 Hello and welcome to Channel 17's Town-Meeting Television and another in our 2019 live candidate forums. On today's show, City Council candidates for our central district. I'm pleased to be sharing the stage tonight with incumbent Jane Nodell running as an independent. We have Democrat Jared Carter and also progressive Perry Freeman. I want to make sure I got that right. Here to share the stage with each of you, thank you for your willingness to serve our great city and for your continued service. Our forum begins with 60-second opening candidate statements followed by a round robin question and answer forum. This is an opportunity for you, our viewers, to dial in and ask questions of our candidates themselves. That number is 862-3966. And now on to our opening statements from our candidates. Ladies first, Jane Nodell will begin with you. Thank you very much, Matt. And thanks to Channel 17 for hosting the forum. Good to see you guys. We're fresh off of last night's NPA, so we're all warmed up. So I'm running because I'm really not done fighting for the issues that I believe in. And I believe I have qualifications for this position based on my 20 years of service as a city councilor since 1993. If I'm re-electioned, my top three priorities will be, first, continuing to build the third sector social housing model of housing, which provides permanently affordable housing to people on very low and moderate incomes. That's essential for if our future city is going to be really inclusive. Secondly, securing the future of community organizations that serve our seniors, our new Americans, and our families and youth. And finally, to find alternatives to the property tax so that we can maintain a high level of public services without pricing low and moderate people out of the city of Burlington. Very good. Perry Freeman, your opening statement, please. Sure. Yeah. Thank you all again, folks, for being here tonight. And thanks to folks tuning in. My name's Perry Freeman. I'm running as the Progressive Candidate. And I'm running because I believe strongly in the values of equity, of fairness, and that everyone deserves a seat at the table. And the reality is that we have what's really a rigged economy. We are in the midst of, unfortunately, a global climate crisis. And we have a government that's not really fair or representing the people and their needs. So as a city councilor, I would like to bring urgency and priority to climate action, to fair wages and fair housing, and to what would be an open, transparent democracy that really acknowledges public process and public input. So I'm excited to be here tonight and to really hear from folks what their needs are and how I can ensure that their voices and the voices of all our neighbors are represented and heard in City Hall. Very good. Jared Carter, your 60-second open statement, please. Great. Thanks, Matt. Thanks to both of you for being here. I'm glad you're feeling fresh. It was a late night for me. But I am glad to be here and have the opportunity to share the stage and chat with folks. My name is Jared Carter, and I'm running, obviously, for Central District as a Democrat. I'm the father of two young children. In fact, I left movie night at Sustainability Academy. They were watching Hotel Transylvania III and came down here for this. So I'm thrilled to be here. I'm running because Burlington needs to lead. And I think we've lost some bounce in our step in recent years. And my basic platform is actually quite simple. It's this idea that Burlington leads when we do two important things. Number one, we invest in people, not out of state corporations, not development projects that are too big to fail. And number two, that we protect public assets and public spaces. We've invested too much in Burlington Telecom and our downtown to give up those public assets. The Democratic control that comes with them, we simply cannot afford to sell those off to the highest bidder. And that's very important to me and I think very important to the future of this great city. Very good. It's time now to go to our round robin question and answer period. We've got a phone tree lit up. We'll try to get to all our callers, questions. We'll go right now. Collar, you're live on the air with the Central District City Council candidates. Do you have a question for our candidates? Hi. My question is about policing. Do you support community policing and patrols in the old North End? Very good. Perry Freeman, we'll begin with you with that question. Sure. So, yeah, policing and unfair policing and police brutality is a huge issue. I have heard about the concept of community policing and wanted to do some research into it to really understand whether that would be something that would benefit folks, especially people who are typically marginalized or targeted by unfair policing, so folks who are experiencing maybe homelessness or mental health issues, people of color. And what I've read and really understood is that it doesn't really reduce unfair policing practices. And so as a frontline strategy, I don't think it is an ideal strategy, and potentially as well, foot patrol is not an ideal strategy. So something that I've been interested in is the Citizen Oversight Review Board. I know that there's been some momentum in the city to bring that as a strategy to deal with unfair policing practices. And I think that that sort of lost momentum, and as a city councilor, I would really like to revisit that and bring urgency to that as a solution. A 60-second response to Jared Carter about community policing, foot patrols, et cetera, in the old North End? Absolutely. We need more foot patrols. We need more community policing. I greatly appreciate when law enforcement comes by in the summer and knocks on my door