 Good evening and welcome back to our continuing coverage of town meeting 2019. I'm Lauren Glendavidian here for channel 17 town meeting television And tonight we're speaking with two of the candidates who are running for two different seats in South Burlington for the city council We have Tim Barrett who is running for the two three-year term He is actually opposed by Frank Davis who is not here this evening And so because our two-year term candidate Dave Kaufman is unopposed. We thought we'd have them here together So you're not running against each other just want to remind everybody But you are both currently incumbents serving on the city council. That's right. That's right And you have you are an interim you've taken Pat now X seat. Yes Or we're given Pat now X since last May. Yes So why don't we start with you and ask you why you're running for this seat now and what qualifies you Dave Okay. Well, it's actually fairly simple When we had that most unfortunate situation of a vacancy on the city council Helen came to me and I've known Helen for 40 years and And Tom I know as well We're both on faculty at UVM and we've done some collaboration together They must have talked and probably talked with Tim and with Megan as well and came to me and said, what do you think? Actually, they didn't phrase it that way. They said guess what and I Thought about it, but realized that it would be a great opportunity to To get reengaged with the active Work of the city government. So I said sure and it's been very enjoyable. I think we've got a great council five really Excellent excellent people. We make good decisions. We listen. Well we we do good things for the city and so it's been a lot of fun and it's not like I haven't had time in in government before having served five terms in the legislature representing South Burlington and Then a founding member of the board of the cans recreation arena's Dorset Park skating Association 20 something years ago And so I'm running again because it's it's a great group. We've got a really strong city government right now We can do good things going forward. Thank you so much. I appreciate it Tim Barrett tell us why you're running for reelection for the three-year term because I had so much fun here three years ago with with Diane Meyerhoff right and that Discussion that we had so I'm a 26-plus year resident in South Burlington My wife Kate just retired from the Heinzberg Education District I've been at IBM slash global foundries since 1981 straight out of school I have a bachelor in science and electrical engineering and I've been working there For a long time and officially I'm an IBM retiree. I think I was when I was here last time And I have a resume of time that I've spent working with the city I was on the library board of trustees for six years and then I was on the development review board for about four and a half And last year I was chair So it was a natural transition to and at that time I was really concerned about some developments going on in city center And especially with the schools So I decided to jump into that that race and I was fortunate enough to capture enough votes from the public to Become the three-year city councilor and it's been a really interesting three years I would never have assumed that that you could spend that much time in meetings in in local government But you can you know and and when you come down to the stipend you're probably paid about 32 cents an hour So that's not why you're doing it Actually, so the reason I'm doing this is because I I do care about the city a lot And I try to show that in a lot of different ways from painting the underpass with cement paint that V Trans gave me to cover up the graffiti on Feral Street and Dorset Street, right to to making sure that employees of the city Understand what their employee assistance program is I've tried to make sure that people know that I do care about the people that work for the city and for the residents themselves So and in this race you are faced with by an opponent Frank Davis. Yes, just to clarify again for our viewers We're talking with two of the candidates for South Burlington City Council Tim Barrett is running for the three-year term Frank Davis is running against him He's not here tonight and Dave Kaufman is running for the two-year term You can certainly call us at 862-3966 if you have any questions. We'd love to hear them So Tim, why don't you just start with what's your position on the city budget and the ballot questions and yeah? The city budget I think represents the best compromise that this that Tom Hubbard who was here earlier You know and his crew could develop from all the costs of the city has you know health care is going up every year I think it went up between six and seven percent this year And they've had to hire three new People in the fire department in order to give some overtime relief. So if you look just at the city budget by itself I think it was a two point eight five percent increase and it was less than three percent My threshold for pain is when you get over three and I think last year when it was more like three Four five I was pining for three one and I actually voted against the budget last year But I was in the minority any of us four to one this year two eight five I was comfortable with and I think it represents a lot of good work hard work by the city to kind of Make sure that the capital improvement program Meets its expectations right as long as well as the salary growth and the the union contracts Which you can't negotiate with once they're signed right and then also health care costs So what's your view on the budget? Without without going to the taking the time to repeat I've basically echo echo what Tim had to say and and I think as I said our city