 Hi, I'm Gene Bergman, Ward 2 City Councilor, and once again, I am here today on Burlington Progressives TV in an introduction for two candidates that we've got for the upcoming City Council election on March 5th. I've got Will Anderson, who is running in Ward 6, and I've got Merrick Broderick, who is running in Ward 8, and we're just going to have a conversation here with you guys about the race, about yourselves, about what you're hearing, and what you're looking to do for the city, so sit back and relax and enjoy not only the ride, but being able to fly the plane a little bit. And let's start with you, Will, and have you introduce yourself to our viewing public and give some sort of a brief personal and political history. Sure, I can do that. So what brought me to Vermont really I think has a lot to do with the politics here. I saw how Vermont had elected Senator Sanders and how Vermont was home to our progressive party, the most viable, the most elected third party in the entire country. And growing up in upstate New York, becoming increasingly political aware, this was something that really stood out to me. So when I had an offer during the pandemic to take part in the response with the USDA Rural Development, I took that opportunity and came to Vermont and really my political understanding from working in government just grew and grew. So tell us a little bit about your professional history, then the skills that... Sure, so when I was with the USDA, I was responsible for doing, I guess, low-level analysis on different grants and programs distributed to some of our most underserved rural communities. So this really led me to see rural poverty and the way that our government responds or doesn't respond in a completely different light. But another thing that I dealt with there was telecommunications. As you probably know, as part of the ARPA response and the coronavirus response, the federal government has given hundreds of millions of dollars to Vermont to deploy broadband internet. So eventually, through the connections I made with the USDA, I got involved with the CUD movement. What's that? CUD is a communications union district. And not to go up on too much of a tangent, but folks in Burlington might not know what this is because we don't have one. We had Burlington Telecom back in the day, which, well, we still have it, but Burlington Telecom started out as a municipal internet provider, and the CUDs actually kind of grew on the same idea, except instead of being just a city network, these are rural networks that cover roughly county or even bigger regions, like for example, NEK Broadband covers the entire Northeast Kingdom. So the idea of this public internet network was really fascinating to me, and I saw it as a step that could really generate a lot of public good from all the money that was pouring into broadband. So I got involved with them and became the first employee of their association. That's how I started lobbying in the state legislature. Again, just building connections and building my understanding of how Vermont government works or in some cases doesn't work as effectively as it could. And now you're working doing some stuff with the state. Right. And then after that, I eventually took a job with the Vermont Department of Finance and Management at the Pavilion building, where I'm still at today developing the governor's recommended budget, overseeing the financial administration of a portfolio of departments, and doing my best to answer various questions of fiscal policy that come up from the governor's office or from the state legislature. So those are amazingly important skills for a city counselor to bring to the table. We're about to go into a budget. We have all sorts of grants that we oversee. We've got departments that rely on both tax and grant funding. So that is really interesting personal and political history in a very small P, but an important way. Thanks. Well, I'm going to turn to Merrick. Hi, Merrick. Hi, Gene. You're in Ward 8. That's right. And why don't you give us a little chance to know who you are and what your history is, what your personal history is, what sort of political history you bring to bear. Yeah, Gene. So, hi all. My name is Merrick. And I have lived in Ward 8 the entire time I've been in Burlington for about three years. And I came to Burlington to study at the University of Vermont. And what got me to realize that I want to stay in Burlington and I want it to be my home is, similar to what Will said, the power behind the progressive voices here in Burlington and the amount of good change that can come from that. And when I first came up to Burlington, I was very, I would say, not apolitical, but politically nihilistic with how things were. Even back at my home in original home in Massachusetts, I just wasn't seeing evidence that change can happen on any level. But when I came to Burlington and I saw the voices of people like you, Gene, I realized that, yes, change is possible. And my delving into that sphere, I started at the University of Vermont, joining the University of Vermont Young Democratic Socialist of America and the local chapter in the Champlain Valley where I participated in both organizing for labor and activism on issues like climate and Palestinian liberation and also educating people on campus about such issues like building mass movements and showing solidarity with the many struggles going on all over the world. You helped some folks, some workers here who were organizing unions, who and what? So, on a local level, I participated a lot in the Burlington Workers Circle where we would chat with both current union people and also workers who