and leaves a flyer or introduces themselves to me. I think that's just critical. I think historically that's what policing has been. I am very concerned, though, when I see us moving towards a police force that often looks more like a paramilitary force. And so the community piece being at the door, knocking on the door, meeting people, I think that's critical. Police have a hard job to do. That being said, I don't think there's anybody at this table that's worked as hard to make sure that law enforcement isn't accountable as a civil rights attorney, as a constitutional rights attorney, have dedicated my life to that. And so I think that's equally as important. Okay. Jane O'Dell, your thoughts on community policing in the old North End and foot patrol? Yes. Thanks, Matt. Picking up on Jared, I think there's no one at the table who's worked as hard as I have to get community policing and foot patrols in the old North End. The summer that Chief Del Poso came to Burlington, we had something very close to a drive-by shooting on North Street. And innocent bystanders were almost caught up in that violence. I organized with counselor Moore a large community meeting at Sustainability Academy where we told the chief, there are many, many people in the room, very diverse room, that this is not okay, that we want to take North Street back for the whole community. And it was not a safe space. And after that, the city did, significantly, it cost money. We had to increase funding for the police. But what I hear from constituents is they are very happy to see the foot patrols to form relationships with the police. The police are also exploring alternatives to force. And I think that they would want everyone to understand that they use C-Force as a last resort option. Okay. We're going to move right on. The phone tree is lighting up. Caller, you're live on the air with East District or rather Central District candidates. Do you have a question for them? Caller? We'll move right on to our next Caller here. Caller, you're live on the air with candidates from the Central District. Do you have a question for our candidates? Caller? We'll move on to our next one. If you happen to be disconnected, please dial back and we'll try to get to your question. Caller, you're live on the air here with candidates from the Central District for City Council. What's your question? Hello? Hi. Yes. I'm talking to you. Do you have a question for your City Council candidates? I'd like to ask a question for all the candidates about their understanding of the municipal tax rate. What is the municipal tax rate and how in your understanding does this impact people's lives? Okay. Municipal tax rate. Jared, that begins with you. Yeah. Well, I think the municipal tax rate obviously has a huge impact on people's lives. I think particularly the working people, the young people that are trying to make a go of it in the old North End, the new American families that I see moving in and really making the community vibrant. And so I think we do need to look for alternatives to increasing the municipal tax rate. And I think one of the places that we can look is to those community members among us who can afford to pay a bit more. I think we can look at ways to increase taxes on luxury items, luxury cars perhaps, some services. I'm a lawyer. I know lawyers charge a lot of money. I think there's ways we could tax that service. And I think that would impact only the highest earners and those that are most able to pay. And I think we could deal with the increasing municipal tax rate that way. And that would in turn I think really help those among us who are the working people, the young people, the new Americans who we really need to be investing in. So I'm just going to ask a follow-up question on that. Do you then support the general city tax rate increase that will be on the Burlington City ballot? No, I don't. I don't think that's a wise approach for us to take as I think, as I said, I think when we bring people together as a community, there's no problem we can't solve. I think that's the common creed. And so my advice would be to look elsewhere for those funds. Obviously, we need to fund vital city services, but I think we can be creative. I think we can find ways to not impact the working people, the elderly, the young folks that are trying to make a go of it despite the fact that they're drowning under student loan debt. Jane O'Dell, your thoughts on the Burlington City tax rate? Yes, so the question was, what is the tax rate? Right. The overall municipal tax rate is 83.5 cents per $100 of assessed value. Within that, that tax is broken down into different component parts. The question two relates to the general city tax rate versus dedicated taxes for streets, police and fire and so forth. That tax is 25.6 cents, and the question on the ballot would increase the maximum that tax by 1.25 cents, which is a very small percentage increase. I'm on the board of finance in early January. We saw a budget gap that would have required a 5 cent tax increase. And I was one of the voices that said that we need to bring that tax rate down. We need a much smaller tax, and we found creative ways to get the tax rate down. I couldn't, I'm supporting this because I couldn't identify anything I was prepared to cut in order to eliminate any tax rate increase at all. However, we are committed, the board of finance is committed, and I hope I'll be there to help work on this, that if we don't need all of the 1.25 cent additional taxing authority, we won't use it. So we're going to keep working. Perry Freeman, your thoughts then on the city tax rate and the ballot item, etc., as the call are initiated. Yeah, so I do support the ballot item. Frankly, we are just overdue to have an increase. It's