 Please be quiet we're going to get the meeting underway and if folks could please move over to this side if we could please have folks move to this side can we please have members of the public all over in this side over here members of the public on this side please thank you I'm going to call the order of the Burlington City Council meeting the it'll begin with the pledge next item on the agenda is the agenda Councillor Hanson may it please have a motion on the agenda and if people could please be quiet move to amend and adopt the agenda as follows add to the consent agenda item 4.27 communication Nancy Garfinkel revote no on your upcoming resolution with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file add to the consent agenda item 4.28 communication a Cohen rebdss opposition with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file 4.29 communication Megan Tuttle COVID-19 response response leader regarding update on city COVID-19 response activities summer 2021 with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file add to the consent agenda item 4.30 communication E10 sobel regarding bds resolution with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file add to the consent agenda item 4.31 communication Larry Shapiro regarding Burlington City Council to vote to boycott Israel with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file add to the consent agenda item 4.32 communication Martha L. Molnar regarding bds resolution with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file add to the consent agenda item 4.33 communication Norman Cohen regarding bds resolution with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file add to the consent agenda item 4.34 communication Tony Reddington regarding letter to City Council item 5.04 council meeting September 13th 2021 with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file add to the consent agenda item 4.35 communication Ron Rockman regarding resolution calling for justice and a peaceful end to Palestine and Israel with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file add to the consent agenda item 4.26 communication Michael Ruane regarding council bds motion with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file thank you we have a motion on the agenda is there a second second seconded by Councillor Paul any further discussion of our agenda hearing none let's go to a vote all those in favor of adopting the agenda please say aye aye any opposed that carries unanimously we have an agenda which brings us to item number two which is the public forum for this evening we have quite a few signups for public forum this evening as if you are interested in signing up there is a you're able to do so in the the corner there where the forms are available you hand them down to this the city clerk table here and if you are interested in speaking we do have two hours reserved for public comment this evening with two minutes each per speaker we will go I'll go in the order that I have them here as they've been handed to me we ask that people please remain to maintain that a quorum of the chamber so please allow speakers to say their piece do not interrupt speakers do not react please do not react to what speakers are saying we need to be able to in order to hear the most people this evening we need to efficiently move in between them and so it's really important I will say who I who is next and then who's on deck so if you are coming up next please make yourself ready to to to get right to the to get right to the the speakers table here and again please just keep things please allow the speakers to say their piece and to express themselves without reaction or recriminations we really need that to stay focused on the topic at hand please also just try and focus on the issues and not personalities or individuals in making your comments this evening with that I will open our public forum for this evening so we'll start at 746 and I like I said before we have two hours reserved for public comment this evening the first speaker will be dr. Bradley Roush to be followed by mark leopold I have a question for the for the burlington city council members have any of you ever had your life threatened I have I'm a physician I have a company that does healthcare humanitarian mission trips throughout the world I was in Israel a number of years ago on a mission trip I was one mile from the Gaza Strip the day I was there in a town called Zderot we were under rocket attack I was there with my 17 year old son and that morning a kindergarten was hit by rockets and several children were injured I'm mentioning that because has Israel made some mistakes here yes they have yet yet it takes two please sides for peace I have to believe that the majority of Palestinians want peace and I know the majority of Israelis want peace this resolution I believe is ill conceived and I strongly recommend that you vote no we have serious problems here in burlington homelessness we've got problems with our police department affordable housing I believe that you would utilize your time a much better fashion to focus on the problems we have in this city and singling out Israel with this bds movement I appreciate the opportunity speak thank you please don't please no no applause you can signal your approval just by going like this but we really need to again please just maintain decorum in the chamber this evening next speaker is mark leopold to be followed by Karen Stewart council members I'm a burlington native and a lifelong resident Burlington does not need to take sides in a conflict between people's thousands of miles away it is far too complex to reduce to a simple resolution this resolution attempts to reduce a complex historical conflict to simplistic slogans this resolution might make its supporters feel good about themselves while dividing our community it will have no impact on Israel and inadvertently it could harm working Palestinians it will only result in further polarization and entrenchment and work strongly against peace this resolution if it achieved its goal would result in tremendous bloodshed and encourage Hamas in control of Gaza the united states and european union have designated Hamas a terrorist organization because of suicide bombings and rocket attacks why would burlingtonians wish to support terrorists I for one do not all of this past weekend remembering on the 20th anniversary of 9 11 america has reflected on how the new taliban is likely to further terrorism now that they have gained increased power the taliban and hamas are linked in extreme fundamentalism and both groups have no desire for peace only for victory they will laugh at this resolution but use it for propaganda this resolution resorts to name calling and while condemning Israel says nothing about Gaza's elected leadership Hamas and their war crimes and missile attacks against Israeli civilians were the resolution balanced condemning human rights abuses and civilian harm on both sides and calling for a peaceful resolution ending in two states I might support it but that is not this resolution I want my city to counsel to work for peace and justice there is enough work to be done in that regard right here in burlington vermont this resolution does nothing to resolve local issues if you insist that burlington vermont city council should have a voice and a resolution on this topic then I wanted to align with partners who want peace and not work into terrorists we can do better thank you thank you for that I appreciate that so our next speaker is Karen Stewart to be followed by uh robert a alper and um one thing that I didn't notice that there's a light system it'll give you green you you have uh that's when you're in when you have plenty of time left and then yellow means your time is running out red means your time is up if you could please finish your thought at that point so Karen Stewart go ahead mr mayor counselors and at mr chair my name is Karen Stewart i'm a resident of burlington since 2010 i work for a burlington based women owned business i'm a wife mother and concerned citizen and i'm here to speak about a local issue two weeks ago a bullet hole was found in a third story window of edmunds middle school in july there was gunfire in the parking lot of the downtown city market there have been 12 gunfire incidents this year compared to an average of two per year between 2012 and 2019 those numbers scare me because it seems to be the tip of the iceberg what is going on in downtown burlington why does church street feel unsafe why did l l bean have to leave that was an anchor store for so many of the small businesses here if we lose businesses on church street because people don't feel safe to shop there anymore how does that affect the economy of burlington the tax revenue from those businesses shifts to homeowners right our property taxes just went up and they are at unsustainable levels i feel like i'm being forced to move out of burlington a friend runs two businesses on church street she has shoplifters in her store and calls the police but they're so understaffed that she cannot get someone to respond to this crime why is that okay the bullet hole in edmunds middle school was found to not be related to the school however that is not reassuring to parents to students and to teachers where will the next stray bullet fly why is any of this gunfire okay i'm concerned for our children in burlington i'm concerned that it is okay for public intoxication and substance use to happen in our city hall park while my children are at the fountains for the city sponsors splash and dance i took my kids there this summer for that event you could please wrap up yes um my point is this is not the burlington i moved to 11 years ago it's not the burlington where i choose to raise my children while i support the plan to increase the mental health and substance abuse services provided and if you could please wrap up i'm compelled to ask you the city council to not let actual crimes go unchecked and to support the burlington police department thank you our next speaker is robert alper to be followed by rabbi amy small my name is bob alper i've lived in east dorset vermont for 31 years i'm married to a fifth generation vermontor i've been a rabbi for 50 years and a stand-up comic for the past 30 of those years performing internationally seen on tv and heard frequently on serious xm radio in 2002 i founded the laugh in peace tour and since then i've done hundreds of shows with my muslim and arab colleagues including performing before 2000 muslims at toronto's muslim fest at husan's palestinian cultural festival and even at the palestine national theater in east jerusalem locally we've done shows at two area synagogues and uvm my goal my dream is for peace between israelis and palestinians but council members imagine if suicide bombers from winewski managed to murder as happened in israel to murder 1 137 burlington children women and men and wound an additional 8 341 then imagine that you the guardians of burlington erected a security barrier after which the slaughter stopped and now imagine that some folks living in safety and security some 6 000 miles distant demanded a dismantling of that separation wall would you consider that request to be moral and appropriate would you require that burlington's protective barrier be torn down unless you answer in the affirmative your sense of logic and more so your personal integrity should clearly guide you to vote against this resolution that calls in section one for the dismantling of israel's lifesaving separation barrier thank you our next speaker is rabbi amy small to be followed by Naomi barrel thank you council president tracy may i invite rabbi david edelson from south burlington to join me um yes but i'm not you don't get additional time i understand please reset the clock thank you council president tracy for the opportunity to speak to this very challenging issue i have been involved nationally internationally and locally in interreligious peace initiatives for a two-state solution with peace between israel and palestine for two decades i know from that how diverse and even opposite viewpoints can be shared with mutual concern and respect it is clear that this resolution lacks an understanding of or an embrace of the complexity of the israeli palestinian conflict or the history and rights of the jewish people as secure and sovereign in our ancestral homeland we all want justice and peace which can only be negotiated by those who live there this resolution cannot achieve that but rather it will further divide our community in painful and dangerous ways with anti-semitism on a dramatic rise and many in our community feeling very vulnerable this resolution lends fuel to an already dangerous fire please let's find a way to endorse a lasting peace with rights for israelis and palestinians without harm to each other i urge you to stand for rejecting this resolution and i'm here in solidarity with rabbi small we represent two of the biggest congregations in the in vermont and in the berlington area every major jewish organization finds bds to be anti-semitic or rooted in anti-semitism and it is somewhat appalling that that is ignored whereas if every african-american organization or women's organization said something was racist or sex this it would definitely be listened to we simply want people to understand please wrap up find this please wrap up thank you thank you next speaker will be naomi barrel to be followed by rabbi jan salzman my name is naomi berell and in the interest of full disclosure i present these to you and speakers you may take your masks off if you if you wish um just while you're speaking we are encouraging folks to to wear masks um when not speaking but if you uh need you may take it off to speak of course go ahead can you start the clock please thank you so my name is naomi berell and in the interest of full disclosure i present these to you both my american and my israeli passport i am proud to be both american and israeli that doesn't mean i support the policies both past and present of either government there are many many israelis that also don't support the policies of their leaders but that is not what is presented necessarily in the media i am not here to present facts and figures as they can be manipulated to support any and all sides i would like to take a moment to read a letter i sent to the burlington city council a few days ago i'm appalled at the city council feels the need to make any sort of resolution relating to bds why are you singling out this conflict amongst the many all over our globe the wording in this declaration is so completely one-sided i am curious as to who composed this document and on what information supplied by whom you clearly were not bipartisan in your fact finding you will achieve nothing by adopting this resolution other than moving so much further leftist that you will start coming around to the other side of and become rightest if you pass this resolution you're even more uninformed constituents will equate your anti-israel stance with anti-semitism which will lead to continued acts of disrespect or worse in this jewish community i have lived in the greater burlington area for 25 years and never understood the blatant anti-israel slant here this resolution takes your bias to a whole other level your ignorance is showing ignorance is often confused with stupidity they are not one in the same ignorance is a lack of knowledge or information and this is where i believe the city council has fallen down while i do not know for sure i doubt that everyone voting on this measure tonight has been to israel or palestine without this firsthand experience making a decision regarding any sort of resolution as it pertains to this region is a very short-sighted one supporting bill bds will not achieve peace it will only further exacerbate the issue by challenging an economy that supports both peoples indirectly and indirectly i would suggest quite the opposite invest in the region work on projects that will benefit the palestinians and israelis alike thank you our next speaker will be rabbi jan salzman to be followed by steve may good evening i'm rabbi jan salzman of ruah hamakom and i um i want to sort of speak to you from the experience of how this has been as a rabbi um did anybody check the calendar do you understand what is going on right now i have been trying please please yeah don't clap don't clap let me finish right thanks shame on you for scheduling this now why couldn't you schedule it later when the organized jewish community the organized jewish community could have the time to actually work with you um in ways that could resolve the issue the many parts of the issues um we are not a monogamous or a homogeneous group there are many many views on the palestine and israel situation and this this pushing forward at this time has caused such divisiveness in my community that you have caused not because we're not having conversations about what's going on over there but because of the one-sided nature of this proposal and the timing do you think any of us have the time and the space in this moment while we're preparing for the most holy and high holiday days of our year that we've had to take hours and hours out of our lives to take care of this i personally and professionally have a lot to disagree with the activities of the israeli government i have family who've spent their entire adult lives fighting the occupation but the way that this proceeding has unfolded has done exactly what it was possibly intended to do my father if you could please wrap up my father was an attorney on the skokie nazi case please know what happens when things are manipulated for news please wrap up thank you our next speaker will be steve may to be followed by david edelson good evening friends um my name is please speak right into the microphone good evening friends my name is steve may i am a former candidate for state senate in chitin district and i've lived here in the champlain basin for now 20 years i got married in burlington this is my hometown and i wanted to speak to a couple of things that i think uniquely i'm suited to share with you as a leftist a progressive and a former democratic candidate for office in this community the first thing is that bds has a history as old as the republic and that while folks will point to the boston tea party as an expression of political activity folks often forget that it was preempted by the stamp act and a long history of outrages that left colonists with no other action and i guess that's my one of my points bds is a blunt instrument you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube after you act today the israeli foreign minister gaire lapid made a offer to the palestinians that was the most consequential peace offering since y river when ahud barak and yasser arafat sat a generation ago friends it would be wrong headed to act on this today but most of all i say to you this most of the people in this room who are here consider themselves to be leftists or democrats or of the left and please wrap up to misunderstand this moment is wrap up acting on this will only give nationally a cudgel to those who would like to use this issue please wrap up against those of us on the left unite the left vote no on the resolution our next speaker will be david edelson to be followed by may i'm read by david edelson of temple sign i won't speak the whole time since i had a chance to make a couple of remarks earlier temple sign i is right next door to the mosque in south burlington the imam and i work closely together to create cooperation to talk about peace to teach our two communities so that we might be allies this sort of blunt divisive resolution works directly against what we and other people in this room have been trying to work for this past year at temple sign now we've had to put up crash barriers and gunproof film because of 57.5 percent of religious motivated hate crimes are against jewish people this sort of vitriol does not help with that i hope that you will vote against this resolution to recognize that the long history that between the palestinians and the jewish israelis is not something that can be reduced to bumper stickers to chanted slogans to do so does disservice to both sides and it works against peace thank you our next speaker is may to be followed by michael kinsbacher hello my name is maya sobel and i'm a jewish israeli american uvm student i was shocked to hear the news of this resolution proposal during my hillel's rosh Hashanah service this proposal is pure anti-semitism hidden under language of social justice now i can't call out every point in a two-minute speech but i will highlight language that i find important immediately the proposal talks about a conflict from last spring an israel's military blockade i wonder why the writers fail to mention egypt's blockade on gaza is there a reason they chose to single out the only jewish state yes the palestinians and gaza suffer they're ruled by a terrorist organization called hamas who does not provide basic needs to their own people and uses their homes schools and hospitals as human shields while simultaneously instigating terror on israeli civilians the us for an aid budget in 2021 was over 60 billion dollars the proposal is upset about the 3.8 billion that went to israel that's not even 7 again is there a reason they chose to single out the world's only jewish state to only focus on this portion of the budget those 3.8 billion dollars are largely responsible for the iron dome a self-defense system that saves countless lives in israel no matter their religion or ethnicity from the rockets of terrorist organizations in the region it saved my family's life numerous times in my own in 2014 singling out the world's greatest jewish population and holding their actions standards different than others it sounds familiar bds is a new version of the same laws nazis used to prevent jews from participating in the economics of society maybe the city should focus on helping the people of burlington instead of meddling in complicated affairs they very clearly do not please wrap up about thank you our next speaker will be michael kinsbacher to be followed by a sought mage or mage my name is mitch kinesbacher i'm a growing to business and i've met businessman for over 35 years i've founded several different businesses or have been a partner in them including long distance north riser management systems and 800 response i've employed hundreds of people in this city i've paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes in this city i've spent several and at the same time i've been the founder of the israel center of vermont and i've spent several months a year every year for the past 40 years in israel the bds movement is not about freedom of speech it's not about criticism of Israeli policies the bds movement is about holding israel to a higher standard than any other country the suggestion that there is a partite in israel is ludicrous it is a claim calculated to undermine the legitimacy of the jewish state israel's arabes enjoy a far higher standard of living than the arabes of any of the majority of the arabes in the 22 arab league states they enjoy a far higher standard of living than a majority of the muslims in the 50 muslim states around the world 18 percent of the undergraduates in israeli universities are arab sick 14 percent of the graduate students are our there is an arab sitting on the supreme court as a justice there are 17 arabes out of the 120 members of the israeli knesset this is not a part of it want to know about true apartheid there are no jews living in the territory controlled by the palestinian authority not a single one it is a capital offense of palestinian authority to sell land to a jew that is apartheid holding israel to a higher standard than any other country in the world is anti-semitism it's that simple that's why the resolution before you needs to be defeated thank you our next speaker is asa major mage and folks if i mispronounce your name please correct me um our next speaker uh the following speaker will be benjamin zatz okay so good evening council my name is asa from again i'm here uh in my capacity as the activism manager in new england for the israeli american council there are more than 7 000 jewish and israeli american living right here in vermont many of them uh live and work in burlington and looking at the current trends regarding jew hatred and israel hatred around the country is clear that the order before you today will be yet another step toward making burlington and vermont an unwelcoming place for the jewish and israeli immigrant community the resolution before you is completely one-sided it does not mention hamas or the 4 000 rockets indiscriminately shot into israel from gaza the language is very angry and most of all does not reflect the truth of the situation it's filled with unproven claims and alternative truths just to give a few example uh demand number one for the end of the bds is ending the military occupation and colonization of all arab lands and dismantling the separation wall what arab lands i thought we were talking about palestinian issue here the word arab means there are other arab states with claims on israel what are we talking about here number two recognizing fundamental rights of arab palestinian citizens of israel to fully equality you just heard from uh mich just now and number three respecting protecting promoting the rights of palestinian refugees return to their home and properties stipulate under urn resolution 194 which means seven and a half million descendants of refugees will be allowed to return into israel and this does not even mention if they can go to the west bank or into gaza um just i spoke with the uh councilman but then today needs best the is will to to to send a resolution back to the committee and then soften