 like to say a few words first of all first of all okay the night is ours but we want to congratulate our opponent for running a clean campaign and a tough campaign and we congratulate him it's not easy to lose but he deserves credit for running a damn good I think what we can say tonight is that we have won an incredible victory not only not not only have we retain the mayor's seat we have one in Ward one in Ward two one in one Terry, Terry Varicious, is Sharon Busch here, Sharon here yet? Is Tom Smith here yet? Tom and from what I heard on the radio we are still alive here Mary Bentley here so what we have done is won three automatic seats and we have a shot at a fourth and furthermore furthermore from what I could understand we have won every one of the initiatives that were on the ballot if that is in fact the case and we haven't seen the final results among other things what that does mean after years and years of discussion we are going to get the people oriented waterfront that we have fought for the last point that I want to make is this the tonight's victory clearly would not have been responsible not have been possible without the work of an enormous number of people there's no question about it we have never had never had as good a volunteer and grassroots effort as we have had in this campaign and there are hundreds of people that we could bring forward right now but I want to bring at least two people forward Jim Schumacher, you called the office whether it was early in the morning or late at night Rachel Levin was there what we have done tonight let's take stock of it what we have done tonight really is a credit to all of us and to the people of the city of Burlington what we have shown is that after six years of being the only independent progressive government in the entire United States of America that after six years not only are we not getting weaker we're getting stronger that responsibility of being a unique type of government in America goes not only the obligation to continue to do the very best job that we can for the people of Burlington and that goes without saying and we're going to continue to do that but equally important we have got to be an example to the rest of the United States of America that a grassroots movement standing up fighting for world peace fighting for social justice fighting for economic democracy for the rights of all people rather than just the very rich is an idea that is as American as apple pie as Tom says as Tom says with Vermont apples that's why okay so I look forward in the next two years with your support and with the support of all the people in our city to make these next two years the very best that we've ever had and I thank all of you very much thank you in terms of the all the manic elections we have through the victory of Sharon Boucher won a another seat on the board of Alderman and it's I think as most people know it is not easy to defeat an incumbent and I congratulate Sharon and the people in Ward 1 who work so hard to bring that about Terry Bureches won reelection in a very hard race Tom Smith won election and Mary Bentley did extremely well in Ward 5 and is going to be involved in a runoff election and we're very proud of that that's really quite a feat I think of equal importance to me from the old American mayoral victory is the fact that we won and won decisively on every single ballot item that appeared before the people of Burlington yesterday and in my view what that shows is that the people of Burlington have confidence in the future of their city and it's one thing to vote for a candidate for election you have two choices and you're going to vote for one it is another thing to vote for six ballot items including several money items to raise your own taxes because you believe in the city and the greatness of the city and in the future of the city and obviously as a result of those ballot item victories it means that the school department is going to have the necessary funds so that we can adequately educate our kids it means that we're going to be able to expand and improve our police department something that I believe is absolutely needed it means that we're going to finally have the kinds of money that we need to create a people-oriented waterfront so that Burlington's extraordinarily beautiful waterfront will be open to all of our people forever it means that we are going to be able to provide property tax relief and a renters rebate program to supplement the state program for the poorest people in our city and in fact as part of that ballot item come up with a major alternative another alternative to the property tax and that is of course the property transfer tax one half of one percent that issue is going to be brought down to Montpelier immediately and we're going to do our very best to make certain that the people of Burlington who voted overwhelmingly for that item get their way and not be rejected by the legislature and lastly we have passed the strongest condo conversion bill in the state which will enable us to protect affordable housing in the city and we're very proud of that so I think overall not only in a partisan political way was I gratified by yesterday's results and I obviously was but also I think what it what it confirmed to me is what I think many people believe that the people of Burlington are proud of our city they feel that we're moving in the right direction and they're willing to in some instances vote themselves higher taxes in order to continue that effort so it was obviously from my point of view an extraordinary night as I said before the election and as I repeat after the election this is going to be my last term as mayor of the city of Burlington I am as proud as I can be and just grateful and humble for the mandate that we received yesterday from the people to continue in other two years it's going