 I'm going to call to order the special city council meeting for October 26th at 5.06 p.m. The first item on the agenda is the agenda council is do we have Councillor Jang on board? Councillor Jang, are you able to please make a motion on the agenda? You're on mute Councillor Jang yes I would like to make the motion adopt the agenda as presented but yes and wanted to also make an amendment okay go ahead yeah to the agenda so that we can take the deliverable we weigh on that first before we talk about the other items okay so your intention would be to have the resolution come first and then the report from the clerk treasurer's office after the fact is that correct Councillor Jang yes president Tracy and the vision being we have a meeting at 5 30 as well okay understood all right great so was that a second Councillor Pine yep second from Councillor Pine all those in favor of our agenda please say aye aye any post hearing none that passes unanimously and we have our agenda I'm gonna go now to the public forum inbox which I do not see any folks who have signed up to using that form for the public forum we people are able to sign up I'm using the using the the the link to Burlington VT.gov slash city council slash public forum so I'll give just one minute in case folks wanted to sign up actually seeing that there are only a few attendees or any of the attendees interested in speaking in public forum if so please just use the raise hand function that's probably the easiest way okay seeing none I'm going to go ahead and close the public forum we will now move into the deliberative agenda which includes a resolution regarding fair elections and transition of power Councillor Hightower may please have a motion on the resolution yeah I'd like to wave the ring and adopt the resolution and like the floor back after a second okay we have a motion from Councillor Hightower is there a second point of information yeah go ahead Councillor Hanson is that the Councillor Hightower is that the revised or the original that you're moving yes if we could do the revised version of let me make sure I'm opening it now yep the revised version of the fair elections and peaceful transfer of power okay is that clear Councillor Hanson and our other clear others clear on what Councillor Hightower has just moved okay understanding that is there a second motion to the motion second from Councillor Paul Councillor Hightower you have the floor right and I won't be long I think just a lot of us have probably been part of conversations regarding the Sears elections we've had some problems with voter suppression in years past that's been growing I think this year in particular is of concern but it would be yeah I and so we had a conversation with some other folks that this is probably something we should be flagging and that should be it in front of the council but also that we should be reminding our voter so that this may be an unusual election year and I really hope that this will be a nonpartisan resolution I think it's fairly straightforward and something we should all be aspiring to thank you Councillor Hightower I have Councillor Hanson in the queue and if others like to get in please let me know go ahead Councillor Hanson great yeah and thanks to Councillor Hightower for getting this submitted I too think this is really important and I think it goes even a step further than voter suppression I think you know voter suppression is a huge issue and really has been since the founding of this country but I think something that is somewhat unique to this election that's even potentially more concerning than that is the president sort of indicating ambiguity around whether or not he would actually commit to the peaceful transfer of power if he were to lose the election and I think that needs to be raising alarm bells for all of us and you know whether we're in elected office or not I think everyone needs to be eyes wide open about the fact that if there's any uncertainty around who won the election or even potentially if it's pretty clear that Biden won the election it's not it's not a guarantee that Trump is going to step down and concede and so I think it's really important that we're all aware of that and starting to prepare to respond if in that event thank you Councillor Hanson any other councillors wishing to comment on the resolution Councillor Mason and then Councillor Pine go ahead Councillor Mason with your permission President Tracy I I want to ask maybe a question of the maker or of anyone I hear and I'm sensitive and we're all maybe have the same anxieties about what it means but I'm it's uncertain to me in the last resolve clause what exactly is being alluded to or referred to from a transition of power I I don't mean to undersell but you know we're just the city of Burlington and I'm I don't think there's a right answer but I'm not sure what the maker had envisioned as you were sort of work thinking of maybe effectuating that last resolve clause and I'm not asking me because I have an answer I'm actually asking because I just don't know what that looks like or what that feels like so and I did get a couple questions from constituents asking the same question and I did have an inadequate answer sure a little good sorry no no go ahead you're good thank you councillor Mason and President Tracy I think it's still a little bit unclear and I'd welcome others to jump on this and on this because I think it one depends on what it looks like in terms of what happens and what reasons are being given for being unwilling to transfer power peacefully I'm sure there'll be some kind of legal argument that will be made correct or incorrect and so I definitely think it may not it may just be statements it may just be another council statement saying something maybe it will be I'm not 100% sure yet I know that everyone from corporations to civil society organizations to local governments will have to do something if that happens what that is I think people are still discussing and talking through and I wouldn't claim to be an expert on those actions but I think we will be called to do something also Councilor