 Hello everyone and welcome. My name is Adam Roof and thank you for joining me tonight for this presentation by the Burlington Democratic Party. Tonight we'll be joined by Owen Milne who is seeking the Ward 3 City Council seat in the August 17th special election. Before we jump into that conversation I wanted to share a quick reminder from the party about our nominating process coming up at the end of this week. We'll be holding our vote this Friday which is June 18th at 12 p.m via Zoom and the link to that meeting will be shared widely on our social media pages by email and on our website which is BurlingtonDemocrats.com. With that I'd love to get started. We've got Owen Milne with us tonight. For viewers please know that you can call in. The phone number will be on the screen throughout the show. It's also 802-862-3966 and we look forward to taking your calls throughout the show. Owen welcome how are you doing this evening? Great thanks Adam for having me here. Good I'm glad you're here. You and I have known each other for a few years so I'm really excited to give you this opportunity to talk more broadly with with the Burlington community. Those that are viewing here tonight will also save this recording and share it throughout the rest of the week. Let's jump right in. Owen could you share with us why are you hoping to run? Why are you running? Thanks you know for that audience and you know I'm excited about the opportunity to serve Burlington. The reason I'm running is because I've really had the benefit of working closely with Brian Pine over the past few years. I live and work in Ward 3. I'm the Executive Director at the Community Sailing Center and over that period of time Brian has been really helpful to me on things related to traffic in this city and parking. Things related to our lease at the Sailing Center but his service to the community was no more apparent than when he really helped out Ice Cream Bob. I don't know how many of you have met Ice Cream Bob before but he owns that little creamy stand right down the waterfront right next to the Echo Center. He's been there for 18 years and I'm part of a group of waterfront organization leaders and business owners and he had informed us at one of our meetings that he was going to lose his business because of Amtrak coming into downtown. Despite his efforts to try and engage with City Hall in kind of a collaborative and constructive manner, he got some notification about 60 days before his building was to be demolished by the railroad and he said to us, he said, hey guys, this is it. My business is closed as will be my last meeting and I said to Bob in the meeting, I said, don't hang up. Don't quit just yet. Let's give Brian a call. Brian has worked really hard for me before. Let's see what he can do and Ice Cream Bob was like, okay, I'll give it a little more shot and I called Brian. I told him about what was going on and Brian said this is unconscionable. We cannot let this be the precedent for how you engage with City of Burlington. He's been collaborative and constructive and nice and Brian said to me, oh, let me see what I can do. I don't know what magic he worked. I'm guessing he probably called other members of City Council. I'm sure there was probably a few phone calls to Parks and Rec, Public Works, I'm sure had to get involved, but Brian worked the type of magic that a City Councilor does and I get a phone call from Ice Cream Bob about a week or two later and he calls me and he said, Owen, you'll never believe it. Brian found me a new spot. I can live out the last couple of years of my business on the waterfront and he said the new spot is actually even better than where I was before and I don't have to close down my business and I get to live it out. He said and honestly one of the things that worried me the most was telling the high school kids that I employ that they wouldn't be able to have a job this summer and so he said and so Owen, you've got Ice Cream for life or he said as long as I'm alive, maybe that's a better way to put it and I said to Ice Cream Bob, you can give my share to Brian. Brian did all the work. I made one phone call and but I tell that story because in my opinion that's the job of City Council. You answer the call, you listen intently, you ask the right questions, you understand the root of the problem and then you roll up your sleeves and you act and I know sometimes people consider that to be the part of the job is that's you know less interesting or less glamorous but in my opinion that's the part of the job that I love the most and that's the kind of servant leadership I would be bringing to Burlington. That's a great story and I also had the chance to work with Brian for a number of years. Great counselor and he's going to be great at CEDO as well. You know looking forward towards the the special election which will be on August 17th, we still have to get through the nominating processes. The the Democrats will be having our process on Friday as I mentioned, other nomination processes will be wrapped up by the end of this week. Oh and you don't know who else will be in the race but you have an idea of at least a few who are interested. Could you talk a little bit at this point, what do you see so far as the things that differentiate you from the other folks who have either committed or are thinking about seeking election in August? Yeah that's that's a good question. I've spent the better part of my career focused on community leadership. So I would say my time spent in politics is actually very little other than when I kind of engage other community leaders and things that intersect with the government but you know how that has translated has been into both community service at the local level as well as some commissioner level service at the statewide level. So you know I've