to be an exciting two years a lot of ideas in the back of our minds that we'll be talking about within the next few weeks I'm very optimistic about the future of the city and I'm looking forward to a great two years thank you Bernie if things with this kind of mandate I mean considering that you feel as proud of everything as you're saying why limit yourself now why saying no more after these two years among other things that's what I said before the election and I think it's a good idea to keep one's word the day after as opposed to the day before I said that I thought that eight years was ample time and I think it is I really do eight years is a long time what would you like to do I mean you're saying you bring that but you're going to leave oh I knew that you after this election people would not I knew I was waiting for Bob Knott's to be saying what's the next election I really I knew that you weren't going to really ask that question Peter were you not that question but uh you know we have a foreign company in Downs Rackland and Martin I mean would you see yourself leaving Burlington after two years no this is my home and I've lived here now for 17 years I will probably be a Burlington resident for the rest of my life I think it's a little silly to speculate about what's going to happen in two years right there's a lot of work in front of us it's going to be I think a fantastic two years I'm really obviously with the victories yesterday in terms of all the manic representation and in terms of the of the ballot items it's really going to be an exciting two years I mean to be honest with you if I had won and we had lost a few seats on the border hold them in and we had lost some of the ballot items my enthusiasm would not be so great but we're in good shape and we're in good shape politically I think we're in pretty good shape economically and it's going to be a fun two years but I think it's a little bit a little bit early being that we've just decided the election last night it might be a little bit early to be talking about political horizons and futures and so forth do you see any changes coming up here at City Hall in terms of either personnel or you know sometimes after an administration is re you know that's right yeah the answer is there's a real possibility for that problem and I'm going to be going on vacation on Friday doing some thinking about it yeah I mean I don't there's not going to be any radical wholesale changes but there may very well be some changes what kind of things you're talking about I mean can you give us some idea that people talking of leaving you know no there's not no no we will not do we think that those three will be here with us but there may be some some changes some areas that we want to revitalize I think one of the dangers very clearly is that when you're in office for six years you don't want to get into the habit of doing something because you did it last year that way of the year before you really want to be vital you want to look to the future with excitement and a willingness to look at new ideas and you just don't want to do things out of habit so I think occasionally it's necessary to to bring about little shake-ups it's not going to be the cultural revolution we're not going to bring that about but yeah how important is this possible winning of a seventh seat on the board of alderman to you and do you think realistically in award five and it's runoff that there's a like a good life there's a good life that you'll forgive me I really don't want to that we have time for that one I think what I can tell we we're going to announce probably tomorrow a date for that election and we'll let we'll discuss that as we will besides confidence in the city what do you attribute getting you know 65 68 percent of these ballad is really quite incredible right every year there's something that everybody picks out I know they vote no on you like I mean I hate to say it but it only sounds like Carol stewart was correct in a comment a couple of months back people seem to be able to no all right let me look at that I'm glad you raised that issue and I look at it differently I think two things I think people will not vote themselves tax increases and will not be willing to spend money in areas unless they had confidence that that money was going to be well spent unless you have confidence in the future quite honestly what this tells me is that the people have confidence in the future of the city and I was wouldn't tell you otherwise amazed by the the depth of the victory I mean I thought we had a shot at these things but the scope of the victory was much greater than I had thought the issue of the property tax and whether people can afford I want to tell you this I mean if there's a lesson that remains imprinted in my mind out of this election it's I knocked on I don't know maybe 1500 doors and the most painful part of the campaign was knocking on doors of elderly people and poor people who cannot afford higher and higher property taxes so what I think you have here is there are numbers of people who can afford higher property taxes and I've never denied that but there are many people who cannot and there are some people who are willing to bite the bullet because they felt it important but if anything out of this campaign came my even stronger feeling about the stupidity of the property tax to fund education and municipal services the fact that people finally were willing to do it doesn't mean to say that the tax is not a bad form a bad method of raising money for education and municipal services and I just knocked on too many doors the impact of reappraisal was just you know when you think about the nature of this campaign and the things that I was running against I think it's fair to say that certainly one of the hardest things that I was running against and clearly that I was