 All right. We're going to get started. Good evening. Good evening. Today is Monday, August 14th, 2023. The time is now 5.37. Thank you so much for joining us in Contoy's Auditorium and online for the Burlington City Council meeting. We're going to begin our evening with item 1.1, which is a motion to adopt our agenda. And I would entertain a motion to adopt the agenda as well if someone could please read the motion. Do I have a volunteer? What do you want to volunteer? Civic clerk. The motion is listed in there as up-to-date as I believe it is. Is that correct, Laurie? Yes. So there is a, there is a, not a lengthy, but a couple of, couple of lines there. I move to, okay. Are we good? Okay. All right. I'll move to amend and adopt the agenda as follows. Add to the consent agenda item 5.47, special event outdoor entertainment permit application, two days only. The pinery, 377 Pine Street. Add to the consent agenda item 5.48, communication from Robert Bristow-Johnson regarding new erosion at Bike Bridge in Mays Landing. Add to the consent agenda item 5.49, communications, Selene Colburn and Rachel Siegel, read double standard in the city's treatment of former REIB director, Tayisha Green. Note that agenda item 6.4, annual report for 2022-23, parks, recreation and waterfront commission is postponed to the next council meeting, September 11th, per city council president Paul. Thank you so much, Councillor Travers. Is there a second to that motion? Thank you, Councillor Bergman. Is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing none, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of the motion to approve and approve our amended agenda, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say no. That means we have an agenda. The second item on our agenda is 2.1, which is a communication, Mayor Murrow Weinberger and Airport Director Nick Longo regarding negotiation of an agreement with VTANG regarding capital investments. As it has been our practice, we often go to the administration if there is anything that can be provided in open session because this is a discussion of negotiating a contractual agreement and there is an expected executive session to follow. Supervisor Pauly, so you're asking if there's any updates for an open session? Yes. Do you have agreements that we are in discussions with the Guard about and it would be prematurely impact the public if we were to have discussions about them, so that's why I requested the executive session. Great, thank you. And I just say further, we're not expecting action on this tonight. Okay, so there will be no action that will be taken on this item. This is simply for an update on a communication for the Council. Councillor Barlow, if you could please make the first motion to go into executive session. Sure. I move that the Council find that premature general public knowledge of information concerning contract negotiations of an agreement with Vermont Air National Guard regarding capital investments would clearly place the city at a substantial disadvantage with such negotiations. Thank you, Councillor Barlow. A motion has been made to, or actually this is just the first of two motions. Would there be a second to that motion seconded by Councillor King? Is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing none, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of the motion as presented by Councillor Barlow, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say no. That motion passes unanimously. Now, based on that motion, Councillor Barlow, if you could make the second motion. Sure. Based upon that finding, I move that the Council go into executive session to receive information regarding agreement negotiations with Vermont Air National Guard under one VSA section 313A1A. Thank you, Councillor Barlow. Is there a second to that motion seconded by Councillor King? Is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say no. And I actually neglected to add to that motion that in addition to the Mayor and the airport director, there will be other, will there be anyone else joining us in that executive session? The CAO, the City Attorney, Mayor's Office stuff. Mayor's Office, City Attorney, CAO Shad and members of the Mayor's Office. Okay, thank you. So we have planned for this executive session to last about 30 minutes. We're going to go downstairs because there are a number of people that are joining us by Zoom. So everyone can sit in here and be comfortable. We will be going downstairs and we hope to be back in about a half an hour. The time is now 6.09. We have a couple of minutes left before we get to public forum which starts at 6.15 and with those couple of minutes we are going to use them for the local control commission meeting that we need to attend to this evening. So with that we will recess the City Council meeting at 6.09 and call to order the local control commission meeting at the same time at 6.10. The first item on that agenda is item 1.1. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? I move to adopt the agenda. Thank you, Commissioner Shannon. Seconded by Commissioner Traverse. Is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing none. All those in favor of the motion please say aye. Aye. Any opposed please say no. That motion passes. We have an agenda. Our next item is item number 2 which is the consent agenda. Is there a motion to move the consent agenda? Commissioner Shannon. Move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Thank you very much. Seconded by Commissioner Traverse. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none. All those in favor of the motion please say aye. Aye. Any opposed please say no. That motion passes unanimously which leads us to our deliberative agenda and item 3.1 which is the second class store liquor license application 2023-2024 for always full Asian market LLC. Commissioner Shannon. Move to approve the 2023-2024 second class state liquor license application for always full Asian market. Doing business as always full market Burlington 179 Bank Street with the following conditions. All city permits need to be closed out contingent upon fire martial approval and with all standard conditions. Thank you, Commissioner Shannon. Seconded by Commissioner Traverse. Is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing none we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of the motion please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed please say no. That motion passes unanimously and seeing no other items on the agenda and hearing no objection will adjourn the local control commission meeting at 612 and return to the recess council meeting at that same hour. I did want to also acknowledge that we do have Councillor McGee who is joining us by Zoom and we do expect to have Councillor Carpenter also joining us for the deliberative agenda. Councillor Jang is actually in Senegal working on a sister city relationship with a city in Senegal and is not going to be joining us this evening. And for those who missed when we first started the meeting thank you to all of you for joining us this evening. We will move on to the time is now close to 615 and we will move on to public forum. Before we begin the public forum we have a lot of people that are here who perhaps have not been to public forum before and for that I for them and for all of us I will describe the process. For those that are in con toys we have a timer system on the table that's in front of me and it has three lights on it. The first is a green light that will shine when you begin speaking. The second is a yellow light when you have 30 seconds left and the last is a red light that will shine when your time is up. We ask that you please complete your sentence if you're mid-sentence or in the middle of a thought that you please complete that sentence when the light and the sound indicate that your time is up so that everyone has the same amount of time to speak and we can keep the public forum moving along. If you're joining us online and there are a number of people that have signed up to speak online we have a timer system that is set up on Zoom. We don't have a light system but when your two minutes is up the clock will wind down to zero and we just ask that you complete your thoughts and your sentence at that time so that we can move on to the next community member. We have a hybrid system for public forum so if you wish to speak in person there are forms on my right in the back corner of the room you can just simply fill out that form. It's helpful if you mention the item that you're here to speak to and just give that form to the clerk that is that just gave me a number of forms. If you are wishing to speak on Zoom and please do not sign up for both you can go to BurlingtonVT.gov slash city council slash public forum and a form will come up please complete the form and the answers to that form come into a spreadsheet that I have on my computer in front of me so that I can call on you in the order in which you submitted a form. It has been our practice that Burlington residents have first priority to speak. We will go to Burlington residents in contoys who have submitted a form in person then to Burlington residents online who have completed an online form back to non-Burlington residents in person and then we will finish with online non-Burlington residents. During public forum other than keeping to the time we only have one other request and that is that you please use respectful language. We would like to remind everyone here this evening that there are a number of families who sometimes join us in person and also join us online who watch city council meetings as their connection with civic engagement in teaching their children about respectful public discourse. Please keep that in mind when you speak. Please direct your comments to me as the chair and not to anyone else at this table and do not personalize your comments. Again we are here to very intently listen to your comments and it's a lot easier for us to listen if you do so respectfully. We will with that we will get started and I apologize we are down in executive session so I don't have these completely organized but I do have two that are here the first two are Burlington residents. The first is Jacqueline Posley to be followed by Raven Havens. If you could come forward thanks good evening and you just need to press the button that's right in front right there so the green light comes on. Can everyone hear me? Yes hi my name is Jacqueline Posley I am a born Mississippian living in Vermont and this is something I wrote called Beneath the Surface a black paper on Vermont's most diverse city. Please allow me to begin by congratulating the city's marketing team for a job well done. For many years this city has had a reputation for being one of America's most diverse and welcoming communities. We all belong campaigns all are welcome here signs BIPOC this and BIPOC that the list goes on. You have impeccably curated the image of America's liberal utopia which in essence is exactly the role of the marketing team job well done. However what is happening beneath the surface beneath the surface you have multiple police chiefs who create social media accounts to target residents beneath the surface you offer hefty compensation packages as consolation to officers who brutally assault and sometimes kill black people. Beneath the surface you're only black identifying member of the police commission step down citing concerns of oppression. Beneath the surface you cycle through black female equity directors like they are disposable and interchangeable. Beneath the surface Burlington City Arts dismantles their already dormant committee on equity and belonging. Beneath the surface your girls basketball team a group of minors children are calling on you and begging each of you to address what they have called a culture of racism. From the mouths of babes children so young they are barely eligible for a driver's license we hear the same unified cry that black people have been screaming from the mountaintops for centuries. Hear us help us protect us. This place claims to be a sanctuary city and welcome refugees and asylees with open arms and is simultaneously doing everything in their power to stifle the voices of black people shame. The attack on Taish's character. If you can use certainly finish your sentence please. Sure the attack on Taish's character more than a year after she left this role is no different than any of the other tactics this city employs to keep black people in their place. This is a witch hunt that will be used to say see it was her it wasn't us. See we have another black woman who is in this role and who is performing just fine. See we are really a welcoming city. Please allow me to end by congratulating the city's marketing team for a job well done. Thank you. Yes um before hold on just just a moment um we um I didn't mention this as one of the requests that we make but we do make a request that we not clap um and the reason and the reason is so that we can continue moving the public forum along if you want to show your if you want to show your support for a speaker you can simply do it silently like this and we will see you. Raven please go ahead welcome. Either thank you for having me um I've been a member of this community for quite a while living here in Vermont for 14 years I am a a member of the Mohawk tribe also Wyandote and I am um I just stand with solidarity with my brother in here and I am let down time and time again by the atrocities I see around the city around the state and I can't stand by it very much longer I just want to send my love and pour my heart out to these folks you all belong to be here with me I love you all and I will stand by your side thank you so our next speaker is Farine Paris Meyer to be to be followed by Katarina Campbell good evening before I start I just want to make sure I understand the rules I'm supposed to focus on you Karen and speak this narrative to you I just I just wanted sure okay that would that would that would be great okay and just make sure that you're close enough to the microphone so we can hear you okay thank you hello hi my name is Farine Paris Meyer I am black I am a woman I am an educator I am queer I am an activist I'm a Burlington resident I'm a first generation student I'm living with anxiety I'm financially struggling and I find myself questioning life as someone who is a black woman who has to move through this community with such a mask sometimes we're expected to hide our pain hide that we are not doing well hide all these different parts that unfortunately allows white people in white supremacy culture to think I am a robot to think as if I'm not human to think that I can keep going no matter how hard you kick my black behind area down and I Karen am asking you to let me know what you will do as council president this evening to ensure that we are not aligning this agenda to support a mayor of our city that has lasted a witch hunt on former director Taiisha Green since he was made seen for his mishandling of the cna report of 2021 there's a reason why three years later we are bringing up finances we are bringing up things that have been allocated and closed down this is a witch hunt on former director Taiisha Green because Miro has done his time here and anybody who spends this level of energy and ego and pride and pettiness and surround yourself with yes people to take a black woman out means that you are in for something for yourself following your time as mayor and you take out your threat and I'm going to put that out there because while we not check our facts while we not do our due diligence to ensure that we're hiring actual auditors and not lawyers to put Taiisha Green's life on the line there is no responsibility while you all get to go home and put your head down at night while we sit and die over and over in our bodies so I will step away our community will come forward but Miro your witch hunt on this queen ends today thank you thank you our next speaker our next speaker is Katarina Campbell to be to be followed by Romeo Herman Katarina hello can folks hear me yes I think the mic is crank I'm going to speak loudly good evening my name is Katarina Campbell from Burlington I'm here speaking on behalf of myself I'm here in solidarity with Taiisha Green KC LRB black femmes non-binary and trans folks and women throughout Vermont who have or are currently experiencing racial and gender-based discrimination harassment displacement and terrorism I have lived in Vermont since 2007 Burlington since 2011 and when I think of civil service and public service no one embodies that more than Taiisha Green Freen Paris Meyer Kaia Morris the list goes on Zariah Hightower we demand and end the practices and abuse that former director Green KC LRB and others have experienced we demand a full public articulation of harm from Mera Miro Weinberger and the city of Burlington to Taiisha Green KC LRB and their families for the continued defamation of character and unwarranted actions taken throughout city processes like the audit itself we demand ongoing independent evaluation and oversight of the hiring and retention policies and solutions employed by the city of Burlington to combat anti-bipoc and gender-based discriminatory practices thank you thank you very much our next speaker is Romeo Herman to be followed by um Rachel Siegel Julie Masuga you wish to speak together yes okay thank you for having me madam president I am going to be uh speaking to a different topic I know today is a very passionate day so I will stick to the point my name is Romeo I am a resident here and I'm here to talk about the oppressing issue that is a retail theft that is ongoing our city that is also a chronic issue this perpetual situation is not only causing devastation to businesses but also a jeopardizing the safety and well-being of residents in the city it is high time that we take a resolute and proactive actions and stands to tackle this issue head on and seek meaningful solutions to protect the city its businesses and residents as we gather here today let us acknowledge that retail theft is not merely a nuisance it is a symptom of larger underlying issues such as mental health challenges substance abuse that inflict in our community we cannot afford to ignore the human toll of these problems nor can we turn a blind eye to the damages that they inflict on businesses in our city and overall quality of life for everyone the impact of this ongoing and unabated chronic retail issue theft on businesses rather cannot be overstated small and large enterprises alike suffer significant financial losses leading to potential layoffs higher prices and even business closures we cannot accept that continuing to keep happening in our city especially for somebody myself who works at the marketplace I do see that business closing every single day that being said when businesses including retails are forced to pass the losses onto customers it creates a vicious cycle that further exacerbates economic challenges faced by our city the vibrancy of our shopping districts and