 Hello, everyone on Zoom. Welcome in the room. Thank you all for being here. My name is Adam Roof. I'm the chair of the Berlin Democratic Party and thank you all for being here, both virtually and in person. We're going to get started here. If anyone comes in and you can see they're not registering, just point them over to Lexi if I miss someone. I'll make sure that everyone is registered to be able to vote. Thank you also to the Vermont Democratic Party for there, so that's going to be in line. We're going to bear through it. Are those people signing on? What do we think? I'm sure there's a way to mute it, but let's just maybe try that. Let's mute them all. See you later. I like that power. Thank you so much to the Mont democratic party for their support during this process of planning on this post pandemic age. We're trying to do our best to make this as accessible as possible, which includes having opportunities like this to gather, but also options virtually for people to participate and listen in. Thank you also to channel 17 who is streaming the caucus this evening. They've always been a great partner to help get our message out there and everyone else's commentary as well. So good evening again. We're going to get started here. And I'm going to call it the order of this reorganization caucus at 6 36pm. Before we get started, I just want to lay out the agenda for us this evening, as well as some logistics. Well, we have some official business to take care of. We will also be hearing from Mayor Weinberger, as well as candidates who are running for office running for executive office. We will also be collecting delegates tonight to the county committee, although we will not be hearing from all 40 plus of them to respect your time. We're all welcome at meetings. I want to make sure that everyone both here and online. Here's what our philosophy is. Everyone is welcome at our meetings to vote. You do need to register. If you are present and have not already registered, please come see Lexi for those online. There was a deadline to vote virtually at 5 o'clock. That deadline obviously has passed, but if you are online or if you'd still like to vote, but miss that online deadline, you can certainly come down anytime before 8 30 here to be D get registered to vote. All the ballots that will be doing this, all the votes will be doing this evening will either be by acclimation for those for those votes that are uncontested. We'll get them for those that are contested. We'll be doing a paper ballot all ballots, whether they are virtual or paper will be secret ballot. All right, well, let's move on to our official business here. The first item on our agenda is to elect the city committee. The city committee is made up of all those present in voting tonight. Once there once we elected the city committee, we will adjourn. That's going to keep happening. We will adjourn and the organization caucus and call to order the first committee meeting, which we will where we will be taking our votes. Yep. Okay, so with that, that's just, you know, if we know who they are, we'll check them out. So with that, I'd like to seek a motion to elect all those present, both in person and virtual who are eligible to participate in the city committee to be elected to the Bronx City Committee. Do I have a motion. Awesome. Do I have a second. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. We have our committee. Do I see any nays? Of course not the eyes have it with that without seeing objection rather I will adjourn that reorg caucus we are organized and called to order our meeting of the city committee here just a few minutes later at 639. Just for those watching and listening as people come in. We're just going to consider it friendly that if they are registered and eligible that they are also member of the committee. Do I see any objection on that? Can I ask, please, when you were taking both, they had been muted and those four chats and I appreciate that this is going to be a group effort tonight. Got 15 different things going on. Say aye. That is, that is technical. I will, I will unmute. I'm going to see if there are hands up in the chat. Let's check the chat. Thank you all in advance for bearing with me. Folks on zoom if you can unmute yourselves. If you have, I know be careful. If you have all finished. If you have an objection, please unmute yourself and be heard. If you have a question. Please unmute yourself and be heard. Seeing none. I'm going to take that vote as legitimate. Do I have any other objection or question? All right, we'll move forward. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. With that, what we're going to start off with is hearing first off from more wine burger for some introductory remarks. Maro, come on up and you can take this seat because anyone is a zoom pro wants to come up and change off the ding dongs. I'll be eternally grateful. Otherwise, we're just going to battle for him. Thanks, Adam. Good evening, everybody. I'm going to try to talk to people in the room and the group that has joined us here on zoom. Thank you everyone for coming out and being part of this. It's kind of a technical step but a really important one that impacts both the way the party organized itself for state elections for national elections and of course for local elections that we will are getting into soon and the season is coming. The, and then of course, electing leadership of the Democrat Party is locally is critical. I want to thank Adam roof for his years of leadership now in this role. I also want to thank the couple folks leaving the executive committee Richard Dean who is with us in the back and, you know, remarkably selfless act after serving on the city council came back and serve more years as a as an official for the party and I also want to think she's able to join us. I don't think she's with us online but Sierra Hayes also played a critical role. The, the three of you, the outstanding candidates that we had this last town meeting day, who are with us. We have the first district City Councilor Tim Doherty and Ward 8 City Councilor Hannah King between this great team these great candidates. We had an outstanding results last March and we are in better position as a party locally than we have been in decades. We haven't had a working majority, the way we do currently on the Brighton City Council, and at least 40 years and we certainly haven't had the mayor and a working city majority able to work together the way we are right now so again thank you Adam for your leadership thank you for