 Hi, this is Pat McDonald your host for both for Vermont where our tagline is listening beyond the soundbite I'm once again alone in the studio. The boys are somewhere who knows but anyway my guest today is Erica Bundy reddick Who is an independent candidate for Burlington City Council? This is the first time we've Interviewed somebody for the council. I'm very excited about welcome. Thank you long stretch here. Thank you. Thank you Because we said we'd give the floor to candidates so if you're interested come on and Burlington is place such an important part in Vermont's economy and Just being there for shopping and stores. I love it But can you share a little bit with our viewers of who you are and your background and Why you want to jump in? Yeah, that's my name. Well again, Erica reddick my background I born and raised in Vermont had the Pleasure and privilege to get to move to Texas about ten years ago Kind of see a different way of doing politics and government Right and then my husband and I moved to Los Angeles because he's a filmmaker So seeing the polar opposite right of Texas and then in moving back to Vermont and seeing that Vermont is going the way of California and how that has really Decimated the economy of that state and how much it's harmed people it really Sort of spurred this Desire to try to make a difference right and so when we you know, we moved back here to buy my grandparents house in Burlington started to see how Convoluted the Regulatory environment is here started learning more about what was going on in the government and things like that and I just said You know, I can't not say something If no one else in Burlington is willing to stand up and say what is true and what is right then I'm going to good for you Thanks Well that council is in the news a lot for a variety of different reasons. Yes, it's a very active Council, it's yes, I guess the structure is mayor council, right? It's a mayor council sort of thing so What's the role the mayor? Does he report to the council or what's the the Relationship there actually it's really interesting and I'm learning more and more about What historically had to take place for Burlington to essentially become a little mini dictatorship So the mayor as an example has control or a say over the fire department who the fire chief is The police chief and the fire department so most cities across the country As an example, the police chief does not report to the mayor. He is another elected official He's appointed by the council or some other body Police commission something like that so that that position is not used for political purposes Which it often is right in Burlington, unfortunately same with the fire department with the public safety tax We'll talk about later and the city council interestingly enough Should it be able to and theoretically does have the ability to override the mayor's Initiatives to veto his budget and do things like that, but they don't So the mayor may be a Democrat, but he's very much a progressive and so is much of the council Right and what happens is not only is the council over represented by progressives The mayor is a progressive. He then gets to appoint these very large and important other department heads and Additionally, then the city council and the mayor get to approve who goes on the commissions So all the commissions and committees are over represented and almost completely Staffed or filled. I don't know what the right word is by progressives not much balance No balance no balance at all And so in a city that talks a lot about diversity and the need for diversity and inclusion That does not include conservatives or Republicans those that we don't need that kind of diversity in Burlington Apparently, I love it. So that's a good time to my next question because I read in several different places. You're a conservative libertarian Said so in the print, but I don't know running as an independent, but you were also included in the list of agri-agri-publican candidates, which is something John Clark had started with the people that he's recruited to run Which I must give him credit for he there was about 11 when you were at that event at the state There was about 11 new people never involved in politics who he got to Jump in yeah, which I think is great. I did so where we had us that all blend together to make make you who you are That's a great question, and I was Misquoted as saying I'm a conservative libertarian. What I said was I'm a liberal conservative Oh, and that's not your fault. I did read it. I know I well I commented on the article and I said hey you misquoted me Because I think when you say conservative in Vermont that means a lot of things and Unfortunately, I think our national politics has sort of muddied the waters In local politics unfortunately people have a lot of opinions about what's going on nationally. I understand But those things don't not that they don't affect us locally, but to me You know what's going on at the White House and in the legislature? If we're gonna talk about local elections, we need to talk about what are the local issues? And what are people's stances on the local issues because that's what we have control over here So I say I joke and I say I'm a liberal conservative because like most Vermonters I was raised that you don't care about what goes on behind closed doors, you know It's it is not my business Who you choose to sleep with who you're in love with Whatever as long as you're not hurting other people or me or encroaching on my constitutional rights You do you I'm gonna do me, you know as they say And that's and that's how it should be, you know, that's how I was raised with those values And that's how I think it should be so Now in order to maintain that liberalism You have to be a conservative You have to value Freedom of speech freedom of assembly Second amendment rights that protect all of the other rights if you don't value The constitutional basis of this republic then you don't actually value those liberal ideas because without them You don't get to say what you want. You don't get to say what you think, you know if you are As an example, if you are somebody who thinks that all conservatives are racist sexist homophobic bigots You get a few I had a look when I heard the die die, you know the diatom that they use I actually had a look a word