most frightened about was the impact of reappraisal I mean you can explain to people over and over again and I think they do believe what is in fact the truth the city of Burlington did not receive one extra penny from reappraisal if somebody's taxes went up somebody else's taxes went out and yet it doesn't matter if your taxes went up by 50 or 75 percent and you can't afford that it doesn't matter what the mayor tells you you're hurting and a lot of people are hurting and I honestly out of this has come almost if you want a reinvigoration on my part to do everything that I can to break out dependence on the property tax I'll be down in my period tomorrow starting that process again this year and something has got to be done are you going to be speaking out any more on statewide issues now is this are going to be any change in regard to that well I think Bob during the election I spent almost all of my time here in Burlington I have been down to my pillar on a number of occasions but I will certainly as soon as I return I'll be down in my period tomorrow we're going to fight for these charter changes okay we are going to make certain in terms of the state aid to education situation that not only the Burlington but every community in the state of a month gets a fair shake the foundation plan I hope I hope that the foundation is crumbling and we're certainly going to do everything we can to bury it and we're going to look for some progressive approaches to funding education once again I have to say that in terms of Burlington and in terms of every city and town in the state of Vermont the major issue that we have to deal with is the absurd and unfair relationship between state government and local government reading the paper today you read various towns who have lost revenue sharing and all of these communities all over the state they're battling what have they cut how much do they raise property taxes in order to compensate for the loss of revenue sharing that is the major issue the legislature is not dealing with it appropriately and I think you know that the league of cities and towns and I will be doing everything that we can to change that in this concession mafia expressed the hope that you would take a series looking at Burlington 2000 plan and try to implement something similar to that in the next two years do you have any plans or anything like that? Well I think it's always a good idea to bring people together to look to the future and see how we go I think we do that on an ongoing basis whether we would do it exactly that way I don't know but certainly it's it's it's a good idea any other parts of his campaign that you see being appropriate for looking at? we'll try to get more lighting out on the streets uh not really what about some of these ideas you know you said you were criticized in some quarters for running out a campaign that was basically based on the record really not presenting any vision for the future although you talked about a vision you didn't really present a lot of specific ideas so what can you give us some senses to you know again today you said you're going to be bringing some ideas you know it's only in the city of Burlington that when you announce that you're expanding your police force you're making major changes on the waterfront you're coming up with significant alternative to the property tax you're bringing forth the most significant condo conversion bill in the history of the state that that is nothing but are you taking personally credit for those as well I'm not taking personal credit from these are ideas that we strongly supported there are going to be many this this is your self service the difference between supporting an idea and initiating well I would say that in every one of those that I just mentioned those basically came from through a significant degree from this admit well the property tax one was a combination of the democrats and us there are other ideas that we're bringing forth but I think what we have just passed right now in terms of the ballot items is very significant and I think you know if you compare our agenda with whose agenda you know there's much more to be done I mean we've mentioned some ideas in terms of say property tax relief for senior citizens beyond this which we are working on environmental work I think you're going to see some efforts major efforts in terms of recycling you're going to see more work done on the bicycle path not just expanding the bicycle path but the idea of creating a network you're going to see our work continue in terms of state-city relationships there's an enormous agenda in front of us an enormous agenda I don't know that today is the day to go into all of the details but it's promises to be very exciting two years what do you see happening at this point with the waterfront how is this going to be I mean what can you tell people in terms of when how it's going to be implemented all right the hope is that work will be going to begin as soon as possible and we would like to see some real visible improvements certainly by this summer obviously as you know the location of the community boathouse is something that still has got to be explored and that we're doing right now but certainly as a result of the passage of this bond issue people will see some real won't use the word concrete rather I used real grass changes on the waterfront in the near future well I mean is the bike path going to get started in the summer yeah yeah well obviously you know it is already started and what has to be resolved now is the area in the south end is whether or not we go in front of bludgets but yes work will begin on that very shortly I think that once we have gone as far as we will have gone in in in allowing the people of Burlington to understand that there's going to be a whole lot of public access a community boathouse the bike