management especially Tom Hubbard who was here earlier along with City manager Kevin Dorn in the various department ads done a really diligent job at putting together the best budget they can and that ensures that South Burlington Continues to have the money it needs to do what we need to do to make it a great city What's your view of the ballot questions? The ballot questions are interesting. I think you know on the on the 1% options City the city has been in desperate need for a long period of time of recreation indoor recreation facilities Recreation is one of those things that the city is charged with providing We've got a recreation department and yet for years. They've had no way to program indoor recreation in the inclement weather in winter and the schools are totally tapped out with school programs and so You know we started with an idea that we would build an indoor facility That would be a few million bucks and now we're at 12 to 15 million at Veterans Memorial Park Adjacent to the Cairns arenas, which the preliminary design is really exciting, but we have to pay for it And then there's an arts group that would like city involvement in one way or another in a new art center Which also has excellent merit it would make South Burlington a magnet for people from outside the city and bring money into the city and And then you've seen mention of a bridge over the interstate To enable pedestrians and bicyclists to get across that miserable wide stretch of the interstate Between the campus and where our new city center is my feeling is that will those funds will come predominantly from a mix of federal State and and some local funds I'm not sure ballot item is going to be relevant to them The biggest thing is our is our rec facility and we need to know what what the residents think before we can go forward with That so my position on it is I hate taxes But we do want a recreation facility. This is one way to do it. Let's see what our residents have to say Can I just ask you that overpass that's that wouldn't be improving the current one we have from staples plaza? No, this would be there's a whole new whole new overpass that would go from kind of where quarry hill residences are over into the University mall area kind of the the narrowest portion that you can get because overpasses are expensive But it would be a it would be pedestrian bikes only and it would eliminate that horrendous situation We've had forever of trying to enable people to move safely from the campus district over to where Adorcist Street area and and and I think I think that will happen within several years And it'd be exciting when it does okay, but first the question to the people are is Do you support making a charter change on these two? Yeah, and that doesn't in any way mean that the people are approving one project or another This just says can we make a charter change to potentially add a penny to our local options tax? That would then have to go to the legislature for approval And then it would have to come back to the voters for whatever project we designate So it's got it's got a ways to go and the residents will certainly have ample say before anything is finalized Tim what's your view on the charter changes? You know we you know we have you have two basic ways you can you can raise money You know within a city you do with property taxes you can do it with sales taxes or rooms and meals taxes and So when you do with property taxes, you know It really hits the homeowners first and only right but if you propose that you use a sales tax You're also taxing money that's moving through the city through retail and their hotels and restaurants and Bars and breweries and things like that So when we're talking about the types of projects that we would like to do Including a rec center, I mean these are distinct investments that we want to make for the long term for a higher quality of life within South Burlington You can't do that for free and so this is our opportunity to say we think There is this list of Projects we like to do and in order to get the money for that we would like to present it to the voter You know, would you feel okay coming to South Burlington or if you live there spending an extra one percent? You know for your restaurant meal and and actually that would make it equal to Burlington's meals tax to be quite honest So it you know people have been eating in South Burlington getting a 1% break Wow on their tax Right, so that would make it equalized, but it would bring us to an 8% sales tax which Would be I believe it'd be the first in the state So one of my concerns is that if and this is a long process right because first of all the public has to vote on it And then it has to go to legislature and be approved by both the House and the Senate and then go to Governor Scott and I did contact the governor's office and ask is this something that you would Okay or sign because I mean a while back. He was all about affordability, right? And then they responded and said this is the type of thing that that he prefers to leave up to the communities So I'm assuming that he would sign that if it got that far And then it comes back like Helen said earlier that that then we'd have to get approval from the public on those distinct projects For which this money was to be spent so that voters get two chances to vote on this right And then when it comes time to actually raise the money, we could pick and choose a city council What which tax we want to raise right? Is it the 1% rooms and meals only or just the 1% sales tax and Play with it so we could meet whatever the cost is so I support going to the voters for that because I think it represents the the type of Investment that we want to make long term for the city indoor rec is really badly