up because I didn't know it. It's true. Yeah, and and so conservatives Will fight for you to insult us We will fight for you to say horrible things about us because we believe that it is your right in In the public square to say what you believe to be true, right? But they won't do that They won't do that They're gonna fight and try to tell you that whatever you say is hate speech if they don't like it Right, and then you will be shunned from the public square and now in Burlington particularly Vermont generally But Burlington particularly there's no freedom of assembly. There's no freedom of speech. There's none of that Because if you do why do you say no freedom of assembly or speech? What are you have examples? Oh, I could oh I could give you a hundred examples But the most recent one that you'll find on like WCAX and stuff like that was there's a group called I think it's called gender integrity. I've tried to find more information. I tried calling the mayor's office I tried calling the library. I said maybe I'm missing something that is going on with this group that I haven't been able To find so I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt. Please. Tell me why they're so awful So to this group gender integrity wanted to have a meeting at the Fletcher free library a publicly funded right place Open to the public, right? Okay, so they wanted to have a meeting to discuss their concerns about Trans rights the woman in charge first of all the one. Oh my god. I can't remember her name I think it's like layer or something. It's her last name is a lesbian a feminist a hardcore feminist lesbian Okay, so she's like supposedly included in this progressive group so she wanted to have a conversation about trans rights overtaking women's rights and the loss of Protected spaces for women with things like the Equality Act and stuff like that Part of the other concern that she wanted to discuss and just talk about because these are really hard questions that we have to wrestle with as a community she wanted to talk about the I the Legislation that they're trying to lower the age where you can transition So start taking hormones get gender reassignment surgery and all that so they want to lower the age from 21 to what? I think 18. Oh, okay, which which I Mean this is a major major life decision. I don't know a lot of 18 year olds who make good decisions, right? Period, let's be real. I did dumb stuff when I was 18. I think we all did yes, and I'm not saying that Transitioning is dumb. I'm just saying that when you are gonna make a life altering decision That comes with health consequences and all kinds of things Yeah It's not a decision. You can easily reverse exactly just kidding. I you know, I've done this for a year or two and Now I want to go back or that is who you are So they got so much pushback and they were bullied so badly that they canceled the meeting Oh, that's terrible And now the woman won't respond to any inquiries from anyone right to ask questions about what happened I was gonna say that just today There's a several women's families who it was high school kids who ran in a race with the several transgender Women who are men and of course all the men won the one the races and the women Were a little upset about it because they're which I didn't think about they were losing out on high school college scholarships scholarships Potential to go on to other higher levels for not in college exactly And so they filed a lawsuit today, which I thought was interesting. I think that We all I shouldn't say we all I Want to be compassionate and I am if we're in a one-on-one conversation I'm gonna treat you with the same dignity and respect as I would treat anyone Because every human being deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. We don't have to argue that no one I'm I know there are probably some really terrible people who would argue that But we're not talking about that right. We're talking about Good kind-hearted people who are concerned who are afraid for their own rights to be taken away Who are afraid for their own privileges to be taken away women and young girls get to learn how to Fight how to take care of their bodies. How do I mean literally one of the reasons that boys Benefit from the being able to wrestle and do things like that is because they learn how to fight and and Control their own power So when little girls this I've told people this forever you want you want to stop sexual harassment You want to stop girls from getting raped and sexually assaulted and all those things put every single little girl in a taekwondo glass there you go or a Krav Maga or something like that teach them how to use their weight Teach them how to fight for themselves teach them the confidence and the courage to defend themselves And we won't have nearly the problems that we do with the gender You know issues because women will have learned how to take care of themselves How to compete that they're capable women learn those things just like boys do from competition from sports and If you set up a scenario where now Women and girls are having to compete against biological boys You have now eliminated their ability to have the same benefit that the boys do an interest I love the the way you're looking at this issue. I'm going to steal it No, that's really I hadn't looked at it that way. That's that's great It is and I I'm a little bit nervous to talk about it even because but it makes sense This is one of those topics that if you say anything that is not outside I mean I will get ripped to shreds for this for saying the thing that is obvious Right, and what happened out of that they canceled their event The gender integrity canceled their event because of the backlash and then councilwoman Freeman Brought a resolution to city council. It wasn't pre-announced. It wasn't even read at the city council Oh, it wasn't warned. Oh Condemning hate speech Condemning these people for even wanting to have a conversation About their fears and their concerns about their rights and their safe spaces and our children see I'm my impression of Burlington is completely opposite than what you're just explaining. I think it's an open whatever You know what you want. It's sorry for interrupting. That's okay. It was when I was growing up. I I Grew up in Milton graduated high school in St. Albans lived in