 Hello and welcome to Channel 17's Town Meeting Television and another in our live 2019 candidate forums on tonight's show East District Candidates for City Council. Running as a Democrat, we have Richard Dean and as a progressive, Jack Hanson. Welcome to you both. It's a pleasure sharing the podium with you. Want to thank you both for your service and your willingness to serve our great city. The forum begins with a 60 second candidate opening statement followed by a round robin question and answer. The candidates have been provided with the questions ahead of time. This is also an opportunity for you, our viewing audience, to dial in and ask questions of the candidates themselves. Our phone number is 862-3966. And now, on to our opening statements, Richard Dean will begin with you. Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight. And I also have appreciated the opportunity to serve the residents of Ward 1 and Ward 8 as your East District City Councilor over the past two years. I have a deep connection to the city. I grew up here from my parents moved here in 1964. I went to high school, TAF school, the middle school as well. Thank you very much. And I've lived in this community for many, many, many years. My family came back here 20 years ago after I had moved to Washington, D.C. and Germany, but drawn back here. And that's because this city is such a fantastic place to live. I think we all recognize that. It's been a city of opportunity for me and for my family. My kids now at UVM and someone's son soon to be a Champlain. And I think the important thing that we have to wrestle with is how to provide that kind of opportunity to people who want to stay here, as senior citizens, to young families who want to move here, to young professionals who want to make a career here in a life here. That is really the most important single focusing issue for all of us as we think about how to move forward, make the city move forward in the future. So I've really focused my two years on those issues as well as dealing with climate change and have some kind of effect on this challenge that's in front of all of us as citizens of the world. But certainly here in Burlington, we have some opportunities to make a difference. And my intent is, and if I get another opportunity with another two years to move some of the issues that I've already started forward on those really critical pieces for this city. Thank you. Very good. Richard Dean, thank you. Jack Hanson, your opening statement. Thank you. My name's Jack Hanson. I'm a graduate of UVM from Environmental Studies major. I'm a renter on Pearl Street. And I work at Green Mountain Power helping customers to reduce their fossil fuel use. My father grew up in Burlington and my parents met at UVM. And I've been really involved with the community as a musician, as a community organizer while on campus, co-founding the renewable energy network and staying engaged since then with groups like Sierra Club and 350 Vermont. And also working on restorative justice initiatives. I was part of a circles of support and accountability program to help someone who had been incarcerated kind of reintegrate into the community and get back on their feet and reduce the risk of reoffending. I've also been really engaged with local issues and local politics here in Burlington and frankly have been disappointed in a number of cases where I saw a lot of community members including in our district bring up some very valid concerns with decision making processes and decisions themselves from City Hall and seeing those folks being ignored and being disrespected in many cases. So I would like to really focus on not only the issues that I worked on such as climate change and social justice and affordability but also focus on the idea of community engagement and bringing more folks into this process. And I've really tried to get that started with our campaign and with knocking on every door in the district and really having those two-way conversations. So I'm excited to continue that work and hopefully be able to bring it into the City Council. Very good gentlemen. Thank you very much for your opening comments. Our phone tree is lighting up like a Christmas tree. So we'll go right to our first caller. Caller we thank you for dialing in. You are live with Richard Dean and Jack Hansen, candidates for the East District City Council. Do you have a question for our candidates? Yes. I do. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Yes. Do you have a question for our candidates? Caller. I do. Quick preamble. I feel like diversity makes Burlington a vibrant place. Racial, cultural, economic diversity. I'm curious, Mr. Dean, what you see as your biggest accomplishment promoting that racial, cultural and class justice here in Burlington? Very good. It's a direct question to you, Mr. Dean. Your thoughts on your efforts to bring equality. Well, thank you. This is a really important question. I think we in Burlington celebrate the fact that we live in a city where we have an incredibly diverse group and populations that come from many places around the world including Councillor Jiang who comes to us from Africa. It really is an amazing wealth that we have here in the community. I think the most important thing that we can provide for all people who are coming to us is a diverse and an active economy that allows people to find a job. We also have to have an education system that serves the young families that join us as well. I'm going to interrupt you. I think he was looking specifically for what you have done. What I have done. Okay. So I have supported, I think, getting back to that point about education. It was my voice, I think, that really was one of the most important in the decision to renew and re-envise Burlington High School. Something that's really important to 21st century learning and providing access for educational opportunity and future success to everyone who comes to us in this city. So if I were to look at and say, you know, support of a strong economy that supports the people who come to us from other nations and other societies, and that piece