the language i suppose something i suppose you abolish it all together and one last thing on a personal note to all those people demonstrating here today you're all holding cell phones which was made with israeli technology i would pick up all of your phones at the end of this meeting thank you very much please stop please do not please stay focused on the issues our next speaker is benjamin zotz to be followed by joanna grossman if i could please have some quiet please be quiet my name is benjamin zotz i'm a resident of uh burlington and i'm a student at the university of ramon i find it concerning that the title of this resolution does not match its contents despite the title of the resolution calling for solidarity with palestinians the resolution instead focuses on israel and in the end calls for the endorsement of the organization bds which is recognized to be anti-semitic and recognized to be a far-right fascist organization by multiple left-wing governments such as the government of france in germany i am very concerned about this resolution because resolutions of this type have been passed before every organization that monitors bds resolutions including amcha has found that after resolutions like this are passed there is a spike in anti-semitic incidents the only national student-led jewish organization in this country called jewish on campus has already recorded a spike in anti-semitic incidents at the university of ramon over the last week there have been an average of over three anti-semitic incidents per day at the university of ramon and i'm concerned that should this resolution pass this number will only increase i have a feeling that i am the only sephardic jew in this room as a sephardic jew i would like to allude to the history of my people which includes the mass forced migration of my people from countries from iraq all the way to marocco and the west from the entire arab world and other countries such as iran my people were forced to flee not just because they were jewish but because they were accused of being zinus and accused of being israeli spies this anti-israel rhetoric was used as an excuse for the extermination genocide and forced expulsion of roughly one million jews the majority of those jews today have found refuge in israel they now make up the majority of the israeli population thank you for your time i have joanna grossman to be followed by stacy gober or gilbert good evening my name is joanna grossman and i'm a resident of ward five i want to thank you all for your dedication to burlington this council is full of good people from both parties i appreciate your will to help the palestinians if the council wishes to pass a resolution to stop the city from transactions connected to human rights abuses i'd support that but this bill doesn't say those things this bill only does harm and very specifically to israel the message short community could not be clearer you are choosing not to make a statement about human rights abuses you are choosing to single out the jewish state it sends a message of hate it will make me my family my community and my little girl at home watching this less safe the impact of bds will not bring peace or prosperity if successful it will bring financial ruin to the entire region and will be devastating both for israel and for palestine alike it is not good policy a stand here with a petition of over a thousand names collected by the jewish communities of vermont which i'll deliver to thank you for your time our next speaker will be uh stacey gilbert or gobert to be followed by david kirk jew hatred or antisemitism we've heard it and seen it and i know i'm shocked by it every time it happened at a work lunch one day when my manager didn't get her guacamole with her taco and screamed out they jude me is bds jew hatred there's a 3d test for determination determined excuse me differentiating legitimate criticism of israel from jew hatred demonization double standards de legitimization bds does all three by questioning israel's right to exist and by singling out israel for his treatment of israeli's arab citizens when minorities in other countries suffer far more bds is counterproductive to resolving the conflict because it rejects israel's right to exist in spite of international law pressures one side into making concessions and discourages the two states solution i'm asking you to please vote against this resolution thank you our next speaker is david kirk to be followed by jeff schulman good evening um i'd like to address the city council in a way in which you guys can kind of uh re-evaluate yourselves um city of berlington is becoming an unsafe more unmanageable place because of the lack of police force i would encourage you to readdress that situation one of my city counselors told me that he wasn't going to make another knee jerk reaction well the first one was quite the knee jerk reaction when you cut the police force by one third the second one not to do it was just reaffirming that you're okay with having an unfit safe city the fact that you have a police officer standing there and two are out in the hall this evening shows the need for a police force in the city when five police officers are on duty for one shift and half of them are here covering one building in the city of berlington that makes the city a little unsaver when the mayor has to hire security guards to monitor the park that shows me that we don't have enough police force in the city the stats show crime is down maybe the stats show that police officers are down so we're unable to uh apprehend the people that need to be i think that you guys need to revisit this again and again until you start bringing the numbers back up i also would like to have you guys consider not changing the trash haulers we don't need anymore increases in taxes in this city that are unnecessary there's not a trash problem the city is not littered with trash the city seems to be doing just fine with the trash haulers we have there's a six to eight million uh a dollar price tag attached to building a department to handle this and billing and all that we don't need that gothiers mires caselas they're doing a fine job to keep in the city clean i think that you need to address the things like public safety our infrastructure our roads and things like that before you start addressing things that really aren't that important it's a solution looking for a problem we don't have please our next speaker is jeff shulman to be followed by spencer karatski good evening my name is jeff shulman i'm a burlington resident ward five i count myself among those who are both pro-israel and pro-palestinian and yet i recognize that reducing this immensely complex conflict into a simple equation of one side being right and one side being wrong is counterproductive resolution resolutions like this one do nothing to promote peace coexistence or self-determination among israelis or palestinians instead they serve to polarize producing hate anger and fear and unnecessarily pitting well intentioned members of our community against each other i actually believe there's a fairly broad consensus in our community about what peaceful coexistence among palestinians and israelis could look like but this resolution is so far to one extreme that it only creates more division among many of us who otherwise are much more closely aligned others will no doubt talk about the anti-semitism that they feel is embedded in this resolution and the irony of israel being singled out among all the nations of the world for this type of condemnation although i certainly understand why others feel that way i actually don't think its authors are motivated by anti-semitism or by blind hatred of israel instead i think it's a reflection of a deep misunderstanding of the israeli palestinian conflict my hope is that you will soundly reject this resolution and instead that we shift our focus away from simple analysis and sensationalized calls that only serve as fodder for extremists who promote violence in the region and in our own country instead let us use whatever influence we have as a community to support efforts that increase education increase dialogue and cooperation between israelis and palestinians and that truly help to promote a safer more peaceful and more prosperous future for all thank you our next speaker is spencer carotsky to be followed by dr jan feldman hi i'm speaking not because i want to be here but out of fear because i'm terrified that i will be attacked on the account of my religious and ancestral identity if i do not when pro bts activists march into this meeting i felt an emotion i haven't felt for the first time ever on account of my religion fear i just arrived in burlington as a uvm student and i already do not feel safe here for some background i am jewish and i'm a proud jew an unapologetic jew 2 000 years ago my ancestors were kicked out of my ancestral homeland judaea for some reference judaea is modern-day israel the west bank and gauze store all the jews want is to peacefully coexist with our neighbors in the land that we are indigenous to bts seeks nothing less than to illidamize and undermine the jew's right to peacefully coexist anti-zionism regularly neglects the fact that jews historically have been killed off exiled and been treated less than everywhere else outside of israel the one jewish majority state compared to 49 muslim majority states imagine how many jews lives would have been saved if they were in israel before the holocaust that is why i vote urge this council to vote no every time a resolution like this has passed disgusting rises in anti-zionic instance occur this resolution is nothing less than impact on jews in closing i would like to ask two questions what would happen if um hamas laid down their weapons what would happen if israel laid down theirs one would result in peace in the middle east the other would result in the destruction of israel and 50 percent of the world's jews among them taking us from 0.2 to 0.1 percent of the world's population thank you for your consideration we have dr jane feldman to be followed by nancy rondo hello thank you for your kind attention um i am a vermont resident and a professor of political science at the university of vermont for 40 years so i have to quote carl von clausowitz who famously said that war is the continuation of politics by different means bds is the continuation of war by different means it is the disingenuous and skillful and cynical manipulation of dog whistle terms like colonial white oppressors genocide racism apartheid and i understand that that resonates one of the slogans janted here tonight by bds supporters was quote palestine will be free from the river to the sea that means the jordan river to the Mediterranean sea so the american version is oh freedom that means pluralistic multi-party liberal democracy with protections for rights women minority lg vtq political opponents and whatnot free means what free of jews since 1948 rallying cry in all the arab lands the first signatory listed on the 2005 bds call is a coalition of its organizations established by marwan barguti to coordinate terror attacks against israel and he famously said most definitely we oppose a jewish state in any part of palestine in his 2014 talk to ucla he denied that the jewish people have a right to self-determination the hamas charter uses without distinction and interchangeably the words jew zionist and israeli i know americans like to believe they draw a distinction between anti zionist and anti-semitic hamas does not they also quote extensively directly from the protocols of the elders of zion article 13 says so-called peaceful solutions are a contradiction to the principles of islamic resistance so that's please wrap up christians it will be free of christians they have all of the pleaded christians from please wrap up i beg you not to use the incrimatur please wrap up erratic progressive city please wrap up back a movement that is if you could please wrap up thank you our next speaker is nancy rondo to be followed by jake sherman i want to thank all of the members of the city burlington city council for the privilege of speaking to you this evening my name is nancy rondo i'm a jew and a long-time resident of burlington i am here to speak out against the bds resolution before you tonight bds is a movement that has already started to divide our community and is known to have an anti-israel and anti-semitic agenda the burlington city council has many pressing local issues that need to be resolved this bds resolution should not be added to the city council's agenda and i asked the council members to vote no on it my voice tonight is just one of my many is one of many protesting this resolution my marker vote in this next city's wide election for city council members is my power a no vote from you tonight on this bds resolution will show you our power and where you as city council members stand according to asaf megan activism manager new england israel israeli american council the united states congress and the un have recognized bds as a hateful movement and a contributor to anti-semitic crime and discrimination my hope is that you our city council also recognizes the hateful bds agenda and vote down the resolution before you thank you again for allowing me to speak our next speaker will be jake sherman to be followed by nolan rampi i'm jake sherman um a resident of uh rotland and someone who please make sure you're really close into the mic and all speakers if you could please make sure you're close to the mic thank you okay um i'm a resident of rotland a member of the rotland jewish center and a supporter of israel and someone who very much enjoys visiting burlington um i must have this is the first time i've attended something like this and i must admit i've been taken taken aback by the tactics of the demonstrators out here i find it all the shouting and bullying and uh stamping of the flagpoles on the floor and the boots i find it kind of scary and i hope that this council is not intimidated by these kind of tactics i wanted to mention i i heard the demonstrators speaking of from the river to the sea i didn't i didn't even have to bring it up they proudly declared that this is their intention and i and i ask you does this sound like israel has a peace partner does this sound like uh a a nation a country that wants to live peacefully side by side no no they want the whole enchilada and uh that's just something that that has to be recognized and i i don't understand why why it isn't clear um a bts resolution is more than just words it's it's something designed to uh it's basically a weapon of war it's designed to weaken israel and to render it defenseless uh before its enemies um it there's there's not a word in here about palestinian terror about knives and terror tunnels and and this kind of thing nothing about 4300 uh rockets uh aimed at civilians at men women and children that that's what that's where they're aimed at they're not aimed at military targets um if you could please and so wrap up i i i urge you to reject this resolution and your time is up thank you next speaker is no one rampi to be followed by wafiq far hi my name is no one i am here to speak in favor of this resolution sorry if folks could please be quiet um i just want to start by answering some questions about why israel is being quote unquote singled out here and that is because the us does more than any other nation to support israel's crimes and make it possible on an economic and political level the reason that hamas is not mentioned is because we do absolutely nothing to support the violence of hamas we as united states citizens are responsible for our acts and those that we support we support and enable israel's crimes every single day with our dollars and that is why we have a unique responsibility and this city council has a unique responsibility to speak out against it now i want to say something for for all these members here i want you i want you to ask yourselves not just now but in the in the days following in what other situation can you think of in history have you seen an occupying force that has expelled an indigenous population that maintains an occupation over them that has blockaded their air and seaports and history has come down on the side of the occupiers when has that ever happened never and it's not and it's not going to happen here either if you vote against this resolution history will judge you you will find yourself on the wrong side of history so i urge you to stand in solidarity with the palestinian people and vote yes on this resolution because it will be a vote for justice and justice is what will come before peace thank you our next speak please please no applause our next speaker will be wafiq far to be followed by joseph haddad salamu alaikum my name is wafiq fawur i born palestinian you speak right into the mic to the folks who are screaming my name is wafiq fawur i born palestinian refugee in a refugee camp in lebanon where my parents my family is still living and scattered all over the refugee camps my grandfather got killed in 1948 at the hand of the hagana the other grandfather spent seven years why because after creating the absentee law the israeli the new states put its hand in all our lands why israel is apartheid and i will tell you it is because the people who lived apartheid south africa like dismond tutu said i came to palestine and it's worse than apartheid south africa because in south africa wasn't ethnically cleansing there were not kicking people out of their houses like happening tonight on beta on sheikh jarrah and in every corner of palestine they're talking about two-state solution i'm telling you they are stealing land and water every day apartheid is in every inch from river jordan to mediterranean sea according to pet Salem israeli human rights law and every international human rights watching that discrimination is in a in health care in education in police in housing in everywhere every day palestinian getting killed every day palestinian land getting stolen this is our daily life and mostly at the hand of the israeli and military support from this country berlington can do better these are up our next speaker is joseph adad to be followed by william keaton is joseph adad joseph adad okay our next speaker will be william keaton to be followed by jada beardan now in terms of the poor timing of this resolution it is really police not raid mosques in palestine during the holy month of the baradon we see the hypocrisy here as white settlers on abnaki land we look at our own country and we see the rise of mass incarceration the prison industrial complex tools of modern day slavery and we see corporate militarized police terrorizing indigenous water protectors at line three and we see our state use technologies of domination suppression and control to criminalize Arab Muslim communities under the perceived threat of terrorism we see the connections and parallels between our state and israel we see police in israel partially trained through police exchanges with america use the same tactics as american police to brutalize palestinians fighting against evictions and settlement we see israel expanded to palestine in syria exploiting the natural resources denying access to water and agricultural land as pipelines cut across america cutting across indigenous land we see israel its soldiers licensed and enabled to shoot children medics and elderly and paint all of them somehow is being connected to hamas similar as to how the george bush administration weaponized nation nation american nationalism to support the afghanistan war i ask how is it possible to be in solidarity with jewish people and not be in solidarity with palestine if we cannot support cannot even bring ourselves to support this resolution our support for black lives matter or any other liberation movement will be worthless america the state which pioneered eugenics and inspired the nazis our state which was infamously complicit and ignorant in the crimes of holocaust and ignored it until it was convenient now gives millions of dollars to israel a state made in the mold of the of the racist imperial nations that supported it essentially using the same logics as eugenics to proclaim itself as a national homeland of jewish people all over the world as if that is somehow possible please wrap up palestine will be free thank you next speaker is jada beardan to be followed by anita rapone jada beardan okay anita rapone to be followed by ashley smith my name is anita rapone and i live in ward six but tonight i'm here as representing the burlington friends meeting the quaker meeting house is at 173 north prospect street um yesterday at the monthly thank you meeting for business burlington friends meeting endorsed this resolution and we urge all council members to vote yes if burlington friends meeting supports this call for the state of israel to live up to its obligations under international law by ending its military occupation by extending equal rights to non- jewish citizens and to permit all refugees to return home thank you next speaker is ashley smith to be followed by dan beto or bito what's that uh that's a recorder for for the reporter yet ashley go ahead my name is ashley smith i'm a resident of the city of burlington i'm speaking today on behalf of the community voices for immigrant rights i'm proud to say that we unanimously voted to endorse the resolution before you in solidarity with the palestinian people we encourage the city councilors here to vote for this resolution palestine is one of the central issues of social justice in our world today and it is time for burlington to take a stand in support of palestinian struggle for their rights and equality and set an example for other cities states and the federal government to follow you may ask why cv ir which is an immigrant rights group is in favor of this resolution the simple reason is straightforward palestinians are one of the largest migrant and refugee populations in the world over five million palestinians are refugees scattered throughout the middle east and around the world the israeli state has driven them from the lands and homes and waves of ethnic cleansing since 1948 right down to today in 1948 it drove nearly a million palestinians from their land towns and cities right now it's trying to expel them from their homes in east jerusalem it denies millions of displaced palestinians to the right to return to their homes and land and it subjects those outside its boundaries to occupation in the west bank and gaza strip and endless ceaseless one-sided warfare against an occupied population inside israel proper it denies palestinians equal rights with a myriad of laws so racist in nature that the human rights watch describes israel as an apartheid state thus palestine and palestinians are perhaps the most important issue of migrant justice in our world today that's why nelson mandela said of palestinians we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the palestinian people it is time for burlington to take a stand with mandela against racism occupation colonialism endless warfare and an apartheid state it's time to take a stand for justice our next speaker will be dan bito to be followed by rachel seagull dan bito okay not seeing dan um also do we have joseph haddad is joseph haddad here okay don't see joseph uh is jada beard in here okay i will go uh have jada if you'd like to follow rachel seagull um you can um follow rachel so rachel go ahead hey everyone rachel seagull i live in ward three i grew up in burlington and i'm jewish i am in favor of this resolution i was not fully on board with bds until a couple of years ago and i will share a couple of the things that got in the way of me getting on board one was this false narrative about how complicated the situation is which we've heard tonight many times it's very complicated and yes there are many many dates and locations and geographic things and leaders and names that we could memorize we don't need to know every single one of those things to have a conversation about justice we do not need to know all of that because it's actually not that complex once you do a little cursory work to learn about the history you can see what's actually going on i don't even believe the state of israel's pro- jewish which is not going to be a very popular statement here tonight i'm sure especially among my brethren um the other thing that really kept me from getting on board was this knowledge that i had been told as a kid growing up that israel was created as a response to world war two and of course we needed a response to the holocaust like my people were you know we needed a response right i believed we needed a response and i believe that that was the right response and that's what i was taught but what i came to learn later is that the state of israel the colonial project of great britain started long before the balfour declaration in 1918 it was not a response to the holocaust it was empire clear and simple it was power grabbing stealing land is not a solution our jewish traditions filled with work for justice and liberation it is sick to use anti-semitism used as an excuse for oppression i will not stand for it i believe deeply in the safety for the jewish diaspora that said the people who are funding the israeli lobby in dc are far-right christians who are hoping to create the jewish state in order to see the second coming at which point according to their worldview all the jews will go to hell please so are the zionists really even pro-jewish thank you our next speaker will be jada bearden to be followed by melanie needle hello i'm only here for one thing and it's to hurt uh the feelings of zionists so um if i have if i may um yeah hi there i'm fresh off of a plane and that's how important this is to me i'm in favor of the resolution period uh yeah so i'm going to speak to intersectionality