everyone who was involved last March. This progress is already having an impact on the city on the way this community moves forward. Certainly the way in which the City Council is run and is organized as the key deliberative body for us working out our key decisions as a community has changed dramatically. Since City Council President Paul was elected by a majority of City Council I see that President Paul is with us tonight and I want to thank Karen for her leadership in that role. Subsequently, on the big issues we're making progress as well. We, on public safety, we have at long last a permanent chief, the department is stabilized and growing again both with an officer ranks as well as in the new positions we have created to do policing in new and ways we are on the verge of hiring our first ever assistant director level civilian position at the police department to manage all of the new alternative public safety resources that we have created in recent years. We still obviously are facing serious public safety challenges but we are making progress on many metrics as a result of stability and in many ways democratic leadership. There are more homes in construction in the city right now they believe at any time in the history of the city. Nearly 900 homes have either been built recently or under construction, perhaps even more hopefully we are continuing to take steps with the democratic majority that we have now to ensure that this becomes a new norm that we continue to be a city that can evolve and grow to meet its housing needs. We are in the middle of a new zoning district. Right now, I think it's kind of poignant that we are having this meeting in place where for decades, housing was prohibited. It is now legal and is legal at a scale that has allowed us to build hundreds of additional homes over the years to come. And we are making historic infrastructure investments all over the city we are partnered with the Biden administration, we will be making nearly $40 million of investments in infrastructure in the downtown that will be paid for by federal dollars by tax increment financing dollars and we when we do need to bond and of course we are going to need to do significant amounts of bonding at the local level. Because of the progress we've made with the state of our finances we are still even in the financial moment we're in now able to borrow at quite low interest rates tomorrow we will be going out for. I believe it is $120 million of the hundred and 50 up to $165 million of high school bonding and even with all the tax. Sorry, all the interest rate increases. Push forward by the Fed over the last couple years in response to the historic inflation. It appears we are going to be able to lock that financing in for the next couple of decades at under 4%. To keep this going, we need another great time meeting day this coming March it is a, it is going to be another big one there will be eight city council seats, they'll be up as well as the mayor's seat. We have an excellent chance my read of the situation is we have an excellent chance to defend the seven seat majority that we have currently and maybe even pick up another one or two. We are not going to be able to do that. However, if we don't stay strong as a brilliant and Democratic Party if we are not working hard and united and to that end it is awesome to see so many people here so many people out and being involved in this, in this early step so thank you all for being here and look forward to working with you and let's add. Thank you Mayor Weinberger for your remarks and for your work. The next piece on our agenda was we're going to be doing some elections. Before we can get to that point we're going to open up nominations and also hear from candidates. We'll be electing folks to the executive committee of the Democratic Party here in Burlington we're also going to be electing county delegates, which I think we have 61 seats plus 17. And we only have 42 delegate candidates. So if anyone is here was interested not on that list already. We're going to maybe hear some nominations from the floor as well. Just a little bit of clarity for everyone here. This is what we'll be we'll be doing for the executive committee elections. I see before I do that I just want to share a couple of quick thanks for folks that I've had the opportunity to work with for a couple of years. Moreau mentioned a few of them but Richard Dean who who served for three years now I believe as treasurer of the party. Thank you Richard for your work, not just with the party but also on the city council. I also see our haze. She was a UVM student who wanted to get involved. Really is an incredible young woman that that came to came to us and wanted to serve as a courting officer and did a great job in that role and we wish her all the best of luck in her future endeavors. The Burlington Democratic Executive Committee is made up of five elected positions chair vice chair recording officer, also known as secretary in our bylaws but I don't like that word so I changed it. I'm a treasurer and vice treasurer. The deadline for being considered for one of these positions was 5pm, excuse me noon on the 5th of September. All the candidates who are who are on the ballot today, who are in front of us they have met that deadline and they are eligible for these positions. Only one of the five positions vice chair is contested. And so what we're going to do now is we're going to move through nominations of which nominators will be given two minutes to address the group here. And then we have up to five minutes for folks candidates to speak. Once that is done, we're going to open up elections for the contested vice chair race. Those will close. I've got you in one moment. Those will close at 830 for those uncontested executive committee races. We're going to do a vote by acclamation. Okay, I did see a question. Go ahead. So for the contested race, there'll be an opportunity for members of the committee to ask questions. Yeah, Jason, you're two lines ahead of me, which I appreciate after the statements and vote. I didn't hear anything. That's right. We will also be have once the voting is open, we'll be having an opportunity for questions of not just the contested races, but any, any candidates who will be taking questions. My goal here is to get the virtual voting period open as soon as possible that so that folks have opportunities to vote, but we do have to get the nominations in to then to your question. It did. So the virtual voting will be open for the candidate statement from the