been quite a while. So this increase allows us to have a sort of a general level of revenue when we do have these larger capital expenditures. It's a smart governance practice overall. Unfortunately, across the board, taxes in general, and I think some of the folks have mentioned this, but do overly burden middle and lower income folks. And I think as a progressive and as someone who wants to support working and low income folks, we do have to find ways to not create taxes that are unfair, that are regressive, and ultimately place more of a burden on folks who are already struggling to make ends meet. And so as someone who would be building out policy, that would be the lens that I would bring. Very good. We're moving right on to another question from our viewing audience. Coller, you're live on the air with city council candidates for the east district or central district. I don't know why he keeps saying east. I apologize. Central district. Do you have a question for our candidates? Hello. I proposed this question in the past and I'll propose it again. Recent news broke that a city council candidate has a history of tweeting sexist and violent comments about women. This candidate has not pulled out of the race and the organization writes a democracy and the progressive party have not pulled their endorsement. Perry, you received the endorsement of both of these groups as well. What do each of you think about the situation? Perry, I'd like to hear from you first. Thank you very much. Okay. The question was regarding Mohammed Jafar's tweets that were misogynistic nature in general. Again, just to the collars question, Mohammed has addressed those comments specifically on his city council race. You are encouraged to go back to the south district race and watch his individual response. But your response to the question, Perry, from Mohammed Jafar, the racist tweets. I want to echo what I pretty much already said in public comment in VT Digger, which is that this is immediately a reminder that we need to have, you know, in Vermont we don't have mandatory affirmative consent laws and we don't have mandatory consensual sex education and sexual health education in our schools. And so this is an immediate reminder that that policy needs to be on the forefront either right here in Burlington or across the state. You know, I think with that said, there, you know, I made a comment that I am also concerned that we do hold men of color to a different standard than we hold white men in this community and that when it comes to misogyny. And that is a concern that I really feel strongly about with, you know, regardless, the tweets are incredibly misogynistic. Violence and promoting violence against women can absolutely not be tolerated. It is never okay. I've seen this impact my life, you know, misogyny impacts my life personally and I would say, you know, every single sort of person in my life as well. So that's, in terms of rights and democracy in the Progressive Party, my understanding is that those groups have not actually met because those are, you know, they have their steering committees and they have their, you know, rights and democracy, for example, as member led, volunteer led. So those groups need to meet to make their decisions and I'm not part of that decision. So I'll wait to see what they decide. Jane Nodell will bring the question to you regarding Mohammed Jafar's tweets and the impact. Yes, I mean, I'm happy that Mr. Jafar has, you know, taken personal responsibility. I think that's essential. Yes, there is, of course, institutionalized sexism, institutionalized tolerance of violence of all kinds. But that said, I mean, it's still something that one needs to take personal responsibility for and he has and I'm sure he will learn from this experience moving forward. I don't really have much to add. Jared, Carter, your thoughts on the comments from the caller regarding the tweets of Mohammed Jafar? Yeah, I think we're not going to solve this problem if we don't call a spade a spade. And what I mean by that is while certainly we all have made, or I wouldn't speak for the two of you, but I certainly made mistakes when I was younger and said things and did things I probably shouldn't have said or done. And I would never ask somebody to step out of the race. I also don't think Rad and the Progressive Party's decisions to continue to endorse him need to continue or quite frankly are a reflection of what I believe their values to be. Again, if we're going to deal with this, we have to call a spade a spade. That doesn't mean the voters can't decide. But I don't think these organizations have long histories of what I believe to be supporting anti-misogynistic views and certainly supporting women's rights in the community need to continue to endorse him. And I'm quite surprised that they've simply circled the wagons. We'll move right on. Another question here. We have a viewer dialing in with a question for our Central District candidates to City Council. Viewer, what is your question, please? Hi. My question is for each of the candidates. I'd like to know what your record is on community service. I'd love to hear about the different ways that each of you has supported the people of Central District that you are hoping to represent. The question was one of community service and how have you, prior to your candidacy, served your community? And Jared, we'll start with you. Yeah, I have a long history of community service, both as a lawyer and an advocate. I've represented clients almost primarily pro bono in this community in important civil rights cases, challenging what I believe to be the unconstitutional church street no trespass ordinance. I work right now with the ACLU of Vermont, representing several homeless