on the education. Jack Hansen, your thoughts on your personal efforts for diversity and inclusion in the city? Yeah. I mean, I haven't been on city council, but I've certainly worked on the grassroots level with non-profit organizations and within those organizations really doing what we can to incorporate anti-oppression into the work that we do internally and the way we interact with each other, but also in terms of how we interact with the community. So I think a lot of it has to do with education, especially for me as a white male, it comes down to being proactive about educating myself about systems of oppression and how I can work against those in terms of the city council and what I would want to bring there. I think we have to look at systems that are still inequitable in Burlington, such as our outcomes in our school districts and outcomes in the way we police our community. We have a long way to go, so it's about consistent engagement and really putting in the resources long-term to be able to combat those issues from the city level. Very good candidates. We're going to move right on to our next caller here. Collar, you're live on the air with our East District City Council candidates. Do you have a question for our candidates? So one thing I'd like to hear about is the city budget. What is the municipal city budget and what is your experience of managing large budgets like this one? Very good. Jack Hansen will begin with you, the city budget and your experience in managing large budgets. Yeah. I believe it's around 200 million for fiscal year 19. If my numbers are correct and what I've looked at, in terms of my experience managing budgets, I haven't managed a budget of that size, but I've definitely managed budgets before as co-founder and leader of various student groups in high school and college and also during my time at V-PURG as well when I was running the recruitment budget for our summer canvas operation which employs 80 to 100 young people and it's really one of the great experiences that I've had. I've also, you know, was the campaign manager for Chris Pearson's campaign for State Senate in 2016 and, you know, managed a relatively healthy budget for that since we had a lot of small contributions coming in from Bernie Sanders' email list. So I've managed some budgets but not quite on the order of 200 million at this point. Richard Dean, your thoughts on the city budget? So Jack has that right. The 2019 fiscal year budget is around 200 million. 70 million of that is the general fund. About another 90 million of that is with our enterprise funds which includes the airport, our Burlington Electric Department which is very, very successful, our water and wastewater system as well. Those are enterprise funds. So I have been very, very attentive to the budgeting process. I've sat through, I do go to the meetings where we're actually discussing what's going on in the budget and what the priorities are. So I certainly have done that. Personally, I am a business owner, part of a group that manages a firm downtown and we're budgeting every year in terms of our marketing and our investments in the firm. That's something that I've discussed with all of my partners. It's something that we deal with on an annual basis. So I have, hopefully that would be 200 million but it's not, it's much less than that. But essentially I have the experience through my work at the city council level and on a personal level working as a business person to deal with complex budget issues. Very good. Candidates, we're going to move right on to our next caller. Caller, you're live on the air with East District City Council candidates. What's your question? Hello. I'd asked this question prior to the North District candidates. I'm going to propose it again. Recently news broke that a current city council candidate has a history of tweeting sexist in the violent comments towards them. This candidate has not pulled out of the race in the organization's rights and democracy as well as the progressive party have not rescinded their endorsement of this candidate. Jack, you received the endorsement from these groups as well. What do you think of the situation? I'd love to hear from you first. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. It was, I read the tweets and it was really disappointing. Having gotten to know Mohammed, I was surprised to see that and disappointed. I think it's really important that we're having this process of accountability and making it clear that those types of statements are completely unacceptable within our community. I think this is an important moment to be able to highlight that and have this conversation. In terms of what we do from here, I think that's going to be partly up to the campaign, but I think from a community perspective, I would tie it back to a lot of the work I've done around restorative justice and that is that if someone has committed an offense that has harmed people, I think it's important to bring that person into the discussion and work with them to be better going forward. Fortunately, Mohammed is someone who is really doing that work to make up for his past actions and try to be better on issues of misogyny and of sexism. It's really important that we keep this dialogue going and also use it as a reminder and as an opportunity that we need to be proactively addressing these issues as a community. Richard, your thoughts? Well, I have to admit being shocked by hearing and reading some of the misogynistic comments that came and understood in years past and a younger person, someone who a couple of years ago was voicing these things. So I think that's something to be said about maturity and about growing up and so I think the candidate will have to think about that. What I'm really concerned about though and what really raises questions in my mind is the candidate continues to enjoy the endorsement of rights and democracy in the progressive party and I know that those are not tenants, what was voiced in those tweets are not something that rights and democracy and the progressive party support. So I question what are the values that