 the meeting of the city council at 740 we're a few minutes late so would you please all rise and join with me in resigning the pledge of allegiance okay first item on the agenda is the agenda Councillor busher thank you President right I'm going to move to amend and adopt the agenda as follows add to consent agenda item 4.04 special event outdoor entertainment permit application communication from Zach Williamson regarding mural painting event slash block party rain date note revised version of agenda item 5.05 resolution declaring a climate emergency and initiating a just transition for city staff Councillor Freeman per Councillor Freeman note Councillor Shannon dang roof and Polino as added co-sponsors for agenda item 5.06 resolution declaration of climate emergency and adoption of net zero energy goal for Burlington across electric thermal and ground transportation sectors Councillors Paul Mason and Hanson note revised version of agenda item 5.07 resolution support for the members of the Burlington Police Department Councillor right per Councillor right no proposed amendments for this agenda item per Councillor Tracy excuse me sorry remove from consent agenda item 4.18 agreement City of Burlington and University of Vermont agreement to extend 2009 memorandum of agreement regarding student housing and place it on deliberative agenda as item 5.10 per Councillor busher and I so move thank you Councillor busher that move that was seconded by Councillor roof all those any discussion on the Amanda as agenda as amended hearing none all those in favor of the agenda as amended please say aye any opposed that passes unanimously and we have our agenda for the evening we will skip forward from the annual report from DPW to the public forum because we are late on it by a little over 10 minutes there's a time certain for that so we will open item number three which is the public forum and for anybody that doesn't know there were it's two minutes this evening and there is a light system that's on the table in front of you when the middle light goes off you're winding down to about a minute when the red light goes off you need to conclude your remarks so that I don't have to cut you off and so with that we will open the public forum and again all we ask is much passion as you want to give us but just in a respectful way and we will respectfully listen Julie Musuga will open it up for us tonight good evening and welcome my name is Julie Musuga thanks for listening to me once again on Friday three thousand people stood before City Hall asking for action on climate change elected officials received some coal from the Merrimack Valley cold fire powered plants in New Boa New Hampshire the last of its kind in our region I don't believe the mayor received his parcel so I will give this to you in a moment please take this as a reminder that we cannot continue to pursue surface level legislation this coal may have come from New Hampshire but Burlington bears the scars of the industry the Moran plant was coal fired the barge canal superfund site has been contaminated for over 100 years thanks to coal gasification we're at a point where shutting things down is mandatory so we're going to shut down the coal plant in New Hampshire this weekend and y'all are welcome we need action not goals we already set a decade ago I have already presented the council with my fears about the net zero energy policy and I'm concerned that this proposal allows for fat frat gas infrastructure to remain viable I don't think Vermont gas would have supported a plan that makes them obsolete I'm also concerned that this is just another marketing scheme that allows Burlington to claim it's green to the press without forcing us to do the work that is required to declare an emergency alone does nothing in Canada Prime Minister Trudeau declared an emergency then a week later approved the monolithic trans mountain pipeline which goes through indigenous territory we may be in a so-called climate emergency but there are people in places that have been an emergency since the dawn of colonialism we cannot talk about climate change without talking about all of these other issues such as systemic racism capitalism private prisons and militarism which is why I urge you to support Councillor Freeman's piece about a livable wage and Councillor Hanson's work to consider the environmental harms of all of the development that we do whenever you write policy please make sure it has teeth behind it every policy you water down waters down our planet thank you thank you miss masuga Erica reddick is up next no please no please do not do that please be respectful that's just slowing our process down Erica reddick is up next to be followed by Walter reddick good evening miss reddick welcome thank you and thank you for the time council dear Burlington police department thank you for rushing to violent murder scenes and arresting the bad guys thank you for arresting people for DW eyes and helping keep the rest of us safe thank you for being willing to listen and take direction from activists who are openly hostile towards you thank you for showing up to domestic assaults and saving the lives of that woman and her babies thank you for your mercy even when being assaulted by the person you're trying to help thank you for re arresting the same poor mentally ill person that we refuse to medicate even though they've proven to be a danger to themselves and others thank you for being willing to take a stand for this community every day even though we condemn you bitterly when you don't get things exactly perfect thank you for attending more de escalation at de escalation training while we call you racists and bigots thank you for putting your life on the line for me and my neighbors even though we prioritize trees and bike lanes thank you for responding to the thirty thousand nine one one calls to BPD last year thank you for your quick reflexes and fast decision making when a fraction of a second is the difference between life and death thank you for always trying to do better even when you aren't allowed to advocate for yourself or defend yourself thank you for being willing to suffer the consequences thank you for being kind even when we're deplorable thank you for saving that teenager from suicide again thank you for reviving that junkie who overdosed on heroin again thank you for coming to work every day after you've been cleared of wrongdoing even though no one will stick up for you thank you brilington police department for not giving up on brilington even though brilington has given up on you thank you miss reddick up next is walter that may be walter katie okay thank you mr katie welcome to be followed by andrew simon thanks very much for providing some time to speak i wanted to voice a comment relating to two proposed resolutions tonight both discussing declaration of climate emergency i'm a second year graduate student and i study environmental and energy justice as well as a just transition particularly in vermont i spent my summer driving from bennington to canaan i also spent significant time in brilington discussing these issues exactly these issues with vermoners and i feel i have a valuable perspective to share with you all so i'd like to thank the council for considering these declarations of climate emergency as we desperately need political action i'd also like to thank the authors for including the just transition phrase in the resolutions but i like to emphasize that what i believe is item 505 proposed by councillor freeman establishes a better framework for climate action in our city and that it integrates the principles of a just transition more fully often the proposal for a just transition is met with skepticism it appears as sort of a wish list for bleeding hearts and i would argue that this is a complete misreading um just transition excuse me transition principles recognize that ecological crises have social and economic uh roots not simply anthropogenic i'm considering the breadth of the climate crisis will need as broad of public support as possible and so a just transition is therefore not simply moral part of climate policies instrumental um so the other resolution uh in question to claim a climate emergency does include language for a just transition i'll know that it relegates the term to the final sentence and diffuses responsibility to the state national level uh while action on both levels is necessary councillor freeman's proposal calls on the city to catalyze a just transition it is a sure bet and it accomplishes the same goals and more i'd also like to note that councillor freeman's proposal includes references to frontline communities and environmental justice these like just transition principles are crucial to the success of environmental policy and our important legacies of the civil rights movement um especially as burlington is some of the highest residents of color the highest numbers of residents of color in the state i believe it's important to consider thank you thank you mr katie andrew simon is up next to be followed by trav fryer good evening mr simon welcome here to support the two climate resolutions that are on the agenda tonight each should be debated on its merits and past but i'm also here to point out some inconvenient truths that pop the bubble of our self congratulation on net zero energy one which will be explored by others in this public forum i'm sure is the massive use of fossil fuels that air travel represents especially military aircraft and especially that trillion dollar jet fuel guzzler called f-35 that has begun to inhabit our skies a different inconvenient truth is the one i want to focus on it's about growth it's particularly inconvenient because if we're serious about addressing the climate emergency we have to change our whole economy to stop trying to boost sales to expand the tax base to grow the grand list to please moody's we have to stop creating more wealth but instead start thinking about how we will do with less much less in the process we need to be better at caring about caring for those who are most impacted by the idling of the economic engine as bill mckibben always says we cannot negotiate with physics we simply cannot have an ever growing economic activity on a finite resource base a finite planet sure it's the right direction to switch from gas or diesel to electric vehicles to weatherize every home to put solar panels on the roof but now that we have twiddled our thumbs for 30 years it's not nearly enough the current administration has been putting forward admirable language about net zero policy but their actions prove that they really don't get it development development development growth growth growth i support these two resolutions despite their shortcomings pass them tonight but don't sit back and feel good thank you mr simon one more sentence please mr president we need to do things differently in a way we have not even begun thank you mr simon trav fryer is up next to be followed by megan diffender for good evening welcome hi thanks um so i along the lines of whatever else has been saying i think the net zero energy plan is a great start i'd like to see an update to the climate action plan i understand that the net new net zero energy plan is not the climate action plan and so i'd say we need a climate action plan if we're going to declare a climate emergency and i think the new net zero energy plan is good but i'd love to see a greater scope you know doesn't mention anything about trains also why are we subsidizing electric vehicles for the richest people in burlington couldn't that money be better invested in local assets like electric buses and making those free for people that would help support the lowest income people in the city so and i think that would have a greater climate effect positive climate effect than singular occupancy electric vehicles um so yeah i think if we're going to declare a climate emergency we like we need to um it means we have to reprioritize things we can't just sort of use the leftover money for making things more sustainable we have to start with making things sustainable and then see what else what money is left for other things and i i appreciate the comment there the quote that was given about uh from bill mckinnon about you can't argue with physics right so the physics say that we have to we have to cut emissions and so i wasn't really good with preparing my remarks but i'd love to see the uh the if we're gonna do a a plan it needs to track emissions and not just energy because ultimately a climate emergency is about the emissions and not about energy anyway uh so i support both resolutions particularly council agreements and i hope we can do more in the future thanks thank you mr fryer megan diffenderford to be followed by kai mckelfors good evening and welcome pull the microphone at a little closer on the resolution in support of the berlington police department so i'm gonna start by saying thank you councillor tracy for your friendly amendments to make a resolution that more fully benefits and represents our entire community and thank you to the council since this is one of the most transparent resolutions that i've seen put forward it's been made abundantly clear and without much surprise that the elected officials on the city council who support this resolution are looking to maintain a status quo of oppression in our communities when i read day in and day out studies on how police hostility and violence when they happen disproportionately affect um marginalized communities particularly our neighbors of color our trans and gender nonconforming neighbors and those who are insecure in their housing seeing this resolution means that i can only interpret this council as one who's not here to serve those communities but the communities who hold systemic power i come with the compassionate understanding that no one in these positions has chosen this power structure but when all of the information about trends of police violence is readily available and yet i continue to see support for an outdated system i wonder if there's real concern for our constituents and our safety there's a lack of tension across the nation for mental health support for our first responders so i'm not worried about guns and the officers of sorry guns in the hands of officers for my own safety but also for their own um criticism of an entity does not need to be taken personally it's been a real opportunity for growth to find creative solutions to make a public safety department that focuses on just that safety so we've been asking for you all to think critically and creatively to find a better solution than an outdated form of control over others but a resolution to maintain the status quo cannot and should not be the response to that ask thank you miss difender for kai mckel force good evening welcome good evening my name is kai mckel four lee um i'm here to speak uh in regards to the net zero energy proposal um in regards to that leaving an entire city department out of the city's carbon emissions calculations the airport with all its carbon intensive operations is the equivalent of pledging the city to net zero discharge but failing to include the plethora of rivers of gutter waste contaminated stormwater i had to forge during my walk here tonight or the regular permitted discharges of untreated or partially treated wastewater the only way we're ever going to make headway into actually achieving the goal of net zero uh emissions um can only be accomplished by curtailing negative behaviors like tackling the issue of non-essential flying uh and the only way we're going to do that is to make it so expensive that people self limit their participation if we continue to shy away from policy ideas toward that end ideas that right now seem unthinkable will never get to anything meaningful as noam chomsky said the smart way to keep people passive and in obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion but allow very lively debate within that spectrum even encourage the more critical and dissident views that gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on well at the well all the same time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of debate stop stacking the deck stop shying away from making difficult decisions and stop not being willing to challenge the residents of this city and the people that that flock here as tourists we need to follow the lead and the actions of those who like during friday's climate strike are putting their feet down and saying no more no more half measures no more glossing over no more greenwashing let's actually do something meaningful thank you thank you mr forley james lee's is up next followed by annie lossing good evening mr lee's welcome evening as grettet tunberg said at a huge demonstration in new york on friday passing climate resolutions is not enough we also need action and we need to hold those who are responsible accountable well the mayor is one of the people who shares responsibility for bringing a military jet to the city owned airport that will burn 4.5 million gallons of jet fuel a year for the purpose of making war for oil the mayor who thwarted the will of burlington and winewski voters and against the will of city councils of burlington winewski and south burlington all while also knowingly and willfully sacrificing the learning of children and their hearing and affordable housing for three thousand families and vermont airman who will be in violation of the laws of war by wanton lee injuring civilians the very lowest hanging fruit for climate preservation is a big one to immediately cancel the f-35 at the burlington owned airport to save those 4.5 million gallons a year which when burned will turn into a hundred million pounds of carbon dioxide both resolutions before the council need a short amendment to call on the city administration to abolish the f-35 basing at the city owned airport so as to end burlington complicity with burning this massive amount of oil to make war for oil on behalf of oil corporations we must not be silent in the face of burning this jet fuel for war planes and we must end burlington complicity in wars for oil thank you very much thank you mr lee's annie lawson is up next to be followed by charles simpson good evening miss lawson welcome good evening thank you this is in regard to item 507 counselor rights resolution my name is annie lawson i'm a burlington resident and counselor right is representing my ward i'm also a master's level licensed clinician in the mental health field and i spend a lot of time in my professional life talking with people about the relationships in their lives it seems to me that counselor rights resolution is about the relationship between the police department and the community and this relationship has been strained in part because of recent incidences of abuse and bias that have come to light and which have caused the police department to receive some criticism in my field it's widely accepted that in order for a damaged relationship to be repaired it is imperative that the offending party take full accountability for its role and fully acknowledge the harm that they have caused counselor rights resolution does not ask the police department to take any accountability for their actions that have contributed to this strained relationship instead this resolution serves to minimize the harm caused to the community and to the relationship between the police and the community if this was a scenario in my professional life where someone came into my office after receiving critical feedback from those around them and that person only wanted to talk to me about whether or not i supported their actions and they wanted to talk about finding ways to soothe their hurt feelings and if they didn't show much interest in talking about the ways that they could repair the relationship and if they took no accountability toward that goal i would know pretty quickly that they were not serious about taking any kind of responsibility and i would know that they didn't seem genuinely invested in repairing that relationship with the person who offered the critical feedback that would indicate to me that that person is not really interested in making any meaningful change if this council is serious about supporting the police department to repair the relationship that it has with the community it will not pass resolutions that support them to take more it'll pass resolutions that supports them to take more responsibility thank you miss lawson please no vote no thank you miss lawson charles simpson is up next to be followed by adam frowien francino i'm not sure good evening mr simpson well good evening uh thank you for generating and considering two resolutions a clearing of climate emergency and promoting a net zero energy policy for our city much is being done in terms of transportation justice housing justice the emphasis on mobility and climate impacts however needs to be increased i would urge that you there should be no diesel buses at all operating in the city if you've been behind a bus spewing black smoke you know what i mean this should be steps sort of acquiring an entire fleet of downsized electric buses attractive to passengers through zero fares this should be separate white balk i'm sorry walk bike facilities on every major street beginning with anything being built in the south end any vehicles spewing eight uh eleven hundred gallons of gasoline per hour of kerosene per hour should ultimately be banned from city facilities and this means the 20 f-35s achieving actual net zero policy will take time but there are immediate steps that council could take through its control of the airport commission council could instruct the international god to publicize a schedule of takeoffs and landings of the f-35s so that their sound impacts up to 118 decibels can be anticipated by parents teachers school administrators pedestrians and those pushing infants and carriages why because under 18 decibels are sufficient to impair the hearings hearing of adults when repeated as will be the case many times a day and can instantly injure the hearing of infants and children people will literally need to duck and cover while the public and our politicians seek a sane defense policy as it applies to brollington you on the council can take immediate steps to safeguard the public from injury thank you thank you mr simpson adam froeen i'm not sure how that's pronounced but you can let me know when you come up all right uh you weren't that close fro wine there you go yeah i get frowning a lot as well so um so i'm here to talk about the declaration of the climate emergency and just to share some of my thoughts and opinions