path more parks I think it makes it easier to begin a discussion with private developers yeah I do think so I think what people are concerned about in the past is if you sit down with a private developer is there going to be any public access I think the answer is especially after this bond issue there is going to be and we're going to continue to get more public access after this but I think we'll make discussions with developers easier you're going to initiate in you're going to call Paul Flynn and get him back in that's not on the table right now well I think right now right that's right we're in court right now and I think we're going to have to resolve that issue any congratulatory phone calls for yeah the governor no actually I was surprised the governor did not go I think the governor had a bad day yesterday thank god she didn't endorse me I suppose he endorsed the democratic Rutland who seemed to have gone down two to one um lehi yeah I did get a call from senator lehi I've got a call from the attorney general how Dean was at our gathering last night what do you see about the future of the democratic party here locally it seems you're down to potentially could have only one seat yeah I I mean to be honest with you I I think you know we did clearly very very well but I think the democrats also did better than than the results indicate okay and we shouldn't get ourselves about that they brought out 900 people to their caucus to start the process which is an extraordinary effort it really is and as I mentioned yesterday to say the very least we were very very nervous at the start of this campaign to know that they had brought out you know maybe 15 or 18 percent of what they needed to win the election on a given night for a meeting second of all you know the truth is I think that they showed more organizational skill this time around than they did in the past okay you know the voter turnout was very large and not all of the new voters were our voters they brought out a lot of people as well so the bottom line is they could be down to one yeah it's true some of us are not yeah in public I mean Morris Mahoney last night had no explanation I mean they seem to have I want to tell you something I know it is not dramatic enough for you guys I know you'll always need something new and something profound but you know what I'm going to tell you what I'm going to tell you is that the average Burlingtonian thinks the city of Burlington today is being run very very well okay they're looking at the record and I think what the average Burlingtonian is saying is it's a damn good record we're proud of the alternatives to the property tax we're proud of the changes in the infrastructure our streets sidewalks sewers we're proud that we're making progress on the waterfront we're proud of the youth programs and the cultural programs and the women's programs we have established a very good record and after all is said and done essentially what the campaign comes down to any campaign comes down to is an incumbent says this is what I've done in the past and these are my ideas for the future and the challenges as well these are my ideas for the future this is the critique of the of the incumbent that's really what it comes down to and I think if you scratch beneath the surface surface and you go beyond the small numbers of people who have hated us from the day that we're in here and will hate us to the last day that we're in here if you go beyond those small numbers of people the average Burlingtonian thinks that we're doing a good job and that our vision is consistent with their vision that's really what it comes down to and people I think want to see us continue that direction and we have old amount of candidates who are I think if you look at the old amount of candidates on their own they're really a very good group of people very bright very energetic without exception grand tremendous campaigns not done every door in their wards they have indicated that they want to continue the progressive direction of the city and that's why they want to be it really is not more complicated than that I think people are proud of where we're going they want to continue that effort they want to support a mayor and all the manic supporters who are going in that direction and that's about it it's really not more complicated do you think that uh that you have essentially supplanted in building to the democrats as the sort of the second party power the second power I wouldn't phrase it that way I mean I won't repeat I mean I think I think people like what they're seeing that's about it they like the direction of city government right now and I think the majority of them said why should we change that direction why don't we continue going in that direction has your political organization to the point that it is a machine I mean the the quote last night from Morse Mahoney was that you guys had quite a machine yeah well I think Morris has been making that same quote and that same word for the last five years I know theirs is a grassroots citizen movement and ours is a political machine well but you know there was there was the pocket machine for 10 years right is there a Sanders machine now no I think but let me answer it this way and say this that in truth I think that the work done by our volunteers and I have to tell you at this point we have not paid one penny to any campaign worker up until this point it's been an all volunteer effort that the effort of yesterday was far and away the most intensive and best effort that we have ever made and that's certainly an important part of why we won yesterday we had volunteers out knocking on doors all over the city making God knows how many telephone calls doing an extraordinary effort I think you know when people want to criticize you they call it a machine but I think if you look at it objectively what