 Hello there. Welcome to Town Meeting TV's ongoing coverage of Town Meeting Day 2023. My name is Bobby Lucia and I'll be your moderator for tonight's forum, as we talk with a couple of candidates who are running for City Council in South Burlington. This is one in a series of forums that we're hosting in advance of Town Meeting Day on Tuesday, March 7th, in which we welcome all candidates and cover all ballot items that you'll see on your ballot this year, as well as introduce you to community decision makers and connect you with the issues at play and that shape your local community. So if you're tuning in live, we welcome your questions at 802-862-3966. If you call in, we'll make sure to get your question on the air promptly. And you can watch Town Meeting TV on Comcast Channel 1087, Burlington Telecom Channel 17 and 217, as well as on youtube.com. So as I mentioned tonight, we'll be chatting with a couple of candidates who are running for a three-year seat on the City Council of South Burlington. Those candidates are Andrew Chalnyk and Jimmy Lease. Andrew and Jimmy, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Thank you for having us. Awesome. So I'm going to start with you, Andrew. Opening statement, just tell us a little bit about why you're running and what will be different for South Burlington if you're elected. Sure. So I've always had a history of service. I moved here from New Jersey some time ago. I was on the Environmental Commission there when I came to this town. I joined our Energy Committee. I was lucky enough to be the Vice Chairman of our Climate Action Task Force. I'm now on the Planet Commission. I was on our TDR Commission, Transferable Development Rights. I met some great people, some really passionate people, some honest people. There's a lot of civility and civicness in South Burlington. And honestly, I really enjoy it. And this feels very natural for me to want to continue that community service. The leaders of South Burlington, the City Council members who are remaining are all kind of encouraging me to do this. I think I've earned their trust. And so it's something I want to do, big, big picture. And this sounds a little trite, perhaps, but I've always wanted to try and make a difference. And this is, I think, an opportunity to do that. I want a kindler, gentler dialogue. I want to make a world that my kids and all of us can inherit and make sure it's livable. Thanks so much, Andrew. Jimmy, your opening statement. Thank you. So I've been working on this F-35 issue for 12 years. And during that time, I found that the training flights in our city are illegal because they're hurting people. This is something that's causing pain and injury to our working-class part of South Burlington, particularly the Chamberlain neighborhood. And we have the power, in fact, all three levels of government. The federal, state, and local governments have the authority to put a stop to it. So this is what I want to do on the City Council. I'm not running for election to benefit me or to serve my needs. I am running because I think we can fix this problem as a city. And I want to bring what I've learned to the City Council and take action to get those F-35 jets out of our city. Thanks so much, Jim. Thanks, Jimmy. So the first question we'll focus on is about the budget, which is on the ballot this year. Will you be supporting the South Burlington City budget and the school budget, the amounts of which are $55.29 million and $62.53 million, respectively? And, Jimmy, we'll start with you on the budget. Ooh, I just lost my mic. Yes, I'm going to be supporting that. But I think we do have some economic issues to address because we have a candidate for City Council for the two-year seat who called me up today, Lydia Diamond, and said, you know what? I'm seeing all these lawn signs. I'm seeing postcards coming in the mail. Where do people get that money? I don't have the money to afford that. We need, with a $118 million budget for schools and city, surely we should have a budget that enables people like Lydia Diamond to run for office on an equal basis with people who have a background in a high finance or whatever else they have. So I think we really need to equalize our electoral system. Let the working people of our city participate in city government. When was the last time we had a low-income person on the City Council? Or when was the last time we even had a person of color on the City Council? This is something that the city needs to think about when you have $118 million. And it costs maybe a few thousand dollars for your lawn signs and your postcards and all the other things you have to do. Let's make it possible for more people to run for office. Thank you, Jimmy. Andrew, will you be supporting the budget? Yeah, I am. I think our City Council is doing a great job, honestly. I think we have a really conscientious city manager. It's been a tough few years with COVID. I think we have done some bell tightening and we need to maybe now fill in some of the gaps. I met with our fire union chief. They also do EMT and they describe to me how their calls have doubled over the past few years. And I know we are putting up another ambulance to help them. We have only been able to fill 25% of our calls, which is remarkable. So I think that's really important. Our police are always stretched. I know we are expanding that budget. So I think that makes sense. The city budget is going up about 7%, which is about the rate of inflation. Look, if I'm in there, I'd like to take a closer look and a tight look, but I trust the Council. The school budget, I know, honestly a little bit less about the details. I met with the school board member the other day and I know medical insurance is going up a lot, 12%. That's driving the budget up. So I voted for it. Honestly, I don't have as much clarity. I wish we had some better information, some more transparency about the school budget. I will say, I know the Valley of Hidalgo. I worked hard when I get in with my finance background. I intend to carefully scrutinize and take a hard look. So yeah, but I support both budgets. Great. Thank you both. So the next question we'll be looking