on how we as a city can move forward to continue to make changes in our carbon footprint uh my background is working with uh those in the community who have the least those who are living in poverty um and getting by day to day check by check and i feel that is something that i is often spoken about in many resolutions and many plans throughout the city but i have not seen uh key steps being taken to provide those supports um energy efficiency is one way to do this but i think continuing to keep those who have the least um at the table because those who have the least often don't have the time and privilege to come here and speak and to um to share their opinions on things related to uh climate change uh carbon emissions and things that are very impactful for themselves with that being said i feel one of the the biggest things that can be done is finding ways to electrify the bus systems and get to a place where there is no fares um needed for anyone to ride the bus it can it sounds bold but i think there are ways to look into how you can do this and i feel with less fares uh um or no fares there would be a tighter schedule i think more people would utilize the bus and there would be you know all positives from that my other hope too is that we can continue to utilize um uh infrastructure to help enhance walk and biking because uh that is an easy way to get around town and the more safety measures you have in place and the more access to affordable bikes e-bikes the more people will be using those sources for transportation um also coming down on emissions so i know a lot of that's mentioned in both you know and and these resolutions but i i just want to emphasize the importance of um representing and supporting those who are not here today to share um their hopes wants and dreams thank you thank you very much brian waters is up next to be followed by jf carter newbieser good evening mr waters welcome hey um uh my name is brian waters and i'm with a i'm a member of btv cop watch um we work to educate the community on what our rights are when we're approached by the police um and we head out into the streets regularly and film the police using our phones we hope that police will be less likely to use violent or dishonest tactics when they know they are being filmed uh my comment is about the resolution and support of the police department uh i think it's fine if the council wants to pass a non-binding resolution saying it supports the police department um but i sort of feel like i'm playing defense here uh because reading between the lines uh the resolution reads like an attempt to shame members of this council and shame residents your constituents um for daring to be critical of the police without so much as even acknowledging the racism and violence that is at the root of those criticisms so my suggestion to you uh is to amend this resolution to acknowledge these very real concerns um you can even use the bpd's own data or any of the recent high-profile instance of racism and violence take the recent traffic stop data uh or uh the use of force or violence data from two years ago or any of stefanie steguino's papers all of which acknowledge the existence of racial injustices you can say i can't but you guys can say that you support the police department while acknowledging uh the experiences of people of color unhoused people and other people in burlington marginalized by police is it a contradiction yes but it's also a compromise please include language that will validate the experience of marginalized people and not just celebrate police at their expense thank you thank you very much jf carter new buys a new beezer is up next good evening mr new beezer welcome thank you for having me so i want to speak quickly to to both resolutions first the the climate proposals in front of you i i uh fully support and i wanted to thank jack and perry for counselors uh for their work on climate um and also i think most people on this council's willingness to at least put some goals out there obviously the real work comes when we put forth uh ways to actually enforce those and move in a tangible way to reduce emissions um the other thing i want to speak to is counselors council rights um resolution regarding uh you know supporting the police department um similar to the last speaker there's really no problem with saying we support our police and i think everybody most people in this room would say that um but i think it's also important to really realize the council president when we were talking about police reform resolutions in the past couple months kept saying that people who had a problem with the actions and the policies in place currently of the police department were politicizing it their anti cop all of these different things came out not just from the council president to be fair but a lot of folks uh on the left side of the table in the mayor's office um and it's crazy to me that we have a community member multiple community members that were brutalized we had one that died because of an interaction with police um and the response is if you criticize the current policies or try to talk about reform and making sure that doesn't happen in the future you're somehow anti cop i grew up around believe it or not grew up around a lot of different police officers in the community that i grew up in i was surrounded by them and they're still very good friends and family to this day um but the number one thing i heard from people growing up who were police officers who were rank and file was the most dangerous thing to a police officer going around and trying to protect our community is police officers who use force and who erode trust unnecessarily consistently so to point that out and fight for reform thank you mr new bezier shouldn't be politicized what's which is what's happening with this thank you mr new bezier corporal kim berbow is up next to be followed by the final speaker speaker will heard good evening welcome my name is kim berbow and i'm a retired corporal with the broings police department and i just want to thank mr right for bringing this resolution to the floor i'm a 21 year veteran of the broings and police department and i'm really proud of this department is it a perfect department no because it's made up of men and women who are not perfect but they work every day to protect this city and i would say if any of you want to uh do a ride along you should you should spend some hours with our department with the police department with the individual officers and see what they have to put up with and the idea that you would want to disarm our police officers is shameful it's laughable but it's shameful but thank you for bringing this resolution to light and i just asked that you would support it thank you miss berbow our final speaker is will heard good evening mr heard welcome hello um the resolutions were not on the website so about the climate emergency so i wasn't able to read them i don't know exactly what they contain but i think i know most of what they contain i just want to thank all of you for um looking into this issue you know for answering my phone calls for talking to me this is my the sort of first interaction i've had with the city council and i found the city counselors to be really interested in what a citizen has to say and willing to spend their time um to to deal with them um i'd urge you to support this climate emergency declaration i'm not really concerned about the details you know i just want a climate emergency declaration supported in general um and there's going to be a lot of tough work up ahead you know we've got a pretty good plan i read most of the bd plan about what to do next i think there could be some amendments to it but it needs buy-in from everybody it needs government it needs people it needs local people i'm i'm excited you know i want to be a part of this i want to make take the hard steps and if you look at the numbers you know 50 increase in electrical vehicles every year that is a tough thing to do um so this is a big a big time important time where we need to do as much as we can about climate change please vote yes for a climate emergency declaration thank you thank you mr herd and with that that was our final speaker we will that concludes tonight's public forum and we will move forward to the consent agenda item number four councillor busher yes i'd move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated moved by councillor busher seconded by anyone councillor ruff second by councillor ruff any discussion hearing none all those in favour of taking the passing the consent agenda and taking the actions indicated please say aye opposed that passes unanimously and we will go back now to item number two and that is a an annual report to the city council from dpw and we have the dpw director as well as the chair of the commission good evening thanks for being here thanks thank you who's going to start out i've been nominated yeah uh thanks for having us you know just reporting annually here we do have the written report which i believe it's probably in your packets it's just recapping right it's in short it's been a busy year i think there's no corner of the city that's been left untouched by uh some of the work and advancements that the department has made uh but i just want to start to say that this uh the commission and the volunteers that serve on that commission are hard workers i'm really honored to work with them and they're all in their own right independent thinkers and come to the conclusions that we have to support a lot of the projects that come forth that we all see in the city so it's fair to say that there is broad support from a cross-spectrum of citizens that live around the city again we're all impacted just as much as you are too and that some of those efforts again are recapped here and i'll just call out some highlights you know if we boil it down to two areas it would be sustaining our infrastructure of course and infrastructure is not just roads but the water lines underneath those roads the drainage and so on but it also involves the planned BTV walk bike and that's been a big piece that i think has had a lot of impact on some folks in the past year and again the commission has widely supported that for the preservation of both our future and for existing multi-use travelers on our roads i'm not going to read this thing to you i get it you guys can't read this thing but calling us some highlights right some streets that were impacted particularly by what the plan BTV walk bike or pearl street flin av and colchester av you know three major corridors that were impacted by these plants that have been in the works for a number of years from plan BTV walk bike aside from that our advisory role with the water resources department and getting involved last summer when it was a lot of storm events that impacted the outflow and overflows into the lake we've had the commission itself took initiative on narrow streets where a number of residents had complained about emergency vehicles navigating streets especially in the winter where frankly just some emergency vehicles could not navigate some of our streets so we wanted to bring that effort at least identify where those danger areas are and think about what solutions might be best as we get into it and we talked about snow fighting plans and we had the loss of an important staff member unfortunately over the past year here so we're looking to bring the snow fighting standards up to a current level that we would all expect for example bike lanes right it's hard to navigate out there in the winter and i can remember when i first moved here about 20 years ago being one of the only bikers out there before bike lanes and now there there are lots more people biking in the winter so being cognizant of the trends of people using roads uh there's some suggestions that the commission is looking at in the next year and also in the packet you know just summarizing those that we are fully aware of the the construction fatigue that is taking place right now around the city i think you all probably hear more than anyone from folks that are impacted by this so the commission has been working with director spencer to for a review of those projects and let's let's find out what lessons can be learned from that and see how to improve going forward so i think we all hold a responsibility in that not just commission and not just the director but we share that with you all in the council and with the mayor so it's always good to look back and see what could be done better to help improve how things have gone about another piece would be updating that snow fighting plan which i had mentioned that'd be number two of four the third being just reviewing the painting especially of bike lanes since they're effectively no bike lanes right until the month of june when we're pretty well into the summer so just taking a look at that to see if we can possibly push that up a little bit to again accommodate the multi-use travelers on our roads and then lastly i think with the prioritization right i think to the credit of director spencer he's kept resources in the department at a equilibrium as it has been for many years and with shifting priorities to mammoth projects including the tiff streets here downtown the st paul intersection and these projects like that that it has taken resources that otherwise might be attributed to neighborhoods and i think we see some of those impacts from residents maybe whether they're designing their own crosswalk on the street or perhaps speaking vociverously on a matter that might be impacting the street so those matters i think are important those neighborhood matters and i think maybe we perhaps the focus has got has shifted a little bit to these larger projects and it's not to say that they've been forgotten but the timeline has just stretched a little bit so those i think we would like to just revisit and kind of balance our priorities accordingly too so i apologize for talking at you for a number of minutes there and turn to the director in case he has any comments thank you mr chairman did you have a few remarks director i will leave it very brief to allow the most time for your questions the partnership with the commission has been very productive this year we've had a number of challenging conversations and i think the the partnership to have an open public process for the public to engage in has been very helpful this year as we've navigated whether it's the residential parking program and actually implementing changes from the 2015 plan or changing parking policy for the narrow streets to ensure emergency access and the commission has been a good partner in that effort thank you all right thank you let's open it up to the city council councillor busher yes thank you for the report um what i didn't see in the report and you touched upon it at the end was something that talked about the number of pedestrian safety crossing lights that you had implemented um it's i think it would have been an important factoid to have how many are in the city and how many requests still remain because i know that many people feel that that really does provide a safer crossing i understand nothing's perfect and traffic can go through even those enhancements but you're more likely to be able to safely navigate the street if you have that in place and i'm not looking for one every 10 feet i'm just trying to understand what still remains out there um and i think the the public would benefit just like with residential parking what's the what's the process i know you've just defined it before but what is the process to have people have the department consider that what information should they bring to um expedite the evaluation etc so that's number one number two is in your own report you talk about the plan btv white walk bike um and you talk about pearl street flint avenue and colchester avenue and in your pearl street implementation you talk about finding a private parking lot to help with mitigate the pearl street parking removal i think that is a model that didn't happen on colchester avenue and i think that i can't speak for flint avenue but that left people high and dry and i'm still trying to deal with those ramifications of that um without any real recourse for people to know where they could park and a lot of them were out of town when this was implemented so um i think you have a good gold standard model in your report and i think you have a less than satisfactory model in your report and i would like to recommend that we follow the pearl street model trying to look for provide for that parking that's going to be removed if we can maybe we can't do it one for one but at least some uh accommodation of that reality that there will no longer be parking and some people might have needed that thank you thank you councillor busher councillor mason thank you president right um thank you both for coming tonight and for the report um i first want to having come out of at least in the south end a rather busy construction season i want to acknowledge the efforts you know chapein view norm and rob in particular to responding to you know night morning day all the time our requests and those from our constituents you know you may not be able to fix it but at least the flow of information has been tremendous um i would say as you're given the season we've just come out of or still in the middle of middle of if you travel down flint or pine um in the process of your review i think the one and i've relayed this separately to you the one concern i'm hearing most from my constituents is just one of timing you know not really having an understanding of when a project is going to start when it's going to finish um and we hear a lot you know when projects seem to go in fits and starts you know you might have a crew show up one day and then they're gone for weeks um so i think it would benefit us all if you would sort of look at that you know and whether that's a model we want to utilize going forward but even if it is having a better process of communicating that to the council and the public so that you know there's there are no surprises um so thank you good luck in that review and look forward to the results of it thank you thank you councillor mason councillor pine thank you mr president um quick little story just quickly here in the early 1990s cito ran a program called the women's small business program it then moved to trinity college one of the first participants in that program came out of that program and decided to open a business a tailor shop and that tailor served this community for almost 30 years i would dare say she probably adjusted the police uniforms for virtually every police officer in burlington took care of my family's wedding dress and um my wife's wedding dress and um but it came from family members and wanted to stay on pearl street but really um was not able to survive after the parking was eliminated i don't think we actually do enough to think about the impact sometimes of when businesses are part of this community and set their roots here and really invest and provide an incredible service we need to be aware of what's going to happen when we do stuff and i don't think we did that in this case i actually councillor bushford said pearl street was a great success i think she she might have lost her tailor as well because i think i saw her there a few times so um it was an incredible service um she had to move out to wilson road um so i think sometimes we have unintended consequences that we need to fully go through and if we're going to relocate somebody perhaps it's time for cedar to step in and help her you know help that type of business find a new location within the city so i just think it's a shame we lost uh we we love the bike past but i mean bike lanes but when we lose local businesses that's a loss as well thank you councillor councillor jane thank you mr tiki charbonneau share of the commission for your presentation thank you chappan director for being here but i wanted to say a special thank you to norm boldman who is a city engineer and i it feels that currently or lately there has been many attacks to the department because of a specific issue sample and maple and i think i just want him to know that because of that issue he should not feel down he should feel that he has a strong support of his work because he's been here for over 22 years he's been doing an incredible job and i think sometimes the media twists an issue and i just want him to stay strong we need him and he needs to come back here you know doing an incredible job we value his commitment to the city i wanted to say that first so the second thing that i wanted to talk about i feel like we need to prioritize a little bit of neighborhood planning neighborhood calming traffic calming it is unacceptable in my view for neighbors to wait over three to five years in order for their process to start we want to understand what is needed is it resources is it do you don't have enough capacity i think that need to be something you prioritize next starting today because most of the case most of the time it is about the safety of children they live in the neighborhood it's not about tourists we're talking about our schools for example goss court in the new north end very busy street cars are running so hard the petition was completed but i was really surprised to learn it will take three years to start the process i think we need to think about that aspect in making sure our neighborhoods where our children's live where seniors get out of where senior centers are we need to prioritize their safety i wanted to say that second and the third thing currently that i uh notice about the department the department of public work and i think it's because you're adding capacity because the new staff joined you i think his name is rob goldway right that person also along with nicole rush um and laura you know all of those engineers to tell you the truth it's not one time it's not two times that i took their hands they came all the way to the new north end and walked with me to identify where work need to be done and to tell you that if you go back to those areas it's incredibly wonderful i wanted to say that keep on doing the great work keep on making us safe don't only focus on big development project focus on the people who live here thank you for your work thank you councillor jane um any other councillor hearing councillor hansson and then we'll go to the mayor great um thank you for the report and i just wanted to say that as a new member of the the council and someone who's worked very closely with the department and the commission i really just want to thank