 It's really nice to be here at TownMeetingTV. I'm Jennifer Green, and I'm here with my colleague, Ita Meno. I'm the Director of Sustainability and Workforce Development for the city of Burlington. I'm housed at the Electric Department, where we're working to transition away from fossil fuels, get off natural gas, et cetera, in the ground transportation and building sectors. And really happy to have Ita on the team. Ita. So glad to be here. Thanks, Jen. My name is Ita Meno Baker. I use they, then pronouns. I have been with Burlington Electric, the Burlington Electric Department now for a little over a year, and we're really excited to take some time to share with folks the work that we've been doing and the work that we want to be doing to really consider how BED, and the role that, how BED plays a role in equity and accessibility for Burlington. Yeah, and I say this all the time, Ita. I should probably confirm it. But I think Ita is the first project and equity analyst in any utility in the country. I mean, it's really exciting that we're really focused on ensuring that all Burlingtonians, regardless of sort of what language you speak at home, whether you own or rent, sort of who you are, you can access Burlington Electric services. And so having Ita on board is a huge asset for the department. And I'm personally sort of really proud and really proud to be working with Ita. We were gonna kick off by just mentioning that this is the first of a series. So we're looking at doing this quarterly and talking about sort of all things, sort of electric energy, et cetera, but really with an underlying focus on equity. So it seems like it's fitting today that we really focus on you, Ita, and your work in the community. And like as we were saying just before we got started, your role is sort of literally and figuratively meeting people where they are. So when we talk about sort of literally meeting people, you are like really in the community. Can you talk about that? Absolutely, I was really excited to get boots on the ground shortly after I started, but in the last year we've spent, I've spent time at a couple of different laundromats, but mostly at the King Street laundromat. I've spent time at community gardens. I've spent time at the Old North End Community Center, mostly at the family room, but I've started to spend time at the Association of Africans living in Vermont recently. I've spent time at community rooms at different housing locations, such as the Bob and Mill, such as Riverside Community Center and Franklin Square. And I've spent time door-knocking, which is something I haven't done in a really long time, but it's been really fun working, finding ways to get people engaged in a conversation about energy in their homes, personal energy conservation and how they see a future of the Burlington Electric Department for them. It's been beautiful. I have been spending, I have office hours for folks interested once a week at the King Street laundromat. It's on lower King Street from in the afternoon, about two, 30 or three is usually when I get there. And I picked a laundromat because most of the time, the people who go to particular neighborhood laundromats are people from those neighborhoods. And I haven't met anyone that's gone to that laundromat that didn't come within a three, maybe max five block radius of that particular laundromat. We know there's a lot of people in the community that don't have laundry facilities in their buildings or in their homes. And so having people come to a central location to meet each other and to maybe even get questions answered about their electric bill or their particular electric use has been I think a really beautiful tool. Mostly people don't ask me questions about my electric bill, but I still have work to do. So having office hours in a place and availability for folks has been, I think incredibly helpful. And not challenging, it doesn't challenge other people's use of the space as well. So that's been a beautiful thing. I think that I think that that is the laundromat that I chose in particular because Andrew has done a lot of work to make it a community resource. Andrew's the owner. Yeah. Well, and I know when you came back after your first visit, I think you said, we've got to get some stuff translated. And I know Kevin was going to pull up a flyer so we could see some of Eta's early work done in conjunction with our colleagues in the communications department over at BED. And essentially sort of really basic stuff. Do you need help? And this is what we can do. So how many languages do we make this available in Eta? This is available in eight languages other than English. So nine languages total, including Arabic. What this is saying is that we have a discount or credit available to income qualifying residents of Burlington. We realized early on that, any English speaker who saw this, any English speaker who could read was able to access this particular discount if they were qualifying. But there's so many people who aren't able to do it. So we wanted to make sure at least the top eight languages other than English that are read, this was translated to those languages. But 12 and a half percent, that's not a small amount on your electric bill. Our partners over at Vermont Gas have a similar credit on their gas bills. And so we know there are households in Burlington that can qualify, that have already been qualified for their gas bill. If you qualified for a discount on your gas bill, you'll qualify for a discount on your electric bill. So just give us a call and we'll help you out. Give me a call and I'll help you out. But again, I also show up in the community, come to the King Street Launcher Mat on Monday afternoons. Yeah, that's really, I love this flyer Eta because we