 Welcome to this very exciting organization day, and without further ado, I will call us to order at 6.04 p.m. I am Catherine Schaad, the Chief Administrative Officer of our fine city, and I have the pleasure of serving as the City Council President for about five minutes before we elect someone. So bear with me here. The first item on the agenda is the agenda. Do I have a motion on the agenda? So moved. Excellent. Do I have a second? And all those in favor, please say aye. And any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. Now join me and please rise to welcome our new Mayor-elect, Emma Mulvaney-Stanik. But mostly Emma. I just think that you should be heard. You're in charge now. You all came to be a part of history. Repeat after me. Under the pains and penalties of perjury. Under the pains and penalties of perjury. Under the pains and penalties of perjury. I, Emma Mulvaney-Stanik, do solemnly swear and affirm that I will faithfully execute the duties of the Office of Mayor. The duties of the Office of Mayor. To the best of my judgment and ability according to law. To the best of my judgment and ability according to law. Thank you so much. All right. Can everyone hear me? Neighbors and distinguished guests, good evening and welcome. I am deeply grateful to share in this historic night with all of you here in person and those of you watching online. I stand today before you both honored and humbled to be the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person to serve as Burlington's mayor. 59 years, let me just say it's about time. hamburger for his 12 years of service to our city and for his gracious and collaborative leader partnership and leadership throughout the transition. I also, thank you. I also want to acknowledge former Mayor Clavel, Lieutenant Governor Zuckerman, who I think is on the way, and Senator Leahy. I used to intern for Senator Leahy. This is a full life circle moment. These leaders represent collective years of service to our city and our state, and I am very grateful for you to being here tonight. And I'm truly grateful for every Burlingtonian that's all of you in this room who leaned in and engaged on issues during this election. Whether you volunteered for a campaign, attended events, or simply cast your ballot, you have helped to bring our community back to itself. I also want to extend gratitude to my fellow candidates in the town meeting election for their thoughtful engagement on the issues facing our city. And a special thank you to Councillor Joan Shannon. Councillor Shannon, you have offered two decades of service to our city, and your call to your supporters to be all hands on deck in the months ahead means a lot to me. The challenges and opportunities facing our city requires all of us to work together. To the outgoing and former city counselors, I thank you for your years of service to the community over the past several years. I hope for and look forward to your ongoing engagement as we all get to work, addressing challenges like community safety and the fiscal year 25 budget, and also begin to work on new and exciting opportunities for our city. And welcome to the new city counselors who begin their service tonight. How's it feeling? Yeah, yeah. I especially want to thank my family, my wife, Megan, our kids, Ruby and Elliot, my parents, Joellen and Ed, my sibling Lou, and my extended family who traveled to be with me here on this special night. I would not be here without your love and support, and I can't thank you enough for being on this journey with me. Our entire family, friends, and colleagues have been by our side since day one, and it means so much to us. And Elliot, Elliot, hi. Thank you so much for not wearing pajamas tonight. Your mommy really appreciates it. I ran for mayor because I have a deep love of Burlington. Like so many of you, my wife and I actively chose to put down roots and raise our family here. And similarly, we have shared the anxiety about the unraveling of our sense of community over the last several years. This concern comes from a place of love and care for our home, for our neighbors, and for the vibrancy and natural beauty of our city. Throughout this election season, I've engaged with residents of all political and economic backgrounds. And what's shown through in each of those interactions was hope. Hope for a collective future and an eagerness to be engaged and involved in the work ahead. The residents of Burlington are ready. Are y'all ready? You ready? You're ready, and you're willing to help us address the challenges and renew our sense of community, right? Yeah, all right. And it is because of this hope and renewed sense of community empowerment that I see a bright future for our city and all who live here. I know we are all acutely aware of the challenges facing our community. The complex and overlapping crises of homelessness, addiction, and mental health are causing Vermonters to suffer deeply in our city streets. We must also confront the related crisis of affordability and the availability of safe and stable housing. And at the same time, we are headed into a budget year that will require difficult and courageous choices to close a $9 million budget deficit. These challenges, while complex, are not insurmountable. Through thoughtful engagement and collaboration, I'm confident that we can work together to find solutions that make Burlington a vibrant and resilient community for all of our neighbors for years to come. As your mayor, community safety will be my top priority. Because everyone deserves to feel safe and be safe in our