 Hello and welcome to Town Meeting TV's ongoing coverage of Town Meeting Day 2024, which will be Tuesday, March 5th this year, or actually next year, 2024. Town Meeting TV hosts forums with all candidates and covers every question you will see on your ballot this year, introducing you to community decision makers, and connecting you with issues that shape your local community. You can find all of our forums at ch17.tv or on our Town Meeting TV YouTube channel. This forum is also in advance of the Burlington Democrats Town Meeting Day Nominating Caucus, which will be on Sunday, December 10th. Voting for that caucus will be held virtually, with limited in-person voting for those who need it. You can register online to vote in that caucus at btvdems.org. Tonight's program we will hear from one of the candidates running for the Democratic nomination for the Ward 7 City Council seat, and that is candidate Lee Morrigan. Thank you so much for joining us, Lee. Thanks for having me, Bobby, and thanks to Town Meeting TV. Totally. So there is one other candidate seeking the Democratic nomination for the Ward 7 seat. That is Evan Litwin, and Evan was not able to join us for this forum tonight, but we have a prepared list of questions for you, Lee, and we also have the phone lines open at 802-862-3966, and if you call in with your question for Lee, we will prioritize your question and get your call on the air. So with that, maybe let's jump in. You ready? Sounds great. Okay, so your opening statement, please tell us why you should be nominated to represent the Democratic Party for the upcoming Ward 7 City Council election. Great. Well, again, thank you so much, Bobby, and thanks again to Town Meeting TV for having me. My name is Lee Morrigan, and I'm running to be your next city counselor from Ward 7 to build a Burlington where everyone feels safe, secure, and supported. I grew up as a queer kid in a single-parent household, living paycheck to paycheck. Seeing every day how hard my mom had to work to provide for us. From a young age, it was obvious to me that if I wanted to see real change in my community, I would have to step up and be that change. I've been doing that in Burlington, helping manage millions of dollars in public funds as the vice chair of the Parks Commission, and innovating to ensure our parks are places for all of us. I'm proud to say that I was appointed to the position with support from Democrats, independents, and progressives. And since that appointment, I have worked with the council to bring common sense reforms that build bridges rather than cut us up along party lines. We need someone who can hit the ground running on day one to get to work and bring much needed experience to the council. I am the only person who cared to show up today because I care about you and serving my community. I look forward to your questions. Great. Thank you, Lee. So our first question tonight is about public safety. And before I jump into that, I will just remind folks that you can call in 802-862-3966 with your question. Let's start with this question here. So arguably the most talked about issue right now is whether the streets of Burlington are safe. So how do you think the city council should address these public safety concerns? Absolutely. When I'm out talking to my neighbors, the top concern for people is public safety. And I'm happy to talk about that. Public safety is a passion of mine. It's something I've been working on on the Parks and Rec Commission. I'm very focused on that. And I've been collaborating with city employees and first responders on finding solutions that work for everybody. So an issue that is not controversial is the current police cap. So a tripartisan effort agreed on a cap of 87. Now we are currently at least 19 officers below that cap as of the data available at the October police commission chief's report. And so I'm concerned with how do we get to that cap? And I think we do it through incentives. People talk a lot about community policing. It's a buzzword right now. I think to have true community policing, our police have to feel connected to their communities. It's hard to do that when they can't afford to live here. So I'm thinking let's do some incentives, let's do a housing stipend so our officers can live in the city that they serve. That being said, I'm focused on harm reduction. We cannot police ourselves out of a lot of these crises and we need a collaborative holistic approach. I want to prioritize harm reduction and we really need a blend. And what we need is somebody with lived experience. In recovery, I'm formerly unhoused. We need a problem solver who has realistic goals, not thinking about what we may be able to accomplish two to three years down the road. Let's talk about what we can do right now. Thanks, Lee. So our next question here is about partisan politics. So what is your experience with the current state of political division across ideological and party lines specifically in Burlington? What have you done to build consensus and learn from disagreements? Thanks, Bobby, for that question. Great question. So to answer that, I got to backtrack a little bit. In 2011, I sustained a workplace injury and I needed surgery for. Now anyone who has had to deal with workers comp can tell you there's a lot of difficulties there and because of a workers comp disputing my claim I had to wait almost a year to have the surgery I desperately needed and that experience made me an advocate once I was healed and ready for healthcare access and in fact that's what drew me to the progressive party, the progressives prioritize healthcare as a human right that everybody deserves and I agree with that. So my roots are in the progressive party. This is true, but we're dealing with a lot of issues in Burlington that transcend party politics. Chief among them is public safety. Public safety can work for anyone regardless of what party you fall into and I feel that my neighbors, more than being concerned about political parties is they want someone who is rooted in the community and who has the relationships. I've been appointed to the Parks Commission twice by a tripartisan effort on a Democratic-led council. I have great relationships on both sides of the council and I have been getting things done with the council so I'm ready to step up and do that as a counselor for my community. Great. Our next question is about housing. How should the city of Burlington address the need for safe and affordable housing for the people who work, live, study and visit the city of Burlington? You know, it's a double-edged sword living in such a