will stop by chair and happily answer any questions you may have.

Great. Thank you very much for the thorough presentation. Uh, councelor Barlo, as chair of our toque, could I ask you for a motion on this item as well? You can. I just have to get to the item back off of the presentation here. Uh, okay. I move to approve the Chittenden Solid Waste District's FY27 2027 budget as presented by district staff. Thank you. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Thank you, Councelor Shakar. Uh, councelor Barlo, do you wish to speak to this item at all? Um, not quite yet. Okay. Is there any other counselor with comments or questions? Yes, councelor Burkeman.

I just have a clarification. Did I hear you um correctly that the leaf and yard waste drop off at McNeel will not be charged for consistent with what we are doing uh and have done for a really long time. So the the um leaf and yard drop at McNeel will continue as is. So there's no change in plan um plans for that. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Bergman. Is there any other counselor that wishes to be recognized on this item? All right. Uh then I think we'll go to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I.

I. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Thank you, Sarah, and to your colleagues at CSWD. Thank you very much for your time. Have a good evening. Great. Uh, so that brings us now to item 7.4, authorization to accept a work of public art from the Abanaki Nation of Mrs. Koi Tribal Council, Burlington City Arts, and Councelor uh, Councelor Centius Parkinson will turn to you as chair of our REIB committee for a motion on the item, and then happy to give you the floor if you'd like or open the floor to other counselors.

Thank you. I move to approve and authorize the director of BCA to accept a public art donation as described in attachment A with a total value of $20,000 from the Miscoco Abanakin Nation to facilitate the site preparation up to a maximum amount of 25,000 and to execute all necessary documents upon final review and approval by the city attorney's office. Thank you. Is there a second to that motion? Second by councelor Carpenter and councelor Cress Park Sparkens. Do you wish for the floor back? Yes, please. Okay.

Uh first of all, I just want to say thank you to everyone who's come out here today. I know you've taken time out of your evening, not only today, but for a number of nights now. So, thank you for being here. I appreciate your insights, your perspectives that are very important as we make this decision tonight and moving forward. On February 17, 2020 2026, this item was brought to the city council. At that time, the council recommended for this agenda item to be further discussed at the racial equity inclusion inclusion and belonging the REI committee. On April 21st, the REI committee delved deeper into this topic, engaging numerous community members and discussing among council members. By the end, the committee not unanimously recommended that the council approve and authorize the BCA to move forward in accepting the public art from the Missiscoco Abanaki Nation. Today is May 18th, and as a council, we once again face this decision. I want to acknowledge the work that has gone into this process, not only since February, but for the last couple of years. I also want to acknowledge the context in which we are making this vote. Yes, at hand is a decision of a gift and that is the focus of my decision makingaking tonight. But it would be ingenuous to ignore the challenging and ongoing discussions that have surrounded this decision. This includes the revisiting of the 2022 resolution that aim to address past and present injustices and building relationships with the Mrs. Abanaki and also the ongoing critiques related to the state's process and tribal state recognitions. It is in this context that we as a council we must make this this vote tonight. However, I want to remind our council that tonight we are not here to take sides on these broader issues. We are here to solely vote on whether BCA has

our approval and authorization to accept this gift in any vote and especially in one that holds such social implications. As counselors, we must dig deep into our core values, our decision-making principles, and remember why we were elected to serve, represent, and to make tough decisions. I will briefly note why I will be voting no tonight. Battery Park is part of my neighborhood, one where our children, our seniors, and our community members convene. This public park is also central to visitors who come to enjoy and learn about our city. I believe that any public art or changes to such a park requires deep community engagement that takes into account the diverse experiences of our communities, the feasibility and the sustainability of the project and the impact that it has on our community. The public art piece at hand to me does not fully meet these expectations. I want to be clear, my vote tonight is not to run away from this difficult conversation, but instead to lean in. I would welcome anyone who would be open to further discussing how our community can engage in deeper learning as we move forward towards engaging and supporting our indigenous communities here in Burlington and across our region. Thank you.

Thank you, councelor. Is there any other counselor that wishes to get in the queue on this item? Councelor Carpenter and then Bergman. Okay. All right. And Brderick, thanks. Um I I had a question. Is is there a representative from BCA here? Yes. Colin Stores is online if and there he is.

Okay. Um I truly appreciate um uh my colleague uh Laura with her comments and how difficult a decision it is. Um, this is this is tough, but I want to make sure that any decision we make um does not erase the identity of the Missiscocoy tribe. We've been working with them for forever, but since 22 for sure, and I think it's important that we just need to acknowledge that they have occupied this land. there's a different set of standards uh on how that acknowledgment is recognized between the state and the federal governments. Um that means there different things for different people. Um and I think in the context of what we're talking about that's a learning experience. We can we can describe the differences. I don't think it it is one sizefits-all. I think we need to honor the people that we know of, that we've worked with, um that the state is recognized, um and find a way to do that. My question for B the action tonight is to give permission to BCA to um accept this. And BCA had a process um where they their public art community reviewed this and made a recommendation to accept this statute. in their letter of accepting it, they agreed that it was fitting and appropriate to put it in the park um and that it was in the best interests of the city and in their public arts program to um accept this. And I guess my question for Colin is is any of that change as your public arts committee um changes opinion about this being fitting, appropriate, and in the best interest of um the city or putting it in a in a

public place. the public art committee at um and both the BCA board of adviserss who both um reviewed and put forward the um application to the next stage in the process um were both given the context of this piece in a wider political conversation that they don't particularly have the jurisdiction to detail the city's um stance on they were provided the 2022 resolution as a clear guidance to them um concerning the ideas of representation um and were instructed to review the piece based on its suitability of the site safety considerations um and whether it was a fiscally appropriate use of the public art fund to install this work. Um, all of which I think there is has been no change in. Um, but they were specifically given the guidance to not take this into consideration because that was a conversation that needed to happen above their level. I guess I'm a little unclear what what you mean by by that. Um I mean they their purpose is to review the art and decide if it fits or doesn't fit. Am I right?

Yeah. Um I we gave them the instructions that this piece um carries a unusual amount of um broader implications. If they chose to reject it or if they um they would be making under the if they chose to reject it on the basis of a wider discussion of um Mrs. Skoy Abnaki identity that that is not the their expertise that they bring to the city um review.

Okay.

Thank you. Um and and I guess sort of bearing that in mind, I mean we as a city council um also don't carry the expertise to determine um you know which abnakis are real and which ones are not. And that is the purpose um of other bodies like the state of Vermont or the federal government. And that's where we've landed. There are two different de designations. Um they're not necessarily equal uh by the eyes of others, but they are a designation. And so from my perspective, uh I'm going to take that for what it's worth. I think if there are are folks who want to get rid of the state designation,

point of order. Um councelor Carpenter's been out of time for a substantial amount of time. She's about 30 seconds over. She's wrapping up. We're going to be fair to everyone then. Okay. Councelor Carpenter, I can finish it. Yes, you're you're done. Yes. Okay. Um, Councelor Bergman, turn to you next.

Uh, thank you. Uh, let me start by thanking all the people who were here. Um the testimony is uh significant and as my colleagues have said uh is takes enough time to really mean that I should be appreciating your effort that's here um particularly in this incredibly difficult situation a difficult issue um I have had a connection with the issue of the Abenakis since the hunting and fishing um struggle in the mid 1970s. and with the extinguishment of the Aboriginal rights decision by the Vermont Supreme Court. So, I've had a chance to uh to look at this um this issue um for quite a long time. Um I really appreciate the comment that was made about momentum not being a sufficient reason to do what um needs to be done or to you know to base a decision on. Um, and uh, Tyler Pastor, who I have worked with here, really expressed my feelings uh, much better than I did when he talked about the objections to uh, uh, to the to the statue by uh, Greylock's descendants. I have a a very big objection to doing something that is going to uh to harm the uh the legacy of descendants. I would not want my great great great grandchildren to see um something uh depiction of me that um was really offensive. And I can so I can really really appreciate that. Um, and

um, I was definitely um, influenced by the um, the objections to the use of I'll call it a logo. I can't remember exactly what the term is, but the the flag from Odinac. Um, I do not think that I am going to try to weigh into the the the struggle over legitimacy and I don't actually think that that decision is in front of me tonight or us. Um, I am going to vote against the uh the acceptance of this for those two major issues uh that I that I raised. I would hope that we could have um a process that um really did bring the uh the reflections and the input of Odinac here to be able to acknowledge uh the uh the native people of this land. Uh how that happens is you know for another night and if it doesn't happen it doesn't happen. But uh tonight I am going to vote against the acceptance of this particular um gift. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Bergman. Councelor Brderick. Uh thank you. I I I'll be brief. Just very I'm voting no. Uh very simply, uh if the city is going to in any form honor, uh Vermont's original native inhabitants, it it just it simply must, uh include those who were expelled from um where they originally inhabited. Not doing so uh is indeed uh exclusionary and eraser to their stories and their uh and their legacy. And I will just second the the points that the public and councelor Bergman made. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Broadick. I do not have any Yep. Councelor Singh and then Grant.