Mason yes thank you and I mean now to sort of comment I will be supporting this thank you for bringing this forward councilor I tower I was I was asking also from the perspective of her things we should be preparing I guess and instead of reacting because I am optimistic it will not be chaotic but if it is it is and I'm I'm just thinking through I guess if any of us have things that we should be thinking or doing leading into Tuesday election you know I'd rather be prepared than responsive so thank you for bringing this forward councilor I tower and I will be supporting this I do give one more statement to that answer I'm sure go ahead sorry briefly I know one of the things that's being discussed as a general strike and I think we should be ready to support that especially on the part of any city of Burlington workers specifically great thank you for that councilor high tower alright I have councillor pine to be followed by councillor jen go ahead councillor pine thanks Mr. President and I do support this resolution the spirit and the actual wording of it I have I share and I think we hopefully all share the commitment to you know fair free and open elections as a bedrock to our democracy I think that the general strike was something I was going to mention so that was just mentioned we want to get too far ahead of ourselves here but you want to be prepared as well I mean it really is hope for the best plan for the worst right so I would like to also highlight in the discussion of voter suppression that I believe Vermont under this secretary of state is is a national example of how to actually make voting as accessible as it possibly can be I think it's pretty remarkable what has happened in our state so I just I just want to call that out because I think I think Vermont is a shining example for how to remove barriers for people to be able to vote and I really appreciate what has happened in Vermont around that and I want to congratulate our city clerk treasurer staff for being the local folks to make that happen the workload for them I know they've had to bring in extra people this is what democracy looks like it's really inspiring to see and to hear about the staff and what they've done to rally to make this happen Amy Bovee deserves a huge call out here because the amount of extra work that she and all of the staff but Amy especially has taken on with I think a certain amount an incredible amount of grace and professionalism exceeds really well for our city so thanks a lot thank you for those comments councillor councillor jing thank you president Tracy and I want to also echo that that Amy is just amazing as well as catering chat and now I have questions for them I know they said they shared a link to the full console about how voters can find out if they if their ballots has been received and was just wondering if there is a way for also voters the citizen of the city to know that their ballot also has been counted received and counted if there any way of finding out and this is a question for both Amy and Catherine if they can answer it okay great would one of you like to address that yeah I'd be happy to um so any voter who is registered in the state of Vermont can log into their my voter page and see the status of their ballot if the ballot is marked as having been received that means we've both gotten it and that it will be counted if we've gotten it and certain instructions weren't followed such as them failing to sign it or it's not in the certificate envelope it would be labeled as defective so that would mean we got it but unfortunately are not able to count it so a voter can tell by looking at their my voter page wonder thank you so much and yes I look forward also to support this resolution and vote in support of it but at the same time it feels as if personally yes whatever is happening in the nation and we want to boil it down to the small municipality but I think um it's a better safe than sorry and I think uh attempting to implement that the vote or intimidation of voters you know you will be apprehended and referred for persecution is a very clear language but thank you thank you councillor jane you have councillor paul thank you um so uh you know I would support this um and uh appreciate the time that went into putting this together thank you to councillor hightower the only thing that I would uh just simply add is that for those councillors that have not been on the council for a considerable length of time um this is the kind of resolution that should be sponsored by the full council there is nothing controversial about this this is something that we all agree to this is something that we should all have been extended the ability and the specific request to be sponsors um it is much more meaningful this kind of a resolution if this is if it is sponsored by the full council and there's really no reason for it not to be so I um I appreciate the I appreciate the the resolution on I would just simply say that when we when we do as a council these kinds of resolutions that are really in the public interest um to congratulate a sports team for winning us a great season to support um democracy which I think we all support democracy regardless of party um these are the kinds of things that we do together so thank you okay I don't have anyone else in the queue any further comments from councillors okay seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor of the resolution please say aye aye aye the opposed hearing none that passes unanimously thank you very much councillors our next item on the agenda is an update from the clerk treasurer's office which we sort of started to get a little bit into in the debate with councillor jing's helpful question and so just want to turn it over and to Amy and Catherine but before doing so just again want to thank both of you for all of your work in helping us to get this meeting together but then also just throughout this election cycle it bears mentioning that this is your third election that you've had to manage of this this particular year which is a challenge but has only been exacerbated by the increase