were trying to start unions, most predominantly the Scoopers United at Ben and Jerry's. The Burlington Workers Circle was a huge part in that. When they just signed their first contract? Yeah, it's awesome and I'm super proud of them. And outside of Burlington, we tried to do union solidarity, strike solidarity and most predominantly I was on the picket lines at Goddard College when the staff went on strike and down in Mansfield, Massachusetts when we were supporting the big three auto workers when they went on strike. So that's where most of my organizing experience comes from and what got me to transition from that into politics, everything is political but what got me to run for city council is that I care deeply about this city and we need progressive voices on the city council. The status quo is not working here in Burlington and we need new perspectives and we need new representatives of the underrepresented people of this community, workers, students, renters. All the voices that aren't being heard, we need people there and I think I can be a part of that if voters let me. We'll have a chance for you to talk a little bit more about that because I'm going to give Will right now a first cut at so why are you running now? Yeah, why are you running now? Well, Jean, as you probably recall, the first time that we really encountered each other in political circles was when I, I don't know, was asked I suppose maybe I just asserted myself into taking part in some progressive tax reform planning and housing policy planning and what really stood out to me was that you said we need a real progressive housing policy to address the problems that we're facing in terms of a housing crisis which I'll touch on in a second but that really stood out to me because I had thought the piecemeal approach was not doing enough and by that I mean the numbers are not good. Something like 60% of Burlington renters are paying over 30% of their income and rent and the number that are paying over half of their income and rent is very significant as well. It's something like a third of Burlington renters and I'm part of the former category and the way I see it, this is not tenable, you know, both for people that are renting and for the city economy itself because folks are having to dedicate more than over half of their income to rent. So a big part of why I'm running is because I would like that progressive housing policy to become a reality. I'm very interested in whether we can implement rent stabilization measures. I think that the neighborhood code is a good first step in terms of updating our zoning so that we can become, you know, a real city. Maybe a small one but it's become clear at this point that Vermont needs a city and to provide the services it needs, you know, for its people, especially for its most vulnerable people. And I'd also like to continue and make even more innovative the initiatives that have made Burlington a national, even a global leader in local ecology. So give me a couple of other ideas that you've got out there. Sure, sure. So, you know, in the environmental fronts, you know, eventually I'd like to be able to say that we can shut down the McNeil plant. But as you've noted in many city council meetings, you know, an alternative has to be established, especially for the UVM Medical Center. So I'd like to see whether, you know, we could deploy CEDO programs similar to the lead program for solar panels for insulation to start bringing new buildings and potentially even older buildings up to what's called the passive house standard and get us really, you know, ever closer to being net zero in terms of energy. I'm now, you know, again, partially thanks to Eugene, an alternate member on the Green Mountain Transit Commission, part of their finance committee as well, and would like to see maybe not Burlington's financing, but overall financing for the public transit for Green Mountain Transit specifically to increase so we can have better access to buses, continue to double down on bicycle safety, essentially make it so that people don't need to have a car or don't need to drive their car as much because the home heating and the cars are, you know, our biggest source of emissions. So that's clearly a priority and I think that those are, you know, some of the best ways we could go about, you know, making closer strides towards being, you know, an ecologically positive municipality. So we'll try to get it back into Green Mountain Transit in a little bit and apply the expertise that you've got as a financial analyst and also now an alternate on the board and your guys are dealing with a budget that has to be done so we'll give you a chance to think about that. Merrick, you started talking about why you're running now and I'm curious about that in relationship to young people in particular because your ward is predominantly young folks so why you're running now with that and if you can sort of move into what your top few issues are, that would be a good transition. Yeah, and so coming from the perspective of a student and talking to students, the main concern that is being raised and has been raised is the affordability crisis. Students, after being expelled from the UVM campus after two years are forced to enter a Burlington housing market where demand is high and supply is low. It's interesting that you said expelled. You know, we've been dealing with UVM for a while and that voice has not really been part of our conversation but really if they don't provide any housing on campus for juniors and seniors and grad students then they are expelling you or evicting you as the case may be. Yeah, as much as we like to rag on the