Uh I I do also want to thank everybody that has come to uh speak to us here tonight. Um, you know, I I hear the hurt and um, you know, generations speaking to us uh, here and it's, you know, I just want to thank you for coming. Um, you know, similar to the comments of my colleagues, you know, I I don't think this body is able to wade into and be arbiter of any First Nation or uh, native people's rights and claims. Um, I think that's really outside of the purview of this uh, body. Um, what I do understand and I'm trying to understand better is that the council's role here is basically procedural and it's defined by the city's uh gift acceptance policy and it's gone through the process of the city arts public art committee and it's already been recommended that we accepted it. Um, you know, rather than we revisit that process, you know, I'd really like to know if the council did accept this gift, would the intention of the uh administration be to display it? Um, you know, were we're were the ones that would accept it and would the administration's display in City Hall Park or is there any alternative locations that have been thought of?

Is that a question that you're That's a question. I'm sorry. Are you are you or is anyone from the administration able to weigh in on councelor Singh's question.

Well, I'm wondering if Colin can first speak to um locations because I was part of BCA's piece and then I can um councelor Singh if you just want I was writing something else down if you want to restate the question for my part. I can let Colin go first and go second. I understand you know the we have a procedural obligation under the gift giving you yeah the gift policy to accept the gift but then after accepting the gift is it the desire of the parks or the administration in BCA to display it in city hall park or is there other alternate locations that have been or battery park excuse me or any other locations been thought

well actually Colin I'll go first if that's okay and then you can speak to locations um per policy this is a decision by council. So we uh when I came in as it's been referenced in the conversation so far around the 2022 resolution and the money um allocated by the council at the time uh for for resources to the Mrs. um around uh well it was there were not a lot any strings attached to it in that resolution. And I think the council has a has a copy of that. Um and there is prior prior work that leads that prele this administration around perhaps other conversations that were had. But to our best of our our um our knowledge that when we were presented this gift, we went through the the gift process which puts it to the council for a a decision, not the mayor. Um and not as Colin was saying, there's an advisory board for BCA and that is an advisory body. Um it is uh and so as Colin was describing to councelor Carpenters's point earlier um they went through that process and carefully try to deliberate on a way to provide guidance to ultimately this decision-making body which is the city council. I asked when I became mayor um and met with the Mrs. Hoy initially that this would this obviously is also reason for the REI to also be involved or provide their guidance and insight. Um and that's what led us to uh what did you say councelor Sanchez Parkinson was it February February where this was brought back. Um so that is the role of the administration to to provide um in this particular scenario advice per the policy where the ultimate decision is with the council. Now if you decide to accept the gift um then BCA would work towards location and sighting and there has been some pre-work I believe Colin on looking at locations but I'll let you answer that level of detail. Uh the gift proposal um given to us by the Mrs. Coy Abanaki assigns the previous foundation um that was utilized

by the uh chief greylock sculpture that was removed in 2024 as the location for the piece. Um we'll ensure that it's uh safe to withstand another few decades and install the piece on that site if it's accepted. So, if I'm understanding, if we vote to accept, it'll be displayed somewhere at a choosing of the the people that make that decision. I just want to be clear. Um, if I if you choose to accept it, it will be displayed on the old foundation in Battery Park.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, councelor Sang. Councelor Grant. Thank you. And I want to also thank everyone who spoke tonight and has emailed and also some extended conversations that I've had after the um REI vote. I want to thank councelor uh Sanchez Parkinson for her comments um which I agree with. I want to start to start by saying that um when I was the REI committee director, it was wrong to take this on uh by the committee. I think at that time we should have voted no not to accept it. Um, but it was given to the committee and I think my thinking at the time was that having the committee involved and having the REI department involved was kind of a better late than never because we are still at every level in the city trying to get departments to include REIB um in these type of relevant uh conversations uh so that we are putting our best foot forward with issues uh recognizing and taking into consideration these issues of equity and inclusion. Um my vote on the committee I I should have voted no. I voted yes. It was a very heated meeting. Um there are perhaps some things that I might have taken uh personally when we talk about how different peoples um in both countries have been separated.

That was something that I had to think about. You know, when I think about how far I am from most of my family members, when I think about uh slurs that have been used against me or insults that have been used against me, and I was really feeling that in the room, it it it was a lot. And I feel that the best way to move now is that we we don't we we should not making this determination of identity. But what we should be doing is acknowledging that we're on stolen land. And I think that is something that we should move to do. And I believe that's something that we can do to properly acknowledge uh the history while reducing the harm. There is um I believe the address would be 311 uh North Avenue or in the 300s of North A Avenue uh Keith Park for those who've not been. There is a poetry walk and I um intentionally went by this weekend. It's there's some actual work being done but part of the poetry walk when that work is done is a um dedication from a Native American artist and it was like dedicating that land along with the the recognition. So, as we talk about this, I do recommend that um and I think there might even be a recording of it on the city's uh website. I should look for that. But I I recommend that people listen to that and that is probably the

way to to move. Um I think we also have to think about the plaque that currently remains in Battery Park without the previous statue that was there. Do we want to remove that? Do we want uh to put a new plaque? What exactly do we want to do there? Those are the other questions that we'll have to continue to think about. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Grant. Is there any other counselor that wishes to speak on this item? Yes, Councelor Shakar and Councelor Litwin.

Thank you. Um I'll keep this brief. I echo a lot of what's been said. Um, and I sort of want to just acknowledge that I've only been on the council uh a a bit over a year, but this this whole process feels a bit unusual to me in that this is a very both there's sort of the logistical factual as Colin thank you for you know kind of acknowledging like there's will the foundation work, how much will it cost? There's these very practical questions associated with this gift. And then there's really complex stories and histories that are interwoven in this gift. And I guess I sort of this it leaves me this whole experience with a question of where uh where those conversations can live in a more so that it's they're not just kind of bubbling up once this comes to the council. At this point in the juncture, I feel like this has been dragging on for a long time. there's been a the sort of um I think really complex and delicate parts of this conversation have not been held uh in other places in the process and I don't think that's the fault of any any people or bodies but I it's just an acknowledgement that you know uh it feels like the council is having to really sort of step in at a in a way that um I'd love to explore whether it's with the REI committee moving forward or other ways where we can weave some of REI's work more into other city departments and conversations when we're dealing with questions like this so that the the delicate um parts can be really uh leaned into and worked through and and and uh that conversations can happen along the way rather than this feel like it's just been dragged out, dragged out, dragged out. Everyone deserves an answer on this statue. Um, and now we find ourselves here. So, I just sort of want to

acknowledge that this process feels peculiar and um, but I am very grateful that REIB has taken it up, that we are taking the moment to dig in. For everybody who's shown up tonight, um, I want you to know how seriously I'm listening to every single voice and story uh, that's being shared. Um, and I will also be voting no tonight, but it's very much with the door open to continuing all of these conversations. I don't think this is an ending in any way. Um, I think we need to continue to wrestle with how we honor u the histories of this land and this place. Um, and and the role that we as a city have in doing that. Um, and my my vote tonight is just feeling like we haven't yet done the work to not potentially be causing harm in accepting this statue. Um, and I know there's harm caused by not accepting it as well. So, it's a very difficult decision and for me, this is not a door closing and it's certainly not digging into some of the broader questions, but it's really thinking about our responsibility as a council and as a as a city um when we install pieces of public art. Um, so I'm sorry that was a bit roundabout, but I just sort of want to acknowledge how uh complex and delicate this feels and that it's prompting for me a desire to really explore how we as a city can hold these conversations in more places than just sort of when it bubbles up to the city council level. So, um, I'll stop there. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Shakar. Councelor Litwin. Well, I didn't come with any prepared remarks because coming into the meeting, I felt quite clear um about how I felt. Um but I want to acknowledge the the testimony of everyone this evening. And um the one thing that unites all of us in this room at this moment is pain and harm um from all sides, from all different perspectives. Um, and I recognize um that this is a a difficult topic and that's another reason why we need an office like REIB um to be able to help our community navigate complex conversations like this. Um, I also just want to say the folks who many of the folks who spoke tonight came very prepared with incredibly thoughtful remarks that I'm continuing to sit with. Some of those folks are still in the room this evening and I want to thank you for for sticking um with it and for putting your heart in especially the the person who spoke about learning their own identity um and doing that own work and discovering for herself that um it wasn't correct and how difficult and painful that must be to not only do that process but also come and speak in front of lots of people and share that personal story. That's a powerful story and thank you. Uh I think our state has failed us so far in having a really necessary conversation. Um and I hope our legislators are paying attention. And I hope um that we can have some sort of uh reconciliation process or I don't know what that looks like, but I look to our state leadership for um

a solution going forward. Um so that cities and towns can have a sort of a an answer to a really difficult question that I think all of us have said tonight we don't feel qualified to respond to. Um, I also can't support bringing any public art, regardless of whose identity it is connected to, into a public space that would cause potentially further harm because that is not the point of public art in our parks. It is to bring people to unite. Certainly, we can have uh difficult conversations about art pieces, but we saw on Church Street just a decade ago, you know, what what that can feel like um when people are left out of the conversation. And so I tonight I I can't in good conscious um vote to accept this piece um nor uh because it has been acknowledged that this would be put on this would be displayed if we voted to accept it and that is a deciding factor for me certainly um and respectfully and I I I certainly don't mean to cause any further harm But I don't believe this statue is really living up to the standard that I would hope for in public art that um and so I for with for those reasons for those three reasons um I will be voting no tonight. But I ask our state legislature to prioritize this conversation for the next uh bienium. Thank you.