dr angela davis wrote a book is called from um from from fergus into palestine uh freedom is a constant struggle if you don't have it please read it you're welcome and it just speaks uh to the black lives matter what happened in 2014 the riots in ferguson we can see how that is parallel to the occupation um and the honestly the heinous and violent objectification of these palestinian individuals and i heard somebody over there like saying this is nonsense i'm sorry but you're mistaken and if you if you want some recommend book recommendations i got you um but you need to educate yourself and think broader than your experience just because you live a jewish experience that doesn't give you the right to allow and be okay with the suffering of millions of people like are you are you anyway um so yeah so i gotta say i'm in favor of this resolution obviously and counselors i really appreciate y'all taking time to hear us out but it's like kind of like 10 years too late right but any any time is better than no time so yeah um zionists go home like y'all are read the room like what are you doing palestine will be free free palestine and that shit is backwards period our next speaker is melanie needle to be followed by asma el huni council members my name is melanie needle and i'm speaking as a jew and homeowner in burlington i'm strongly opposed to the resolution before the council condemning israel and supporting bds i come to this opposition as a jew living in the city of burlington ward one raising two jewish children to be proud of their religion and heritage also i'm the granddaughter of holocaust survivors my grandparents survived starvation persecution and great trauma during the holocaust in poland my grandparents were children during world war two they did not go to school they weren't camps they weren't hiding they did not have a childhood the trauma of the holocaust haunted them for the rest of their lives when i was a child my grandmother told me stories of being called dirty jew while walking down the street and that people would throw rocks at her i don't want that happened to my children in burlington when the war ended my grandmother was 14 she went to israel without her parents they told her not to go and she went she was 14 she went to escape continued persecution and to seek refuge and safety israel was her safe place she met my grandfather also a holocaust survivor and a fighter in the arab israel war and my grandparents memories and all they fought for i strongly oppose this resolution it is dangerous to the jewish people and it codifies hate in the public record please do not pass this resolution and i will leave you with these questions why is israel the only country that the world feels comfortable punishing what is behind this resolution thank you our next speaker is asma al-khuni to be followed by myra myra pair myra paras assalamu alaikum my name is asma al-khuni and i am with rights and democracy we're an organization that supports human rights and i just want to thank my speaker to the to the left of me who just spoke melanie because we do acknowledge that the holocaust was an atrocity and i do find it interesting that those same people that know the history of their ancestors are now supporting the same kind of atrocity in a land that was stolen from people so um this resolution is a weak resolution i'm going to be honest it does nothing it does nothing really honestly it does nothing except to say people need equal rights that's all it is it's just saying palestinians deserve the same equal rights as israelis and that's what this is and boycotting uh divestment and sanctions is just saying that just literally just saying that so to pass this means nothing more that you support equal rights and that people have a right to boycott if you support the black civil rights era then you support the strategy of boycotting this is exactly what's happening right now and those people here that spoke earlier and that said basically that this is violence i i don't understand how is that violence and to use my faith to say that i know a muslim therefore i can go ahead and hate on you know the palestinians and israel support the violence there because look i'm nice to the muslims here that doesn't work that doesn't work and we will not tolerate it to those i'm going to share stories because i i have to i have friends who've lived in palestinian who came to america and they talk about the bombs that were thrown in gaza and how they run into their home looking for their family members and then found an uncle dead right and then he says he drops to the ground and he screams and he curses allan says and he says damn israel damn america you could please wrap up also you could please wrap up arab countries for not coming and helping us tell me what do you want please wrap up when there's violence enacted on them all they're asking us to be able to please wrap up and what this resolution please wrap up resolution if you can please wrap up resolution can you please wrap up and what this resolution is doing all is saying people have a right to boycott people have a right to boycott people have a right to boycott please don't clap please be quiet myra peres to be followed by helen scott myra peres oh maria peres yeah i apologize ladies and gentlemen um you just please speak right into the microphone can you hear me okay good evening ladies and gentlemen i'm here in support to this resolution i'm second tired to hear people calling my brothers and sister my palestinian brothers and sister terrorists the humans they deserve human rights enough is enough we need to work for them i heard i heard people calling ignorant i heard people calling terrorists enough is enough we have so many kids losing their lives how many people that look like me have lost their lives and it's time for us to work for the palestinian people we're losing so many lives human rights is what we need right now please say yes to this resolution thank you so much our next speaker is helen scott to be filed by violet bit chickering good evening my name is helen scott i'm a resident of burlington i'm a board member of the vermont afl cio which is one of the more than two dozen organizations that endorse this resolution as a labor body committed to internationalism and social justice we responded to the call this spring from palestinian unions seeking global solidarity in their struggle for equality we signed up to the labor for palestine statement which promotes the boycott divestment and sanctions movement a nonviolent global justice campaign against israeli occupation and colonization i quote from that statement bds is inspired by the worldwide divestment campaign that helped topple apartheid south africa and reflects decades of palestinian boycott and mobilization against israeli colonization it requires not only an end to the 1967 israeli occupation but an end to israeli occupation and colonization of all arab lands and dismantling the wall full equality for arab if palestinian citizens of israel and implementation of the right of palestinian refugees to return for many years the mainstream u.s labor movement prohibited any expression of solidarity with palestinian workers while lending uncritical support to the israeli state this has changed recently vermont afl cio joins a list of a long list of unions and other labor bodies that have recently taken a stand for palestinian liberation the vermont afl cio opposes all forms of racism bigotry and discrimination including anti palestinian racism and anti semitism we are committed to the struggle against white supremacy and fascism and recognize that the far right which is the source of rising anti semitism and islamophobia today is vehemently opposed to palestinian it is wrong and disingenuous to conflate criticism please wrap up israeli state with anti semitism please wrap up i support this resolution thank you please don't violate i'm sorry i'm having a hard time reading your last name so if you could just yeah my name is violet bupchickering i'm a student in burlington and a lifelong vermoner and i believe that the city council must pass this resolution in solidarity with the palestinian people to the progressive and democratic city councillors your progressive values cannot exclude palestinian liberation indeed it is critically important that the cause of palestinian freedom is central to your progress progressive values as it is closely connected to every other struggle for justice in the world the same cops that murder and brutalized protesters in america are trained by the idf in israel the walls used to divide and oppress the indigenous peoples of turtle island here in america are replicated in israel the murderous imperialism that led the us to kill millions in afghanistan and iraq is the very basis of the israeli state which began with the nakba an ethnic cleansing of the palestinian people from their indigenous land there comes a time there come times in history whereas leaders in our community you are called upon by this community to stand on the right side of history will you now follow in the footsteps of burlingtonians who historically opposed apartheid or will you abandon your progressive values and vote against human rights from the river to the sea palestine will be free thank you our next speaker will be scarlet more to be followed by elissa chen my name is scarlet um i'm a resident of the south end and i've lived in burlington for the last five years um and in those last five years i've seen um the bravery of activists in the community who have had to deal with um with threats with you know constant fear trying to organize around palestinian rights and i also want to say especially or not especially but um in particular um fronts i've had who have been um you know had to deal with the fear of like being doxxed in the struggle for um like bringing palestinian justice issues um to the fore at the uvm campus and in the community um and i think that uh one thing that we've learned from this um last success in the movement of um getting ben and jerry's to pull out at least slightly from profiteering from the occupation or occupied territories in palestine um is that our voices in burlington can have an outsize impact um because we're a small state because um we have this um voice at a national stage in the us that we can use with these sorts of movements and i think that's really important um and i think that again and we should work um you know have this sort of like continuous history of organizing around like anti-apartheid struggles in burlington um and in vermont and using that power that we have um yeah um i also wanted to just reiterate what some other folks have said about how um israel is a unique situation in that the united states supports so um economically politically and materially the occupation of the palestinian people um we have a distinct like social responsibility as people in the united states as people who have privilege in the united states speaking for myself um to fight for the liberation of people all around the world and our first responsibility i think um in this moment has to be to please wrap up caught divest divestment and sanctions of the apartheid state of israel thank you our next speaker our next speaker is elissa chen to be followed by lani raven my name is elissa chen i live in burlington i identify as jewish and multiracial i'm a member of the education justice coalition which strongly supports this resolution i was disturbed to read the letter by four burlington rabbis that the solution to the occupation is simply that jews and palestinians should work together neighborhood by neighborhood imagine telling to that to south africans living under apartheid that they should just chat with their neighbors to resolve a nationwide system of oppression this is not a complex two-sided conflict as many have framed it this is a hundred year plus violent colonial project the data and history are clear according to the un 5600 palestinians died in the occupation between 2008 and 2020 while around 250 israelis have died in the same time period quotes from zionist history make it clear that this was a violent colonial project from the start david bangarian former prime minister of israel states in 1937 we must expel arab's and take their places in 1923 vladimir jabotinsky founder of the visionist zionism quotes if you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living you must provide a garrison for the land or else give up your occupation your colonization for without an armed force which will render physically impossible any attempt to destroy or prevent this colonization colonization is impossible not difficult not dangerous impossible zionism is a colonization adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force it is important to speak hebrew but unfortunately it is even more important to be able to shoot or else i am through with playing colonizing during the 1948 nakba also called the catastrophe at least 750 thousand palestinians were violently removed from their homes and made refugees beyond the borders of the state the request of this resolution is to support un resolution 194 which calls for the right to return of palestinians to their homes that were violently stolen 70 plus years ago let's be clear this resolution condemns zionism not judieism we are condemning israel as a state and not just people please wrap up anti-semitism we should address that in a proactive manner brolin did you take justice in palestine and support the bds movement please wrap up and our next speaker our next speaker is our next speaker is lani raven to be followed by tiki arson bow um good evening thank you for letting me talk my name is lani raven i live in the old north end of burlington i lived in israel for 17 years and was active in the feminist and israeli palestinian coexistence movements there as a young adult i was shocked and horrified to slowly discover that the israeli government was not the perfect angel innocently searching for peaceful and equitable solution to the strife in our corner of the world i suspect that many of us americans had some the some moment of shock and horror to learn that the side that we were supposed to be supporting was not perfect i want to name feelings as well as facts because it's relevant here we all want to solve this problem and what does that mean to me that means making peaceful coexistence a reality that means a win-win solution where all arabs and jews israeli and palestinian win that means a peaceful life with no bombs on buildings or buses no knocks on the door no humiliation it means schools teaching tolerance respect and love for all is that your goal too if that is your goal then the two sides in this fight are divided between those who want peace and those who want to continue to win so that the other side loses this is a fight between those who want a win-win and those who want a win-lose which side are you on if you want to go towards a win-win the first step is dialogue which means listening it means listening to per people's personal stories with a goal of understanding and feeling their humanity as well as our own it's not easy it's not a slogan it's hard work if you burlington city counselors are interested in this route let me tell you a secret you are in luck the city of burlington has already started this work over 25 years ago the burlington bethlehemorad sister city program you can please wrap up right active here in city hall please wrap up please do not endorse a divisive situation statement that engenders hate and fear you can please wrap up please ask you to use city resources to please wrap up real dial please wrap up thank you our next speaker is tiki arshambo to be followed by amanda skehen hi thank you uh i'm bringing this very local uh to burlington here i'm tiki arshambo a 21-year resident of the old north end of burlington uh just writing here a little statement that i might be a little crazy in my thinking and if so so are the city's volunteer commissions tasked with helping the city council to run the city and just three examples to highlight some of this crazy thinking so the most recent crazy thinking came from the police commission which unanimously recommended raising the cap on police officers a lot to be hired this council and its wisdom chose to overrule that diverse commission of volunteers another example is the radical public works commission which voted overwhelmingly five to one to move forward with consolidated collection following the cheaper low risk hybrid model after working on the issue for years i was on that the majority of this council is choosing their disregard that pursuit and the vote by the commission in pursuit of a municipal model which would add five million in annual cost plus millions more for capital investment including a dump in the south end one more instance here is again involving the police commission last winter where those volunteers took the unprecedented stuff of reaching out to publicly oppose the civilian oversight of police charter change that was proposed at the time in december saying it quote does not fit burlington they even provided a roadmap to success in that regard the council council chose to pursue the matter anyway despite the commission's recommendation so by looking at these decisions here it's just becoming obviously that there's a digression of paths and that one or the other is very skewed so you know when one line of thinking is that again this might seem radical in today's world but you can take on systemic racism and public safety at the same time you can ask for your elected representatives to actually engage with the community as as my constituency suffers here so anyway thank you for your time our next speaker is amanda schian to be followed by barron win car a few weeks ago i listened to state's attorney george talk about the ideal of police officers taking time to divert criminal behavior out of the judicial system wherever possible using restorative justice connecting people to resources what she described is community policing the fourth value that was listed in the talitha report the fourth value of our community a priority for us and i'll note that community policing is government at a unit at a human scale of vermont value in order for police to take time to get to know and understand all parties in an incident incident and to de-escalate they have to have time they have to have the staffing to have time our priority one incidents have stayed steady since 2016 in fact felony assaults have gone up from i believe 24 in 2016 to 40 so far this year those are very serious assaults with grave bodily injury gunfire incidents are up six times the norm in burlington if you think police make no difference in preventing crime and i've heard some of you say that that's a misunderstanding there is plenty of research to demonstrate that they do i'd like you to look at i'd like you to look at research coming out of nyu's Wagner graduate school uh morgan williams there pointed out that and he's from he's from the south bronx i'm from the bronx too he pointed out that police staffing correlates with reduced violent crime and that those benefits are particularly felt for those in marginalized communities now that study has a lot more information to it that's worth looking at but i i just urge you to to use more consideration and don't jump on to all of this hype the aclu document is not looking at it's not looking at everything that's that really requires attention thank you guys have a good night our next speaker is barron winker to be followed by tre cook can people hear me um please speak right into the microphone and all right if you if you feel comfortable you can also take off your mask if you'd like hi uh my name is barron winker thank you for allowing me to speak uh i won't say much but uh all i'll say is the youth of today will be the judges of tomorrow and so palisthenics will be free will be free thank you our next speaker is tre cook to be followed by miguel figueroa hello my name is tre cook and i'm here today as a representative of the young democratic socials of america we as an organization unequivocally condemn the ongoing ethnic cleansing of palestinians everywhere including the dispossession of palestinians in shekhtera and the ongoing racist violence by the israeli police and jewish settlers in occupied territories we stand in solidarity with the palestinian struggle against apartheid colonialism and military occupation and for the equality justice and self determination of the palestinian people israel is forcibly expelling palestinian families in jerusalem shekhtera and silwan neighborhoods to make way for more settlers families were ordered to leave their homes by the israeli supreme court by august 1st of this year but the continued pressure of organizers like us has bought colonized people more time israel has no legal jurisdiction over the occupied or eastern part of jerusalem according to the international law but nevertheless continues to illegitimately advance their racist agenda in a continuation of the state's broader settler colonial Zionist project 1948 the formation of israel was achieved through the dispossession of approximately 750 000 palestinians this ethnic cleansing has always been a part of israel's settler colonial project over the course of the subsequent decades it expanded to control over the rest of jerusalem the west bank gaza angolm hikes hundreds of thousands of palestinians have since been displaced from their homes millions of palestinians still living in occupied west bank and jerusalem faced constant home demolitions illegal evictions police and settler violence and apartheid as jerusalem continues to expand its jewish only settlements at the same time the palestinians are being attacked by israel and jerusalem elsewhere they're also being murdered in gaza this is because what happens to palestinians in jerusalem is connected to palestinians everywhere as part of the ongoing ethnic cleansing israel's most recent bombing on gaza killed over 100 palestinians including 27 children and injured over 500 more according to the gaza health ministry as israel moves forward with an air and ground offensive civilians and gaza have nowhere to run as gaza okay uvm ydsa uh unequivocally these wrap up uh condenses actions and we are in total support of the bds movement please wrap up and which are any these wrap up israel's illegal occupation ongoing calling please wrap up equal rights to all palestinians please wrap up for all palestinian refugees to their home please wrap up stipulated by you in resolution when you please wrap up i'm proud today to see my fellow you please wrap up is mobilized around bds and palestine please wrap up please wrap up please wrap up thanks man our next yes and if people can please let me call the time i don't it's not helpful to me if you call the time our next speaker our next speaker is miguel figueroa to be followed by daniel de wolf hi i'm miguel i'm with uvm ydsa and i'm asking you to support the palestine resolution as a chilean i have a deep personal connection to the global south and the people caught in the american imperial machine my country's history is heavily impacted by the horrors that american weapons and imperial power can bring to nations and indigenous peoples on september 11th 1973 the cia backed to coup in my country excuse me i was chanting a bit to overthrow the democratically elected leader salvador ayende the oppressive pinochet regime was supported them just as the oppressive israeli regime is supported now by the united states international pressure played a vital role in ending the pinochet regime it is now the time of the governments and people of the world to join us and free palestine as a proud jewish person myself i feel a connection to oppressed people around the world and that includes palestinians don't get it confused the american military industrial complex is concerned so primarily with exploiting the global south to those who said this resolution was divisive including some members of the city council i say this every worthwhile stand against oppression will be seen by someone as divisive i promise you no matter how many people call you divisive or rude the international fight for human rights is always worth it from personal experience thank you for hearing me and viva palestina please please hold the applause our next speaker is daniel de wolf to be followed by sam sundell my name is daniel de wolf um i would speak right into the microphone oh sorry uh my name is daniel de wolf i was born in 2001 a couple months after the 911 tragedy and throughout my lifetime i've seen the united states wrecked terror across the middle east this is something that wasn't talked about often in news truthfully and i feel that israel is oftentimes not talked about in the news similarly i implore everyone in this council to vote in favor of the resolution thank you our next speaker is sam sundell to be followed by gene bergman please speak right into the mic hello i'm sam with uh ydsa and i'm here mostly to ask a question to the people who want to vote know on this proposition now i need to ask why is hundreds of palestinians getting thrown out of their home not too far why is it that the essentially genocide and apartheid system that israel is implementing against palestinians not enough gaza is often referred to as largest open air prison in the world essentially similar to the japanese internment camps or some might even go as far as the concentration camps in nazi germany how is this not too far but boycott divest sanctions a nonviolent protest of the incredible crimes that israel has committed too far just admit that you hate muslims admit that you do not care about about their lives you view them as less because you feel that an economic sanction against your team is more offensive than the lives lost on theirs next speaker is gene bergman to