they can really stand by this and I have to think and question whether my opponent who enjoys their endorsement really wants that endorsement if he can't really trust that they believe the things that he does because I know he believes in the rights of women and he believes that we all need to be treated fairly. Thank you candidates. Collar just a point of order here in that Mohammed Jafar has addressed those issues directly in our South District candidate forum. You are invited to go online and watch that forum and learn his direct response to that question. Moving on now we've got more collars here so Collar you're live on the air with our East District City Council candidates do you have a question for one of our candidates? I do. This question was asked in the last forum and I'd like to ask it again. It's about question number four the downtown improvement district. The question is which of you have actually read the charter change language and what specifics from the plan have informed your opinion on the question. Thank you. Jack Hansen will begin with you on that excuse me it was your turn to go first Richard Dean. Your thoughts on the city charter change and the wording. So yes I have read that language and in fact I've read it many more times than most because I am part of the charter change committee who's charged with understanding what is being proposed so I think I do have a very clear understanding of what's being proposed and I think what we see is an opportunity for us to take a success the church street marketplace that came to us 30 years ago almost 40 years ago now and extend that success from four blocks to 40 blocks of the downtown. It gives us an opportunity through investments made by the property owners in the downtown to connect the church street all the way down to the waterfront such that the experience of the downtown safety enhanced services a sense of downtown extends all the way from our church street marketplace down to the waterfront. The opportunity is there it's funded by not by taxpayers but by the merchants themselves the people who are the business owners and property owners on the marketplace so it's not anything that comes out of the taxpayers pocket I think that's fantastic. Jack have you read the Charter Change wording and how has it informed your decision about it? Yeah so yeah I've read it as well and I oppose this ballot item. I think this downtown improvement district first of all the current model church street marketplace is a quasi city entity this new model would be a non-profit entity so we would be giving up a lot of the ability to control this entity so I'm not necessarily opposed to expanding it but giving up the control I think is unnecessary and I'm also concerned about how downtown improvement districts have played out in other communities where they have driven up the cost of housing in other communities and in some cases led to harassment of homeless or other marginalized people through private security forces so I definitely have concerns with that and I also think that this item was really it was irresponsible to put it on the ballot because there hasn't been a deep enough community engagement and education process you know when I've gone around knocking on folks doors only a couple of people have been aware of what this was and of those people that were aware they either didn't know what to think about it or they opposed it so I haven't met anyone on the doors who actually supports this initiative and I think it was it was rushed to put this on the ballot knowing that we haven't had enough of a discussion as a community I have an opportunity to rebut that 30 seconds and we'll ask then Jack to respond as well 30 seconds please so the point that Jack is trying to make that this is somehow a giveaway to the private and privatizing downtown that's absolutely not true there are no city assets and public assets that are transferred to the new DID and there are no governmental responsibilities that are given up to the governing board of the DID that's just not true and I can read the but I won't there is a piece here that says that absolutely that you know the other point about there not being enough time this has been down just discussion for many many months I know it's a difficult issue for some there there are some nuances but I think we need to realize that this is a successful downtown model that we're extending to a larger portion of the downtown jack a response yeah so so I think you know the governing board as I understand it and again it's been shifting so much that's hard to hard to keep track but it would be an 11 member board and you know five of those members would be not appointed six of them would be appointed by city councils but but five wouldn't so we are giving up part of that governing governing structure and and losing that control but also as I said you know there's concerns with how this has played out in other communities and the biggest point for me is just the fact that as I said I haven't talked to anyone on the doors who fully understands and supports this we're moving on we've got collars waiting to dial in and ask questions of our east district city councillors collar you're live on the air do you have a question for our candidates yes I have a question for Richard my name is Carter and recently myself and a group of young renters living in burlington called you to express our support for keep burlington telecom local when I called you you unfortunately hung up on me and told friends of mine who also called that they were just young people so they didn't know what they were talking about and since you since then you've actually reached out and apologized which we all you know very much appreciated but what have you learned about community engagement from this experience and how can community members like myself trust that you're committed to robust community engagement even with those who you might disagree with well uh mr newbieser I you know I um appreciate your call I do agree that there was a time one phone call that I made or you had with me where at the end of a very very busy day