you and really appreciate all the work that you do it's incredibly difficult to balance all of the factors in in each of these decisions and all of the priorities of the community i think you all do an incredible job i think just to we've illustrated even in this conversation the difficult trade-offs of you know folks being able to travel safely and the vibrancy of businesses and and the overarching challenge of climate change and transforming our transportation system so it's an incredible task i appreciate the work you all do and i think we should really take a look at as a as a city and as a city council ways that we can provide more resources to kind of an ever-growing demand that the community has for for your services and i think it would be it would be wise of us to to explore options to to be able to bolster that and build that up even further thank you thank you councillor hanson mr mayor thank you president rate i want to thank the chair and director for coming in and sharing this report tonight and more over this you know the public works commission is really one of the hardest working boards commissions in the city you guys have to grapple with very challenging issues and trade-offs and we appreciate the attention and wisdom that you bring to those debates and decisions i do want to take this occasion to just as we are heading towards just the end of the construction season to say two things one my heartfelt thanks today try to issue to the members of the department wherever i can for the huge volume of work that they have completed again this construction season around the way to completing this is a third year in a row of a historically high amount of investment in our streets in our sidewalks unprecedented and recent memory at least investment in other assets that had really not seen investment for a long time including our water lines our curbs in many areas of the city and now in the beginning of this generational work in the sewer system and the stormwater system as well with the first contracts for that work being let it has it is it is an enormous expansion of the work going on add to that the generational projects like st paul street the alternative transportation efforts that has become a huge you know very major and new priority for the department and it is uh it is it is an impressive scope of work that the department is getting done this related to that i think it has to be said and i appreciate there was some acknowledgement of it that we um the doing this additional volume of work doing new types of work attempting to coordinate the investment in these different assets like water lines and street paving is requiring the department to do new things and more things and i think we have seen at times our systems for taking on this type of work strained this summer i certainly have heard the concern about disruption and projects that seem to go unattended for significant periods of time the the frustration from the the public i've heard that and i have asked as you may have seen in the north avenue news last month i have asked the department when we get done with this construction season we're gonna we're gonna do some kind of thorough review of our practices and policies here and look at it whether there are ways to do things different differently to shorten the length of time that projects are open to minimize the time from from start to finish and and you know and we're not going to change everything i think it's important for the public we're going to come out of that with you know we'll explain i know some things won't change there are important reasons why the contracts are are structured the way they are the way uh you know we we um have to be conscious of needing to attract bids for this work we have to be conscious of if we dial these requirements on contractors down too tightly we could see a cost skyrocket and those are important additional concerns to balance here but we're gonna we're gonna review that look at whether there are new things to do and have that any new efforts in place in time to impact the upcoming construction season appreciate hearing from the commission that the commission supports this work and it's going to be putting time and effort into helping us get that rate as well i think that would be great to have that broader input so with that present rate i'm done with my remarks on this all right thank you mr mayor i appreciate that and uh thank you very much for that presentation and i appreciate that thank you for your thoughts thank you very much and i am now going to convene the regular meeting of the city council to convene or excuse me recess the regular city council meeting to convene the local control commission meeting first item on the agenda at 8 36 first item on the agenda is the agenda commissioner roof thank you president right um just as i pulled this up and before i make the motion i just want to thank my fellow committee members who stood in for me i wasn't able to make the meeting where this work was done so if there are any questions i'll i'll go to them but i am thankful for for them for standing in with that i'll make a motion to adopt the agenda moved by councilor commissioner roof seconded by commissioner hanson any discussion hearing none all those in favor of the agenda please say i may opposed we have the agenda item number two is the consent agenda commissioner roof i'll move that we adopt the agenda taking the actions as indicated moved by commissioner roof seconded by commissioner tracy all those in favor please say i any opposed we have passed the consent agenda item number three on the deliberative agenda item 3.01 commissioner roof move approval of a one-day only festival permit for co-sellers hullabaloo at the interval center 180 interval road october 12 19 from 12 to 7 p.m moved by commissioner roof and seconded by commissioner hanson any discussion hearing none all those in favor please say i i any opposed that passes unanimously item number 3.02 commissioner roof 302 move approval of a 2019 2020 first and third class restaurant bar liquor license application for the daily planet 15 center street contingent upon fire marshal approval with all standard conditions and the special condition that all past due gross receipt taxes due to the city of berlington pursuant to bco 21-31 be paid by the current owner or successor moved by commissioner roof seconded by commissioner tracy uh any discussion hearing none i'm sorry who are you sir okay we need you to come up to the microphone state your name for the record please i'm david warshow i'm the one applying for liquor license and hopefully the future owner of the daily planet i just want to make clear to the council with the moment that the past bills be paid i'm not actually purchasing the business i'm purchasing the assets of the business including the trade name but i'm not actually fresh in the business just wanted to put that on the record my attorney suggested that i inform you of that all right thank you commissioner roof any coming on that i'm seeing a nodding head by our city attorney is there anything that we need to integrate into our motion hearing that no no i don't think so i think he just wanted to put it on the record for clarification all right thank you appreciate i'll set i think we've had a smooth and seconded right i believe so yes i moved to second it all those in favor please say i any opposed that passes unanimously moved for adjournment so moved commissioner roof seconded by commissioner jang all those in favor please say aye any opposed we are adjourned on the local control commission and uh i will now actually uh convene the mayor city council with mayor presiding mr mayor thank you president i think i i will convene the city council with mayor presiding at 6 40 p.m. yes you will and uh the first item on the agenda is the agenda i'd welcome a motion on it second council mason moved by uh council paul any discussion all those in favor the motion please say aye all right any opposed motion carries unanimously brings us to the consent agenda and our welcome motion regarding it move to pass the consent agenda take the actions indicated thank you thank you president right seconded by councilor busher discussion of the consent agenda all those in favor of the motion please say aye any opposed motion carries unanimously brings us to two appointments the first is for the electric light commission for term expiring june 30th 2022 the floor is open for nominations thank you uh council mason thank you mayor likes to nominate the name of bethany wittaker excellent are there any additional nominations um seeing no additional nominations i'm going to close the floor and is bethany here tonight would she like to address the council not seeing bethany so um uh we'll go to is there any discussion about this appointment we'll go to a vote um if you support the appointment of bethany wittaker to the electric light commission please raise your hand congratulations bethany and thank you for your interest in joining this uh important commission at an interesting time as it's grappling with the brolington the net the net zero energy uh work and much more um 3.02 we are now ready to appoint to the public works commission to uh as we just heard a full report on for term expiring june 30th 2022 as well council mason thank you mayor like to nominate the name of pablo bows excellent are there any other nominations any additional nominations we will close the floor to nominations as mr bows pablo here tonight i don't see him so we'll go to the council any discussion we'll go to a vote all those in favor of appointing um pablo bows to the dpw commission please raise their hands excellent congratulations pablo bows who has served um city commissions the past is great to have him back involved and uh i will just say what we always do as we end these sessions we are very fortunate to have um strong interest from the public in these positions we hope that continues and there are um appointments that are often come up throughout the year i know there's another one coming up soon um for the parks commission and uh then there will be a full round of new appointments next spring with that uh councilor president right i will there's no objection adjourn the city council with mayor presiding at 640 sorry 843 p.m. thank you mr mayor and i will now reconvene the regular city council meeting at 843 and move back to the deliberative agenda item number 5.01 is a public hearing regarding the consolidated annual performance and evaluation report referred to as caper i will now open that public hearing you want to say a few words before we open the public hearing and identify yourself please for the record hi i'm valerie russell i'm from the community and economic development office we are here to accept public comments on the consolidated annual performance evaluation report which is a required annual report um for HUD in order to receive our entitlement funding for cdbg and home program funds so yes we're accepting public comments on the caper itself and also housing and community development needs right thank you anything else my name is Todd Rawlings i'm the acting assistant director for community housing and opportunity programs at cito okay so we will now open the public hearing if there's anyone would anyone like to speak in the public about the regarding the consolidated annual performance and evaluation report referred to as caper going once going twice gone we will close opened and closed the public hearing on caper and 5.02 is a communication from valerie russell acting housing program manager and Todd Rawlings which basically you've already given so we now need a motion to accept the communication and authorize valerie russell acting housing program managers to submit the 2018 caper to the u.s. department of housing and urban development moved by councillor pine seconded by councillor busher any discussion yes discussion councillor busher um first of all uh i always have to smile at how lightly we dispose of this report um that has an incredible amount of information that is linked so strongly with our housing initiatives um and how well we perform with the monies that we have available um we just spent a work session on the outcome of the housing summit and so i understand that this is just a report but i think it really needs to get more attention i know that the council has no appetite tonight for a long discussion about it but i think that we don't really you know distill this into um sizable discussions um and so i'm disappointed at that um one of the things that i looked at i mean i i read this um but i didn't read all of it i'll have to be honest i picked and choose certain things that i read um but um one of the things that you have on page 26 excuse me was the outcomes for the local food shelf how many people you've served etc for um uh and i think that that really is so key this is the homeless and other special needs categories um i was surprised to see that that senior housing or senior needs or special needs i mean i'm senior i don't feel special but i understand i was thinking of it as a more targeted population with excessive needs not just a cluster of as you get older your needs grow but anyways um and i don't want to diminish or dilute the other groups of people that may have those needs um that really need to be highlighted um i wondered um in in the homeless you report how many people we've served but i just wondered if you had information about how many people were turned away um and why and i don't i don't look for that tonight but i think that would be important information to to balance i understand how much we've done but how where is that unmet need i know it's big but i don't know how big and so for me that would be really important i'm not going to speak anymore about all of the things um that are in this report i found it maybe this is good maybe this is not good but under emergency shelter outcomes the average length of a single stay in family shelter was 139 days for me that was a huge amount of time um and uh 42 days in the way station but i was focused on families and how long they stayed in a shelter before you could find them some more more not permanent i'm not sure it's permanent i'm not sure what they transitioned to after the shelter that shows my lack of awareness in this topic and that doesn't feel good to me that i don't know the steps involved and where they go next um so i think that this is really important information and i would ask the mayor to try to figure out how we can take some of this information and work it into the housing agenda that we have and not overburden it but there might be some pearls that could be integrated into that so thank you very much once again for all the work and what an informative report this is thank you councillor busher any other discussion hearing councillor by thank you mr president i have two first is just a question is the amount of funding under the community development block grant is 800 and something thousand is that staying fairly steady is it at risk with this agenda at the national level that might not favor and might you know community development is kind of a maybe not the most popular thing in this administration according to the ncda which is the trade organization for community development this funding is at risk every single year so it's very often zeroed out in the president's budget both of the major funding sources that we're talking about here the home program and cdbg and i noticed there was perhaps three home repair rehab type projects completed in this reporting period what would it take to get 10 of those a year what would we need for resources both the capital dollars but also the staff resources needed i think in the past cito has been lucky enough to have a full time housing rehab specialists right now we feel happy to have someone doing that work halftime so increasing staff resources certainly would be critical to increasing our production one thing that i think we're particularly proud of is that we we are we really have a focus with our owner occupied rehab program to the north avenue co-op which we understand to be a community in a neighborhood that has serious rehab needs thank you and i would i would echo that as somebody who worked on that transition from investor-owned absentee ownership to resident ownership i'm i'm excited about that thanks thank you councillor pine councillor jane um thank you president Todd right mr. Todd yeah so mr. Todd i think you and i we did talk about this um a couple months ago and it's the cdbg those 880 000 dollars that we received federal and i think my request was how do we want to make sure that those funds really go directly to the communities instead of channeling them to organizations that sometimes serve people outside even of chitenden county and i think that's something that we need to continue to think about to see concrete action toward investing this money specifically in burlington alone that's just a request so the second thing that i wanted to ask is if the report is just what's in front of us that what you will be sending or do you have all the details that will go with it this is the full report yeah yeah i mean and it's going to the federal government correct okay usually they ask a lot of paperwork but i like how it's simple and very tangible thank you but that focus please let's keep on thinking about it thank you thank you councillor jane anyone else we're all set all right let's let's uh have the vote all those in favor of motion please say aye any opposed that passes unanimously thank you very much thank you item 5.03 is an indoor entertainment permit application councillor ruff move 503 approval of a 2019 i believe 2020 um indoor entertainment permit application for the daily planet 15 center street with all standard conditions and the special conditions that all pass to gross receipt taxes due to the city of burlington pursuant to bco 21 31 be paid by the current owner or successor moved by councillor ruff seconded by councillor hanson any discussion hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye any opposed that passes unanimously item number 5.04 is an outdoor entertainment permit application councillor ruff move 504 approval of a 2019 2020 outdoor entertainment permit application for re-rise irish pub 123 church street with all standard conditions moved by councillor ruff seconded by councillor hanson any discussion hearing none all those in favor please say aye any opposed that passes unanimously 5.05 is a resolution declaring a climate emergency and initiating a just transition for city staff councillor freeman wave the reading and i moved to wave the reading and adopt the resolution moved by councillor freeman seconded by councillor tracy councillor freeman you have the floor back thank you thank you very much i'm really excited to introduce this resolution it started in may of this year i read this piece by the guardian they put out that they were changing their style guide from saying that it was they were going to stop calling it a climate climate change and instead refer to it as a climate crisis and i came to this meeting and dbw was presenting a report on the freezing thought cycles and used the term climate change and i thought in my head well that's interesting what would that do for our city if we started to reframe this issue what would it do if we really started to think about this and act on it like it was an emergency anacrisis and you know that really just sort of snowballed into looking into you know other places that have declared a full climate emergency and what an impact that could have and you know that just the the cognitive science of framing this issue as really what it is in terms of a crisis and i and i the language really matters so you know this resolution talks about the fact that we are on the verge of a extinction and that matters this this resolution talks about a just transition this idea that that i'm really committed to that you shouldn't have to choose between playing your bills at the end of the month and between you know that and and saving our ecosystem and really what all our day to day life is based on and i think that this resolution is and i think a lot of people spoke to this tonight it's a first step it's not it's it's declaring an emergency but acknowledging that there's so much more that we need to do to really address this to address this issue and that's something that i'm really committed to i'm committed to actually taking action and you know fighting for a just transition fighting for a climate policy that's going to you know really make a difference so i yield back to the thank you thank you councillor Freeman councillor hanson thank you i'm excited about this resolution as well i think this is really about acknowledging reality and the reality of of the scientific community which is clear which is that we have 11 years to drastically reshape our entire economy and how we live our lives if we want to avert an absolute disaster that that is the reality is very intense it's very difficult to stomach but we need to acknowledge it and it's very important that that local governments acknowledge this reality it's so it's a wake-up call and it's really a call to action to all of us in the community it's also joining a broader worldwide really coalition and movement over a thousand cities and jurisdictions have now signed on with with similar language around declaring a climate emergency and a just transition so i think we're really gaining momentum but it's true you know this on its own doesn't do much this is i think spurring action that we that we really need to take and we've seen some some communities some cities some countries even that have signed on to this and their actions have not followed through with with the rhetoric we've seen other places that have begun to take drastic measures so really the question is you know where do we go from here and are we gonna actually treat this like it is an emergency so i think it's incumbent upon all of us all of us to really hold each other accountable and make sure that we're actually operating under this new framework and moving forward boldly together thanks councillor hanson councillor roof thank you president right i'll i'll kind of say my maybe my general comments for for a minute but i have just a couple of questions actually i'll start with what i i believe to be a non-substantive small amendment on line 93 uh chief accounting officer i believe should be chief administrative officer i don't believe we have a chief accounting officer um i believe the second second councillor freeman if you're going to speak though you've got to speak