served on the boards of sir or the commissioner for serve Vermont that oversees AmeriCorps in the state of Vermont. Many of those AmeriCorps programs are are here in Burlington served on the governor's committee for employment for people with disabilities and that's those are both governor appointed positions at the statewide level have served on the the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce leadership Champlain generator Burlington which is the the makerspace in Burlington recently elected the board of directors for Vermont State Employees Credit Union. I think one of the things that I'm most proud of in that community leadership has been at Spectrum family services where I worked to create detail works which was a job skills program that worked for youth in transition to give them job skills in a in a safe environment. That was one of the greatest challenges that a lot of the underprivileged youth in our community end up running into. So as I've kind of interacted and learned more about the other people that have shown interest I think the one that's the one thing that I have seen come out most often that I I feel kind of proud talking about is that that area of community leadership. That would be I would say one of the the biggest distinctions between me and others. Sure. Thank you for that answer to get a little more specific here. I'm interested for you to hear more about your passions. We know why you want to run for office. We understand a little bit now more about what differentiates you and the others who are thinking about running. What are you most focused what are you most passionate about and how will those passions help you focus on certain policies if you're able to secure the seat and serve Ward 3 as a City Councilor. Yeah. So you know I tell that story of servant leadership in Brian because it that really serves as a an underpinning of how I would approach the work of City Council on issues. So so often you know people will have things that that they happen to be passionate about personally and then just run with it straight to City Hall. What the way that I think servant leadership is different is that I'm going to be actively engaged with the people in Ward 3 to inquire on things like instead of you know posting on front porch form about you know what I want to do and get on board. A lot of the what you'll hear from me will be asking people what are the things that keep you up at night and keep you from being able to put food on the table and and then taking those stories to City Hall and and sharing with other Councillors about the other things that are trouble spots for the people that are my neighbors. So but I know that for the purposes of this you know it's important that I also work to identify what those issues are because sometimes the things that are really interesting like let's talk about the pit in the in the center of Burlington doesn't necessarily impact people's daily lives. So I've been making a lot of phone calls and Adam and you know I you know probably in hundreds of calls I made over the past couple of weeks. A couple of the things that I keep hearing coming up are housing affordability is a huge issue in Burlington. I keep hearing it time and time again when I ask that question of you know what keeps you from being able to put food on the table that is absolutely one of them. It is it is not okay that some people are paying you know 40 or 50 percent of their income on you know their rent. So I would say that that's certainly one. The other one that I hear regularly is issues related to substance abuse and mental health. You have to understand Ward 3 is the downtown of Burlington and most of the old north end. That's really in the what keeps somebody up at night conversation because a lot of the issues that that we see out on our streets are directly related to substance abuse and mental health. We as a city have you know spent a lot of time and energy on on on certain projects in Burlington and I think it's time to start shifting some of that attention towards what we can be doing for selling for that issue. And then you know the other one that I see in here about as well is accessibility in Burlington. I happen to see and hear about that one as well. Interestingly that that issue usually comes up when I'm having a conversation with somebody face to face. They bring that up whether that's an issue for them. I'm not sure but but those are three things that I hear about actually with some regularity. So that's what I'm hearing about so far. I would imagine that that those things will change over time as I as I start engaging deeper with people on Ward 3. Thanks Owen. Those are good examples you brought up housing substance abuse and mental health as well as accessibility. I'd like us to follow up a little bit to talk a little bit more in specifics about about housing in Burlington. You know from the calls that you've done from the long time of being a you know living in Burlington working and living in Burlington what do you see as some of the biggest inhibitors for or biggest challenges that we as a community are facing to create new not just affordable but quality housing as well. Yeah so there is there I know that on both sides of this both the progressive and democratic side that there are really good kernels of ideas that I think that need to be sussed out more and this is one of the reasons why I'm actually seeking both party nominations is because quite often one of the things that I see happen is that there is a good idea that's arising on one side of the aisle and and some of the the bias and the challenges you know kind of impede that from getting fully baked and and again this is part of the legacy of Brian that I I want to carry forward is that idea of taking some of the kernels of those ideas and then you know moving