commercial centers are at risk this directly affects the vitality of our city furthermore we cannot overlook the connection between I thank you ma'am please complete that sentence thank you madam president furthermore we cannot overlook the connection between ongoing and unabated chronic retail theft and mental health as well as substance abuse and I hope that we can come together find a resolution that we can work together thank you madam president thank you romeo our next speaker so uh rachel julie you just want you each want to read the saint you want to read the same letter and you each want your two minutes okay so one of you will start in the other will you will hand the letter to the other yes okay welcome just make sure you have the microphone on is it on now it is thank you hello everyone this letter was written by selena colburn and myself and julie has offered to read it since selena can't be here tonight we are writing as past city counselors white anti-racist accomplices and open-hearted humans we see a clear and problematic double standard in the city's treatment of former reib director taisha green while we served on city council and in subsequent years we've observed multiple examples of questionable behaviors by the city of burlington department heads mostly white white men and by the administration itself rarely if ever have we seen the degree of scrutiny and investigation that taisha green is experiencing the contrast is stark and unwarranted a few examples former cito director peter owens left his position with the city of burlington in may 2016 owens was already scheduled to step down from his role as cito director a position that is instrumental in setting the vision for burlington's affordable housing policy but resigned early in response to a scandal he was involved with in san francisco owens was the landlord of a hundred year old iris canada an african-american woman he was working to evict from her home over 50 years the eviction was halted by a san francisco judge scrutinized by the president of the san francisco board of supervisors the equivalent of burlington city council and widely covered by the media on february 10th 2017 without notice and while she was in the hospital owens removed all of canada's belongings and denied her and her family access to them this included medical supplies family photos id cards her deceased husband's artworks and more no formal critique or inquiry into owens actions values or past work was supported by the city of burlington's administration in april 2023 the community of burlington learned that our then acting chief of police was the subject of a formal complaint after using a menacing tone and threatening to cuff a medical provider at the university of vermont medical center this happened as part of a dispute about police presence during the provision of medical care to a victim of gun violence the existence of the complaint was withheld from the city council for months and from the public as it considered a ballot initiative regarding police oversight even as it was referred to the vermont criminal justice council for further investigation and might i ask was that investigation ever completed i don't believe the public knows and yet he was appointed to a permanent position with as far as we know an investigation open about him threatening to punch a doctor why is he not being scrutinized in january of this year the vermont state auditor completed an audit of burlington's lake front tax increment financing tif district the audit showed quote years of sloppy record keeping and financial mismanagement while noting that burlington had made millions of dollars of mistakes much of this was attributed to poor record keeping key staff turnover and slow adoption of strategies recommended by the city's own auditors the city's errors were so numerous and so many different types it is clear a new process is required to reduce the risk of significant errors in the future the result was well over a million dollars of debt to the state's education and tiff funds according to the burlington free press the city's response letter noted that quote the city's budget is flexible enough to handle unexpected expenses like this because of its unassigned fund balance which must always contain five to 15 percent of the city's annual operational expenses and that even with the withdrawal of money to resolve audit findings the city's fund remains above 10 percent of its its expenses to our knowledge there has been no broad public accounting for how the city intends to rectify the issues raised or avoid similar debt outcomes in the forthcoming state audit of the downtown tiff district the accusations against miss green appear to be emblematic of a citywide culture not of any personal shortcomings in fact in the review recommendations it states clearly that the city needs to clarify and become more need to wrap up we have so much work to do as a city we cannot understand the administration's decision to spend precious time and resources on an investigation that seems so out of alignment with previous responses and creates further division in our community we stand in solidarity with the black women of burlington who are speaking out thank you uh our next our next speaker is uh max tracy to be followed by uh aspen ovary good evening max good evening wish it was under better circumstances i think that tonight i just want us to not lose sight of who taisha green is and what she's done for our community taisha green is a leader of unquestioned integrity who always in my conversations with her would come back to say something along the lines of always tell the truth the truth will set you free so when a report comes out that alleges that that taisha is saying has misinformation in it i believe taisha because in everything that i'd work in all of my work with taisha green in the two years that she was here she in my mind was someone of unquestioned integrity and we can't lose sight of that we also cannot cannot lose sight of everything that taisha did for our community she started the racial equity inclusion and belonging department from scratch in the middle of covid and also started one of the biggest and most successful events our city has ever seen in juneteenth so let's not lose sight of that that's incredible work and something that needs to be highlighted more um well in and quite frankly has not been spoken to in the context of this report um no one's been saying or recognizing taisha and it really is deeply deeply wrong i think the other thing i want to say is also that as my uh call former colleagues on the council just pointed out this behavior is different or this the treatment that taisha is experiencing is entirely different than other white department ads have faced and that is racism that is racist plain and simple that is racist and it needs to be called out as such max and finally the last thing i want to say is you need to think through the implications of when you do something like this because when you when you write a report like this when you put a report out there you open the door for racists to walk through and to threaten and to harm black people in our community that is what you've done you have caused harm to black people in our community and that harm is only just beginning our next speaker our next speaker is aspen ovary to be followed by josh mire i'm here to just echo the sentiments and read a letter written that for allies to say so hi my name is aspen from burlington and i'm here in solidarity with taisha green kasey lrb and black femmes non-binary and women throughout vermont who have or are currently experiencing racial and gender-based discrimination harassment and displace displacement and terrorism everyone here demands an end to the practices and abuse the former director green kasey lrb and others have experienced uh demand a full a full public articulation of harm from from mayor murrow winemaker and the city of burlington to taisha green kasey lrb and their families for the continued definition of character and unwarranted actions taken through city processes like the audit itself and demanded ongoing independent evaluation and oversight of the hiring and retention policies and solutions employed by the city of burlington to come by anti-biboc and gender-based discriminatory practices thank you thank you our next speaker is josh mire to be followed by uh joanne margaret brown good evening my name is josh mire of burlington i'm here in solidarity with taisha green kasey lrb and black femmes non-binary and women throughout vermont who have who have or are currently experiencing racial and gender-based discrimination harassment displacement and terrorism i am in a multiracial family and we have been living in the city for over 10 years we've experienced the impacts why don't we um josh we'll hold the we'll hold the clock for a minute we just start again thank you take your time we have experienced the impacts of systemic and blatant racism which have taken an immeasurable immeasurable toll on our family we have found racial slurs written on our family car and have left our jobs due to experiences with racism at the institutions we served while whiteness has provided me with shelter as black women freeing in the girls remain under constant attack we continue to lose magical black and brown individuals in this community like taisha whether they are new to burlington or have grown up in this area hope for change is replaced by heartache when there is a realization that this community is not truly seeing embrace them fully burlington folk are highly skilled at promoting diversity and talking about equity but what are we actually doing to make people of color feel at home with opportunities and an environment that make talented people want to stay in this city a highly deceptive brand of racism is ubiquitous permeating city offices local businesses and schools each time a bipod community member leaves it takes a toll on people of color in this community our family questions whether this place will love us back thank you thank you our next speaker is um joanne margaret brown to be followed by madison i'm sorry i can't hear you okay i'm my apologies i wasn't really sure you didn't have an address um a full address here um but you're here so please go ahead and we'll and we'll we'll continue on thank you for it thank you for noting that okay um i'm here uh if you could just use the microphone that's right in front of you thank you okay i'm here in an effort to openly to to disparage the recent performance of uh recently elected senator um welch peter f welch uh recently on the house side miss um becker valent uh advocated her responsibility to the budget committee she was renamed to the prestigious judiciary house judiciary committee and uh at least one subcommittee and uh i come here to indicate that um miss valent is is not a practice a practicing an attorney she most of her time spent here in the state was as a middle school educator she is not well prepared to step into jobs that are ordinarily held almost exclusively by attorneys additionally she is um her life partner is elizabeth vaults elizabeth vaults is in fact an attorney um she vaults was educated at a harvard university in boston um she uh vaults worked for uh downs rachlan martin in this area and uh vaults is i believe a sister to um the gentleman that headed up the um education department in this state some time ago miss valent is harvard educated also but in education and we feel that um i personally feel that valent has advocated her first responsibility to the budget committee in an effort to take on the more prestigious um responsibilities thank you the house judiciary committee thank you so much our next speaker is madison to be followed by jenna emerson and his 2021 state of the city address mayor weinberger asked all burlington residents to imagine a future where we have a limited racial disparities and where everyone in the burlington community feels true belonging from the mayor's address committing that the city will place racial justice and racial equity at the center of work going forward the mayor said i know that words are not enough and so as i speak tonight i also will detail how i intend to follow up these words with actions in the months and years ahead including and especially by elevating and supporting the work of many partners organizations and bipak leaders pursuing three major initiatives to promote a greater sense of belonging in burlington the mayor committed to sponsoring the city's first annual juneteenth celebration as a result of the reib departments initiative and leadership developing an actionable plan to eliminate the disparity in home ownership among black burlingtonians and continue to grapple with public safety transformation i repeat mayor weinberger's words as a call of action or a call to action for the city council to one make clear the findings of the reib audit which show no wrongdoing on the part of former director taiisha green two make clear that director green oversaw a resoundingly successful and unimpeachable juneteenth 2021 wherein she was visionary fundraiser and executive manager of the event in total three that findings of mismanagement as regards the 2022 juneteenth celebration must make clear that director green resigned at the top of march 2022 and bca bca staff and outside organizations were responsible in entirety for the juneteenth execution and management of that event four note a pattern of bias as regards the mayor's execution of oversight when implications of mismanagement have been directed towards other department heads as mayor weinberger's former campaign treasurer and reelection advisor i'd like to highlight a well-documented and self-professed case of bias by the mayor in his own words i'm not asking director taiisha green to manage this assessment the study of the burlington police department i belied the deep respect and appreciation that i have for her you can wrap up decision was wrong and reveals my own bias thank you our next speaker is our next speaker is jenna emerson to be followed by um Levi silverstein good evening good evening my name is jenna emerson of burlington war two and i am here in solidarity with taiisha green and kc lrb i have lived in burlington for six years and in that time i have seen too many phenomenal brilliant black femmes women and trans folks leave or get pushed out of this community because of the relenting burden of the combination of misogyny and racism which is misogynoir a term coined by black feminist moya bailey juneteenth 2021 and 2022 was full of black beauty and joy and was one of the most impactful city events i've ever attended it is a shame that taiisha's character and integrity are put into question through an attempt to solely these amazing events and people and i am here in solidarity with others in this room demanding justice thank you thank you so our next speaker is um Levi silverstein to be followed by lia malone good evening i hope i got your name right this time you did yeah yeah that's great that's silverstein but it's okay it doesn't matter uh uh yeah good evening members of the burlington city council my name is levi silverstein i'm an outpatient pharmacy technician at uvm mc some of you may remember me i spoke in front of you a few weeks ago as the guy with the broken phone still broken don't have the money to fix it but that's not why i'm here um it's come to my union's attention that uvm mc has been in touch with some of you council members or all of you in an attempt to influence the outcome of tonight's uh resolution and supported uvm mc supports staff united my sincere hope is that all of you told them to stuff it uh if you didn't or are still on the fence about supporting the working poor in our city allow me to remind you why we're fighting uvm mc is the largest employer in the state however over 50 of the employees in my 2300 person bargaining unit make less than 20 per hour according according to the 2022 vermont basic needs budget and livable wage report published by the vermont legislative joint fiscal office the minimum livable wage for a single person living in an urban area such as burlington and vermont is twenty dollars and three cents for a single parent with one child living in an urban area that wage increases to 3550 even in the household with two working adults and two children the base livable wage for just one parent is 25 97 allow me to repeat myself over 50 percent of the employees in my 2300 person bargaining unit make less than 20 an hour so according to this report as well as the testimonials of countless uvm mc employees it is clear we are underpaid and the hospital is fine with keeping it that way as indicated by the minimum wage of their most recent proposal being less than 18 dollars we however are not and that's why we formed a union or an onion if you say it wrong it's also worth noting that the most recent it's also worth noting the inherent racism of their most recent wage proposal which keeps the two most diverse departments with the most new americans starting under that twenty dollar line uvm mc has made some attempts to sway your votes against us i implore you do not allow them to do so thank you thank you very much our next speaker is our next speaker is lia malone to be followed by robert bristo johnson is it on it is on this is scary as a white masculine presenting person so um good evening my name is lia malone i was born in southern vermont and i grew up between bennington county and burlington vermont um i am here in solidarity with tayisha green kasey lrb and black fems non-binary and women throughout vermont who are currently experiencing racial and gender based discrimination harassment displacement and terrorism i yield the rest of my time thank you our next speaker is robert bristo johnson to be followed by bethanie woodaker completely different so um i don't envy you guys at all 500 page agenda packet so on page 440 on that um you're going to see some um photographs and i want to tell you the story behind the photographs so this has happened at least twice since i've lived here uh 12 years ago it was called irine and then it was last month and um some of you might remember going to the uh the dam at wanouski and seeing this apocalyptic thing and all of that water has to end up in my neck of the woods up uh in ward seven and um i'm up by the bike bridge and uh all of this water is coming south from the colchester boat launch and something has to exert a force on it to divert it to go west and that's something is in an entirety dirt and tree limb and it's eroding very rapidly at an alarming rate and so then what's happening is right since that happened just regular flow of the river has eroded a structure next to the bike bridge that is threatening the footings of the bike bike bridge at least it will within a decade so i don't want any level of government to be absolved of worrying about this city state FEMA but this is going to be expensive and it's only going to get more expensive with delay and you have to do it unless the alternative is that maybe for the next