into the microphone second that was a typo yeah type she says that was a typo and if we can fix typos a lot of vote that's fantastic i think that i think we can fix a typo without a vote cool yep um so public's gonna want to just work a little bit here um and i'm just sort of getting moving through this language because it it came recently um i just have a couple of maybe one or two questions for staff or maybe the mayor administration whoever is best suited to answer something like this um what's the level of work that it's about timing i ask this question all the time what's the the the timeline that's uh right for going through and looking at 15 and 20 and 25 which i wasn't anticipating i'm just curious if the timeline is the report back timeline is all all good um so you know i i think um the way this is phrased right now by having to do that analysis of different levels of wages opens up and i would defer to the HR director who i know is in the back but opens us up to i think a bigger evaluation of not just what the costs would be but what the impacts would be on then other levels of salary so it might create some compression in salary across all of our employees so i think it's a bigger analysis and just some math about how many employees and what would have cost at these levels so are you are you saying uh president right do you mind if i follow yes i just want to kind of flush this so it is what does what that mean is um if we to bump up to 20 and 25 at those levels we like everyone else has to bump up as well per se or something like that i don't know about everybody else but i think we'd want to analyze what that would impact that would be so it's it's a big impact on the benefits just for those existing people but then it would affect kind of the levels for everyone above or potentially affect everyone above so to my original question is there is a report is a report back date something that we can stick to or would that have you had a chance to to look at what the timeline would be briefly yes i think we haven't had a chance to talk about it because we didn't get it in time to have a discussion internally but i think it would be hard to meet that december date with that level of so maybe just like i'm just gonna throw something out here um sort of kind of two paths that could be taken um just kind of recognizing that that date might not be something that can be reached um or we get what could be reached and my understanding is that if we were to increase if we were to pair that down and look at just the minimum wage piece up to 15 dollars uh and not do the 20 or 25 would that would that make it easier we can either change the date or we can change what we're asking for and and that actually i'm not offering anything i'm just bringing that up because i think that's something that we should talk about i think the mayor would like to speak to this um you know again we just got this language tonight but there had been some previous discussion of um uh raising all workers the great majority of city workers get by received by um ordinance at least a livable wage um the only category of workers in the city at this point after the expansion that was done several years ago that does not receive a livable wage are seasonal workers with less than five years of employment um that we had we did anticipate that there may be interest in that from prior discussions that i think could be done by the december 16th deadline the this idea of going beyond that that was introduced tonight um we would need more time to evaluate we you know if it's if there's a desire to do it we probably could get it done by the jan mid january if uh in time for the upcoming uh budgeting year um but i would ask you know i don't think that request should be made um is the council really um talking about a change to the livable wage ordinance um of a magnitude that would push up salaries to that level if that's something that that would be a you know a major change to this sort of statutory way in which a livable wage is calculated um we haven't had any discussion until tonight about the possibility of doing that before tasking city staff the you know a non-trivial analysis um i wonder whether it might be prudent to have more discussion about whether the council is seriously considering that thank you mr mayor and i would just like to counsel counsel freeman we do need to make clear that you are moving the revised resolution and could you just briefly tell us what the revision was yes i struck lines 92 through 94 and i added um which so the the original resolution just basically said that the city would commit to um paying all city workers with no exemptions a livable wage and i understood that there was um pretty wide request um that that be amended to be informational and i think that's very reasonable and so um it's just been changed and um those are you know different benchmarks and you know i think most people are used to thinking of um the sort of broader wage campaign uh is 15 that's a very popular campaign um but you know 20 is um just another metric that's used if we if nationally if um wages had kept up with the rate or the value of production it would be around that value um but they've stagnated since 1968 and then 25 was really just to understand what a high range um value would look like i'm a numbers person um i the data really interests me um so it's not an endorsement of the policy um or the budget it's just transparency around information um and what are you know sort of what compensation for our employees looks like right thank you councillor freeman councillor mason so just for frame of reference current livable wage is $14 and 44 cents uh without insurance and 50 i mean with insurance in 1583 so i appreciate the desire for information but i'm concerned if we're not even having a policy discussion requesting that volume of information and the impacts it has um so i would like to propose i guess an amendment uh to line i don't i got a call up i don't have a hard copy i actually on line 96 taking out a minimum wage of $15 an hour $20 an hour and $25 an hour strike that with livable wage to get the data back on what it would cost to push to the livable wage from you can vote against it but from my perspective that's a more effective hold on one sec i've got other amendments um i've had the opportunity go through this in the only other place where i'd like to propose an amendment is in line six and i apologize for not having this in advance but on line 63 um as the the public has noted we have two somewhat uh similar resolutions in the queue there is in my opinion the discrepancy between the time frame for the net zero um in line 63 the the freeman resolution calls for it as quickly as possible not later than 2030 the other resolution adopts the time frame set forth in the net zero energy roadmap which has short term midterm and long term goals of one to three four to six and then seven to nine my concern would be if this is left you have two identical resolutions with two different time frames and the administration is a little bit at a loss so my proposed amendment would be to strike in the freeman resolution line 63 as quickly as possible but no later than 2030 and replace it with on the timeline set forth in the net zero energy roadmap so with that i will see and that was line 63 and the first one you mentioned again could you repeat the first one councilor mason i got a look on the computer line 96 and that was delete deletion correct uh and a replacement my computer just changed but taking out the language instead of a minimum wage of $15 an hour comma $20 an hour and $25 an hour replacing that with a livable wage okay did the clerks has the clerk's office got that those two amendments lines 96 one second line 96 and line 63 councilor busher what is your point of information for just clarity on line 63 the amended language is you take out as quickly as possible and no later than 2030 and insert that language but then pick up with including i just wanted to understand what you're eliminating and that is correct replacing the time frame with on the timeline set forth in the net zero energy roadmap and then leaving including increased efforts i'm not touching that language yes thank you thank you all right first let's get to seconded by councillor shannon so it's on the table and now open for discussion councillor freeman thank you so regarding those amendments i'll start with the wage component so i hear the desire to leave it at a livable wage there are various metrics that are used for that that's why i think the hard numbers is a better tool in terms of sourcing that data so i would and your point of information that the amendment is combined so you're proposing both changes at once both changes are one amendment is that correct councillor mason i'm happy to vote on them separately let's do that so and i hear i don't want to put undue burden on the on the city staff so i you know if we want to amend this and i can just throw out some language hopefully to have the $15 come back by december which was i think the 90 days that we had sort of ballparked and then if there needs to be an extension for the for the other data or a longer time frame i think that's completely reasonable i i just would really prefer to be able to have access to that information it could be you know however 120 days i don't know how long it takes but i'm okay with it being longer so that was my thought on that should i should i you can speak to the other one as well okay and i can't okay um and the as to the as to the line 63 um personally i um i think this is it's written in my view as to be stronger than the than the roadmap um and that was the the timeline to be not stronger but the particularly the emissions maybe versus the um you know i i don't know i i don't know if i would vote for that change but i certainly respect that there are um that there was considerable work put into the roadmap that that is the um process of the city is moving forward with at this point and um you know if that's what the majority of the council would like to see um and and then i i i could understand that so that's my that's my two cents thank you councillor freeman councillor busher and then councillor hanson so um uh clear point of clarity for me before i begin are we dealing with both are we dealing with just one at a time i don't know am i speaking to both or what councillor mason i think decided to do them separately yeah but i'm actually point of information i'm not sure whether councillor freeman amended my amendment or have just made a comment okay thank you thank you separate councillor mason is doing them separately so you but you can well go ahead okay um so really like this resolution as as it was presented tonight um it dealt with some of the issues that i had with it to begin with um i feel that i understand the um the need to be consistent with with actions or timelines so for me um i just want to let the the sponsor of this know that i feel um i understand what this says versus the other one but i feel that um on the timelines at fourth and net uh net zero the net zero road map um i i feel like both resolutions need to say the same thing and so i i could support that amendment um as far as the um proposed um language um initially um uh the sponsor um councillor freeman had put in uh livable wage and so for me the $15 20 and $25 certainly that information would be informative but we pay a livable wage which is already above $15 so i really want to know uh what the salary cost would be for a livable wage and so that really is important to me um the additional information i feel for $20 an hour um maybe that would maybe that could be a compromise in in what is being proposed but um i think livable wage is is the information i'm looking for so thank you thank you councillor busher councillor hanson thank you um so speaking to the changes on line 63 so the the resolutions do have different goals um and i think that's that's fine i think we don't it's somewhat unnecessary even to to pass two resolutions with the exact same goals i think they are different um the differences are somewhat meaningful um so the net zero energy um city's net i'm reading from it now the city's net zero energy by 2030 goal is defined as reducing and eventually eliminating fossil fuel use from heating and ground transportation sectors um so that's that's what that goal is whereas this goal is net zero greenhouse gas emissions so the net zero energy road map um goes it does go a very long way in in the way it's projected in in reducing emissions but it does not necessarily achieve um net zero greenhouse gas emissions and it also specifies sectors whereas this does not so it is different i think both are very critical goals and it's we could achieve both we could achieve one we could achieve neither i mean i think we should strive to achieve both of these goals would be my thinking so i do think there's value in in setting this goal around emissions um that is more holistic in addition to to um the following resolution which will commit us to the net zero energy road map so i i won't be supporting um that that amendment and that change thank you council hanson okay we're dealing with the amendment strictly on line 63 right now councilor shannon um i don't have a problem with passing resolutions that have different goals but i do have a problem with passing resolutions where the goals are not aligned and i think that that is the case here these these goals are not aligned there isn't really a path to get to what's described in the original language and i think what the roadmap does is provide a way to achieve the goals i think throwing in a new goal with no particular path to get there just becomes confusing to a goal that actually has a path to get there because without the path to get to get there you doesn't really mean anything and it's in conflict with the one that has a path so i um appreciate the language that was offered in this amendment and we'll support it thank you thank you councilor shannon are we ready to vote on this one all right all those in favor of this first amendment by councilor mason on 60 line 63 please say i i any opposed let's actually do a show of hands all those in favor please raise your hands those opposed that first amendment passes by a vote of seven to five so we'll move on now to the second amendment on line 96 councilor mason could you i'm sorry could you repeat that one briefly the what that one is again the actual tax or the impact the impact is to request information relating to moving up the seasonal employees who are not being paid a livable wage to a livable wage the proposed actually what that would mean is striking out online 95 six excuse me the language after it starts a minimum wage of $15 an hour $20 an hour and $25 an hour and and replacing that with livable wage all right thank you councilor mason for a discussion on this amendment hearing none all those in favor please raise your hands and those opposed that passes by a vote of eight to four and we are now back on the resolution as amended now by councilor mason on both counts further discussion on this resolution as amended hearing hearing councilor shannon thank you um while i i supported that last amendment to speak about livable wage rather than random wages i am wondering what this has to do with the purpose of the resolution which as stated is declaration of climate wait i have the wrong one sorry same same heading right declaring a climate emergency and initiating a just transition for city staff so um i do appreciate uh having a discussion generally about livable wage about bringing all workers up to livable wage and i think that that's a good idea um but my understanding of just transition that it's kind of terminology um from the green new deal as i understand it that speaks to transitioning people from the fossil fuel industry into um into a you know carbon neutral energy industry and our livable wage ordinance doesn't really or you know whether or not people are getting livable wage it really doesn't have anything to do with just transition and when we talk about just transitioning city staff i wonder who we are talking about and what that means thank you thank you councillor shannon councillor ruff um just another the editor in news coming out on line 93 typo chief innovation officer not chief innovative officer typo that can be fixed uh councillor councillor shannon you had something to follow up on that yes okay i was just hoping to actually get an answer to the question that i asked what did you want the answer from i thought the maker of the motion would be appropriate if it's okay with you the sponsor the resolution yes all right councillor freeman would you like to respond to that yeah absolutely um i think that's an amazing and wonderful question um i think that so the green new deal the just transition um as a framework to talk about um sort of what you're mentioning this aspect of um how do we um move people who are in um yeah destructive you know extractive industries um and maintain um a transition for them um into um jobs and work that is going to be part of a sustainable and um you know healthy economy and um one of the so and the green new deal is an is an aspect of the just transition it's a the green new deal is a just transition program sort of it's a an example of what a just transition is um and the way i see it is that so one of the major um values and sort of principles of a just transition is this aspect of you can't it's not either or you don't choose between like i said paying your bills at the end of month or eating at the end of the week um and being able to sustain a healthy economy and a and a strong you know ecosystem and so i if we are to put forward a just transition proposal um you know the green new deal is it is an example and we can think about ways that um a just transition would be implemented on a local level but if we are to say we we want that value we we um acknowledge that principle of the gold standard for sort of labor practices um then how can we also um allow for people who work for the city um to be exempted from that very standard um we have full um capacity as a city to pay those um individuals um a wage that they can live on and we have i think we have an imperative to do so i don't think anyone should be left behind in this economy um so that's really why i included that in there um it's it's to me it's a first it's a first step to talking about what a just economy and a just and climate justice even looks like um i spent a lot of time you know i i live near battery park and so there are a lot of folks who work for parks who um are there and the folks who come and help um sort of set up and also clean everything when we leave and some of them are um yeah they're making $13 an hour and that's not enough to live on and um you know i think we it doesn't really matter what someone's age is but when you're 65 years old and um you're making $13 an hour that's a pretty that's a pretty hard way to live so um that's why i put this in here and i hope that we can um at least request this that as a first step and then we can determine how to move forward from from there and that's up for debate at that point thank you councillor freeman councillor tracy thank you president right and thank you to the maker of the resolution as it i think helps to provide additional context to the the broader conversations that we've been having as a community around issues of climate crisis and i specifically like this the aspect of this resolution that calls attention to what i think is an imperative when we discuss climate change which is that uh climate change um will not impact everybody equally um i think that we in a society that is growing increasingly uh in uh uh increasingly less equal uh where we see widening gaps of wealth and we see that wealth those wealth gaps really growing in our society we need to be cognizant of the fact that we uh that when climate change is taking place that um basically uh rich folks um can make me may potentially be able to um buy their way out of all some of these impacts though i don't think all of them and so i think that it's important that we center um marginalized folks whenever discussing uh climate change uh and and these issues because um i think that they'll be the the first to be impacted and also unfortunately some of the first people to be forgotten and we've seen that time and again um when uh climate crises have happened um like Hurricane Katrina like Maria last in in Puerto Rico we see a lot of people who um you know are uh who are not at the the top of the economic ladder the socioeconomic ladder not being necessarily uh paid attention to uh and in many ways forgotten in this climate crisis so i appreciate that this resolution not only remembers those folks but really centers them and brings that conversation at the forefront and in addition to that tries to bring a meaningful example of how we might do that locally uh with regards to the level wage piece i think that's crucial and i think that we strengthen the level wage ordinance several years ago i think we can go further and i really support uh councillor Freeman uh in her efforts to do to to bring that to the forefront as someone who's been uh advocating for level wages in this community for a long time i think that this is something that we can absolutely do and that we um should prioritize as a city so i just want to thank councillor Freeman for making this resolution and we'll be happy to support it thank you councillor mason any other councillor paul thank you um so i i just would like to add and sort of echoing what several others have said i appreciate councillor Freeman bringing forth this resolution and certainly her commitment to addressing our climate emergency i think it's important that we have a resolution that speaks to uh the global fight crisis that we're facing um and our need to work with all of us with our collective community um to initiate this transition particularly for our city staff but also as councillor tracy has just acknowledged our community's most vulnerable um i'd also like to thank her for amending the livable wage language um as councillor tracy said i think it was probably about it was at least gosh i don't know probably six years ago or so councillor busher and i among others um advocated heavily for um seasonal employees who piece together their employment with seasonal uh work to um to get a livable wage and so this would certainly look into taking that one step further it's time that we do that and i appreciate her bringing this forward and i'm happy to support the resolution thank you thank you councillor paul and i