Burlington in middle school So I went to Lyman Sea Hunt right graduated Champlain College lived there and worked there since I was 18 Burlington was the place that everyone could go and let their freak flag fly and it didn't matter right and Everybody was welcome. It was the charm of the place, you know, you'd walk down church Street And you were surrounded by lots of different people and it was great I move when I moved to Austin, Texas, they have this they have this little saying. It says keep Austin weird And I was like I'd look around to be like Y'all have clearly never been outside of Texas because if you think this is weird you have no idea Come to Burlington or San Francisco or something and see and that is and that was the beauty of it you know growing up we had a senator that was a Republican a senator that was a Democrat and a a Socialist independent as our representative, right? That was Vermont to me and I used to brag to people, you know I was raised that you vote for a politician based on the content of their character not their genitalia the color of their skin, right? Or all of these immutable characteristics that we decided a long a long time ago We're not appropriate ways to judge people right and yet somehow in the ten years that I was gone We flipped back to that and now Your opinion only matters based on the color of your skin the nature of your genitalia Who you choose to have sex with and all of those other things and we don't even ask what you stand for right? We don't ask those. It doesn't matter. It's right. It doesn't matter with you. Yeah, it's it's shocking to me, so I may have able to answer this question myself What do you think because there's quite a few people running? Yeah understanding and there's a write-in For Kurt and I know you in one article. I read you said you weren't gonna run if Kurt was running And so he said he wasn't running because he's doing this radio show or TV show. Yeah, it's a radio show radio show and so he would have to stop the show because of Federal laws so right he said no, but now somebody's instigated a write-in campaign which I don't That's real when you think about it. You can't really Show the difference between you and he because you can't debate. Nope So I don't I don't know what I think about that, but my question was what do you bring to the table that others? Don't I know Matt Kota's running. Do you know Matt Kota in Ward 4? No, no and for the council, but maybe it's South Burlington never mind that But what how do you stand out from the others? Oh my goodness. Uh, Why I stand out wildly And actually it's really funny We did our first candidate forum on CCTV channel 17 And I laughed after because Sarah Carpenter and I could not be more opposite Every question almost every question was about taxes in the economy. Yeah, and I you know, do you support the tax increase? I said no to all of them right. She said yes to all of them She has spent her career You know, I don't know a lot about her so I don't mean to sound like I'm disparaging because I'm sure she's a lovely woman But her career has been spent Figuring out how to spend taxpayer dollars how to get more in taxpayer funding how to get more out of the government in Order to redistribute that wealth, right? I have spent my career Helping businesses grow and thrive Trade right and you have your own business. I do yeah, yeah, I have an accounting consultancy called. I love your money and you know what I do is work with Small to medium-sized businesses Often who spent a few years trying to save money? By having their mother-in-law do their bookkeeping. Oh, right, you know and now it's it's three years later And they can't get funding. Yeah, because it says they have negative $500,000 in accounts receivable and they can't figure out why thanks mom. Yeah, and it's like, okay Yeah, you probably don't owe your clients a half a million dollars. I mean, this was an actual thing that happened Oh, yes. Oh, yeah, so, you know a lot of times it's Quickbooks bills itself as this great software that anybody can use But if you don't have a bachelor's degree in accounting, right? If you don't understand debits and credits if you don't understand the economy and taxes and business regulations It doesn't matter how easy the buttons are to put right So I work with a lot of folks like I have one client in particular. We started working together He had two employees. He used no time management software. He had no idea how long his projects were taking He was nearly bankrupt Five years later. He has ten employees Oh, you know a nice chunk of change in the bank that will be buying his own office space with Exactly You know just completely turned around and that's what I really love to do great. It's really fun Well, that would be an asset to Burlington Challenge they what are you doing? Yes, you're getting your money's worth out of it I really often ask myself like and this is I This is totally rude and I know it is but every time I go to city council and I see like the housing initiatives and things like that I'm like Do you guys not do math? It this is basic addition and subtraction. I'm not sure why you think any of this stuff is a good idea And I think that I think that we have a council and a mayor Who are compassionate? Yes, that that is true, right and they care about people. Yeah What seems to be missing is the ability to regulate and say no and Be realistic about what's possible and what's not so we want to help everyone Right, and I learned this term. It's called pathological compassion Right, so we just want to be nice to everyone and we want to do everything that we can and we want everybody to be okay And that is an awesome goal. I love that goal, but But you can't but you have to pay for it, right? You have to pay for it and so Well, we'll get to the next I'll let you ask the next question Is are people leaving Burlington as they are in the rest of the state? Have you have those numbers? I'm just curious about that I actually don't know the numbers off of the top of my head But Chittenden County is the only place that's growing growing well because there's opportunity there So people can make the money to pay the taxes. It's the only place with jobs. It's the only place I shouldn't say the only place. I know that's hyperbole, but it's one of the other than the Northeast Kingdom Which I think