 Hello! Welcome everyone! Thanks for coming out today. This is the Progressive Caucus for the Ward 3 Special Election for City Council, and we're really happy to see you all here today. It's just so nice being around people, not on Zoom, and we've all been, you know, no mask now, finally, at least a little bit. I'm a teacher, so we've still been masking up until this week, so this has been the week that we've been able to take it off, and it's been a lot of joy, and it's just a continuation of joy for me to see you all here. We've got a lot of people who are going to be participating online. I think we have 152 people who registered just online, so besides the people who are here today, we have a lot of people watching live on Facebook and people who are going to be watching afterwards and then using that information to cast their votes. So, I don't know if I introduced myself. My name is Annie Schneider. I'm one of the co-chairs of the Burlington Progressive Party, along with Gil Livingston, and we are just so pleased to have you here today. So, you need to make sure you either registered online and you're going to vote that way, or you registered here at the sign-in table and you got your paper ballot. So those are the two ways you can vote today. I also tried to make sure everyone had a chance to write questions for the candidate, and if you have those purple cards with questions, Gil and I will be coming around and collecting them fairly soon. So, that's your chance to kind of have a say in our program tonight. And next up is Gil Livingston. So, it's a pleasure to be here. It's always a pleasure to be under Annie's supervision. Get closer. It's great to be here and it's especially great to be under Annie's supervision, but she's a little short. So, I've had the opportunity over the last couple of years, especially, to see close up what the staff of the Progressive Party in Burlington and statewide does. We are in ascendancy in Burlington. We have a strong contingent on-city council. We have representatives on the school board and we have exciting candidates to hear from today. And so, that takes a lot of volunteer work, a lot of passion, but it takes a whole lot of skill and hard work by folks like Josh and Lisa. In addition to elections, a whole lot of effort went into the ballot items that were successful this last time out, and there's a major presence in the statehouse with regard to issues important to the party. So, that all takes money. I'd really appreciate if people thought hard this evening about making a contribution to the party one time today, or my wife Amy Wright and I are really able to do a monthly contribution to the party, a sustaining contribution. So, however you do it, however you're able to support the party financially, they'd be greatly appreciated. Annie. This is Josh Ronsky, the party executive director, and he's going to explain to you how tonight's program's going to go and then actually he's going to explain rank choice voting. Thank you. Put this up a little bit. Thanks so much to everyone for coming. I wasn't sure how many people we'd get out because we had so many online registrations. So, I was a little bit worried that it'd be a very light turn out, but this is actually really good. And I remember just a few years ago, we would have been excited if this many people came out just like a citywide caucus even. So, this is great. So, yeah, soon we're going to hear from the candidates. We have four people currently running or seeking our nomination and there's also a possibility someone could raise their hand and say they're also running. So, that's an option as well. And Meg's going to take over and introduce the candidates in just a little bit, but I wanted to just do a brief explainer of rank choice voting. I mean, this is a progressive caucus, so folks should be fairly familiar with rank choice voting. We supported it pretty overwhelmingly in Burlington and this is really exciting because this is going to be one of the first elections using RCB in Burlington after we passed the ballot initiative this past March. So, it's really exciting. So, let me just see a show of hands. How many people know what rank choice voting is? Cool. So, yeah, pretty much everyone. So, I'm just going to, I'll do a really quick overview so you have a sense in case you need a reminder. So, this is the paper ballot. It's going to look a little bit different than the virtual ballot, but basically it's the same concept. So, each candidate that has previously announced that they're seeking our nomination is listed. So, that's Ryan Adario, Julie Masuga, Joe McGee, and Owen Milne. And I have a write-in option on the paper ballot in case someone here says they're running. So, we don't know, we always have that exciting possibility. So, when you get your ballot, you're going to have the option to actually rank your choices. One, two, three, four, or five if somebody else jumps in. So, pretty simple stuff. Your most preferred candidate, you would mark under the first choice. Put them first on your ballot. The person who you prefer to, as your second choice, you would mark them second. The person you prefer as your third choice, you mark them third, so on and so forth. You don't actually need to mark every ballot. You don't need to put every candidate on your ballot. So, if you only really like three candidates or two candidates, just mark those two or three. Or maybe you really are excited about one candidate and you don't really support the others and you might only put one. The whole idea of rank choice voting is to ensure that you have the best ability to really support the candidate and you truly support without risking someone you really don't support getting elected. So, that's the idea. Does anyone have any questions around this? It's not too complicated as we know. Yeah. So, okay. So, I think I'm introducing Meg now, right? Cool. So, I'm going to introduce Meg Pulit, amazing progressive party leader. Hello, everybody. Nice to see you all