 Hello and welcome to ongoing town meeting day coverage here at town meeting television We're bringing you candidates budgets and ballot information in advance of March 7th When you will go out and vote on all of those local issues And in Winooski, maybe help me out. Is Winooski mailing? Ballots to Residents no or not not. So if you want to vote in Winooski, and we're here today with Brynn Oakleaf and Charles judge Who are candidates for the two seats? And they're the Winooski City Council seats. I assume it's a two-year and a three-year seat. Is that correct? So both are two both are two-year seats. Great So if you want to vote in the upcoming election in Winooski, you will go either go to your local polling place or you can request a ballot in advance from your city clerk Welcome Brynn and Charles and we have Charles Zooming in or you know Virtualizing in from the sphere and we have Brynn here with us. So welcome. Thank you for joining us. Thank you I'm gonna start out with Little some questions Opening statement from each of you and if you're watching from home Feel free to call 802-862-3966 with your calls for these candidates and You know again, you're uncontested. You're not running against each other But if you will start with Charles on line if we can and let's hear from you Why you're running and what will be different for Winooski if you are elected? Hi, my name is Charlie judge I've been a Vermont resident for about seven years and I've been Winooski for four I Made the decision to run proceeding council because I feel that having someone who ranks in Winooski and identifies as a public worker will be essential to bring about the changes that Many of the residents have said they'd like to see majority of the Winooski residents are also renters Service operators And if elected, I'd say please my turn to support the progressive ideas and also simple and Yeah, it's my goal to work with the current city staff and see a chance to address housing and I Thanks Charles Charles, you might want it like we can get you closer to your microphone for the For the remainder of the questions. I'm hearing you a little Okay, I can speak up Excellent all right super Yeah, that's what my mother said speaking round the tones Bryn, welcome. And can you tell us why you're running for sure? Thank you. Well, I want to just thank Thank you and thank the voters of Winooski for being here. I'm running for a second term on the Winooski City Council I was first elected in 2021 so I and at the time I was a right-hand candidate And I this time will be on the ballot. So it feels very exciting I I for me. I really think that there are a number of initiatives facing the city We're in a time of rapid growth. We have Main Street revitalization. We're looking at using our federal ARPA dollars our COVID relief funds We have a number of equity initiatives underway And as well as economic vitality Opportunities so to me I I really am excited to be part of this growth and to ensure that some of our core values are Stay Stay top of mind as we go through this growth ensure that we're not losing our sense of community and things that we love about Winooski so much and in that collective community and pride and Culture so for me. I am very happy to be up for a second term Those are things I'm excited about most So the next question has to do with the budget and this is it's got two parts to this So we might take a little longer on this Will you be supporting the Winooski City budget of nine point two million? That's a six percent increase from last year's budget and that Gives us a tax rate increase of five point nine percent So you could talk to that and then do you support the school budget of twenty five point four million up? 20% from last year at an estimated tax increase of nine point six six percent So let us start with you Brad. Okay. Yeah, I voted to move this budget forward to the ballot So I I have approved it from the council side of things. I will be voting for it I think it's been a challenging year to ensure that The impact of taxpayers is as low as we can make it We're using some of the one-time COVID relief funds to reduce the cat tax rate from nearly 12% to Just oh just over 5% That's actually lower than the rate of inflation right now, which is 6.5 percent. I Think we had to make a lot of difficult decisions to Reduce some of our expenses while retaining core services that the community needs and values So I certainly will be voting for this Maybe just say a little like what's one of the core services that you think of that you're like Yeah, yeah sure Honestly, our community services department provide a great deal of programming to the community And that was really important to us to ensure that we retain that in this next fiscal year And part of that is having low no-cost access to those programs So that's something that meant a lot to to to my to me and to the remainder of the city council when moving that forward School budget and on the school budget I think they also worked really hard to ensure that the impact to taxpayers Is low and using one-time funds to bring it down from 20% increase to To the 9% that they're proposing I think the school is a heartbeat of our city so and We know full well that The the needs of our students are great. So yes, I'll be voting for that great and not to put you on the spot Do you happen to know the combined? impact on taxpayers at the school and the So the impact for a $225,000 home for the city tax rate increase is about $134 a year 134-136 I because it differs so much with the Homestead and education Applications, I can't say what combined that that would be yeah And that's still an estimated in tax rate increase correct That's what's moving forward to the ballot. Yeah, okay great Charles How about you the budget? Do you support the Winooski City budget of 9.2 million a 6% increase from last year With a tax rate increase of 