that I did not treat you as well as I should I called you the next day and apologize and I thought you accepted my apology I don't think there are any other cases that you mentioned past there that that that's just not the facts at all I think that I have in my candidacy as a city counselor engaged very fully and and robustly with the people that I represent they have every opportunity to talk to me we talk about city issues that are important I've heard from many people on both progressive sides and the democratic side specific issues about my neighborhoods and have been an advocate for those addressing those issues in the neighborhoods a very forceful advocate so I think I'm doing very well uh jack hanson your thoughts on community engagement yeah I mean it's it's huge for me it's fundamental and that's why as I said we've been we've been knocking so heavily on the doors and really having those two-way conversations this is something you know having done two years at v perk that I really value is being able to learn from people of all walks of life in the community and each of those conversations is an opportunity not only to to share ideas but but to get feedback and really learn what people are concerned about and I think when we do that and when we bring in those different voices we we are able to get to better policy outcomes as a result so I would I'm living that out on the campaign and if elected would live that out as a city counselor very good we're moving right on we have another caller dialing in to ask a question of our city council candidates for east district caller do you have a question please this is Don SRAM hello Don do you have a question for candidates I've lived in burlington for 37 years I have a question for Richard in the npa4 on this past week you stated corporations are people too when defending taking money from smaller corporations recently the Vermont senate passed a bill that would ban all corporate campaign contributions even the ones you alluded to the other night do you agree or disagree with the Vermont senate that all corporate campaign contributions should be banned in Vermont good question okay I do agree that it should be and perhaps I've been spoke and didn't understand the question as fully as I should at the the ward one more date um uh candidates forum I think the point is that and the point that I tried to make at the forum is that there are many people who are business people in this community who are they have the right and should have the right to support a candidate they believe in that that uh that talks about the issues that are important to them and these are and I mentioned a few uh you know these are these are great uh community members uh people who own the ski rack people who own loonings people who own sweet waters those are all you know part of the fabric of downtown and I think they should as members of the community be able to have a voice Jack Hansen your thoughts on the uh state senate uh proposal about campaign contributions yeah yeah well it's exciting I'm really glad we've taken that step I think it's it's a critical one um and you know I absolutely support eliminating all corporate campaign contributions and you know won't ever accept any um or or seek them out um and I think yeah of course you know if if community out if if business owners in the community want to contribute as as individuals of course I agree with that certainly um but in terms of business entities themselves contributing I think that that leads to a number of potential um problems or at least even the appearance of conflict of interest so I think it's it's very critical to our democracy that we take this step okay we're moving right along another question from a caller in our community thank you for dialing in listener do you have a question for our candidates for city council east district yes I do my name's Graham I live on pearl street I was curious for Mr. Dean um a lot of your campaign literature has talked about your concern about climate change and for me this is really an important issue because as we've seen from the recent intergovernmental panel on climate change report we're now basically down to 12 years to have transformative change in our energy system so I'm curious what specifically you've done as a city counselor to reduce emissions in Burlington and then for uh Mr. Hansen a question about what policies and programs would you support to reduce emissions in the city very good thank you thank you very much for this question I was hoping we're going to get to this so specific actions that I've taken as a city counselor is as part of a committee that was looking at our new downtown form-based code I was very supportive of putting in requirements for green buildings in the downtown our downtown buildings must meet a lead gold certification which really helps us I've been uh supportive of the district energy system that takes waste that will if we can make it work take waste from the waste heat from the McNeill generating plant and use it to hospital the university and downtown buildings and more personally to me is an effort that I have led in the past two years called Burlington Wild Waste where we're seeking to take the 50 percent of open and natural lands and 25 percent of those actually in urban wild lands and connect them together with a trail and and shared conservation values so that people can connect directly with the beautiful and treasured wild lands that exist in Burlington then we don't know very much about that's an it's equitable access to that and it makes people value and understand what it means to have wild lands right here in Burlington Jack great yeah I'm glad I'm glad we got this question as well and climate change has been really the biggest issue that I've focused on since high school and in my greatest passion and it's what I do for a living is is working with with customers of green mountain power where I work to drastically reduce their their fossil fuel consumption and then their greenhouse gas emissions so I would be excited to really bring that lens to the city council and we've done a lot in