still has some good manufacturing gigs and stuff like that It's the only place that is has an industry to support people Now that being said we aren't growing as much as we might be if the state weren't Struggling so much right and in fact part of the reason that We are having an exodus of people is because of Burlington so You know as goes Burlington so goes the rest of the state or as goes Chittenden County so goes the rest of the state so when you have This this was this is another way I can point out the difference between Sarah and Kurt and I Sarah in the candidate forum the other Last week said You know, we need to have the state redo the housing or excuse me the education funding because we Have special issues here in Burlington that they don't have in the rest of the state and we need more money Sign them up, right sounds good. Yeah, right, right except that that education funding that increase in education funding Comes from the rest of the state So Burlington has made decisions to strangle its economy so that we don't have enough money Burlington has made decisions to bring Low-income people who have to be taken care of with social welfare services Burlington has made these decisions that have created the problems and now expect the rest of the state to pay for it So poorer communities like Fletcher and Westford or whoever We have the gall to expect them to pay our bills when it's our own fault that we're struggling financially Yes, I don't know how you justify that. I like this keeps keep talking Because the one thing I got involved in in this the legislature was the cleanup of Lake Champlain. Yeah There's a lot of people who said that's Burlington's problem. Let them pay and I'm I'm one of the on the in this particular instance Because I agree with what you said that the lake has such an impact on us the state from an economy perspective that I think the rest of the state should Pitch in and help clean because the lake the lake is so important to all of us agreed even if it's not my backyard And I can't see it, but it's close enough. Yeah, and it tracks people and so that you can you can quote me But I that's the one I would share and because we if we don't clean that lake up I think we're doomed. Well, and that's actually an interesting conversation, too I recently learned that part of the reason we're having such a hard time with phosphorus There was a federal program Early in the 20th century where the federal government was telling farmers to put phosphorus on their land So now so now we're punishing farmers and putting them out of business for something That's actually the federal government's fault exactly. Yeah, and so I have a conversation with people a lot about our relationship with the federal government because as you may know Vermont is a State that gets more in federal funds than we give So we get more in grants and things like that then we actually contribute to the general fund So we are a receiver state is what they say And so I've spoken to a lot of a lot of legislators and people like Sarah who would say well We have all this money. We get all this federal grant. We need to be able to whatever those come with costs and Consequences later down the road. I would be willing to bet you Any money that that phosphorus program came with some other benefit We had to contribute something it probably meant something and now decades later We're suffering the consequences for being willing to take that hand out very few people remember that The federal government and phosphorus and when we were having the discussion around the state You'd bring it up and they'd like what what exactly? Well, it's the farmers fault It's exactly and it's just people are not willing to learn history before they make their decisions and And I would just pose again The fact that Vermont gets more federal funds than we give is our fault It's our fault So we make laws that cause businesses to leave we raise taxes so that people leave We raise the regulatory burdens so that building anything costs you a hundred thousand dollars in act 250 permits before you've even started right and then so Vermonters or our legislature is the reason that Vermont is poor and Then we have the expectation because we want it to be green or we want whatever And then we have the gall to tell the rest of the country that it's their responsibility to subsidize our way of life That's great. That's crazy to me and they don't get at the legislators. No, no, and where do you see the new act 250 bill? That's just it's gotten out of committee and it's going over to Think maybe house gobs or ways of means and then to the Senate. It's just a dandy couple hundred pages. It's great It's great and that's what so Vermonters In addition to our legislature city council Burlington residents actually believe whether they realize it or not that it is the rest of the country's responsibility to pay for us to have clean air and water and all that stuff not ours and that is Just a very immature way of thinking about money The same as you're saying it's sort of the same thing where a lot of people think the government should take care of us You know right here in Vermont. Well, they should take care of us rather than let me work and contribute and take care of myself Take care of my family. Yeah Not in my family Talk some of the other day. I've been working since 1964 if you figure that out. That's a long time So tell me I've read a couple things about what is your main the main focus? I'm running on the platform whether it's schools taxes. I don't know how much you're involved in the opioid crisis, but yeah so schools taxes well Schools as it relates to taxes. That's right local control for sure, but tax property tax relief property tax reform Stimulating the economy and public health and safety And public health and safety actually doesn't get a lot of attention because everything has been so focused on the economy and taxes but partially because Without the money to pay for public safety. You can't do much right, so everything Really? Starts with a foundation of a strong economy where we have good businesses that provide good jobs with multiple layers of Pay and experience needed, you know We want the executives that get paid a couple hundred thousand dollars or more But then we need the the blue collar workers We need the entry-level jobs for