here. I just want to do a quick reminder that if people have questions, you should have received a little purple three-by-five card or you could probably raise your hand and someone could bring you a card and write down your question and that's how we're going to make sure that we get three or four different questions for the candidates. So, I think it would be really helpful if when I call up the candidate's name, either the candidate can self-nominate or they can have someone nominate them. There's going to be a minute and a half for the nomination and three minutes for the candidate. So, if you're self-nominating, you basically have four and a half minutes to speak and we're just going to go in alphabetical order with the candidates that have already declared and then we'll open it up for nominations from the floor. After that, I would say if you're going to nominate someone from the floor, please check in with them first so you're not nominating someone that has no intention of running. That has happened many times because we're also awesome. So, the first candidate is Ryan Adario. So, if Ryan and or his or their nominator could come up here, you will have the mic for the first four and a half minutes. Are you self-nominating? My name is Nicholas Casetto. I'm a native remonter, born in Burlington, raised in Colchester and currently a proud resident of Ward 3. I would like to nominate my partner, Ryan Adario, to be the progressive party nominee for City Council. Ryan moved here because I asked him to eight long years ago and he said yes because he loves me. When my career took me back and forth to New York City, he stayed because he had fallen in love with Burlington. From the moment he arrived, Ryan dug in and started learning about his adopted home. Not long after, he was dedicating himself to the community where he was enthusiastically putting down roads for us. I have watched him spend late nights on a hotline, helping people experiencing domestic violence feel safer. Afternoons teaching young people how to dance and evenings raising money for causes he cares deeply about. Over the last year especially, I watched him listen and grow as I opened up more than ever about my experience being a remontor of color. He is an insatiable learner, a thoughtful neighbor, and a tenacious but fair debater. Everything that Ryan has done since he arrived in Burlington has led him to this moment, and I couldn't be prouder to vote for him tonight. I hope you will join me. Thank you. Hey Kelly, want to hold up the cards so the candidates know what they're looking for? There you go. Great. Thank you. One minute and 30 seconds to stop. Great. Thank you. Sorry. I hadn't heard that yet, so... Hi. I'm Ryan Adario and I want to start by thanking everybody who registered virtually and is watching, also everybody who's here. I know it's the beginning of summer, end of a pandemic, end of a school year. Not ideal circumstances for participatory democracy. So congratulations to us all. I also want to thank Owen, Julie, Joe, July, and Josh and the whole team. Everybody was... This was my first time running for anything and everybody was so perfectly lovely, at least to my face where it mattered. So I'll take it. Thank you. I also want to wish everybody a very happy Pride Month. Over the last few weeks, I have been using my voice, my gay voice, and talking about who I am and what's important to me and our community and thinking that somebody might have been helped by hearing that gay voice gives me a lot of pride. So that's my very happy Pride Month announcement. Burlington is my home. I chose it and it chose me back. I've struggled here. I've thrived here. I've rented and I've owned. I've celebrated and I've marched. I love my life here, but through a lot of my work in the community, whether it was helping people find affordable housing, helping survivors of domestic violence or teaching dance and theater to our young people, I have come to realize that the life that I love to live here is so out of reach for so many of our neighbors. Most of our neighbors, right on my block, cannot enjoy Burlington in the way that I do. Too many of our neighbors are without homes. Too many of them are barely holding onto theirs. Too many of our neighbors don't feel safe or supported by law enforcement. Church Street is immaculate and I love hanging out there, but our public high school is condemned. Lake Champlain looks incredible, but we can't always swim in it safely. I know that most of us in this forgive me room, I didn't know we'd be in a parking lot, I know most of us agree on what the issues are in the direction that we need to go in to help make life better for everyone who lives here, but I know that I now, at this point in my life, trust myself to go toe to toe with people I disagree with, and I can form a coalition with a wide range of personalities and perspectives. I know I can communicate the needs of our neighborhood effectively and distill and disseminate that information back to our neighbors. I want to be a bridge between both parties that are represented by our community council, a lot of, in the same vein as Brian Pine has over the last few years. I hope I get the chance, but I'm really grateful for the opportunity and I'm proud to be your neighbor, regardless. So thank you so much. Thank you so much, Ryan. And the next candidate and or their nominee is Julie Masuga. Hi, everyone. Ooh, that's loud. My name is Laura Mastretta. I live right here on Murray Street. So this is very convenient location. Thank you. Um, I have been living here in Ward three for the last five years and love this neighborhood, love this part of town. I'm excited to see such a vibrant and full race for Brian's open seat. And I'm here tonight to nominate Julie Masuga, 100% enthusiastically for the Ward three city council seat. Um, I've known Julie for a couple of years now. I first met her as an organizer with 350 Vermont. I've organized alongside her. I've walked, marched in the streets alongside her. And