Burlington and we've come a long way but we still have a really long way to go and it's important to really keep focus and keep pushing to get to net zero by 2030 as Burlington Electric Department has has discussed and we're going to be getting back you know a report from economic consulting firm on different pathways to get there and I think this is an opportunity to as I mentioned before open it up to the community basically choose a pathway but one of the ideas that I've been really promoting and I'm excited about is shifting you know looking at energy efficiency in buildings and looking at how efficient so inefficient so many of the buildings in our district are because the burden of the heating bill falls on the renter rather than on the landlord and so there's not an incentive for the landlord to make those upgrades I think we need to shift that and look at what was done in Boulder Colorado where they did actually shift that so that's been one of the biggest items that I've been talking about from an affordability perspective and a climate perspective. Thank you candidates we'll have one more question here before our closing comments and this question is very personal for us here at Channel 17 and public access in general throughout the state of Vermont the FCC is considering doing away with the regulation that requires cable subscribers to pay a $3 access fee which actually funds public access if that happens that could be the death knell for public access here in the state of Vermont what are your thoughts on the future of permanent funding for public access and Jack we'll begin with you yeah well this is great and this is a great community service that we have you know throughout the state and that we're experiencing right now and I think we're going to need to step up on the state and local level to make sure that funding is there whether that's through you know pressuring our telecoms to do so or or at the state level if we can't do either of those we have to look at what what the city can do to make sure that we keep these programs alive that are that are so important to so many of us very good Jack or uh yes Richard excuse me thank you um I I agree with Jack I think that it's clear as I see Channel 17 at the city council meetings late at night covering this for everyone covering the important issues of the day that we need to preserve funding and keep this available to our community I think that funding needs to come from the the state if possible if we can convince the feds to continue their funding somehow although I'm skeptical that will happen but I think a point that was made previously is that you know the internet is really where we're headed and that the funding needs to somehow come from there I would not my last choice would be to somehow make this come from city taxpayers I feel as though the burdens that we are looking at today are high enough I'm certainly we're facing more in the future so I don't think that's that would be my last choice as to where to go very good time for our closing statements from our candidates and uh Jack Hanson will begin with you 60 seconds please great well first of all thank you so much for for this opportunity and thanks to to both of you for for engaging in this with me this is this is a great opportunity to really talk about um how we can move forward on these issues and you know I'm I'm looking to not only address these key issues and and be someone in in the uh city council that would fight for you but also someone who really would talk to you and engage you on a deep level and you know bring folks into the process early on and a diversity of voices and really being proactive so that we can get better outcomes and also I would want to bring it back you know to just my lived experience in the district as as a young person and as a renter trying to make it work here I think one of the biggest you know things we want to do in Burlington is be able to attract and retain young people to lay down roots here moving forward and I think I have the ability to to understand what those challenges that we face are and and how we can actually do that having seen friends you know leave the community and being priced out and having seen folks that were able to make it work so I think that's a perspective that is really needed on the city council and I would be you know so fortunate to be able to bring that in thanks and Richard Dean you're off closing comments please well thank you very much and I appreciate the opportunity to be here and to to share a podium with Jack who's I I deeply respect I think this is a great dialogue I think we share many of the same values in fact I think we share most of the same values as as candidates belief in this community a concern about the environment and wanting to make a difference and I think that what I can bring that perhaps Jack can't quite bring is not just a few early years of lived experience but an entire lifetime of lived experience in this community I am someone who you know has a business here I have raised my family here and I've made important changes and important improvements in the city as I've worked for the past two years as the East District City Councilor I am committed to having more affordable housing in the city bringing making sure that landlords are responsible and and providing good housing and opportunities for housing within our communities and I'm also committed to having the University of Vermont do what they can to bring to take the pressure off our neighborhoods so I would welcome the opportunity to be if you would support me to to represent you for another two years and thank you again my thanks to our candidates Jack Hanson and Richard Dean it's a pleasure sharing the stage with you tonight best of luck to both of you on election day a reminder to you our viewers that early voting has begun you can contact your local town clerk and pick up an early ballot today and reminder to join us for election night coverage beginning at 7 p.m. on town meeting day Tuesday March 5th right here on channel 17 for all of us at cctv I'm Matt Kelly thank you for watching good night