UVM students for being a driving force of this affordability crisis we do not choose to flood the housing market. We are put there due to our own circumstances, that being UVM. We don't control UVM as a city and we can tell UVM all we want to build more housing and even give them the tools to do it but if they don't do that then we need to tackle this problem ourselves and that's why housing is one of my top priorities if elected. We need to, as Dan said on one of these previous sessions we need to legalize the construction of more housing and as Will said, neighborhood code is a good first step but as councilor Grant said there are major problems with the equity of the plan we need to expand this to the entire city in terms of up zoning and in the short term that's what needs to happen we need to zone the city to build more housing and in the long term we then need to as a city make that housing affordable, reachable and equitable for all residents of Burlington and I think the main goal of that is to create, as Will said, a city create a denser city, a taller city and a more navigable city for everyone so you can live near where you work, near where you get coffee near where you get groceries, everything and I think a big part of that going back to zoning is making these areas mixed use we can't just have these housing islands essentially housing, yeah, these housing islands where there's nothing nearby so you're forced to drive or forced to just not be able to navigate the city and so, yeah. Yeah, I live in this neighborhood that we're in and I walk to where I need to go or bike where I need to go and it's really helpful Do you think that students will join or would join in a movement for housing justice that focuses on UVM and gets them to take their responsibility as well as us doing our job in the city for upzoning? What do you think? Yeah, I do think so not only do students want to be able to live in Burlington comfortably and both while they attend school also a lot of students who do want to stay in Burlington after college they're essentially priced out and this is an issue that's not just affecting students it's affecting all residents both long term and younger people who are trying to move to the city for its positives and I think that, well, yes, I am representing a mainly student ward it's important that we focus on the issues of all the residents and from both before and during my speaking to people by door knocking our concerns are the same it's that we're all being priced out of housing and both on campus and off campus we should be organizing these mass movements in order to pressure both the city and pressure the universities to give people a place to live You know, we're having this conversation it's not quite a debate we had a little bit of a debate about a memorandum of understanding with the university around housing I believe that we are giving the store away in what we've got we're not requiring UVM to build enough housing they're not really committing to building housing their benchmarks are too high so that we're not getting to deal with the housing deficit they've ignored the graduate student population that is going to explode according to their plans for development and they've ignored the forced triples let alone the expulsion of juniors and seniors so I guess that I'm wondering whether you think it is possible even in the short term during this council term to bring students to talk to the council about our responsibility to stand up in coalition this community student coalition to make sure that UVM does the right thing what do you think? I think it's a wonderful idea I would implore students that if you want your voice to be heard there are multiple ways that you can do that in the city you can do it at the ballot box but you can also do it at our city council meetings and students have done this many times it's not an uncommon thing especially for the issue of climate students they do turn out for Palestinian liberation in the multiple times we've talked about this at city council the students do show up we need students to show up to talk about housing and I think that part of why I'm running is to empower the student population of our city to participate more in local government because whether you're here for four years or you're here for 40 you are a part of this city and you should be using your time to improve where you live as much as possible so leave it in a better place than where you started well everything and anything you can do to bring students to the city council so when we're sitting there and I'm looking out at the crowd and I'm listening to people in public forum I'm hearing an amplification of the message that I'm putting out there so it's sort of a cheap shot request to continue to this advocacy to see if we can get some people there to talk about the expulsion and what they would need to talk about the forest triples to talk about the need for UVM to build on campus well let's turn back to you and you've been a member you are a member of this community for a long time now relatively long okay, okay, okay so I take that back but long enough to have a sense for what residents are feeling or telling you and other people so in terms of the issues that are important to Ward 6 constituents and all the people around them what are you hearing? well you know one thing I will notice that a big difference I would say in previous elections in Ward 6 to this one is that as of the redistricting Ward 6 now also has a pretty prominent student contingent on the Redstone campus so in that part of the ward a lot of the concerns are very similar to the ones that Merrick was just