talk about the importance of translating, but people get stymied and they have a hard time like making it happen. And I know one of the key partners that you worked with to ensure that it was translated well in a sort of culturally competent way was the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. So I know you're partnering with a lot of entities too. Do you wanna talk a little bit more about CVOEO and your work with them? I love that, yeah. We have a lot of different partners and like you mentioned, one that we've been working with a lot lately is the Office of Racial Equity and Community Inclusion over at CVOEO. We are partnering with Virginie and Pacific and Chephora over there to kind of help us prioritize what some of the feedback that we've gotten from the community is so that not only does it help, the people that I'm seeing on a regular basis and the people that our customer care team are seeing on a regular basis, but it also benefits the folks that are coming into CVOEO to make sure that people are getting what they need. We know and we know absolutely that when financial times are hard, it's often your utility bill that's paid last. We don't wanna, we wanna decrease the burden as much as possible. So folks have ideas about how that can happen. Please let us know. We also know that if you can qualify for this 12 and a half percent discount, please apply for it and have that added onto your account. Yeah, that's really great because I mean, one thing we know, it's easy to sort of talk about this program and project, but unless people actually know how to access it, it's meaningless, right? Absolutely, that QR code will take you to the application and if you need help with language, our with language translation services will work to make sure that that happens for you. Yeah, thanks, Hita. And on a similar note, maybe even taking a step back is what you learned in the community just about the electric bill overall and is it clear and understandable to folks? Now, of course, Burlington Electric isn't, we've talked about this, you know, we're a regulated utility. So, you know, there's certain things we have to say on the bill, certain things we have to make clear, but clear to whom and how can we do it in a better way? So maybe we can transition to the video now and you can talk about that. Sure, one of the first, I spent most of my time listening in the first six to nine months that I was at the Burlington Electric Department and what I learned was folks were having a hard time understanding what they were getting in the mail, this utility bill, they would unfold it. There's lots of words, there's lots of numbers in a lots and it was in language that people were pretty unfamiliar with. Like I think that when you're in the business, it's really easy for us to forget that not everybody knows what a kilowatt hour is and what that means on your bill and things like that. So what we've tried to do in video format is demystify what that bill is. And so if you could take three minutes out of your life to watch this video, we think it will help help clarify what's going on in that bill and what you're charged for and how to compare it to previous bills, either last month or last year. And then you can compare that with what the weather was and help you understand why you might be paying more or why you might be paying less based on your use. Your Burlington Electric Department electric bill will show you the amount of electricity you and your family use and how much it costs in your home. The electricity you pay for gives you lights, heating, cooling and anything else you plug into an electric outlet at home. Your bill might change when there are more people living in the house as more electricity may be used. Also, when the weather is hotter or colder and you use more heat or air conditioners. Your bill shows how much electricity you use in one day and over one month. Looking at the bill, you can see the changes in your use of electricity from last year to this year. KWH or kilowatt hours are how we count your electricity use. When you open your bill, you will see your name and your address. You have a customer number and a location number. You will be asked for these numbers if you speak to us on the phone to pay your bill. If you choose to pay your bill on your computer, you will need these numbers too. There are three important dates on the bill. The bill date is the date the bill is sent to you. The reading period shows the dates of electricity use that you are being charged for. The please pay by date is the date by which we must receive payment. You can pay your bill in different ways. You can pay by check. You need to tear off the bottom part of your bill, fill it out with how much you are paying and put the bill and your check in the envelope provided. Send it in the mail to us with correct postage. Do not send cash. You can bring your payment along with your bill to the Burlington Electric Department Office at 585 Pine Street in Burlington. You can pay through your computer at our website. There, you will be asked for your email address and bank information so that money will be taken out of your bank account to pay the bill. Our customer care team is here to answer questions and help. We will always use an interpreter if you ask for one. We are open Monday to Friday. You can call us by phone Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Or you can visit us at 585 Pine Street from 8.30 a.m. until 4.30 p.m. Right now our video is only in English but we fully expect that it will be in multiple languages by the end of the month. And we're really excited that that is something that's gonna be available for the community. We're also in the process of translating a lot of really important documents