be followed by sergey schpanner or i can't i'm sorry i can't read it sergey i apologize okay gene as a proud jewish-american i'm here to support the resolution in solidarity with the people of palestine i could not live with myself in good conscience if i did not come here and take this stand this is the jewish new year you heard that and on our days of awe we at least i am called to reconcile with those we have harmed over the year well my tax dollars and in my name with my tax dollars and in my name our government has supported the occupation and persecution of the palestinians by the israeli state and i cannot be silent when given a chance to say no not in my name to those who justify the oppression in the name of all jews i am here to say tonight no not in my name i know there is a lot of opposition to this resolution i'm here to respectfully disagree to say that opposing israeli occupation through nonviolent action boycotts divestments sanctions is not anti-semitic it uses the nonviolent power we have to do what's right i've looked at israel's legal system and found it to be like apartheid i've looked at the expropriations of palestinian lands and the expansion of the settlements and found them to be like our own policies towards native nations i am troubled by what i perceive as an undemocratic state of israel an explicitly religious state that discriminates against its non jewish citizens this resolution calls out these wrongs and calls us to support nonviolent action nonviolence is powerful as gandhi said we know that when we make civil nonviolent resistance impossible violence is inevitable opponents and supporters raise serious points a community debate is healthy because our government and our tax dollars are so crucial to maintaining the status quo if we engage respectfully honestly and fairly we will all be better for it please i have faith that we can and we will please wrap up our next speaker is sergey shippenner to be followed by adam france esteemed members of the council i came here as a refugee from a country which basically invented the censoring of israel and the palestinian liberation movement not that helping palestinians was even remotely part of the true soviet foreign policy goals but domestically the toxic media focus on israel offered a perfect cover to bully the soviet union's own jews unlike the soviet union the city of brovington does not conduct foreign policy which glaringly leaves only the second domestic goal to malign isolate and demean your own jewish community it starts with seemingly esoteric official pronouncements which even some jews may gallously support it moves on to insidious focus on ostensible jewish influence to an assault on jewish values like the connection to the holy land to assaults on jews themselves to murders gang rapes and mutilations of your jewish neighbors we've seen this sequence time after time the powers behind bds know exactly what they're doing even the date of this hearing just ahead of the key jewish holiday of yom kippur appears designed to inconvenience intimidate or exclude the leaders of the jewish community just like the proud boys on the extreme right brandish ersatz patriotism bds is cloaked in ersatz compassion but beneath it lies the same toxic ethnic hate yes i respect the personal right of extremists to free speech however a city resolution isn't personal speech it's an oppressive governmental act a direct threat against my wife and i her elderly parents and our minor children watching us tonight a prelude to open season on anything and anyone jewish the first time we've had to contend with such hostility since emigrating to the u.s here in burlington burlington community if we genuinely seek peace let's start with ourselves let's stand up against this act of aggression aimed squarely at your neighbors please vote no our next speaker is adam france to be followed by jeff wick good evening i'm here with support from the young democratic socialist of america at uvm i was apprehensive about attending tonight as a young jewish person it can be risky to speak out about non-support of the state of israel there were fears of harassment and even physical attack by right-wing supporters of israel in the last decade or so israel itself has become an increasingly hostile environment for left-wingers academics and human rights defenders and so have israel's defenders grown more aggressive i'm also worried about ostracization from the rest of the jewish community at the university of vermont the more i thought about it however the more i came to realize that i had to attend this meeting to voice my solidarity with the people of palestine and israel the west bank gaza and the diaspora i cannot stay silent on matters such as these for my own personal relationships and personal safety which is why i have come here today i would like to bear the facts of the current occupation in palestine plainly in january of this year the israeli human rights organization bit selam put out the following statement in the entire area between the mediterranean sea and the jordan river the israeli regime implements laws practices and state violence designated to cement the supremacy of one group jews over another palestinians a key method in pursuing this goal is engineering space differently for each group jewish citizens live as though the entire area were a single space the green line means next to nothing for them where palestinians live on the other hand is crucial the israeli regime has divided the area into several units that devines and governs differently according to palestinians different rights palestinian who live on land defined in 1948 as thank you thank you i have heard tonight that you please wrap up a solution yes is can you please wrap up yes just a minute please wrap up you you've had please wrap up can you last summer can you please wrap up it's holds can you please wrap up we're told that we should protest in the right way this year we are boycotting can you please wrap up and sectioning if that is not the right way to protest i do not know what is will you i come here and i am reassured that i am on the right side of history knowing that desmond tutu please wrap up african national congress are on the same side i believe that you will do the right thing please wrap up our next speaker is jeff wick to be followed by sarah brooks thank you uh good evening i am not going to presume to know the solution to the israeli palestinian conflict and i will accept everything that folks have said on both sides and it's heartbreaking um i walked down here tonight and actually my bad wasn't expecting the boot stamping flag waving sort of angry slogans i please allow him to speak sorry um i did i i am here to support our jewish community um i made that clear uh to some folks outside and i i just wanted to let you know that one of the folks uh holding the flags as part of the protest shook his fist at me and then when we were moving inside he said you're short you're ugly and you're dirty get out of here and so i just want to let you know and he didn't please and then there's a witness among your group by the way and so i've never seen so much hate coming from one side and then in the jewish community uh i am not jewish but my wife and children are and her parents and friends i've never seen quite as much fear uh coming from the jewish community here so i just want to ask the city council you know if you want to be divisive at first i didn't know you're into foreign relations but if you want to be divisive and you want to bring hate and fear to our community you have done it so i i think you'll reap what you sow uh it's been heading this way for a little while as you know i've i've i've let you know that but this is the worst i've i've ever seen it and this is a conflict that i i want to acknowledge i'm you know i don't have a direct role but as you said indirect very very sorry uh both sides and i take what you say you know very seriously i i mean that sincerely but the hate that this is sowing in burlington vermont i don't know i'll be respectful thank you thanks our next speaker is sarah brooks to be followed by matthew tolly hello my name is sarah brooks i'm a member of the party for socialism and liberation and i am here today to speak in favor of the palestinian solidarity resolution i want to kind of address what this gentleman just said here um about this not being an issue relevant locally it's clearly an issue locally we've all shown out for it um and i personally have palestinian friends and comrades and neighbors who live in this town and in vermont um zionists will try to tell you that our resolution is divisive or worse that we're anti-semitic this is not the case though we have many jewish comrades who would say the contrary to them saying that we're anti-semitic this includes the vermont new hampshire chapter of the jewish voice for peace who has co-induced our resolution i am here and they wanted to remind burlington city council specifically that in 1985 i believe burlington city council voted uh in a to basically support um the movement against south african apartheid um so we should get with our progressive tradition um if we're going to say we're progressive i'm here to say that zionism is racism and that if people uh that people who cannot accept our resolution are in fundamental disagreement with internationally recognized definitions of genocide as well as unfamiliar with the concepts of colonialization our resolution only calls for a peaceful end to the suffering and murder of palestinians and for burlingtonians to stand in support of our constitutional right to protest boycott and to call for divestment and sanctioning of oppression ultra-right settlers who are stealing homes from palestinians are the same people who oppose anti-racist organizers here in the u.s the republicans and conservatives are trying to pass anti bds laws and bills and states all over the country this is an attack on the constitutional right to boycott boycotting is as american as apple pie the same people who fight us on defunding the racist police in this town are the same people who want to fear monger and say that we're anti so we're not the jewish people are on our side we must be on the right side of history here in vermont and we must stand in support of the liberation of all oppressed peoples of the world and that includes these rap up our next speaker our next speaker is matthew tauley or tool um to be followed by felicia cornblow matthew felicia cornblow good evening uh i'm felicia cornblow i'm a professor of history and of gender sexuality and women's studies at the university of vermont and an affiliated faculty member in jewish studies i do not represent the university of vermont tonight or any of those programs i am here in strong descent and i call on you not to pass this resolution i have several concerns here i'm going to consult my notes about them the first thing i'd like to say is that there's a confusion i think these days about terminology and a lot of people have been talking about zionists um and using the word zionist as a term of implication um and i'd like to say i am a zionist um this is what a zionist looks like um if you're wondering um and what that means is that what that means is that i support the right of the state of israel to exist and i support it as a jewish state it does not mean at all that i support every public policy of the state of israel in fact i'm an ardent opponent of many of those policies um i'm a financial supporter of uh an organization called j street which calls for a two-state solution in the state of israel and which itself has worked very hard excuse me has worked very hard to lobby the united states government to lobby the united states government to use some of the levers in its control to moderate some of what are perceived as human rights abuses in israel and palestine please allow her yes pardon me please allow police to speak go ahead yes thank you um it's perfectly consistent with zionism and with being a zionist to also oppose some of those policies the last thing i'll say quickly is that um i'm concerned that a bds resolution will have a negative effect on the university of vermont we need to hear from our israeli colleagues including those who are fierce opponents of some israeli public policies thanks our next speaker is andrew chalnick to be followed by rabbi raskin we need to apologize before i start i um i'm working on call please please speak into the microphone i'm working on call for burlington to help support this community and i kept being called out so i apologize for any of you that i missed i had a very busy night helping support this community please speak written yeah i i just had a i've had a very busy night so if i need to leave midway i apologize so uh i would say that i got a chance to go to israel uh it was a very interesting experience um i went to hebron and i i went to no hebron's a city please excuse me um hebron i went to i went to hebron and i i went to both sides i did a dual narrative tour i went in between both spaces and i talked to the person i asked how how is it that you can keep me safe safe and he said it's because i'm a part of a tribe and so i asked okay well how big is your tribe and where is the territory i'm just curious and he said the territory spans from syria to iran to iraq all over and i said are you able to travel freely he said it's technically yes he says that but then i asked well do they support do they give you any support said no said no but in some ways yes so i just want you i just want to ask that we we really take into consideration the magnitude of the historical landscape that is in that space i just came supporting this community in burlington i work very hard for this community many people work hard for both of their communities but it's extraordinary extraordinarily complex the history is rich the history history is deep and it's painful but i just ask i'm just asking that we consider the way to heal the fractures that have had happened between those spaces that's all that's all i have to say our next speaker is rabbi raskin to be followed by eliyahu junic hi my name is andrew chelic i live in south brampton the israeli arab conflict is complex and there is plenty of blame to go around on all sides for the seemingly intractable problems but this resolution is so one-sided and unbalanced that it's comical it should never have been introduced in the first place it's difficult for me to see how any fair minded person does not see that i moved here to vermont three years ago because i believed among other things with vermont was a place where civil and civic discourse was celebrated and valued please don't prove me wrong please come to your senses and avoid embarrassing burlington of vermont the passage of this resolution will undermine the credibility of vermont as a leader and defender of social values it will undermine our leadership on climate change for instance the nation will paint vermont as too radical and ignore us i hope this resolution is unanimously and roundly defeated thank you next speaker is rabbi raskin to be followed by eliyahu junic thank you for letting me say a few words here as a resident of burlington over 30 close to 37 years and the rabbi of the khaba jewish community here in burlington that quite a few of the jewish residents here and the surrounding attend our services are our only jewish day school in town it's hard for me to believe that we even discussing this resolution that is going to create so much division and i kind of want to beg you the jewish community here in burlington is over a hundred years strong groups and i know that the majority of them oppose this resolution not always the difference synagogues in town come together as you know there's sometimes some differences in this issue we are all one and surprisingly as we find ourselves in these days between russia the jewish new year and just in two days will be um kippur this awesome day of forgiveness and atonement that this is the time really we should elaborate how we need to do things that brings us together and not divides us this community has a rich rich community here and i really again ask you to reject this by asking different people to all say this is smells of anti-semitism and we should stay away from it i want to conclude by using the opportunity that we find ourselves between yom kippur the god should give you the wisdom the knowledge and the understanding and do the right thing and this and the right this resolution should help this community please wrap up and we should all be able to live please wrap up thank you thank you our next speaker is elia hujunic to be followed by michael hoffman or i'm sorry i can't read that that that name but please be in hi my name is rabel yonik i'm one of the rabbis at khabar of burlington and i'm a resident of burlington for almost nine years i stand here to urge you to vote no on this resolution today now we are in the days in between the holiest days of the jewish calendar rosh Hashan and yom kippur i am a poll that such a resolution was brought up at this time it's very insensitive and wrong claiming ignorance about the timing of the holy days will just make it worse you should know when your constituents celebrate their holidays there's a lot to say about the content of the resolution i'll deal with a few points it reads this maze really forces subjected gaza to a devastating ear and ulterior attack at least 248 people were killed including 66 children are nearly 2000 injured really this motion condemns defensive israeli air strikes way out of context without any mention of the fact that hamas and its terrorist allies fired over 4 000 rockets aimed at the israeli civilians between may this year it also says to take down the wall and i ask you which wall the wall that protects my people my family and my home is that the wall that they should take down instead of isolating israel ask men and juries to build a factory in gaza factoring the west bank to give those people jobs boycotting israel hurts the people you want to help your job is to take care of your own backyards give us our police force back when i need police they say we are understaffed when we need protection for the high holidays they're understaffed instead of dealing with things thousands of miles away fix your own backyard our next speaker is michael hoffner or hoffman or sander farkas to be followed by rick gordon good evening um my name is shondor frakash i live on charles street in the old north end i wanted to share with you a short quotation um i think i i think i'm getting it right i forget who said it i think it was bill with himelik uh and david you said the gods of the valley are not the god of the hills and you will understand it thank you next speaker is rick gordon to be followed by marcus is rick gordon here okay don't see rick our next speaker is marcus to be followed by andrea reverend marcus i live in burlington one of the things i'm struggling with is is um how we can have such a long and strong robust conversation about racism without having a conversation about racism and when i look around and i see um so many people talking about how um you know they're being made to feel less safe uh when i walk around with a target on my back every day uh and their solution is is more police which is the biggest threat to my life in this city and yeah we did ask for a 30 reduction in the police and we still don't regret it please so i don't understand why this has gotten so divisive and contentious because it's really not that you know kind of party there's you know you got racism if it exists anywhere it's pretty much everywhere and what you have is is when you have militarism you have greed uh you know when you've got you know you got people who are making bombs and dropping them on black and brown people halfway across the globe and they take those same weapons systems and and munitions and they bring them back here and they use them on black and brown people here it's the same thing so um i hope that what we could do is focus on some local stuff too um i do support uh this uh this resolution i don't think it's uh it's divisive unless we want to make it divisive racism is racism we do live in a state remember the state that's held slavery constitutional longer than any other state in the united states 244 years vermont please wrap up a brave little state honest slavery our next speaker is andrea to be followed by uh p actually andrea will be our final speaker this evening didn't expect that um my name is andrea i'm a resident of burlington i didn't prepare anything to say tonight i just feel compelled to be here and wanted to respond to some of the things i've heard and i'm frankly appalled by some the islamophobia i've been hearing tonight i think just some so many people comparing hamas which is not representative of the palestinian people to all of palestine and referring to them as terrorists and comparing all palestinians to the taliban when just like the proud boys are not a whole representation of all christians the hamas is not a representation of all muslims and like scientists are not a representation of all jewish people i think there is extremism in every place and i personally am just very like passionate about human rights and also like the idea of listening to other people's sides so it was also a little bit appalled by the amount of grown adults in this from yelling and speaking over young people who are talking just about we care about racial justice feminist issues lgbtq issues environmental issues and all of those how can we have justice for how can that be a thing for us but not for palestinians what makes them any like unless you believe they're less than human like less human than yourself i don't understand why it's an issue frankly i think i don't know i just yeah i didn't prepare anything to say but it's just like equal like we don't i believe in like the protection of all people jewish lives muslim lives everyone like but the solution bds is nonviolent like it is the only way forward we do not want violence bds boycott divestment in sanctions there's the only way to move forward non violently and that's the to be open to conversation about that could please wrap up thank you everyone thank you for having that spoke tonight okay so the council has allotted two hours for public comment this evening we have 12 remaining speakers is there a motion from the council to extend so moved there's a motion is there a second second seconded by councilor hightower is there any discussion hearing none we'll go to a vote all those in favour of extending to to finish the remaining speakers please say aye aye any opposed is there any opposed i'm sorry i didn't hear votes from the side of the table no opposed okay so we will hear that the the remaining speakers for this evening our next speaker is peach kilroy to be followed by david or sikowski hi my name is peach kilroy i'm a resident of berlington vermont i live in the old north end i've lived here for about three years now um and i am urging you all to pass the resolution and stand in solidarity with palestine i think we've had a lot of discussion about the complexity of the issue sitting before us but i think we should remember the things that are very simple standing against oppression is simple taking a stand against countless human rights violations is simple berlington claims to be a very progressive city over my three years i've seen varying degrees of that if we want to be the town the city we claim to be we need to take a step in the right direction and we need to stand in solidarity with palestine right now i'm going to wrap it up right there but i encourage you all to pass this resolution thank you so much okay our next speaker is crit is david borosikowski to be followed by christopher erin felker david thank you my name is david borosikowski i'm a resident of the city i live in the south end i'm i didn't expect this to be an issue this season and i'm not glad i'm here but i am glad to have heard a lot of the voices and a lot of what people have had to say tonight i think i've learned a lot from from both sides i do oppose or and i hope that the committee that the that the council will oppose or not support this particular resolution i hope you don't fall for a false construct by any side to this very complicated historical issue that the city must take a position and adopt a policy it is not the resolution itself does not offer a solution it does pick a side and it does essentially condemn the state of israel more understanding and understanding the history of it if this was an issue for the city might be helpful long before such a resolution is passed as i said i don't think that that is itself constructive what entertaining it and living with the construct that we have to pick a side on this issue is really just to make irlington polarized to on a complicated issue discomfort and potentially put at risk our small jewish community and not move us forward as i think that the councils essentially responsibility is to help find ways to build trust and to solve the city's issues including inclusion and racial and diversity inclusion and i hope that you focus on that for all of us thank you our next speaker is christopher erin felker i have two signups for you mr christopher so you only get to speak once good evening council my name is christopher erin felker i am a ward three resident and the communications director for the schittenden county gop i am coming here to you tonight to request that this council and i'd like to appreciate everybody who came and spoke out this evening um we would like to request that this council vote no on 5.06 this resolution for bds as a party we do not support the bds movement because we believe that it is inherently anti-semitic we question the wording of this particular resolution as being one-sided and unfair and we full-throtedly condemn the