I have rarely met someone who is more committed and devoted to social change who has shown that she understands how intersectional and connected are issues that we're facing as a community are, whether we're talking about stopping the F 35 or making sure that our houseless neighbors have a safe place to call home or making sure that the police are not targeting our friends and neighbors. Um, you know, at the end of the, just for time's sake, you know, one of the things I admire most about Julie is she is doing the hard work of thinking hard about how do we translate these big values of justice and equity into local policy right here in Burlington. And with deep connections in the community across a broad swath of people all across this neighborhood, she has the relationships and the political analysis to push good policy and bring the people into the process. And so that's why I'm here today to nominate Julie. Thank you. Laura's going to make me cry, but, um, hi, my name is Julie Massuga, she, her. I've been living in Vermont for about 15 years in Burlington for the last six. I'm here because I'm deeply committed to justice and community care. I'm not interested in throwing around phrases like justice just to make platitudes. I'm here to take action as I always have. I just returned from Anishinaabe Treaty territory in so-called Minnesota, where we blocked pipeline construction for eight days, but I assure you that the vast majority of my work is centered around Burlington. I attended the struggle at line three because I see the interconnectedness of the fight against industries and genocide, and I see those same issues reflected here in Vermont. I was really torn about launching a campaign from so far away, but that is who I am. I am part of a struggle for a better world, even if it's a little unorthodox. And that's why I've worked on many policy issues locally. I love and connect to the people who have supported and joined them in their own struggles. I've done some campaign work for a few of the people in this parking lot, but have really leaned in hard on policy issues. To give you a sense of the scope of my work, I'm on the steering committee of Save Our Skies, which has done work against the F-35 nuclear bombers. I was deeply involved in the passage of NoMOS Polymigra, which closes loopholes that allowed ICE to work directly with the police. I've worked on defunding the police and removing abusive officers from the force, or with groups like the Battery Park movement, and I am always working on climate-related policy, especially during my last job as the co-director of 350 Vermont, which included weatherization of rental units and working statewide to prevent fracked gas infrastructure buildout to places like Moncton, Bristol, and Rutland. I hear in Burlington when the issue arises. I spend a lot of time preventing measures from, like the Downtown Improvement District from happening, which would have gentrified and priced people out of the city. I also regularly work with a homeless community on issues that impact them through groups like Food Not Bombs and Cop Watch. I'm seeking the progressive party nomination because it's the only party that is working to make the systemic changes that are needed to dismantle white supremacy, prevent the worst effects of the climate crisis, and address inequity in the city. While I continue to take on big picture issues, I see opportunities to work towards large-scale system changes in the minutia of city council work. Equity includes issues of accessibility, like making sidewalks usable, making city government accessible, advocating for gender-neutral bathrooms, and much more. The Old North End has shaped me into the person I am. We deserve to live in a community where people are able to freely express their identity, protect their families from the noise of F-35s, and walk the streets without being worried about police brutality. I'm here because I love this place and I will protect it with all that I am. Thank you. Thank you so much, Julie and Laura, and our next candidate and nominee is Joe McGee. Hello, everyone. I'm State Representative Emma Mulvaney-Stanik from Chittenden 6-2, just that way, and I'm proud to nominate Joe McGee for Ward 3 City Council. Joe and I met for the first time on Kreena Driscoll's campaign for mayor in 2018. We bonded over GOV efforts to advance the first competitive campaign challenge to Murrow-Wineburger. Joe went on to graduate from UVM and work for Bernie on his senatorial campaign and presidential campaigns. Most recently, Joe worked to advance progressive policies in the Vermont State House as a policy associate with a firm who partners with labor unions, environmental groups, and housing organizations. Beyond his Wikipedia bio, let me emphasize what really matters. Joe is compassionate and a deep thinker. He thinks about this community and his community, the well-being of his neighbors, and how economic justice underpins everything. He learned from the years on the road with Bernie that income inequality matters, and here in the old North End, it frames the everyday realities of our neighbors. Joe understands that if working families, young folks, and seniors who are struggling to meet their basic needs, or are struggling to meet their basic needs, it is hard to focus on anything else. Joe proudly supports labor unions, responsible contractor provisions, and creating livable wage jobs. He understands the importance of actively partnering with state leaders to advance solutions to welfare and housing, because city council can't solve those on their own. He is a self-reflective person who humbly seeks out knowledge and mentorship to better understand issues. This is incredibly important characteristic as it relates to all things, but let's be real, especially as a white person. Joe will need to use this skill as a city leader to better understand how racism shows up in our city, and the pervasive nature of whiteness in Vermont. Joe will be a champion for Ward 3, and the