Okay, councelor Litwin. Is there any other counselor that wishes to get in the queue on this item? Uh, councelor Newer.

Um, yes. Thank you. I'm going to be voting no. And I think want to just briefly say I think maybe sometimes we are we over complicate things on the council. I mean, to my understanding, the only descendant of the person the statue is supposed to honor has said that they find this distasteful. Um, and to me, you know, we honor folks in our community of significance all the time as a council, sometimes through resolutions, sometimes through plaques around the city, uh, because of their work or because of their contributions. Um, but in any of those cases, I think, you know, for folks who have done that work on a resolution, etc. um if any family member said, "Hey, you know, like I appreciate it, but this is this is distasteful or this, you know, is harmful to my family in some way." Um we we just wouldn't move forward. Um I think and so for me, it's kind of as simple as that. Um and so I'm going to be voting no because to my understanding, the family doesn't want us to move forward with the statue. Thank you, councelor Newzer. I do not have any other counselors in the queue on this item.

All right. Um, as chair of the council, I can't really weigh in on the substance or the merits, but before going to a vote, I just would like to note something for the record with respect to the process here, and this is a process issue that I've raised both with the administration and the city attorney's office, and that is that, you know, whe whether you agree with it or not, um, back in 2022 before nearly all of us joined this council, the council appropriated $50,000 to the Mrs. advisory committee to engage in public education, develop a plan to provide programming regarding Vermont Abanaki history, culture, traditions, and equity struggles for the Burlington public, and to conduct the committee's work, which may include working with the city's departments and staff as it deems appropriate. Um, this item ostensibly is before us because our charter and city rules uh require that the council to consider a gift. The process point that I want to note is I don't really consider this to be a gift. Um, generally speaking, if I were to give an artist $50,000 to commission a piece of work and they returned a piece of work, I wouldn't say, "Oh, thank you for the gift, right?" Uh, that would be something in exchange for the $50,000 that I provided to that artist. Um, and so I I I note that because um I I really um don't think that this is a gift in the traditional sense. I think that uh if um for example the committee were to come back with an educational curriculum or to come back with an event that they wanted to put on um for the city, I I don't I don't think that those would be viewed as gifts that this council would necessarily have to uh accept under that charter provision and the rules. So, uh, I in in saying that, and I know that that's subject to different interpretations as well as that of our legal counsel, but I wanted to note that for the record, and also note that, um,

my my vote on this is focused not on the gift nature of it, but on, uh, the part of it that would put $25,000 in public art funds to erecting the statue in Battery Park. Is there any other counselor that wishes to be heard on this item? Okay. Uh, with councelor Newer online and anticipating a divided vote, the clerk will please call the role. Councelor Barlo, no. Councelor Bergman, no. Councelor Brick, no. Councelor Carpenter, yes. I'm sorry. Yes. Councelor Grant,

no. Councelor Litwin, no. Councelor Mcnite. No. Councelor Newbieser. No. Councelor Sanchez Parkinson. No. Councelor Shakar. No. Councelor Singh. No. City Council President Traverse. No.

One. I 11 Naz. with one yes and 11 nos. The motion fails. That takes us now to the next item on our agenda. Item 7.5 was a resolution advancing indigenous equity, recognition, and community partnership. Uh that was removed from the agenda, which takes us now to item 7.6, a resolution authorizing the production and installation of the Burlington Safety and Security Guide signage in public spaces. Um, and just before turning to that item, I do appreciate everyone who came here this evening for this item. And uh, thank you.

I appreciate everyone. Please, if if you're leaving, you're certainly welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting, but if you are leaving now, if you could leave in an orderly fashion so the council can continue its business, that's much appreciated. Um, councelor Singh, you are the main sponsor of item 7.6 and would turn to you for a motion and introduction of the item. Uh yeah, wave the reading and uh adopt the resolution. Is that what we're saying? See that? All right. The motion is to wave the reading and adopt the resolution. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councelor Shakar. Councelor Sang, do you wish for the floor back?

Sure. Um thank you very much, Councelor President Travers. Um, yeah, I I've spent a lot of time thinking about this resolution and you know, I had a couple stories that I wanted to share, but just just this weekend, I just wanted to say there was people that have told me, you know, they ran across an incident and they didn't know who to call. They they didn't feel like it was an incident that required to call 911, somebody in distress or somebody having a mental health crisis. And you know, we have given this information to all of our uh business owners downtown uh in a different form. And the thought process behind this is, you know, for a long time, I feel like a lot of people in Burlington see things happening in their neighborhoods and, you know, either they don't know what to do, they want to help, or um they just say, you know, that's that's the way it is. And I the biggest thing about this is I want to give our citizens uh the agency um to be part of the solution of the ongoing community safety crisis that we face as a city. Um you know, the work of the fire department, uh the police department, our street outreach team, you know, we've come up with a robust public safety response for all the type of incidents that we're seeing in the city. And I I want everybody whether they're walking to school or walking downtown and seeing something happening or see somebody in distress, I want them to be able easily to find who they should call um and you know honor and give us accountability for the infrastructure that we've built for uh these types of responses in our

city. Um, you know, uh, it's been, you know, something too that I I often get emails where people are saying they see, you know, drug activity going on near their home or they see it happening in other parts of the city. I I think the drug tip line on here also gives people agency to say to everybody out there that we see this happening and we don't accept um that this will happen in our city and that we're we're we're tired of people praying on the vulnerable in our city whether they're bringing drugs here um and trafficking and substances and I'd like to put them also on notice you know that this whole community is watching this whole community wants to take agency um in our response here uh and throughout the city and I think this is visitors and citizens alike um that do want to feel that they are empowered to be part of the solution. Uh so that's why I'm bringing this forward and I I hope to have uh support from the council. So thank you.

Thank you councelor Singh. Is there any other counselor that wishes to be recognized on this item? All right. Uh, councelor Grant,

thank you. Um, I just want to raise concern that when we originally came up with the signage, we had um a couple issues occurring. Uh, number one, um, we continue to, uh, create and expand these teams um, in order to address a wide variety of community safety issues. We also had for a period of time not only a shortage of police officers, we had um a very uh dangerous shortage of dispatchers and we were also operating under a different police chief under our interim chief Chief Burke. He has worked uh with a uh dispatch team that has been um rebuilt. He has looked at the incidents, the different types of incidents. He has understood the variety of responses that we have and dispatchers have been trained as he has spoken to this committee, spoken to the public safety committee and spoken publicly about the fact that we have now trained our dispatchers for certain incidents that they don't have to go to um sworn officers, but that they can uh direct to these other responses within our um community safety system. So I um had just a general concern while I agree that it's very important to direct as much as we safely can to other community safety resources that sometimes I'm not sure if someone is a visitor to our community. If they find themsel in a situation, I'm not sure I want them

looking at a sign of things that they may not be familiar with because maybe they don't have it in their their community. I would um I would prefer that they they call uh 911. And the same for for children. Um, councelor Sanchez Proinson and I were having a conversation and I believe we were in agreement that we want children to be following what the um, school system advises uh, to parents because quite frankly I don't think children are going to be paying attention to these signs and I don't think it's appropriate for us um, to think they will. uh because kids are kids. Um other than that, it won't it definitely won't hurt and if we have the hours listed for the different availabilities and we get more information out there, it won't hurt. But I think if people may not be in a position to measure what type of incident they're having. So we want to be very careful of how we try to advise that on a sign when it may be more appropriate for a dispatcher. Thank you.