generation we don't have a bike bridge for our kids thank you our next speaker is bethany wittaker to be followed by uh jacob berkowitz good evening hi good evening i'm here to talk about something different so um and i'm here to talk about the burlington electric commission i'm a member of the burlington election electric commission i think you all know it's a five-member advisory board that meets monthly um there's also opportunities to participate virtually i know there's been a lot of questions about burlington electric recently and the mcnail plant and also district energy and i just want to make sure that everybody knows that the burlington electric commission we meet it's a great form for people to bring questions to offer input and advice i know there's been a lot of meetings at the tube but i would invite folks that are interested in discussing district energy and the mcnail plant to come to the commission as well um and i just want you all to know that the commission meet you know we're talking about this issue um and just also to remind folks that b ed's primary mission is to provide reliable affordable electricity to the repairs in the city of burlington net zero energy is also a critical part of b ed's mission and goals and the mcnail plant and the district energy plant are fundamental parts of b ed strategy to provide reliable affordable energy and advance the net zero energy goals um there are negative impacts associated with all energy production b ed is working towards transitioning away from the most harmful and the most carbon intensive forms of energy as it moves towards cleaner and more renewable sources the mcnail plant is part of this solution it allows us to increase um energy production when we need to and it also can um back away from it as needed and the district energy proposal would increase the efficiency of energy production overall so i just wanted to let you know that we are taking that issue under consideration i know there's been a lot of advocates that have come and voiced voiced um opposition to mcnail and to the district energy and i would invite them to come to the commission and talk to about it with us there and just to let you all know that we are debating and discussing those issues thank you thanks bethany our next speaker is jacob berkowitz to be followed by lee morrigan good evening hello uh my name is jacob and i work in the staffing office at uvm mc uh essentially my job is to staff the hospital namely the inpatient nursing units uh from a pool of resource staff in my three years at uvm mc i faced a number of challenges uh the most significant of which is the complete lack of support staff uh today for instance the inpatient nursing units were down around 42 percent of their floor elinase in other words it was a very unsafe day at uvm mc days and nights like these are increasingly common and i publicly shared my office's data with both the administration and recently on councillor bergman's monthly broadcast one of the chief reasons for this increasing deficit is uvm mc's continued refusal to pay a living wage and they continue to reject our union's common sense proposals that would help retain experienced staff and god forbid attract new workers instead of hiring the often less qualified and less experienced travelers that cost many times more to take care of our patients and the community and frankly we're done hearing there is enough resources to prioritize the most vulnerable staff that comprise our union 99 percent of which qualify for the hospital's own financial assistance program that they offer to patients particularly when the administration plans an over two billion dollar budget including the construction of a 130 million dollar outpatient surgery center that they clearly cannot staff as well as over 46 billion dollars allotted for travelers furthermore we're tired of hearing that there's no money from an organization which while tens of millions of dollars in the red through a pandemic that saw layoffs short staffing and great suffering in the community decided it was appropriate to often give five and even six figure bonuses to executives on top of their bloated salaries with money subsidized by the american taxpayer these are the adults that we are fighting and that is why we need your support for this resolution thank you thank you very much our next speaker is lee morrigan to be followed by elie jahan jahar i anyone whose name is someone whose name is elie i believe it's jahanna roll um hopefully that sounds familiar to someone um lee good evening my name is lee morrigan do you not have the mic on is it can i start over of course thanks you can start over all right typically i'm loud enough without a mic but all right so my name is lee morrigan i'm a resident of ward seven um my pronouns are they them i'm here to talk to you tonight about the reib audit and report i think it's really important to note that director green was not an employee for a lot of the timeline of this audit and miss eleby uh was an employee not a director um and i feel shouldn't be held the same way and responsibility as a director um the report was really confusing to me and for me uh definitely generated a lot more questions than answers i found the uh conclusion portion to be completely contradictory with the recommendations uh for example in the conclusion conclusion section it alleges uh misconduct and carelessness while then in the recommendation section makes it very clear that no law or city policy was violated i don't understand how those two can coexist um so referenced was uh hotel stays and uh in state and out of state contractors being registered with the state there's no policy about these things so i i don't understand how there's carelessness and mismanagement about that in fact one of the issues highlighted the most in the media the hiring of a uh of a former college roommate of director greens uh which does not violate the current policy of conflict of interest which is limited to familial and personal financial interests even with the suggested new policy suggested in recommendations that still would not prevent hiring a former college roommate it would simply put that information in front of the board of finance so for me if there's any carelessness and mismanagement i feel that that falls to the management of the city this report is incomplete contradictory and misleading and i hope there are some steps taken tonight to start to correct this thank you thank you um um so our net our next speaker is elie jahanna rel is that sound yes to be followed by jake shuman take your time is this thing on is the speaker on the speaker is on just get close to the microphone if you can i am elie jahanna bitch uh 83 years old uh have a degree in mathematics uh two years in for my state uh in medical school uh sixth in my class uh made good money all my life i bought him 1958 chivalry and palate convertible and uh for 3600 dollars and now i can't even forward to live i live on the street i've been on the street for six years i mean for six months and i'm tired i need a place to present a world peace speech i was anointed by god in 1977 to as a prophet and i need a place to speak and that's why i'm here to attempt to get this the last two verses of malachi and the old testament said i was sending you a line to the prophet and he will turn the fathers to their children the hearts of children to their fathers that's despite the land of the cursed and revelations 11 113 says i will grant my two witnesses power to speak these two powers are me is to speak and god and mother earth which is the ground to support me judgment day uh will begin at the day that i began speaking this was again anointed 99.9 percent of the world population will fall dead uh this is biblical i mean because they failed to do two things uh you must love all people even those who don't do dastardly things because our culture produced all of these no one was reproduced uh the other thing is have respect for all races and people uh black you don't respect them we respect them i need a platform to present this speech with thank thank you so much is that it yes thank you anyway thank you our next speaker is jake shuman to be followed by uh grace file good evening jake hello is this on you have that on microphones on i believe it's on great okay my name is jake shuman i am here um i don't know that i have much to offer um that hasn't already been said i would just like to lend my voice in support of my community members who are here uh tonight i support by pock women i support unions i think both of those things are good and we need to support uh our people in our community i would like to yield the remainder of my time i know this is not how it works here but if somebody would like to go over and is part of those communities i'd love to offer them my minute and a half finally morrow's gotta go it's time the writing's on the wall jake so our net our next speaker is grace file to be followed by ferried good evening hello um i'm here today in solidarity with tayisha and with farine and with all of the black women and non-binary folks and fems in our state who are repeatedly facing terrorism and racism every single day and if you think that for some reason because you have this position of power because you're a good white person you put one of those signs outside of your house that you're somehow exempt from racism and white supremacy you're wrong and the fact that you're not doing everything that you can in your power to center the safety and the joy and the sense of belonging of black folks and brown folks in our community is a huge disservice and shows that you're not qualified to run our city there is a world in which people of color can feel like they belong here and can feel safe and that's a world that a lot of us are fighting for and advocating for that can happen if we all work together to end white supremacy the white supremacy that lives in ourselves and in our family members and in our community and because you are not doing that members of this council some of you that shows that you're not qualified to represent us if you're not committed to the safety and well-being and belonging of everyone in our community you're not qualified to be here as you look at this beautiful banner up here I hope everyone gets a chance to look at it it's really lovely this quilt that says Juneteenth 2021 on it I hope you think about how this all could have gone differently how black and brown folks who work in our city government who work with you all could feel supported and taken care of and how this beautiful wonderful event could have been celebrated and lauded and could have set the tone for the rest of this existence as a city we could continue to have these beautiful celebrations but because of what you have done unnecessarily it's wrong it's ridiculous and you should resign thank you uh Farid good evening and our next speaker uh following Farid is Todd LaCroix to be followed by Brian Sheena good evening I uh almost got investigated by chairman or by director green when the people's kitchen applied for a grant uh there was a misunderstanding um and one of our colleagues Lidia Diamond called asking about the status they said green was right right there like wanting to make sure like there was nothing going on that wasn't uh that wasn't legal she was honestly although it scared me at the time it showed me that she is a woman of very high integrity and as we were contracted to also feed people for the Juneteenth the city departments made it really hard for us to access the resources that we needed and a call to Taisha Green made sure that was all taken care of I do think investigation is a good thing I think there should be an office of investigation for residents to put complaints about city departments that aren't really doing their job such as the office of code enforcement there are too many tenants who's been who've been made homeless uh as you aware one of my our colleagues was recently made homeless because landlord neglected to update their fire detection system so this happens way too many times there should also be since UVM received uh pilot at the payment in lee of taxes they should be under the city's uh livable wage ordinance and any violation of that which would be investigated so uh please consider as as as the conversation around a police discipline installing consider an independent office of an investigation like the new york city's embodiment surface where we residents can talk to somebody who is hold accountable by us to investigate all the wrongdoings that's being done by the city thank you thank you very much our next speaker is Todd LaCroy to be followed by Brian Sheena there is so much hypocrisy going around in America I can't even stand it there's hypocrisy every which way we look I see so much selective outrage every which way from people like you and people like you I see people being hypocrites how many times have you called somebody an anti-summit because they called you out for being corrupt now you're experiencing something similar black people and everybody in America do the same thing they do I'm married to a black woman and my divorce was a nightmare in this America because I had to deal with black supremacy and white supremacy you see how vehement it gets when you even want to talk about the problems right and uh uh but nobody wants to call out the facts that all of the people almost in the last few years that have threatened me you see now they want to stop you this is a violation I don't see the police officer stopping her from stalking me because the police are all stalking me and I didn't see any black people caring about my assaults right I've been told that for years I started out to pie off the street and I got so pigburring black lives matter in the last five years I got treated like shit I made a black woman and my children are half black and this is a disgrace what we've been coming in this country the hypocrisy yeah you see the terrorists there's the police this is what you do when you don't speak up it's not okay we're gonna continue with the meeting the next person who is speaking is Brian Cheetah when you are two in the south of question you are anti-black I just want people to know that he's gone he's a couple blocks away right this is what community matters over you guys this is what we matter over you guys that's why it's ensuring our own safety you're not sharing where are you here you're just taking notes here because at the end of the day you all will go home by these feelings where he leaves right or maybe you get to go home right yes this might affect where you might move come here watch or this might affect something you might want to keep my mouth on your tickets and I'm not going to stop Karen because if you're talking to me this is about talking to them I'm raising that you are selfish and you're male what's tough is because you think they can be objective because you're black this is why you can find yours that's why you want to take Tasha out she knows your secrets it's coming up we're gonna we're you didn't say anything to the guy when he was going off it is it is now it's now 717 let me just finish we're just gonna we're gonna call a five-minute recess I need to take care of a couple of things um Brian if you want to just sit there or if or not it's fine we need a representative China I'll be back in five minutes we're gonna have a five-minute recess our next speaker is uh state representative Brian Sheena Brian welcome thank you for waiting thank you um I'm not just a state representative I'm also a social worker and I I've never seen as much suffering as I've seen in the world right now and tonight's evidence of that um and I've studied all religions of the world I believe they all have something to offer us and in Buddhism one of the four noble truths is that existence is suffering and something I talk about with my clients is why do we make it harder for ourselves and others and what and I ask you why have we built a government that harms the very people that we're supposed to serve we've created a carceral state that uses violence of the state against the people to enforce social control and after many years of trying to end systemic racism we make made great strides but now we're seeing the backlash as white men can't handle when black women are better than them and this audit I feel is being used as an instrument of state violence and I ask you know if we're going to talk about mismanagement whatever happened to the mismanagement of the TIF district after years of critique of previous administrations whatever happened to that we should be talking about that and uh this pattern of state violence fits into a pattern I've seen as people were evicted from Sears Lane to make way for a luxury neighborhood when hundreds of people are sleeping in the woods now and we've seen the abuse of young black men and their trauma intensified so that they can be used as scapegoats we've seen attempts to cover up investigation of police homicide we've seen health care workers intimidated by the police and then the hospital administration being complicit with the harm of the carceral state and and so I just want to say violence begets violence that's something that's in the bible it's something Martin Luther King said and it also has been said that only love can conquer hate and so I just want to say to everyone in the face of so much hate don't let anyone take away our love for each other so I'll just end on that note and I'm here in solidarity with the black women the strong black femmes and also with the union at UVM thank you thank you so we have we have no other speakers who are in con choice who are burlington residents we have a number okay you may you know I apologize I'm what is I'm sorry what is your name okay you just didn't have an address so I didn't know please come of course congrats on the president and you know uh but if you interrupt me tonight or any other black person you are anti-black so but if you still decide to interrupt me just address my brain not me thank you okay uh first up hi miami watching at home love you um and for the first 15 seconds I just want to say uh you got the right day but the wrong nigga um in 1915 during the reconstruction era there was a film called birth of a nation and the plot just I'll just summarize it it includes a white knight on a horse mirror um saving the white woman in distress burlington and it frames black people specifically black masculine people taisha as either incompetent a super predator or a monster so with this auditing you tried you mirror you tried to use the staleish trope one of the staleish trope I'm bored actually to call a brilliant beautiful talented gifted black queen incompetent fuck off all right and Champlain college when I was 19 years old during my second year at Champlain college I was involved in a title nine investigation that resulted from two kisses on the cheek I didn't get no pussy but I got called a rapist so that is one of the tropes right I am a super predator and now in 2023 it has resurfaced right so I was a victim of institutional