discussion, or once that has included in person voting. So the, we're going to go nominations. We're going to go candidate speeches. We're then going to open up the voting. Andy Vota who's since disappeared. There he is. He's not hiding. It's going to hit a button those doubts are going to go out and then we're going to make space for conversation and questions. Could we entertain the possibility of holding on the virtual voting going out until people in person begin voting so that everybody has some virtual people have to benefit during the conversation. This is what we're going to do. Once the nominations are in, if anyone here or online when those ballots go out, anyone here can can begin casting their vote. If you are considering who to vote for and you want to ask questions or hear the debate that opportunity will be there. So we're going to try to open up the ballot as soon as we can for access reasons. And so if someone wants to come up and put the ballot here to the side of Lexi, we can do that. But I think that's going to be the best way to move forward. I think that's going to be the best way to get them to that end. Yes. We put in the message that open at seven. And so Jason to that point everyone has their paper ballots right here and they can decide to vote or not. So they will have to eat. It's running seven to eight 30 for the electronic. That's the current including in person just so folks know if they've registered and they want to come down vote up until eight 30 that's that's allowable as well. Is everyone okay with that. Is there any more objection or question about how we're going to move forward. So right now we're going to start we're going to go in order. We'll start with the chair nomination. I'll look to Mayor Warnberg to come up for a quick nomination. And we'll go forward from there. Well, again, I am excited and honored to not a minute Adam roof to continue in the role as president of the Berlin city Dems. And we Adam I think has might not have this quite right but I believe it's been at least four cycles now for local elections, including some special election, where Adam has has been the chair with my sense has been that with each new election, the party has picked up momentum picked up, made progress done even better at the polls, and that's what we need to keep doing as I said before into next next spring so I nominate Adam roof. Nominations I don't believe. I mean if you really want to. I believe any Robert's proof I'm almost certain that a nomination does not require seconds. So we're, I'm not, I'm not going to do remarks. I just want to say thank you all for over the years I was doing some reflecting over this week. When realizing that I'm going to sign up for another two years for the chair position. Next month marks my nine month anniversary of getting involved month first time I got involved with running for city council. As you can tell it's been a long nine years. No it's been incredible nine years I'm incredibly grateful for for all what I've what I've learned, and also very fulfilled by what I've been able to give back to the community and I'm looking forward for, for two more years and hopefully many more decades so. Well, we're not going to go vote by vote like I said so we'll close that nomination I'll consider myself moment. Next up we're going to hear from, we're going to hear from the Vice Chair nominees. Do I have anyone interested in nominating someone for the vice chair position. Yep, Joan, come on up. I know. Because I'm talking off the top and you never know where that goes. I'd like to nominate Hannah King. And I first met Hannah I think when she was working with UVM Dems and UVM Dems really became connected to to the city party and got involved in both mayoral campaign and city council campaigns, and then rose to leadership in the Dem Party in the UVM Dems and I've asked Hannah to talk a little bit more about the work that she has done for the Democrats but I want to say that these positions are very important for getting Democrats elected. And I really appreciate all the work that Hannah has done over the years for so many candidates. She has stepped up and done everything we've asked, including running for city council, when we wouldn't have had anybody and we certainly wouldn't have had anybody who could have won that race. And she worked so hard for that and I appreciate that. I appreciate you connecting me with campaign manager from UVM and creating that connection with UVM. And just generally being part of the of the Dem team when it comes to election time and when we need to get people elected Hannah's really been there for us. And I look forward I've enjoyed working with her I look forward to working with her in the future. I also want to say, I am so grateful that there are two people who want to do this and I did have the pleasure of meeting Olivia last year. And whichever way this goes I look forward to working with both women in the party and thank you. Thank you. What's that? Hi everyone thank you Joan, Adam and all the folks that put tonight's event together. My name is Hannah King and I'm excited to be running for the position of vice chair of the Burlington Democrats. I'm a proud member of the Burlington Democrats team for the last five years. When I moved to Burlington in 2018, I didn't imagine I would do anything remotely involved in political organizing. As a nervous, newly freed from chemistry lab first year, I attended my first UVM Dems meeting. It happened to be the meeting where East District City Councilor Richard Dean was attending to speak about his reelection campaign. After hearing his overview and doing some research into the progressive candidate running against him, it was clear to me who I would support. But it was through that decision making that I knew just voting wasn't enough. So from December to early March that year I spent my days knocking doors, making calls, harassing and registering as many UVM students as I could to turn out the vote for Burlington Dems. And while we didn't end up winning that race, the experience served as the foundation for my involvement with the Burlington Dems. In the years after that first brutally cold town meeting day, I can truly say I've worked tirelessly on behalf and alongside the Burlington Democrats. There hasn't been a town meeting day cycles since 2018 that I haven't volunteered, managed a race or worked for one of our Democratic candidates. But my commitment to the Burlington Democrats doesn't stop at volunteering for our candidates. I've served as the ward 8 chair of