them through the process one of those examples that I would say is you know things like short-term rentals I you know short-term rentals have an impact to the overall volume of housing. Volume of housing impacts the price and and I think that we need to be taking a very good you know close look at regulating that short-term housing but the one of the things that trips us us up the most in moving through a regulation of short-term rentals is some of those definitions and those issues around you know who's going to help move move something forward and this is where I feel like you know my approach in in seeking both nominations will send a strong signal to the rest of my counselors that there is someone here who's going to work to get that get things through and completed and done. Got you we do have a caller let's see if the caller has been patched through caller are you with me hello caller are you on the air with us I'm not sure if I can hear anyone oh and can you hear can you hear anyone on your end I can't know I can't all right well we'll we'll jump back to our questions and if that caller can get through cctv thank you also to cctv who's helping us produce the show tonight we'll get back in touch with us and we will try to patch that caller through please do keep calling in I believe the phone is on the screen but we'll jump back in here you know one thing you once yeah has been you know in the front of everyone's mind well a lot has been on the front of our minds these days has been you know not just the pandemic and we had a big announcement this week that the restrictions from the governor's office will be lifted there's been a lot of focus on what the economic recovery will look like you know with your work at the sailing center you see a whole breadth of different types of people not just in the downtown and waterfront but throughout the city what in your perspective so would the priorities be of the city and if you are on the city council for our journey towards an economic recovery as we come out of this pandemic yeah that's a great question you know um so you know as we look at you know economic development in burlington um I would say that you know one of the barriers that that we run into while this may not necessarily seem like an economic development issue I will tell you that a lot of the things that I hear from people within the business community is that you know the the intersection between social issues and economic recovery are really tight meaning that people if we don't address some of the substance abuse and mental health issues that it actually impedes the the willingness to for businesses to want to be able to move into and expand in burlington I actually consider and see investment in mental health and substance abuse as an economic recovery investment that finding a way for us to solve for those and that's investment both in the private sector but then also exploration in looking at public private partnerships within the existing social services sector to actually identify ways to do that I used to serve on the board at spectrum and I can tell you that that right now trying to find real estate in order to you know open and expand counseling for teens and young adults is one of the things that's a big impediment right now to expansion of those services in burlington can you imagine what it'd be like if you're taking some of this economic recovery act in the city of burlington being able to invest and support things on that ground level to help solve for some of those issues I served on the board of the united way and oversaw on the community investment committee some of the the ways that the united way was investing and also some of the needs that we were seeing on the ground in burlington and I can tell you firsthand that that a little bit of money and investment in those social services in burlington will go a long way to addressing some of those issues and I see that as being one of the easiest ways for us to recover from some of those problems thanks someone we I believe we may have a chance to call her back on the line caller you're on the air are you with us maybe not oh and can you hear anyone on your end no unfortunately not no if the caller wants to shoot an email to burlington dems at gmail.com I'm happy to take any questions that way as well again that burlington fully spelled out Dems DEMS at gmail.com I'll be checking that email for the next for the remainder of the show if you have any more questions thanks Owen on that answer of economic recovery I tend to agree that there is an intersection between economic and community development in fact we have in burlington a whole department dedicated just to working on that intersection you know another another piece that's really important that I wanted to make sure that we elevated in center tonight is our conversation about public safety and more specifically policing can you talk a little bit about I know you've thought about this quite a bit over the years you talk a little bit about your philosophy on how to be looking forward on public safety and policing yeah so I would say that I am very eager like I'm sure we all are to see the results of the the work that the consultant comes to brings back that shed some light on how we use those public safety services in the city of burlington you know I have been getting asked the question do you do do you believe in cutting defunding the police or sometimes they'll you know the question will be would you cut the the budget by 50% and the answer that I often find myself giving is I don't know yet and and the the reason I say that is because having come from a consulting background I did work in a workplace consulting entity that actually helped drive transformational organizational change for for businesses and large large organizations I can