needed and we had several people tell us at the meetings That it's a facility that could be utilized by people not just in South Burlington But by other groups as well and they would be willing to pay for that that time. Well, it's like the hockey arena, right? I mean people it's a skating arena. We allow figure skaters to sorry The skating arena it's utilized by it's regional. It's a regional asset. It is it's it's tremendous regional asset And with that with the recreation facility if you think about it because it would have basketball and any knitted sport It would be able to be converted It's gonna have an indoor we'd have an indoor turf field to have a small fitness area but also have a walking track on the second on the second deck and that means there is really No resident to South Burlington that can't make use of it To stay, you know physically in better shape and have a good time and that that's that's really neat And and as Tim said we really need it badly neither of us suggest the rental car tax Did you want us to talk about that? Yeah, let's talk about well just point five percent if did that was that clear in your previous one Yeah, half a percent and the reality of that is the majority of the rental cars come out of the airport they drive on our roads our roads are As we all know are not in great shape. They're not in great shape in any community statewide after the winters that we've had in the past couple of years and There's really, you know, no reason that for for that little bit which I think helped me Tim What's the what's the annual contribution of a half a percent? I think they were estimating there could be like a hundred and twenty found I mean that that would go directly towards road maintenance and we certainly could use that So I think we'll see again. We'll see what the residents have to say about that Tom Hubbard said you're spending about six seventy five right now on road maintenance and it's projected You need about a million a year to maintain your roads Just drive around here and you'll see that all these cities need about a million a year to take care of the potholes, right? I think given given the weather that we've seen the last couple of years and that from all long-term projections from weather experts is likely to continue Overall locally and statewide we got to come up with some magic to figure out how to how to better Save the roads So Tim do you support that as well the tax on the rental cars the half percent? I think it's it's worth trying for yeah You know the it would it would levy this extra a hundred and you know some odd thousand dollars and and And it's another one of these taxes that is sort of tucked in and around South Burlington either You know on Wilson Road Shelburne Road or at the airport So and a half percent is is a very small amount I want to just remind our viewers that we're speaking with candidates for the three-year and the two-year term for the city council in South Burlington Tim Barrett is running for the three-year term He's opposed by Frank Davis who is not here with us tonight and Dave Kaufman is running for the two-year term And he is unopposed and both Tim and Dave are incumbents So do you think I'll start with you Tim Do you think that you'd like South Burlington to have more control over the decisions that the airport makes? Well, we of course would love that The airport first of all let me just say right that I think that the counselors pretty we all agree that the BIA is An important economic asset in Chittenden County and and all of northern Vermont, right? I mean it it generates the ability to travel To Boston and other points and we need not to Boston Sorry, but but to all those cities right that that represent hubs to get Vermonters to other places in the country They need to go so I think we understand it and and the funny thing is that when I was here three years ago I had no inkling about how much controversy that the airport is going to inject in the city council for the following year and a Lot of that had to do with the noise exposure maps the decibel lines the F-35 noise, right? And the fact that you know the the city joined the amicus brief right in the F-35 lawsuit So we would love to see some change in Governance that gives the surrounding towns the ability to have a true voting voice as opposed to just an advisory voice And we do have a seat on the on the Commission and also on the sound committee and but they don't really represent any power You know it's a it's a long-term issue that needs to be solved by people committed to trying to understand How to best get the local communities to be represented with without hurting the asset, right? But also keeping in mind that we've already knocked down over 200 homes in the Chamber of Laborhood And those were really affordable homes that shinnon County can't do without because we have a real darth of affordable housing, right? So we would love to be able to to make sure that you know the that the noise exposure maps We're hoping that the new one that comes out in April with the F-35 Modeling doesn't push those lines, you know out further to make more homes, you know possibly be purchased by the FAA What do we see? What's your opinion on this question? Well echoing what Tim said and we generally do have the same View of viewpoint on most of our issues. I Hadn't realized it actually until Tom Chitton and brought it to my attention earlier this this last year Was that I actually chaired a study committee in the mid-1980s to regionalize the airport obviously that that never went anywhere, but I would I would certainly be happier if we had a broader governor into the airport But we don't Helen does a great job representing us on the airport commission We have our say as best we can and I think it'd