our city committee as a representative on the Vermont Democratic Party's executive committee. And it's just about every single leadership position of the of the UVM Democrats. I'm deeply committed to Burlington. During my time here, I've served on the Ward 8 neighborhood planning assembly, community development block grant advisory board and low barrier homeless shelter advisory board. I could not have been successful in those roles if it wasn't for the support and mentorship of fellow Burlington Democrats. In 2022 I ran as a Democrat for the Ward 8 city council seat. Anyone that knows politics in Burlington understands that the political and dynamic and Ward 8 tends to lean hyper progressive. In the days leading up to my announcement, I heard from countless people that the most strategic thing to do would be to seek the progressive nomination. But I remain consistent in my views. I would rather lose as a Burlington Democrat than win with any other party label. And I did just that I lost but stuck around and continued and continued working on behalf of Democrats. Specifically, I use that time to work as the finance director on Becca balance historic campaign for Congress. And now in 2023 I got to redo and proudly serve as the Ward 8 City Councilor, more specifically as the first candidate to run and win as a Democrat and Ward 8. We are heading into another campaign season. Well, that will require strong committed commitment to the Burlington Democrats. I have the experience track record and commitment critical for this position. The last five years have been tough, but today I'm asking you to support me in the same way I've supported our team over the years. Thank you. Any other nominations for vice chair. Please. Good evening, everyone. Hi to everybody online. I'm a manager new I live across from battery park and work as an economic policy expert. And I'm really thrilled to be able to nominate Olivia Taylor for the role of vice chair of Burlington Democrats. So I should admit that this is actually my first reorg. Partially, probably because I grew up in central Vermont. So I've always been a little bit confused about the dynamics between the progressive and the Democratic Party here. But mostly because I didn't even really know that this was a thing until I did emerge with Olivia this past year and learned a lot more about the Democratic Party and its structure. And I'm really grateful to be with all of you here today because clearly are your leaders and champions for this city and for the people here. And I feel, you know, living in Burlington that we're facing increasingly complex social environmental and economic crises and I really feel we can't solve those challenges with the same thinking that created them in the first place. And so, in this time, I think we need to get all hands on deck, but unfortunately more and more people are disengaging from politics because they're pretty frustrated with the status quo. And so I really believe that Olivia is going to be your lady if you want to get new fresh perspectives and more engagement in the Democratic Party here. And so it's really been my privilege to get to know Olivia because she's somebody who's really passionate, particularly about equity and inclusion. But it's something she doesn't just talk about she really walks that talk in terms of the way in which she's been actively engaged in the community. And so, you know, I think she'll be somebody who will be able to connect with people from all different walks of life, and really be able to bring in a lot more diverse perspectives into political leadership and decision making in this city. And so Olivia has obviously inspired me to be here today. And so I'm honored to be able to nominate her as vice chair and really hope that you'll join me in voting for her. Thank you. Okay, I am not a sitter. So I'm going to stand. And I'm going to make sure that it's, I think you can see me pretty well. Yeah. I'm also five one without heels so standing is good for me. Hi, everyone. I'm Olivia Taylor. I use she her pronouns. I'm a resident of Ward seven. And I live in the new north end. I'm running for vice chair because I'm excited to support and defend the work of our existing city counselors and the mayor, and to bring a strong and organized party into 2024. I have expertise in sustainability social impact fundraising private sector development operations management public policy and government relations. My first Vermont politics experience was in 2014 when I interned for the committee, the house committee on transportation, which then led to a position as the energy and climate change intern at the agency of transportation under Sue Minter. So she was kind of my first intro into the party. Since then, I've worked in academic support and international development. I've received a master of public administration from Columbia University. And I've joined a number of boards and committees around Vermont. I currently serve as the vice president of philanthropy for the junior league of Champlain Valley. Who's behind the diaper bank? Unfortunately, that ended, but they were behind the diaper bank. I'm a steering committee member for the words four and seven NPA go NPAs join and go to your NPAs. And I am also part of the housing board of review with Evan who's here as well. I've run for office myself and I have planned a variety of community events, including I was just the parade coordinator for the this year's pride parade. And I have raised in the last two years I organized the national eating disorder association walks, which both raised over $15,000. I last year I completed the emerge Vermont signature training, and also the Vermont Council on World Affairs global leadership program, which gave me a lot of really great networks and also connect and connections to different people. I'm probably most well known, however, for the work I've done with Mayor Weinberger and his and his administration with the stickers and the transphobic stickers in New North and when I noticed the presence of transphobic hate stickers in the New North end, especially in areas around schools and playgrounds. I began walking around the neighborhood weekly to clean my clean the stickers myself. I then posted on Facebook front porch forum all those things and got a bunch of community members, officials, reporters to join me in cleaning. So, I am really excited that I helped write the resolution that was brought to city council pass unanimously to help track the presence of the stickers make stickering harder to do on public signs