best organizers listen, amplify voices often ignored by the dominant culture, and lead with their neighbors. That is Joe through and through. Please join me in supporting Joe McGee as our progressive nominee that rhymes for city council. Thank you. Thank you, Emma. I want to thank you all for coming out tonight, and this would be a little easier if you'd all brought a cut out of your living room with you, but this will have to do. I'm glad that we're able to gather in person. Thanks, Barb. I'm glad that we're all able to gather here in person today. I grew up in Vermont. I came to Burlington to go to UVM, and my lived experience and the lived experiences of my family have formed my core beliefs and my commitment to progressive movement building, and my grandmother came here from Ireland in 1948, and like many immigrants, she wasn't able to go home for nearly two decades, and the little money she made, she sent home to her family, and when my grandfather passed away in a fire on June 17, 1972, she was left a widow and a single mother of six, and had it not been for the pension and the city support fought for by the Firefighters Union, I she would have been left with eight other widows with no safety net, and so when I talk about issues of economic justice, I'm not just talking about a theory, I'm talking about reality. How the issues that we face, whether it's housing or income inequality or child care, they're all interconnected. We won't achieve racial justice without economic justice, without social justice, or without environmental justice. So these are the beliefs that drove my work on both of Bernie's presidential campaigns, they're why I was proud to support Max Tracy's campaign for mayor, they're why I call myself a capital P progressive, and they're why I was proud to support Emma's campaign for state representative, and these are the values that I will bring with me and will guide me as your next city councillor in Ward 3. I'm running for city council to be a voice for working families in City Hall. You know, for too long, the city has responded to the concerns of the wealthy and well connected, while working families have shouldered a burden that has grown heavier year after year, and I'm running to really be a voice for those folks, because I think that's been lost, and I think we need to get back to that, and you know, I want to challenge white supremacy in City Hall, in our city government, in our government structures, and I want to fight for racial equity at every level, making sure that BIPOC folks are involved in our policy making decisions at the city council level, and our boards and commissions, and our MPAs. Our campaign is at conversations with hundreds of folks over the last week. Left lit on most of your doors. I've left personal voice mails for many of you, and you know, our campaign is really going to be about the people of Ward 3. We're going to knock on every door. We are going to deliver economic justice, social justice, racial justice, and environmental justice, and that's what I hope to do as your next city councillor, and I really hope to have your support. Thank you very much. Thank you, Joe, and the final person who has announced and opened the floor to general nominations, I just want to remind folks if a question is in your mind, in your heart, burning question, be sure to write it down on the little purple card, and pass it to Josh or Annie, who are over there. So our final candidate and nominator, if they have one, should come up, and that's Owen Milne. Thank you, everybody. I had a nominator and that individual had an emergency come up and is not able to do it, so I will be self-nominating. And introducing myself is actually easier because I know myself pretty well. So what I will start off with is as if he were here next to me today. So, Owen Milne, I have lived in Burlington for a little over seven years. I currently work at the community sailing center down on the waterfront in Burlington. And I have been in this community while not living in Burlington for seven years in Vermont my entire life. And over that period of time, I ended up identifying that service to the community was the best thing that I could do to give back to all of the people that opened doors for me literally and figuratively in my life. So many years ago, I had an opportunity to sue Volkswagen for a car accident. And my lawyer at the time said, Owen, your voice needs to be heard. And you really get to know your lawyer really well when you sue Volkswagen. We're talking, you are shoulders, shoulder eating three meals a day and I took her advice and I said, okay, sure, thanks. I don't know what that looks like. If, you know, am I going to be scooping a soup kitchen? I don't know if I do very well on the, you know, construction site for Habitat for Humanity, but she said, no, I'm going to have you join a board or commission. I didn't know what that really looked like. And she said, actually, I already signed you up for one yesterday. And it was the governor's committee for employment for people with disabilities. And I learned my lesson that day that we all have a voice that's important. It's really important that we step up. This opportunity to be able to run for office has been an amazing experience. And what I've come to learn over those years that service back to the people that have given me so much has become my purpose in life. So as a result of that, you know, I went on to be a commissioner for Serve Vermont and then United Way of Chittenden County now Northwest Vermont. Eventually it became the board at Generator, Spectrum Youth and Family Services. I've worked on the board at Leadership Champlain more recently invited to the board at Vermont State Employees Credit Union. I was a champion for green building and advocacy on green building for Vermont Green Building Network. And my work has span both for-profit and non-profit and I worked for Vermont Business of Social Responsibility. I believe in service leadership. I will be bringing