our teenagers and are those right out of college things like that So we need a good robust business environment so that people want to do business here when we bring that Economic activity back, right? We'll have the tax base. We need to lower taxes and pay for Things like public safety and one of them may save on guns because one of your council people proposed No guns. There's a savings right off the top. I Was really impressed with that. I went oh my good Well, and what's wild is that at the same time they want to disarm the police and disarm the populace with gun laws They're also releasing violent criminals. They're not locking up You know, I don't know if you know this, but I had someone share an experience with me a police officer Who had arrested someone for domestic violence? This is in Burlington. Yeah Had arrested someone for domestic violence. They pick them up. They bring them in Call the judge. Hey, we picked up so-and-so. We got a you know, whatever Judge says no custody release them have them show up to court tomorrow So he's just beating his girlfriend right. Oh, it's released immediate same night Goes back same night beats her up again get the cops called again. They pick him up again. Bring him down Call the same judge. Hey judge. We just picked him up again. He beat her up again What's up? Judge says no no no let him go more conditions He goes back a third time. Oh my god nearly kills her whoa This time Will remand him to custody what a great guy, but this idea that like oh every but we're not gonna in car We're gonna decarcerate violent criminals cuz So so you're gonna release violent criminals on the street You're gonna make it so the police can't do their job and I'm not allowed to protect myself either right What right? How is that anything other than insanity? Did you go to the the jail discussion over it from VT digger? Unfortunately, I did not get to attend. Well, it's on it's not you've got to watch it It's it's on it's on VT diggers. So the whole thing One of one of them who shall remain nails cuz I'm gonna do a show on this said that in domestic violence if the person Kills the partner chances are he will never reoffend again So you had to be there so because the whole audience is clapping except for me and the Two friends on either side of me and we were just sitting there going what? Because they and and you should never lock up women because they've they've been abused and they've you know Never mind what they did to their kid. So I'm gonna go listen to that one. That's a dandy. So one of the reasons that public health and safety in this whole thing is so important to me is Because I'm a recovering addict. I'll celebrate 11 years sober in March. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much. I Having actually been a drug addict and understanding what is required to get well right and having Worked very closely with other addicts to help them get sober this idea that everyone is just the victim of society and That with a little therapy people will stop Right human trafficking people will stop harming each other people will stop whatever is baseless and Completely unfounded right? I Literally do not understand and cannot comprehend where this idea comes from because if you ask anyone in recovery anyone who was a criminal and got reformed Absolute there is not a single one who will say you know how I got better by the society Turning a blind eye to what I did Allowing me to continue to terrorize people on the street and tell me that I'm just the victim and that nothing is my Responsibility because he had a bad childhood That's no one is I've got beat up No one has ever gotten well that way and I can tell you for a fact that no one ever will Because the way that you as a recovering addict or a criminal somebody who's been in jail and all these other The way that you earn your dignity back is By taking responsibility for what you've done right No one gets better any other way You have to hit rock bottom You can't have people telling you that it's okay to sleep in other people's Yards and in their places of business you can't tell people that it's okay to behave badly You can't tell people that they get to commit human trafficking Trespassing right theft and all of those things and that they're just the victim of society and expect them to get well You have they have to hit rock bottom Which normally includes some kind of interaction with the police or something like that to get Smacked awake well what kills me about the police these days is they are almost asking that instead of being law enforcement that they're being Social workers. I mean I had a I here at the studio We did an eighth part series on opioids that treatment prevention and enforcement wellness and The the law enforcement people we had on here is like they don't want us to enforce the law They want us to be social workers and and confront the issues right there and then and that's not what they're trained to do That is not what they're trained to do and frankly to be perfectly honest I don't want the police to care about my feelings. I want them to care about my safety. There you go I want them to make sure that I'm okay, and if I'm a danger to myself and others I want them to be responsible for that if I am a danger to myself and others Please save me from myself. There you go. And if that means arresting me and throwing me in jail Which for me personally that is what happened, right? That was the beginning of me getting to see that the way that I was living was not working, right? But I like many Vermonters grew up Or we're living in a place where we were Losing our ability to make jobs. There's you don't see the opportunity To raise a family and afford things. You don't have a lot of hope, right? And then Unfortunately, some of us have bad things that happen to us. So as an example or my personal experience. I was drugged and sexually assaulted in my early 20s and that led to a Lot of not good emotional issues as you would imagine and that definitely contributed to me turning to drugs and alcohol to Deal with the pain and the suffering that was caused by that but I Will never in a million years tell you that it was because of that that I became a drug addict and an alcoholic It's not because of that that I committed a crime and had to suffer the consequences It was because I didn't have I'm