on our website. We know how important it is for people to have access. We know that access is a foundation of equity. And so we wanna make sure that if somebody can read and speak English and they can get access to a program within a day, we want somebody who can read and speak another language to be able to have access to the same program in the same amount of time. It's super important to us. Yeah, so that's great. We are looking forward to people checking out the video. And we talked about partnerships, like you mentioned ALV, the Family Room, CVOEO, but another partnership that you've been really cultivating and I know the video as a part of this is the Vermont Language Justice Project. Can we make a pitch? Yeah, I mean, you know, Vermont Language Justice Project, they're, I believe that when people learn about this incredible resource that the world has in Allison and her team, I think that the more they are treasured, they have been taking, they take that word accessibility and they take it to heart and they work with lots of different organizations to put out content in the community. And it's such a beautiful thing. 19 languages, 19 languages. I'm not even sure how many organizations, but a lot of partnering organizations, they work with and yeah, I don't know what more to say, except for it to encourage everybody to make a lot of joyful noise whenever they hear or see something about Vermont Language Justice Project. Yeah, thanks Eta, they're such an important resource and I know a little bit about Allison's work, but you coming on BED has really highlighted the important work that they do and what a great partner they are in terms of potential future video creation too. Yeah, 100% and that's been prioritized by members of the community. I think that I wanna lift up the role that not just Allison and her team that work for the Vermont Language Justice Project themselves, but all of the translators that work with them, because these are folks that are from the community that are members of different Vermont families, nonprofits, churches. They're our neighbors that are taking the work that we're asking them to do and to make it applicable to Burlington residents. So it's different than having AI or an anonymous translator from the other side of the country. Look at some language and then translate it kind of verbatim, like we're having people from here. Look at what we're doing and interpreting, translating it, but also lending intention and meaning behind what it means to be in Burlington. Yeah, yeah, I love that. Thanks, Ita. So, I mean, we can take this so many different ways. So we've talked a little bit about the video. We've talked about the energy assistance program, the EAP and the 12.5% off your bill and that work. And we can also talk about like tangible things like pole-mounted chargers and car share memberships. Maybe we should just make a quick, we should let people know about these pole-mounted chargers that we're piloting and, you know, oh, thanks, Kevin just pulled this up. So let's take a step back and let's look at Burlington's plan to transition away from fossil fuels. If you can forget all the verbiage you see, but just see sort of four key bars. The first one is efficient electric buildings. That's sort of, if we think of it as, this whole thing is a pie shape, that's sort of 60% of the pie. The second piece is electric vehicles. You know, we've got to get people out of internal combustion engine vehicles. The third thing we need to work on, sort of the third slice of the pie is tapping the heat that comes from McNeil generating plant, the biomass plant in the intervail, and using that to replace fossil fuels at some of our larger customers, including the hospital. And then lastly, we need to think about other ways that folks can get around. So we really want to be promoting public transit, bikes. We want to make sure we've got all the infrastructure to be a pedestrian or bike to ensure that people feel safe and can indeed get out of their cars. So, I mean, we just briefly mentioned the pull-mounted chargers. Maybe we can talk about how that connects to the second sort of piece of the pie, which is electric vehicles. We know that EVs are getting cheaper. We know that they're more used electric vehicles on the market. And we know that we have folks that rent, that are buying EVs, but one of their concerns is this idea of through charging deserts and because you might live in a rental property not having access to home charging. So if you're sort of privileged enough to live in a single occupancy home and you've got a driveway and a place to put in a charger, but we know there are people in denser neighborhoods that want to charge. So, I don't know if you want to talk about the five pull-mounted chargers that we're testing out in neighborhoods. I mean, please, keep going. You're doing great, yeah. So, you know, it takes a lot of money and space to, we don't want to take up parking or we don't want to take up sidewalk space, you know, to put in that type of infrastructure. But if we've got these existing utility poles, say, in the Old North End, what about using that space and putting a charger up there, having an app, you click, the charge port comes down and you can charge. Now, there's a lot to work out in terms of sort of how things are gonna be orchestrated on the ground, including our collaboration with the Department of Public Works. But what's really important is just to remember that we don't want just privileged folks that own electric vehicles to be able to benefit from all the good things that come with EV driving, including, of course, the cheaper cost to own and operate an electric vehicle. So, we want everyone to have access and we think these pull-mounted chargers might be a