that idea of servant leadership to all the people in our community and I do not shy away from policy but the thing that I truly love will be to bring that voice of the people that are my neighbors to the City Council and to the rest of the city of Burlington. Thank you very much for this opportunity and I look forward to your vote for City Council. Great. That was fabulous. That was Owen Milne. Do we have any nominations from the floor for candidates for Ward 3 City Council? Hey everybody. I'm glad to see everybody here today. My name is Chris Haisley. I think some of you know who I am. Some of you probably don't. I lived in Ward 2 for a very long period of time. I was involved in the school board. I wasn't really planning to be here today but I had some conversations with folks in the community recently who said, hey, you know, you should consider running. Well, you know, I hadn't really thought about it. I haven't planned about it but I've always considered myself a long time, big, progressive and a long time. So, as I said, I was on the school board for a number of years from 2001 to 2008. I was a champion of neighborhood schools, including this school here that's now the Sustainability Academy. During that time, I also fought for livable wages for our support staff, for the custodians, the cafeteria workers, and our paraeducators. And in recognition of that effort, I was twice awarded the Outstanding School Commissioner award from I think that you're probably more concerned about, like, what we're going to do now. So, the reason I've decided to kind of enter and throw my hat in the ring was there's a number of them. One is the affordable housing issue and I've been in Burlington since 1999. This has been an ongoing perennial issue that we've been hearing about. It's still a problem and I have some specific ideas on how I'd like to see that adjust. I think the first priority would be is to lean on our state legislatures to get the just cause eviction charter changed through the legislature. Number two, I think it's long past time to have a very serious conversation about rent stabilization. I did some looking online for an apartment for my 18 year old who's going to be entering CCV in the fall. And I'm seeing that the going rate is about $800 a bedroom. When I came to Burlington, it was about $500. So I did some quick math. I looked up some properties and crunched some numbers and mortgage calculators and my math is correct. Some of these places are landlords and they're bringing in a profit margin of 40, 50, 60%. That's not affordable. I don't know too many people that can afford that kind of rent. So that was a big motivating factor. Number two, I live on College Street and I like to go out to eat. I like to go to Henry's. I'm tired of looking at the big hole over there. For those of you who are old enough to remember long before my time that area where the hole is before it was the mall was the Irish Italian neighborhood. They were basically forced out in the 60s as urban renewal or urban renewal. So I look at that hole and I see an opportunity to right a historic wrong. And in my view, this has been bidding back and forth, back and forth for way too long and I think it's time to do something bold. So I would say this, the city needs to take ownership of that property. The city can take ownership and when the city does have that ownership, they get to shape the debate and they can have a more say that it's built there. And when they build something, they can maybe lease it out to the private developer for 50, 60, 70 years and now we have an ongoing revenue stream for the city, which we can use for things like infrastructure, like the sidewalks, like the sewers or roads. Another thing while we're on the sidewalks is I live downtown and we have an issue with snowmove and I cannot tell you how many times I've seen folks that are disabled that can't get out to the street just to get around. So that was another factor. So with respect to the big pit, and I guess I'm running out of time here, there is a precedent for this. It's in San Francisco, the San Francisco public school building there. The other issues that were of concern were the police issue. I think that's on a lot of folks' mind. I'm not sure that it's enough to defund the police. I think we need to demilitarize the police. You know, back in the day white supremacists used to hide behind a white robe and a hood, but now they hide behind qualified immunity. And that deprived people from seeking justice. So I was not expecting to be a candidate. It's kind of unlikely. But here I am. And if you have questions, I'm happy to answer them. I will be down in front of the archives this evening enjoying the summer weather. If you have questions or want to talk, just want to opine about the state of affairs in Burlington. I'm happy to talk to you. And I'd like to go on the record and say that I support Proposition Zero. I think it's important that we have direct democracy here. And I think that's one way to do it. I think it's long past time. Thank you for your time. All right. So anyone that has a blue ballot here and is voting on paper needs to write the name Chris Hazely at the bottom and make that vote. And for those who are voting online, do you have any other nominations from the floor? Alrighty. Well, I'm not in this ward, so I don't have to vote, but y'all have some tough decisions to make and we're going to try and give you a little more of a glimpse into the candidates. I'd like them all to come up here and we're going to have a short Q&A with a couple questions. So if all five of the candidates could come up, that would be great. Alrighty. So, wow, our candidates are going to vote. Julie. Julie Massoud. Chris Hazely and Owen Milne. Let's have one big round of applause for them putting themselves out here and volunteering to be your Ward 3 city councillor. So the way it's going to work, I'll just start here with Owen because he's close. Each candidate is going to have one minute and then you