gonna restate that I've had a lot of bad things happen to me in my life Not sure how to respond, but I'm very sorry. Well, no all this, but it doesn't make me a victim well, you can sense that just hearing you talk because As a grown person, you know Maybe when I was a teenager and I got bullied so badly that I had to drop out of high school my senior year I would have thought of myself as a victim back then When I got drugged and sexually assaulted and then Re-victimized by the judicial system. I probably would have told you I was a victim back then Any number of bad things that have happened to me in my life I could choose to see myself as a victim and use that as an excuse for bad behavior Mm-hmm, and I did for a long time because I was told that I was a victim right and When you tell people that you're a victim That they're a victim You take away their agency to change their lives and to get better Hmm, and if at any point in that period of time I had had a guidance counselor or someone else instead of saying Erica You are a victim you should wallow in self-pity and feel awful about yourself If somebody had at any point said to me Erica, you are not a victim and here's why Here's how you can turn this around. Here's what that looks like. Mm-hmm I needed a mentor in my life to help guide me and shape those things I didn't need the government telling me that I was a victim right and that I didn't have to take Responsibility for myself hmm, and it wasn't until I had someone who was willing to be that mentor It wasn't until I got Smacked down by my drug addiction It wasn't until I had to fully suffer the consequences of the choices I had made right That I got to make a different decision and now look at you very impressive. Seriously. Thank you I'm not sure I I've never had thank thank you I never had any of these experiences because I think my father would have killed me so there We just we just ended at dad, but I've lived I have lived a very Shelter I've been out in the public and work for state government, but for some reason I've just been in this little Bubble and some of the things that people say to me. I'm like what I just I listen and I try to understand But it's hard sometimes because you haven't thank God experienced it, but I give you a lot of credit well on the best we can do is is be empathetic yeah and of course I make the joke all the time that everyone in Burlington and our legislature basically has to go to Aledon and I'm probably not supposed to say that on like public television or whatever but What is missed about people struggling with drug addiction and alcoholism is that You can't save them Unless they want to be saved right right you cannot it doesn't matter how Much money you throw at the problem it does they have to decide for themselves So by as an example by letting people just sleep on the street and in the foyers of buildings and and really Decimating what is left of the economic activity in Burlington? You lower the bottom No, and so they have to get even worse and fall even further Before they have that moment where they wake up right and so if if people could just understand that What they believe is compassion is actually more harmful. Yeah, I think we could start to see something different Now you must see along with all of that we had a Who does politics you know always talking about politics giving his insight into it and I asked him in the show I said what's what do you see in Vermont is the worst thing that we're going to be dealing with? And he said homelessness which really speaking of the bubble. I was like what are you talking about? He said homelessness because it's also Food insecurity Mental illness, it's all wrapped up into one which which is about if somebody's got a roof over their head and Place to live and feel safe, which is what you're talking about and they can take care of their family I have enough to do be a part of a community be together So he said that's what he sees in our future that is just gonna Be devastating absolutely and the and the policies that are being Followed and pushed just make it worse. Huh? All you have to do is look at Los Angeles. Oh Portland awesome. So lived in Austin, Texas lived in Los Angeles. I Can't imagine what it really looks like I'm a buff hauled by the pictures So to actually see it and the speaking of the police They're going in and having to work with these folks and being a part of the recovery community for 11 years and going To these homeless encampments praying for people bringing them food bringing them things when you allow homeless encampments You are creating a place for disease. Yeah at minimum, okay, the least bad thing There's a typhus outbreak in in Los Angeles for God's sake seen in hundreds of years, right? Like I'm trying to when I start talking about it. I get super excited Because it makes it crazy. It's so obvious. Why don't they it's and not not only that but you set up a Circumstance for people to be victimized right because this is women are getting raped and sexually assaulted rampantly. So are men You know, so men and women are being raped and sexually assaulted. They're being sex trafficked They're selling themselves and there must be kids in that mix That would just I'd be adopting them all And so so again this this pathological compassion, right? That I'm not saying that arresting mentally ill people is awesome I'm not saying that arresting drug addicts and putting them in jail is awesome or super effective But what we're doing is not working right and I would love to see something like what Rhode Island has Which is essentially like work camps. Yes, they were talking about that the other night Which sounds awful and are not great and have their own problems for sure We are human beings right and we screw stuff up. That is all there is to it Give them some kind of trade give them counseling while they're in there Don't just put them in the in the cell and close the door. There's an awesome Organization in South it's located in South Burlington called working fields. So too, I'm gonna plug If that's okay. Yeah, please working fields is a staffing agency the executive director's name is Mickey wiles He is you if you can I mean I know it's not politics But awesome we do a lot of shows not politics because I find them interesting awesome guy awesome organization They work to help drug