want to apologize i called councillor tracy councillor mason i have a i have this blindspot every once in a while on that councillor hanson thanks yeah i i would speak in support of this component as well i think it's it's really important especially in the context of um a lot of what we're laying out with with our climate goals and the need for individual community members to to change what technologies they're using i think these are technologies that are uh increasingly cost competitive and and over time are our save uh money savers but um do have an upfront cost and so when we're talking about raising up folks who are who are maybe making the least um that is going to help towards these goals of of getting more and more folks uh able to break free from fossil fuels so i think there's a direct tie in there um and there's obviously many implications beyond this of of looking at raising these wages so really think it's a it's a key component of the resolution thank you councillor hanson i think we should be ready to vote now so let's uh councillor jane thank you president um so i wanted to just um take the time to also recognize mr wil who is here um who also continuously been coming here every day to call us to do so and for calling us i think thank you for doing so you know that's what we need people who care and people who push us to do the right thing thank you but also wanted to definitely um thank uh freeman for her commitment to this issue about climate change about climate emergency and i share also the same sentiment with some of the city councils here i cannot find the correlation between livable wage and also the declaration of climate change and i think i repeatedly ask you to to explain to me and i think why i'm voting on this resolution today because i don't want us to move away from making the declaration tonight and also i am very appreciative of you councillor freeman for changing the language in just asking a report and now if that report comes maybe what we will do next right and i think we already have a channel where we can have that discussion which is our livable wage ordinance i think that's where the focus need to be but asking for a report you know does not allow me to vote against this thank you for your work thank you will also for your work thank you councillor jang and we are going to vote now so all those in favor all those in favor please raise your hands and those opposed the vote is 11 to 1 with council right as i know we will now move forward to council to item 5.006 and that is a resolution also declaration of climate change emergency and adoption of net zero energy goals uh i'm recognizing councillor paul thank you president right i'd like to move the resolution wave the reading uh as for a second and then the floor back after a second seconded by councillor paul councillor shanley councillor paul you go to the floor by thank you president right i almost gave you both the first and the second first i almost gave you both the first and the second okay well that would be a first and a second all right is that good i mean that was pretty good that was good um the resolution uh like the resolution before before this that we just passed carries with it an important dose of reality that i think is unlike any of the other issues that we've uh that i can recall and at least in recent memory and maybe in in my time as a councillor the reality is that our our planet is a fragile resource entrusted to our care and it's up to us to be responsible guardians uh as the resolution noted the united nation's intergovernmental panel on climate change in 2018 sounded the alarm and a call to action saying that quote we must take urgent transformative action to avert the worst effects of climate change beyond one and a half uh degree celsius warming the report went on to say that we have just 12 years to make massive and unprecedented change to global energy infrastructure to limit global heating to moderate levels we as uh the citizens of this planet are in what i would call uncharted chartered territory there's no documented historic precedent for the action that we need to take we need to engage in extraordinary transitions as the resolution noted in transportation infrastructure renewable energy use energy efficiencies and electrification technologies we as the report says we need to cut human-caused carbon emissions by 45 to 2010 levels by 2030 if we want to achieve this goal of a limit of one and a half degrees since celsius temperature increase something that we must do burlington electric and the city of burlington have long been leaders in energy efficiencies and new technologies uh i was on the electric commission back in the 1990s and even back then we were talking about many of these same issues we were forward thinking um and we were thinking about renewable energy as the foundation for our energy portfolio it took some time because it does take time with long-term energy contracts to unwind them and move forward but in 2014 burlington became the first city in the nation to source 100 percent of its electricity for renewables that's a that's a very big deal and one that everyone in this room should be proud of about two years ago which was way ahead of the ip cc report under the direction of our mayor bd began working to become on the roadmap to becoming a net zero energy city by 2030 and at our last council meeting we had a report from bd our consultants and other departments in the city about the net zero energy energy roadmap on this teeth sorry this roadmap this resolution this resolution does have teeth in it and i'd like to just mention a couple of points that are in the resolution for the benefit of others that may not be reading the resolution we resolve as we did in our last resolution to declare that the time for addressing our climate issues as warming or as change has long passed we are in a climate emergency and the very future of our planet is in our collective hands as a council by resolution the last resolution as well as this we're we are expressing our support for the net zero energy roadmap and bd strategic direction as a as elected officials and this is the teeth part we feel that it is our responsibility to ensure that we keep to our roadmap otherwise they're just simply words on a piece of paper the administration will offer a written report and presentation to the council no later than january identifying how each department will contribute track and measure the citywide efforts to reach our goals semi-annually the administration will update the council and community on our progress towards net zero energy 2030 and all city commissions will include in their annual report a progress update to the council on our net zero energy goals while we are in uncharted chartered territory i think it's important to know that bd and the city of burlington are no strangers to tackling significant challenges this one may test us more than any of the others combined but i do believe that together all of us and i mean all of us um with a sense and we all in burlington have a sense of what it means to be global citizens that together we can accomplish these goals i'd like to thank the leadership of bd for authoring the lion's share of this resolution i'd also like to thank as councillor jang did um will heard who um brought this issue of a climate emergency declaration to all of us on the council several months ago and will you are an example that your calls captured our attention i'm grateful as our others at this table and hope that others will do the same we are listening and we certainly listen to what you had to say um i'd also like to thank councillors mason jang roof shannon and polino for their cosponsorship ship and no i am not leaving out councillor hanson because in particular i'd like to acknowledge your role in the role that you played in this resolution in addition in addition to cosponsoring i appreciate councillor hanson's commitment to working collaboratively on this resolution your contributions to this resolution added depth meaning and accountability that is expressed in this resolution and your input made for a better resolution so thank you i hope that each councillor can support this resolution one that generations to come may judge us by thank you thank you council thank you councillor paul open for discussion councillor pine and then councillor hanson thank you mr president i just wanted to um point out we got some feedback from a constituent today that um we were perhaps making a plan with specific metrics and achievables and deliverables um without even necessarily knowing the full impact on the cost and in fact i replied saying a roadmap is just that it's looking at what are the different routes we can take to get there do we need to build a bridge here to get there is this a way to avoid is this an area to avoid it's not it's not the destination it is spelling out how you go about getting there um and what is the destination we hope to achieve but it doesn't exactly spell out all of the details we're not making commitments to certain um financing scenarios putting the burden on one group versus the other i just want to be really clear that this step tonight is a broad policy statement it is a it is a goal that hopefully we've been able to build consensus around this table and then the next part is to build consensus in this community to move us there but it is not a prescriptive document that lays out sort of like the municipal development plan is what we hope to achieve the zoning ordinance is how we get there we haven't written the zoning ordinances this is just a roadmap this is a plan thanks thank you councillor pein councillor hanson thanks i just wanted to speak to both of the resolutions um one thing i want to say is i really appreciate the comments that the members of the public brought forth on these resolutions i think they're they're spot on in numerous ways um first of all the fact that you're even here engaging on this and discussing it is critical um but the comment themselves i mean several folks spoke to the fact that it doesn't necessarily go far enough i i mean i think that's true and i think no individual resolution is going to get us there that's that's not the situation we're in we're only going to get there and achieve this by by working together all of us every single day to cut emissions um and transition our economy off of fossil fuels so we have to do this all the way from our our daily habits and our individual choices and the way we speak to others in the work that we do both paid and unpaid um the political organizing that we do who we vote for where we spend money and and so on and so forth um and it's not going to be easy at this point um we have collectively put this off for so long that we are now facing some very tough choices and there's going to be sacrifices they're going to be trade-offs um but to to not achieve this and to shy away from this task is is unacceptable um these resolutions really help us in in moving towards that task by holding accountability towards the necessary goal of eliminating fossil fuel usage by 2030 they acknowledge our commitment to this undertaking and they lay out a framework through which we can ramp up our efforts um folks spoke to the the fact that we need teeth and I I worked very hard to add as much heat to the resolution as I could and um you know to my point about everyone playing a role every day one of my biggest goals in in collaborating with with folks on this resolution was to really institutionalize climate considerations into decision-making across the entire infrastructure of our city government because you know I think the city itself and our city government needs to really set the example and if we don't go all in we can't expect the community to go all in so this resolution requires all city department heads to collaborate on a plan to move forward it um requires commissions to include progress updates in their annual reports it requires the administration or it asks the administration to report on progress every six months over overall progress towards the goal it even has the city looking at our procurement process our work with outside contractors um this this isn't just something that we're throwing out there and we'll revisit in a few years this this really sets up ongoing ongoing accountability to make sure that we're on track so I just want to close and say that what we really need now is to come together around solutions and to follow through and implement these solutions I think if we're focused on tearing each other down or fighting on the points that we disagree on we're not going to make it we have to focus on finding the areas of common ground finding those areas that we do agree on those solutions that we do agree on and moving forward rapidly together with a sense of justice thanks thank you councillor hance and councillor tracy thank you president right I will be supporting this resolution I think that it does that it goes a long way towards addressing the climate crisis that we just declared in our last resolution as well as supporting and going alongside that so I will be supporting it one of the things that I particularly like about this resolution is that it it brings attention to not only the electricity sector but that it also talks about two areas where we have not been as successful as a city in terms of reducing our our carbon which are vehicle miles traveled and the heating and cooling aspects of the city and I think that when we look at those we actually in the in the case of vehicle miles traveled have actually been losing ground as a city and I think that that's incredibly disappointing and quite honestly frightening and I think that we need to continue to do everything that we can to continue to revolutionize our our our transportation systems to be more walk and bike friendly and to incentivize people to take transit in much greater numbers and so I think that that's particularly valuable within this resolution I understand that that that that will necessarily mean that we are challenging car-centric culture and that that will be painful and that that will be challenging and that that will take some adjustment and I think we're seeing that you know we had a pretty challenging meeting honestly last week at Transportation and Utilities Committee about the Saint Paul project a project that I think is moving us in that direction whether it's trying to capture the increased amounts of rainfall during these unbelievable storm events that we're starting to see with increasing frequency or trying to make the city more walkable and bikeable to really prioritize those modes within the city as that project does but you know we saw some reaction from people that they were pissed that things had changed that things were were not quite what they expected and that it was taking some some time to adjust and while that's understandable and while that I understand some of the challenges that that faces I would hope that we not not look at a project like that and fall back from what I think is our calling to to to face this crisis head on but that we look at a project like that and that we continue to refine our strategies and that we continue to go back to the drawing board and that we continue to encourage people to embrace these new strategies because that's the only way that we're going to address these issues around the vehicle miles traveled piece and where we revolutionize our system and we need to be making sure that we're doing so in the context of a system I think that that was the biggest thing that I took away from Friday's demonstration which is that we need to be creating new systems we can't just do a piecemeal and I would look to us to continue to aggressively implement plan btv walk bike to make sure that we prioritize walking and biking in this city we know that it's going to be painful but in the reality climate change is going to be a heck of a lot more painful in the long term and I look at everybody around the around this table and if you're voting for these resolutions I expect you to be willing to step up to the plate and make those hard choices they are going to be hard but we need to take them so I look to everybody around this table to join uh with you know to join together and to work together to find ways to revolutionize that system recognizing the complexity and being willing to engage with members who are of the community who are resistant to that change because we we will absolutely need that on the thermal energy piece I think again on a systemic approach we need to continue to prioritize developing district energy systems this is a crucial strategy that we have continued that we have continually identified as a community as being as having great potential to take care of a huge percentage of our heating and cooling needs through a resource that we already have essentially wasted heat from the mcneal plant we need to continue to to prioritize this work and again not take a step away from massive you know from from public public investment in these systems because that that will be a crucial aspect of moving us moving us towards addressing the this climate crisis thank you thank you councillor tracy councillor mason tough to follow that councillor tracy very impassioned um listening to this debate in the entire conversation this evening does bring to mind the somewhat schizophrenic nature in which we operate you know on the one hand the bike lanes were lauded on pearl street but by the other voice we're lamenting the loss of parking spaces and the negative impact on businesses and i think that's what makes our job so challenging um i hear from similar on st paul street just as many people who say we didn't do enough to add dedicated bike lanes um from those who say what a wonderful thing you know the new broader sidewalks are and the store and and law that stormwater mitigation so it will be the the future will be challenging but i'm i'm confident we will be making steps to do that it also looking and seeing jenny green reminds me or makes me feel proud of the steps we're taking here councillor tracy alluded to that you know the last hurdle being the vehicle miles that we weren't addressing i remember hearing from jenny six years ago you know one of max and i probably first presentation that you know that was the nut um it took a while but at least i'm confident that now we have a path you know we have a path and it's up to us to achieve these and move the community forward um but together and i also that's sort of my conclusory i would like to echo you know councillor paul's statements and also thank councillor paul for sort of taking the lead on this working both with the administration councillor hanson and the full council to really truly bring forward a collaborative effort that i think will pass as near to unanimous as possible thank you any further comments hearing none mr mayor thank you president right i'll try to be brief i do just want i'm hopeful that councillor mason with his last prediction there is right and this is going to get a strong vote and i think in in doing so this will be the beginning of an important additional chapter in berlington's really proud and an unusual environmental history i do want to also thank councillor paul and councillor hanson as the councillors have worked really closely with the administration and the berlington electric department including the berlington electric department to get this this right thank you for your collaboration there i do think this lays out a a lot of clarity about how we move forward and make this more than simply a proclamation but something that we continue to make work on over time this new chapter you know i think this we should i've come to think of this as the third big chapter in berlington's environmental initiatives we had the late 1980s a major effort at energy efficiency which led then to really contribute to a whole statewide movement around energy efficiency and it is the reason today that berlington has taken a different trajectory than most of the rest of the country and we consume less electricity today as a community that we did in 1989 next big chapter starts in 2004 and ends just a decade later in 2014 with the achievement of the of becoming the first city in america to source 100 percent of our electricity from renewable generation and it's really i think the two of those are the inspiration in large part for taking on this third even in greater challenge becoming net zero energy city across the transportation and ground transportation and thermal sectors as well set point number two of three is and this is really hit home to me as we've been talking about this more over the last few weeks i think this this roadmap that we are adopting the goals of tonight has a lot of good news in it to me it's quite striking that we the roadmap lays out a path towards this restructured completely restructured city where the way in which our vehicles and buildings operate is very different than today but does so with technologies that are essentially off the shelf they just today and they are largely in many cases cost effective today with promise of becoming more cost effective over the the course of this essentially 12 year goal i think that's not that's a point that is lost in a lot of the discussions and calls we hear from transformation this is this to me is a suggests that that transformation is possible and this is the way we get there and then finally i do just want to not lose this opportunity as there is the attention of the community on this action we're about to take to point out that what this will require going forward is city action in part and the city has acted 15 new initiatives and launched as we announced this roadmap the city is going to continue to act but ultimately achieving this 20 30 goal of a net zero energy city is going to require actions by many others not simply the city itself it is going to require really just about everyone in the community to to consider this this goal and the opportunities it presents as they make decisions about their transportation and their and their buildings that they're residing in and working in so this is an exciting night one that will have implications for a long time to come and it's a pleasure to get to work with the council on this important work thank you mr mayor and we are going to vote and vote now but i'm going to take presidential prerogative to just say one quick comment it's to explain my vote which is the easy vote for me tonight on this one and actually one that i was leaning toward was a yes vote because i do think many of the goals here are laudable and i appreciate the work that's been done and as i said