describing but when I go door to door across the rest of the ward I definitely hear especially coming from homeowners a different set a big one is that people don't feel safe anymore especially when they go downtown and you know in order to best represent this concern I think that what we need to continue to do is grow the police department back continue recruitment try some innovative efforts to do that recruitment within available resources and especially to grow the ranks in the police department of the CSOs CSL's other qualified first responders that really can understand the problems we're dealing with when it comes to the third wave of the opioid epidemic I just came from a swearing-in ceremony at the police department and they were they had elevated certain management people in this part to run into and they talked about standing up this CARES program basically a social framework for dealing with mental health and houselessness and and drug addiction or drug misuse all of those things which we have been actually and progressives have been leading the call is you've got to fund those because officers you don't arrest your way out of all of that stuff you don't incarcerate your way out of it either exactly you don't arrest and then incarcerate that out so it's good to hear your approach on that which I think is very consistent with my and councillor Grant's councillor Hightower's and another thing I'd like to note is that I've talked a lot about housing even so far on this program mainly pertaining to the rental situation but another big part of my platform is the property tax reform I'll tell you that a lot of folks in the Hill section have really nice houses that are valued very highly as of the last reassessment and a subset of those folks pretty large subsets are relying on fixed incomes and this combination facing the property tax increases that we're seeing including the school bond vote including potentially the public safety surcharge and now on the state level the 5% maximum increase Act 127, Act 60 is creating an intersection that looks like it's going to raise property taxes statewide quite a bit to cover education budgets so when I go around to these folks and talk about my ideas for reassessment for making sure commercial properties are paying their fair share and for making sure that rental property owners, non-owner occupied buildings when I talk about creating a surcharge on these properties to try to ease the burden on homeowners I think a lot of folks that previously may have not voted progressive are really receptive to these ideas and I think it would be a huge benefit for especially folks that are on fixed incomes okay and there were a few other tax ideas that you had as well I mean right now we've got limited tools because our charter only allows us certain powers it's just the way that the state of Vermont is there but that has not ever stopped us from trying to expand that there is a big difference that I find between progressives and non-progressives is the willingness to say we need new things and we're going to go and get them the gross receipts tax is an example of that where disposable income is fundamentally taxed when people are going out to eat and have entertainment it's not based on their necessities so other ideas that you've got in relationship to taxation sure I mean another one that I've floated before that I know you've heard from me is thinking about anti-speculation taxes figuring out how to maybe extract revenue from this rental resale market for real estate but maybe instead of another thing I'd like to make sure I make clear is that if we do increase taxes on apartment building owners we need to be very careful that burden is not just placed onto tenants and I would actually anticipate that we're going to see a lot of this increased property tax burden placed onto tenants in the very new future so mostly when I talk about this I talk about my ideas for housing policy as a tripartite or combined policy that if we are able to stabilize rents and tie a maximum rent increase annual increase to the consumer price index that's when we might really be able to entertain these non homestead municipal surcharges without placing an overburden on tenants and I think that it's pretty safe to say that all these policies would require a charter change and really significant effort and time to make it through the legislature so I think we need to think about the short term, the immediate solutions for fixing our zoning, getting new buildings going up making sure that people aren't living on the streets and then in the long term think about what kind of city we really want to be and what kind of world we want to be for someone that wants to live in an apartment here that's really right you've talked a little bit Merrick about what you've heard at the doors related to housing are there other things that you're hearing that people are telling you? Yeah, and I think the interesting thing about the new ward 8 is that it is no longer just what we would call a student ward it's still a lot of students there both on the UVM and Champlain campus and off those campuses in rentals but I don't think a lot of people have noticed outside of Ward 8 is that it's more than that there are non-student renters both short and long term there are non-student home owners there are families and the goal of my campaign has been to knock every single one of those doors and hear the perspectives of all of those different groups and make sure that I am properly representing my entire ward and in talking to all of those varied viewpoints and very demographics there are still some unifying topics housing is one of those