desirable community. We saw an influx of people during COVID because we live in a beautiful area and we had very low COVID rates, I think due in large part to our response. We had a great COVID response. But we have a broken housing system. We have expensive rents and we have a very low vacancy rate. For me, I think a key part is looking at zoning changes. I believe in high density housing so we can bring down those rents. I think a key part of our housing issue is we need to look at the role that landlords and UVM has played in that. Now, I believe wholeheartedly, they need to be invited to the table to be partners. But when they fall short of their duty to take care of this community that they are in, then they need to be held responsible and accountable by the city council. We also have an unprecedented on-house crisis and we do not have enough sheltering options for our people and that's not right. As a formerly on-house person, I will tell you that anybody in the city that tonight wants to be sleeping under a roof should be able to do that. That's a very simple thing and we cannot meet that need. We need to expand our sheltering options. And to do that, we do need help from the state. The state needs to play a part. But we can lead from Burlington, building a stronger relationship with all of our legislators, building a stronger relationship with other mayors and really approaching this from a collaborative angle. This is personal for me. I see myself in these folks when I'm out and about downtown and I was there once. But I remain optimistic that just as I was able to go forward through that, I believe our neighbors can too and we can all come together and be part of that solution. Our next question is about addiction and the opioid crisis. What is the city doing right now and what are the biggest changes you see that need to happen to help both the people suffering from addiction and those around them impacted by the effects? And as a follow-on to that, do you support safe injection sites? You know, Bobby, the sad truth is we are losing too many people. There are so many families that this year at the holiday time, they're going to look around their dinner table and there's going to be an empty spot. And that's not okay. We are in a crisis and I believe that overdose prevention centers have a role in getting us out of that crisis. These centers have been in operation for years in the U.S. and around the world. I particularly impartial to the model used in New York City through on-point NYC. And the work that they did beforehand, I feel, is vitally important and incredibly admirable. Before they even went into effect, they were engaging community partners. They were engaging local businesses, neighbors, politicians, having meetings at schools and making sure everybody knew the reality of what an overdose prevention site is and what it isn't. And they leaned into that and dispelled the misrepresentations and misinformation with that. And the results are clear. They are serving a lot of people. They are keeping millions of syringes off the street and they are doing great work. And I think the key thing about overdose prevention centers is when people access those services, they are every time having the ability to connect with resources to get into recovery. A sad thing we see and we got this data from UVM is that a very small percentage of people who die from overdoses have actually entered any form of recovery and we need to change that. Next we are going to talk about racial justice. So where do you see systemic racism showing up in Burlington and what can the city council do about it? So Bobby, the truth is that systemic racism touches all of our systems because our systems were not made for everybody. We see this and the harm that systemic racism can lead to. And what happened, this tragic event, the tragic shooting a few weeks ago, where three young men who were, who the only thing that they were doing was speaking Arabic and wearing kafias and they were shot for who they were. That is not who Burlington is. That is not what we are. We don't want to be that. We all have a responsibility in combating that. We need to stand together and send a message as a city government about what we want and what our values are and to do that we need to really enable REIB to continue and expand the excellent work they are doing. They are a part of the community every day. I have great respect for director Kim Carson and what she's doing. I think she has been doing incredible things in the relationship building she has been doing with all department heads is second to none. And we also need to do outreach. You know, part of growing up in Vermont and New England, we have a certain mindset. You only know what you know and I think education is a huge part in getting all folks to understand the systems we have, how they came to be and why we need to make some changes. Next we will talk about development and change. I just want to pause and say thank you. I know you are the only one answering these questions. I hope your voice isn't getting tired. Thank you so much. I am known for not being quiet. This is a great opportunity. Our next question is about development and change in Burlington. We have the Memorial Auditorium, the PIN, the Catholic Diocese, the Vermont Department of Health Office, Perkins Pier, King Street, on and on, Burlington is undergoing a lot of change and growing pains. So what is the first location that you would hope to address as a city counselor for development and change and how would you leverage public and private partnerships to get this done? Lots of change and growing pains indeed. First and foremost with development my priority is quality, affordable housing. I think that that needs to be the forefront of any conversation we have about development. Now when we talk about development in all of these spaces I'm really interested in making sure we are keeping spaces public and used for everyone. So as we develop we need to ask ourselves are these spaces for everyone? Are they affordable for everyone? Or is this only going to be a space for a very select few? And we need to look at when we're engaging in those decisions what do we want to see for ourselves as a city? So I think it is very important. Another thing we cannot lose sight of as we engage in public and private development which I do think is part of the answer is that we are not leaving our small businesses behind. Small businesses are a vital part of what makes us Burlington especially the Church Street Marketplace. So we need to make sure that we are empowering small business