be wonderful if some Something could change in that operating format into the future I mean if you think about it the airports in South Burlington Burlington controls it that just you know all the way back from almost a hundred years now Doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Is there any prospect to I mean what would be the way forward to change the governance? Well, the various communities that surround the airport would have to agree when Uski Williston South Burlington who else? Well Burlington would have to agree Burlington would have to agree governance first of all I think that'd be receptive to that and right now. We're not there So we'll have to we'll have to wait and see in the meantime We make our best cases and do the best we can and and as Tim said the airport is a critical resource to the to the region And we just want to see it operate as efficiently as possible to serve the needs of the of the flyers So this this next question has to do with them interim zoning bylaws in response to development of the southeast quadrant I remember I think it was the southeast quadrant that we South Burlington decided to set aside for open space and Kind of plan development careful development So are you satisfied with the development that's going on in that region and also in the city as a whole? I guess I would say well hey you gotta look at you look at the city as a whole overall looking back on many years Generally broad statement. I've been relatively satisfied with the development in South Burlington There are few spots where I'd like to think I wish we hadn't have done that But looking ahead the pressures on development were increasing fairly significantly and the southeast quadrant is the area of the city that is targeted to preserve more open space and And we felt as a council With tremendous input from the residents residents in many many locations throughout the city But obviously in the immediate area of the southeast quadrant that we needed to take a harder look and make sure that what we were Planning for the future was in in lockstep with our comprehensive plan and that indeed We were going to not get 15 years down the road and say oh my god what a mess we've made And so I think the interim zoning as I think I said in something I wrote Was something that was favored by many many people and not really and not vilified by anybody including the developers They weren't happy with it, but it wasn't like oh my god You're gonna ruin our ruin our economic futures, and we put a tight nine-month time frame on it and From what I what I know from talking with well Tim chairs one of the committees you do right you there I was the interim chair and Alan Strong who's who's the associate dean in my school at the University? Chairs the open spaces committee and you know the intent is to get this work done in nine months and have a better plan going going forward You know the irony is if you think way way back the biggest mess ups So we were allowed to we allowed Shelburne Road and Williston Road to develop the way they did We'd never ever do something like that again So you know you look at those and look at the rest of the city and we haven't done badly and the city center The city center district and the new community center is is something that I think is fabulous. I think People forever have said why doesn't South Berlin can have a real town well now we will and I think that's the beginning of something really good And it'll be a mixed-use area affordable housing market value housing Commercial retail the new community center of the park is going to be terrific So I think interim zoning was needed right now and hopefully we can stay on schedule So Tim can you describe to us what that interim zoning plan means in the southeast quadrant? Can you draw a picture of it for us? Well, so There so from even from the time my time that started the DRB in 2011 right there have been Projects in the southeast quadrant that have been proposed that been designed and have stalled You have one that sent spear meadows, which is near the corner of Swift and spear that Eric Farrell originally started And that's sitting waiting for a court decision on transferable development rights Which is one of the committees that we have as part of interim zoning to look at that That land development regulation and see if it is applied If it can be applied better and in order to preserve open space in the city you also have other plan developments like cider mill 2 which has not broken ground yet and and a lot of these these developments were Have been gone have gone entirely through the DRB process with planning and zoning and have been approved But what happens is that when they actually break ground and start cutting down trees? Even though these have been advertised in the other paper Repeatedly and been reported on by their excellent reporting People see trees going down and earth being torn up and dynamiting as they did at hillside farm You know and they they they feel this this this kind of fear that you know We're we're losing all this natural area and and I understand that feeling and I relate to it The problem is that you know the land villain regulations allowed this they went through the parties developers went through the process They purchased the land and they're getting ready to try and create a community of a certain density and You know if you're a developer the more density you can get on the land that you purchased Which cost you a lot the more profit you can make and I mean and these are just typical business equations that that people have to go through so with the advent of the Dorset meadows proposal which is off of no one farm road I think that the immediate neighbors there knowing what was happening at spear