way to do that. So, we're gonna see. Hopefully, it answers some of those questions, right, about whether or not, you know, I'll be able to make it through the next day on the current charge on my car. I think that having these pull-mounted chargers partners really well with some of the energy efficiency rebates that the Electric Department has released recently on electric vehicles, not just electric vehicles, but we also have this new rebate that we're trying out this year, hopefully, that some folks might find really exciting. It's a rebate for folks who want to swap out from eternal combustion engines to electric vehicles who are commuter drivers or gig drivers or generally drive a lot of miles, put a lot of miles on their car. 17 and a half thousand, is that right? So, almost 18,000, if you drive almost 18,000 miles on your car, you could qualify for a higher rebate than if you don't for another electric vehicle, but we also have other rebates for folks who are wanting to replace their cars or get out on the road more on two wheels, right? So, we have a $300 point of sale rebate on electric bikes now. I think last year was, in the past has been, how much has been in the past? 200 bucks. 200, so it's more this year, that's exciting, more this year, and it's really cool to have some of these available for folks who are already thinking about how to make those changes and already saving money in order to make those changes. I know it took me a little over a year to save up enough money to buy my electric bike and then to have that rebate on top of it was just an incredible relief for me. It made it feel more affordable. Yeah, I sing on the cake, and I know when I look at the BED bike parking rack, it's you and me, usually. Yeah, we've got our bikes parked. So, I think about, we've talked a little bit about public transit. We know we're working with Green Mountain Transit to transition some of their buses, diesel buses, to electric. We've talked about the e-bike rebate. I mean, maybe we can talk about car share. I always love making a plug for car share. I love me some car share. Before we talk about car share, though, I wanna just remind folks that right now, we know that GMT is gonna start charging fares at some point in May. I don't know the exact date yet, but to remind folks, there are discounted rates for youth, for young people 17 and under, for seniors, 16 and older, for passengers with disabilities, and for folks who are Medicare cardholders. It's a 50% discount on your ride fare if you are in one of those categories. So, thank you GMT for continuing to do that. Car share is already an incredible program in and of itself, but they have this program called Mobility Share. It's for income qualified residents. It has no membership fee and reduced driving rates. So, if you are a Mobility Share member, you don't have to pay for gas, or rather, gas, EV, electric vehicle charging and your insurance is all a part of your membership fee and the rates that you pay for for using your car share car. I was at a meeting recently and I learned that most people use, most of the uses for car share is related to food. And so, we know that folks out here are really wanting to kind of go to the supermarket to get their stuff to go, maybe even to go out to eat, just whatever it is, there are a lot of transportation partners that really wanna support folks and their needs with that. Yeah, and I think it's a good reminder that transitioning away from fossil fuels is the job for everybody and that it's partners that car share that are gonna help make it possible. And I do love this idea that we're working with car share to help them electrify to the extent it works for Annie and her team because, again, we don't want just privileged people to have access to EVs, we want everybody to sort of benefit and give electrification a go and literally, I guess, and figuratively. And you can do that with car share. I don't think we could keep going. I mean, we haven't talked about the rental weatherization ordinance. We could save that for next time, maybe. Let's save it for next time and maybe invite a guest to come with us. Sounds good. You know, somebody who wears car hearts. Yeah, okay, right, sounds like a plan, okay. So is there anything else we've talked about sort of your job overall, how you're literally going and meeting with folks, some of the translation work that you're doing, both sort of hard copy and then video plans for that. We've talked about transportation electrification, partners like car share, Green Mountain Transit, e-bike rebates, other rebates. I don't know, is there anything that we should highlight today or should we save stuff otherwise? Definitely let's save stuff, but I want folks to feel like they can reach out to us. If you call our main line at the Burlington Electric Department and you ask for Jen or you ask for ETA, you'll get sent to us and we can have a conversation about anything that you heard today or something that you wish that you would hear from somebody from BED but you haven't heard yet. If there's something that you need us to be talking about or need us to be thinking about, give us a call and let us know, we really want to know. Yeah, thanks ETA. Actually, maybe I can make one last plug. If folks want to learn more about ETA's background and what ETA's doing at BED, we did a podcast with you when you started a couple months in. So more on ETA and ETA's background if you go to Burlington Electric Department podcast and you scroll through our list of podcasts, you'll get a more in-depth interview with ETA then. Yeah, thanks. Okay, great, thanks ETA. This was great. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, and thanks to Kevin and the channel, Seventeen Town Meeting TV team, for sure.