clients who have had all of their private property, their tents, their bicycles confiscated when they've had their tents torn down by the city and the city's policies that City Council has adopted. I've fought for small businesses. I've done pro bono work for immigration clients. And I spend time working with legal clinics in the community. Again, all pro bono. So I have a long history of supporting these things. And I think it's made me well aware of the importance of constitutional rights, the importance of civil rights in lifting all of us up. Jane O'Dell, your thoughts on serving the community outside of City Council? Well, most of my community service has been through my work as a City Councilor. And so I want to talk about that. There's a lot of other stuff that I want to focus on. What I really see as the job of a City Councilor is to work as a City Councilor to improve the lives of his or her constituents, especially people that are underrepresented, that are marginalized, and that are vulnerable. So I want to mention just three things very quickly. Since my last re-election. I've been very active with the Janet S. Munt family room, which was at the threat of, after it was spun off from the V&A, had to go it alone. I was on the board. I was, I think, a very effective advocate for them within City Hall. Seniors. I'm heading a senior center study committee to keep the Heidelberg Senior Center open and to sustain and enhance senior services and programming for our aging population so that people can age in place and have a vital and engaged life as they age. And finally, dumpsters. Dumpster days. I'm going to call myself the Dumpster Day Queen. So I got some funding. We have the City paying for dumpsters. And people in the neighborhood come and they get rid of the couch that's been sitting in their backyard forever. They recycle items. They can deal with hazardous materials and kind of reuse household goods that others no matter, no longer want to have. So family room, seniors and dumpsters. Very good. Perry Freeman, your work in the community. Yeah, absolutely. So one of my biggest joys of the work I've done here in Vermont and in Burlington and in the neighborhood specifically is just all the community organizing that I've done, knocking on thousands of doors and having long conversations with, you know, countless residents and really understanding the issues that are facing, you know, they're facing every day. And so beyond that, you know, I've, you know, been part of the neighborhood planning assembly for what's two and three steering committee. That's been just awesome to be a part of and have also worked with a lot of volunteer organizations throughout the neighborhood, you know, including the rights and democracy, the Vermont Worker Center, the food shelf. And beyond that, I've worked on a lot of ballot initiatives that I think the neighborhood strongly supported like the F-35 ballot initiative, Keep the Park Green. You know, I worked on the luxury tax ballot item that would have brought additional revenue to the housing fund. And I think these are all things that directly benefit the sort of the needs and the priorities of the neighborhood. And I continue to look forward to, you know, that kind of work. Wonderful. We're going to actually touch a little bit on some of the topics that you just raised here. And it has to do specifically with ballot questions. It's in the news a lot lately. And Jane Nodell will begin with you with this question. Do you believe that the city is handling the ballot questions appropriately? Or do you think all citizen advisory questions should automatically go on the ballot? So I think that the city can improve the way it's handled advisory ballot questions. Right now, residents who want to get a petition before the people start out working with the city attorney to try to find a question that is going to pass muster. And unfortunately, what's happened is a question has proceeded beyond that phase of legal review, strictly legal review. And then much later in the process, some concerns get raised that are often legitimate concerns about a lack of clarity about the way that the question is worded. So I think that we need a much better process for working with petitioner groups to come to an agreement on what is going to be a good question, a well-framed question, very early on in the process. I think that that will, if we make that change, I think a lot of the hiccups that we've had with the F-35 ballot question and also with the Keep the Park Green question would not have taken place. But I would still go to keep the city council in the role of actually taking the action to put it on the ballot. Perry Freeman, your response to the city ballot questions. Do you think the city council is handling the process appropriately? Should all advisory questions automatically go on the ballot? What's your feelings on that? Yeah, so I think I've been frustrated with the way that city council has dealt with a lot of, you know, publicly and citizen-led ballot initiatives. These are really just advisory ballot items. They are non-binding. And to me, that's really a good opportunity for a temperature check, so to speak. And I would have really liked to have seen the Keep the Park Green make it onto the ballot. I was glad that the F-35 ballot item made it onto the ballot, but I've just been frustrated with the lack of the support that a lot of the council has shown for citizen-led initiatives. I think in terms of, you know, with exceptions to things that are outrightly hateful or illegal, you know, of course those cannot be green-lighted. But, you know, of course, then also the attorney, the city attorney, that's part of that process. I think in terms of the clarity in the wording, I agree that