meadows seeing what has happened it at O'Brien hillside farm and especially in city center even though that's been planned since the 70s to Develop that area. I think everybody got a little bit alarmed and so this group SOS formed and they came Then they talked to city council repeatedly about their need to see that we pause the development And they're really concerned about the southeast quadrant and how can we best take care of the remaining open space? It's there and make sure that it's it's preserved while balancing that with a need to build homes It's a really good question. That's why we're doing this nine month pause on any new developments like you know the Dorset meadows is grandfathered because the You know the application went in before IZ was implemented. So that will move forward, you know, but it'll probably be Challenged in court. We probably should make clear there that that development will occur in the southeast quadrant It's just it's just we want to be sure that whatever development does occur is done as responsibly as possible and With a vision towards having ample open space in the in the future and don't forget I mean the council approved back in October Spending our open space fund of the tune of like $606,000 right to work a three-way deal between dirt capital and bread and butter farm and the city to preserve I think it's about 300 plus acres in the extreme southeast corner of the southeast quadrant and that land will remain agricultural Or have conservation easements put on it and that was part of the sales condition in the first place So I was really perplexed when you know when the you know That the community came to the city council was complaining about development when we had just spent this money to preserve a lot of land Which which granted isn't served by water or you know or or sewer and so it's not easily developed But there was a chunk of it that was prime developable land So this is again is one of these you know Perception problems of the public versus what's the reality and the other question is how much land is really available to be left In the southeast quadrant that you could truly put a PUD a planned unit development on in the first place And that's another good question that will be answered in the by the open space committee during interim zoning So Tim why don't you use this opportunity to give us a one-minute closing statement that sooner ready? well so when I ran three years ago I Was really passionate about those things that I was running for and Some of those things have changed but in the meantime. I've really come to know and respect the staff at the city and also my fellow city counselors and I I really enjoy this this Responsibility and I look forward to doing it for for three more years If the voters will have me and I'm asking for your vote on March 5th My name comes first in the three-year box Tim Barrett just take your little felt tip pen and fill in that circle with a black dot And I really appreciate it and you know people can contact me anytime if they go to this the city's Website they'll find my email address and my phone number and they can call me if they have issues and people do they contact all of us I'll five of us so So I'm asking you for your vote and I hope you'll consider me I've tried my hardest in the last three years to do a good job and I've attended almost every meeting All right, not only city council meetings, but other meetings as well And and so you know, I think you can see but by that the The amount of time that I've spent on this that I really am committed to trying to make South Burlington a great place to live Thanks. Thank you so much. Tim Barrett is running for the three-year term against Frank Davis who's not here this evening Dave Kaufman you're running unopposed for the two-year term your closing statement It's first before I forget. Let me say that as I said at the outset We have a very very solid council now. We don't agree on everything, but we discuss We listen to what the residents have to say listen to what the city departments have to share with us I think we make very responsible decisions and I too would encourage the voters to keep Tim where he is It's he's a great asset to the council Personally South Burlington we've lived there we lived here for 40 plus years brought up three three sons They've been through the best school system in the state Which it's important that we keep it that way and I think we're on track to do that but South Burlington is a wonderful city to to live to work and to play and If I can continue to contribute to that For the next several years that would be wonderful as I say I enjoy it I think my perspective which has a lot of history to it is helpful and That I understand what we're striving to be in the future And I think Tim Tim just said I think we have a really strong city government right now led by Kevin and Tom who were who are two great guys with a lot of knowledge a lot of experience and I don't think going forward we could be Other than the fact that we can't control mother nature and get rid of the potholes I think we're doing pretty darn well and I look forward to continuing to do that and For the next couple of years anyway. Well, I want to thank you both for joining me tonight here on channel 17 We've been talking with two candidates for two different seats for South Burlington City Council Tim Barrett is running against Frank Davis for the three-year seat and Dave Kaufman is running for the two-year seat, so we're glad you could join us Thanks for watching and stay tuned to channel 17's continuing coverage of town meeting 2019 and don't forget We have live election results next Tuesday the 5th of March Starting at 7 p.m. And everybody remember to vote. Don't forget to vote Thank you