i think many of these goals are laudable i think some of the goals are are unrealistic to be achieved i think 95 percent of brollingtonians heating their houses with electric heat pumps anytime in the near future i think it's is not realistic even though a worthy goal but i cannot good conscious vote for something that i've just been told that i need if i spoke for this i need to stand up and be for this agenda which is more about bikes and more about what some of us view as creating real problems on the roads and creating gridlock on the roads i could go on i will not go on any further i'm sure that i will be the only no vote here and that vote change from potential yes to a no just the last few minutes with that i'd like a show of hands all those in favor of this resolution please raise your hands and those opposed and for the record one no vote that's president right and that concludes that item and we'll move on now to item 5.07 and i will pass the gavel to councilor mason thank you president right uh next on the agenda is item 5.07 resolution support for the members of burlington police department council right thank you president mason um i would like to move adoption of the resolution wait for a second and ask for the floor back is there a second seconded by councillor busher so this is a resolution that i thought long and hard about people ask me to do this constituents others and frankly first i i wasn't sure about doing it only because i did not want to create another situation where people came out in public forum and um raked our burlington police officers over the coals again but um i continue to hear from um citizens and again others and i've talked to police officers and people who represent police officers who have told me how much police officers really have been demoralized over the last few months um i'm sure not every officer feels that but i know that many officers do i know that we are facing much we are face facing serious uh issues of recruitment and retention in the burlington police department and when we talk about criticizing the police department and that we ought to be able to have fair criticism and that discussion that's one thing and and we've passed a committee that is looking and it says this in the resolution that we've we passed a resolution to look at incidents that happen and look at them on a fair basis we've we all supported that unanimously and we acknowledge that and the resolution that work is going forward but when i hear comments made in public forum over the last months and when i hear comments made at a rally outside at city hall they just say horrific comments about the men and women of our burlington police department that is concerning to me um when i hear police officers called thugs violent predators and other comments that are so bad that i i won't even repeat that's concerning to me and i know it's demoralizing to police officers and frankly when there are proposals brought forth to the council that talk about or propose freezing and then eventually reducing potentially the size of the police force with a suggestion that that might make the city safer less police officers i mean i don't think there's any other way that police officers can take that but as as as very negative and very demoralizing now a discussion about all these issues is warranted of course and we're having that in this committee that was created by the city council on a unanimous basis that work is is just beginning but i do think and i posted this on facebook late saturday night in a course of 24 hours there were about 200 uh 200 likes to the post and there were over 100 comments of which every single one was positive about this resolution and about standing up and saying we support and have the backs of the men and women of our police department every single one was positive about that except for one and one that was slightly mixed um i think it's important when i go around the city and i have people say to me repeatedly over and over the city council is really discussing or talking about de-weaponizing the police now people don't understand that that proposal has not been really offered but that it's just out there but they think that the council is potentially pursuing that proposal so i think it's important i think it's important that we stand up here and say uh in a very simple way that we acknowledge like in any other department there there are problems and we're looking at those but that we our police officers have a very difficult job they by and large to a very good job for this community and they are trying to do good work in our neighborhoods across this this great city um and can we do even better yes we can and we're going to try to do that but i think that it is it is important for us as a body to stand up and and say look we support the police we think they have an incredibly difficult job and we also think that they should continue to carry their firearms for better protection of both themselves and the public and with that i will leave it there and um i um i hope that this passes as is when i mention this to people around the city when i've responded to people on facebook and and other avenues almost to a person and i'm talking about a ton of people that i've talked to in a variety of different capacities they say to me well that's a no-brainer i mean that's not even going to be a debate is it but i know that i've told them that that would probably not be the case so with that i will stop talking and hope that we can pass this resolution thank you council roof followed by council tracy excuse me so while most know i'm i'm pretty passionate about about this subject but to be honest um i really don't feel that my demonstration of support for our police department is contingent upon this resolution or even some version of it um that being said i i do think that it's important i think it's very important from time to time to send respect and appreciation to our staff of which this council of course in partnership with the executive office are responsible for over six hundred more than 100 of which are at the police department so as as policy makers and as public servants it's important to tell but also show your support of our staff and their work even knowing that they have and likely will make mistakes when it comes to supporting cops in particular i think the best way i know how to demonstrate support is to be properly informed on the range of complex policy issues and on the and on the ground realities of their work so that when it comes time to make decisions about the impacts decisions that impact their lives or the lives of those we charge them to protect and serve we're able to do so based on fact and reality and diverse perspective so with that i want to recommend that everyone in this room whether you are in favor of this resolution or not or regardless of how you feel sign up or consider signing up at least going on a ride along attending the burlington police community police academy which runs during the winter months and going to roll call if you can it was these experiences over these last couple of years here in addition to work that i've done to understand the complexities of how police interface with our community of course it's not a one-sided conversation but it's these experiences that have really been vastly valuable in my effort in developing resilient relationships within our PD and outside of our PD so while frankly i would have drafted this resolution a little bit differently and aimed to get some more folks on off the jump i will be supporting it i will be voting in support of that but i'll also be supporting it while remembering all the work and the statements and the personal positions that we all made clear many times in fact during the long process of tackling police issues over the summer in particular as president right noted the work that we did in establishing that special committee on policing which is now doing its work so i suppose with that i'll actually i'll end with this because i have i have a hope here for this conversation that this conversation doesn't become a debate over are we team cop or team community because as i've said before i've been consistent on this point that that's a false and dangerous dichotomy and we should be cognizant of the negative impacts of perpetuating these sorts of destructive narratives we can have healthy debate but i think that we need to be super cognizant of not perpetuating these negative and dangerous narratives thank you else crazy thank you acting president mason i honestly don't see how you can vote for this resolution and not engage or not see this as being a dynamic or a dichotomy between team cop and team anti-cop because i think it places and conflate it places great uh it basically associates criticizing police and and and the actions that that they've taken and specifically in the context of the conversation we've had in this community solutions that have been put forth in response to serious incidents where people were slammed to the ground suffering traumatic brain injuries i don't think we need to be reminded of that or another person was died as a result of an interaction with police so i think that those are really serious things and i think that we in the context of those incidents developed a very a series of responses that put a variety of potential solutions on the table i think that this resolution by identifying criticism and i and identifying potential solutions that well maybe are challenging for people are challenging to the status quo of american policing and the status quo of how our department does things i think are necessary i think we need to be thinking about alternatives to that so this idea that we might draw down the police force and replace them with with social workers i think is actually something that may have have value and i think that we should not identify the the proposition of a solution like that with with necessarily being against or not supporting police i think that it's also problematic to identify those proposals and those proposals specifically as being the causal factor in the demoralization of police if i was a police officer and i saw people slamming people to the ground and causing traumatic brain injuries or i saw people dying i would be pretty upset about those things i would be pretty that would demoralize me too so i think that identifying only one aspect of demoralization or one sentiment within the department a department of well over 100 individuals i think is problematic i think that that sets up that that fails to recognize the complexity the challenge of the moment in which we're engaged and quite honestly that we uh we attempted to address by forming a committee a committee that's only met twice so far and is still very much engaged in their work and is trying to solicit all kinds of different ideas so i don't see this as necessarily being helpful in terms of moving us forward in that regard when it comes to the issue of the when it comes to the issue of thanking or supporting our police officers again i'll restate my point which is that i don't think i think that you can appreciate the challenge that they're facing appreciate the difficulty of the work and appreciating situations where they positively intervene on situations i experience that in my neighborhood all the time when i when i see you know students throwing raucous parties in the middle of the night and i see police officers actually intervening and helping working people actually get some sleep i think that that that that i can on the one hand be critical of them but then also appreciate what they do to maintain safety in our community to maintain quality of life in our community these are not mutually exclusive values and we need to recognize that within our community but we also need to recognize that american policing has a long history of institutional racism and and has has and that that that has really been impacted in terms of communities of color specifically with regards to use of force and i think that that use of force has taken the shape in many cases of a shoot first ask questions later mentality and so i think that you know i while i'm not there with this idea that we should absolutely de-weaponize completely de-weaponize the police force i do think that we need to make sure that we are recognizing that this needs to be an absolute last resort whenever dealing with these with with these issues so with the these points in mind and and i would also emphasize that this is a bit of a red herring in terms of a resolution because as council right himself said we do we no proposals have been introduced to this effect in in the council this was something that was put out as as a conversation and i i think that i think that we need to recognize that this is not an actual debate or not an actual thing that has taken place in the context of the city council and that we actually have a committee working on these issues and trying to come up with some some potential policy changes for us to bring greater accountability so with that in mind i want to introduce a couple of amendments that hopefully capture some of what i've said here and with with that i would like to strike lines eight through ten that's the whereas clause that really in my mind has the identifies and really in my mind as someone who has been critical i feel like i'm kind of being bullied honestly by this line by by those lines and it replaces those lines with whereas public feedback and healthy democratic debate on policing are crucial to building and maintaining trust and accountability and whereas criticism and feedback should not automatically be conflated with a lack of appreciation so those are the the the changes that i would like to see in the whereas clauses additionally as part of this amendment i would like to strike lines 13 through 16 and say and replace that those lines with now therefore be it resolved that the burlington city council thanks burlington police officers for the difficult but incredibly important work that they perform on a daily basis be it further resolved and be it further resolved that the burlington city council understands that firearms are one tool among many that can be used to ensure public safety and that they should only be used as a last resort when all other non-violent de-escalation measures have failed and be it further resolved that the burlington city council reiterates its support for the committee that it recently created to review existing use of force policies and develop recommendations for changes to those policies council tracer are you moving that as one amendment as one amendment yes sir is there a second seconded by councillor hansen may i ask the maker of the movement i just want to clarify that you're moving the revised version council right oh yes i'm sorry i apologize councillor acting president mason yes this thank you resolution has been revised and it is in line um that's noted as the revised version on board docs and i will also know for the council that the proposed and just to let you know what it was that words uh men and women have been changed to officers thank you um and the words successfully dealing with many incidents was changed to appropriately rather than sex okay successfully the amendment is up on the screen is there any discussion on the amendment councillor hansen yeah i wanted to echo some of those sentiments um and i and i do support this amendment i think to in the wake of some very some very intense incidences that occurred with with police officers and community members um we worked very hard to to try to move on a path um towards doing better and i think asking for greater accountability asking one of our departments to deal with with issues that that are coming from the community and to to respond properly and to try to address those issues and eliminate those issues moving forward i think is that is our job that is that is a part of our job and i think um as as public servants it's we should always be trying to respond to concerns in the community and trying to do better and i don't think that by doing that we are disrespecting um staff i think asking for a response asking for improvements i think actually shows that we we believe in the team and we believe that that folks are able to achieve to that high level and that we we do have very high standards because we believe that we have a team that's capable of of achieving those high standards so in my mind it's not it's not disrespectful to to ask for those high standards um and it doesn't demonstrate a lack of respect um so i think it's important i think this language does you know include thanking the department for this very difficult work that they do on a daily basis while still maintaining the understanding that we can always strive to strive to do better any other councillor does i want to speak to the amendment councillor pine then council right thank you the um the issue of our our respect for our own law enforcement i think is um shouldn't shouldn't really be questioned i think that's actually what is most challenging about this as um somebody who served on the city council when our police department was in an old um ice cream factory on south windows gi avenue i worked very closely with tony pomerlo to make sure that we got a new police station for the uh for this community i supported the idea of substations in neighborhoods that really needed um more attention um i was a significant i continued to advocate for community based policing and see the relationship between the community and the police as um as a critical link for ensuring that we have uh safe vital vibrant communities i think we should just remind um everyone ourselves included of that i think that if we are to embrace the idea that um policing is a necessary um service that the public should expect and we should be providing um that it's okay and actually appropriate for us to um require that we uphold democratic values and um i looked at a at a report that was done about 15 years ago by the police foundation which is a national organization that was chartered to advance policing through innovation and science and really what they looked at is what are the attitudes of police officers about the issue of of abuse of police authority and it's kind of amazing what they came up with really is that commitment by their leader their chief their command staff to uphold democratic values and eradicate and eradicate discriminatory practices is key is key to departments that function optimally um police administrators should proactively institute and enforce strong policies governing conduct as well as systems to collect and analyze data relative to police citizen contacts such as complaints use of force incidents and traffic stops such efforts should inform policy guide recruitment and training and build accountability necessary to restore and maintain public trust in the police it's a lack of internal systemic controls and not a few rotten apples that perpetuates police problems of misconduct and abuse by police most of america's police officers the vast majority are honest dedicated hardworking public servants and it is they as well as the public who they serve who are victims of the bad cop because of the nature of their responsibilities the police have the power to intervene and become involved at a very basic level within the lives of our citizens the nature of the police response the manner in which officers interact with citizens and the message i'm sorry the methods by which they enforce the laws have critical implications for a democracy and the quality of life of our citizens as gerome slotnik wrote in a thoughtful essay on democratic policing he said order achieved through democratic policing is concerned not only with the ends of crime control but also with the means used to achieve those ends as elected officials our role i believe is to serve as the citizens voice in the direction and operations of our city government part of that duty to govern includes hearing grievances from our community hearing the pain that people have gone through and giving them full and fair consideration as we set policies and procedures the special committee is undertaking a much needed review of policies procedures and training we're already engaged in this work i believe we can both support our police and seek greater accountability for how they carry out their duties in fact this is actually a core part of our duty as city councillors i hope he'll support councillor tracy's amendments council right followed by councillor shannon paul and just a reminder we're speaking to the amendment thank you president mason uh i urge the council to reject this amendment it is attempting to turn this issue around and actually start talking about the committee again saying that we we you know again we reiterate our support for the committee we don't need to say that because we've already done it we passed that unanimously and to have language being used out here in this council floor is really disappointing to me to hear a councillor say i feel like i've been bullied that's part of the language that we use against the police that's part of the language that's caused this problem now we can sit here and take that we're gonna we don't want to recognize the things that are reality that have brought our police officers down that have demoralized them and you can try to change it this way and if you succeed you can do that but it's not going to change the basic fact it is amazing to me that we could not come here tonight and pass a basic resolution that's simply acknowledged some of the things that have demoralized and brought down police officers to talk about the incidents that happened we know those incidents happen and we created a committee to look at those and as you said that work's being done but to to use that as if it should be used to tar off police officers as was said at a rally out front here by many individuals as was said in public forum here we as leaders ought to be able to stand up here and say that's wrong that type of language about the men and women the the officers of our police department is is going to end up causing real problems i think it already is in regards to recruitment and retention i've talked to people inside the police department some of the police officers for the first time ever are leaving burlington to go to surrounding towns because some of them some of them have just had enough so we can and should continue to have critical discussions and we've done that right here at the council we created a committee to seriously look at all these issues and that works being done but we ought to in the middle of this be able