racism so my heart goes out to not only taisha but the countless black films black people black masculine bodied people who are continuously targeted by mirror wine burger and countless other white supremacist motherfuckers so mirror white knights get off your horse do not think that for a second that you will continue your reign of bullshit whiteness get off your horse um and I got one more thing and revolution is not a one-time event so black people always got black people's back I'm not really talking to black people right now but for you white abolitionists accomplices and co-conspirators I'm not talking to allies I'm talking to those people show up again revolution is not a one-time event word to order lord shit maybe show up tomorrow and in conclusion mirror you are about to lose your job you are about to lose your job get this dance you are about to lose I'm sorry I gotta wrap that up I gotta okay so if those people who have requested to speak in con choice I I've I've looked I I believe all of you have addresses that are outside Burlington if there aren't if there are any of you that have submitted a form and you are Burlington residents please just raise your hand until and then we or we will go to those who are joining us online do you have okay well you are I understood understood we will we will we will get we will get to all non Burlington residents after we go to Burlington residents who are joining us online so we'll have a we'll have a timer set up for have a timer set up yes great so the first person who is joining us online who is a Burlington resident is Ryan Bergman and Ryan I have found you and enabled your microphone I'm not sure if you wish to speak now or if you wanted to speak when the agenda item comes up for the church street marketplace can you hear me yes we can did you want to speak now or did you want to wait until later in the agenda yeah whatever you guys think is best I you'd prefer to wait I'm happy to speak now I'm happy to wait it really doesn't matter to me whatever you guys think would be best for this meeting at this point in time well what we normally do when we get to the agenda item for any commission appointments as we give any of the candidates who are present the opportunity to speak and you can do so at that time or if you're pressed for time you could certainly speak now okay I might as well just speak now in the uh okay go ahead time so just I wanted to express my interest in the vacant seat on the church street marketplace can marketplace submission as they could bring a unique fund of professional and personal qualifications to this role professionally I'm a seasoned financial expert with a strong background in risk management budgeting and strategic planning I work with two fortune 500 companies in San Francisco and currently at Silverlake Block Management in Wilson Vermont on a personal level I'm a native and resident of the Old North End living two blocks away from church street with my wife and three-year-old son I'm not just an observer but a stakeholder in the vitality of the marketplace for putting in shops and dining at its restaurants with my family regularly this intimate connection provides me with unique insights and expected if I'm appointed my primary goal be to promote the long-term financial stability safety and growth of the marketplace serve its unique identity and foster a thriving diverse business community I'm passionate about improving visitor amenities public safety and promoting sustainable practices I believe my professional experience personal connection to Burlington and commitment to the community make me a strong candidate for this role and I'll be honored to serve my community in this capacity thank you so much thanks Ryan our next speaker is Carla say Shay Salazar and Carla I do not see you online I don't know if you're calling in or participating under another name if you are and want to use the raise hand function I will come back to you the next person from Burlington who wishes to speak is Sarah Skiortino and Sarah I believe this may be you Sarah is that you I've enabled a microphone with Sarah S yes this is me great thanks please go ahead um hey my name is Sarah Skiortino I live in Ward 5 and I'm calling in to speak out in solidarity with Taisha Green and other Black Thames in Burlington I also wanted to echo the voices of the UVMMC union members today um as we all are well aware I would hope Taisha has done so much work to strengthen community in Burlington and cultivate spaces that our city has in large part otherwise seriously failed to since Taisha has been pushed out of the city as a result of late failures to support or even display basic respect for her work um the on-the-clock conduct of multiple city officials has been brought into question the city has not done their due diligence by conducting investigations in regards to these instances and um one of them even got a pretty significant promotion and despite egregious and unethical behavior including an almost unbelievable threat made to a surgeon on the job responding to crisis John Murad moved up the ranks through a flawed process and was supported by eight of the councillors before us in doing so I hope that you will in this case support Black Thames who have done so much for the community that you've been elected to serve and I really love Burlington and I love living here um but and I really hate to say it really makes me sad to say this but I feel ashamed in a lot of ways for living here in light of this situation um and I hope that we can do a better job of not forcing folks out of the city who go against the racist status quo and I hope that clarity can come to those willing to allow this audit process to perpetuate systemic racism and make Burlington a less welcoming place thank you very much our next speaker is Robert O. Moore and um Robert I don't see you online again if if you are under another name and want to use the raise hand function I will try to find you in that way our next person joining us a Burlington resident joining us online to speak is Pike Porter and Pike I have found you and enabled your microphone you should be able to speak now yes hi thanks for taking my call sorry couldn't be there in person uh earlier today I sent the city council several documents which you may you should already have had um but I wanted to bring them to the top of your attention um given that you're now in discussions with v-tang again over something that we don't know yet what that is about um I also sent an email indicating that the Air Force is one of the richest entities in the world um with a budget in 2023 of over two billion dollars and you're leasing 280 acres of prime real estate for a dollar um given the all the attention um that the mayor has paid to the REIB um office and the Junki contracts I would hope that the city council also scrutinizes their agreements with v-tang um and considers really the harm that um the continued operations the f-35s are doing to thousands of people uh in the region and the the cost uh to the regional economy the local economy uh in the region thank you thank you very much pike our next speaker joining us online is uh Ishmael Ahmed and I believe I did um and I did see I did see you earlier oh yes great you've raised your hand um I you should be able to speak now if you just unmute yourself on your end so I think you can hear me now yes we can so my name is Ishmael Ahmed um I grew up in underhill I came out of imamu in 1990 and I lived in berlington for almost 30 years now my mother and my six children live here with five of them in the school district from high school to elementary school um I come to stand in solidarity not only with taiisha but with also the uh the uh the medical center workers um what I want to speak to you specifically is how spending priorities are decided and what's considered acceptable exp expenditures um focusing on the lowest cost vendor I think well it points basically helps enable systems as they currently are which are most of the time exploitative and come out of a place of white supremacy and we also need to remember the history of eugenics within vermont there is a reason that abnaki people look the way they do so when we make our decisions of spending money and resources to support our community which is essentially your job you need to make sure that we are including what we wish to see in our future for example let's say there was a desire to celebrate latino music choosing a dj for example I would say would make sense to consider one that comes out of the tradition out of that place that might cost 30 to 50 more than someone who doesn't but still can spend salsa you know merengue whatever so I would ask the the city council to really take a look at the bylaws around how spending decisions are made as they have a very wide and far-reaching impact right because part of this audit was about how the money was spent the idea that possibly there's vendors that cost more than others that were chosen there's reasons for that and I think they're valid anyways thank you all very much I hope I I was able to make myself clear and have a good night great thank you so much our next speaker joining us online is julia curry and julia julia I see you um and have enabled your microphone you should be able to speak if you unmute yourself on your end thank you I am glad to see so many of my fellow burlingtonians um coming out this evening and speaking this evening I have to echo sarah's comment that I really feel ashamed of our city at this moment and that isn't something I often feel you know we're all flawed we all make mistakes but the decision to commission this r.a.i.b report investigation was just kind of astonishing to me an astonishing lapse of judgment and ironically a real failure of integrity so I want to raise up the that leadership and integrity involves self-awareness it involves self-reflection it involves humility and the willingness to learn whereas what I see in the commissioning of this report is a kind of defensive or vindictive desire to to basically attack someone who is no longer in a position to defend herself a complete waste of scarce resources we certainly cannot afford to be using in this personalistic way it's a kind of um projection of ego that really doesn't belong in strong leadership with integrity it really makes me sad it makes me sad for everyone in the city in particular for all the black fems and non-binary people who you know in who experience attacks and targets daily and and now have to experience that that you know the highest levels of our city are complicit in that and I hope that everyone who had a role in making this decision will actually search their hearts for how they came to do that and learn how to not do it again thank you very much we have a couple of people that are joining us online that are not burlington residents we will come back to them um now we'll return to con toys for those joining us in person who are non-burlington residents the first is cathleen camp to be followed by kaya morris evening karen good evening i'm cathleen camp from widowsky i spent many years living in burlington and i am clearly and obviously here in support of taiisha green and kc lrb and everyone else in my greater circle what i want to do is tell a short story the terrorism on black bodies in this state was made clear to me 50 years ago when i had to endure slave day at burlington high school i protested i said guidance counselor all the people that i had relationships with why are we doing this oh we're just having fun get over it three years in a row didn't change kept happening the auction was one day and then all the fun happened the next day as i watched my fellow students in chains on leashes being fools in the hallways that i had to walk by while i was there for an education okay so the terrorizing has happened for years and that was my welcome to vermont now go home moment fascinating that the camera is right there so you can't look at the mayor good evening good evening my name is kaya morris and i'm a resident of sx junction and solidarity with i am here today in solidarity with taiisha green kc lrb black fems non-binary and trans women throughout vermont who have or are currently experiencing racial and gender-based discrimination harassment displacement and terrorism i'm here because taiisha and kasey stories are of my own and of so many people who live work and play in vermont i am here because the abuse of political power or the lack of political courage by leaders in addressing the racism and deeply entrenched practices of white supremacy and structural racism that have made far too many black fems non-binary folks gender non-conforming and trans individuals had to leave this state countless of us must choose the safety of their families job security and community over fighting back speaking out and challenging the harmful practices which negatively impact us all and in the 15 years that i've lived here in vermont nearly every job that i've had has had similar threads higher the black woman demand more work than what she's compensated for downplay or usurp her accomplishments defame her character and push her out the harm continues with the economic devastation that comes from this displacement from the abuse that causes mental and physical distress to her and her family the loss of another voice and their irreplaceable contributions to this state burlington juneteenth 2021 and 2022 were some of the most triumphant days that i've had since calling vermont my home it is foul to cast dispersions on the events and the transformative work that was helmed by former director green now vermont has long struggled to live up to its values and in this moment mayor weinberger and his administration are proving how dangerous unchecked misogynoir and bias can be to the lives and livelihoods of black women and fems in vermont i appreciate one more moment as some folks did yield their time i just want to make sure that the final demand that was the most important is that we want a full public articulation of harm from mayor miral weinberger and the city of burlington to taisha green to kasey ellaby to their families for the continued defamation of character and unwarranted actions taken through the city processes like this audit not an apology a reckoning and accounting for the multiple forms of harm enacted by the city on behalf of the residents yes each and every one of you thank you thank you thank you uh our next our next speaker our next speaker is lydia diamond to be followed by leah briggs yes i did let me know yep my name is lydia diamond and i used to live in burlington now i'm in south burlington i had a glorious time this year running for south burlington city council why did you run lydia they asked and i said because no person of color has ever stepped up to do it so here i am guess what i'm running again i want y'all to know i came out to date in support of these beautiful black women behind me because y'all got us oh and you fuck with one you fucking with all of us and we'll play that shit i'm from the gutters of brooklyn new york and i came to vermont in 94 my mama brought me here she wanted me to live see my shirt i brought my ancestors with me because i have worked for my route at the burlington free press but he was a big beautiful blonde woman named jennifer johnson and she loved to ride lydia i was discriminated against so when even though i i don't know thai eastia personally i do know she a black woman so i know exactly what i know exactly what she went through did you cut me off oh i know exactly what she went through and it's been going on for far too long i came to let y'all know that the domestic violence against women of color has to stop it has to stop enough is enough we don't want to fight we want to be respected as human beings first human beings thank you thank you we deserve to breathe we deserve to support our families we deserve everything that you get i'm entitled to it too thank you so much you are you trying to shut me down i'm telling you that your time is up oh okay thank you i'll be back okay you have not seen the last of me so before we get before we get to the next speaker just wanted to alert the council that we have gone over our time for public forum and so we just simply need to take a vote on whether or not to extend public forum um uh counselor mickey i assume that you are joint you are you're able to hear us yes okay great thank you um just so just so everyone is aware there are about 11 people that are left to speak um so a motion uh council high tower move takes time the public forum thank you second to that motion seconded by council bergman all those in favor of extending the public forum uh until our last speaker has been heard please say aye aye any opposed please thank you uh thank you councillor mickey any opposed please say no no uh that that motion that ooh true to form hey hey let let let us let let us let us conduct our business um that motion passes um by a vote of um 10 to 1 um so we will continue with our public forum our next speaker is leah briggs to be followed by gene arrest point of point of information i think it might have been 9 to 1 no well there are 12 9 9 to 1 you're right my apologies i can't count 9 to 1 good evening hello my name is leah briggs i've been with the university of vermont medical center for 22 years and consider my fellow coworkers my family i've had the privilege to work with an incredible team of phlebotomists also known as vampires bloodsuckers or oh no you're here again i am here today to plead for your support in better working conditions for all of our essential support workers at uvm medical center my experience lies with phlebotomy and i would like to share a little about them our team of phlebotomists work under extremely stressful situations with minimal staffing and staggering responsibilities more than 80 percent of diagnosis and treatment is based on laboratory tests last quarter from april 1st to june 30th my team of 45 phlebotomists collected over 50 thousand patients that's on average around a hundred five hundred and eighty per day with an error rate of under one percent all this with critically low staffing we provide a handle hold through trauma a shoulder for patients tears a calming voice in moments of fear and a passion for all of it this is why it breaks my heart that uvm phlebotomists or uvm mc phlebotomists are paid only 16 dollars and 63 cents an hour this is how uvm mc values your health care 80 percent of what your provider does is based on the performance of someone that is getting paid less than my 17 year old daughter gets paid at mcdonald's on your website the city of burlington the low income limit is 63 thousand six hundred dollars per year a uvm mc phlebotomist grosses 35 thousand dollars a year how is it okay that that's acceptable how is it okay for the largest employer in the state and the only level one trauma center in the region to undervalue their staff to the point of extreme poverty uvm mc is creating and maintaining a class of working poor in the state of vermont this is not okay i understand