can just pass the mic down. And the first question is, what are the conditions and economists are always talking about quote unquote growing the economy? Is there a problem with that? Owen, you're on. So I don't believe in growth for growth's sake. I leave actually in growth in sectors that matter. So we need to grow sustainability and the technologies and the things that will move us forward and move away from the things that we no longer need and getting away from antiquated things like fossil fuels or other parts and industries that degrade our environment and move forward in a new direction. Sorry, I thought we were going to go on a name order. Yeah. I do think there's a problem here with Berlin and it's called regulation. So consider this. Let's say we have a person here in the old north end he, she, they decide, I'm going to start a business. I'm going to start a food cart. Now back in the day, starting a food cart was a way out of poverty. You start a food court and maybe build a business on it. A great example of that is the skinny pancake they started out in I think 2003-2004 on Church Street and now they have several locations. So that person goes down to CVOEO and they get they take the class, they come up with a business plan they put $1500 aside at their own money they get a matching $1500 grant to start their business and then they show up at the marketplace saying I'd like to open a food cart and the market says that's wonderful. It's $2,700 to get a permit to open up down on Church Street in front of the city hall. That is not affordable. That is a barrier to entry to lower income people here. I talked to my neighbor Rick who runs a tattoo shop I was asking him about the zoning process and he said well I got three of these three signs here. I had to get three separate permits for these signs and it cost me money. So this is the kind of stuff that goes on and then I walk around Church Street and I say oh bricks are missing here I've got some stuff going on over here my view of Church Street is literally falling apart and I know that there's a special assessment fee that's going collected from the merchants there but not exactly sure where that's all going so that was another issue. The other thing I'd like to say is our you know probably came here kind of knew what they wanted to vote for didn't expect to get a lot of support here in the last minute so I just simply say that if you've already got your mind made up that's great I would absolutely love to be your second choice candidate and I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thanks Chris, Julie. Hi my answer to this question is absolutely yes there is a problem with continuing to grow the economy we by the laws of physics we live on a planet with finite resources so to continue to grow infinitely makes absolutely no sense and when we continue to try to grow infinitely in a world where we don't have infinite resources people are going to be left behind and they always are for example as a woman I'm always going to make less money than men but like out of more cosmic scale you know we're building way more than we can ever sustain both in the fossil fuel infrastructure in people's homes and lawns and cars and all of those things are great to have but if we just keep expanding forever then we're going to ruin everything that we have so I actually am fairly anti-capitalist and that's thank you and that's not to say that I don't appreciate the small businesses that are running here but I also think that there needs to be you know salary caps there needs to be affordable wages there needs to be at least $15 an hour but we should also you know be considering inflation after that but yeah long story short we can't grow forever thank you I guess what I would have to say about growth is just that when we talk about it it's who is the economy growing for and who is it leaving out it seems to always be the same people that it's leaving out and that should impact not only how we measure growth going forward but how we plan to bring more people in that have been historically left out to the unbelievable economic expansion that we've seen in this country over the course of our existence we need to focus on who is always left out of the equation the way politicians usually talk about the economy is seeing it as a singular sort of thing you know they don't take the time to have the conversation about how healthcare and a livable wage and you know the quality of life for the people that are benefiting from our economy you know we have corporations in this country that are giving massive bonuses to their CEOs and not paying wages to the rest of the workers and we need to support working people absolutely 100% I consider myself a socialist I think that the government needs to do far more if the minimum wage had kept placed within inflation it would be $25 today so $15 an hour is the floor all right thank you and I just want to give a quick reminder to folks if you did not register online you do need to register here to get your blue ballot so you will be able to cast it assuming you live in word 3 okay question number 2 and to Julie I'm going to start with you so prepare yourself what is your perspective on how CEDO the community economic development office has been used under the current administration and what is your perspective on where it should go in the future or how it should be used we're talking about the community economic development office thank you this is something that I've thought a lot about and it's not always necessarily with the lens of CEDO in particular but when we're deciding where to allocate funds it's we've got to be a little bit more bold and a little less scared than we have been in the past and reallocating funds to helping our houseless neighbors helping people who are being brutalized by the police defunding the police all those kinds of things and just deciding where we're going to put our money we've talked a lot about the mall pit because of course we're going