owners with everything they need and that is assistance with zoning and permitting and also the safety of their workers downtown. And you know for me I look at my part so part of my part what I'm doing as a candidate is I don't accept donations from corporations, developers or landlords. It's really important for me to walk the walk and I think we really just need a government that works for people and not special interests and I'm here to do that in whatever way I can. Great. So we'll now switch to talking about climate change in Burlington. So the city's net zero energy by 2030 goal is defined as reducing and eventually eliminating fossil fuel use from the heating and ground transportation sectors in Burlington. So this NZE goal is ambitious for both its rapidity and comprehensiveness and it will require holistic transformation in the city. So what does the city council need to do to meet this goal and do you support the continued operation of the McNeil power plant? You know we are facing a true global crisis and like you said these are ambitious goals. You know it's funny when I think of climate change sometimes my mind goes back to when I was a kid reading in the school books about climate change and they would show pictures of glaciers and what they were you know back then 10 years past and what they're going and I look at that and I think it's just undeniable. Like and I think what I'm proud of with Vermont I don't hear many people debating that we're in a climate crisis so that we have that going for us. I think a vital part of that as the city recognizes we need to transition away from fossil fuels. I think we also need to transition away from burning biomass. I know McNeil was very controversial and there are reasons for that. I know that there's the immediate concerns with that but it is my duty as someone who cares about Burlington we have to look at the long term, we have to look at the bigger picture and I do not feel that burning biomass is a viable part of our future plan for Burlington. I think another way we look at our climate crisis is we look at free public transit. Most experts would agree that the first stop for reducing emissions in a city is to broaden your public transit. I think we have a good foundation on public transit. I think we can go further keeping it free is a big part of how we do that. I'm interested in climate resilience. I'm interested in how we can look at accepting climate refugees that we're going to be seeing limiting our emissions and taking a broad collaborative approach with the full council and administration to do that. Awesome. So we only have maybe a couple of questions left. So this question, this next question will be about gun control. So high profile, as you know, high profile and devastating shootings have had a huge impact on our community over the last couple of years. So what will you do as a city councilor to advocate for changes that could curb gun violence? Yes, excellent question. I know gun control is important to many people. So I grew up in Unity, New Hampshire, big hunting community. In fact, I had an excellent neighbor who loved to hunt, but his wife wouldn't allow him to have venison in the house. So I benefited greatly from that. Thanks, Bob. You know, so I respect hunting. I respect activities like target shooting. These are important traditions, especially in Vermont. But guns do not make us more safe in Burlington and especially downtown. I believe that wholeheartedly. We don't need them downtown. Now, this is a key difference between me and my opponent. My opponent has said that if people are worried about going downtown, that part of that answer is civilians arming themselves. I reject that wholeheartedly. I believe that guns need to be locked away in safe storage until the time they are used for a safe activity like hunting or target shooting. I don't think the place for guns are on your hip when you go to your favorite restaurant downtown or you're walking through City Hall Park. This does not make us safer. It does not make the police safe. It does not make the people around us safe. And it does not make us more safe. Thank you, Lee. Just one more question here. So this March, non-citizen voting will be in practice for local elections. So this is one of the first elections where we'll have all resident or non-citizen voting. So what are some ways that you will work to empower non-citizen residents to vote in this election? I am thrilled about this development, Bobby. This was something I advocated heavily for. I voted for it, so I'm thrilled. Now, it's important to keep in mind that Republicans did try to strip this. The Republicans have fought it in court. It has passed that challenge, so non-citizen voting is here to stay, and I'm very happy for that. So this means we need to increase our engagement. It's not just about translated materials at the ballot box. It's not making sure that every aspect of our local government is open and accessible to everybody who wishes to participate. This means NPA meetings, this means City Council meetings, or any other meeting. Anybody should be able to access in the language of their origin. Thanks, Lee. I think that pretty much wraps it up. We'll have time for your final closing statement for your candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Ward 7 City Council seat. Excellent. Bobby, I want to thank you so much. This has been a pleasure. So, folks, we can do this. We can build a better Burlington. I know we can go forward together, building bridges between neighbors and standing up for what's right. But we need someone with the know-how, the experience, and the relationships to get the job done. I'm ready on day one to be the kind of counselor that Ward 7 and our city deserves. The biggest difference between myself and my opponent is on display here tonight. I show up. I will answer your questions, and I will level with you. Tonight, I'm asking for your vote in the Democratic Caucus this Sunday, December 10th. If you still need to register, please head to the Burlington Democrats website or leafofburlington.com. Thank you. Thank you, Lee, and thank you for tuning in to Town Meeting TV's coverage of Town Meeting Day 2024. You can find this and many more forums online at ch17.tv. And don't forget that you can vote in the Sunday, December 10th Democratic Caucus at the Burlington Democrats' Town Meeting Day Nominating Caucus Sunday, December 10th. Voting will be held virtually with limited in-person voting for those who need it, and you can register online at btvdems.org. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much.