i have one more sentence we need your help and your support in changing the way uvm mc values their most precious resource which is all of our support staff thank you for your time thank you very much so our next our next speaker is uh jena rest to be followed by alex hilliard my name is jena rest i work at uvm as well as you can see all of our red shirts and i do support you guys on the other side i kind of want to just follow up with leah said that we have we need to be paid for the work that we do we can't afford to live here and we're taking care of both sides of the community we can't do that if we don't get paid people are leaving good people are leaving this hospital as a result of us not getting paid or being able to fully have the ability to have downtime in other words be able to decompress we need to be able to do that and if we can't do that it's not going to help our community on either side thank you thank you very much our next our next speaker is alex hilliard to be followed by tira agrag hi alex hi my name is alex hilliard i'm a black and a i am a black and trans individual from poltney a town 60 miles to the south in ruttland county i wanted to use this opportunity as a teaching moment for my two children with me today to teach them what it means to show up for black women we have come to protest the unjust unsubstantiated investigation of former d.i.b director taiisha green at the hands of employees the media and states and local government offices scores of black women and non-binary individuals have experienced abusive practices and disproportionate harm the abusive practices include gaslighting turning a blind eye to hate crimes occurring in the greater community and ignoring the daily racial microaggressions these women face those women and non-binary folks unsurprisingly flee their elected public offices senior management roles and executive officer positions when the backbreaking burden becomes too much to bear enough is enough it's time for vermont to show up for black women not one more black woman not taiisha green or kathleen camp or kaya morris or farine paris meyer or zaria high tower or any of the black women or black non-binary folks you know because most people in this room know someone who is who identifies that way and has been adversely impacted by racism it's time to do the right thing and that begins with apologies to taiisha green and kasey lrb thank you thank you very much our next uh our next speaker is tarah greg to be followed by eric wineman stupid song came out and i started seeing i'm an eighth generation vermont or small town saying that somebody is going to get killed in this community i know this woman from a movie that is internationally famous for you being racist and writing slurs on her home i'm wearing this tape on my mouth because if you haven't seen the movie yet this is what it looks like okay it's called misogyny in the digital age it's an international film about racism in vermont and one of the victims is sitting right there i suggest you all watch it if i die or get killed by any of your crazy small town yoggles i'll know where it came from but i still yield my time and let them finish so our next our next speaker is eric wineman to be followed by mohadine batah my name is eric wineman i've been employed here at uvm mc in the phlebotomy department since december of 2022 i absolutely love my position as a phlebotomist i suffer from hemophilia a a rare chronic bleeding illness i have to administer intravenous medicine three times a week so i am able to connect with patients that struggle with blood draws because i know how difficult it can be from my own experience having the opportunity to assure an anxious patient that they are in good hands is truly a rewarding and gratifying experience i do believe it takes a special person to work in health care and the team i am blessed to be a part of goes above and beyond to ensure that we deliver the finest patient care possible my co-workers that helped guide and mentor me are incredible phlebotomists that continue to share their knowledge and experience with other new hires so that we can continue to serve our patients and community that require blood work our patients depend on us to safely draw and handle their samples so that they can receive the results they so desperately need i'm a parent to a brave intelligent and hardworking 17 year old son i have an amazing fiancee who supports me in every aspect of my life she supported me when i made the decision to leave my comfortable well-paying career for a 16 dollar and 36 cents hourly wage with questionable questionable benefits with my current wage i am eligible for government assistance with my current wage i would not be able to afford my apartment without the aid of my fiancee salary with my current wage i would not be able to support myself or my son in the state of vermont i would never tell my son lucas but he is paid a higher wage than his 40 year old father my current wage is 16 dollars and 36 cents my son lucas is making 18 hours at mcdonald's this is unacceptable for the largest health care provider in the state of vermont it is disgusting our next so our next speaker is mcdonald's my apologies if i've mispronounced your name i'll fix it i'll fix it how do you pronounce it uh my name is moideen botah um personally american uh i've been living in vermont for 23 years uh what happened what what's happened in vermont in in burlington what happened here now it reminds me of what happened two years ago when we were suppressed about the bds and this is exactly what's happening we're being suppressed here uh i feel like minorities are being all all the time oppressed and suppressed in this country and there's no difference between here and israel i feel like i didn't even leave uh israel i feel i have to live under uh racism in this in this country because of my not the minority uh i'm here to uh it it doesn't look to me like anything changed here uh you haven't changed at all uh and that's why you have to keep coming here and uh back uh and talk to you and demand that you change all of your policies uh against minorities and uh two years ago and uh we went kind of be vote voting for bds against the israeli brutal occupation we're accused of being antisemitic which is bullshit there's nothing anti-semitic against israeli brutal occupation and the mayor and he wrote also against it he said it bds is antisemitic which is crap and bullshit that's not right the same thing is happening against blacks and minorities in here and nothing is changing it looks like this is this is unacceptable at all and i think you should ship up and really think into your heart and think about other people and other people oppressed and suppressed that's that's that's all i can say i'm pretty just i'm so pissed at the policies of this place here thank you for our last our last speaker that is joining us in con toys is tabitha more hi can we start just with a deep breath i don't know if anyone else needs that i know i do um so as you said my name is tabitha more i'm a sixth generation vermontor founding president of the ruttland area branch of the nwcp and former state director of the rump branches of the nwcp current chair of the criminal justice committee for the ruttland area branch even though i live up here they let me do a little stuff on the side not a lot of people of color want to be meddling in law enforcement these days and um well before i get i wasn't planning on coming down or talking i'm currently battling Lyme disease and i'm in the last part of my dissertation but when i saw what was happening i knew that i had to come and more fully support the women of color and i just want you to know that uh the presidents gillum and schultz of the of the vermont branches of the nwcp can't be here tonight they want everyone to know that they will be following up and they will be in support of taisha and be watching this process uh with great interest because this is not a new story since 1909 the nwcp has been dealing with this and there's a reason we keep coming back there's a reason we keep showing up at the table and it's because we keep screwing it up but before i get there counselors of color on this board right now wow i see you i see you and i see what you're going through and i know what you're gonna have to do tonight and i am so sorry but i'm glad you're there so it doesn't surprise me that we're still here and we're still having this conversation and what a beautiful horrible moment that we have people fighting for fair wages and we have people fighting for fair processes in general because it's our systems that continue to squeeze us till we have nothing left that keep us from prosperity that keep us from living that keep us from harm like what taisha is getting even since that terrible headline ran and what was it which one was it was a terrible one it was digger immediately taisha is getting death threats be aware of what you do and this doesn't have to be hard but it does require humility thank you so so we have four people left in the queue that are joining us online so we'll go and put the timer up for those for those remaining people who have asked to speak during public forum the first person is sandy bermanzone and sandy i have found you and enabled your microphone you should be able to speak if you just unmute yourself on your side sandy so i can come back to you sandy um the next person is heather bowman and heather i've enabled your microphone you should be able to speak as well good evening my name is heather bowman i work at u b m m c as a philbotomist and i'm a proud member of our community's newest union the support staff united i came to my work at the medical center as a way to connect with and contribute to our community as we emerge from this overwhelming medical crisis that is the covid pandemic acknowledging the needs of others struck me as an obligation and finding a way to offer support seems like everyone's responsibility so we at u b m m c and the support staff do this work despite the fact that we are being paid significantly below a livable wage and despite the fact that we're short-staffed to the point where we're unable to perform our roles in patient care in a timely safe matter and where we regularly experience violence at work because the base wages at u b m m c support staff are so low many of us in our union qualify for income-based state and federal assistance and many of us are on Medicaid and most of us qualify for insurance through the state exchange very few of us can afford the health insurance that u b m m c offers us as a air quote benefit the regressive system that they have in place where the least of us are expected to pay the same as the those who are paid the most put us in the untenable position of working diligently all day long to provide health care to our community but yet we are unable to provide our families with the spoils of our labor not only are we unable to afford health care we are actually regularly required by our employer to go into unsafe situations where there is confirmed potential for violence we are told that it is our responsibility to offer care to all of these patients regardless of the threat they represent and we do this I just wish that u b m m c felt the same obligation to care for their employees as we feel towards our patient and our our patients in our community I urge you to vote in support of the resolution and I hope that we can find ways to make our community safer and healthier for all thank you the the next person is um is um Myra I believe it's uh Flynn and Myra I can't find you online if you want to use the raise hand function I'm happy to enable your microphone um the last person joining us online is Peter Duvall and Peter I did see you before there Peter I have seen I have enabled your microphone you should be able to speak now thank you for the opportunity to speak good evening from under hill I'm Peter Duvall and I appreciate Burlington's hybrid public comment procedure it's the best I've seen in the state of course I'm here to talk about the McNeil generating station and the proposed steam transmission line between McNeil and the hospital there's a genuine lack of transparency about this project and I was going to speak more formally about it but uh I think I'll just go right to my request which is I hope uh city counselors would take an interest in this project and the details and the lack of documentation of the project and join me in requesting the full access to the studies and reports and financial uh data about the steam transmission line the project the project management and the entities involved in the project I think this is something that also should interest all employees of UVMMC as the hospital is getting dragged along um into this project uh I think without full information thank you very much thank you very much for joining us um so I'll go back to Sandy Berman's zone I still have enabled your microphone you just need to unmute on your end hello great great hi hi my name is Sandy Berman's on I live in the town of Shelburne Vermont and I'm in here I'm here in support of black women and friends and non-binary people in the state of Vermont I would like to yield my time and I'd like to give that time to someone else who has something to say so that people have more than two minutes to express the kind of things that need to be talked about this evening thank you thanks very much so we do have uh two people that I had called on earlier who I haven't been able to find online the first is Carlishe Salazar the other is Robert O. Moore and if you want to just use the raise hand function I'm happy to enable your microphone and the last person who just signed up for public forum is Susie Comerford and Susie I can't find you online um if you want to rate if you want to use the raise hand function I'm happy to enable your microphone as well so again this is just for Carlishe Salazar Robert O. Moore and Susie Comerford it does not appear that they are online so at nine at eight twenty we will close the public forum um there are no others that have been that have asked to speak in person okay um we will close the public forum with our thanks for all the joint all of you who joined us to speak during public forum and we will go to the rest of our meeting the next item on our agenda is item number four which is climate emergency reports is there any counselor or the administration who wishes to offer a climate emergency report seeing none we will close out that item and move on to item number five which is our consent agenda is there a motion to move our consent agenda and take the actions as indicated so moved thank you councillor traver seconded by second uh seconded by councillor shannon um any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion to move the consent agenda please say aye hi any opposed thank you any opposed please say no consent agenda passes unanimously um that will bring us to our deliberative agenda there are seven items on our deliberative deliberative agenda and where appropriate there are time limits on each item that we've agreed to by approving our agenda we'll do our best to keep to those uh to those time limits the first item on our agenda 6.1 which is a communication mayor or a wine burger regarding the appointment of a deputy city attorney and for this item i will go to mayor wine burger thank you president paul i am pleased to be bringing before the council tonight a appointment for the position of deputy city attorney this is a position that was created just several years ago and that is an important position to add to our to add to the way that which the the meeting is structured sorry i'm just pulling up some notes here on this so i'm um i'm pleased to be bringing before you jared pellerin who i think is well known to everyone at the council and he's well known for his good work um for years now in uh on some of our most important issues that have been going through the city attorney's office he is also someone who came to us already with substantial experience relevant experience having uh graduated from albany law school and served work as a law clerk in the new york state assembly um as well as in uh city government in albany um he uh has been a huge part of the transition period that we've been in at the city attorney's office i'm very grateful for his service through and the extended transition that we've had and i think this is going to really strengthen the office uh if the council agrees and confirms him as the deputy city attorney um upon that confirmation we would immediately uh post the position of his current position which will um allow us to expand much needed capacity in the city attorney's office thank you president paul thank you mayor weinberger um we have and often it's been customary to for me to hand it over to jared and i was going to do that now thank you mayor and i will keep this brief but um i appreciate the faith you haven't made to carry out this post as deputy city attorney and i look forward to taking this role if i'm confirmed tonight i think the city attorney's office does great work we're all committed to supporting you all in moving burlington forward and i think that there is a lot to be done so i look forward to hitting the ground running tomorrow along with our team and making sure that we see to it that burlington continues to be a bright spot in vermont and in the nation so thank you thank you very much thank you mayor thank you uh also uh i guess i'm not supposed to say deputy city attorney yet but you know um uh for this we will go to a motion from uh councillor dority yes thank you president paul i moved to confirm the appointment of mr pellerin as deputy city attorney for burlington thank you councillor dority is there a second to that motion seconded by councillor berkman are there any councillors wishing to speak on this motion before we go to a vote seeing none we will go to that vote uh my apologies uh uh councillor grant thank you um i do support this appointment i want to thank you for our meeting this morning i felt it was really important um and one of the things we talked about because i i do want to make it it's been an ongoing issue uh my previous experience on a commission seeking help from the city attorney's office with difficulty with a department head and not getting that help and then the city's attorney's office saying that they're there for people who are in commissions and committees so i appreciate um you listening to me i actually felt you were listening to me i appreciated uh your responses um which were more than have gotten in the past and i hope that you do put a process in place that will protect people thank you thank you councillor grant uh are there any other councillors wishing to speak to the motion before we go to a vote seeing none all those in favour of the appointment of jared pellerin as the deputy city attorney please say aye aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously congratulations deputy city attorney pellerin thank you all we will move on to our next item which is 6.2 a tobacco liquor a tobacco