there could be some sort of independent way to audit whether the wording of it is misleading or to make sure that it's clear. Unfortunately, I feel like we also have ballot items that come from the council that are also, can be very confusing. And I felt like this about ballot item number four, which is a city charter change to the Downtown Improvement District. So if we're requiring citizen-led ballot initiatives to be, have a standard of clarity in their wording, then I think we need to also consider, you know, that for things coming from the council, ballot items coming from the council itself. Good point. Jared Carter, your thoughts on the ballot questioning and is the city council handling the process, do you think to its best ability, or do you think every advisory question that, you know, generates 3,300 signatures should automatically go on the ballot? If the city attorney is signed off on the language, absolutely it should go on the ballot. Our democratic institutions are under attack at the national level. We all recognize that. And we can't, at the city level, at the local level where democracy is so important, forget that point. The answer to pushing back against anti-democratic notions at the top is not less democracy, it's more democracy. And my second point here as to why I think absolutely ballot questions, if they've cleared the city attorney's check should be on the ballot, is because they are only advisory. So the city council has no reason to stop them from going on. They're just guideposts. They can change them afterwards. And so I don't think it's anything but a power grab by city council that does real damage to our democratic institutions and demoralizes the citizens. We want more engaged citizens, not less engaged citizens. So I 100% support changing that process so that these can be placed on the ballot if they meet the requirements. And then finally, if a particular ballot measure has some sort of legal infirmity and it still is passed, that's what the courts are for. If it's unconstitutional, it's struck down. So there's absolutely no excuse for not allowing questions to be put on the ballot that have met all of the requirements. Okay. We're going to move on here. I apologize. We're going to move on. I'll try to fit it in. Okay. In a sense, maybe this question sort of addresses it. This district encompasses an area that a mural is on. It's on a wall in this district. And it has experienced defacement. And the people who have defaced it or the group that has defaced it or is behind it says that it is a racist mural. My question to you is, is the mural racist? And do you believe the city council has handled the controversy appropriately? Perry Freeman. Oh, me first. Me first. Cool. Yes, the city mural, the downtown mural is incredibly racist. It's hard to encompass all the aspects of it that are problematic to name a few. It just starts at the point of colonization. It has a completely whitewashed version of, it's called everybody loves a parade. It's supposed to be this 400 years of Vermont history. And it's an incredibly whitewashed lens of Vermont history. So, yes, it is racist and very problematic. I know that the city council has not unfortunately handled it well. I believe there were only, there are only three city counselors that voted to remove it immediately. And that was incredibly disappointing. The conversations around that were incredibly disappointing. The lack of clarity that a lot of the counselors brought to this conversation in terms of the impact that having a racist mural like that right in our downtown. It's incredibly, to think that that's being used as an educational tool and that we're teaching erasure and racism and white supremacy is just, it's not acceptable for a community like this, especially community. You know, we have at least, I think, 30% of Burlington High School or students of color. This is just completely unacceptable. So, yeah, and I worked to just, yeah, with Councillor Dang to bring that, remove the mural. Jared, is the mural racist? And did the council handle the controversy appropriately? Yes, the mural is racist. And no city council didn't handle it properly. I certainly would have voted to take it down immediately. But I also think there's a missed opportunity here, and I think some are taking advantage of it. I think we have on our hands a real teachable moment. I'm a teacher by training, and I think we have an opportunity to educate, in fact, as a result. And I would say, bring our students down to see this mural and talk about the things that Perry was pointing out. Bring our public school students down, bring the university students down, so that we can see what exactly the problem is with this. And let's make this a teachable moment so we can learn from it and improve. It should come down, but while it's up, let's use it to show what a racist past is and why it's important that we move forward on these issues. Jane O'Dell, everybody loves a parade mural. Is it racist? Yeah, I think it is racist. Miss represents our history and the impact of capitalist expansion on Native Americans and on enslaved people of color. I want to think everyone needs to understand that there was never a question before the council, should the mural be removed immediately? There was no vote on that question. At the end of the day, we had a resolution that said our goal is to remove the mural by 2022. There had been an amendment to remove that clause. That amendment failed. I voted against that amendment because I thought it was better to have a specific date by which it would be removed, versus a resolution that was altogether silent on removal, much less on a date of removal. So just to be clear, there was never a vote about whether or not it should be removed