whether it is renters talking about their rent or their apartment not being properly weatherized or out of where they are living and evicted for being low income at the same time you have homeowners who are also talking about housing in the sense of like Will said the property tax increase and how we need to make that a more progressive property tax so so that's one and then another unifying characteristic is climate and as Will said we need comprehensive plans to decarbonize our city both with things like your carbon impact fee how we can apply that to new construction hopefully in the future we can make that new construction of all sizes in the attempt to make sure we are moving into a future where we are no longer relying on carbon fuel and then we need more votes on the city council to do that but yes and just thinking into the future I think stuff like the carbon impact fee is a great groundwork to where we can start preaching this message of the clock has stopped waiting up for us it has been stopped waiting up for us we need to be taking decisive and aggressive action because the degradation of our world is not going to wait for us we need to start putting people and the planet over what is profitable so decarbonizing Burlington both in buildings of all types and through our energy and heating production such as the McNeil plant which I also want to dismantle however it requires comprehensive planning on how we are not just going to end up plugging into a grid run predominantly by natural gas it needs a solution that is something that I think we at least need to have a conversation about before we start meddling into it and we are doing that it was one of the things that we built into the district energy resolution I parted ways with my progressive colleagues I understand where they are coming from but I believe that we did embed and I would not have supported the program without embedding a roadmap for a future with fewer emissions at the stack in a short time and then in a longer time 5 years and then 10 years planning for a transition away and a commitment to not expand the profile on the basis of us providing steam to the medical center making sure that we can work with them to make changes up there in their plant heating in an air conditioning plant so that really the energy savings the emissions cuts are realized there so yes we are absolutely doing that from my perspective we need young people to be there telling us that you are going to inherit our mess and so and not only telling us that but also sitting at the table with us because you need the training the education the understanding of the processes both political and technical to effectively make the transition so it's really heartening to hear that that's a focus for you Will we're getting close to the time that we're going to wrap up and we're going to talk a little bit about mechanics on election to get a chance for you to talk about your website and stuff but anything else substantively that you want to share oh well great question Jean another thing I'd say this might be partly related to the public transit question as well is that as some people might know I also have a bit of a pet project in terms of what I would like to do as a city councilor which is make closer our connection with the province of Quebec in the city of Montreal and my reasoning for this is pretty simple Montreal is a city of over 2 million people I mean it's a global city connected to the entire world in terms of its economy in terms of its culture and we're so close to it there's two barriers you know there's the border and the language barrier other than that I mean the distance is really small so if I am elected I'll definitely be endeavouring to create programs to make it easier to get to and from the two cities and then programs that represent economic and cultural exchange trying to get Montreal's musical and artistic community to have studios here and to work here to have programs where Burlington students can be immersed perhaps in the French language which is critical for interacting in both business worlds for Vermont and Quebec so as we've talked about the future for our economy is tight you know the need for public services is growing and revenue is really not keeping pace in terms of what we can do while still keeping people thriving with their bank accounts so I see Montreal primarily as a potential economic driver and partner for us and I haven't seen too much discussion about this in the city council and it's something that I think I'd like to bring to the fore more so if elected that'd be great and Merrick last, substantive things before we ask you to talk about your website and your campaign and how people can get connected yeah so the last sort of priority of my campaign which ties into the overall vision of creating a denser more livable affordable city that's environmentally friendly is our transit infrastructure of all varieties so people say transit infrastructure they're usually just talking about public transport with our buses and we already discussed that over with GMT we do need to improve our bus system it's pretty pathetic I'm sorry compared to what we need everything's relative but I love the public transport system here and it can only get better with our help we'll be talking about our walking, biking, rolling infrastructure where that includes simple things like putting up simple is also relative but putting up like walking lights and improving the clarity and the condition of our crosswalks building protected bike lanes doing lane reduction we can't ban people from not driving cars but we can give them an incentive to not drive cars and