to talk about the mall pit but money that's going toward that could be going toward mutual aid it could be going toward repairing our schools it could be going toward anything else as could the police budget as could the budget that's going toward repairing city hall park rather than repairing the sidewalks that we were talking about so just in general I think we've got to be more adventurous with how we're spending our money if we're going to have to keep spending money thank you well first of all I'm thrilled that Brian Pine is taking over CEDO he understands how the levers of power work in the city and I think we're in great shape with him at the helm I think CEDO should function apolitically it should not change its focus depending on the administration and what I would say is that under someone's leadership like Brian I think it's going to reflect our values in this community a lot more than it has you know CEDO is going to play a vital role they already have in ensuring that the relief money that we're getting from the federal government is distributed equitably ensuring that BIPOC folks are getting access to technical resources and assistance to make sure that that aid is being distributed the way it needs to be and not just to the bigger businesses in the city that have the resources to access those funds right away and you know as we receive more money over the next few months it's going to be vital that we go to the NPAs and make sure that the NPAs are receiving input from the communities and CEDO needs to be that voice for our neighbors and making sure that the aid is getting where it needs to be and that we are distributing it for our communities thank you man hello not sure that's been used very well I think moving forward though again I want to look at barriers that are preventing folks of lower income from really coming to realize the American dream and give them an opportunity to follow it and in the past I think that CEDO has done a fairly good job I had the opportunity in years past to serve on the CDBG advisory board and I think Burlington is notable in a sense I think we're one of the few communities that actually allow community input into how that funds get allocated many places it's simply the mayor's office and so I know that having Brian at the helm is going to bring us in the right direction and on the note of Brian Brian was one of the first folks that I met when I came to town and kind of in my late 20s and really didn't know a whole hell of a lot about a lot of things and Brian was the one who kind of gave me the crash course in affordable housing and going back to what I said about the $800 a bedroom so let's do some quick math 30% $800 $2,400 assuming it's going to work for weeks in a month it's 160 hours a week so divide that amount down by the $160 and what do you get $15 an hour thank you so I echo what others have said here when Brian called me a few months ago about him making the change over to CEDO I was it's not even bittersweet it is sweet to have someone like that now serving the entire city of Burlington and not just Ward 3 is an asset for all of us the opportunity that we have with Brian there allows us to really advocate for a full transition of CEDO away from the development arm of the mayor's office to its intended purpose which is to serve the social needs of the people of the city of Burlington if I was on city council I'd be advocating very hard for CEDO to be making a full transformational culture change toward that end CEDO used to do things like creating community housing trust and other things that benefit all of us directly and we need that to switch and move back and away from development all right thank you and the final question is I recognize that there's a lot of diversity amongst the candidates here but I also can't help but notice that we don't have a person of color refugee immigrant BIPOC person up here so my question to you is what will you do to ensure that those voices are at the table represented and what will you do to work to build leadership amongst those communities so the next caucus we have some of those folks sharing their ideas as well and Brian we're going to start with you don't worry I won't do any math so it's a complicated issue we all are who we are and it's something that we struggle with across the board in this city we have a really diverse new American population in this ward and others and I think the first step is inviting everyone to the table there is this adversarial relationship between those that have traditionally been in power and those that are seeking more power and what we need to do is make sure that everyone has equal opportunity that involves outreach that involves translating and having interpretation services available at cultural institutions as well as city and municipal institutions it's important because otherwise you're going to see more faces like this forever and ever unless we put in the work so a big thing that I've thought about as a member of the board of tax appeals is how our board and commission process is very exclusive you know I wouldn't have known about it had somebody not reached out to me a few years ago to tell me about it and send me the application and tell me what to do with the application and so as a result I was serving on the board with a bunch of lawyers and real estate agents that had time to take off in the middle of the day and you know that doesn't serve working people so we need to drastically rethink that process particularly that's where a lot of policies made for the city we absolutely need to innovate that and you know as far as bring more people into the process for the progressive party this campaign will knock on every door in the ward and bring more people into the process so that at the next progressive caucus we will hopefully have a much more diverse array of candidates thanks I shared Megan's observation too is that we're I think we're all white Caucasian here obviously at the obvious I'm a white man my