in mail-in voting and you've done so I'm really really incredibly well and I just want to thank you for that so I'll turn it over to you to share an update on where things are thus how and how things have gone thus far as well as to share some just tips for folks in the next couple days if they're looking to vote or on election day what they're what they can expect at the polling places great thanks president Tracy um so I do have just some basic information prepared based on some of the questions you'd asked earlier in the day and I'm happy to talk to anything else that might be on folks minds so as you all know this year the state of Vermont decided to mail absentee ballots to all active registered voters automatically here in Burlington we've sent out 26 589 so a huge number of ballots definitely never had to manage that kind of number before so far we've received just over 14 000 of those back so a little over half of Burlingtonians have voted already which is great to see um you had asked about if we've been seeing any problems in the primary there were higher numbers of defective ballots than we like to see in the primary that was about six percent of ballots were defective that's when a voter doesn't follow a certain instruction most commonly it's failing to sign their envelope or failing to put the ballot in the envelope very happy to report that those numbers are significantly lower for this general election less than one percent of ballots have been defective there has been a lot of public outreach about this and we also took an extra step of adding a separate instruction sheet in all of the envelopes to call that to voters attention you know in a second place so happy to see that that seems to be working so at this point many voters probably still have their ballots wanting to turn them in we have three 24 seven drop boxes available throughout the city one outside of city hall on main streets and two others one in front of public works building on pine streets and the back of fire station number two on the corner of north avenue and strong streets we've seen a lot of folks utilizing them already which is great to see we empty them out twice a day so folks should feel confident in putting their ballot in there that we'll we'll get it quickly and it will be taken back to the office and counted um voters who haven't gotten a ballot still do have some options for voting um it's getting a little late in the game we can try mailing a ballot but would probably recommend folks either come during our open office hours we have one in-person office session available Monday morning will be open from 8 to 12 30 for folks to come in if they need to clear up any last-minute issues and they can of course always vote at their polling place on election day polls will be open as usual from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and um so we will have polling places open as I mentioned we've worked really closely to provide training to our election workers about what to expect on election day and kind of training session Monday night that was very well attended and I feel the workers are well prepared for what to expect and we've worked closely with the Secretary of State's Office and Department of Health to develop various COVID safety protocols um for most part this will be similar to what voters experienced in August during the primary but everyone will be required to wear masks we reconfigured all polling places to have a one-way traffic flow voters will be given single-use golf pencils rather than shared pens to use throughout the day and they'll be frequent cleaning of all touch points and surfaces um so that was the majority of what I had prepared and would be happy to answer questions for you perfect thank you so much for that um I have counselor pine to be followed okay sorry just two things two quick things that um Amy um you um may have forgotten one is we also have a drop box at the Miller Center um in the new north end it is not 24 seven but it is Monday through Friday nine to three um and so we are pleased to offer that as well for folks in that part of town um and also just for the um in-person voting I also just want to thank Amy and her team and all of the volunteers that come out to help there were some lessons learned from August and so we are certainly implementing them um and really trying to get creative uh we have been working with Zach from city arts um because he's great at planning events and how do we improve traffic flow um voters will notice um there will be tents set up at some of the polling places um so that workers can utilize some of that outdoor space to make things safer so um we are uh unfortunately getting the hang of um doing elections in COVID so um things went fairly well for us in August but we're just trying to build on that um and I think those are all the clarifications I had we're happy to answer your questions awesome great so I had counselor pine to be followed by counselor carpenter go ahead counselor pine thanks mr president my first was the reminder about Miller Center because I was pretty sure there was a fourth box uh but that's great um second is a question about past presidential election turnout what do we expect I think it's 18 or 20 somewhere in that range but I just want to find out and how late can voters keep dropping the ballots in these drop boxes and when when does the deadline hit for things like bringing it into city hall versus bring it to polling place yeah all great questions um so in the 2016 general election um we had about 19,000 voters vote um so at a little over 14,000 we are well on our way to that target um I think it's likely we'll exceed that as we continue to get ballots throughout the week and um some folks of course will vote in person and the drop boxes will be available until 4 30 p.m. on Monday after that a voter would need to hand deliver the ballot to their polling place counselor pine you're on mute yeah thank you and and not be able to bring it to city hall on election day right just to their polling place correct okay thank you yeah thanks for everything great I got counselor