community. And when you call for help, you should have peace of mind, knowing that you will receive a timely and appropriate response. And if you experience harm, you deserve both immediate and ongoing support to repair that harm. Whether or not you have a permanent home, you deserve dignity, respect, and support from your city. In the first months of my administration, I will work to break down silos so we can move forward in a collaborative and cohesive manner. I've identified and begun working already with a coalition of advisors on community safety, including subject matter experts and people with lived experience. We will work together to develop a citywide strategy to coordinate our community safety work in the coming weeks. And to establish and appoint a dedicated special assistant to the mayor on community safety to carry this shoulders to advance harm reduction strategies. There was not many dry eyes in the room because that work is critical in life saving, so thank you Mayor Weinberger. I also want to thank and recognize the members of the Burlington Fire Department for their creative thinking and quick action with the fire chief Michael Lachance to stand up the community response team. As well as the ongoing efforts of the Burlington Police Department and Chief John Murad on the promising BTV CARES initiative. Our work to address the overdose crisis continues. And as a legislator, I've supported the establishment of overdose prevention centers, the pilots throughout Vermont too actually. As Burlington's mayor, I will continue to advocate for this crucial intervention with legislators and Governor Scott. And I will work locally to ensure our community is ready to support an overdose prevention center when that legislation passes. Overdose prevention centers are simply one part of the solution. We know that Vermont lacks crucial resources to support those struggling with addiction. We need more investment and coordination across the continuum of care. We need more housing at all levels from low barrier shelters to affordable, permanent housing. We saw this firsthand when our adverse weather shelter program came to an end during a snowstorm just a few days ago. And while we work quickly to ensure support was available to our most vulnerable, our neighbors deserve better. They deserve dignified solutions as we address this housing emergency, including reliable and robust support from both the city and the state. In the past few weeks, I have been engaged closely with city staff, Mayor Weinberger and the Vermont's agency of human services and will continue to work in collaboration to prioritize humane solutions. Several of our community safety initiatives have shown early promise. However, asking our first responders to continue working additional hours is not sustainable. I want to acknowledge and express deep gratitude to all city employees who have found themselves unexpectedly at the front lines of these crises, including the dedicated staff at our beloved library. I'm eager to work together with our frontline workers, including city staff, the Howard Center and UVM Medical Center to add new mental health and harm reduction capacity to our community safety system. I'm also eager to rebuild a police department that is right size for Burlington, and that includes comprehensive staffing of social workers, sworn officers and first responders. By building a department that is responsive to and reflective of our community's needs, we can ensure that Burlingtonians receive an appropriate response when they call for help. And by the way, kids are always welcome in these chambers, at least while I'm here, so make all the noise you need, don't worry. That's right. By collaborating with resources like our community justice center, we can provide services before, during and after harm occurs and also prevent and respond to crime while ensuring victims receive ongoing support. I'm committed to working with community partners, impacted individuals, service organizations and state lawmakers to address community safety and to advocate for policy changes that will break down barriers to support unhoused Romaners and those struggling with addiction and mental illness. Through a collaborative effort guided by evidence and data, we can make progress on this together. As we make our community safe, we must also work to make it affordable for all. The cost of living continues to rise here in Burlington and across the country. I know that this is having a significant impact on working people, especially families with young children. My family has felt the impact. I hold my breath because I pay the bills in the house. I hold my breath for a moment when I open our property tax bill. I'm right there with you. I want Burlingtonians of all income levels to know that I will be mindful of the fact of that fact and we must make every effort to ensure Burlingtonians particularly low and middle income residents and those living on fixed incomes are not priced out of our city. Over the next three months, we will be asked to make courageous and difficult decisions in order to close a $9 million budget deficit. Together with department heads and city staff, I will work diligently to build a budget that maintains the level of service that residents, businesses, and visitors expect and deserve, while also doing everything possible to minimize the impact on working people. We have several tools to help us move forward through this, through this moment with the values that we share as Burlingtonians, including the lessons provided by an ongoing operations