as Will said cars are one of our city's chief causes of the pollution and we need to disincentivize that by giving people an option making the city more close and tighten it by having things closer together having ready access to where people go to school where people work, where people do everything within our city that would definitely be a priority of expanding on our outdated walk bike BTV plan I didn't mean to disparage all the good people who are working for GMT and our bus system or the riders is just that we need so much more and the head times need to happen so much more regularly so that people could do that okay we've got a few more minutes for you tell folks how they can get a hold of you your website and the like I think we even have a slide up there Will let's go with the ones for the candidates we have the candidate websites here for Will and Merrick well that's okay there's a link to my website on the screen there waforbtv.org it has a lot more information about my platform I would like to think trademark level of detail and attention to fiscal considerations some information about me as well but there's a lot of contact information for me there as well I'd like to think that I'm pretty reachable over the course of this campaign in terms of what I'm doing for this campaign primarily going door to door I do expect I'll be able to go to every house in Ward 6 and if not talk to anyone there then leave some literature about who I am and again this information that we've been discussing I'm also going to have some level of operation on the redstone campus of UVM try to get out the vote there try to talk to those folks to the extent that I can maybe register some people to vote already had some success in that department so if you're in Ward 6 or elsewhere please feel free to get in touch People in Ward 6 are going to vote at what location? It's actually not in the ward which is this whole conversation of itself as you might recall but it's at Edmunds Middle School now It's still at Edmunds Middle School on South Union Street but also don't forget mail and ballots will be going out to every registered voter as well Great, Merrick talk to us about how people can get connected with your campaign and where people are going to be able to vote Yeah, so so voting on March 5 it will be at the Fletcher Free Library and you can get in contact with me or read my platform or join the campaign support me in any way possible this is all very grass roots and at being in the progressive party we don't take money from corporations so all the support would be well appreciated My website is MerrickBTV.com My first name, Merrick M-A-R-E-K My inbox is always open for conversation and doing everything I can to help represent you best during this campaign and I have a great campaign team where we aim to knock every door in the ward at least three to four times two rounds Yeah, you'll get to see me a member of my team who can get you in contact with me if that's what you want on to do and Yeah, I Great, so let's just turn to some general information here Perfect You're going to get a ballot if you're a voter and you're registered it should be received by February 20th as it says there You can vote early dropping it off at City Hall or putting it in a City Dropbox before March 5th or you can go to your normal place and that would be you know for me in Ward 2 it's going to be continue to be H.O. Wheeler School the IAA and I should mention never fail to mention that Ward Boundaries have changed Correct for my ward folks are going to be who are in Ward 3 on the west side of Elmwood Avenue and the north side of North Street all the way down to the lake if you would just go all the way down to the lake up to a little past Scout where the gas station is up there all those Ward 3 folks are now in Ward 2 you've got a a link on the the screen there on the website at the city clerk's office that you can go and you can always call the clerk's office at 802-865-7000 during business hours which ends at 430 to find out some more information let me close with two voting reforms that I was very happy to the council as part of the chair of the Charter Change Committee one is rank choice voting there are several elections that are going to have more than two candidates I don't know if either of you have got one of those not that I know of for those people get a chance to rank their vote so everybody's vote counts and even if somebody is not you're not somebody's first choice if you are their second choice that could make all the difference in the tabulation so it's really important and that is the case going to be with the mayoral race where we have apparently four candidates and the last piece that we got is following Montpelier and the city of Winnowski people are going to be able to vote if they are legal residents and live in the city of Burlington legal residents of the United States so we have expanded it there are lots of folks who have their kids in school and have green cards and have other legal status and now they're going to be able to vote for school board they're going to be able to run and be commissioners like you yourself and we've got all sorts of information well we've gone the distance gentlemen and it's been a pleasure for me to sit and listen to you and hopefully hopefully give you a chance to talk about why you're doing what you're doing I really would look forward to the opportunity to serve with you on the council you bring fresh voices and technical expertise and good luck on this and perhaps at the end of the day we'll be in a better position than we were at the start thank you Gene thank you very much folks that's a wrap