carpenter um actually those were those are my questions too will you uh Amy or the city be putting out some more press about that I think particularly the 4 30 um deadline for the drop box versus then then you got to bring it to the polling place the next day and and I worry if people will dash out at nine o'clock on Monday and drop it in the box and think it's okay well the box is actually be disabled for lack of a better way to say it um on Monday afternoon yeah I can let Catherine chime in on the outrage piece a little bit but um we do have a means of blocking the boxes off it'll have a block in the slot that says that the kiosk is closed and we plan to hang signs on the boxes saying ballots must be delivered to the polling place yes we are working with the mayor's office to continue to get the word out we appreciate everything you can do um because I feel like in some ways it's like the usps messaging I've been hearing it was like get your ballot in the mail get your ballot in the mail do not put your ballot in the mail you know because there's just was the one day deadline and we're sort of doing the same thing and so now we're like don't put your ballot in the mail put it in the drop box but only until Monday at 4 30 and so um I think we'll start to get that word out now and then yes it will be um we will make sure that the ballot boxes are disabled and as always there will be clear signage so that people know their next step is just to go to their polling place the next day I'll set council carpenter yes okay council Paul go ahead thanks very much um so I have two questions for Amy um the first is um thank you very much for the uh the zoom meeting that you had for the poll workers I had no idea that it was going to be city-wide when I got on there um and it was I don't know how many people were on that call but I have a feeling that there were a lot on and and there were a lot of really good questions so that was I think extremely helpful um for everyone to hear all the questions on the uh I have had people who have asked me how if you're trying to reduce the number of people that are coming into a polling place on there are a couple of people that have reached out to me and said you know if it's a miserable day am I going to the am I going to vote and I'm standing outside in the rain voting um can I go inside can I not go inside um if I have an absentee ballot for um relatives can I um you know can I take those in you know on their behalf if they can't get there and so I realize that you went over all of this the other day but it probably would be helpful just so that we could all hear that that's my first question a long first question and then the second is um you know Amy hope hope you won't um hope you won't feel that the all the kudos on you lessen the insincerity of the message but you know you are amazing you've done an amazing job with this um nothing seems to rattle you and I'm sure it does maybe when you get home but we don't see it and uh you really have done an amazing job with this the question that I have is is there anything that we can do for you those are my questions sure thank you Karen that's very nice of you um we have had uh we have asked that each polling place designate a person or a few people to be stationed right at the door either just inside or just outside depending on the weather uh that will allow folks who are not comfortable going inside to simply hand off their voted ballot and be on their way um at some of our smaller um physically smaller polling locations um we've put we will be putting tents up outside um we understand that there are physical limitations that won't allow for long lines to be forming indoors so we have added that extra layer of shelter for some of the smaller locations to give a little protection if folks do have to wait outside for what will hopefully be a brief period of time um so those options are available um and as far as you know what you all can do I have appreciated the support you're very kind um I'd say just get the word out to folks to turn in their ballot you know the sooner the better that's great and um yeah just encourage folks to vote we're excited to see such great participation um President Tracy I did have actually one other question just so that the um just to verify I know that at one point Amy you had told me that starting I think it was a couple of weeks in advance that you had gotten permission from the Secretary of State's office given the fact that you've got 14,000 ballots to already start feeding them into machines and um and I just wondered if you could just for the for the community just you know so that they understand and you know and that will probably be the difference between being able to get results at a reasonable hour versus not so perhaps if you could just speak to that of course yes the Secretary of State's office issued a directive allowing town courts to begin processing ballots 30 days in advance of the election we did take advantage of that before the state primary and have been doing so again this time so far each board has come in with a team of four volunteers for two sessions and the majority of those 14,000 ballots have actually already gone through the tabulators um we'll be continuing those sessions through the weekend to get a head start on making sure that they are counted in a timely manner processing absentee ballots is one of the most time consuming tasks on election day so without this provision I think you're correct it would be a very late night and into the next morning before we had our results great thank you thanks again any other questions from counselors okay seeing none very much appreciate all these questions and all this great these great answers as well as the hard work um a that now completes our agenda is there a motion to adjourn I'm moved move by the motion to adjourn moved by Councillor Hightower seconded by Councillor Stromberg any discussion seeing none all those in favor please say I be opposed okay we are adjourned at 534 thank you very much counselors and thank you to the clerk's office for all your hard work we'll see you