Thank you, councelor Grant. Is there any other counselor that wishes to be recognized on this item? All right, we'll go to a vote then. Try a voice vote on this item. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Thank you, councelor Sing. Uh, the next item on our agenda is item 7.7, ordinance housing inspection required, BCO chapter 18, article 2, section 16. Um, councelor Bergman, could I turn to you as chair of the ordinance committee, and then we'd be happy to turn to uh councelor Brick, who I know um had initiated the resolution that at least in part led to this. But councelor Bergman would love to turn to you for a motion.

Uh, yep. I'd like to move to wave the second reading of this ordinance and uh have it adopted and after councelor Brick get the floor back. Great. Uh, Council Broadick, would you like the floor on this item first? Oh, you're right. Thank you, Council. I'd second it. All right. Councelor Broadick second it. Um, but I would happily uh I would let councelor Bergman go first because I'm not on the ordinance committee. Uh, and I I think councelor Bergman being on it should talk about it. Would you like the floor on this item though, Council Broadick? I would. Okay. So, we'll go council Bergman and Council Broadick.

Thank you. This is very simple and it was um supported unanimously by the ordinance committee. The changes are simply to make it very clear that the certification that allows the uh university and the college to avoid being part of our registration inspection system has to be done in writing in the form prescribed by the DPI um director um by September 1st annually, which is a time that UVM has um said they can do and in the form that they've had um ample opportunity they supported uh that and have no problem with it. The other thing that was raised in the resolution is that uh the certification um includes an affirmation that students have been notified of their right and the process to make a complaint to the city. And so that is in there. The certification is in the materials. It's posted in the materials. the uh the process um is uh indicated in the memo. Um and um I want to end by saying that uh I think that this was a very good process that allowed students and the administration and counselors to come together and uh really begin the process of making sure that the problems that we heard about don't continue. And we'll see whether this is going to be the solution to it or not because there are structural issues with the UN with university housing that make that difficult and their choices in terms of

their investments uh difficult. So this is this may be back to us. And the one thing that we will try to fit in in this term as well is the whole question of force triples. The the room size because getting three people in rooms that are designed for two people is just a problem. But the way that we define it in our ordinance is um not not sufficient in my estimation. So we'll take a look at that. Um, we've got a lot in the committee, so the timing of that is uncertain. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Bergman. Councelor Bradock.

Thank you. Yeah. Um, yeah, very grateful for um uh the ordinance committee and the all parties involved. um and especially the the students who continued to uh show up um not just to these the council meetings preceding uh the resolution that spawned this but to the ordinance committees following that. Um I think this um this this ordinance change um and the the forms that are that are provided um are a first step, a very good first step in my opinion. Um and just as importantly, it's I'd say um a message uh it's a message to um our city's college students that um the city of Burling that you are um indeed residents of Burlington and are and are entitled to the um the rights and privileges that come with uh being in in Burlington. Um, and that includes that you deserve and uh you you deserve uh quality housing for the time that you're staying in this city, whether you're here for four years or for 40 years. Um, and building off of that, this is just a first step, of course. Um, I'm I'm excited to see the developments in the ordinance committee regarding um changes that that need to be made to um our housing code um regarding things like habitable space and force triples. Um and I hope that the ordinance committee does not shy away from continuing to um investigate that um even as we receive uh reports of enrollment dropping. So there may be less complaints about forced triples, but that doesn't mean that the problem still doesn't exist. Um so stay headstrong with that. It's very appreciated. Um and then also um in the sense that this is a first step is that

just because we've created this process and have now expanded this process um that that does not mean that the same problem of accountability can still show up again if we are not um vigilant on the side of the city to make sure that our ordinances are being followed in the future. And then as well on the side of um of tenants that we continue to report when we feel like our housing is not in the condition that we deserve and then it is not in the condition that our laws say it should be. Uh and that's part of this education tool and um yeah just very grateful that we've gotten to this first step and excited to see what the ordinance committee can accomplish in the future. So, thank you.

Thank you, Council Broadick. Is there any other counselor? Yep. Councelor Litwin.

Thanks. Um, I I did want to speak on this uh as one of the folks who uh co-sponsored this with councelor Broadick long it feels like a long time ago and I'm very glad and thankful for the ordinance committee for holding what I heard were very reasonable um and uh professional meetings between um the students and UVM and uh other interested parties. Um, I I would be remiss in pointing out that that could have happened on the hill with the administration um instead of uh sort of waiting for the city to to have that conversation, but I'm looking forward to this change. I can't help but point out the irony and irritation I have right now that and I don't know where this is at in the legislative process um in committee, but you know that there was a request from UVM for $15 million to build a new basketball facility when it's very clear to me that some of those dorms have had a lot of deferred maintenance. We talk about deferred maintenance a lot at the city. Um, and so and and it's my understanding that this the Senate agreed to like 12 million and that we need to uh I I don't know where it's where it's landed. It's the crazy end of the year right now for for our senators and legislators in general. Um, but I think Burlingtononians deserve to know that. Um, because we are dealing with a lot in this community around housing crunch and around um, not having enough housing for everybody, including the students who choose to make Burlington home.

Um, and force triples and whatever else have you, as we've heard. Um, and I just don't see that facility as being more important of a priority than maintaining and up updating um, some of the dormitories we saw photos of. Um, and so I just ask that if maybe if anybody's paying attention out there um that we really think about that because I don't think we need to prioritize that uh, over the repairs that need to be made. Maybe if they agree to make the repairs out of the 800 plus million dollar endowment, um maybe we could re revisit the basketball court. In the meantime, um I'm thankful for councelor Broadick and the students for bringing this forward. Um it was uh shocking to me to see um the response I got to my questions. Um, so I'm very uh grateful that there was an ordinance process um and that we were we were able to reaffirm that this city never, as Director Ward said himself, seated the right to hold uh to to investigate complaints around um housing code violation uh in our dormitories. Um, so thank you for bringing it forward. And this is hopefully a living breathing document as well. So if we need to revisit it, I think as councelor Bergman was maybe insinuating, I'm not sure, um, we should we should revisit it if it if the process doesn't work. September 1st seems like an odd deadline because it's their busiest time of year, but we'll see. All right. Thank you for the time.

Thank you, councelor Litwin. Is there any other counselor that wishes to be recognized on this item? All right, we'll go to a vote then. Try a voice vote on this item as well. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Uh we'll now turn to item 7.8, an ordinance regarding consumer protection, BCO chapter 21, article 1. And um we'll do the same thing on this item where councelor Bergman would appreciate you as chair of the ordinance committee introducing the item and then councelor Litwin if you want the floor after that. No. Okay. So we'll just go to you councelor Bergman.

Thanks. Uh I'd like to move to wave the second reading and adopt the ordinance and after a second and if councelor Litman wants to speak after him I'll have the floor back. I'll second.

Thank you. Uh councelor Bergman. So, we went through it last week. Uh, I don't think we have to beat that uh dead horse. Um, but it seems like this is a major step forward uh in consumer protection. And if the uh indication of the busyiness that I saw when I dropped off a four-year-old at uh the um at Cinderella at the Flynn on uh on Saturday night is any indication this will be greatly appreciated um by people who are coming to the city to park and also to um uh to buy gas. So, I look forward to this being effective. And uh yes, this is my granddaughter who went with mom and grandma to Cinderella and downtown was absolutely packed.

Thank you, Councelor Bergman. Does anyone else wish to be recognized on this item? All right, we'll go to a vote then here. Oh, councelor Singh, sorry. Go ahead. I I just wanted to say thank you uh for councilwin and the ordinance committee on this. I think it's a really important consumer protection particularly um you know the handicap parking in these private lots where I know people have been ticketed um who you know need those spaces to you know navigate our downtown. So I really appreciate there's a lot of gratitude from my myself. So thank you. Thank you councelor Sang. Anyone else? All right we'll go to a vote then on this item.

Oh okay. turn my head and I don't see us. Okay, councelor Brick, go ahead.

Uh, thank you and yeah, um, reiterating thank you to the ordinance committee and councelor Litwin for bringing for bringing the issue to us and then bringing this forward and um and um, revealing to me an authority that the city has that I didn't know about consumer protection. So, if anybody in the community has other um practices by um by commerce in our city that they believe is unfair, do not hesitate to bring it to us because I think this is a a very useful section that is now another living document that I hope that we could add to if uh folks in the community have other suggestions. So, again, thank you.

Thank you. Okay, someone someone stops me. I think we're going to go to a vote now. So uh all in favor please say I. I. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Uh so we now turn to the last item on our deliberative agenda. It is not an action item, but it is an importantformational item. It's regarding the FY27 general fund budget overview, the mayor's budget to the city council. And mayor and CIO Shod, we'll turn the floor to you.