tell you that having the information available on on how resources are used is is the tool that everybody uses in order to cut through the emotional dissonance that gets in the way of getting towards where you ultimately want to go do we need people armed officers making traffic stops do we need armed officers attending you know to fender benders in burlington do you know what I would say is that oftentimes what we're doing is we're using one individual and and having them try and do a cadre of different different activities what I think the information from the report will help us glean is to identify what does our future public safety department look like and actually have us better align the resources that we have to the needs that we have in the community you wouldn't send a SWAT team in every single time somebody has a car accident it doesn't make sense to have resources misused in that way I I would be the counselor who would be taking a deep dive into that information because I'm comfortable in that space of really looking at what the numbers are looking at how the resources are used and then making sure that they're matched I do it every day at the sailing center in leadership in that position I'd be doing it the same thing in Burlington as well thank you woman I'm glad that we get to talk about some specific issues including not just housing but public safety economic recovery and the intersections that happen with that and social service side of things as well including substance abuse with about five or so minutes left I wanted to give you an opportunity to share anything else that you wanted to talk about and maybe talk a little bit more because I know that I find your work at the sailing center fascinating I know a lot of folks sometimes don't know all the work that goes on at the sailing center so I'll give you a few minutes and I'll tee you up nicely with maybe an opportunity to talk about all the awesome programming that's been going on at the sailing center under your leadership yeah well uh you know you have to be careful never to let an executive director of a nonprofit talk about their own organization because that will just take up every minute of time that you know that you could possibly have well I think one of the things that I'm really just left so you can take your time yeah so so I'll talk about the thing that I'm most proud of doing this year so um our board identified that we have to address diversity inclusion and belonging at the sailing center we've addressed issues around accessibility and and differently abled individuals getting out of the water we've addressed issues of financial ability to pay and afford and participate and we've you know reduced gender um uh challenges to participation in the sport but we've never really tackled things related to um BIPOC families in our community so we uh I we partnered with the trusted community voices a group within CEDO to actually design what a scholarship would look like to provide support to break down those barriers of access to BIPOC families in the community and the lesson that I learned is that if Adam if if I tried to do it with our team at the sailing center without engaging the trusted community voices we would have failed miserably because we just don't have a truly deep understanding of what that's like um so um and I would say that you know as it relates to the way I would approach things in Burlington moving forward is that we shouldn't be having conversations about um race and BIPOC programs and services without actually having people like that at the table but that's an aside um so uh we worked with them they they helped us understand how to break down the issues around transportation um encouraged us on our marketing materials to make sure we were including a variety of different languages um we were um we made it a long term four plus year program rather than just being a one-year scholarship so that families know that if my kids loves this how am I going to pay for it four years from now where this is a long-term approach it's the first of its kind in the the sailing industry um and as a result normally we might have five or six kids a year come from BIPOC families in in Burlington uh this year looks like we might be getting up to 17 or 18 in one year so that's going from six to 18 in one year and then the program is designed so that we'll actually pick up another 18 next year so in two years we'll be going from six to 36 and it's a three-year program so we might pick another 18 the next year if we're able to keep the retention which we're we're hoping that we can um we would be looking at um having one of the most diverse sailing programs in the country even though the population of Burlington is being you know roughly 15 BIPOC um so you know that that is one of the this this year um right and uh yeah and I guess that gives some insight onto how I might approach things in um city council sure uh well thank you for that answer we are approaching the end of our time um oh and I know you were chatting right before we came on here that you are active in the process of setting up your Facebook page and website and all of those ways for people to get in touch with you um and so folks can search on Facebook um maybe not tonight but what tomorrow maybe um yeah yeah yeah oh and Mel and you can get in touch with him uh and find his website and more information um again a reminder we will be having the Democratic Party's nomination process happening at noon this Friday the 18th I encourage y'all to to sign in we'll also be hearing a little bit more from Owen at that time um Owen thank you so much for joining and I look forward to talking some more uh and good luck with the next couple of weeks thank you look forward to more have a good night thanks for watching everybody bye bye all right see you