study and creative structural solutions for long term affordability. We've also identified a team of dedicated advisors with deep financial and budgetary experience, including former elected city leaders, some of her in this room, soon to be announced, to support me in developing an effective and balanced budget. While we must work quickly in the remaining weeks of this budget cycle, I'm committed to providing transparency, clear communication, and as many opportunities for engagement as possible. Because you all deserve to know how we are spending our money and to see our community priorities reflected back in our budget. No one's excited about budgets? Yes, yes. And we must all lean in to create a vibrant, livable, and healthy city where everyone feels they belong. As your mayor, I wanna make it clear that racism, identity-based hate, and violence have no place here in Burlington, Vermont. We must work together to heal the harm experienced by members of our community. This means creating safe spaces for productive dialogue on divisive issues. It means removing transphobic stickers as soon as they appear. It means responding quickly to condemn acts of hate, such as the recent shooting of three Palestinian students and coming together as a community to show up for impacted people. The Office of Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging will be a critical resource in the work ahead. It also does not stand alone. We all have a part to play to foster an inclusive community. Burlington is a community where we care deeply for our neighbors. I'm hopeful to see the energy we all put forth during the election to build coalitions and community continue as we move ahead together. For our community to remain welcoming and livable, we must also address the climate crisis. Recent extreme weather events in our region offer all the evidence we need to confirm that the climate crisis is a real and a present threat to our city. Our unparalleled natural resources and our food systems. In the face of this challenge, I can see cause for hope, leaning insights from the work of members of our community that they are already doing to create a climate resilient future for Burlington. We see resilience in the work of farmers in the intervail, who continue to persevere following the flooding of last July, including June Farm, who provided the beautiful flowers around us tonight. We see passion in the work of local advocates to pursue climate solutions. And we see dedication from local and regional climate policy experts. I'm encouraged by the latest report by the Burlington Electric Department, which shows that our climate metrics have begun to finally trend downward again. This is great work. This is an important step in the right direction. To continue this progress, we must be ready to take bold action and think broadly about how to align our climate goals with all major city decisions, such as housing and urban development. Together we can move with the urgency required to combat climate change locally and become a model for municipal climate policy across the country. Everyone who ran for office on town meeting day knew that our community would be faced with pressing challenges as well as immense opportunities in the years to come. To our city counselors, both newly elected and returning, I thank you for stepping up to serve our community. Local elected office is arguably the hardest, sorry to tell you, but the hardest elected position in government because the stakes are so high. Directly impact people's daily lives by our action or our inaction. We set the tone and tenor for community engagement. I know you join me in taking this responsibility seriously and I ask for your partnership as we work to ensure our public conversations create space for open, honest, and difficult conversation. We can do this together in a way where everyone feels safe, seen, and heard. To my legislative colleagues in the room, I think I see you out there somewhere. I miss you already, even though it's only been a matter of days since I resigned my seat. But thank you for your work, I'm a player, and for being present this evening. I look forward to strengthening our partnerships as a city with state leaders to advance important issues needed in our community, such as a better emergency housing program, just cause eviction rights for tenants, and more resources and better policies to support people living with substance use disorder. To the hundreds of dedicated city employees doing crucial work every day to keep our city moving, thank you, truly thank you. I look forward to working with you and your department leaders to create supportive and sustainable work environments. I'm eager to get to work alongside each of you in your service to our city's residents, businesses, and visitors. I did not run for mayor because I believe that I alone had the answers to meet our current moment. I ran because I believe my experience as a community and labor organizer and my ability to bring people together to solve complex problems was and is exactly the kind of leadership our city needs at this critical moment. And through every engagement I had with groups and individuals alike during the selection, I know that Berlin-tonians are ready and willing to show up for each other. That's right. And from day one, my administration will actively engage members from our community to address quality of life concerns in every corner of Burlington. This will require all of us to working together. So to the fifth graders from Champlain Elementary, I think there's ten of you