and reassess our graffiti laws. So, I want to especially thank the mayor and his office for working with me on this and as vice chair, I would continue to support the city council in this way. I am not a city counselor, but I love writing policy so I will keep doing it as vice chair I would bring my skills and fundraising philanthropy event planning to bring more energy to the party. I want to see more events more get togethers people getting to know each other and really like coming back after this pandemic time as a party we want to make sure that we're defending the work of our city counselors, while also building the bench and getting more young diverse and queer people involved in the party. I believe my network expertise and energy will create a more open accessible and inclusive party. No matter what happens tonight you have my word that I will continue to work for these things whether or not you want me to within the party and I am truly honored to be here with you all today. Thank you so much and thank you Hannah to I'm really I love competition. I think it's good for all. Thank you. Thank you all to the to the nominators and to the candidates. It's always nice when there's an election where you can't really lose and I look forward to whoever's whoever is successful tonight I know that the other will also remain committed to working and so I'm as as chair or almost I'm still chair for the moment. I'm really, really grateful for both of you for stepping up and setting a good example for getting more folks involved which. Yeah, yeah. So let's keep chugging forward here we do have a few more offices to fill up next in line is the role of treasure. Do I have a nomination for treasure. Thank you. I'm glad I went first before because following all of those other speeches was you are all great. I would like to nominate Beth Anderson for treasure. Beth was our CAO and talk about over qualified for position. And I am so glad that that this becoming more involved with partisan politics in our favor, which I don't think she could really do when she was working inside city hall but thank you Beth for stepping up. All right, Beth let's do a sound check here. Can you. Can you hear me. There's a good for everyone in the room. All right. Beth, the floor is yours. Thanks. Thank you Jordan Adam and thanks to you all for the chance to just introduce myself. For those of you that know me, you won't be surprised to know that this is going to be short and sweet. But I'll just take a minute to tell you a little about myself and Beth Anderson, I am a ward five resident I've lived in the south end for about 14 years now, ever since I moved to Burlington. I am currently the CEO at vital, which is a health information exchange for the state but as Joan mentioned prior to joining vital I worked at the city for a number of years first as the city's first chief innovation officer and later as the chief administrative officer where I was responsible for coordinating city budgeting, as well as other things. I served on the board of a number of local nonprofits, including Cots and run Vermont, and I serve as a treasure for a statewide campaign candidate as well. I cared deeply about this community and I really committed a lot of my time both through my career, both through my work and my volunteer to try to better the community for all here. And I'm ready to make a commitment to working hard as a member of the executive committee of this group. And the work experience and skills I bring on the perspective and the levelheadedness I think I approach my work with would really help me make a positive, positive contribution to the work and support the event as support and advance the party's goals. Thank you for considering me for Beth. Thank you, Beth. Thank you for those words. We'll move on here. We've got two more, two more positions left. Can I see a nomination for vice treasurer, right, Nick. Thank you, Adam. For the position of vice treasurer I'd like to nominate Andrew Champagne, longtime Democrat in Burlington and, you know, a good mentor and friend of mine. So, thank you Andrew. I'd like to nominate you for vice treasurer. I speak for about 25 minutes. Is that okay. I'd like to thank everybody. Thanks, Ryan. I'd also like to thank town meeting television, who I just did my monthly Democratic show and came right from there. They're the ones that cover this so well I'd like to thank them. Okay, I'm looking out there Richard Dean, Joan Shannon Hannah King Adam Roof Moreau Weinberg I've worked in all your campaigns. I just registered my 1725 voter. What I always say every two years at this time is town town meeting is coming up fast. It's in about 1819 weeks. I always joke it's my favorite day of the year but it really is I love how Burlington comes together Burlington is family Burlington is community go Burlington Dems thank you. Andrew, looking forward to continuing to work with you for sure. Last office. Can I see a nomination for recording officer. I would like to nominate Romeo von Herman, who may not be known to everybody here. I think he's at least he's new wish on my horizon. And I think he's tried on some different political hats. There's there's Romeo. Romeo is there from Africa, where I believe it's about three or 4am. God bless you Romeo. But I came to know Romeo as he started to become more involved in politics started coming to city council meetings, talking to us about what was on his mind he works down at. The bus station and is really, you know, on the front lines of everything that's going on downtown and has become engaged through his concerns, and has really reached out to a lot of us and is becoming more involved in the political process and I am so grateful that he has settled here with the Democratic Party, and thank you Romeo he's also somebody he's, he's applied for many different boards, and he's always like, I'll do what you need me to do. And he we have not appointed him to several things and we've recently appointed him to the church street marketplace. And, you know, when he came on to, when he wanted to get involved here he's like, I'll, I'll go in any position you need me to go in and thank you very much Romeo for stepping up. Romeo. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Can you hear me. Okay. Thank you so much. And it's great to join you all from the Horn of Africa, where I'm at as counselor Shannon was so kindly mentioned. I am grateful to be amongst you it's a privilege honestly to be with you all. I'm a counselor Shannon so kindly put I work at the transit center downtown I get to see a lot of stuff that happens within the community. I do get a front row seat to what's happened what's happening in our town, as well as what is happening before and after town meeting day. And so I've always wanted to be involved in public service value civic service, a lot. And I see the Democratic Party as a grownup party that value civic service, and I couldn't ask for more, more robust and open-minded party to be part of as an individual. You know, as a kid who grew up in a civil war tone country. I really come to value from childhood the meaning of civil service, and what that can do and the importance of democracy and I want to exercise that right to vote participate and be part of a community that equally values as much as I through the Democratic Party in my city in Burlington. I send you my love and everything from the heart of Africa, and I look forward to being back and being there to serve with you along every time meeting day. So thank you. Now I have to unspotlight which see if I can figure that out. Nope. This is fun for everyone Madison that's do it which where do I go. Go back on Romeo's block. Yeah, you see that spot like the one. Good teamwork there. All right, so with that, thank you all for the nominations for the candidates that have stepped forward. I greatly appreciate you. I know others here greatly appreciate you. The work that that you have done and will do are deeply important to not just Burlington but the Democratic process that we need to continue to defend and fight for so thank you again. With that, before I ask for a motion on the uncontested races. I just want to let folks know that voting for the contested race is open. If you are watching on YouTube channel seven time being TV. And, or here on zoom, you can check your, your inboxes that you can email Burlington Dems at gmail.com. If you have any issues we have until 830. It doesn't look like there have been any issues that have popped up so far, but we are here to help. Well, I do want to take a moment actually just thank Andy Voda, who's not on screen, but yeah. Andy Voda is now staring at me angry, but he's now he does an incredible amount of work. He goes to show that you don't need to be an elected official or a member of a committee or member of. A full number of anything to show up and do the do the work like Andy does. So I appreciate you buddy. So voting for that is open. I will now look for a motion before we get to the county delegates a motion on the, the four uncontested executive committee members. So I'll look for a motion for a slate on that. And I can help anyone build that that motion if you'd like. Who wants to take it that Molly Gray. Good motion. Who's got a second for it. All right, I'll take a second. All those in favor please say aye. Any nays. Yes, to the virtual if you would like a resounding unmuted nay is more than welcome. No one I was expecting some Ben Travers to bumble on to the scene there. I there. But also anyone who object please be heard. Thank you. The eyes have it and on behalf of myself. Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to working with with the other members of the committee. The, the ballots are open and live for the contested race. We're going to take just a one minute break before I read off the, the names for the county delegates for anyone that needs to cast their vote. Some people had commitments, but it can be hard sometimes to get up and leave. If you'd like to leave your ballot right here on the corner, feel free to cast your ballot. And thank you for attending. Also, thank you. Also, if anyone has come in so far and has not registered or checked in and would like to vote in person, please come up and do that now. And for those online just 3045 seconds. And we will get back to it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. What's your last name? Just in the end. Thank you all for indulging in that little break. Little stretch couple of votes are in. Again, if you are still have not registered, you can see Lexi and. You will go from there up next is we need to elect our county delegates. That's the next item on our agenda really quickly. I'm just going to pull up the list. No one judge my tabs. You don't have that. You should, you should see this. Yeah. I'm just going to quickly read off for folks, the names, which I was advised to do by. Our trustee lawyers. To make sure that the motion is accepted and send some a little bit blind. I need to zoom in. So for everyone I'm going to. I can make a motion as a chair. So I'm actually going to make a motion. And I'm going to move that the following names be elected to the county as county delegates. Edward, Eddie, Adrian, Robert, Bristol, Johnson, Lorraine, Carter, Lovejoy, Abby Duke, Joanna Grossman, Betsy, Hans, Evan Litwin, Jason Lorber, myself. Mary Sullivan, John Tracy, Jason, Van Dries, Andy Voda, Elizabeth Allen, Pennebaker, Steven Kramer, Michael Fisher, Molly Gray, Betsy on there twice. You can only get one seat Betsy. Oh, you can't do that. Um, that's, that's right. Romeo and Vaughn Herman, Eric Jacobson, Jill Krawinski, Kate Lapp, John Letty, and Isaac Aaron Malone, Gina Sullivan, Karen Paul, Jacob Perkinson, Barbara, help me as Barbara here. Bye for, thank you. Marnie Pike, Barbara Rachelson, Joan Shannon, Gabrielle, Stevens, and Olivia Tabor, as well as Andrew Champagne, who didn't email me but I will add him to the motion. I got you. Anyone else we have more than enough seats to go around anyone else interested on serving on the Madison. Amanda to new adding to my motion who else. Yeah. Um, can. Yeah, Jeff as well. Can I, I will write this down. I love it. I'm going to look to emotionist emotions almost on anyone online want to nominate themselves or anyone else. Just throw it in the group chat. Awesome. All right, everyone. I would, I would volunteer. Carl, thank you for that. I did get my fisheries on the list. Yep. Thank you. I'm going to circulate this list. Just know that it's quite easy. I can appoint folks to the county democratic committee. So if there are folks who are interested. We have plenty of space and it's an important role. And thank you to those who have been working on that committee, new and old for for building that organization up including. I think that's a good question to nominate somebody who's not in attendance. I feel like they have to know. Send me names. All right, order order order. Thank you. I will, I will take it. No, I know he had about 20 to fill and that wasn't that wasn't 20. All right. So with that very long and clearly well thought out motion. Do I do I have a second for that motion. A second has it. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Do I see any nays. I do not the eyes have it. Thank you all for, for, for that as well. I look forward to working with the county Dems as well. So with that, we'll pause where not our official business is not done. Does anyone have any questions for any of the candidates? If you're in the room, just recommend me. I will kind of redirect them into the screen so that folks can hear it. And then I'll ask anyone who's been in the room. Yeah, they can submit it on the chat and I will, and I will read it that way. Is that okay with everyone online? But anyone has any issue with that? You can also unmute yourself or raise your hand. And I'll just keep an eye on that. Okay. I'm going to make sure the room feels good about, about the process. All right. Does anyone have any questions for any candidates? If you don't. Yeah. Yeah. They can submit it on the chat and I will, and I will read it that way. Is that okay with everyone online? But anyone has any issue with that? You can also unmute yourself or raise your hand. And I'll just keep an eye out for those. How does that sound? Okay. I want to make sure the room feels good about, about the process. All right. Does anyone have any questions for any candidates? Okay. Okay. And it has to do with. Independence and openness of the party to. New candidates and to non-incumbent. And the question really is for Hannah as a sitting sitting counselor, how she would navigate being open to anybody and everybody who might have an issue with her. I think that would be great. I think that would be great. I think that would be great, including potentially in her own district. If she is on the party, because I, I, I see that as a bit of a conflict of interest. And personally would prefer to have committee members who aren't active elected. Officials. I think those are two separate things and should remain separate. So I'm curious how Hannah would address that. Sure. Yeah, that would be great. And I'll do my best to summarize that, but just wave me down like I'm sure you will. So Jason asked for Hannah to respond to. His thought around how she would in the vice chair role. Not have a conflict of interest, given the fact that she is a sitting city counselor. And how she would work towards involving more people, including in her own ward in the party. Did I summarize that well? And if, if not, please just come up and. It looks good. Well, I'll start by saying as the ward eight city counselor, I am not working directly on behalf of the Burlington Democrats. I got elected by the, the voters of board eight. And so the work that I'm doing on the council. Sure. We have our caucus and I can speak to fellow counselors and we can consult on issues, but it's never just a blanket vote of this is how the Dems are voting or more row telling us, okay, this is how we're doing it. And then we just all go in and, you know, our puppets. It really is a process that like Tim and I have worked really hard on over the last couple of months of ensuring that we are reaching out to our constituents proactively. So we have monthly listening sessions. And before a vote, my number one priority is connecting with my constituents. And if it happens to line up with the Burlington Democrats. Amazing. A lot of the time if you watch me on council, it doesn't line up that way. And so I would start by saying that. And then in terms of bringing in a new perspective to the party, I feel like I worked many years outside of being an elected official and in an official capacity on behalf and with the Burlington Democrats. And I think that I have worked extensively with the UVM Democrats and then other communities to try to get folks involved. I think that the role of the vice chair, the Burlington Democrats is to support the Democratic party and deeply understand the mission behind the Burlington Democrats. And I actually think being a sitting. Democratic city counselor is a big. Is a big part of that because I understand it deeper than anyone else would. And so that's what I would say. I think it's a big part of that. And as, as chair and as the party, we are unbiased in the elections that happened for, for the executive committee. I was asked, however, factually as to whether or not there was a conflict dynamic with the current city councilor sitting on the executive committee. There is not by way of the bylaw. We also, we have this precedent currently the vice chair. I just wanted to share that factual because I was asked about, about this. I wanted to share that. Are there any other questions for any of the candidates for. The office, the, the executive office. I think I saw, I saw a hand. Yeah. So just from the perspective of the Chittany County Democratic committee. I do not believe that there was a conflict in terms of. I don't like the official, in this case, you know, Hannah being her, you know, being a city councilor and running and surveying if elected as, you know, vice chair, they're going to Democrats based on the current Chittany County Democratic committee bylaws and VDP state party bylaws. So I just wanted to clarify that, clarify that for those present and joining us virtually. That makes time. Yeah, go ahead. To be clear, I was not under the impression that there was a legal conflict of interest. I have full faith that the party is operating within its bylaws and the law. What I mean by conflict is more of the sense of the party being inward focused on the current set of folks who are in office and the current vision of the Democratic party and what it's going to look like. And I would have a follow up question to Olivia, which is, can you say some specific ways that you think the mandate, the mission, the vision of the Democratic party ought to be brought here in Burlington than it is now. And I'll invite you to come up. I'll summarize the question again from, from Jason Vandreis was to Olivia, was that the mission of the Democratic party here in Burlington. Okay. I'll sit for this one. I think you short still though. Okay. So you're wondering kind of how the mission could be broadened to include more in different people. Okay. That I'm understanding it. I, what I would say is that I think I have a lot of access and networks to communities that are not involved in the party. And I think I've been on some different calls Burlington and Chittenden County Dems calls in the last few months. And I've noticed that, that attendance is really hard. It's really hard to get people