addicts and ex cons get jobs great because you know how people stay sober When they have a purpose yes, and they have dignity and integrity so they are working with local employers for my employers all across the state to Staff to get people in recovery into jobs and to be that foundation for them to get well Love it. Love Mickey. They're awesome And then in Burlington you have a new place the executive director is Kevin Pounds and it's a homelessness shelter So they have a long-term program on North Street, and then he's now also They're also in charge of the low barrier shelter and their whole thing is about What it's not just giving them a bed, right? It's having recovery coaches helping them get jobs They have a whole program that you can go through it's like six months to a year And they even help you get apartments at the end the whole thing So I have I'm actually working with a new place because I have a triplex in Burlington I told them when I have an opening I would like to consider Renting to one of your people right because I had people who were willing to invest in me And give me a second chance at my life so that I got to be sitting here to pay it forward exactly good for you Love those organizations. So we have looking at the time and I want it. I want to focus a little bit on The council and all of that I made a list up I know I send it to you of all the stuff you've got going on in Burlington. I'm sure I've just I've just touched the surface but People when you go around when you have that what they call it livability forums They had about four or five of them, right? Have you done yours yet or I I attended one. Yeah, I attended one of them And so what are people saying are their issues what what do they what does some of them didn't look too well attended But that's always the way it is when you're campaigning well Yeah, it's hard to get people out. Yes, so but what are the folks that did you what were they well now? Are you talking about our candidate forums or are you talking about the housing summit? No, no the candidate forum Oh, okay Because the council supported that and it looked like they had just a couple of candidates in this one and this Because you're from use I think you mentioned word for yes, which is really the north district Yes, so we are the the west side of North Avenue or the lake side of North Avenue is word for so we have just had the one candidate forum and Almost every single question I think With the exception of one silly one that I can remember somebody asked me or if I was related to Ted Bundy Stop I was like I was so excited when I married my husband to take his last name and I was like I'm never gonna hear these stupid jokes ever again But it's whatever But every single question was about the economy and taxes now that that see that's that's where we've experienced statewide And do you think when they get to the legislature? They've all heard the same thing from their constituents. No, we do just the opposite. I actually I Kind of yelled at one of my city councilors and I After the last one of the last city council meetings Where they voted to put the I think it was the public the Burlington housing trust fund on the ballot See council voted to go ahead and put on the ballot and I went to Franklin Polino after who's the north district city councilor And I said, you know, you come to all these meetings and you say I hear you we hear you Right, I hear you all of them say that right All of them say anything, but then you still vote for the thing that we tell you we can't afford right So you don't hear us and you don't actually care We don't listen. I think that's a they don't compute exactly airing out the other and I think that Um Councilman Ali Zhang word seven was the only one who voted against it. Oh really? Yeah, and he and I disagree on tons of stuff Yeah, but he listened and I was like that's the only one of you That actually listened to your people So and what is your what who are your people? What is your ward consist of what is it because I think in Burlington? I've noticed there's some cultural there's Cultural components here and here and here and I I'm assuming every ward has got a little nuance and and different than the other Wards. Yes, the new north end is very different than the rest of the city in that it's primarily owner occupied single-family homes, so there's obviously duplexes and You know triplexes some apartment buildings and apartment complexes But not nearly to the extent that you have in the rest of the city So we are primarily older Vermonters so people who are retired on fixed incomes young families and And that I mean that's pretty much the demographic of the new north That's the most garden is or not there used to be a Garden where people could go and plant things there is that there's elsewhere else in the city I think there's multiples of I know there's one at the at the Trailer park okay across from the Ethan Allen shopping center. I know there's one there But I think there's a few around the city Yeah, because I'd seem to have caught on because you know it's fun to watch plant something and then go home and eat it How cool is that exactly and that's I love that's one of the values I I tell people like my husband and my friends in Texas call me a food snob Because growing up here right our so much of our food is grown locally farm raised locally exactly I love it and it's so much fresher and more delicious and you just realize How important our local farms are and and what that means to our community? I love to go to a restaurant where you're reading eggs came from you know Erica Reddick's farm in in Williston or something. Yeah, this is so cool. Like I'm supporting not only am I first of all supporting and and and really Creating local farms is I don't I don't know why Progressives want to do anything that hurts our local farms because what else? Helps with climate change Then not having to transport our food from South America There you go with who knows what they put on it exactly all the chemicals Because I think chemicals don't just stay on the outside So you can actually go into the meat of the apple or whatever exactly yeah We should really I think rather than passing a bunch of legislation that is closing our family farms We need to be supporting them as much as possible. I agree with that Yeah, I had John