here. Are you all right there? Hi friends, hi. Thank you so much for being here. So to all of you and your teachers and your families, I will be in touch very soon, okay, I promise. Cuz I have to make good on my promise to you that we will work together on addressing graffiti and trash in our neighborhoods, so I will be in touch. And tonight I ask every Berlin-tonian to think of ways that you can support the health and well-being of our city in the months and years ahead. This election was grounded by the idea that we do not have to confront these challenges alone, that we are in this together, and we all have a role to play in creating a bright future for all Berlin-tonians. And that is the kind of mayor I will be. I will lead with hope and with a love for our city, working in collaboration with all of you in this room and beyond. And as we look forward towards a future that we can all be proud of, now let's move forward together. Thank you so much. For our newly elected and re-elected city counselors and our new mayor will administer the oath. The microphone is on, but I will repeat it because it's loud in here. The next item on our agenda, now I feel like I'm eating the mic, is the oath of office for our newly elected and re-elected city counselors. And our new mayor will administer that oath of office. Okay, you ready? All right, Evan, you ready online? I am, and I've got my tablet propped up on my water bottle. I love it, great. Okay, so please raise your right hand and repeat after me. Under the pains and penalties of perjury. Under the pains and penalties of perjury. I, in your name. I, Evan Litwin. Do solemnly swear and affirm. Do solemnly swear and affirm. That I will faithfully execute the duties. That I will faithfully execute the duties. Of the office of, and then insert your word. Of the office of ward seven, city council. Beautiful. To the best of my judgment and ability according to law. To the best of my judgment and ability according to law. Congratulations. To sign this paper and then return it to Lori Olberg so that you will get off on the right foot of being a city counselor. Don't mess this up already. That's my pro tip. Next on the agenda is public comment and public comment this evening is limited to our action items which are the election of the city council president and the election of the board of finance members. Is there anyone wishing to speak during public forum? I'm gonna go ahead and close public forum and move on to item six, the election of the city council president. Are there any nominations for city council president? Yes, Councillor Carpenter. Thank you, CAO Shad. This is a very, very exciting and eventful night and I'm so pleased to be re-elected as city councilor and I'm even more pleased to nominate my colleague Councillor Ben Travers for city council president. And after a second, I'd like to have the floor back. Is there a second to the motion? Yes, I'm the second. Go ahead, Councillor. Thank you. Before I speak about why I think Ben Travers is absolutely the right nominee for our council president, I do wanna thank our outgoing council president, Karen Paul. She gave us excellent leadership in this last two years as well as her 16 years on the council. She set a very high bar in a very fair and transparent way that we need to follow. She's reminded us in last year's nomination that we are all on this council serving our city that we love so much and that is our primary duty to serve our city. We must work together and remember that differences should come first, excuse me, whoa. That differences should not come first. It's our citizens. It's our duty as councillors, all of us, to represent those who live in our beloved town. And one of the many reasons that I support Ben for council president is I know that he will carry on the high standards that we have set and expect of our city council president. Since Ben was elected, I knew he was a clear leader among us. It was apparent to me very quickly that he grasped the issues before us and could fully analyze them. He's always been able to well articulate recommendations and rationales for us to vote on and thoughtfully present them. He's respectful of all of our views, fair in his position and works very hard to try to afford consensus. Consensus is something we're gonna need to move this city forward. And I know that Ben can help us do that. The city council president, which I have learned in much detail, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes and I know that will be a strength of Ben. We must balance many interests and many interests the public doesn't always see, but I know that we can all do that together. As we strive to work together with the new mayor, the new administration and many new councillors, I know that Ben is the right person to help us manage and negotiate all that the council has to consider. So thank you, Ben, for being willing to consider serving as our council president. Ready to take a vote. Are there any further comments? If not, I would ask the clerk to please call the roll. Councillor Barlow. Yes. Councillor Bergman. Yes. Councillor Broderick. Yes. Councillor Carpenter. Yes. Councillor Doherty. Yes. Councillor Grant. No. Councillor Cain. No. Councillor Litwin. Yes. Councillor McKnight. Yes. Councillor Newbeezer. Yes. Councillor Shannon. Yes. Councillor Travers. Yes. Yes. Ten ayes, two nays. And the motion carries. Congratulations, City Council President Travers. Thank you, CAO Shad. Thank you, Councillor Carpenter. I'm incredibly honored to have your confidence and the support of my fellow