timing of this resolution to be purposefully hurtful on a community as far as the language of this goes i'm perplexed because this body itself has a long history of trying to carefully choose their words to make sure that we represent a city of inclusivity and the language here doesn't support that last week we spoke about how this resolution will only sustain to do one thing and that is create division here in burlington and make anti-semitism rise that is what this council is voting on today and that is something that we ask that you vote no for when it comes to other resolutions on the ballot for on the agenda for this evening um i'd like to set a touch base on 5.08 the uh resolution for a legal resident spoke uh voting in please wrap up okay thank you thank you very much council our next speaker is kelly divine to be followed by david hawn or rand i'm sorry again i can't read it uh is kelly divine okay don't see kelly um david rand to be followed by sharon busher thank you for extending the comment period can you hear me okay yes please be great into the mic my name is dr david rand i live in burlington black lives matter the palestinian people deserve to live freely and safely they deserve equal rights they deserve a right to self-determination as the israelis as a peace-loving person just as it has been painful for me to reckon with actions of my own country the united states i have likewise struggled with decisions made by the israeli government no matter what side you are on the palestinian israeli conflict is truly heartbreaking unlike those who have written this resolution however i do not pretend that this conflict is one-sided despite it seemingly innocuous and incredibly misleading title the resolution before the council is factually inaccurate anti-semitic and divisive i urge the council to reject it and i would like us to take a moment to consider where we are many people in this audience who do not support this resolution support a palestinian state and many have spent generations or decades working towards israeli palestinian peace the leadership of the bds movement calls for the end of israel the burlington city council cannot ally itself with this group full stop people here have been talking about human rights which i certainly support ironically how is it that israel the only true democracy in the only country where homosexuals are not persecuted and censor their deaths is singled out here the only country in the middle east where that is not the case how is it that iraq iran saw arabia the palestinian authority hamas egypt loving on irsiria are not singled out do they have better humanitarian records in israel thank you for your time our next speaker is sharon busher to be followed by robin gillian good evening i'm here to speak on item 5.01 the 40 million dollar geo bond i would respectfully well i've heard that the board of finance did not make a recommendation to the full council and i would respectfully ask that the council actually postpone action on this and i'm asking the mayor also to reconsider you could please just speak right into the mic i'm sorry what please be great into the mic just so we can pick it up certainly i'm asking the mayor also to postpone recommend making this recommendation we all know that the federal government is supposed to come forward with some infrastructure dollars and with the tax base in burlington shrinking the commercial and retail component i'm concerned that this that the new debt will be borne by mainly the residential component of burlington the measure of delaying interest payments also is a concern it shows that you recognize and in the memo you recognize that the people of burlington cannot afford this at this time especially with the reappraisal and this is for you mr mayor when you took office you were highly critical of post past administrations needing to make improvements and postponing payments or delaying payments you called it unsound and yet now you are recommending to do the same by delaying paying on interest i don't think this is wise and i really would really like this city council not to act on this until you have more information thank you very much thank you our next speaker will be robin gillian to be followed by stan shurnock is there is robin robin gillian okay i don't see robin so stan shurnock to be followed by jason lorber hello members of the city council i'm here as a concerned resident of the larger burlington area and i oppose the resolution uh let me make a few points i do not want to relitigate this issue instead i think we need to focus more on the bds and your responsibility as representatives of burlington uh you as city council members have been elected by your constituents mainly in terms of your positions on local issues you did not campaign on on this particular type of issue this particular form doesn't represent a larger referendum or a larger representation of the burlington community and burlington by the way is not just burlington it's the larger burlington area that's represented we do have representatives those representatives are congressional delegation and all of whom have voted in opposition to this bds movement let me make a few basic points that don't have anything to do necessarily with the conflict suggested by others first of all it's important to understand that this resolution is a very expansive resolution it does not deal with any type of specific actions on the part of israelis such as the expulsion of palestinians from the from jerusalem from east jerusalem it does not deal with proposed policies such as the annexation of israel instead it deals with the very existence of the of the israeli state and a state for jews and and arab this is something that should be considered when you're looking at this particular at this particular issue um i do believe and some others have brought it up before that uh please wrap up okay let me just make one please but no please wrap up that uh you are singling out this issue these are other cases like the wiggers in china nobody's dealing with that please wrap up okay i do strongly oppose wrap up okay please wrap up okay so please consider the point excuse me please wrap up jason lauber to be followed by susan sugar thank you i'm jason lauber i live in the old north end um and have for 19 years please so thank you for listening to everyone um it's it's important we live in an ever increasingly um polarized world and we need to listen to each other more all of us do and bds calls for an end to israel from the river to the sea means an end to israel the bds movement goes beyond protection for palestinians it calls for death to israel now i don't know how you have a conversation with someone when they're starting salvo is you need to die you need to not be here there is pain on both sides there is injustice on both sides but we need to have that conversation and to start we need to recognize each other's right to exist please be brave and talk to not just your friends but to people that you know disagree with you and do so before bringing forward polarizing resolutions bds creates walls it destroys our ability to talk to each other we need to listen to each other thank you our next speaker is susanne sugar to be followed by rabbi david feldman good evening my name is susanne sugar i use she her pronouns i was born in burlington i've been a homeowner here for five years this is my third time coming before you the first time i opposed the development that is now the pit in the ground that is not moving forward with any sort of progress the second time i opposed millions of dollars being spent on a park that did not accommodate our farmers market sadly now i'm here today to say we still have real local issues that need to be addressed i am so proud of our community for being passionate about whichever side they support i don't feel this is the proper forum for this discussion if you look at front porch forum crime is an issue wherever you stand in terms of more or less policing we have a crime problem we have a substance abuse problem we have no high school we have a speeding problem it's really scary out there how few traffic stops i've seen and how fast people are driving because there are no police to enforce speeding violations we have a graffiti problem the metaphorical broken windows are here and it's terrifying to see our city go into that state we have a water problem we have environmental issues we have serious financial decisions to make as a community and now you're adding anti-semitism to the list i urge you to vote no on this resolution focus on the issues that matter to people that we can make a difference on in our immediate community thank you our final speaker for this evening will be rabbi david feldman thank you council members for extending the time my name is rabbi david feldman i'm a descendant of jewish people who are murdered tortured in the holocaust and very few of them who survived and therefore i'm deeply concerned for the well-being of jewish people in the united states in the holy land and in the world but at the same time it's because i know and understand what suffering is i am deeply concerned about suffering of any person throughout the world and in this case tonight is the palestinian people and it happens to be that so many jewish people are embarrassed that unfortunately what is being done to palestine is being done supposedly in the name of all jews and in the name of our religion i have to be very clear that according to judizm this occupation is totally wrong it's totally wrong on moral basis it's religiously wrong and in addition to this it happens to be according to the basics of jewish belief there is a concept of divine decree exile which jewish people have forbidden to create a state of their own or to fight any fight or oppress any people now when we're dealing with item tonight on the agenda we need to realize that jewish people lived in palestine in peace before all of this before this philosophy of zionism this has changed because of this concept of oppressing and other people and we have to realize that unless the root cause of the problem is going to be addressed unfortunately nothing is going to be resolved in addition many people tonight have claimed that speaking against israel is anti-semeric and we have to be very clear and i say this as a jewish person conflating judizm with zionism anti-semitism with anti-zionism what happens is that we make a statement that all jews are responsible for what israelis wrap up that's dangerous for jews thank you please wrap up thank you that concludes our public forum for tonight we'll now and we'll now move into the city council meeting the next item on the agenda is the if you're if you're going to be having conversations if you could please just move into the hall our next item on the agenda is the climate emergency report do any counselors have a climate emergency report to offer this evening okay seeing none we'll move on to the next item which is the consent agenda councillor paul may please have a motion on the consent agenda thanks president tracy i'm not sure that i'm going to do this correctly because there has been a change but i will try um so i would make a motion to adopt the consent agenda on as amended and the amendment is um i can if you'd want to do it five go ahead yeah so uh just to be clear um for counselors we moved we delayed on item um on the board of finance agenda which was a an item having to do with um it's item 4.11 which is a bca reclassification of two positions that was that decision was delayed and then the um the 4.16 was also changed to reflect that we were we requested a a proposal to scan all land records and have a proposal for the board of finance to act on as well so that was the those were the amendments to the consent agenda are you making the motion sorry no i just wanted to make sure yeah all right i'll make that motion thank you second yeah sorry is there a second seconded by councilor hanson is there any discussion mayor president tracy i just i believe that the board of finance one of the bca positions was delayed but not both of them and i just yes actually thank you for that correction mayor uh so yes the one of the positions was was reclassified the other was delayed and not voted on the events the event coordinator position was delayed however the other position which was merely a change in hours for that position was uh was moved forward thank you for that correction mayor is there any further discussion on the consent agenda point of order president tracy well i'm sorry which was the second agenda item that you were saying 4.16 counselor and it was what what were the there was an ad an add-on to request that they bring a proposal to scan all land records not just from 1900 to 1985 thank you any further discussion on the consent agenda all right all those in favor please say aye aye opposed that carries brings us into our deliberative agenda but before we get into our deliberative agenda i'm actually going to recess the city council meeting and have us go into the the city council with mayor presiding and turn it over to mayor weinberger thank you president tracy i'm going to call to order the city council with mayor presiding at 10 11 p.m and the first item on the agenda is the agenda i would welcome a motion to accept it so moved thank you councilor mason is our second second by councilor barlow discussion of the agenda amendments to the agenda seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye either any opposed the motion carries unanimously and we have an agenda the next item 2.01 is the consent agenda i'd welcome a motion to accept the consent agenda and take the action indicated council mason thank you mayor i'd like to make a motion to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions as indicated great is our second seconded by councilor hanson discussion of the consent agenda seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye sorry are there any opposed the motion carries unanimously and the consent agenda is adopted that brings us to the three appointments starting with 3.01 design advisory board for a term expiring june 30th 2023 are there any nominations for the design advisory board floor is open for nominations for 3.01 the design advisory board i'm going to recognize council jane go ahead great thank you are there any other nominations for the design advisory board seeing no other hands we will close the floor nominations and uh go to uh there's any discussion or is mr white here would like to address the the council i'm not seeing mr white so um is there any discussion we'll go to a vote all those in favor of appointing j white to design advisory board please um uh say uh aye are there any opposed uh congratulations mr white thank you for your interest you are appointed to the dab two more appointments library commission for a term expiring june 30th 2022 are there any nominations council jane thank you council jane are there any other nominations i'm not seeing any hands for other nominations so i'm going to close the floor is um sally blanchard o'brien with us tonight would you like to to address the council i'm not seeing sally so we will um go back to the council is there any discussion before we vote seeing none we will go to a vote all those in favor of appointing sally blanchard o'brien to the library commission please say aye are there any opposed that nomination sir congratulations sally and thank you for your interest in serving the city finally board of tax appeals busy board these days um we have an opening for the term expiring june 30th 2024 councilor mason thank you may windbreaker i'd like to nominate nathan verag excellent thank you are there any other nominations seeing none i will close the floor denominations and ask whether nathan verag is here and would like to address the city council as we customarily allow people to do so i'm not seeing nathan so we will go back to the council any discussion of the nomination seeing none we will go to a vote all those in favor of the um all those in favor of the appointment of nathan verag please say aye hi hi are there any opposed mr verag nathan congratulations you are appointed unanimously and that um is the end of the appointments and without objection uh i will close the uh we'll adjourn the city council mayor presiding at 10 16 p.m um and i will just say president tracy if we are going to go straight into the general obligation item it would be helpful if we had a very brief um very brief recess given the uncertainty given the questions that have come up over the night sure i will um yes that was my plan mayor and i will grant a five minute recess uh on that is that sufficient okay so let's let's be back here at 10 21 thank you phase of the infrastructure planning implementation work that we began in 2014 um some questions came up at the board finance meeting tonight and further questions uh in public forum that i think deserve a proper response before the council's asked to vote on this so um although there will be some complications with the date of the special election that we'll address when we reconvene on this i think it would be best if we postpone action on this to the september 27th meeting in two weeks and i would support taking that step and appreciate the the the collaboration with the council to try to get this right it's an important item involving very substantial investment and i want the council to have all the information they need before asked to vote okay thank you mayor uh is there a motion to postpone um yes president tracy i would make a motion to postpone uh to what uh to uh to the our next council meeting which would be the 27th of september thank you councillor paul we have a motion to postpone is there a second seconded by councillor hanson any discussion on the motion to postpone this item until our next meeting oh yeah go ahead councillor hanson so just to clarify so by postponing this is is it no longer able to be placed on the november ballot there is no existing november ballot it's going to require a special election with a date established by this council the council has the authority to warrant a special election for whatever it wants to it will require that november the proposed november ninth date to be moved um to later so we'll not be on a november ninth but i do still think there would be it we will be coming back proposed and we still set a special election um at a slightly postponed date uh ranting you have the floor great thanks yeah i mean i can support i i think i needed to know that because i i feel strongly that we should get this before the voters um and i don't want to lose that opportunity but as long as we still have that opportunity then i can support um taking more time okay hey mail in burger i just want to clarify it's not quite so simple it's just pushing it back two weeks because two weeks that would put us squarely into the middle of the thanksgiving holiday i don't think we should be having an election a couple days before thanksgiving so we'll probably be slightly later in that we're thinking but the idea would still to become have a special looks in uh in december early december okay are there any other counselors wanting to wishing to speak to the motion to postpone okay seeing none uh all those in favor of postponing this item to our next meeting please say hi hi any opposed this kit that that motion carries which brings us on to item number 5.02 which is a presentation from uh megan tuttle city planner regarding the 2020 initial census data summary thanks for being with us tonight i'll try to be quick i think uh i passed along the slides to cao shad but they're also posted on board docs so um because there are a number of other items for you to go through tonight i'll give a very quick summary of what's in this presentation um i'll just start by saying that the reason this says an initial summary of the data release is because this is the um technical data release for redistricting um this doesn't include a number of the data sets that we typically look to the census to help us evaluate more information about our population housing households economic and other social characteristics so if you move on to the next slide this data release is a very um streamlined data release that includes the following data at multiple levels for the city it includes the total population and population over 18 it includes race and ethnicity data and it includes total households wet and then whether they're occupied or vacant if you move on to the next slide this just briefly shows an overview of how the city's population has changed over the last two uh dysenial census senses um we are currently at 44,743 residents in burlington which is an increase of just over five percent since the 2010 census on the next slide you can see um how the city's population identifies in terms of their race and ethnicity in 2020 approximately 82 percent of the city's population identified as white and 17.8 percent identified as black indigenous and people of color as well as of two or more races additionally 37 percent of the population identifies as hispanic or latino on the next slide you can see how the population within different racial groups has changed since 2010 one thing to note here is that in the 2010 census nearly 89 percent of the city's population identified as white alone compared to 82 percent in 2020 there's a couple of reasons for this one is certainly demographic changes over the last 10 years and another reason for this is a change in how the census asks questions about race and ethnicity in the 2020 census using a different question format participants in the census were given greater flexibility to be able to self identify their race and i just wanted to share a quote with you from the census because i think it really helps explain uh the importance of that change is that um through these changes participants were able to more thoroughly and accurately describe their identity and these changes reveal that the us population is much more multiracial and more diverse than how we've measured it in the past so both again both demographic shifts as well as a greater recognition of the multiracial identity of residents um on the next slide this shows how the population in the city's wards has changed from 2010 to 2020 most wards in the city saw some increase in their population over this time span with wards three and seven remaining fairly level our team has been closely evaluating this data to help us ground truth it based on our understanding of where development and other changes have happened in the city over the last 10 years but we're definitely looking forward to more of the full census data results to help us understand more about the changing dynamics of households and other population characteristics as it relates to this but one note that you'll see here is that there is an asterisk next to the data about the wards in our early analysis of this data we uncovered what appears to be a repeated misallocation from the 2010 census a large number of beds on the uvm campus have been misallocated between wards six and eight this is an error that was caught in the 2010 census during the redistricting process in 2015 and does appear to be repeated so we're working with uh uvm and the state data center to correct that issue so the data that's presented here assumes that that misallocation is corrected um and then the last two pieces here just help um show how the population changes relate to the upcoming work of the council's ad hoc committee on redistricting um this chart is a little hard to see on the screen but basically helps us understand how the change in population in the city's wards relates to the ideal size of those wards which is is really a reflection of how we divide the city's population among the wards um when we look at this data we see that um we use 10 above or below the ideal size as the metric that we look at when we consider whether redistricting will be required um we see that wards one and seven have the greatest deviation from the ideal size with ward one being 11.7 percent larger than that ideal size and ward seven being 9.7 percent smaller than the ideal size and then if you go to the next slide um you can just see how the deviation from that ideal size is spread among the city's wards this is ranked from most to least populace in terms of that size um and you see that there's about 21.4 percent difference between uh the most and least populated wards in the city so you may remember from a presentation from attorney blackwood back in the spring that the 10 threshold is is the metric that you really look at to determine whether or not the wards are roughly proportional and then finally um just briefly with the the data that was provided in the census about housing units um you can see that in 2020 the reported number of housing units in the city was just over 18,000 um this is a growth of about eight percent from the 2010 census and tracks really closely with um the data that we've been reporting from our local building permitting over the past few years as interim updates so that's all I have to share tonight a very quick and high level overview just to make sure that you're all aware of this data and we'll I'm sure provide more reports to you as additional census data becomes available thank you very much appreciate the presentation are there any questions or oh wait I'm sorry now that you finish that before we get into questions it is um it's past it's 1033 and we do need a motion to suspend the rules to continue our meeting Councillor Paul thanks President Tracy I would make a motion to suspend our rules um to um to take up items 5.03, 04, 05, 06 and 5.07 I'm 5.08 I'm sorry 5.07 I made a mistake on that okay all right so is everybody clear on the motion to suspend the rules completing the rest of the deliberative agenda with the exception of item 5.07 which would be placed