license application for fireman smoke shop llc and for that i'll go to councillor shannon thank you one second because i'm in the part that has the links but not the motion sorry for that sorry move to approve the 2023 2024 tobacco license application for fireman smoke shop thank you councillor shannon seconded by councillor grant um are there any is there any discussion on that motion seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favour of the motion please say aye aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously which brings us to item 6.3 which is the appointment to the church street marketplace commission for a term expiring 630 2026 and for this item i'll open the floor to nominations for this commission appointment are there any nominations for this commission appointment council councillor bergman yes i'd nominate romeo von herman thank you we don't need a second to that um however are there any other appointments to the position of church street marketplace commission for a term expiring 630 2026 seeing none uh we will close nominations or actually i'm supposed to say going once going twice we will now close nominations for that position um and there is one there is one candidate all those in favour of the appointment of romeo von herman for the position of the church street marketplace commission please say aye aye that is unanimous i believe there are how many of us actually voting right now um there are 10 without ben and with yes you're correct nine um that motion passes congratulations so we do have a number we have a number of other commission appointments on the agenda for the city council with mayor presiding so um we will recess the council meeting at eight point of information could we finish this agenda and then go to the other appointments given the interest in the items at the bottom of our agenda with the general public i'll note that item six point four has been postponed to our next meeting on september 11th which brings us um to item six point five i have been asked to be able to take a five minute recess we will take it at this time and reconvene at six thirty five sorry eight thirty five we'll reconvene the city council meeting and the next item on our agenda is item six point five which is a resolution support for fair contract for uvm mc support staff union united union and for a motion on this item i will go to council bergman um thank you i'd like to wave the reading of the updated version unfortunately all of my tabs and that this delay got wiped out so i can't actually cite it uh directly but it was the very last updated version of the uh of the um resolution and ask for the floor back after a um for some brief comments after a second thank you councillor bergman uh seconded by um councillor councillor king councillor bergman you have the floor thank you excuse me president well oh yes just briefly i have to note my recusal from this matter and pursue into our practice we'll step away from the table for this discussion thank you thank you thank you councillor travers councillor dority president paul i also note my recusal and we'll also step away okay thank you councillor dority okay we'll wait for just two seconds uh i intend to uh be brief but uh first i just want to thank uh the union folks who came out who gave incredibly moving testimony not just tonight but last time and who uh graced me with the opportunity to interview you um on cctv i really appreciate that and the honor that it is that that for me to you have to have reached out to me um i also want to thank uh my fellow city councillors who um cosponsored this um this resolution um it shows that we can work together for the people's well-being and i truly appreciate um that work um i'm not going to read the resolution uh given the the lateness and everything but it does i think speak very clearly about why we as a council need to take the action that is called for in the resolution but it um it this is really personal for me um because it uh recalls the time that i tried to bargain uh a first contract with the guinette company that owns uh the burlington free press when i worked as a production worker there make in about six bucks an hour and um i remember being at the table and being told um after we had presented our positions what does what we meaning guinette make or the what the low wages that you are getting paid have to do with what we guinette are paying you we pay you what we have to we pay you what the market dictates and i'm here to say that this resolution stands up against that logic against that neoliberalism against inequality and i believe that if we pass this resolution unanimously unanimously it stands for a basic proposition and that is that a community united for dignity and justice will never be defeated and that together we can overcome all the obstacles and build a community of fairness and equity for all and i hope that this council joins me in voting yes on this resolution thank you thank you thank you thank you so much for those comments councillor bergman the floor is open if there are other counselors who wish to offer questions or comments on the resolution uh councillor shannon thank you president paul um i want to thank all of the union members who have come here at least twice now um and kind of informed us of what was going on which i would not have otherwise been aware of after you came at the last meeting and councillor bergman announced at at the council meeting that he was um planning to put forward a resolution uh i asked to be part of that because i really found what you shared with us profoundly concerning as somebody who uses hospital resources more than i would like to um has some track marks on my my arms from some very good phlebotomists it's stunning that um that that the wages that we are asking you to work for after decades of service in in some cases are what our local high school graduates are getting for working in a warehouse or mcdonald's or you know it's a real failure to recognize recognize um the skills and your tenure in these jobs so thank you councillor bergman for bringing this forward thank you for um being willing to work with everybody at the table i think there there was a lot of contributions to how this went forward and including um you know the the union i think that we don't want to inflame the situation um we really need we we are management in our union negotiations and we need to remember that but uh it is my hope that the management at the uvm medical center um will come forward and and recognize the same issues that everybody at this table is currently recognizing thank you thanks very much councillor shannon uh go to councillor hightower and then councillor mcgee i do see you we'll go to you next um also just want to thank all of the union members who came and presented both at the last council meeting and at this council meeting um just want to recognize that it takes a lot of courage and a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of emotion um that's in addition to your jobs um and that you're doing this not just for yourself but um for everyone else last time when folks spoke they spoke a lot to you um sometimes there were some of the more well off members so it also requires a lot of empathy to make sure everyone's doing well so just really appreciate the heart energy and time you're putting into this um to try to make the medical center a better place for everyone so thank you thank you very much count thank you very much councillor hightower we'll go to councillor we'll go to councillor mcgee thank you president paul i also want to echo my thanks to the union members who showed up i think we know that the hospital has chronically undervalued workers at every level and uh just to see uh massive organizing efforts that have happened at the hospital over the last several months uh from residents uh nurses who have been organized for some time and support staff uh i think it's long past time that the hospital uh pay workers what they're worth because everyone deserves a living wage everyone deserves safe working conditions and uh stability that's offered by good benefits so i'm just glad to support this tonight in solidarity with the support staff thank you thanks very much thank thank you very much councillor mcgee are there any other councillor grant thank you i agree with what my fellow councillors just said and i just wanted to throw out a couple of other educational points um what we have seen with uh the uvm medical center is a real denial of what it takes to survive in this city right now i was recently made aware um when i met with some constituents in the union about the housing at at market street how it's not really available to everyone based on the rules that they've put forth oh this is going to be available all full-time people in the following order well that order excludes a lot of you um it is basically set up for travelers and residents based on the fact that you can only have one year lease and then maybe a second year lease and you have to have all this criteria so it's not what what the medical center put forth for it to be oh we're helping with housing it's completely false so um i stand with you i stand with you strong i i the administration at the hospital everyone knows is very top-heavy their inability to you know a lot of them don't live in burlington or if they live in burlington they don't live where we live right you know i'm in the historic north end and they don't understand what affordable housing is not low-cost housing right and even if someone lives somewhere that's affordable the way things are going right now with rent eviction right we're seeing people being told not 100 or 50 we're seeing people told oh you're going up $500 $600 so it's this um this lack of empathy this lack of empathy the lack of understanding that the chronic turnover that exists is not healthy for anyone and no one should have to be in a position where they're working 15 hour days and they have the expectation that overtime is what's going to make their bills but we're not 15 hour days 15 15 hour days because your management can't do your job um and other things so i could go on for a while but i won't i will leave it there i just want to say i fully support you be strong i know a lot of you continue to work with the hospital because you love each other and you've got each other's backs and the relationships that your former very very important to you but um that can only go so far thank you thank you thank you councillor grant are there any other councillors who wish to speak to this resolution seeing none we will go to a vote uh all those in favor of the motion to waive the reading and adopt the resolution please say aye aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously and just and and just for thank you thank you and and just for the record that was eight the eight in favor um two that are absent and then two that are recused that will move us on to the next item on our agenda which is 6.6 a communication heather ross she he for a long beam um regarding a financial review of expenditures by racial equity inclusion and belonging department in fiscal years 21 and 2021 and 2022 um for the benefit of the of the of the public that is watching um this is something that councillors are well aware of but for everyone else's benefit last week a request was made um of the full city council that any questions that might require additional research or information from attorney ross would be sent to the city attorney's office prior to the report being posted online on thursday um before we open up the floor to comments or additional questions from the council um it's my understanding that ceo shad you have the questions that have been asked um and uh if you could speak to i'm not sure what format you wanted if you want to just ask the tell us what the questions were and then give us the answers to those questions and then we'll and then we'll move on from there absolutely thank you president paul um we did ask for questions in advance as much as possible and so i will just quickly go through uh the questions that were asked um i have sent answers back to each individual uh councillor who asked them but for the benefit of everyone uh we want to report out on them here um the first question was on page three of the report in a footnote i noticed melo grant appears as a juneteenth musician as a person paid by the department would this create a conflict of interest in reviewing the report if so has melo been informed of this conflict of interest our answer was under the conflict of interest provision of our city charter the city's conflict of interest policy provides that no city officer shall participate in any fashion or cast a vote on any matter in which either a direct or indirect conflict of interest is present nor shall a city officer participate or vote in any question in which participation or vote would reasonably create in the mind of an objective person the appearance of a direct or indirect conflict of interest it goes on um and i won't read all of it but um the city attorney's office has discussed the charter provision with councillor grant and under the charter it is up to the councillor to disclose any conflict of interest should their should they feel there is such a conflict or for the council to make that determination um by a two-thirds vote the second question says the first sentence of paragraph three on page two says the report may contain confidential information is this report public or confidential the answer is that language is simply boilerplate language and included to help protect the law firm that created it the administration has reviewed to ensure everything in the report can be released publicly question three on page two there are businesses listed in the footnote as not registered to do business in vermont however many of these businesses are familiar to us examples hannahford hotel vermont etc um and my response was it appears this councillor could have misread the footnote on the page because the it says these vendors are not included and were not subject to the secretary of state search because they are well known entities the next question is also um just a clarification it says on page three in the footnote andrew champagne is listed as a musician to my knowledge he is not a musician um our answer was this was an error as andrew was hired alongside musicians and entertainment as part of a slate andrew was hired to register voters next question on page eight the report references an invitation only black tie event at hula on june 17th 2022 to honor members of the black community do we know the cost of the event who was invited what were they asked to pay and what was the criteria for the invitation the response was this was not specifically reviewed in the assignment it was out of scope the next question was noble jewels was paid $50,000 for culture ology what is that and do we have more details i provided to the councillor who asked the request um that was made by the reib to the board of finance in september 2021 for this work that memo described uh cultural transformation and included a culture gap analysis community assessment and creating a strategy and action plan next question kasha ram was paid $1,000 to speak at what for how long and was there a precedent for paying a local politician to speak i've responded she spoke at juneteenth f y 22 event and it is not clear how long she spoke and if there was precedent as that was outside the scope there were two questions that relied on a copy and paste and the copy and paste did not come through so i'm going to skip those the next question was how much did the report cost the report cost $41,000 the firm interviewed 10 current and former city employees and examined 77,000 emails and other documents please note that baker tilley which led the internal review in minneapolis was paid $175,000 for its work they interviewed 13 current and former city employees and examined 285,000 emails the next question i i'm sorry could you repeat those amounts again please sure um we paid $41,000 um and our report uh our investigation um interviewed 10 current former and current and former city employees and examined 77,000 emails and in minneapolis they were paid $175,000 interviewed 13 current and former city employees and examined 285,000 emails um i'm sorry could you repeat those amounts again please i think you've heard it i i so the total is $216,000 i just want to be very clear about this no we paid $41,000 we paid $41,000 and then minneapolis paid $175,000 the city of minneapolis for the report as a way of comparison did the contracting follow did the contracting follow procurement procedures and if yes what was that process yes it did we developed a scope of work and looked for a lawyer to take on the work we made calls and talked to three different lawyers three different law firms most firms did not have the expertise or availability to take on the work and the only one that responded positively was heather ross at she he furlong and beam heather has previous experience conducting these kinds of investigations was willing to offer a governmental discount on her firm's pricing and was not conflicted out of the work what steps are being taken to address the recommendations by the administration we are following up on each recommendation in the report and we'll report back on them to the board of finance and city council the clerk treasurer's office will take responsibilities for these efforts they include developing and implementing a process to make the board of finance aware of the juneteenth budget and any other large events for any other department well in advance of the event developing and holding annual reminder trainings regarding purchasing requirements strengthening our conflict of interest policy so that employees are required to disclose any actual or apparent conflict of interest not limiting it to immediate financial interests we will establish a robust fraud waste and abuse policy to ensure all employees are encouraged to report mismanagement or more serious conduct promptly so follow-up action can be taken we will establish a policy that sets forth when or to what extent out of town or out of state vendors are allowed to have lodging and travel expenses paid for by the city we will formalize requirements that all contractors must be registered to do business in vermont and we will document the requirement that contracts can only be executed by a person with the sufficient level of authority the next question was where is the budget amendment that increased the june 2022 budget from 100,000 to 180,000 i attached two different budget amendments in my response back the first amendment took $90,000 from the fy 21 fund balance for the reib department added it to the 2022 juneteenth budget and a second amendment took 10,000 from that 90,000 and took it for computers we have a question about we have some more questions is this how we want to continue there's about four or five more questions along the slide my apologies i'm sorry what did you say there's just about four or