engaged. It's really hard to get people involved and looking around. And I think Hanna and I are among the youngest people in this group as well. I, I, I don't necessarily think that that means that. Basically, I think I have a lot of really great networks within the queer community within a lot of other communities that want to and do provide services like Junior League and things like that. And I think that people who are not currently from what I know about them registered as any party or vote or care. And I think when I ran for office in word seven in the new North end, I learned how important the new North end is. And I think that sometimes that's taken for granted. But the new North end is really where elections happen and where, where the choices are made. And I think that my connection to that community, not only through my work as a NPA steering committee member, but also I'm a local pet sitter. I know a lot of people because I've watched their cats and their dogs and their chickens and their ducks and some lizards and some small animals as well. Guinea pigs if you have those. So I do a lot of pet sitting. So I know pretty much everyone who lives in my neighborhood because of their animals. I think that I have this, this potential to get people excited and my work cleaning the transphobic stickers. I got all these people who knew nothing about the city, about politics, about anything coming and walking with me and cleaning and learning stuff. And I think I have the energy and the extroverted tendencies to bring people places that they want to, that they don't know they want to be convinced them. I think my favorite story about myself is in grad school. We went on a field trip and we got split into two groups and my group got lost. I'm kind of going on a tangent, but this is a good story. I promise. And I said, Oh, I think we go this way and half my class, about 30 of them followed me. We walked about a mile and we were in the wrong place. And so my friend said, well, you're just so confident about knowing about where to go that I would follow you anywhere. And I was like, well, that, that is a helpful thing. So I think one of my strengths is that I am very confident in I go in the direction that I've decided. And I, if someone speaks up, I will change direction, but I tend to be very good at motivating people to show up. And that was a long answer. Thank you. Before we move on to the next question, check email again and see if we have any other inquiries. And also this remind everybody on zoom that ballots are out as they can vote. Pretty good. Right now there, there's no service questions for no help desks. No help desks request right now, Andy. Folks online. If you're watching on zoom or on YouTube and registered virtually you'll see that the number of votes that have been sent out and the number of votes that have been sent out, which the majority of folks participating tonight have done your ballots have been delivered. For those here, our businesses is what we're going to do. We're going to conclude the business, but we're not going to adjourn. You're all welcome to stay and talk. I see another question, which I'll get to, but I don't want to suspend the meeting. I'm going to wait until the, the ballots are in and the vote is done. And then I will adjourn the meeting then. If anyone has any questions for candidates. I want to make sure that I'm not blocking that off. And then I'll go back to the room. I'm not seeing any hands for us in our chats. So I'll go back to the room. Ryan Nick, do you have a question. Yeah. For Olivia. I understand when you ran for the last time you ran progressive. Now you're over with us, the Democrats. I was just wondering if you could speak to that sort of journey and that, you know, how, how we got you over here. Yeah. Yeah. I have a question. I'm just reading for folks on online. The question is about Olivia's journey from having. Ran in the past as a progressive for city council to now. Looking to go into the Democrat party. Yeah. So I guess. First is a correction. I ran as an independent. Much like Adam did before he got involved in the Democrats. I got the progressive. Support. I actually didn't know about the Democratic caucus and I had never gotten back to the people I had reached out to had never gotten back to me. So I didn't know. So I was planning to try to do a PD. But I didn't do it. So I guess, but I was associated and, and new people in the progressives and was getting support from them. Honestly, I went through that process. I had almost no support. I did this campaign with no campaign manager. No volunteers. I got COVID in the middle of it. It was a really cold winter. And afterwards I felt really defeated, but Elaine who's the executive director of emerge. Was one of the moderators of one of my debates and she. Messaged me right after it was like, I need to talk to you. Who are you? How can we get you involved? And she just like. Grabbed me and was like, we need you in a merge. And I joined a merge and I got to know all these people and. I didn't really know many Democrats in Burlington or people who were active. So for me, it was. Having the chance to actually meet people that lived in Burlington and agreed with me like Joanna and. I was like, oh, there's people here for that I relate to as well. And. I think that's kind of what my journey has been. I always. I, I volunteered first for sue mentors campaign. So I've definitely been like in and out of the Democrats, but never officially within it. But now that I have found it, I would like to be part of it. Thanks. Find them really growing up party. Yeah. Then hear a question in that. So I'm going to move. So for folks online who are still with us, I want to give another opportunity for any questions. But not seeing any of that. We'll conclude our official business for the evening. And ballots will close. I'm going to go to the BTV. Dems dot org website. And tune in to the, the zoom for those who. We want to stay up with us and watch the election results come in. Can you wake me up with that stuff? Yeah. I don't think it's going to take that. It's not going to be a town meeting day type type night. We should have the results soon thereafter. So. Again, closing down the business, but not adjourning. Okay. Thank you all. Feel free to stay and mingle and hang out. And thank you all for joining online as well. Thank you. I'm going to go to the BTV. Thank you. And, and. And we'll be right back. And. And we'll be right back. And. And thank you all for joining online as well. I've been making enough.