Great. Thank you, President Traverse. So, as the CEO brings up the slides, um I would like to just acknowledge that while this is earlier than usual, um we are presenting the mayor's fiscal year 27 budget to the council to formally hand off this part of our process per the charter to the council to do start your formal deliberations um looking at the recommended budget from my administration for next year. This has been a another hard budget cycle. This is one that we started earlier than normal to also be transparent not only with city councilors. We've been engaging you since January, but to engage even our city employees and the public earlier and more frequently and as we are developing the this budget starting with a very big problem statement which is a continued structural budget challenge uh that's within the city's operating fund uh operating budget for the general fund this year estimated at between 10 to 12 million. It ended up being right in the middle there around 11 million. That is a very sizable challenge when it is the third year in a row given the the way that the city government has grown in its cost obligations both to city staff but also to continuing programs that we didn't necessarily look at with um enough scrutiny to understand what is essential and core to the city and what were things that we needed to rightsize to make sure we were building an affordable and a sustainable budget. So, I'm incredibly proud to present you this budget. We've done so in uh good faith and partnership with all of you to include you early and to for for um us to consider your early feedback on what uh what were the priorities of the city. I'm a proud that this budget includes a lot of key investments because budget should be a reflection of the values of a community and as much as what we need to invest in as much as what we need to perhaps pair back uh to make it sustainable. And so you'll see investments along the lines of community safety, um strategic housing that we need to do, climate, but also um some

pieces that we have long deferred, including investments in our fleet, um which are the city vehicles largely around community safety. These are things that uh CEO Shod will go over in a minute. And as I wrap up, I understand that any tax increase is a uh is an affordability question for folks, especially folks who are low at moderately income. I am proud to say with 70% of the vote from voters, we were uh we are proposing the using the full 5 cents that those voters authorized on the police and fire splinter tax to very strategically make those investments I mentioned before on community safety. So this budget is balanced. It is fair uh and it provides several solutions for not only closing that 11 million budget gap but moving us forward as a city where each year in the outer years now we will continue to close this this uh gap because now we have found solutions that put us on a more sustainable path forward. So with that the CEO will go into the details and then we will both uh happily take questions and I she missed it. She said she heard it in the break room when she was having her late dinner but this woman has put a tremendous amount of work into this budget. Uh, so I hope you will see the tremendous amount of work that she led all the departments on to put forward such an important budget this year.

Thank you, Catherine. Thank you, Mayor. And thanks everyone for sticking with us uh late in the evening. And you've saved the best for last. All right. Um, tonight uh here is our agenda for the general fund budget update. Um, we'll talk about the priorities and pressures of this budget. Then we'll go through the assumptions we made on both the revenue and expense side. We'll talk about the solutions employed in this budget, the effects on the municipal tax, and then the highlights of the investments in this budget, and then we'll head into discussion. Um, the priorities uh in building this budget look a lot like last year's priorities. Um and that's because um the core priorities for the administration have not changed and those are affordability, equity, and sustainability. And then one of the things we added this year was recognizing our city commitments to both residents and employees. And that comes after a very difficult budget year last year and building on some of our lessons learned. Uh and you can see that we have demonstrated a balanced approach to structuring the budget by focusing on our core and essential services, by modestly raising property taxes, by eliminating vacant positions within the city, but not eliminating um anyone who is in a current job. And then maintaining the city's gross receipts rate where it is. and we'll talk more about all of those. Some of the budget pressures, um, and the mayor talked a little bit about these. Um, the city budget is

historically built on an assumption of 3% per year growth on personnel costs. And, uh, if you have been a careful listener, you have noticed that those have been growing at more than 3% per year. Uh also um health insurance costs not only at the city but all over the state and country have been going up at um a crazy rate. Um and since 2017 those have nearly doubled. Um as I mentioned um the cost of living adjustments in recent years have been driving up personnel costs. And then um our grand list, which is um all of the property uh in the city that pays property taxes, is only growing at 1% per year. And that accounts for just over half of all of our revenues. So you can see right off the bat that if that's growing at 1% per year and we've got personnel costs growing at least 3% per year that's already um causing some strain on the budget. Uh some of the other brother budget pressures um are other revenue sources like gross receipts and local option tax um are also subject to economic headwinds. We are currently bargaining with the city's largest union. Uh so we don't know it the exact cost of living adjustment for next year. And of course we are continuing to live with uncertainty regarding Canadian tourism and the future of federal grants which also play into our budget. Diving into some of the revenue

assumptions. Um, you'll see here we're focusing on what we call the big five and those account for 70% of all general fund revenue. Property tax, as we just talked about, is uh makes up just over half of all of the general fund revenue. Uh we are planning to utilize the full 5 cents of increased um police and fire tax as approved by voters. And then this next one is uh what we call a property tax equivalent. Um it's also called pilot payment in lie of taxes and these are with um various organizations that don't have to pay us property taxes. Um a good example is UVM. Um but there's many others. And as you can see that comes in at about 8% of our revenue. Um, and then we have gross receipts, local option tax, and franchise fees. For the sake of time, I won't go into all of them. Um, you can see the details on the right. Um, I will note that all of these are um additional percentages that are added on um to expenses that you may already pay. Um, for example, gross receipts. Um, that would be something um you may go to a coffee shop or a restaurant and purchase something and then you would see a 2.5% charge on the bottom of that receipt and that would flow through directly to the city. On the expense side, um you can see here

um we are proud that this budget retains all current regular employees. Uh we've mentioned that we cut some vacant positions but no currently employed um city employees. Uh we have also included the cost of living adjustments for fire at 7% and police at 4.75%. uh and we have put in reasonable estimates for both APSME and non-union employees and as has been our practice uh we have put in the same percentage for non-union employees that we have for ASME and uh all departments have done a very good job of trimming their operational budgets meaning anything that isn't personnel uh such as consulting travel and training, any of those that we might think of as discretionary expenses. Um we have really um under the mayor's guidance um really asked for each department head to trim as much as they can while maintaining core and essential functions. So now let's turn to the solutions. Um there were three raising revenue, realizing strategic opportunities and rightsizing government. Um starting with raising revenues, we've already talked about raising the property tax and that has brought in about $3 million. We have also talked here and at the board of finance about enhancing our ability to collect on money already owed to the city. So we won't spend much time talking about that here. You can see on the right this comes from several

different areas. Again, all money that's already overdue to the city. And then we have been reducing our reliance on one-time sources of revenue. um ever since COVID and it's down to just about $1 million. And you can see the sources on the right. We are continuing to try to grow the pie of uh sources of revenue. And you can see here um that includes uh looking at the sale of city property. that would not only bring in one-time money, but that would move that property from being um on the city books to um somewhere where that would be bringing in annual property tax revenue. Um so stay tuned for more information on those properties. And then lastly, um the solution of rightsizing government. Um we've talked a little bit about um this one at the top. Um which was has also been called vacancy savings or expenditure control. Um we did some analysis and realized this is uh a solution that in various forms the city has been employing since FY14 and so this year uh we did an analysis over the past 10 years to come up with this amount. Um, we have also created a voluntary furlow program and we are only budgeting about $200,000 of savings. Um, because while we have uh some survey results from our employees

indicating that this is something that they would like to take advantage of, we don't know exactly how that will pan out. Um, and we're working closely with our HR department to make sure that this is something that is operationally feasible. It's not something that will be eligible for fire and police. Um but for our other departments it's something that um will have to be worked out with department heads so that um it does not create any additional burden on departments and will have to be approved just like any other paid time off would be although this is unpaid time off. And then lastly, and we'll talk more about this um in some of the forthcoming slides, we asked each department to reduce expenses as much as they could. Um those who are providing essential and core services were are not able to reduce as much as those who don't. Um so we'll take a look at that. Um when we ask departments to look at reducing expenses, um some of the considerations are which departments were impacted over the last couple of years and then which services are both essential and which are core. And you can see on this slide how we define those. Um and uh the administration, we worked with each of the department heads and department staff um in coming up with those definitions and then working with departments on services uh that could be cut. Um you can see here uh that resulted in a total of 27 general fund positions

that were affected in some way saving just over $2 million. Um 24 of those positions were currently vacant. Two were recycled truck drivers and this body had previously voted um to move recycling to an outside contractor. So, um, those people are eligible to transfer to other positions in the city. And then the last position is one that is moving from full-time to part-time. Here's another way to look at those 27 um, general fund positions. um looking at the top by uh their union affiliation and then at the bottom um there are 13 positions that were completely eliminated, 13 that are going to be held open um for this year and then one that again went from full-time to part-time. I mentioned um that we applied some lessons from last year um and those include by eliminating vacant positions instead of filled positions. Also, um, every department that lost a position or is leaving one open, um, completed a memo ahead of time outlining which tasks would be ending with the position and which tasks would be moving to other positions to help ease that transition. We realized that work was not always done ahead of time last year and that created some confusion both for the public and employees. So that was something that was really important for us to get right. Um and that was um all of that information has been shared.