five more questions like this is this helpful you want me to continue if there are four and and they are able to be answered publicly then yes excellent i'm just feeling like i'm droning on here but um okay our 2023 budget reflects in the 2022 amended budget $720,000 for use of fund balance what is this this is money that was carried over from the original one million dollars obligated in fy 21 towards the fund for racial justice and as it is spent it is show it shows up in budget amendments our 2023 budget shows 68,000 in donations for special events but the report says we raised 103,000 dollars why is there a discrepancy did some of the money come in 2023 yes some of the money came in after the fy 23 budget closed if you look at the fy 24 reib proposed budget you will see the 103,000 dollars in donations special events under actuals the mayor's 2023 budget includes 1.2 million of CARES Act revenue for reib has that been received is it guaranteed this was ARPA money that was set aside for fy 23 for reib salaries it is only funded as it's incurred due to limited staffing for reib in fy 23 we funded the entire salary amount this is only about 740,000 dollars and not the full 1.2 million dollars anticipated there are a number of people listed as bca why is that i'm sorry president paul just point of information i think at this point this question rise the line of attorney client privilege and the counselor who asked the question would have to waive choose to waive that in terms of the formation of the advice that was given this specific question this specific question so why don't we go to the next question then i mean i is there accounting for juneteenth specifically can you show me accounting that adds up to 412,000 for the event yes we can meet up yes we can set up a time to meet and we can show this to you is exhibit 1a of the report intended to be a summary of all reib spending for fy 22 yes who are the recipients of the 25,000 of gift cards from city market and the 60,000 gift cards from hana ferds this was out of scope for the report but we can find out there was another question about noble jewels i've already answered that and then the last question if we were overcharged for goods received or paid for services we did not receive from vendors do we have any recourse this would be contract specific the city attorney's office would need to review the terms of the contract document to determine if there was a breach of contract and evaluate the strength of any possible claim the city may have towards recovering funds already paid thank you see a thank you see a oh shad um i will go to councilor hightower um i will not be making the motion on board docs instead i would move to not accept the memorandum financial review of expenditures by arib in fiscal years 21 and 22 but instead refer both of the materials posted under this as supporting documents today to the hr committee to consider a full public articulation of harm from mayor mero weinberger and the city of berlington to tayisha green kc lrb and their families for the continued defamation of character and warrant unwarranted actions taken through city processes like the audit itself and an apology of the same i also asked the hr or we also asked the hr committee to establish a process for independent evaluation and oversight of the hiring and retention policies and solutions employed by the city of berlington to combat anti-bop pack and gender-based discriminatory practices and i would like the floor back after a second second thank you seconded by council bergman before we go any further and before you have the floor back that is a long motion and something that we're going to need to have so that we can all see that do you have i i take it you are reading that um is that something that you can send to um to the clerk and i also do want to add that we do have councillor carpenter also joining us so we have councillor carpenter and councillor mickey who are joining us via zoom i've sent it to the clerk with copy to the city council i will start talking while you all review that um also during um the layers of the day and i apologize for the lateness that just didn't get done until this afternoon um there's also in the agenda packet a memorandum in response to the hr the ibra she before long and bmpc memorandum regarding financial review of expenditures by the reib committee um i'd like to read some of those and then go to my own comments um and i think some of this was stated in public forum but i think it's important to have a full summary um the first is that juneteenth 2021 was the city's first juneteenth and the only juneteenth that was managed and executed by former director taiya shagreen there was no mismanagement found of the 2021 juneteenth event in this review or in any other accusations anything there was never any issue with anything juneteenth 2021 um as a matter of fact it was under budget and one of the city's largest events of the year was well attended well celebrated had more private funds going into it than city funds it was by all all measures a great success there is no reason why director green should have been the focus of a 2022 juneteenth event review when she gave notice in february 2022 the event was on track as with june 2021 vendors had not been hired and the theme had not been selected no financial commitments had been made if there was any financial mismanagement of the 2022 event it happened after the departure of director green the review was focused on whether or not abuse waste or fraud occurred the review did not find any such mismanagement for 2021 or 2022 the problem with the memorandum is it creates the appearance of mismanagement by former director green throughout especially surrounding juneteenth 2022 the report continually seems to accuse the former director without providing support or analysis for these accusations or even concluding mismanagement on director greensparce casting doubt on the fairness of its focus with regard to mrs green yet the media and certain members of the council took it upon themselves to still associate director green directly with mismanagement of the 22 event and again the memo itself did some speculation of this in ways that i'll cover later given both the findings of this review in the conclusion section of the whole rest of it and the reason to review the issues raised around the management of june 20 juneteenth 2022 appeared to be emblematic of a citywide culture and the lack of clarity and enforcement around city policies specifically going back to the tiff review we note that their concerns was that much of the the audit showed years of sloppy record keeping and financial mismanagement while noting that burlington has made millions of dollars of mistakes much of this was attributed to poor record keeping key staff turnover and slow adoption of strata strategies recommended by the city's own auditors we know reib also had tremendous staff turnover right around the time of taijus to departure because several of her staff also left when she resigned this review was based on an accusation of some thing happening somewhere else an accusation that was never substantiated and this review found no mismanagement attributable attributable to former director green meanwhile we have documented instances of other department heads in burlington violating practices and mismanaging city resources yet former director green is the only department head to be publicly reviewed in this way we invite the administration to strongly consider a potential bias in their response if people would like to review the memorandum itself it provides all of the evidence much of it from the audit the review the financial review itself some of the other folks some of the other issues that the city has had is retroactive approval of a five-year four hundred thousand dollar contract signed by another director which they did not have authority to sign which was in a someone who had much more experience and was at the with the city much longer than taijusha green we've had a we've had a complaint that went to the city of a director using city resources for personal use without documenting if it was for work or for personal use and the mayor recommended that that person be removed and we still didn't do an audit a public audit of this is this way on that person in january of this year we had a incident and with the burlington police department where we know that there was a contract signed with a private hoa after refusing calls for service and citing staff shortages and there was no action done other than just asking if anything else was amiss within the department and in 2016 peter owens left his position from the city of burlington which was the cito director directly related to housing and being a good faith leaders on between landlords and tenants after and then resigned early in response to an illegal and inhumane eviction in san francisco again another event that happened outside of the city of burlington but related and nothing was done we're not saying that the reaction for other directors should have been more punitive or stronger but it does feel notable that the accusations against former director green and the response to them seem disproportionate it feels very similar to the mayor's removal of former director green as manager of the cna contract which he later apologized for noting the decision was wrong and revealed my own bias i'm going to keep going i know i'm taking up a lot of time but i less i'm usually a very short-winded counselor so today i think is the day to take up the space for two years i worked very hard with the mayor to try to convince him to make the right decisions and i don't think i was ever successful when i joined the city council i consider him an acquaintance if not a friend he was the only burlington mayoral candidate i've had ever voted for i've been hours of work my first two years of council to make to try to make the mayor see the issues and move towards racial justice on every single decision even on decisions where he said he would find a way to follow my advice he ultimately rejected it the cna report is an excellent example of this i asked the mayor to not remove tayusha from the cn report and that is viewpoint that the b director was more qualified and less biased than tayusha was problematic it fell on dust's ears for those of you who follow this you know that was one of the few things that made it to the public eye and maybe the only one that the mayor apologized for and that's why it's important to believe black women because it shouldn't have to take an outcry for someone to do what is right i can't trust what you say because i can see what you do james baldwin i do not know what is in the mayor's heart of hearts and honestly to me that's not what defines racism what defines racism is if and how actions systemically negatively impact by poc people and on every decision i've watched the mayor make he's chosen the one that negatively impacts by poc people and this is another example as a black woman i know what it's like to have to be above reproach our mayor does not know what that's like he can keep the knowledge of department heads trolling activists online with fake social media counts a secret and still win elections he can fund his friends non-profits he can publicly be racist and still be elective can't counter high tower i am really sorry karen but i'm gonna have to finish this it is all relevant i promise some of us don't have that advantage we have to be above reproach because whatever said about us to or not it sticks and it closes the few doors that are open for us this report was incredibly muddy and unclear but if you go through all of it the vague accusations and attacks against teyesha green in a jersey lrb you will find no wrong doing no fraud no mismanagement no disruptive city policies that doesn't stop the media from running headlines showing teyesha's face next to the high line claiming mismanagement that doesn't stop some people at this table from getting in front of a camera and saying otherwise teyesha green did nothing during our time here that deserves any level scrutiny the reason this is in front of us today is because her relationship with the major much like mine eroded when her comments went from advice to just pointing out the inherent and systemic racism in the mayor's decisions another problematic thing that we've seen in other things that i'm worried happened in this report is the mayor getting involved in the actual content of the reports he did this with the cna report which he had to do publicly giving that teyesha was managing it i had a really hard time reading this report as a a objective document for example on page nine it says there were multiple times when mrs green was made aware of the city's purchasing policy which specifically references sole source contracts the chief administrative officer provided miss green with a copy of the city's purchasing policy early in her employment that seems like a stretch when we asked miss where miss lrb stayed during the june 2022 and whether in her opinion it would have been appropriate for the city to pay for miss lrb's hotel given that she was a city employee miss green stated that she did not know where's miss lrb stayed she then stated she believed that miss lrb stayed with dr jackie teyesha green was not an employee of the city of berlington in june 2022 her opinion on where people should have stayed or not stayed is quite frankly irrelevant and i feel like this report is doing a weird trying to gotcha moments throughout this whole thing another thing write the paragraph below when asked about the contract for which the vermont professionals of color network and more specifically the vermont health equity initiative was the sub-recipient of a substantial american rescue plan act fund miss green stated that she was not familiar with that contract when read an email on which she was copied describing the services of the contract including that it was for ongoing vaccination support through community partners miss green stated sounded like a good idea that she did not have any involvement with it being copied on an email as a director of a department does not mean you know the content of every email that you've gotten furthermore the report then goes on to say that she had no decision making authority and who the contract was awarded to anyway so why is she being questioned on this why is that even in the report i am almost done i'm really sorry but again i feel like this is one of the few times that i've actually taken up space to talk on something and i think this is important because another decision that the mayor made and let me be clear this was not a mistake this is a tactic he commonly uses he made sure to only release the memo to the council as a confidential document so that we can't talk about it he made sure that the two subjects of the review didn't have it so they couldn't talk about it he sent it to the media along so that he could control the narrative in this way he silenced the voice of taisha the voice of jersey my voice to ensure there would be a narrative that taisha was somehow the cause of any mistakes made in 2022 but the mistakes made in 2022 are systemic and they are always for the same reason and we're highlighting the tiff audit a few months ago i already read that section channel three asked me today why i stand behind this memo and why i'm standing up because taisha could be me taisha has been me speaking the truth privately so as not to undermine wide fragility and moving on means her former buster did which hunt over a year later so that every time her name is googled the word fraud comes up some of us at this table may feel like we know what it's like to be taisha i've received death threats i've received death threats and letters to my home a lot of us at this table have been threatened in really problematic ways including the mayor the difference is we got those based on our actions based on our votes based on our words taisha green got it based on who she is in false accusations against her she didn't choose this path and that is really worlds apart so i think this um i think that the i thanks for letting me speak this whole time i realize i'm out of line but i appreciate getting the time you know what this is not the night to to silent the voices of black women so you're not out of line mr mayor you need to apologize for how you handled this you need to apologize for running taisha out of the city government you need to apologize for decimating the reib department and if you can't do that burlington can heal until you're just a menomery jones you lied on the news you personally own taisha in the apology i'll leave it there thank you before before we continue with the motion um and i see you councilor grant just a moment um i believe the city uh city attracting city attorney pelerin has um some comments on the on the on the motion president paul i i would just caution the city council that um this the body there's advice that of of the city attorney's office that could be provided to them of course if they would consider it an executive session on the motion at hand and how how best to move forward out of um concern for the legality of of moving forward with the motion as written so my my understanding of that is what you are saying is that before just want to make sure i understand before we would go any further with this motion that you would encourage us to either make a make motions to go into executive session to receive legal advice on the motion or that that is correct that is my advice to the body i i would recommend that point of information yes councilor hightower if i please please let us do this please if i change the motion to breed continued alleged defamation will that be sufficient or would you still advise us to go into executive session i do you want do you want to feel free maybe want to be able to discuss this so that we can come back with a motion that we might be able to vote on yes if we may if we may have a minute of recess for me to discuss that with councilor hightower under attorney client then i would appreciate that thank you is that okay with you councilor hightower great we will uh is now 938 we will recess for five minutes we're going to reconvene the meeting at 949 if councils could take their seats okay thank you and uh again we're recon we are reconvening um we are reconvening the meeting um and we also have councilor we still have councilor McGee and councilor carpenter joining us via zoom uh councilor hightower did you want to amend your motion and then send send that to us but you can certainly read it first i've just sent it um to the clerk and the city council um i would move to i would like to amend my motion to move to refer the materials posted under this item as supporting documents to the HR committee to consider the full impact of this report on our city taisha green kc lrb and their families we further refer these materials to the HR committee to establish a process for independent evaluation oversight of the hiring and retention policies and solutions employed