to stand up and say look all of these things have served to demoralize a lot of the police officers i got an email today from someone who represents many of the police officers and i'm tempted to read it here just so people could hear this because this one comment and i got others from police officers as well but made it worth me doing this even if this thing loses which i think would frankly be really bad message to the police department if we passed these amendments and turned it into something else but this person representing police officer said thank you really thank you for doing this so the police officers do see and understand that many people in this city do believe that they are looking out for them and that even though there are mistakes made and sometimes bad mistakes that most officers by and large are trying to do good stuff out in our community and the idea it it amazes me that we couldn't have a resolution here that that we made a simple statement of support so many people in this community just were dumbfounded that this would even be a debate tonight but i warned them that it in fact would be it's it but again it's amazing to me that we cannot just make a simple statement of support and acknowledge just simply acknowledge the things it is not saying that those things couldn't be discussed although the ones that attacked police officers in such a vile way should never be said i mean i'll never forget the meeting where chief del pozo was nominated and people were standing in the back of this room with signs saying f the police so point of order what's your point of order i thought that we should speak on the amendment set on the floor this is about the amendment i will remind everyone to speak to the amendments thank you councillor jack and i am speaking about the amendment and saying that i think that the council ought to reject these amendments that it totally changes the resolution and i this is absolutely speaking to the amendment and saying that uh we ought to be able to pass this basic resolution without making these kind of of changes to it thank you councillor shannon thank you um i won't be supporting this amendment not so much because i disagree with all of the statements i i do disagree with some but um i agree with some of the statements but the reason i won't be supporting them is really because i think the intention of this amendment is to change the purpose of the resolution and i do support the purpose of this resolution which is to give support to our police i think many of the things that are spoken to in this amendment are uh are really addressing some things that we were addressing when we created the um citizens committee on policing policy um and i don't see any need to reiterate that here because it's not the point of this resolution so i hope others will consider that when they vote councillor paul followed by councillor jane thank you um so i'd like uh first to state that um uh i appreciate a lot the comments that councillor pine made um you clearly put a lot of time into what you had said in there and i do agree with you that it is possible to support the police and to respect community engagement on issues about policing and sometimes they're very hard conversations to have and i i i do think i do agree with you i think that these this amendment as a as a singular amendment is not an amendment that i can support not only for the things that it adds but for the things that it takes takes away and you know uh none of us at this table can walk in the shoes of a police officer where that's not what we do every day i personally am glad that i don't do that every day but one of the things that i think we can each do um and that i've been fortunate i was prior to be on the sit prior to being on the city council i was on the police commission um i went to a number of roll calls i went and did a couple of ride-alongs when i was on the police commission but i felt that it had been some time since i had done one um it's been it had been about four years since i had done one so i did i went to two uh two friday nights ago and two of the officers that i went and uh rode with were here earlier um you know when you do a ride-along and you listen to line officers that interact with the public every single day uh you develop a tremendous appreciation for the work that they do um it is hard work and um one of the officers um shared with me a comment that you know i i still i it's it really resonates with me and it is that on any given night he told me um he interacts with people who are often at the worst moments of their life they're in the middle of a domestic assault issue they're um they're lying on the ground um they have there are they've been robbed um and i you know i saw some of that the other night um i can't really speak to exactly what i saw and i because i i don't want to allude to you know anyone in in particular but you know it's it's a really hard job and the i think it is important for people to understand that while they can make comments um i mean we have we live in a country where you can do that while they can make comments they need to understand that those issues really true demoralize the people that we are entrusting to protect us and um that's not that's not really that's that's something that you just need to keep in mind you can say what you want but that is a fact that people are demoralized by the comments that they have heard from this people in the community from elected officials from from others and um uh i can't support all the amendment in full although i do think that there are points that councillor tracy raises that are important um for that reason i'm going to vote against this um and i really do hope as councillor uh roof has mentioned that after this evening that others at this table will go and do a ride along and really talk with the line officers and really understand the issues that they face and talk with them as people you know a couple of hours in a car is a long time you're not you're you're doing a lot of driving around and um when you do that you really learn to understand and appreciate where these officers are coming from thank you for what you do and um uh as i say for those reasons i can't support this but i appreciate you bringing them forward thank you councillor jane followed by paulina and then freeman and then back to hanson although i will remind the council it's 10 25 and we have other business in front of us we're on an amendment right now thank you councillor jane thank you at tick president mason i think the resolution itself and also the way it was introduced speak to the resolution very well and why these amendments are important the very important amendments right here i just spoke about norm boldwin who is a city staff who's demoralized he's the same as the police officers the city staff every single one of them we need to protect them we need to give them what they need to succeed the police department we value them we appreciate them how many times have we ratified their contracts it's a way that we support you how many times we're voting in support of their budget because we support them we need them we care about them this resolution starts with think about this whereas serious recent incident warranted the burlington police department policies protocol those serious recent incidents just that that that word has so much it brought up the wounds wounds are back in the floor today the wounds are right back i'm experiencing them and feeling them again and i am remembering when the mayor did question the finding of a medical examiner when the chief of police did the same thing mayor's chief of water the same thing i'm talking about no there's a point of order yes councilor right i believe that we should be speaking and strictly addressing the amendment i will again remind counselors to try and keep your comments limited to the amendment we will then take up the underlying resolution thank you thank you but these amendments i think they're very important for this resolution the healing people were in front in a way a great path of healing people even forget about what happened because we all came together to move forward but now this part of something else so i will be supporting this and we'll talk about this resolution more later thank you thank you councillor jane councillor polino thank you um i would ask that all counselors vote against the amendment specifically the most concerning part being the sentence that states the following that firearms only one tool that among many that can be used to ensure public safety and that they should only be used as a last resort when all other nonviolent de-escalation measures have failed that's the first most important reason uh last resort is a language that's used in multiple use of force policies and i believe it's growing to polices however not all other nonviolent de-escalation measures have failed they're simply just not an opportunity for police officers to be able to do that i'm sure every officer would love to do that but in the situations they face they have less than seconds to react the second reason i'll be opposing it's because of what councillor shannon stated that it does strike at the very heart of the purpose of the resolution and i got to be honest with you when i first read the resolution i wasn't thrilled about it i support police officers 100 percent but you know somebody who sat here and wanted to create two social worker positions who sat here and wanted to give officers an incentive for moving to burlington for getting hired to the burlington police department somebody who actively recruits police officers people to join the burlington police officers as opposed to vsp as opposed to other departments i've met with john with chief del pozo many times throughout the time i've been on council and i think that other cities would love to have a department like ours councillor freeman thank you um so in regards to and i just want to be sure that we've we're moving to strike eight through ten and then replace it with these two whereas clauses yeah so i want to speak to lines eight through ten i think that this you know there have been a lot of comments that have been made by a lot of people in the community but i think there's two aspects of this section that refer to positions or comments that i have made personally those would be in terms of reducing the size of our police force and then conversations about potentially de-weaponizing the department so first in terms of reducing this the size of our police force i mean what that really is is it's meant to be a cap and it's meant to be more of a framework and i i actually really laud the city council in durham north carolina passed resolution to actually choose to fund wages for city employees at $15 an hour instead of putting more funding into policing and i think what that position order can i not speak to this yes councillor shabba aren't we supposed to be discussing the amendment oh can i not isn't that's the line that's a line being struck though so i would just advise or ask the council to sort of focus on the language we are a little bit waxing eloquently about you know why we got here let's focus on the amendment and then we can get to the underlying resolution i mean the agreement the floor is yours okay the amendment is to strike full language so i'd like to continue to speak to that and so that's where that desire to strike that language comes from is that i think that that's a position that i've taken and i don't think it's required in this resolution in terms of conversations i think we should strike that language because that's a conversation that i've had and publicly and i i don't think it's healthy to silence conversation around our policing practices and how we sort of police our community and create public safety as a community i think that unfortunately what this does is it puts people's feelings feelings are important but it it sort of says feelings are more important and i don't know if this is the intent but to me it says that people's feelings are more important than people's lives people have lost their lives and we i think really need to acknowledge that and the the trauma that that creates and the brutal impact of that and i i understand you know i i just i hear the time and again the the desire to to have city counselors go on ride-alongs and i was just trying to think about why i don't disagree that we should go on ride-alongs or that anyone in the community should go on ride-alongs but i was trying to figure out why it bothered me and i think i how do you go on a ride-along with phil grunin or how do you go on a ride-along with wane ronette or doug kilburn or any of the folks that have been you know i i don't know how you can compare someone's lived experience and you know you choose your profession but you don't choose to be black or you don't choose to be low income or to be mentally ill and if those we know statistically that that puts people in much greater danger of having you know traumatic or or violent or lethal interactions with our police and you know i just would like to speak also to the the desire to continue to have conversation about this i i want to say to the police department this wasn't you know meant to it wasn't meant to demoralize i guess i've just um i've i've lived in different places i've seen other systems i've seen other systems of public safety i i want to keep an open mind i want to think about the facts i understand it's not the system that we're using here but i i don't it's not an attempt to demoralize i think that if it is demoralizing i understand you know i don't want to further demoralize but if you if you're balancing out feeling demoralized versus making a system that works that means that people aren't losing their lives when interacting with our local police um i want to keep that open mind and i want to keep the conversation open i don't want to be silent so i am supporting this amendment thank you councillor friend of order councillor president mason yes we we have passed that magical hour would you like to make a motion and i would like to make a motion that we suspend our rules and complete the agenda is there a second on that i think there are items that should go fairly quickly but okay if someone's seconded by councillor shan and no i did not second no councillor paulino excuse me all those in favor of suspending the rules to complete our any discussion may i make an amendment to that sure my suggestion is that we should complete our deliberative agenda only i thought i could accept that i like that too all those in favor of the motion to suspend the rules to complete our deliberative agenda please say aye it's unanimous uh councillor busher was next in the queue so on the amendment just to be clear right got it i'm sorry yeah so um thank you i've been listening carefully um and um and what i what i don't want to do is to dilute the message to the police force i really don't um the amendment doesn't work for me um and just let may i just speak to what would work for me if you'd like to propose an amendment to the amendment the floor is yours i just want to speak to the fact that for me lines 13 through 16 should remain and the hurtful section lines 8 through 10 could be modified um to take out the specifics but still reference comments that have served to demoralize to me that would be what i feel is a compromise which i hope both groups would agree upon i understand it's not what anybody currently is considering but so i can't support the amendment and i but i like taking out some of the hurtful language and so um once this amendment gets acted upon i might come forward with a second amendment thank you councillor busher councillor shannon i moved to call the question is there a second seconded by councillor paul this is a non-debatable motion all those in favor of calling the question please say aye aye any opposed the motion passes we will now vote on councillor tracy's amendment which is up on the screen or was up on the screen all those in favor of councillor tracy's amendment please raise your hand i see one two three four five all those opposed motion fails seven to five we are back to the underlying resolution from council right anyone like to speak councillor busher yes um i'm going to make one attempt at this i would like to move to amend starting with line eight and to say whereas some comments by the public and council about our police department and then pick up with line 10 have served to demoralize many of the sworn officers of the berlington police department that's i think that that is accurate and that's my motion that's my motion to amend clear treasurer's office get that yes so there's a motion on the floor to delete officers starting on line eight deleting all the way through the more uh to department right exactly on line 10 any discussion on the amendment point of clarification yes councillor freeway excuse me hanson where does it begin sorry line eight after the police so striking the starting with the word officers replacing with department and then striking out including suggestions to reduce the size of our police force and conversations about potentially de-weaponizing the department would come out so then it would just leave whereas some comments by the public and the council about our police department have served to demoralize many of the sworn members got that or no it would pick up at department is that what we that is correct up on line 10 okay thank you any other seeing none all those in favor uh yes council roof um i think i thank you i think i appreciate what council bush was trying to do here but um you know a lot of this debate has revolved around facilitating healthy democratic debate and the solution old saying right the solution to speech you don't like isn't less speech it's more speech and and from my perspective and and i'm i'm just trying to be consistent here like that it may not be a complete account of everything that may be demoralizing our cops but that's a matter of like that's a matter of fact it says i mean i'm just trying to work through this here and my apologies but i wasn't ready to vote so here i go rambling i don't think i can support this i mean it's first of all that there's no policy implication here folks like this isn't going to impact any directive or or policy this is this is all sentiment we're we're just sort of this is an academic exercise um i'm sorry on the basis that you know less if you wanted to add in a whole bunch more pages to capture this just right sure but i'm i'm not advocating for for less speech on this especially something that i consider a matter of fact council right thank you i'll be brief um i will also oppose this it is in my view not as bad as the previous amendment um but i think that just taking it out is just not being real or not being realistic i mean frankly the discussion earlier um there was discussion here tonight talking about very serious incidents that happened no doubt and we've had those discussion here but to suggest that the serious incidents that happened before are a reason why somebody wouldn't do a ride along with police officers that didn't do those things that that further added to this issue in my opinion so to take this out is just not is not being real um it's it can take it out but it's it's really just not being realistic council shannon i move to call the question sir second seconded by paul all those any discussion seeing none all those in favor of calling the question please say i any opposed question is called uh all those in favor of councillor busher's amendment please raise your hand in one two three four five all those opposed seven the amendment fails by a vote of seven to five back to the underlying right resolution anyone like to speak at this time councillor hanson so i i can't i can can't support this resolution without councillor trace me's tracy's amendment because the amendment is seeking to balance was seeking you know it failed it was seeking to balance thanking acknowledging officers while also acknowledging not only the harm that was caused recently in our community um and to individuals in the community and the community as a whole but also our commitment to moving forward to healing and improving um there was there was a statement that we don't need to acknowledge the committee because we already created them i don't think that i mean by that logic we created and funded and continue to fund and ratify the contract to the force i don't think that means we don't you know that eliminates the need to thank them or acknowledge them just like the creation of the committee i don't think it eliminates the need to speak to it especially when we are trying to balance this um i think this this is not simply giving support to our police it's not simply the where the resolved causes there are whereas causes which are reasoning behind that need and it identifies comments and discussions around reforms around attempts to improve and do better and heal and respond to serious injuries we're talking about we use the word demoralizing we're talking about the demoralizing um a community member suffered a brain injury another community member died this is very demoralizing to the community very demoralizing to these families in that moment when we're trying to heal we're trying to move forward we're trying to grapple from this and be better in this this moment of trauma and responding to this trauma i find it inappropriate to simply own you know to only focus on supporting and thanking the officers while not speaking to those who are facing that trauma and when we're still really just beginning this process of of trying for reforms and trying to do better so i i i think i can't support it based on that council tracy thank you acting president mason i would just reiterate that i feel uh that this resolution is uh playing politics i think that on its face it's meant to look like a very neutral thing and a statement of support and i think that we can do that but i think that we also need to at the same time that we do that recognize that criticism is valid and in fact incredibly necessary and that not only police are demoralized but that members of our community who have experienced police violence who have disproportionately experienced traffic stops are also feeling a lot of pain and that we need to recognize that as well and balance that i think also that we need to understand that within the resolution that we need to be having a vibrant and active debate by voting down an amendment that recognized the importance of that debate i feel like this resolution instead of being more balanced is really in is imbalanced and does not welcome that