5.9% and do you support the school budget of twenty five point four million up? 20% from last year at an estimated tax increase of 9.66 I do support the budget I want to let the brain and her sentiments about how to train us and that it's just It's a tough time for me in general And I think that Try to I The city has stated leadership across the board that they want to work at leading their access and those things have to be paid for. And I do think that's important to our schools, our communities, and our social media businesses. And we have to get to the control of the folks and get them across the board. So I do understand that teachers should go down and bring them up in the next couple of years. That is one of the goals at the state level as far as I've been informed. And hopefully seeing the effects of the tax increase will kind of make it clear to the standard that this kid will offer some of what he can do. Great. Thanks, Charles. I'll just briefly, Charles, do you have a favorite? Do you have something that really stands out? A core service that stands out to you from the city budget? Not on the top of my head. I recognize that I've got quite a learning curve before me. Maybe this is the first time I've ever run an attempt to be many official guys to be part of politics, traditionally or not to this role. But I'm looking forward to hearing about the things that he offered in that regard. Great. Thanks. Ballot items. So Winooski has two other items on the ballot. Article three that allows the city to accept funds from sources other than taxes. And article four that would give the city council the power to provide by ordinance protections for residential tenants from eviction without just cause. Tell us your thoughts on these and why you will or will not be supporting them in March. And we're going to start with you, Charles. I support both measures. I think part of three and four are the four late in a way. They are both focused on solving the housing problem in Winooski. Being able to have the revenue streams should be similar to tax burden on our residents. And justice prosecution is not only on our ballot schemes. It's a statewide issue. And I think just creating stability for people to fight some of the problems that come up. Some of the problems that come up. And some of the problems that happen in our community. And I just think that having people particularly new americans, like GTS, giving them that extra C-sign, it feels like a strong cause of death. Thanks so much, Bryn. Same question. Yeah, same question. So article three is standard on our ballot. It basically allows the city to accept funds from state and federal government. So definitely we'll be supporting that. It's critical to our budget that we accept funds from those outside sources. So article four. Can you just tell me why does Winooski have that? I haven't seen that on other ballots. Do you know why? You know, that's a really great question. I'm not sure if that's a holdover. I know that that's pretty standard for the city. So I would have to look into it. But it's a great question. That's fine. Article four. Yeah, so article four. I do support this article. It is a voter-back petition. I think that there's a bill proposed at the state level, H-301, that I would love to see adopted at the state level. I think at the core it's trying to prohibit bad actors. And we know especially in Chinden County that there are landlords that own properties in multiple municipalities in the area. So I don't see why there should be different standards held to these property owners depending on what municipality they're in. So I think it really is important to have that standard. And you know the rental population, it moves from municipality to municipality. So having expectations of protections in one municipality and then to lose them in another doesn't have the consistency of protection. So I do think hopefully the legislators will see a move from the municipal level since there are a number of ballot items in the state where this is coming up, that statewide law is needed and is of the best interest to our renters. So and really quickly, so just cause eviction and there's a ballot item in Essex as well. And Winooski, you say other folks. What does that mean? So I think rights and democracy has been spearheading the effort statewide, getting as many municipalities as possible to look at a charter change. And I think at the core of it is trying to move some legislation at the state level. But it would be good to have them in for an interview I'm sure. That goes right into the question of Vermont legislative initiatives. The Vermont legislative season is underway. What are some important initiatives to the community of Winooski that you will be tracking and supporting as part of your work as a city council member? And we're going to start back with you, Brent. Sure, great. So you might have to cut me off because there are quite a few things here. So I think S100 is the ominous housing legislation that will further efforts not statewide again, something that we're already doing in Winooski is increasing housing density and encouraging three plus bedroom homes as well as furthering some affordable housing elements. So definitely keeping an eye on that. Additional housing as a Vermont Housing Improvement Program or H137. And that's to help increase properties that have changing an existing space into an auxiliary dwelling unit or an ADU. The mother-in-law apartment. Essentially, yes, you got it. And providing incentives for property owners that want to modify that space with a requirement that just has to maintain affordability for five years. So I'm very excited to see both of those pieces of legislation moving in. I think other things of interest are S60 are the local options tax. Winooski doesn't have, in order to increase our own local options tax, we need to go through the charter change