on our next agenda for consideration is there a second to that motion seconded by Councillor Mason any discussion okay seeing none we'll go to a vote on the motion to suspend the rules all those in favour please say aye aye aye any opposed that carries unanimously and we've suspended our rules so thank you for for your patience appreciate that now we'll open it up to questions from Councillors so our comments from Councillors any questions from Councillors Councillor Barlow to be followed by Councillor Hanson yes thank you for that presentation I'm wondering if you have any more detail on what's driving the increase in ward one yes so um some of the increase in ward one likely came from developments that occurred in ward one so Baybury Commons being one of the major ones which was an addition of a couple of hundred housing units in that part of the city thank you Councillor Hanson yeah I think this is maybe the obvious question but does that discrepancy in population require redistricting yeah I'll look to the city attorney to to back me up on this but I believe based on the standards that have been set forth in terms of both the deviation of individual wards from the ideal size as well as the difference in the largest and smallest wards it would require redistricting that's correct okay great thank you so much okay are there any further questions from Councillors okay seeing none we will close that item thank you again for your presentation very much appreciated and we will move into item 5.03 which is a resolution request for 1.795 million of ARPA funds to address ongoing health response and negative impacts of reappraisal and water main replacement may please have a motion on that Councillor Paul thanks President Tracy I would move to waive the reading and adopt the resolution thank you we have a motion is there a second seconded by Councillor Hanson we have thank you for sticking around appreciate that so would you please just just share with us what what's contained in this item yeah sure i'm a recovery we're asking for a release of funds from the ARPA funds basically to target three main areas that we would like to address I want to be clear that this is aside from the fact that my team and the internal ARPA task force has been working with has been working to create a process for public outreach so that we can manage and have a large public discourse around the investment of the remaining portion of funds however we request a release of 1.795 million at the moment to address the further public health response mostly related to the delta variant to address some of the hardest hit members of our community from the property tax reappraisal and to address water wastewater storm water in particular with reference to the project at university place and i'm happy to answer any detailed questions on those thank you very much are there any questions from councillors okay seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor of adopting the resolution please say aye aye the opposed this carries that carries unanimously which brings us into item 5.04 which is a communication from director Spencer and senior public works engineer mims councillor hanson may please have a motion sure i will move to authorize the director of the department of public works to execute contract amendment number 17 to the contract with clow harbor and associates for engineering design services for the champlain parkway project including development contract plans and bid documents for a two contract construction approach consistent with the south end construction coordination plan increasing the contract amount by 1 million or i'm sorry yeah by 1,054,733 and 65 cents raising the total from 12,417,369 and 19 cents to 13,472,102 dollars and 84 cents and extending the contract term from october 1 2021 to july 1 2025 subject to the review and approval by the city attorney's office okay we have a motion from councillor hanson is there a second seconded by councillor barlow i'll turn it over to the the team from dpw great thank you so much city councillors we really appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight chaven spencer director public works i'm joined by city engineer norm baldwin to my right and senior engineer cori mims to my left we also have our attorney for the project john rose calling in and the consultant team from cha here if there are any questions so we really appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight and present to you a major new approach in how we are proposing to unlock substantial new investment in the south end specifically as councillor hanson noted we are seeking approval for a contract amendment for the champlain parkway and its design consultant but we are in a in a larger sense really reframing how to bring forward these major projects into the south end in a way that can minim minimizes impact on residents and businesses we've heard you councillors and we've heard the public in concern coming out of coveted and with these multiple large projects in the south end wanting to figure out how best we can bring them forward in a way that minimizes impacts and i'm pleased to say we've worked with v-trans and federal highway to make significant strides here on the powerpoint you are seeing the coordination plan that was in your packet the salmon colored lines rose are the champlain parkway the first two lines relate to work at the i189 interchange which is underway next year the class class 1 repaving will happen on all class 1 town highways in the city in yellow that third line is the amtrak construction work the fourth line is the shelburn street roundabout that you all have seen is now under construction and the champlain parkway here and a notable concept that we are bringing forward tonight that we've discussed with board of finance is splitting the champlain parkway into two construction contracts an initial construction contract from home to kilburn and we will show this in a map momentarily with the second phase of the champlain parkways you'll see all the way at the bottom being the north end of the project from kilburn to main street in the south end of the project from home down to 189 we have a main street great streets project if you can go back there in gray which is from battery to union a project that we've talked to you all about in past years but are looking forward to picking up again with you all in the very near future and the rail yard enterprise project there in gold which is a project we'll be bringing a preliminary engineering design consultant contract to you all in the next meeting or two so if you can this shows from 2022 through 2027 and i'm going to turn it over to senior engineer quarry mims to describe the map in front of you so as you can see in blue in the center is the phase one portion of proposed plant it extends from home avenue and up north to kilburn so what we were looking to do is have the contract plants broken into obviously two contracts first one being the central section i should note that the first phase would also include the section of shared use path heading from shellburn and extending west kind of over near where the 189 connection would be the 189 connection in red on the left hand side of the page as well as the maple and king neighborhood would be wrapped into the second contract that would not be started until i believe it's 2025 2026 and that also would only proceed with council approval to award the construction contract all right so there are several important objectives that we believe we can achieve through this south end construction coordination plan we've talked about minimizing impacts by coordinating carefully these various projects we also believe that we can deliver a number of the parkway benefits more quickly by splitting the project into two construction contracts and we will discuss those momentarily we also then as senior engineer mims discussed really put the control both with the administration and the council in a two-step approval process you would need to approve both the initial construction project and would have a subsequent ability to approve the final construction contract and so here as we point out the council really with this two-step approach has the ability to authorize construction once the community is ready for that interstate connection at 189 next many of the benefits achieved by this two-step approach is that initially in the first phase we get a new 25 mile an hour grid street in the south end major new improvements to stormwater management diverting and reducing over three tons of sediment from being discharged into the lake two miles of shared use path including shared use path along pine street new raised intersections with safer crossings including a new midblock crosswalk pine street gets a nice overhaul with granite curbs new pavement better drainage new sidewalk on the east side of the road a lot of utility undergrounding and water and wastewater upgrades along the corridor in addition to railroad improvements at the crossings at home in flin next so with that i'm going to turn it back over to the team normer quarry you're going to take this slide so i'm sure the council is aware there's a limit scope please speak right into the microphone sorry i probably took the mask off so as the council is aware there is a bullet right in the federal highway administration is is sought to complete a limit scope supplemental eis that work has been completed and as of today that was posted on our project website along with communications to members of the public to express interest in that project itself the department public works is distributing probably early tomorrow hard copies of the limited scope final uh eis and it'll be distributed at the library in uh city hall but also at public works those people who want hard copies it's 860 pages or somewhere abouts you're welcome to we have a limited uh hard copies available if people desire to have a copy of that hard copy themselves but uh this is all uh information that we're sharing with the public early sooner than actually the federal high administration is posting in the federal registry which is scheduled i think for september 17th which could potentially arrive at a record of decision i october 17th or somewhere thereabouts so 30 days post posting in the cfr the record decision will be issued so this is more or less what the slides describing is our process currently um so uh this bullets here the contract amendment scope of work that is in the packet in front of you and describes the next steps that our consultant cha and their sub consultants uh would proceed with the work uh with your approval tonight next we received a couple questions catherine next please thank you we received a couple questions from counselors about uh the question of repayment and uh there has long been a discussion uh at the council and in the city uh we have invested a significant amount of money over the decades this project is approximately 50 years old and there was a question about whether or not the repayment provisions that have been often cited were indeed uh uh going to be uh put forward and would be utilized should there uh be a lack of progress on the project and so uh at uh president tracy's uh suggestion for us to get a more detailed response from our partners we've sought letters that are in your board docs packet tonight from both v-trans and federal highway and i'll accept uh i uh accept excuse me excerpted the two key sections from both the federal highway and v-trans's letters federal highway letter here you'll see that uh they basically say that they will initiate repayment if the project does not advance and that federal law does not allow for a waiver or an exemption of that provision and next on v-trans's letter in the unfortunate event that the city is unable to maintain the momentum to advance this project the agency will be required to seek project cost recovery action against the city they go further on to say that not only would that include federal funds but also state funds as well so that is the summary we are very excited to bring forward the south end construction coordination plan we've had the opportunity to meet with many community groups past litigants from the project uh racial justice alliance local motion shamplain housing trust uh and uh the reib department here in the city we've sought to get input on this and feel like we've uh found a successful path for minimizing impact on all these projects uh on our community while transforming the infrastructure of the south end happy to answer any questions thank you for that presentation now open the floor to uh to counselors any questions councilor mason thank you president tracy um we're doing this in real time because literally that limited scope fsc just hit our inbox at 4 30 in the midst of 2000 emails on bds so i'm not sure i'm fully understanding the process i was trying to skim it while you were talking maybe someone could give a high level read of what it says and what happens between now and 30 days when the record of decision is issued okay so we have what to call is a f eis and then the state has state and federal government has suggested under a new federal process a more extensive federal process they've uh acted by asking us to complete a limited scope supplemental final supplemental impact statement so we've completed that work that work effectively has made a determination the original draft that was circulated to the public is uh not seeking any sort of changes to it at all given that uh the comments that were received did not warrant any sort of modifications to that that f eis as a result it's been published published as a city on our project website but not published as yet to the federal cfr um website itself so that's the more the formalized established date in which uh the clock starts with uh the public being aware of the determination and so 30 days post that you you federal highway administration issues a record of decision and then obviously the public will have some opinions about that but that is kind of the disposition of the process as it stands thank you so sort of as a follow-up in this maybe for john once the rod is issued is there an appeal period you know i'm trying to figure out what this means in terms of the concerns that have been raised as to the king made the street neighborhood so there is uh ongoing litigation related to this project correct i can probably answer this better than me about what that process looks like as it stands today what potential next steps could be so john if you could take that away from here i'm sure council miss i wasn't able to hear more very well but i think i got the gist of the question the the next step is once the rod is issued the the case that's pending in federal court is currently being stayed once the rod is issued federal highway will file a report with the court that should live to stay then the party's determined what what happens next in that case and so that that's sort of the current status of that litigation uh uh we're hoping that some of the you know some of the changes in the in the plan as presented to the council will help to help us to move forward in that case and that in a way helps to resolve it but uh i'd be reluctant to get into any more about the you know the you know next steps in that case in a public session given the risks and yeah and i'm not asking that i'm just i'm trying to conceptually understand what's going so that what was what was what we received today in essence is the city's response to the public comment and what has been received through the process my understanding is we then memorialize that in a rod there's a right to appeal if there's no appeal then that's it that ends the case but that would be incumbent on those who have had concerns with the proposal okay exactly thank you that's that's helpful um leaving aside i sort of i sort of skipped into the specifics i i want to thank um i know how much work has gone into trying to address some of the concerns and and tie these you know some of the development that's going on or the proposed i would say projects that um you know the rally areas enterprise project the shampoam parkway i i've already heard i understand of course this does not address all of the concerns that have been raised um if we could wave our wand we might not exactly do this but i also understand the time sensitivity of moving forward um on some of these project and appreciate the effort that staff and others have put into making it happen so thank you for that i will be supporting this amendment um at this time thank you is there any further discussion council manson yes so thanks for providing those those documents um those responses from the federal government and state um like councilor mason i i didn't i didn't have the opportunity to to see that um so with the 20 year time frame when is that triggered when one was day one of those 20 years my understanding is 20 years uh post uh any sort of federal obligation of funds okay so what is there a year that's attached to that in this specific situation i think it's been very gray in those conversations so we can't pin that down precisely but we believe if we follow the schedule we'll stay on track and not be at that risk all right great thanks and i would sorry and i would just say if if we can get any clarity on that that would be helpful but i'm glad to hear that you're confident that we're not worried about that right now okay any further just any further discussion counselors okay seeing none are we ready to vote okay all right all those in favor of adopting the motion the the um the motion um please say hi hi any opposed that carries unanimously brings us to very much thank you appreciate it brings us to our next item which is item 5.05 a resolution regarding issuance of revenue bonds for brilliant and electric department uh council paul uh thanks president tracy i would waive the reading and adopt the resolution okay we have a motion is there a second seconded by counsel carpenter uh gm springer welcome thank you for being here turn it over to you thank you very much good evening counselors um we have a presentation on the burlington electric proposed net zero energy revenue bond uh which i'll i'll go through we're glad to answer questions i'm joined tonight by colleagues emily stephens wheelock manier castee james gibbons and our bond council thomas maloney who are all here to help with questions that you may have um our first slide many of you have seen uh but this is just introduction to bed as a reminder we are public power utility 100 renewable and as noted here we had no rate increase for 12 years but coming out of the pandemic as counselors know we had a seven and a half percent rate increase that was filed uh and has taken effect as a surcharge in august on customer bills on the next slide we have just some quick basics about the bed revenue bond distinct in some ways from a typical bond for the city this is a bond that requires a majority of the voters to approve this is solely payable from bed rates and revenues this is not affecting property taxes this is not something that affects the city's debt policy or general fund expenditures this is an obligation of bed it's been used a number of times and and perhaps the best analog here is that we used it as a tool to invest in energy efficiency with an 11.3 million dollar bond in 1990 that has yielded a number of benefits in terms of energy conservation over the ensuing decades this particular proposal is really focused on two key pillars one is we want to continue to have a reliable system the average customer in burlington sees in an average year about one outage that lasts for on average 45 minutes that's extraordinary reliability we want to continue to invest in having a reliable system for our customers we also know that as this council has supported and as bd has brought forward we are focused on a net zero energy 2030 goal and the proposal before you tonight will help us to accelerate progress in tackling climate change making progress on reducing fossil fuel use in burlington so those are really the key pieces that we're looking at here on the next slide the revenue bond proposal itself is a 20 million dollar proposal that would be expended over a three-year period that would cross between fiscal years 22 for partial year full year 23 and 24 and part of fiscal year 25 there would be several key areas of investment about 12.3 million would be invested in the grid about 7 million of that is for reliability about 5.3 million is for projects that will facilitate additional progress towards net zero by allowing for load growth as we strategically electrify move away from fossil fuels we also have investments about 3.9 million in technology systems currently our systems are aging we're unable to automatically enable dynamic rates and load control that we need as we move forward these systems will help us make those automated processes and help us have a reliable customer and meter system financial system we're going to invest in renewable generation we currently have a number of renewable energy plants but as folks may know we have one remaining fossil fuel plant which is a peaker gas turbine that's located on the waterfront only runs a few times a year typically when energy demand in the region is high we want to convert that to run on renewable biodiesel instead of oil we also want to invest in some of our existing renewable plants like the Winooski one hydro facility and the McNeil biomass plant and lastly on this list a number of investments in net zero capital projects in EV charging that we want to locate all throughout the city and continue to expand that network we want to invest in demand response capabilities we partner with local companies like packetized energy on that and we want to invest in things like our our new electric bucket truck which the council has approved are receiving a grant for the local share of that would be a part of this revenue bond proposal this just lays out I think summarizes much of what I just stated the one thing I wanted to note is on this chart here FY 25 has a full year total instead of a half year total that's why the numbers if you do the math add up a little differently because this counted a full year of fiscal 25 and for the revenue bond we're only counting a half year of fiscal 25 on the next slide this is the other key piece of moving forward in the manner that we've suggested which we think is a fiscally responsible manner to invest in climate action is that we will by by pursuing the revenue bond free up some of our annual three million dollar geobahn that we receive at BED to help double our funding between FY 23 and 25 for customer incentives that help us move off of fossil fuel and move to clean electric technologies that rely on 100% renewable energy heat pumps EV incentives electric lawn equipment doubling that funding will provide an incremental reduction of 47 000 tons of lifetime greenhouse gas emissions avoided that's equivalent to about 100 000 barrels of oil that would not be consumed from an energy standpoint currently we launched a number of these programs in 2019 we have over 1350 customer incentives that we've provided already and we are going to accelerate that even further through this process on the next slide you can see that this represents our program activity relative to our state obligations under renewable energy standard you can see that we are in the dark blue line we are already beginning to exceed not only the compliance level but the level that would be if we doubled funding which is the dotted line at the top there if you look at that blue line the dark blue line it includes some of our custom projects like our electric transit buses and geothermal projects the lighter blue line represents just our prescriptive programs like our EVs and heat pumps but nonetheless the point of this this graph is to demonstrate we are seeing customer demand that's going above and beyond what the state is requiring and what our current funding supports and we want to support our customers by doubling that funding and being able to invest in more climate action through this proposal key point here and I want to mention that as we announced just a few weeks ago Burlington Electric just had our a3 rating by Moody's affirmed on our outstanding revenue bonds with a stable outlook that's welcome news as we pursue this development with the new revenue bond proposal coming out of the pandemic and having the a3 rating affirmed is good news we are projecting an FY23 that we want to reach 110 days cash on hand for our Moody's metrics if we were to try to do all of the projects that I've mentioned tonight and do so without the revenue bond it would put over 23 percent of upward rate pressure on our system for our customers which is a number that nobody here wants to see we don't want to see that's that's an extraordinary number on the other hand with the revenue bond we can make all the investments mentioned and we would see about 4.9 percent of upward rate pressure that's not a rate case there are a lot of factors that go into whether we file for a rate case that just gives you a sense of the upward pressure on our budget that we would be facing with and without the revenue bond and obviously 4.9 percent is less than what we saw this year with the 7.5 percent and actually with the revenue bond we see that rate pressure moderating further over the coming years lowering as we go out so we are on a more sustainable fiscally responsible trajectory with the revenue bond than we would be without it on the next slide you can see that we think about the revenue bond and we think about the debt service one of the things that we have here is we have existing revenue bond debt service where we're going to have a maturity in 2025 so that's starting in 2026 there's about 684,000 of capacity that's more or less freed up to