by the city of berlington to combat anti-bipoc and gender-based discriminatory practices thank you thank you councilor hightower um uh city attorney pelerin i just want to make sure that i'm doing this correctly there was a motion on the floor it had been seconded um and and the maker is now amending and no one had we have not vote we did not vote on that nor did we discuss it so um the maker is now amending their motion is that permissible yes we just need a second i believe president paul okay so seconded by councilor bergman um councilor hightower do you wish to have the floor back or can we move on to others we can move on okay thank you um are there any councilors who wish to speak to the motion before us seeing none and i'm just looking up on the on the screen uh to councilor mcgee or councilor carpenter i don't see their hands up either given that we can then go to a vote um all those in favor of the motion as made by councilor hightower and seconded by councilor bergman please say aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously and that will close out that agenda item we will then move on to item number six point six point seven which is a communication jared pelerin acting city attorney on the redistricting rollout and for this item i will return back to attorney pelerin if you could just give us a brief overview of the memo and then we will go to the council if there are any questions of course thank you president paul and good evening councillors again um so cao shad myself and other members of the city team have been working alongside the mayor's office as well on implement how does the recent charter change to redistrict the city of berlington affect tau meeting day going forward in our elections and as you'll see in the memo that we've provided to the council this evening we're lucky this time around things pretty much stay status quo for us and we because of the good work of the city council and the administration of keeping the eight wards four district scheme we will have all of the ward councillors coming up for election as they would in 2024 along with the mayor's seat and the school commissioners who are elected as the ward city councillors are elected so there is no real change to that luckily and then the four district councillors will remain in their seat and represent the districts that they were elected because they are still legal resident voters of the district who reside in the district the boundary did not displace any of them of the 50 some odd seats that elected seats that we have in the city of berlington of those eight were technically displaced because the boundary line moved and elected out of their ward or district and in those cases four of the electeds would actually be up for reelection anyways so we don't consider them truly displaced but the there are four who unfortunately will no longer reside in the district or ward that they were elected to represent and being that part of the qualification for being elected is that you are a resident of that ward or district they will have to step down from their seat and a run and that seat will be up for election at town meeting day 2024 and the city council will have as they do under their authority the opportunity to appoint acting election officials and in that as you'll see in the memorandum I did list where those wards are affected and which specific positions and we have the city clerk's office as long as city attorney's office are working to communicate with those four that have been affected by the boundary redraw and for some of them there will also be the opportunity in their new district award to run for the same position that they have been displaced out of their previous ward or district so that's a long way of saying that for the most part everything is is pretty status quo and in terms of town meeting day 2024 okay thank you very much are there any counselors wishing to speak on this communication or have any questions so then I guess we'll just need a motion um councillor dory may perhaps you could make that uh recommended motion thank you president paul I uh moved to waive the reading except the motion place it or accept the memo and place it in the file thank you councillor dory seconded by councillor travers is there any discussion on that motion seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously and that will bring us that is brings us to the end of our deliberative agenda we do still have the meeting the meeting that we have not gotten to yet that we do need to attend to tonight which is the city council with mayor presiding so at 9 56 I will recess the city council meeting and hand the gavel to mayor weinberger thank you thank you president paul give me just one moment we'll get that agenda open so I would like to call in to order the city council with mayor presiding at 9 57 p.m and would welcome motion on the agenda move to adopt the agenda uh was that um second commission dory second by oh sorry councillor travers seconded by president paul any discussion of the agenda seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye any opposed motion carries unanimously that brings us to the consent agenda move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated second thank you both any discussion of the consent agenda seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed the consent agenda passes unanimously and that brings us to um four uh board and commission appointments the first one is a conservation uh board appointment for the term expiring june 30th 2027 the floor is open for nominations councillor barlow I'd like to nominate pauline swiss locky thank you are there any additional nominations are there any additional nominations seeing none we will close the floor nominations um I don't believe is are any of the candidates on uh online present paul just a moment that I not that I can see no okay um thank you uh any discussion of the nomination seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor of appointing pauline swiss locky please say aye aye any opposed the motion carries unanimously congratulations pauline if you're watching uh thank you for your interest in serving um next we'll go to the developer reboard full position term expiring june 30th 2026 the floor is open for nominations councillor barlow I nominate leo sprenzen thank you are there any other nominations any other nominations seeing none um we'll close close the floor nominations is there any discussion of and I'm assuming we don't have anyone with us online um any discussion of the appointment seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed the motion carries unanimously um okay I just uh consulted with our new busy deputy city attorney um and um we have a situation with the next appointment where um the only application we've received is for romeo von herman who we appointed earlier tonight to the um the tertiary marketplace commission so councillor paul thank you um I would make a motion that we re-avertize okay um I unless you can serve on two we weren't 100 sure I'm feeling like I remember something that you can't serve on two um we were either going to suggest that or that we postpone postpone until september but um maybe re-avertizing would be prudent we don't even know if I'm not sure mr. von herman would be interested in serving both perhaps we need to find out the answer to that question before we go and re-avertize we do have someone who is very interested in serving and if they can serve on two they they he might well do that but he is he is joining us online if you wanted to if we wanted to ask him I think that yes councillor councillor paul our president paul excuse me I I admittedly don't know the answer to this question right off the top of my head and so I would suggest tabling this to the september meeting um in order to give time to do the appropriate research because I think it would be only fair to the applicant that if they are permitted to serve on two that they be considered um since they have applied at this point so then I would make a motion to postpone to the september 11th meeting sorry one quick thought I have on that is perhaps the motion could include the possibility that if if the charter as I think it says that that is not possibility that we then have the authority to go ahead and re-avertize instead of losing a month and point of information charter section 131 says that no member of a commission provided for in this charter shall be eligible to serve as a member of any other such a commission comma except that a planning commissioner may be a member of a development review board so I think the charter is clear and that's the advice from your former assistant city senior assistant city attorney thank you councillor bergman I appreciate that and then are we saying that the motion should really go back to the original one which is a motion to average to re-avertize yes yes all right then I would make the motion that we re-avertize the position any discussion of the motion seeing none let's go to a vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries unanimously all right the final appointment is for the board of registration of voters for a term expiring June 30th 2028 are are there any nominations floors open for nominations council bergman I would nominate olga bravo who has some very good experience and also has in terms of life experience the fact that she lived in chile in the 1970s means I think she has a serious interest in maintaining democracy thank you council bergman are there any other nominations are there any other nominations seeing none I will close the floor to nominations and is there any other discussion of the appointment of olga bravo seeing none let's go to the vote all those in favor of the appointment of olga bravo please say aye is there anyone opposed the nomination is the appointment is approved unanimously and thank you olga for your interest I want to thank and good luck and that important role I want to say thank you to everyone who applied this round and encourage people who are not successful with appointing their appointment this time to consider applying again in the future as many of our commissioners that is the route they've taken to getting on the board with that at 10.05 if there's no objection we are adjourned as a city council that may are presiding as there's no further business thank you mayor Weinberger so we will reconvene the recess meeting of the city council at 10.05 we have just a few items left to complete our agenda the first is item seven which is committee reports are there counselors who wish to offer a committee report council barlow thank you president paul tuke is meeting tomorrow night Tuesday at 5 p.m at the burlington electric department 585 pine street to continue deliberation and hopefully conclude them on the carbon pollution impact fee ordinance before that ordinance makes its way on to the ordinance committee tuke is also meeting for our regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday the 22nd at 5 p.m at 645 pine street the agenda is still being set but we will have the airport staff there to address suggestions for new ordinance to control noise and fuel efficiency standards at the airport thank you so much counselor barlow are there any other uh committee committee reports anyone who wishes to offer a committee report counselor bergman so your your joint um charter change and ordinance committee on oversight has met a few times i think that we are needing to um to set new new meetings and i i know that um i got a message and i don't mean to embarrass anybody when i say that uh counselors travers uh shannon and carpenter uh would it would be greatly appreciated about the uh the doodle pole um which has been out there for a while so that we can set up a another meeting but we're really looking to um uh to have a discussion on the um on people's different paths forward and i think we've settled that uh we need to uh to put those in front of us and see where um we can get consensus where we can get majority and uh where we can move and so that is really what the next step is going to be trying to uh lay out the the various paths that people think would be appropriate and then test those uh in the uh in the committee thank you thanks counselor bergman uh any other committee reports before we move uh counselor travers uh i would just add thank you for that great report uh co-chair bergman um i will say that i think one of the voices to be heard on steps forward is uh the police commission in this process and i know that they are also well this is not really a committee report as much as it's a commission report on their behalf i know they are also continuing to review and um hoping to provide more formal answers to our joint committee on the direction that the current iteration of the police commission would like to go in um the doodle poll referenced by counsel bergman rightfully so is also a poll that we'll hope to use on the ordinance committee for uh scheduling our next standalone meeting uh there are a couple matters that uh will be pending before the ordinance committee including uh the um graffiti and stickering ordinance that the council passed is pending before the ordinance committee for review um as well as uh once the tooke is done with their review of the carbon pollution impact fee ordinance it will be forwarded to the ordinance committee for their review as well thank you thanks counselor uh travers uh i will add one uh other committee report the public safety committee will be reading on august 17th um we're going to be doing it remotely only at 6 p.m uh we're going to continue among other items going to continue our discussion about drug activity and neighborhoods as well as uh the possible establishment establishment or um organizing forums to talk about drug activity um with various constituencies um if there are no other committee reports uh we will move on to item number eight which is city council general city affairs are there any counselors who wish to offer comments on general city affairs counselor high tower um i just want to note the passing of um i knew him as omar from kismayo kitchen um last week i think we lost a really valued member of the community and just want to recognize him and how much he did for the community thank you counselor high tower are there any other counselors who have any comments on general city affairs uh thank you counselor grant um there really wasn't a place to put this so i'm choosing this moment i'll be quick i um had a couple of comments that we need to be really careful about how we make decisions in the city when we look at other places and what they're doing we have to understand have an understanding of what's what's going on there um the city of minneapolis had a truth and reconciliation committee and uh those committee members after facing exhaustion gas lighting etc left city council and the mayor have declared racism as a public health emergency well what has come of that how has that been operationalized it hasn't sound familiar right um 75 current and former city staff signed a letter criticizing racist toxic work culture of the city of minneapolis and then the uh previous director before tayisha green started working in in minneapolis wrote an op ed eviscerating the city for their lack of support the fact that they only cared about optics and not making real change it's a very interesting read i'll forward it to the city counselors i'll forward it to the mayor and then lastly the city not just the police department but the city the police department under consent degree uh from the department of justice so we have to pay attention to what's going on in other places and make really smart decisions do we want to take leads from them um i think we made a mistake there i think what they've done based on how they've treated people that are trying to make change and we all know what happened in minneapolis and it's systemic and it's been going on for a while and why are we we listening to them given their history i think we also have to be very careful that we don't provide red meat for racist in our country you know this vermont digger article was shared on twitter by a maga extremist it has caused great harm to individuals um name calling death threats and and this is what's going on about burlington and every time i read the comments and i see taiishu's name that's my name i see uh insulting dei programs i see myself i see my family i see my nieces i see my mother my aunts i see all my family you know when they talk about camilla and an ipad taris and things like that this is what we have opened up this is our contribution we did that and we have to do better and the last thing i will say i was really struck by the comment about how we have to keep harm from public the public eye because i've been in that position i've taken a lot of hits when i served on the police commission because i was trying to bring truth to power to some very unfortunate things that are happening here in our city and you have to be mindful of how you present yourself because the attitude very much is how dare you right you're difficult you can't be reasoned with i think we need to think more about these things the people that were here tonight are not the only ones affected they made the time to be here some people couldn't i think that we we say we're going to do a lot of things but we don't act on it and that only makes things worse like what is really truly getting better and i hope that we all support the current director of the reib department because she's feeling this too and i don't think that's right thank you thank you councillor grant if there are no other councillors who have comments on general city affairs that will move us to item nine which is council president updates i have no updates at this time i figure you all hear from me plenty and we'll be in touch with you in september as we get closer to the next meeting that will move us to item 10 which is updates from the mayor mayor maro wine mayor wine burger at the floor is yours thank you president paul i just have one update the public and councillors may have seen the report that we released last week that we already in the month of august have exceeded the overdose city overdose responses for all of 2022 and um given that given uh the ongoing challenge and the ongoing work that's needed uh in this area i just want to make sure everyone's aware that august 31st is international overdose awareness day and uh it will be in city hall park there was an earlier plan for it to be a mom failure but um that uh it has has changed and you can find more information online thank you president paul thank you so much mayor wine burger uh that brings us to the end of our agenda and uh i would ask for a motion to adjourn uh thank you councillor bergman seconded by councillor travers uh all those in favor of the motion to adjourn please say i i any opposed please say no we are adjourned um thank you so much for joining us this evening our next meeting is monday september 11th uh and we will look forward to seeing you then have a good evening