Katherine, can you go back um two slides now? Sorry. I just want to uh emphasize on this particular slide. You'll see BFFA represents the firefighters association and uh you don't see BPOA up there, but SBOA is the new sergeants bargaining unit. And I just want to um because I just said earlier how we're investing in community safety. We work with our unions, which we very much appreciate throughout this entire budgeting process. And through an agreement, because we are adding two new firefighters by the end of the fiscal year, we agreed to hold open anticipated vacancies in firefighter positions and those two brand new positions until later in the fiscal year to bring on new recruits all at once for the uh efficiency of doing one recruiting class uh for training purposes next spring. That is a cost savings we can be strategic about. and then on the sergeant and then in one of the non-UN positions is a um lieutenant position within the Burlington Police Department. The reason we can hold open those anticipated vacancies for leadership roles in the police department is because unfortunately at this moment our rank and file officer numbers are so low, the ratios don't require us necessarily to have those um management positions filled quite yet. This budget does though include and I'm sorry if you're going to it's worth repeating later on 10 new police officer positions. So, if we can recruit, we are doing uh lots of different strategies you've heard us report on before, we will then by the end of the year, this is why we're not eliminating these management positions. We will then work towards filling those supervisor positions because then the ratios will make sense. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. All right, let's talk about um the effects this budget will have on the municipal tax. And you can see that here. This shows um what the tax rate and this is only on the city side remembering that your tax bill is 2/3 the education side and one-third the municipal side. Um last year we were able to keep um the tax increase down very low and this year um we are planning to take that 5 cent police and fire tax increase. And so you'll see um the average annual increase is $191 and that is on a property valued at $353,000 and that is the current median assessed value. So half the people will pay more than that and half will pay less. And now let's talk about a little of the fun things. Um the investments in this year's budget. Um, I'm glad the mayor mentioned um the 10 new police officers because that's not actually on this slide and that's really important. Um, but we will also be adding two new firefighters. Um, some capital improvements to the police station. Also not on here, um, are improvements to the locker rooms. What is on here is the HVAC. Both of those are really important. And then something we have talked about previously is in my entire time here we have not been replacing fleet in the general fund. And so something I'm very proud of in this budget is that um we are starting to do

that and frankly we are just um able to replace the items that are on the dire must replace list but that is real progress and the police department is so excited for their five police cruisers and we really need that ambulance. Um, and also, uh, I think it is important, um, to note here that we do think of public safety as police and fire, but as Director Spencer likes to remind us, without the snow plow or the sidewalk tractor in the winter, the police and the ambulance would not be able to get to us. So, those are really important as well. And then um a lot of interesting and important investments in revitalizing Burlington. Um summer concert nights at Waterfront Park, which is where we all wish we were tonight instead of in here. Um coming up soon, events to celebrate the World Cup. Um last year we had winter lights in Burlington and this year BCA will be um expanding that to something called illuminate Burlington. We'll be replacing playground equipment. Um you have heard about some of the exciting housing initiatives and also plan BTV 2050 has kicked off. So there are a lot of exciting things in this budget. And while I especially talk about the gaps and how much we have to cut, it is important for us to celebrate the good and exciting work that is in this budget. So with that, we are presenting our balanced and responsible budget that sustains the core city services that

strategically reduces our operating expenses and gets us closer to a sustainable budget in the future. And I will turn it over to you, mayor, in case there's anything else, and then we'll open it up to questions. I'm we're ready for questions. Well done, Katherine. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Uh, are there any counselors that wish to get in the queue for questions or comments? Councelor Sang.

Yeah. Um, thank you, Katherine, for all your hard work on this. I know you spend a lot of time this time of year preparing these budgets. Um, I think it's important for the public to see, you know, they're seeing a 6.3% increase in the municipal tax rate, but yet the budget shows an increase of expenses of 1.7%. I you know I understand the d the you know derivation of that is all the various splinter taxes on on top of that I think it would be helpful in these presentations for the public that we also detail that as part of what's going on with the municipal tax rate um because it's easy to you know look at that spreadsheet and well not easy but just to say hey 1.7% you know why are my taxes going up 6.3% and I think it's really important uh for the public to see all those for the splinter taxes.

Thank you, councelor S. Councelor Sanchez Parkinson and then councelor Mcnite. Um, I just first want to thank you and as a new counselor, it has been like I want to say a treat, but I I it's been fun and interesting and very very informative to go through this process so early on. So, thank you. Um, I have uh some questions and thoughts. One is a minor question. Um, you mentioned the granless growing slow slower. So, I think I don't know if you use that word slow. Um, but at 1% um I wonder if if that's usual of what are we aiming towards or just to kind of have a sense of where that lands.

Well, we can get back to you on a few more details, but this has been a trend for 15 plus years in Burlington and there's a few general reasons. um the city and no no one thing is the reason but overall the taxable parcels in Burlington are um only there's only about 40% that are taxable parcels 60% are not taxable because of the sizable amount of land that UVM and UVM medical center the city itself faith groups nonprofits etc so when you think about the the feasible universe that you can even tax from it's actually pretty small considering the size of Burlington then you add um other other policy decisions that have been made by um by this city over the years around the use of tiff districts which takes offline both state revenue but also local revenue for a series of years usually upwards to 20 years in order to siphon that off to support infrastructure upgrades and we have we heard earlier about the waterfront tiff for example. So that means that those parcels that would have been taxed and that money flowing earlier that money is being used for a different purpose. It's a policy. It's a policy decision that's used. Um the city still benefits, but if you're looking for ongoing routine operating money coming in the door uh quickly, that's not those that goes that goes offline as well for um a sizable number of years. Uh in general though, unlike South Burlington, we also have not had until recently with the neighborhood code being passed just prior to my time as mayor, uh strategies that have actually helped us infill strategically. and then until even more recently an implementation plan of neighborhood code that would actually help accelerate and democratize how we add more taxable property uh onto the city's grand list. And by doing those kinds of proactive uh policies, we can start to accelerate or at least increase beyond this kind of creep of about 1% or so on the grand list. So there's a few different unique reasons that given the unique nature of Burlington policy decisions as well as just the the feasibility. Now, and I everyone will always jump to the fact that just ask those people who don't

have to be taxed to just give some money. Anything we do there is voluntary given state law. Even at um as you all know with UVM, while there is a statutory requirement that they give us a um a minimum of $750,000 that has remained static for many years, many years, right? Yes. Many years. And then beyond that, the city uh several years ago started to negotiate a voluntary fee for service on top of that. So it's um it's always a push and pull. It's a negotiation. It's a relationship building activity. It is not simply just make them pay more. Um and many of these are nonprofits that are also living in these economic times as well. Yeah. Um in the time that I have

I'm so sorry I took so much of your time. Usually councelor Traverse pauses the timer.

Um on that real quickly you Since you mentioned UVM, um it was mentioned that one of the challenges or the pressures that we're experiencing is federal grants. And I think there was another one and I'm forgetting. I just um as someone who's embedded in higher education, enrollment is going down just across all of our universities and colleges. And so the first thing that came to mind was um UVM specifically is seeing a 7% um decrease in enrollment. Champlain has seen like 30% in the last few years. Um So, I'm just thinking about how that's impacting gross receipts or any other um economic sort of movement within our um both within our city but then related to potential agreements. So, that's just a thought that came to mind.

Uh thank you, councelor. And I will just say Dr. Trump, the new president of UVM, has been very forthright with what was just reported in uh now a trend seeing in in the uh next class for UVM, a downward uh a downward movement of the enrollment numbers. And that is something larger than UVM, larger than in Vermont. It is a demographic uh cliff or whatever the word is that they're using for just the nature of the impacts of our economy and decision-m that young people are making around do they go to college, can they afford to go to college, can they afford to stay in college. So much like a lot of the other economic challenges facing Burlington. It's much larger than something UVM can control or the city or the state for that matter. But we have to adapt. And one of the things Dr. Trump has been very clear about and I've been clear about is our success is intertwined. So we need to um uh figure out new ways to pivot in our relationship in order to add to the vitality of this community so that students who are able to come to college pick Burlington and that we really view our leveraging our different assets and our responsibilities for Burlington and that we look at that together collectively. And I think we are, she and I are modeling a new way of doing that. And I hope that that really um not only pays off for UVM's enrollment, but also for Burlington um as a as a true partner in the success of the university as well as the success of the city. And sorry, councelor Sanchez Parkinson, if you have a couple other comments, just to clarify what my practice generally is, is that if a counselor proactively asks the administration a question, then the timer keeps running just as any other witness who's here. If the administration wants to proactively respond to a counselor without their prompt, then I do pause the timer because I think it's important that we hear from the administration, but for that to not count against a counselor's time. But I recognize that you may have not been aware of that practice. And so if you have any closing remarks, we'll be happy to uh allow you to continue.