immediately. That might have been implicit in some people's minds, but we don't vote on what's in people's minds. We vote on what's on the paper. She has a follow-up, but I'm going to actually ask it in a follow-up question myself here. So what should happen to the mural after 2022 when it comes down? Perry Freeman. Oh, well, I don't know. Well, bring your question into your answer. Yes, but Councillor Pine and Councillor Dang and Councillor Tracy, I believe, voted because creating the date of, I understand 2022 would mean that it would not come down sooner. And I think that that strategy makes sense, and that's how I would have voted. Based on my understanding of the verilaws, it can't actually, unless the artist, which I don't think he will allow for it to be completely removed, it just has to be put somewhere else. And so I think to the point of public education, and there were aspects of creating public education and placards around the problems with the mural, when it is moved, that needs to be part of its new placement is education around its problems. Jared, you've intimated a little bit about it, but I mean, what should happen to the mural after it's scheduled to come down? Yeah. Well, first of all, I would just say, if I would have been on City Council, I would have proposed a resolution to take it down immediately. If that wasn't before the Council, had I been on Council, I would have made that resolution. But absolutely, it's there, and we need to take advantage of it. And I know that maybe sounds odd, but, you know, and I've talked to school teachers at Sustainability Academy where my student, my son is a student, about bringing students down to educate them about our past, about this history, so they can see with their own eyes what's wrong with that mural. That's what we should be doing as long as it's up, and I think we should, let's put up a new painting. Art's a wonderful thing. Church Street Marketplace, which should stay in the public domain, should be covered with art. So let's put up a new mural that really reflects our history. Jane, what should happen to the mural? I need to get back into the voting. I just wanted to say that I very much respect the positions of Councilor Jang, Tracy, and Pine. And if I had to do it over again, I would have asked for a recess, because I think that I wasn't quite understanding the thinking of my colleagues in the way that they voted, and I think that I'm fundamentally aligned with them. I'm not sure there's all that much disagreement on the Council. The mural could be relocated before 2022, okay? And I think that we should work to relocate it before 2022. As Perry pointed out, you have to find a place to do it. So I think the thinking is let's go find a place, and if we can find a place, we should commit ourselves to removing it earlier than 2022. One last thing is that we had a bad process that night in the sense of the lead sponsor of the resolution, Councilor Shannon, substituted a new version of the resolution at like three o'clock the day of the meeting. So it's one of those things. Let's go back. You know, kind of things never work well when there are a lot of changes at the end. The public can't see what you're doing. So the process was not great. We're going to move on here to a question that is of great importance to us here at Channel 17 in public access. In July, the Federal Communications Committee, Corporation, FCC, is considering doing away with the rule that requires viewers, cable viewers, to pay $3 a cable access fee, which funds public access channels around the state. And if that law is scheduled to go away, potentially 100 people in the state of Vermont could lose their jobs, those here at this station in fact. Our question is where is the funding for public access? Do you have ideas? Where should we be looking for future funding? We'll begin with you, Jared Carter. Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing I think that anybody that believes in public access television should know is under the rulemaking processes that the FCC and other agencies go through, there should be an opportunity for public comment. So all of us, and I think the city, and maybe the city could take a leadership role in doing this, educating citizens about the opportunity for public comment so that the FCC does not do this. We should engage. If indeed the FCC moves forward and cuts funding, then I think we as a city come together, city council and the administration, and use our bully pulpit to first lobby our congressional delegation to push back and our statehouse representation in Montpelier to find funding. And then we do whatever we can as a community to supplement that at the city level. But there's no doubt in my mind that we need to come up with funding. We will come up with funding. But citizens should know they can get involved in the public comment process as this moves along. Jay Nodell, the future of funding for public access channels. Is it a city responsibility, a state, a combination? Where's the funding going to come from? That's a great question, Matt. I've been on the board of CCTV, so I'm fairly familiar with the direct impact of the declining cable revenues and the change in the rule. In the short term, I think we need municipalities to step up. And as a member of the Board of Finance, I've brought this forward and they're asking for all communities to double what they're currently providing, which is still, I think, very, very affordable and very modest in relationship to the tremendous benefit that this provides. When you think about the fact that the Burlington Free Press no longer reports on the city council. And we've got, there is virtually no way for a citizen to really find out on a Tuesday what the city council did last