that criticism and feedback and does not do so in a way that moves our community forward i think that and as a result of that i will not be able to support the resolution but i want to make sure that that the folks know that i mean and that the officers know that you know i understand the challenges that they face but i i think that this is unfortunately an attempt to play politics with the officers point of order council right the member should is violating rules by actually imputing motivation to to counselors counselor face i would ask you to stay away from directly imputing any motives to the maker of the motion okay fair enough well i've stated what i what i feel about this resolution i think that we need to to really make sure that we are standing up and that we are not you know that we are moving forward moving our community forward when it comes to these conversations around accountability and restoring trust because i think that that will really help to to to create the the just systems that we hope to have in burlington thank you request a roll call mr president councillor shannon as well is there a motion to call the question seconded by councillor shannon all those in favor of the motion to call the question which is a non-debatable motion please say aye hi takes two thirds by the way okay thank you all those who vote well let's raise let's do a show of hands that's all those in favor of the floor councilor right made the motion you seconded actually point of effort i apologize president mason point of information yes i actually requested a roll call thank you it's the let's so noted is there a motion that doesn't require a vote so let's go back to who is in the queue councillor shannon do you have a motion you'd like to make may i make a statement first floor is yours thank you um i just want to say that this um that this resolution is simply in support of the members of the burlington police department it is uh it does not say that that um every member is perfect it doesn't say that every incident is handled perfectly and it doesn't say that there isn't room for improvement and it doesn't negate the work that we did unanimously to create a citizen committee to work on improvements in our policing but to vote no and i i don't really understand how you can vote no and not support the members of the burlington police department who i think are held in very high regard by all of us and and many such statements have been made tonight um but with that i also think we have had a tremendous amount of conversation about this i'm not sure that there is much new to be said and i will call the question councillor jing has the recognized before councillor jing he was in the thank you actually president um i think that takes precedent all right knew it this is there a second on the motion to call the question second seconded by council right all those in favor this requires a two-thirds vote in order to pass all those in favor of the motion to call the question please raise your hand one two three all those opposed councillor jing the floor is yours thank you councillors um so i think it's important for us to debate this very well and also for the police officers to understand voting no on this or voting on yes on this at least for me does not change the love the work that you do that i appreciate does not change anything about it this resolution i see it as responding to a comment not a proposal that came here in front of us as city councillor and this resolution was brought up by a city councillor the president of the city councillor but i also have so many questions do we really value do we what have we done as a a body to victim who were maltreated by the police what have we done have we sent a letter to their families have we checked on their trauma level for people who have died have we sent a letter to their families what have we done as a body and i think we did not respond to that effectively but in front of us is just a comment and comments that i do not agree with to disarm our police i don't agree to reduce the number of police officers i don't agree this resolution also fails to recognize that people who work at the burlington police department are not all officers we have data people there they're not mentioned here so they're not demoralized we think we have social workers who are also every single day in front of some level of trauma don't we think that they demoralize we need to think about the police as a family we need to think about ourselves as a family and we need to move forward we already established a plan to move forward that plan is what we need to focus on and do not bring trauma again to people that's how i felt i am not going to vote for this resolution thank you councillor punn i just wanted to close with what i think for me is the the most important issue as an elected official here is that we are in a democracy it is not only appropriate but desirable to have people criticize and question what we do as a government that is essential to being in a democracy and to portray people who question and criticize as somehow our enemies is completely missing the point of a democracy we are resilient people our officers are resilient people we take good care of them i think we ought to remember in a democracy we should tolerate every level of discourse in dialogue whether we like it or not thank you council right and then council freeman i'm sorry i didn't intend to speak again but again there is nothing here that is talking about not being able to criticize that stuff all happened we heard comments here tonight they continued down that path so that is just simply not accurate councillor freeman then i'd like to vote sure thank you um yeah i would echo councillor pines comments i think those were are really well articulated and i think the reason why i feel comfortable voting no on this resolution other i mean it's uncomfortable to feel like i have to choose between supporting our department and making sort of policy recommendations or weigh in on whether we can have an open conversation about policing practices but the reason why i feel comfortable voting no on the resolution is that i think the overarching goal in our in the department or in our this system is to create public safety and to have a less violent society and community and this doesn't really this doesn't really speak to that it doesn't really it doesn't it doesn't prohibit our ability to continue to to work towards what that would really mean and what it would mean to have safety for for everyone and i think public safety is the goal community safety is the goal i think we need to de-escalate violence in our communities period we are really desensitized to violence in this country incredibly so incredibly so that we we have people die constantly violently and whether it's in interactions with police or with each other and i think we just think it's normal and we do we think it's normal and it's not it's not normal we should not we should not live like this and i am i'm very committed to moving towards a more peaceful society and i don't and i think voting no on this does not prevent me from moving towards that goal thank you thank you can i have a clerk call the roll please councillor busher we're calling the roll sorry the the motion is and either we're voting on council rights underlying resolution now so sorry lori's calling the roll councillor busher yes councillor hanson no councillor jane no councillor paulino yes councillor freeman acting city council president mason yes councillor paul yes councillor pine no councillor ruf yes councillor shannon yes councillor tracy no councillor right yes seven eyes five nays thank you i will turn the gavel back to council president thank you councillor mason we will move forward on the deliberative agenda five point oh eight is a resolution approval of creation of the position of diversity equity and inclusion director councillor busher um yes i'm going to move to wave the reading and adopt the resolution and after a second i'd like the floor back seconded by councillor paul councillor busher you have the floor back thank you um this was an item that came up this evening at the board of finance and it was unanimously supported and referred to the full council for consideration um i wanted to just highlight just a couple of things one is that we as as members of the board of finance look long and hard at adding any new positions because we understand the budgetary impacts um and so that was discussed just briefly but um what was overarching that conversation was the need to have diversity equity and inclusion be part of daily conversations to have that position be part of the administration to be part of weekly meetings with other departments so that it was front and center all the time looking for ways where we are doing our part where ways where we could do better and ways and times when we miss the mark and so a lot of hard work went into the um uh drafting of the job description there was a lot of input um and so it was a model process i know the hr directors here tonight if there are questions from the full council um but i think that they did an excellent job and i look forward to seeing um if we're successful and really more effectively making sure that we really that it's more than just what's on the printed page that that's really part of our our dna and who we are going forward thank you thank you councillor busher is a discussion by the city council hearing none all those mr mayor thank you president right i appreciate the opportunity just to share a couple words on this uh you know we've been debating some of the most serious uh issues in in america tonight talking about climate change talking about police reform you know our so we have another weighty one before us tonight there the uh there's an event later this week that we're reading the color of law and the mayor's book group this discussion of the uh what the what state federal and local governments have done to discriminate and really segregate this country and what jumps out in that book is just the incredible creativity and persistence that governments made to uh segregate this country and create racial harm and i think if we're repairing that legacy is an enormous task and one that is going to require comparable creativity and sustained effort if we're going to hope to to get anywhere with it and we have we have we have believed that as as an administration for the last seven years but we have struggled to to bring the sustained focus on racial justice issues that um uh are are necessary to uh in in this community and i think this creation of this position is uh an important step towards creating a structure infrastructure within city government to do the work that needs to be done and i hope the council will be supporting it unanimously tonight thank you mr mayor further discussion councilor jane thank you president um just wanted to also take the time to thank dina poluba for her incredible work putting this um job description together as well as consular pine and consular freeman not to mention um what's his name mark huge who also came to the meeting um to discuss the resolution i think we all agreed that this is the right way to go and then we'll revisit from couple years from here and also thank you for meeting the important deadline today and reporting thank you thank you councillor jane further discussion comments by the city council hearing none all those in favor of the resolution please say aye aye any opposed that passes unanimously item number 5.09 is a communication from brian pine chair of the community development and neighborhood revitalization committee regarding the neighborhood project councillor pine thank you mr president the report that we provided you is um the work of our committee over the course of three meetings uh we did not meet our deadline and uh rather just keep working and then ask for forgiveness on this kind of thing but um thank you to uh jillian nanton because this was a huge task and we did it in three meetings largely because of her incredible focus and disciplined approach to doing this kind of work so i will hit a few bullet points just because i feel like it um this there are certain items that we want to try to take in a one-year time frame sort of the more urgent items um and items that we think can we can achieve some um measurable impacts um over the next year reviewing the minimum housing standards ordinance and make recommendations on the city's existing quality of life tools with the view to strengthening both um creating a required rental kit to be distributed by landlords to tenants citywide engage major employers to discuss the potential for enhanced engagement in housing issues and present and present employer assisted housing concepts the idea of getting employers to think of housing as something they can contribute to solving this issue when they are thinking about their their company enabling modest infill development where appropriate and making some clarifications to the housing replacement ordinance that um would assist us in moving toward a more balanced housing mix in neighborhoods that are predominantly neighborhoods that have less of a balance over time between long-term residents and students enrolled in in one of one of the universities there's other high priority action items that will take a longer trajectory creating more student housing on or near campus establishing an investment fund to acquire single family homes in or near sort of the subject area of the focus of this project and targeting program funds for rehab of owner occupied historic properties that may otherwise be unable to comply with historic standards so there's in a nutshell those are the main items what we're asking for here in action is um to hereby accept this memo and the attached cdnr committee recommendation summary which does include the table by the way the matrix and formally make a request of the administration that it report back to the full council within 60 days as to a proposed plan for implementation of those recommendations so moved moved by councillor pines seconded by councillor hanson um discussion by the council councillor busher so i just want to i'm sorry councillor hanson was well i'll get to you after councillor busher my apologies okay sorry here you have the floor oh okay sorry um so i just want to compliment um the chair um councillor pine and councillor paul and councillor dang for keeping um getting it done in three meetings but allowing a lot of input a lot of debate from the community members that came and councillors that attended i thought it was really healthy and good exchange um you had representation from uvm i don't know if you had representation from champlain i don't think you did but um but anyways um i just want to compliment you on this and i look forward to seeing um what we actually can do a lot of innovative and really good ideas that have been batted around in the past but hadn't really been distilled into an action plan um or a proposal for an action plan so thank you thank you councillor busher councillor hanson thanks i just wanted to say briefly um i do i do support this and appreciate all the work that has gone into this and happy that we're moving forward i do have several kind of in in the weeds comments and feedback but i think uh seems like there there'll be plenty of time after tonight to to be able to do that so i look forward to following up and and continuing the process on on this one thank you for that councillor hanson councillor pine thank you mr president just one more item because a um a member of the audience um spoke up about this i want to at least address um this concern that that this report and i don't think i think the council would agree uh on this issue is not intended to point blame and point fingers at students as the problem what it's attempted to do is to say they're caught up in the same cycle if you will of absentee ownership of owners not taking care of their properties property owners that are cramming more people into units that are appropriate of you know front yard parking and of all the issues um students have to live with them as well and the conditions the rents they pay the conditions they live in um are just as much their issues they are the rest of us what we're trying to really focus on is is dealing with the root cause um both by uh stabilizing neighborhoods bringing in a little bit more balance into neighborhoods that have become you know used to have more of a mix and now have less of a mix so it's really i want to be careful that we're not pointing fingers and blame blame blame on the students aren't the blame they're not the problem really so thank you councillor pine councillor mason um thank you for his right um my question relates to maybe a disconnect in my mind because it's late on the proposed action and what's in there it refers the action refers to a proposed plan for implementation of the recommendations are you looking simply for a time frame or are we because my concern is i appreciate all the work that's been done but i've done nothing other than read a memo and i'm not sure that i would agree that all of these need to be done and i want to make sure you're not by voting yes we're not saying yes do all of these we're just saying if you were to move forward what is the time frame that's correct okay thank you i was confused by the action letter of the language thank you thank you councillor mason for that clarification anyone else on the council mr mayor i appreciate a question from councillor mason and the answer from councillor pine i i do think um we will definitely the administration will work to respond within the 60 days as uh requested here and um this certainly you know the CEDO team is a team with a lot of demands on its time already and in a period of some rebuilding and and re-resourcing so we will as part of this review be um responded to you know we may be coming back at the end of that with some additional thoughts on on some of these provisions but we'll welcome all the work that's taken place on in this already and the opportunity to advance it thank you mr mayor are we ready to vote all those in favor of this please say aye opposed that passes unanimously the last item is 5.10 it is a communication Stephanie Reed human resources manager regarding recommendation step placement randy mayo water distribution field technician that was not that's not on the agenda that was removed it's 511 it is 511 okay well done councillor busher we can only have one of us at a time 5.11 which was 4.18 an agreement with the city of berlington and university of vermont agreement to extend 2009 memorandum of agreement regarding student housing that's correct that's now 5.10 though thank you that's what i was trying to do i don't understand okay we don't need to um who wants to move this council roof council roof enthusiastically uh what am i moving uh i don't know i'll move 5.110 uh move to authorize the honorable mayor morrow winemaker reading uh to execute did you put that word in there mr man oh goodness um what am i doing to execute what are you doing execute on behalf of the city of berlington uh excuse me i'm sorry on behalf of the city of berlington the city of berlington and university of vermont agreement to extend the 2009 memorandum of agreement regarding student housing in substantial conformance with the agreement attached here too subject to the final review and approval of the city attorney second second second by councillor mason discussion councillor busher um yes thank you uh i had a question it seemed important it still is but you know at the lateness of the hour um the uh resolution or the action says the parties commit to a process for drafting a new agreement that will have at least three in-person meetings and you state the dates um and it will come forward to the council um and the uvm board of trustees my question for you is is there any process for residents before it comes forward to the council and the board of trustees mr mary could you respond to that i mean i think councillor busher like any um weighty decision before this council there will you know of course the public decision making around it depending on what um strategies are agreed to here there may be a need for additional uh public engagement i think it's a little uh you know i hope there is enough progress in this um effort that uh we'll need more public engagement beyond um a typical council item but i beyond that i i don't think i have a full answer for you at this point you may continue councillor busher thank you um so i think i understood what you said um but i i guess i wanted to go back to the 2009 agreement which did have some discussion with the public um and so i just would request that um certainly i think people are interested in in an agreement between the city and the university regarding student housing and i would hope that they would be given an opportunity to um comment so the city would understand the opinions of the citizens so um that's what i'm going to state thank you thank you councillor busher councillor paul thank you i'd like to echo what councillor busher said i think there is a tremendous amount of interest on the part of the community and part of the public um and hope that they will be given that opportunity so two things is the hour is late um the first is that uh i will support this uh i do think that the lat that sometimes when we agree to these extensions that we don't hold ourselves to the date and uh i'm going to trust that we're not going to do this this time because we did it did it last time there was a new president at uvm there also was a new mayor um but it went on too long and we can't do that again um so i hope that won't happen um and then the other thing also is that part of the reason that i am supporting this is because of the resolution that we passed several months ago which um after the the university has completed their housing study and will be releasing their plan my understanding is in the very in the very near future that there will be reports and quarterly updates from the administration and consultation with the university to discuss student housing and to move forward with this we we cannot wait five years we need to be moving forward on student housing if we're going to address all of the possible ways that we can address housing in this community thanks very much thank you councillor paul further discussion by the city council hearing none all those in favor please say aye any opposed that passes unanimously and moved to adjourn so moved moved by council roof seconded by councillor shannon all those in favor please say aye opposed we are adjourned