I'll just make one other comment. Um that I do feel that this time around uh it seems like employees have been notified, they've been part of the process with which I think has been helpful. Um and I just one thing that stood out to me is pulling back on travel and training which again feels very understandable. Um, and I I it just made me think of like how are we also, yes, pulling back on some of those resources, but still ensuring that our employees feel that they are being valued and seen and maybe thinking of other ways to elevating their value. Um, and and so potentially even thinking of like what's the investment that we're going to be doing towards them. It could be even pulling what's already been done. It made me think about the RA survey that's going to be done like that's directly going to benefit employees. And so, uh, there are investments I think that, um, are happening and sort of elevating those so that people in our city like that are working in our city feel seen and valued.

Thank you, Councelor Sanchez Parkinson. Uh, I next have up councelor Mcnite and then councelor Carpenter.

Great. Thank you. Um, and thank you, Katherine, for walking us through this. Um, I shared some of Councelor Busher's concerns about particularly the library cuts. Um, so I was curious to hear more about that. And then also, you know, we have the highlights laid out, which I really import I appreciate. I think it's important for folks to know the investments and a lot of this stuff sounds is really exciting and impressive. Um, but what is missing for me here is sort of an explanation of what the low lightss are, if you will. Like what are the the hard parts of this budget, what what impacts are the cuts having? Um, and I know, you know, we all have the benefit of the departmental budget presentations which I have reviewed, but for the benefit of the public who might be turning in here, I wonder if you could speak to a few of those. Um and in addition to the changes that are mentioned at the library, are there any other kind of public facing um negative impacts from this budget that folks should be aware of other than of course a tax increase which is is significant as well. Thank you. So the to the first um the library was actually the least impacted department percentage-wise. Uh and the the reduction in the youth librarian line was actually an idea proposed by that position that um person who holds that position working through the with the union uh and then bringing that to management as a proposal and the library has adapted a few other people who also hold youth programming in general and that is something that uh Mary Denko has provided some context with which in was included in the budget cut memos that we provided to the full council. We did provide that to the full council. Correct. So, a few weeks ago, we or at least a couple weeks ago, we provided to every counselor um a budget impact memo by for each of those uh reductions by

department that itemizes what you're asking for, counselor. And for the sake of the public, I've given several examples at press conferences, but just for tonight's purposes, DPW and BCA took more significant cuts proportionally than other departments for the general fund, especially compared to last year. Uh so for DPW for example, recycling was a big impact of moving the municipally controlled uh pickup to a private contractor in January. Um we also held open positions related to in the traffic uh division for uh I mentioned before uh for Burlington Police Department, they're holding up open a couple of management positions because we don't have the staff to manage yet in terms of the rank and file officers. in the clerk treasurer's office. We will be closing for half an hour because we reduced a position at the clerk's window uh for between 1 and 1:30. So, union staff um breaks can be taken. Um let's see, we are making some changes within it uh to in terms of will impact a lot of this is going to impact mostly if you're really really paying attention or you're frankly a city employee for an IT purposes for example, we reduce the position there, but it's going to cause slightly longer wait times. We mentioned this in the budget hearing. For example, Scott Barker mentioned this, our CIO, which is really for an employee. If you have an emergency, your computer is totally dead. That's an emergency. But if it's a something that can wait, it's going to lengthen the wait time for employee responses. So, those are a few examples. I just again refer counselors, I'm sorry, I'm eating up your time, counselors, to those memos for more details. Um, and to the budget hearings, we we also presented the impacts of that by department for the public.

Great. Is that councelor McN? Thank you, councelor Carpenter.

Thanks. I I don't want to I just appreciate councelor Singh's uh request for somewhere getting the information on on all of those splinter taxes and not this minute, but I think combining that with what the school tax is so at the end of the day, the um citizens can get kind of a a full picture. The other thing I was going to mention which the mayor mentioned was um adding um our new zoning and the community uh codes. Uh one of our problems with the grandless not growing is we're not growing. And so however we can figure out to get more people into the city is is a good thing. So, and that's not I mean you have to match the housing with the people, but we need a better strategy about um how do we get more people to live here?

Thank you, Councelor Carpenter. Is there any other counselor that wishes to be heard? Yes, Councelor Grant.

Thank you. Um a few things. I want to say that I really appreciate the process. Um, continuing to push uh discussing the budget even earlier, continuing to take input from employees, um, continuing to think about everyone in our city that um, needs to contribute to helping to balance this budget. while not putting strain like not putting all the strain on our property taxpayers, not putting all the strain on our renters, not putting all the strain on our businesses, not putting all the strain on our employees, but having to um share the pain, so to speak. I uh appreciated all the extra meetings, uh the opportunities uh to receive information. And I appreciated again the detailed uh budget presentations made by the department heads and I also appreciated the fact that we not only got their presentations but not only for counselors but members of the public can actually see the line by line um budgets um that are available on the city's website. I think that's very important and I will leave it there. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Grant. Is there any other counselor with comments or questions?

Councelor Lewin.

Um, thanks very much and it's always fun when we can talk about the budget at 1000 p.m. Uh, on a tough night. I think we had a difficult night, but thank you for the presentation. Um, I'll kind of keep I I think we have a lot still to talk about and digest and and I look forward to getting the full sort of um package, so to speak. A couple sort of flags I have that I'll want to maybe maybe you can address, Katherine, um or or the mayor. Um, you know, I'm a little worried about where this puts us for FY28 and 29, particularly with regards to the cost-saving strategies with police and fire. Um, so I I I I've met with Chief Curtain. Um, you know, he helped me make sense of why it makes sense. Um, which was really helpful for me. Um but uh where I guess where does this put us for FY28 when we have to or later in FY27 when we have to fill those positions or we need to grow because of the call rates um when we're drawing down the full 5 cents, you know, are we uh for the public safety tax? Are we going to be having to go back and knock on people's doors again about that? That's one question I have. And then um probably the second I have is um you know where were where we go from here again with FY28 with regard to um staffing because the roles that were cut were all roles that were vacant for pretty much for the most part. And so when we're strategically rightsizing government, it it makes me question like are we doing that if we're only cutting vacant positions? some vacant positions maybe needed to be kept. Other vac other positions that are filled maybe need to be um let go of until maybe another day when we're able when we're in a better

fiscal situation. So, I guess that's where I'm at right now. Please feel free to respond. I'm also um hopefully we'll continue dialogue and diving into the numbers together over the next month or so. So, thank you.

Thank you, counselor. Um, I will I will say that first of all, um, you've heard me all report on this before, including the CEO, is that we added a 100 positions over about a 10-year period before I became mayor. And that's and as I said publicly multiple times over, some of those were incredibly important. There was additional CSOS, additional CSLs, for example, that added that are important positions to meet the needs and complexities of our time. Um, however, when you keep adding more positions, things start to add up. The doubling of health care costs, etc. uh to make sure you continue to fund those positions. Um I have I have shown that we have done multiple ways of reducing the headcount strategically both in a painful but uh courageous way last year in last year's budget. I I take it very seriously when considering cutting positions that are filled because there are humans involved in that and I got a lot of feedback from this this body at that time. Um so I caution us around the um when we talk about reduction in force and how it might seem easier to reduce uh vacant positions because there's not humans involved to go deeper than that would deep would absolutely impact filled positions this round. So I caution that is a painful process. The way that we went about it this cycle was trying to be very thoughtful about um positions that are open and a couple and a handful of positions we can get you the numbers of that we've been holding open in in certain departments. uh be because we wanted to fill it but it was been hard to fill. For example, there is a chronic one in um the traffic division. Is that the right division in DPW? I believe so. It was it's a um a division

parking and traffic. Yes,

parking and traffic. Anyway, it's been chronically hard to fill. So, we had a reckoning, if you will, that seems like a strong word with director chapen to say this is not likely to fill. We've been having to repost it multiple times. Let's just eliminate it at this point and try to reshuffle and understand the impacts of that decision. Um, so we have been doing assessments deeply with each department head asking them to really consider is that needed. Another one is holding a cro position open in the Burlington Police Department. Similar logic. It's been hard for the entire time I've been mayor to get up fully to 11. The chief has said we need 10 matches the shift schedules. So it we can go with one with another year of keeping that cso position open. In terms of fiscal year 28 and 29, um, I'll take that as a sort of a two-part piece. One is how do we continue to make sure we are closing the budget gap? And we did a presentation to board of finance in March that I will just point you towards where Nancy Stson, our um data uh analyst, senior data analyst, um was able to work with our team of doing projections going forward about when will we actually close this and what assumptions need to work for that to happen. and we were able to present that to folks around a few different assumptions around continuing to be diligent with our expenses but also strategically growing the revenue was growing the pot uh with the work I mentioned before on gross receipts but it's also realizing these additional opportunities the city sits on several parcels of land how do we strategically um leverage a small strategic number of them for better and higher purposes and uses including building more housing literally um which we would either continue to own and benefit benefit from the rent and the ongoing revenue there or selling if that's not an optimal piece of property for the city. But that's around getting much more creative with with uh leveraging our current assets to raise revenue to get us to through this next stretch to a place where our grand list is actually not only um producing a higher yield but also these tiff districts start coming offline meaning that the revenue starts to flow in the door. So there's a few