sales on here a couple of weeks ago, and he's from the food bank Yeah, and they put this veggie truck together and they go to schools with all kinds of vegetables that I Think you can just take there They're free and there's people coming out of the woodwork to to enjoy the fresh the fresh fruit that he offers Incredible yeah, I know you've got in your little town. You have such things as Sanctuary City Non-citizen voting Which I don't know I just struggle with that. I'm sure this is no surprise to my viewers Where's it where you take on that? That's already done So it's sort of hard to undo if you are not crazy about it the sanctuary city park. Yes. Yeah, I I Find it very disappointing and Having just moved back from two states with the highest numbers of illegal immigrants right and not just Illegal immigrants, but crime caused by illegal immigrants It's unfortunate that in a lot of these conversations legal and illegal immigrants Illegal immigrants and criminal illegal immigrants outside of having been here illegally Criminally they all get conflated. Mm-hmm, right? So now if you say anything about Illegal immigrants and wanting to address safety you're a racist and you're a whatever right blah blah blah fill in the blank, right? so My nephew is a border patrol agent in south Texas. So thank you so last year when everybody was saying that there was no crisis at the border and Passing sanctuary city laws and all this stuff. I was like Matthew just told us a story about Hundreds of people getting gunned down at a border checkpoint where he's stationed near where he's stationed So the in Texas especially I'll speak because that's where my knowledge base is mostly very Porous border because we'll go back and forth to go to school to go to work It's very much like we have here with with Canada back. Exactly. Yeah Hundreds of people in line waiting to go to school waiting to go to work all just murdered by the cartels Oh, wow, and they run the border the entire way. Did you hear anything about that? Not a single word Right, but we can't talk about that. Yeah, we can't talk about the illegal immigrants that are coming into the country Who are MS-13 gang members who are running drugs who are human trafficking? We just had a human trafficking ring broken up in Burlington a sex trafficking ring Actually, really for real like actually a sex trafficking ring was broken up in Burlington, Vermont Oh my god, but we're not gonna concern ourselves with the people Who are committing human trafficking right that just seems very irresponsible to me. You're saying it's so calmly That's really it just is shocking and I go I Think is it five was it five out of the eight nine eleven bombers were had visa had overstayed their visas Oh, yeah, right. So so I guess we've forgotten about we forgot about that. Well, I my husband That's a long sure and I don't want to waste any time but we came through one of the border crossings that a week later some of the terrorists for the for the World Trade Center came in the same place we did and the guy okay Go ahead and I'm in my motorcycle with piles of stuff I bought and I've got the black mask on you couldn't even see whether as red room blue green yellow Whatever just passed me through. Yeah, and I and I said the proofs that was the weirdest doesn't they'll they ask questions Don't they care. No, it's really bad. Well, and just to point out to be really clear By and large for the most part ice and immigration officials when they were doing as an example when they would do rate raids right in Texas they weren't coming to find the illegal immigrant who who came here to pick Apples right in you know in the fall, right? They're looking for the people who have already been committed or who have already committed a crime that the police have already dealt With right because and send that that's how they know they're here. How else would they know? They're here if not the cooperation of local and that's pretty scary We went we were visiting my husband's son in Arizona and we went through Nogales to we were going by way of To Florida, so we went through it at night time Whoa, just when you look at the border and the dogs and and you can see Mexico over there It was a little eerie feeling. It's wild. It's wild Listen, we have two minutes and I want I just would like you to talk to our audience and You know what you'd like to see happen to Berlin wouldn't Berlin that's where I live Burlington what you what you would bring to the table and hope to accomplish as your campaign, you know some speech Yes And this is when I should address the camera that is what I hope to accomplish in Burlington is a massive Deregulation of buildings Zoning of zoning is primarily I want to see our economy opened up for the least among us to be able to survive When taxes are so high and regulations are so high that you have to be wealthy or a Huge business already to make it. That's not how we grow That's not how we do better and that's not how we keep young people So that we can make sure that there is enough money to take care of our older people Which is a major issue that we're gonna that we're already seeing here in Vermont and in Burlington. So Deregulation as much and as widely as possible Encourage Investment by locals and other folks make sure that we can thrive and pay for all of the things that we need I am happy to provide all of the social services have all of the recovery Beds that we need Rebuild Memorial Auditorium deal with the Moran plant. I want to do all of those beautiful wonderful compassionate things That everyone talks about And I'm going to do it by creating an economy That allows for us to pay for it ourselves Rather than going into into debt or expecting the rest of the state or the country to pay for it Bravo. Thank you very much. I wish you a lot of luck. Thank you that moran plant I'm like still Honest to God that I I started working in Burlington in 91. That's the big topic back then 80s for a god's sake like every year what are we going to do with the Moran plant and now and the longer it goes the Worse it gets the more the cost Listen, I bet you enjoyed this show. I certainly did and I really want to thank our guests for coming very exciting We're gonna watch Burlington Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week and in the meantime keep listening beyond the soundbites