experience is vastly different and you know I can't want to speak in people and walk in their moccasins and I think that you know there's those and well we got to give them to the table give them a voice that's a good start well then we got to come up with a list of what the issues are from the community and then come up with a plan to get it you know an objective maybe says hey we're going to eliminate barriers to housing and then maybe some specific goals that say this is you know what we're going to do with the responsibility to date and come up with a plan and then the most important part of the plan is when we have the plan is we make it a living breathing document and continue to look at it on a regular basis and update it if needed for that I had the option occasion to travel down in the deep south spend some time down there it was a very eye-opening experience for me I know that as a white man I get pulled over I'm not going to have to worry about getting shot I know that if I go out shopping with my you know my family I'm not going to get followed around the store and made to feel uncomfortable like I might steal something so my response would be is I'm not going to tell them I want to listen and I want to help come up with a plan and empower people because I believe the role of government is to allow people to make their own decisions thank you so I know a few things about diversity myself but often times I am the person with a different perspective on things in life and in Burlington and there's anything that has happened to me over the course of my professional career it's somehow I always end up being the guy who's on the governance committee of every board and in that role I always have found that in making it putting the word out about a committee or a board opening is not enough you actually have to do the extra work and call people and invite them to the table that's one thing that never happens we put the word out and that's it and the people show up and that's what happens what I would be doing and city council would actually be taking the extra step of putting myself in a place to meet diverse populations of Burlington and then establishing those relationships and inviting them to the boards and commissions not just keeping it open thank you we are never going to have a more diverse candidate pool unless we directly address white supremacy and poverty those are largely at the root of why we have such a white selection of candidates a lot of the work that I have been doing has been working directly with those communities and there's a lot of barriers to entry that have not been addressed I'm not running for city council because I'm going to make a lot of money but I am not in tremendous debt so I can afford to do that but there are a lot of people out there who can't afford to have a position like this they just it's not enough money it's too much time it's too much commitment so they can't they can't participate or they don't have the resources to and the other thing is just you need to work it's not enough to just invite someone you need to work directly with them you need to meet them where they're at that's why I do a lot of work with community voices for immigrant rights and for the battery park movement and working directly with those community members forming a relationship not just saying hey I need a black person or a trans person or an immigrant to come to this meeting so I can check off my box I actually want to be a collaborator with those folks so that I can have their needs met where they're at thank you alright everybody so our candidates Owen Milne Julie Masuga Ryan Adario Joe McGee and Chris Hazley let's give them a huge round of applause and for those folks who are watching the live stream or are writing in the name Chris's last name is H A E S S L Y so you're going to want to add that for people who are voting online that will be on your ballot but for those of you you can write Chris Hazley if you don't spell it right we'll still count the vote so now is the time when ranked choice voting starts anybody who is voting with a piece of paper you need to take your piece of paper and you need to rank your candidates who's your favorite who's your second favorite three four and five you've got five candidates and then you're going to bring your ballot to Josh and the blue shirt over there and they'll be passing the ballot box around for anyone who registered online you will be voting online either on your phone right now or when you go home and get a connection you'll be voting online I do not know until when the voting is open and before I say goodbye I just want to make one more pitch I will this is this is an incredible event voting is open until seven p.m. on Saturday so you have a day and a half to ruminate about these candidates to go back and watch the live stream and decide who's one who's two and so on down the line but I do just want to thank Josh I want to thank Lisa we have only two staff we could really really really use a contribution of any size the work we've been doing in Burlington the work we've been doing around the state the work reps like Emma Mulvaney Stanek who is here tonight and all of our other reps from Burlington and from around the state are doing it is incredible it is far beyond the size of our party and it's made possible because all of you all of the people here all the people watching on the live stream believe in this believe in these issues and share these values so I really hope everybody will make a small contribution tonight or if you can become a sustaining donor become a monthly donor even if it's only for five bucks a month it would really really really help us continue to do all of this so thank you thank you to all of the candidates for your time for your putting yourselves out there for the door to door you're going to be doing for us and building the party I am really proud of all of you and I appreciate what you shared with all of us tonight and thanks to everyone Thank you