different answers to that but I would point you back to the March I don't know what date it is but it was in March. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. You all set, councelor Litwin? Okay. Uh, is there any other counselor that wishes to be recognized? All right. We very much appreciate the presentation this evening. No, it's uh an ongoing discussion. So, we'll look forward to continuing that at our meetings to come. That is the end of our deliberative agenda. I know some of my colleagues were skeptical about our completing it by 10:30. It's uh only 10:11. So, uh, that gives us time for our committee reports. Is there any councelor with a committee report? Councelor Bergman,

the ordinance committee is meeting on the 21st at 4:30. We'll be taking up the gross receipts tax and uh, bicycles and uh, I think that part of the bicycle conversation is another um, piece that uh, relates to motorbikes or motorcycles or motorized vehicles uh, on the bike path. So, we're engaged with that. Uh, thank you. Thank you, Councelor Bergman. Is there any other counselor with a committee report? We'll go councelor Singh and then Barlo and then Litwin.

Yep. Uh, the public safety committee will meet on the fourth Thursday of the month, the 28th at 5:30. Um, and that's our standing meeting time unless uh it's dictated otherwise by holidays. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Sing. Councelor Barlo. uh the transportation energy and utilities committee will be will be meeting on our standard meeting day and time which is uh the fourth Tuesday of the month at 5:30 and we're going to be meeting at 6:45 Pine Street. Thank you, Councelor Litwin.

Well, I'm excited to say CDNR has an update. will um if you're looking for something to do this Wednesday evening um we have a few um things on the agenda and we're looking forward to welcoming councelor Sanchez Parkinson to her first CDNR meeting. Um we'll be talking about uh with the Burlington Walk Council which we hope to bring back to the council relatively soon about their ideas that they have for some community block parties. uh very exciting and uh graffiti abatement committee which we all referred back to the council back in I think March um we're we're or maybe it was April I don't remember anymore we're um we're going to be taking that up and starting to have the initial conversations about what does that look like um so if you have I know there's lots of folks who come here and talk about art and graffiti and uh every or defacement and everything in between so feel free to join us um We're going to try and pick back up this syringe litter recommendations. Um, obviously that has changed uh with the announcement that from the Howard Center um that they will be not pursuing funding anymore for the Clark Street location I think effective this June or the end of this fiscal year. So, uh we need to think about you know what that mean what's necessary and revisit that. Um, and then I will just say we can't fit all this fun into one meeting. Um, although we do try. Uh, so I think in June we're and we hope that this is helpful to the mayor's office as well. We'll pick back up um sort of the I hate calling it regional programs budget, but that's what it was called. the the artist formerly known as previous uh excuse me as um regional programs. Um and I know there are folks including those in this room who have great interest in us taking that back up and we look forward to it.

Um but I think uh I want to thank the administration who was going through staffing transition right around the time that we started the conversation. So, we're looking forward to welcoming hopefully um Lisa Gerlock will join us in June or someone from the mayor's office and um we'll have a better picture of the budget by then as well. So, I think it makes sense. All right. Thanks so much.

Thank you, councelor Litwin. Is there any and I will note by the way that um we're also expecting the walk by council to present to the full council at our meeting on June 1st. um they have other items, but I will just note for you that they did indicate that they may be able to speak to the block party designation proposal there too. So would just encourage you to coordinate with them knowing that they're going to be here on June 1st is uh yes, councelor Sanchez Parkinson.

The REI committee is meeting tomorrow and we will be uh discussing our priorities for the year. So if you have thoughts on what our committee should be thinking about, feel free to send me a note. I am also hoping to start refreshments at committees because I'm always hungry during the evening. Um, so feel free to stop by and grab a bite. Thank you. We should do that. Yes. Council initiative funds. Yes. Yes.

Is there any other counselor with a committee report? All right. That takes us now to city council general city affairs. Is there any counselor that wishes to be recognized on this item? Okay. Uh, councelor Grant,

thank you. Um, we are bringing back the one community cleanup cleanout event uh that we had a couple of years ago and at over the years has uh been occurring um in and around the Old North Inn and downtown area. We will be having dumpsters set up at uh the sustainability academy and integrated arts academy and um we put out a front porch forum. We've got an Instagram post. We are going to be looking for volunteers to help out. And the whole idea is for people to be able to um get rid of things that don't go into blue bins or go into their garbage. Um other than we can't take large appliances, but um in 2024 we came close to collecting close to five tons of um garbage. And anyway, it's a great opportunity uh for all the residents um including students who also participated in uh helping to come to these two locations. And this also will include uh scrap metal and tires. Thank you.

Uh thank you, councelor Grant. Is there any other counselor on general city affairs? Councelor Mcnite. I just wanted to give a brief shout out to the um Champlne Sailing Center. I had the great pleasure of chaperoning a fifth grade field trip there this morning with my son and all of his fifth grade um colleagues and um it's just such a wonderful resource for the city. Um, you know, we there are lots of kids in our city who don't have the chance to get out on the lake and that program makes it so much more accessible and the education um both the sailing education and then some um sort of uh environmental protection education around keeping the lake clean and keeping water clean which is very interactive. Um, I learned a lot. The kids learned a lot. And the education director told me that for the next, I think about three weeks, they have a group of, um, elementary school kids coming in every single day to have this same experience. So, um, it's hard work that they're doing down there and, um, it's also really important. So, thanks and go support them if you are able.

Thank you very much, Councelor Mcnite. Is there any other counselor on general city affairs?

Councelor Lewin. Yeah, one thing that I do want to bring up um really for the benefit of my colleagues here at the table uh primarily um is that and this was just not something that I was familiar with, but apparently I I found it in a in a legal notice, which is that the railroad comes through and notifies in the newspaper of pesticide deployment that they're going to be doing along the railroad tracks. Um, and you know, I've been asking questions of like what are the risks because I'm thinking a lot about the fact that our largest uh encampments are along the railroad tracks. So, people's belongings, human beings, pets, is it if they're walking through the tracks, is it going to be, you know, an issue? Right. So, um, and so I know that, uh, Director Ward, who I only emailed today, um, is one of the people on the notification list, but I'm still waiting for, um, responses from the state on like what exactly are those risks. But I think we should all be asking those questions. Um uh and just making sure that the city that we're doing our part as a city to just let folks know who are living down there or um if there's anyone who happens to be right along the railroad track. I don't know uh if there are any houses right along the railroad track, but um it looked like it was a pretty gnarly list of pesticides. So, I wanted to I I wanted to flag it for all of us to pay attention to. Um whether you agree with it or not, folks are living down there and we want to make sure that people are safe and not inadvertently exposed to toxic chemicals without their knowledge.

Thank you, Councelor Lwin. Uh anyone else on general city affairs?

Okay. Uh then the last item that we have is uh city council president council updates. I I don't have very much other than to say that um we've met backtoback last Monday and this Monday because next Monday is Memorial Day and hope folks have a meaningful Memorial Day weekend. Our next regular meeting will be on June 1st. As a reminder to the council, uh we do have the mayor's not here, but um I will mention that the city council with mayor presiding is meeting the morning of uh this Thursday, May 21st at 8:30 for a site visit uh regarding the Burlington Wookski Bridge project. and that then later that evening at 6 PM we'll reconvene the special meeting of the Burlington City Council with mayor presiding to uh hold the uh necessity and and compensation hearings related to that site visit. Um I will also note uh for the public as well as counselors who are in touch with prospective applicants that the deadline for applications for our annual board and commission appointment process is this Wednesday. Uh so please encourage folks including uh in incumbents um who I think sometimes miss the memo that their seat is up um to if they're interested in in reapplying um to please get their applications in no later than than this Wednesday, May 20th. And we are working with the mayor's office to uh figure out from there what the appointment process at the council level will be to those boards and commissions. So stand by for additional details there. That's it for me. Uh, absent any objection and seeing no other business before the council, we'll go ahead and adjourn our meeting at 10:22 p.m. Thank you.