night. Now, there's probably more things that the city and the council can do and should be doing just to get that information out. My point is that the value of public access is all the greater in light of the kind of the withdrawal of our daily newspaper from any apparent interest in city government. And they used to be the go-to place for informed, independent, critical coverage, fair and critical coverage. We lost that. Perry Freeman, your thoughts on public access funding, permanent funding. What do you think it should come from? Yes, so I would, you know, I agree with Jared Seaman about, you know, being able to continue to lobby, you know, on the congressional level, on the state level and beyond that, you know, also echoing it is an invaluable asset. So, you know, if municipalities need to double down, then yes, I agree with that. And, you know, if this means an expanded line item in the city budget, then I agree with that as well. It is an invaluable asset and we just need to support it and make ends meet. Well, it's time now for our closing statements from our candidates. We have about five minutes left, so you're welcome to take about a minute apiece with your closing statements about why you're running for city council. Jane O'Dell will begin with you. Okay. I am a proven collaborative, knowledgeable leader in Burlington City Government. And if you support me, I hope to go back and continue to support all the great work that so many citizen entrepreneurs are doing in the Old North End. The key, a big role of a city councilor is to help support initiatives that come up from all the engaged citizens of Burlington, things like the Old North End Art Center, the Old North End Arts and Business Network, the Ramble, Helping and Nurturing Diverse Seniors, Very Mary Theater, the PTOs of our two fabulous magnet schools in Burlington, in Burlington's Old North End, Big Heavy World, all the small businesses that are coming in. I think that, you know, my pitch would be that with my knowledge and experience, I can really kind of manipulate the livers, go and access the resources to help all this great work succeed. And it's been an honor to serve, and I've appreciated the great dialogue with Jared and Perry. Perry, we'll ask you for your closing statement. Yeah, thank you for this tonight, and thank you both. This has been wonderful. Yeah, so again, you know, I would like to bring urgency as a city councilor to climate, you know, on climate action to fair wages and fair working conditions and to an open and transparent democracy. And, you know, in terms of just to reiterate climate action, you know, we need to weatherize buildings, we need to revolutionize our transportation sector, we need to, in terms of fair wages, expand, you know, the level wage ordinance to all public and private sector workers and continue to support local unions. We need to, in terms of a fair and transparent democracy, I'd like to see us strengthening our NPAs and increase their ability to allocate funding. I'd like to, as we talked about tonight, support citizen-led ballot initiatives and then overall kind of increase city halls outreach right into neighborhoods. And, you know, I overall want to bring my skills as a community organizer and as a progressive to bring these issues to the forefront and really create City Hall as a two-way street to hear what residents and constituents in the central district need and, you know, represent them in City Hall. And yeah, I look forward to just continuing the conversations that I've had with folks in the neighborhood and, yeah, learning how to serve in this capacity. Jared Carter, your final closing comments. Yeah, I appreciate being here again for a second night in a row. I guess how I would close is I don't necessarily have a laundry list of things that I promise I'm going to do as a city counselor. I think that's disingenuous, quite frankly. I think what's more important and what the people are really looking for is a vision. We might not agree at the end of the day on every single issue, but what I will say is my vision is one that gets Burlington its mojo back. I think we've lost our way in many respects and the City Council has been asleep at the wheel while we've lost places like Burlington College, Burlington Telecom. We're talking about privatizing or turning over management of the Church Street Marketplace, Moran, Memorial Auditorium. The list goes on and on and it's time to say enough is enough. Let's get back to what made Burlington an exceptional city. Let's get back to investing in people, not holes in the ground, not development projects that are too big to fail. Let's get back to protecting those public assets, those public spaces that are critical to our democracy. So again, we may not agree on every single issue, but I do believe that we share the common creed, which says that if we come together as a community, as neighbors, there is nothing we can't accomplish together and that's really what motivates me. That's why I'm here tonight and I appreciate the opportunity to talk with everybody about that. Perry Freeman, Jared Carter and Jane Nodell. Thank you so much for joining us here this evening. It's a pleasure sharing the stage with you. I want to compliment you all for your courage for being willing to go out and knock on doors to be here tonight and face the questions of your colleagues as well as the listener comments as well. We want to thank you very much for dialing in and being part of the conversation. A reminder that Election Day is Tuesday, March 5th, but you can request an early ballot at your town clerk. And join us Tuesday, March 5th for all Election Night coverage beginning at 7 p.m., right here on Channel 17. For Town Meeting Television, I'm Matt Kelly. Thank you for watching.