go towards paying this new revenue bond so that's one key component of how we can provide some additional capacity for debt service on the next slide you can see that we can structure this is just a pro forma this is not exactly what we would do or not do but this gives you a sense that we could structure the repayments such that we have deferred principal until that maturity comes in and that way we can take advantage of that additional capacity from the existing revenue bond maturity as helping to pay for some of the debt service on the new revenue bond on the next slide there's another piece here which is by pursuing all these customer incentives and strategic electrification projects there is revenue return that comes into the utility and we're projecting here between FY 25 and 32 on average incremental net revenues net of cost of the incentives net of the cost of power supply of 467,000 annually just from doubling those customer incentives for that three-year period so the big point I would want to make is that between the maturity savings and the additional net revenues the incremental net revenues we're looking at a substantial portion of the debt service being covered already and that means this will put much less rate pressure on our system over the coming years because we have revenue return and we have maturity savings so that's a key component of this for us is being able to do that in a fiscally responsible way that minimizes upward rate pressure for our customers that was the last slide the one thing I did want to mention and just briefly in conversations with our bond council is I do understand that there would be in the resolution currently before you there is a date of November obviously it makes sense to align any special election for the bd revenue bond with any other special election date that might be so it may be necessary to have a change to that date perhaps to give flexibility to align it with the geo infrastructure bond such that there weren't two conflicting dates so I just wanted to point that out and myself or our team would be glad to answer questions okay thank you for that presentation very much appreciate it so let's get into questions on the bond itself and then we can deal with this issue of the election I'll come to the city attorney for some clarification and guidance around dividing the question so that we can potentially approve the bond and substance but leave open the ability at our next meeting to establish a date for that election but are there questions from counselors regarding the presentation we just heard in the bond itself council carpenter just clarifying so going into the bond you've already built those presumptions in your revenue and current rates we have we've basically done a five-year model that looks at our rates with the revenue bond included okay so at least in the next five years it in and of itself will not cause problem no not at all if those improvements happen it will keep rates down effectively that's exactly right yeah we see in our five-year model which is the most detailed model I think we've ever had at Burlington Electric we see declining rate pressure between fiscal 22 through fiscal 26 with this revenue bond approved so even if we do have more frequent rate adjustments we're not going to go 12 years again without having a rate adjustment we see them being more moderate than what we just did with the seven and a half percent and declining in pressure over time based on all the known things that we have in the forecast now all set any other questions from counselors Councillor Barlow thank you President Tracy I just wanted to wondering if you could clarify a statement you made during the presentation where the 4.9 percent rate pressure increase is not a rate case increase could you just elaborate on that some and how would you come into raising rates if you needed to absolutely so we look at rate pressure as being you know all things known now if we were to go into the next fiscal year and there were no changes based on our forecast we would likely need to file something on the order of the 4.9 percent to reach our Moody's metrics to keep our revenues where they need to be but that you know we have a whole fiscal year to go through with fiscal 22 there's a variety of impacts on COVID to our sales in particular that may fluctuate we have arrearages that we're looking to clear for customers that affects our day's cash on hand so there's a variety of variables as you go through the year and there'll be variables going into the next year what are energy markets doing for example what are the prices of renewable energy credits so in the kind of the early spring we'll have a better sense and we'll be we'll be able to inform the council better what our actual rate proposal would be for FY 23 but the 4.9 is our best known assumption at this moment in time right so so just to follow up there may be there may be a rate increase there there may not be but the portion of any increase that could be attributed to the bond would be 4.9 percent actually it would be less the 4.9 percent is just looking at what we would need with the bond but the bond itself the debt service from the bond when you count the revenue return you count the maturity savings that we're trying to roll in the actual rate pressure from the bond is likely to be around one percent or less okay thank you any further questions okay seeing none I will go to city attorney Richardson for just some guidance around dividing the question sure I'd make the recommendation if the based on um general manager springer's uh suggestion that the votes be conducted for the g the general obligation bond and this uh that the council should divide the question into uh resolving to waive the reading and adopt the resolution um and a second question as to the date of the election uh and that second motion should then be amended uh to have the date be determined at the next city council meeting where I understand the general obligation bond will be discussed um and so it's it's a three-step process you move to divide the question then you have one question then you have the other question correct okay may please have that may please have a motion uh to divide the question so moved uh move the motion to divide the question came from councillor mason seconded by councillor jang is there any discussion okay seeing none we'll go to a vote on the motion simply to divide the quest to to divide the question and then we go into the mode then we'll vote on each individual question all right any further discussion okay hearing none let's go to a vote all those in favor of dividing the question please say aye aye any opposed that carries unanimously we'll now move into the first question um which is that of whether to adopt the the general obligation bond may it please have a motion on that revenue revenue bond revenue bond sorry the revenue bond I apologize sorry it's late is there a motion on that I moved by councillor mason seconded by councillor jang any discussion on that that piece of the question okay seeing none we'll go to a vote on the revenue bond itself all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed that carries unanimously we'll now move into the second portion of the question which is that of the election date itself which would be to set that election at our next meeting uh is there a motion or is I think point of order I'm not sure I followed attorney I think no we already made the motion sorry you have to amend yeah you have to amend it and I'd recommend you amend it to a date certain amend it to a date certain to be uh so we okay sorry it's technically four steps um but uh I would recommend that the council make a motion to amend the uh public hearing date to be uh set at the september 27th uh city council meeting in conjunction with the determination for the public vote for the general obligation bond okay thank you so is there a motion to amend along the lines just stated by city attorney Richardson so so moved moved by by councillor mason seconded by councillor jang any discussion on that amendment councillor hanson yes so just to be clear so we can after dividing a question you can still amend one of the subdivisions afterwards that that is correct um it's sort of like a layer cake in that respect okay all right thanks okay any discussion on this amendment okay seeing none all those in favour please say aye aye aye any opposed the amendment carries unanimously and now we're back to that question as amended any is there any further discussion okay hearing none we'll go to a vote all those in favour please say aye aye any opposed that carries unanimously thank you very much thank you okay brings us to item 5.06 count is there a motion on 5.06 is there a motion on 5.06 councillor jing councillor jing are you thank you president if you could just please just be close with your mic yeah thank you president tracy and also thank you everyone uh for being here today i think we've been sorry is there a motion yes i would like to move 5.06 to be withdrawn from the agenda right here today okay we have a motion to withdraw from the agendas or a second seconded by councillor hanson councillor jing would you like the floor back yes i would like the floor back president tracy yes go ahead okay thank you everyone for being here again let me do this so as you know this is a resolution and the title will start get it for some reason because people think that it is anti-semitic and it does not really align with the resolution the language itself i think this has brought so many controversy in this community right and it is important also for people to understand that this resolution has gone through a process through a racial equity inclusion and belonging committee of the city of burlington a standing committee that the city council created and please note that this resolution was supported also by so many different local organizations there are at least 27 of them many community members including jews those who are not jews showed up to speak in support in two different occasion about this specific resolution in support so when we were done with that then i think i the next step what i did is to send it to the mayor of burlington his office and also chief of staff letting them know and it was specifically on august 20th following exactly all the processes council shannon what is your point of order is a motion to withdraw is a motion to withdraw debatable city attorney richardson council shannon city attorney richardson i don't know if you were able to hear said yes council jane please continue thank you president racy um yes and you know we sent it to the mayor in order to receive feedback so some of the sentiments here that this we brought this resolution during a holiday of jews people i think it was unfounded because we definitely made sure that this resolution went to the mayor in order to receive feedback but we have not received any communication back not acknowledgement no feedback no concerns and then we kept on going this resolution went through the submission through this city attorney's office to be vetted and also transformed into a formal resolution of the burlington city council just it is important to bring the process into this the racial justice racial equity inclusion and belonging then voted to refer this resolution to the burlington city council context matter especially when we are being targeted that we are being dividing the community exactly any other resolution in the city of burlington went through the same exact process jews showed up community members showed up and even before that people demonstrated many marches here in the city where at least 400 people showed up in the past two weeks we have received a substantial amount of pre-written emails most of them emails from all over the nation and in some cases in so many different format twitter we being tagged we being called from all over the place we received also all the elements that were missing about this resolution we heard the perspective of people who are from the jews descent making it clear that this resolution is only one-sided it is speaking against the state of israel this resolution does not recognize the contribution of jewish community members in this community their well-being and also the anti-semitism that they have been encountering in this exact community so we listen we act throughout this process personally i have grown i have listened to both of those that support the resolution and those against it but what strikes me the most is how i learned about anti-semitism and how it affects members of our society as a black man i know how it feels to live in agony under the radar when nobody pays attention but when i hear members of our community have been leaving that it strike me the most about this whole process it didn't make me stop it just made me open my eyes listen to the people and also continue to strive for what's right because of this resolution i was also able to connect with jewish led organization throughout the nation i'm just going to give you a couple of examples the israel american civic action network israel american coalition of action for action and so many other organizations in new england in la in san francisco everywhere doctors who are jews we spend time in zoom this weekend to talk exactly about what is missing about this resolution i also recognize the hardship that palestinians are experiencing in that region and also in here arbitration detention i also recognize forcible transfer forced eviction demolition injuries death as well as discrimination what can we do from our municipal standpoint to promote peace and justice that's a question we all need to be asked instead of targeting each other so so much suffering around the world many people are suffering every single day what we can control is our city what we can control is our state what we can control is to bring our people together regardless of their race their gender their religion or who they love that we can control and throughout this process now i found myself committed to do the right thing for both jews and arab and both jews are arab that reside in the great city of burlington and beyond doing it right will require real time will also require dialogue will require mutual understanding my biggest hope is for the community to engage in this discussion with experts in both sides who are willing to come and help us come together and not point the fingers at each other and not call each other name despite you are a jew or you are an immigrant but you are just simply a burlingtonian we must create a safe space of dialogue of understanding the reason why i would like this motion to take this resolution out from voting on to tonight and then we can move forward in different aspects using the racial equity inclusion and belonging and always have a standing item that is called peace to israel and also to palestine where community members are invited to come and discuss with expert so that we can grow together this resolution from my perspective is not ready for the city of burlington to vote on it tonight thank you thank you thank you councillor jane there are other councillors wishing to speak to the motion to withdraw councillor paul thank you president tracy for the past two weeks since this resolution surfaced there aren't too many waking minutes that i and others have spent there aren't too many waking minutes that i and a good number of other people have spent doing anything other than working on this resolution when councillor jane just mentioned that we got a substantial number of emails we got 2000 emails from from all over vermont from burlington residents from across this country of the 2000 emails 10 to 11 were supportive of this resolution the rest of them were opposed so when someone talks about wanting to withdraw a resolution is because there was an overwhelming overwhelming more so than any other resolution that i have ever seen overwhelming outcry about a resolution that was not well written it was completely one-sided that doesn't talk about peace it talks about every barrier to peace and the reality is that that's really all that all of us want we don't want barriers we want a solution to peace i've spent i can't even tell you how many hours writing up what i was going to say this evening and i had to write about four different things because i still didn't know what the sponsor was going to end up doing with this talks about referring talks about withdrawing bringing it forward having the votes to pass the resolution it was a very confusing and constantly evolving situation so i'm not speaking from anything i'm just sort of speaking from where i am from who i am i appreciate all the people that came out this evening and i respect all of the people that came and spoke what is their truth how they feel about this resolution somewhere in the middle we've got to be able to find common ground bds is not about finding common ground it just isn't that's the reason why president biden president obama 50 governors our own delegation are opposed to this you know i i found it interesting that in a room full of so many progressives that no one quoted perhaps the most the most influential progressive that we have in this country he's right down the street and he has spoken about the fact that he is opposed to bds and has said that it is a mistake i'll quote it if i if i need to but he has said it is a it is a mistake for us to think that bds is not anti-semitic it just is but that doesn't mean that we can't solve this problem but we can't we can't solve it the people on the ground are the ones that need to solve it i am concerned tonight because emotion to withdraw doesn't really mean anything what it means is that tonight we're not going to talk about this resolution but what it also means is that at any time at any time make no mistake at any time that resolution in its current form can come back and i hope because this is a debatable issue i hope that the counselors that are sitting with me and the counselors that are on zoom i'm really hoping that each one of them will speak tonight and say that this is not the right way for us to go we can have the conversation if people want to have the conversation about peace in the middle east about the israeli palestinian issue we can have that but we need to be listening to each other we need to have a resolution that isn't one sided and unless i hear from others that isn't that it is not their intent to turn around in two weeks or two months or six months and bring back this resolution bring back the same discussion put put us all the way back into the same firestorm of controversy that we saw this evening i can't support a motion to withdraw because honestly as hard as it would be i'd rather that we have the debate tonight and just vote and we just hope that we would be able to move on from there um you know people have said you know different things about the fact that we're in the middle of the holiest time of the jewish calendar we're supposed to be spending our time during these 10 days reflecting and really practicing to kuna alum which is to heal the world these past few weeks haven't done nothing to heal the world this resolution has done nothing to heal the world i know that there are counselors who very much support this resolution and i hope that tonight after seeing what has gone on here that you'll that you'll step back and really think about what you're promoting because this is what happens when you bring people into a firestorm of controversy about something that they passionately care about we don't need to do this so i will reluctantly vote against the motion to withdraw because i just don't want to see us i want to see us move forward i don't want to see us be back here in another two weeks or two months having this conversation again we need to move forward thank you thank you councillor paul councillor mason thank you councillor shannon councillor shannon what is your point of order president president tracy i will challenge again that a motion to withdraw is not debatable a motion to withdraw is typically withdrawing a motion no motion has been made on this and i'm wondering if the intent is to amend the agenda perhaps that has already been adopted i just don't understand the debate that we're currently having sure councillor shannon so the we the motion that was on the table the city attorney has ruled that has let us know that it is debatable attorney richardson do you still stand by that with the further point of order by by council shannon i i i do um in part because of the city council rules that um uh compare a motion to withdraw a motion to amend which does allow for debate thank you okay i have what is being withdrawn there was no motion there was no motion so what on well city attorney sorry for me yes technically because it was included in the agenda and it is a written resolution as opposed to a motion uh that has not been stated such as the prior motions uh this evening uh some looking at robert rules of order consider that to be a motion made on which then the motion to withdraw similar to a motion to amend uh can be made uh as opposed to if it hadn't been made um there would be a motion to withdraw only could be made by the the specific sponsor um of it and it would be a simple question in which um before it's been made a sponsor may withdraw it um and and there's no vote it's a unilateral right but the fact that it was printed added to the agenda and included means that it has in fact been made because of the written nature of the resolution um therefore uh i look to the council rules uh that treat a motion to withdraw similar to a motion to amend uh and my interpretation is that would allow the debate so there is a resolution in in that respect on on the table that has been submitted in writing thank you councillor shannon are you clear president tracy did no did um attorney richardson just say that the motion is to amend the agenda attorney richardson sure no um councillor shannon i i said that it was akin to a motion to amend um and the interpretation and researching this in preparation for tonight's meeting looking at robert's rules of order uh particularly about written motions uh resolutions which are different um than proposed motions that you get in your packet in this case you know there was a fully written resolution the uh some who have interpreted robert robert's rules of order in which i i have to concur treat a written resolution as if a motion has already been made once it's adopted and added to the agenda so at the beginning of the the meeting tonight the council adopted the agenda and that included the written resolution so in that respect there is essentially a motion on the table that belongs to the meeting and the distinction that's drawn is is a distinction i think that you're you're getting at which is when a motion has not been made and has not been submitted in writing it still belongs to the moving the sponsoring council person and but once it's essentially on the table it belongs to the meeting excuse me councillor shannon allow the city attorney to answer your question just once it's on the table it essentially belongs to to the meeting so the sponsoring council member no longer retains the ability to unilaterally withdraw it it can be withdrawn by a motion in a second um and and again you know i was the section robert's rules of order is not was not clear in the in the research that i did so i looked to the council rules uh and i believe it's under section section nine talks about withdrawal of motion um and it treats it in the same it and it does not say whether or not it is debatable in that section but it treats it akin to a motion to amend and so in my reasoning in my understanding um that i offer it was simply that uh the motion to withdraw made after a written resolution is adopted into the agenda essentially taken up and belonging to the meeting rather than to the individual sponsor um is akin to a motion to amend therefore is allows would allow debate uh so that's that was a basis of my ruling of course because i'm simply a parliamentarian if if the board disagrees or council disagrees they can overrule me thank you city attorney Richardson i have councillor mason to be followed by councillors hightower and stromberg councillor mason thank you president tracy um first i'd like to thank councillor paul for the effort she's put into this and positioning this um i know it is personally been challenging and i appreciate all that you've done i want to first we've all gotten a lot of emails and a lot of them are how did you let this happen how did you as a councillor and i think it's important for the public to understand we don't have anything to do with this being here or at least those of us who are not the sponsors i don't think the public this is not congress it's not exactly like that any individual councillor has the right to draft any resolution with input from the city attorney and bring it forward for debate so that has been my response but i think it's important for the public to know that i think there's a misunderstanding that there's some support or you know beyond the makers at this point and that's not true the second for this is for the benefit of the the councillors and those who are who are on zoom i walked into a room at seven o'clock that i thought i would never see board of finance was downstairs there was yelling chanting going back and forth i was legitimately concerned that violence was going to erupt and it's making me a little emotional but i can only imagine as someone who felt victimized coming into this room what that felt like no one was going to do anything to me but i was i was scared for those in this room and that's not from my perspective who we are or what should what we should be doing i want to acknowledge the very real fear that we heard i looked out in the room people were crying people