councillors. Thank you as well to my wife, Becky, and my kids, Lola, Jack, and Zoe. I appreciate your being here and love you very much. I also want to take a moment to echo our new mayor's gratitude to Mayor Weinberger and our outgoing city councillors, Joe McGee's, Raya Hightower, Ali Jing, and Hannah King. And as Councillor Carpenter mentioned, and in particular, our outgoing council president, Karen Paul, thank you for your years of service to the city. I love you too. And our whole city should be deeply appreciative for your dedication. Senator Mrs. Leahy, Lieutenant Governor Zuckerman, Treasurer Pechak, Attorney General Clark, State's Attorney George, former Mayor Clavel and other officials that we've likely missed, welcome back to Contoy's Auditorium. Mayor Mulvaney Stanek, allow me to congratulate you on tonight's historic milestone. Thousands of Burlingtonians, your daughter, my daughters, now see themselves in City Hall in a way they never have before. And I congratulate you. To the people of Burlington, I commit that this council is going to work hard to make progress on the issues before us. The political campaigns are over. We now turn towards a shared commitment for our city and we will strive to partner, collaborate and find common ground wherever we can. There are just a few brief points I'd like to call out. My friend, Councillor Doherty, told me that he's heard me say brief points before. I'll keep them brief, Tim. One, to my fellow councillors, all of your voices will be vital to our work, including both returning and new councillors. I encourage you to speak up. I am committed to ensuring that you all are heard and I will always treat you with fairness and respect. To our city staff, from department heads to those working on the front lines that keep Burlington working, I commit that this council will similarly treat you with fairness and respect in a way that honors and values your commitment and work for our city. Mayor Mulvaney, yes. Is that a clap? Yes. Thank you. Mayor Mulvaney Stanek, I know how important it will be to you, that community members have an opportunity to learn about and engage in your work and our work. Please know that I will partner with you to ensure that transparency is a common goal of both you and this council. I'm incredibly excited about the new ideas and energy brought by this year's council. I'm also mindful of the important and diverse voices this council is losing as we work together. Just know that we will work and I'm committed to working consistently to think about which perspectives are missing from our discussions and to act to ensure that all voices are heard at this table. Two more points. Yesterday's transgender day of visibility was an important reminder of our common cause to ensure all in our community can live openly and safely with dignity and respect. It is incredibly important that this council work collectively to make sure our meetings are a welcoming and inviting space for all in our community. And I ask all of my colleagues here to work together towards that common cause. Finally, for future generations of city councilors, this council should commit ourselves to making service on our council a more accessible and exciting opportunity. There are multiple steps we can take to that end and I look forward to our starting a conversation on this important issue. At least one step we can take is to collectively commit ourselves to following our rules and regularly finishing meetings before 10.30 p.m. And yes. And leading by example, that concludes my remarks. So thank you again to my colleagues, to Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak and to everyone here tonight. Now let's get to work. So the next item on our agenda is the election of our Board of Finance members. The Board of Finance consists of five voting members including the mayor, the city council president and three additional members of this city council. For these three positions, I welcome nominations for a slate or individual members of the Board of Finance. Councilor Berkman. President Travers. First time I've got to do that. I would like to put in nomination the following slate, councilors Kane, Carpenter and Barlow. Councilor Berkman has nominated councilors Kane, Carpenter and Barlow for the Board of Finance. Is there a second for that nomination? Second. Seconded by councilor Grant. Are there further nominations for the Board of Finance? Absent objection, I will close nominations and we will proceed to a vote. The question is whether to approve the nomination of councilors Barlow, Carpenter and Kane for the Board of Finance and on that question, the clerk will please call the roll. Councilor Barlow. Yes. Councilor Berkman. Yes. Councilor Broderick. Yes. Councilor Carpenter. Yes. Councilor Doherty. Yes. Councilor Grant. Yes. Councilor Kane. Yes. Councilor Litwin. Yes. Councilor McKnight. Yes. Councilor Newbeeser. Yes. Councilor Shannon. Yes. City Council President Travers. Yes. 12 ayes. With 12 ayes and no noes, councilors Barlow, Carpenter and Kane are appointed to the Board of Finance. Congratulations. The new Board of Finance will hold its first meeting on Tuesday, April 9th. The next meeting of the Full City Council will be Monday, April 15th. With no other business on our agenda, I would welcome a motion to adjourn today's organization day. Motioned by Councilor Bergman. Is there a second? Seconded by Councilor Barlow. All in favor of the motion to adjourn. Say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We are adjourned. Congratulations and thank you all for being here today.