you had is a grassroots movement of people who are proud of what we've accomplished and wanted to continue for another two years but again to use that that word Morse literally has been using that same word I think you'll check your records for the last five or six years you see any difficulty with the fact that you have signaled that this will be your last term getting anything done no I don't think so why I mean why should it make it different than it was in the past we have okay I think no I mean I think basically the way we have worked in the past and will continue to work is we bring forth an idea and if the idea makes sense we're going to try to rally public support for that idea and I think that will be the case I think you know if the idea makes sense and there's public support for it why should it be defeated and if people want to oppose it just for you know the sake of political partisanship we'll deal with that when it comes up but I honestly don't believe that the policies will be treated differently because I'm in my last term how do you explain it to yourself when you look at what happened last November in Burlington you got 15 percent of the vote a lot of those people that went to the polls in November and Jack Cunin turned out a lot of them and Jack Bernie Sanders this time got 22 percent of the vote 22 in Burlington yeah okay 22 to 55 I think the answer is not a hard answer I think often when people go to the ballot box they say do I feel comfortable that the governor has been doing a job that I can support and apparently 55 percent of the people said yeah I do I don't want to change governance I think yesterday people went to the polling booth and they said has the mayor been doing a job that we want to support and they said yes I think that's really what it's about I mean I think for example if governor Cunin were running against me as mayor you would see very different results than me running against governor Cunin as for governor and you explained the word one way well we ended up with more votes than their mark that's the major but why did you end up with more votes when you were running against an incumbent you're right and that was we were cautiously optimistic that we had a shot there Sharon is a very good candidate she worked very hard and I think if you look at the ward one movement that we have there has historically been a very strong one they're hard Monca and the people in what one did a fantastic job yesterday you know I won well there the support for the progressive agenda there in what one and Sharon one I think there was I don't I honestly haven't seen the results but there but you know I think if you look at the turnout though compared to two years ago it was not a significantly higher turnout in ward one would not be telling you the truth that we did not want to see a significantly higher turnout but it wasn't I think it was a hundred more is that correct okay which is not extraordinary really do you see this victory I mean it's a fairly large one do you see it as a message Sanders do what you want no not Sanders do what you want but what I see it is as a mandate in this of an indication that the people of Burlington are supporting the direction that we have taken the city in in the last six years and I think a belief that that is the direction that we should go in the future doesn't mean suddenly Sanders do what you want but it does say remain consistent stand up and make the fights that have to be made continue to lead the city in a direction which benefits all of our people and continue to talk out on those issues that you've talked down on so we see it as a mandate essentially to continue where we have been going and we'll certainly continue to do that yeah but I would say that of all of the items on the ballot we had most doubts about the school tax I thought that there was a reasonable chance the school tax would go down if it won I thought it would be in the low 50s getting close to 58 percent was more than I thought it is hard getting two-thirds of the vote for anything we were certain that the waterfront bond issue was going to pass 50 percent no question about that but that it ended up with 73 percent of the vote is fantastic the property tax relief for 68 percent is a very very high vote so it's I guess all that I could say Debbie is the we had our doubts about the school tax uh and and the magnitude of the support is really quite extraordinary and gratifying was that because they'd asked for one last year sure sure I mean you have reappraisal you had a 1.7 million dollar tax increase last year a 1.1 million dollar tax increase this year not everybody has children in the schools and it did go down at what for it lost them what for looking at it do you think 55 we are right now that that's probably because of the people who will be against your fault that this is really probably uh as good as you could realistically do you take away the uglies or whatever yeah roughly speaking no i'm going to go in for uh probably we probably where when are you fromados can we come yeah we could do satellite press conferences every day what do you say do they have a socialist independent government so what do you mean and I want to tell you also that you look back upon the CM in terms of elections it has been a very long year some of you may recall that we last year a year ago from today we had all the manic elections which we worked very very hard on it was important I know some of you were predicting that we weren't going to do so well right but we did okay then we had a special all the manic election to maintain to win for airheart manka we ran a gubernatorial race we had another mayoral race it has been a long year and uh I'm tired so I'm going to enjoy the week location and this will just be a brief respite brief respite and then we'll be back again okay thank you very much