were shaking their heads make this stop i appreciate that there are those who are poo-pooing that as if you know it's not real from this vantage point looking in the room it's very real and i cannot support anything that carries that forward this has already divided the community and i will not support bringing this up a week a month two years if it ever comes forward i will be voting with councillor paul not to withdraw but not because i support this motion but because i think we need to be done with this once and for all and not have it come back again thank you thank you councillor mason i have councillor hightower to be followed by councillor stromberg councillor jane i do see you as well so thank you go ahead councillor hightower um yeah i first just want to acknowledge um but councillor mason just said i think it's going to be hard to know how much of this i should try to read from what i wrote and how much of this i should just go off of what's happening and i think yeah first the acknowledgement just that i think i think i have very different feelings from councillor paul about whether or not this is something that should be discussed or not but i also have to admit i was not in the room tonight um i think from here i heard a lot of things that i hadn't heard i heard a lot of arguments that i hadn't heard made i came out of this i feel like with more empathy and understanding i'm not sure that other people did but i think that's an individual choice that i hope people choose that over other things um and i think the other thing that i have to say is i feel like there were three types of arguments that were made against this resolution um the first i would put into a bucket of things that we shouldn't talk about this um and also i should say i'm speaking partially to honor i'm hoping at least councillor paul's request that we spend some time at least discussing this and how we feel about this the first is um so the first set of arguments what i heard is that we shouldn't be discussing this that israel is being singled out unfairly um that kind of argument and i don't know that i agree with that actually i know that i don't agree with that i think the council has addressed a lot of international issues um including during my tenure um and then there is the thing of we are all resident citizens of a democracy that sends money to israel and i think it is our duty to understand and debate and discuss and ultimately its human rights violations become argument rights violations and i think that it's not out of the purview of us to discuss that and acknowledge that um i'll skip over the second kind of argument that i heard because i want to go to the third argument which was that there has been an rise of antisemitism around the country that the language and the resolution would spark more of this that the claims are oversimplified sensationalized and the solution ineffective and i think i think it's important to acknowledge that there's a lot of fact in there there is a rise of antisemitism across the country um i feel like councillor mason i didn't see the people but just from the emails from the voicemails i have to acknowledge that there is a real fear um and as a black woman who has felt a lot of those fears i think i have to believe people who say that they are scared and that they're afraid that you know my actions might hurt them and i think the third thing is that it's also i think we're all still and i think this is for me at least part of the learning piece is trying to understand what what is oversimplifies what is sensationalized what is ineffective and i think that is at least for me the hardest part i don't i i think i think lots of us have probably i hope the majority of us haven't come into this knowing how we would vote on this um if it did come to vote because it's i think it's a hard at least for me it was a hard question and i would hope that we don't just throw our hands and say that things are too complicated to discuss too politically charged too emotionally charged even if they're difficult to discuss because i think too many of us know that the status quo tends to preserve violence um i also as someone who is not jewish don't think that i can just ignore the voices who say that this resolution would make them feel less safe um so i guess the last thing is is i did appreciate something that gene bergman said which i think is just i would ask us i would ask us all to consider what is being done with our tax dollars and in our name and who is being made unsafe by our inaction and our plea um i will support a motion to withdraw with the understanding that i hope that this that i hope that this debate has i maybe doubt that this is true but i hope that this debate has brought at least some good in addition to a lot of the hurt um and i hope that we don't bring this up again unless we are sure that another debate would bring more good than hurt thank you thanks president tracy um first of all thank you to everyone that spoke tonight um i know that this is a really personal and very sensitive topic um i i don't i was thinking for a while leading up to this meeting for weeks since we started getting a lot of input um from the broader community of what to really say about this and you know as someone who hasn't been to israel who hasn't who doesn't have a severely personal personal stake in this it's important to me to gather as much information from people around me and from people who want to talk about this and have a really productive conversation i think the general feeling in the room is you know we we want peace that is the goal it's not it's never been simple and i wish it was um and the more i learn about it the more i see where things are more simple than i thought and then i see where things are more complicated than i thought um i it means a lot to me to hear from people on this and it means a lot to me to hear from my colleague i mean councillor paul and i've had a lot of conversations about this and councillor jane i mean there's it's a very charged subject and there are there are threats those are real and those are going around in our community and people are feeling that um and it's it's you know exponential when you're up in the public eye like this um and i'm not in that position right now and so i i just want to acknowledge that and know that you know i want this is incredibly heavy and um there's no there's no right thing and that's the that's what i'm toiling with the most right now it's there's no specific direct perfect move that we can make as a council at this level that is going to benefit everyone equally and in the best best way and that's the problem is that i last summer we got thousands and thousands of emails and heard from so many people passionately till two in the morning multiple nights in a row and i heard that and i made a decision based on that on that that grand majority of what i heard from people and now honestly i mean there is there is a majority of people who've reached out for sure and there's a very valid two-sided congress i mean it's incredibly valid on both sides um and when we were looking at the racial justice resolution and when we were talking about policing and public safety in our community we were we were listening to both sides too we heard a lot from one but we we were listening to both sides and we continue to and that is our job and that is why we're making more and more informed decisions that's why we are waiting for the cna report that's why we have all of these committee discussions and so this is honestly it's one of those things where it will never go away it's an ongoing issue and i do want to make it better and i do want to promote peace and i do want to hold people accountable and i do want people to feel safe and i don't want human beings on this planet oppressed i don't want that and i'm learning more and more about how incredibly heinous on on both sides the situation is and it's it's incredibly valuable to hear from the community i don't think that this resolution as is is something that is that is healing and i'm not hearing the pros outweigh the cons on this and i want to i desperately want to because i know a lot of work in organizing has gone into this but i just i'm hearing a lot of fear and i'm hearing a lot of like true i mean real stories from people who are feeling very threatened and that is not the goal and i want to come into a meeting next time knowing that what's on the table on this topic if that ever shall be is something that we already know is either going to pass or is going to be highly highly regarded as a document that can be used in municipalities across this country and something that can be really really looked up to and emulated and i i so deeply want that i want us to get there as a world i want us to be in agreement that what is wrong is wrong and how can we make this better so i personally don't want to bring this i don't want to let this resolution go any further i am incredibly heartened and also you know i appreciate everyone who's been involved with this because i know no matter where you stand on it it's a lot and i i just i want to do the right thing and sometimes i have to admit i just don't know and that's why i want to withdraw this resolution because i just i don't have the answer and i don't feel comfortable voting on something i don't have an answer on um so that's that's my reasoning behind withdrawal so that's what i have for now thank you around the world we should not stay away from those topics they important and we need to have them but how i think it's a question the pain and suffering you know of the people here and beyond what's wrong with the fear of being uncomfortable from my perspective maybe as a person of color i don't see anything maybe i experience it every day it's okay to be uncomfortable just help you grow um but i'm a little bit confused with the sentiments that this resolution will be coming back in two weeks three weeks or four weeks i think we all know that's what i wanted to bring it back to the racial equity inclusion and belonging committee for more dialogue and conversation here from both sides and bring it back that's what i wanted that's what i proposed and i remember consular paul consular um carpenter all of you you ask me to withdraw because i listen to the people and i listen to my colleagues and am i here now that okay because i have another plan behind my hand then i don't know i think it's important for us to be truthful to ourselves and to know there are so many pains and suffering and what we can do and can control we do it here thank you councilor barlow to be followed by councilor hanson thank you president racy um i have never been supportive of this resolution from the first time i saw it before we received 2000 emails i didn't support it i don't think it's the right place to be deliberating on this um we have a lot of problems here in barrowington we have a growing public safety crisis that many choose to ignore we have a housing crisis that clearly we're not doing enough to solve we have a school crisis in vermont's largest city and we don't have a plan to pay for a high school that is unaffordable to taxpayers we have a downtown to put back together um and to make burlington an inviting place for businesses to locate um it's we have a lot of problems right here in burlington without looking halfway across the world to solve those problems as well um you know i listened to all the speakers tonight and it was it was quite riveting um but it doesn't change um my belief that these are not the things that were elected as uh city counselors to um to deliberate on i know that i'm not a foreign policy expert i watch a lot of news channels and things but i'm not somebody to make a policy decision around um you know military aid to israel because an advocacy group says that i ought to and because um as uh councilor mason said people are in here you know making a lot of noise tonight and i and it was it was a little bit intimidating to have that sort of environment it's also very divisive and this is like not we did we the makers of this resolution brought this into this room tonight um and i'm i'm at this point i said i wanted to withdraw but i want to make sure we never see this again here and so i'm also reconsidering my support for emotion to withdraw and if i don't get assurances that we're not going to be back here talking about this again in the near future um i also will not support a motion to withdraw thank you i've councilor hanson to be followed by councilor mickey thanks and thanks for everyone for sharing their thoughts um i guess to try to jump to you know the motion to withdraw and that consideration i really do believe i i think what's what's really hard about this issue is that there's people on both sides and when i say both sides i think that's a that's a loaded term but when i say both sides what i mean is specifically this resolution and um boycott divestment and sanctions the bds uh the bds movement what i mean is people who support that and people oppose that that's what i mean by both sides and i think there's people on both sides of that who are working really sincerely for for justice peace for self-determination um for all and i think there are also people on both sides of that issue who are working towards um you know more more problematic ends as well um that are and people who are motivated by religious discrimination um or by racism or by other forms of oppression um and and as some speakers alluded to i think there are folks who are comfortable with a scenario or even advocating for a scenario that one group of people's freedom is coming at the expense of another group of people's freedom so i think that's what's hard about this issue but i think everyone at this table and this council and i believe you know everyone in this room falls into that first category of people sincerely wanting to work towards justice peace towards self-determination for all and wanting to stand against the oppression of palestinians around the world and as well as the oppression of of jewish people around the world as well um i believe that that's where we're all where we are are all at and our goal on this that's why i do support um withdrawing that and i do support the idea that councillor jang raised of you know trying to have a better conversation about this and with those goals in mind and so it's an issue it's a question of of trust that we're talking about do we trust that our colleagues are are interested in that conversation and will work sincerely towards that and try to have a dialogue that promotes that in burlington and that promotes the broader global discussion around these issues i do trust that that that is our goal in that we can do a lot better um we can get to a better place and we can have a meaningful impact on those issues so that's why i want to see us um withdraw this for tonight because i don't think that's where we're at now and i think taking a vote on this tonight actually would be potentially more harmful than it would be helpful that's what i believe um about acting tonight and so i think withdrawing and and doing that additional work towards those ends would be a much better approach that we could take thanks okay councillor hanson councillor mickey thank you president racy um and i appreciate everyone who came out to speak tonight and um you know i came into the evening ready to support this resolution um it's important to me as someone who believes in collective liberation that we express solidarity with oppressed people um and that's how i ensure that i can be the best ally to um to all oppressed peoples you know all marginalized communities um and you know i have heard what people have said today i've received the emails that we've been sent i received the phone calls from uh around the country and around the world um you know i think we can get this to a place that um hopefully folks can agree on because i think it's important for us to um express solidarity with Palestinian people but i also think it's important for us to acknowledge the rise of anti-semitism in our country and around the world and i think it's important to acknowledge the real concerns that my Jewish members of our community have around safety um so for that reason i will be supporting um the crawl of this resolution in hopes that we can continue this conversation and really get to a place that meaningfully expresses solidarity with the Palestinian people and acknowledges the fact that our own government um has uh provided military aid that is contributed to that it contributes to that around the world um so it's my hope that this conversation continues and we can find a place to come together and express solidarity with oppressed people around the world so thank you thank you president tracy i apologize for not being with you tonight i am on vacation a vacation that was postponed a year and i wish i could be in the room with all of you and i think you all who are there counselor jang told us in his motion to withdraw that this resolution is not ready counselor hanson just told us we need to do more work on this counselor high tower noted that we have spent time on other international issues and she supports the discussion counselor mickey just told us he wants to continue the conversation this sounds to me like a motion to refer this does not sound to me like the intent is to end this discussion tonight we have spent time on international issues we have passed feel good resolutions we have never spent our city resources committee time staff time on feel good international issues i would also say this does not feel good to a very large number of our community members this does not feel good to me we should not be prolonging the agony anxiety and pain of our jewish community this resolution is not going to improve the situation in israel it can only bring pain this needs to end tonight our job is to govern this city to provide the city services that our community needs we are unable to provide basic public safety in our community right now we are certainly not fit to resolve the israeli palestinian dispute i will not vote to withdraw this only to continue this discussion and pain in our community thank you i too am struggling with this with this along with my colleagues i had spoken to councillor dang earlier about my strong feeling we should withdraw it please speak and can you just bring your mic in thank you sorry um my strong feeling we should withdraw it but as i i have learned so much in this process and it's probably been one of the saddest processes i've been through in the sense of both educating myself about the mid east problems around palestine and um israel but also looking worldwide um there's a dozen countries and many more um with horrible human rights violations more so than palestine and israel and the united states has involvement in some of those countries and not in others we're we have this little thing called afghanistan um so i struggle with um our role i don't mind speaking up against human rights violations but again i i do struggle with the sort of picking and choosing i heard um a conversation that we should put this back on the agenda and have a discussion should we have a discussion about afghanistan or korea or west africa or you know name a spot and i think we we need we as a councillor council need to have a conversation around how do we sort of focus i you know i followed this with the city of cambridge massachusetts and they had two three day meeting and and where they landed was that their best um opportunity to be effective was to really localize it look at their own city purchasing their own city um investments with a human rights lens big lens not little lens right so we have one more resolution on the table for this evening um which is item 5.08 um well the councillor shannon just let me know that um she has stepped that she has signed off for the evening um i'm going to go to councillor hanson for a motion on this item i'll move to waive the reading and adopt the resolution and ask the floor back after a second please we have a motion from councillor hanson is there a second second seconded by councillor stromburg councillor hanson did you want the floor back yes please go ahead um great thank you so this is a charter change that the burlington city council has advanced multiple times in the past um but something that the voters haven't gotten to weigh in on since march of 2015 um a lot has changed since since march of 2015 and i hope that we can give the voters in 2022 another chance to consider this um this is really about making sure that our local democracy works um for democracy to work properly i think uh it's critical that everyone in the community has ability for their for their voice to be heard and to be able to have a say in what happens in their community and how their lives are impacted by that and i think the ability to vote on who represents you on this council and in the mayor's office on the school board and to vote directly on ballot items to me is a really fundamental and critical part of of that participation in our local democracy so this measure would allow all legal residents over 18 to vote in local elections um tonight would just be the first step this the resolution lays out um uh that there would be public engagement on this issue before it would come back to the council to consider putting it to the voters um specifically the resolution names and this was from input from councillor jang is um naming to get input from the association of africans living in vermont a alv uh the u.s committee for refugees and immigrants vermont u.s c r i vermont and the new american advisory council and aac um so yeah i wanted to thank councillor jang for your collaboration and thanks to other others who've reached out with questions or to offer support and i hope that we can move this forward without without too much controversy thank you thank you councillor hanson any other councillors in the queue councillor barlow to be followed by councillor starberg oh we have a second i'm sorry it's late i'm losing track of things i'm just going to read i i've considered this this is one that when i first saw it on our agenda i wasn't sure what i thought but i i just got clarity on it today it's it is definitely one that um has merits but um local elections often have even greater consequences and direct impacts on residents than state and federal decisions we make at the local level and those state and federal elections have citizenship requirements so why would we not want to have that requirement at the local level as well some privileges are granted through citizenship and reserve for citizens we should incentivize citizenship with voting rights and we should encourage citizenship and remove obstacles to it but i i don't support having legal residents um voting in local elections so i'm not supporting this motion thank you councillor barlow councillor starberg thanks president tracy um i'll keep it brief i know it's late um i'm actually i'm really very proud of this resolution coming forward and appreciate what's going on this um i think this is a really good step for our city um you've heard me say this before but i really honestly think that when we take really productive good steps as a city and and really do a thought out process bringing forward things like this um it really does help lead the way in terms of opening the door for for people across the country and you know inspiring again other governments and municipalities to to at least consider burlington as an example um i really think that our country does a really good job of disenfranchising people and this is again like councillor hanson said like it is a step that goes through process and this is just up the local level but um this is a step in the right direction and just like councillor barlow said you know i mean at local politics and the reason why i even got involved with local politics is because it's where you feel things the most i mean every single thing you see is like just look around you you know go outside look around politics made that guardrail exist like um that's you like you are the most impacted at the local level and most often and i think that that's all the more reason as to why people should have the ability to weigh in um and i think that you know we as a city want to move in a direction where we want to get as much input as possible and you know we we claim we're sanctuary city and we you know want people to feel safe here and we want people to relocate here and have kids here and have family and stay here um to do that regardless if you're a legal citizen or not i think that it's it's important to be able to have input on what's going to affect your kids and your school districts and your you know your environment and um i honestly can't i can't find a reason as to why we shouldn't vote on this um especially it being you know 2021 2022 i personally think it's long overdue um i think it's good for Vermont i think it's good for our city i think it's good for our country and i think this is something that is going to enhance the feedback that we get to help make good decisions moving forward more informed decisions on things um so i'm really really proud to to support this resolution tonight thank you don't have any other counselors in the queue ready to vote okay let's do that um will the city clerk please call the roll councillor barlow no councillor carpenter yes yes councillor jang yes councillor hanson yes councillor high tower yes councillor mason councillor paul councillor megey yes councillor strongberg yes city councillor president tracy yes nine eyes one two absent the motion carries uh motion to adjourn is in order so moved moved by councillor hanson can i get a second second by councillor carpenter any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye be opposed we are adjourned at 12 23 a.m. good night everyone