process. So I think seeing that come up in the session now is of great interest to us. Additional, a couple of the third additional ones. S5, the Affordable Heat Act. I think it furthers the Global Warming Solutions Act that was adopted in 2020. And it really looks at the affordable component of that, which really will be of most interest to our residents. Great. All right. And you have the support of your reps on those so far? I believe, yeah, I believe so, yep. Charles, how about you? Legislative initiatives that you'll be tracking as part of your role in the city council? I feel like I sound like a bit of a broken record, but just as a fiction is, you know, really what I'm the most aware of and the most well-read on as far as statewide issues. I really, that's kind of the drum that I'm meeting on at the moment. And I think that that's an area that I need to improve in is being aware of what's happening, sort of upstream in a policy and legislation in the state. I think that being better aware of the first in what is going on will help make better decisions in the city council, I'm sure. And I think that the brandings of all of the knowledge that I've had, typically to significant amounts of that kind of stuff, and I would be relying on her a lot and I would like to sort of guide through a lot of some of your issues and broad changes. Great, thanks. Housing, I think I know where you're going to go on this, Charles, but is does housing, does Winooski have a housing crisis? What do you see as the nature of housing in Winooski and how to meet the need for safe and affordable housing for residents, students, and visitors? And so when we talk about the nature of housing you might talk about, is it heavy on the rental? Is it heavy on single family? Is it heavy on single bedroom units? Like talk to me about what does Winooski housing look like? I only heard about a third of what you just spoke. Yeah, does Winooski have a housing crisis? And what do you see as the nature of housing in Winooski? What is the makeup of housing look like? How do we meet the need for safe and affordable housing for residents, students, and visitors? Adopting form-based code is definitely helped and I think that's the way forward. I don't know if I would define Winooski as experiencing as a crisis, but that would also be reflected on my experience as a renter. I'm sure there are a lot of things in the housing crisis. I think that by continuing to invest in those projects that create to the potential opportunities that offer assisted rent units, like CCT, housing, authority, those kind of partnerships can be very effective, but we also need to keep in mind just what the market rate rent is at. And there's no those two. There's not a lot of affordable housing in Winooski, and I really like to use my position when I like to see CCT happen since I know it. Make sure that we're focusing on that, and I think it's for people that are already in the previous community, about how you can get into the graphics there, that I think don't make as much money in the new season as the $206,000 that maybe taking some addressing that I think has been really parallel to the next couple of years. And yeah, I can see how some people define this crisis. But I think that the worst can be avoided and that we're not in the area yet. Thanks so much, and Bryn, to you the same question about housing in Winooski. Sure, thanks. I think this is one of our priorities with the City Council is improving the number of homes that are available, looking at affordable homes, as well as market rate homes, as well as homes that are three-bedroom or larger. Improving density, so City Council has already worked on improving housing density through our ordinances, incentivizing three-bedroom or greater, looking at parking minimums to help, again, incentivize more affordable homes with developers. Just this past year, we've approved the Housing Trust Fund and approved our first application for the Housing Trust Fund. So that's a significant amount of work that has come through Councillor Duncan, who will be stepping out of his seat at the end of this term. Very excited about that. And I think all of that just helps to come together to achieve some of these goals of improving the accessibility to affordable housing, to market rate housing, to ensuring that there is competition. So the vacancy rate, I think, is below half a percent right now, and I think it's healthier. A healthier market is, I think, in the two to three percent range for vacancy, or even more, or even five percent. So having that competition also gives renters a buyer's choice that they don't have right now. Speaking to the Champlain Housing Trust, we just had the ribbon-cutting ceremony, for lack of another word, just opening Butternut Grove, 20 units of perpetually affordable housing off Malletts Bay this past year. So there's quite a bit of work that is happening, and there continues to be a lot of work that's happening. And I'm really excited to, you know, take another term and counsel to see more of those efforts move forward. Great. Let's do a quick round on the love of Winooski, so we can get to the other questions that are on this. Tell us what you care about, why you want to work as a city counselor for the community of Winooski. Really, what's your favorite spot in Winooski, and why do you live there? So I've been in Winooski, well, I've been in Vermont since 2009, and I've spent the majority, you know, probably 12 years, 10, 12 years of that time in Winooski itself, leaving briefly and returning. So I started as a renter and loved it enough to, I've become a homeowner. It's a place where I feel like I see my neighbors and friends with the city staff. And I really appreciate the sense of community. For being a city, it's the size just makes it feel more like a town in many ways, where you just know your neighbors. And some of my favorite places are Landry. I think we've made improvements to the tennis court so we can play pickleball there now. So I'll admit that I take advantage of that with my friends quite a bit. And the river walk, I think it's just beautiful space down there. It's very tranquil and amazing attraction for our city. Charles, what do you love about Winooski? Why do you live there? I really appreciate, again, Echoing Bryn, but it's a very warm, small, healing city for it being 700 plus residents. I love the access to natural space. I spend a lot of time in Gilbert, Patrofairy, and then also in San Miguel, mostly in summer, but like Gilbert in a great box. I really enjoy Rosy's Latte and chocolate. It's a perfect Friday treat. And I spend a lot of time in Fort orders for Friday Tuesday. And yeah, I came to Winooski because it was affordable and accessible to better economic opportunities than I had earlier, which is what I spent about no shame to be here. It's a great town, but I need to be, need to access the social service work and I was with the cops all the time. So I need to be closer and then every every sort of dollar is placed to grab my first one and then do flex. And yeah, it's been a great, great person. My goal is to open all the homes in Winooski if I can. And I think being on City Council will help me make that accessible to the whole community, like the young volunteers that are in justice. Not too far into the community yet. Yeah, that's a champion's sound. And that's very, could you hear me okay? Yeah, great. That's great. We are, we kind of blew through our time here and we have three questions left, four questions left. One on language access, one on public safety, one on climate change, and one on development and change. So I'm going to let you choose from the last four questions. Do you have the questions in front of you, Charles? I'm just going to have you choose from one of those. What's your, what's the question that you feel strongly about and you want to answer? So we're going to start with you, Charles. All right, I choose climate change. I think climate change, it feels so much bigger than individual action. It has to be collective and it has to be, it has to have community support. When I think of like big change that's to see the radical movement of the parts of the country, I think about having composting in Burlington, as I sometimes require. We know the soil being out of places, having composting programs just kind of makes sense to keep our whole system stable. And that happened because people already believe in it. It's simpler to enforce something than has to be done. Locally, I think trying to hold private election services to high standards and make sure that they're following regulations and not putting natural resources around businesses and race kids essential and as well as long term picture holding people that profit off of burning fossil fuels, producing fossil fuels, and non-sustainable farming, I think addressing those people and making it more expensive to build a financial reserve is really the way forward for climate change. Great, thanks. And Brynn, your question of choice. Yeah, thank you. I actually am very excited to talk about language access. So we have nearly 20 languages spoken within the city of Winooski and we translate and interpret about 11 of them. We have a vast new American population and I think we are on the precipice of developing our own language access plan. The Office of Racial Equity just released their own language access report, which I think will give a great deal of guidance. Statewide Office. Correct, yeah. We'll give a great deal of guidance to our city staff as they undertake this next effort. I think especially because we have all resident voting that adds an additional pressure on us to ensure that our language access plan is strong, as well funded, and has full support of the city and city council. Great. Thanks so much. You did that. I spoke about that very quickly. So closing comments. We'll start with you, Brynn, and then Charles. Again, what are you hoping to do and how can people find out more about you? Sure. Yeah, thank you. I just want to say to voters, my work is not done. I feel like I too have a passion for the environment and I feel like there's a great deal more that we could be doing at the city level to reduce our own energy demand and improve upon our own efficiencies there. I think improving upon belonging within the city is also a crux of my core values moving forward and affordability. I think we need to ensure that we're maintaining a city that is affordable and I take that very seriously as we look at the budget. So if anyone wants to find me, you can look me up at Oakleaf4Wanewski.com. You can also find me under that on Facebook, as well as Instagram. All right. Thanks so much. And Charles, your closing comments. Yeah, if elected, my goals are really to be an advocate for representation for the learning class, for the learning of the class. I think that having an advocate might help bring some more community buy-in and I think that I'd like to use my time on some of these campuses and grant it to build that community buy-in and actively use it to withstand leadership and leadership that has yet to knowledge itself and present itself globally. I think getting the youth in the new scheme and getting the costs to support the system of the new scheme is something that goes on for many years. Thank you for your grant, your support of the pads, and I just hope you learn about those things and I'll wish there's a lot more to it. Great. Thanks so much. Thank you both for joining us tonight and thank you all for tuning in. You can watch Tom meeting television on Comcast channel 1087 on Burlington telecom channel 17217 and you can also subscribe on our YouTube page at youtube.com backslash town meeting TV. Thanks for watching and good night. Don't forget to vote March 7th. That's it.