at is the other ballot items that will be on the ballot this year. South Burlington has three items before the voters on the ballot. The Bartlett Bay wastewater bond, the TIF district financing for the city center, and the school capital improvement bond. So tell us your thoughts on these and why you will or will not be supporting them in March and we'll start with you, Andrew, on this one. Yeah, so look, the wastewater bond is critical. Those facilities are 50 years old. There was a minor upgrade 30 years ago. Obviously, we need to be proactive. We need to keep the lake clean. It's not a treasured asset. So I think that's an easy one supporting that. The TIF funding is really exciting. There's four awesome projects that could contribute to improving the flow of our city center and just improving the vibrancy of our city center. So folks may not know what all these are, but if the bond goes through, we're going to build some biking along Williston Avenue, some boardwalks through the park. We're going to realign some streets. We've got a bike going over IDA-9, connecting UVM to our city center. So that one is just, I'm really, really excited about that. The school bond, I am supporting the bond, but like the school budget, again, I wish there was more information. I'm not sure. Some of the items on that bond seem to me like maintenance. They should have been in a maintenance service, perhaps not a capital item. I'm confused why the modules went from a million and a half dollars to six million. That really hasn't been explained that well. So I'd like some more transparency around that too, but I am voting for it. Thanks, Andrew. Jimmy, the ballot items, how will you be voting on those? Yeah, I'm going to be supporting them too, but I'd like to see particularly the school capital bond have provision for expanding childcare at the three schools. We already have preschool program and a after-school program at all three of our elementary schools, but I'd like to see full-day childcare added to that. And if we're going to be adding modules, then we can have space for that. And I think there's a way of paying for it because we have a regressive tax system that taxes everybody at the same rate for property taxes. We should have a more progressive system. Let's let the people who are owning properties valued at more than a million dollars pay at a slightly higher rate. Maybe they pay 10% more so that we could be paying for some of these things like full-day childcare at our three elementary schools. Thanks so much. Thanks so much, Jimmy. So now we're going to turn to the legislature. The legislative session is underway in Montpelier. So what are some important initiatives to the community of South Burlington that you'll be tracking and supporting as part of your work as a city council member? And we'll start with you, Jimmy. Okay, so there's a S5, Senate Bill 5, which has to do with climate. And it has some good things in it, but I think it needs some improvement. And I hope that our representatives from South Burlington will work on this. It puts the, it includes as renewables things that really shouldn't be included. Yes, solar, wind, geothermal, those are definitely renewables. But when you start to include things like cutting down our forests, well, forests are really important to prevent climate change. We shouldn't be using biofuels as a way of attacking climate change. We should be encouraging and building up forests. So I would think that that legislation needs to be strengthened. Also, it puts too much burden on working families. We've got to make it so that we, on an industrial scale, weatherize our homes. Starting with renters, 41% of South Burlington are renters. They have no way of, they're not going to be able to invest for the benefit of the landowner. We need to have a program that goes through street by street all the way down in every working class neighborhood to weatherize these homes at no cost to the renters and homeowners. Thank you, Jimmy. Andrew, what are you looking for in the legislature this year? There's so much going on. So the Affordable Heat Act that Jimmy is referencing, it's not perfect, but it does a lot of good. We need to transition our existing building stock away from fossil fuels. And I think the legislatures, our folks in the legislature are trying really hard to do that and really giving it a good shot. And I support the Affordable Heat Act. There's the Transportation Act that's kind of a partner bill to that, and it is intended to move our transportation missions right off of fossil fuels. There's rebikes based upon the efficiency of vehicles, there's grants for biking, for e-bikes. I think that's fantastic. There's H606, which was vetoed last year, conserving 30% of open space by 2030. I think that's really important. I'd like to see that come back. Big support of that. Jimmy talked about childcare. Childcare is critical. The state is doing a lot right now thinking about childcare. There's a proposal to fund the state funding 150 million of childcare, perhaps fund all-day preschool. We obviously need to watch that very carefully, see what we need to do in response to that. So there's a lot going on. There's the last one that's really important to South Burlington, the Amnibus Housing Act, which has some good reforms, Act 250 reforms, grants for affordable housing. It may have some adverse impacts to South Burlington based upon how we've zoned some of our natural resource areas. That's another thing I'm going to keep a close eye on. Great. Thank you, Andrew. Jimmy, what are you looking... Oh, that was... Okay, that's great. We'll go on to the next question. The next question has to do with housing. The question is, does South Burlington have a housing crisis? And what do you see as the nature of housing in South Burlington and how to meet the need for safe and affordable housing for resident students and visitors? And we'll start with you, Andrew. So we definitely have a shortage of affordable and workforce housing. You know, people need to have a place to live. When kids in Vermont grow up, they need to want to be able to stay here. People need to have a roof over their heads. So I think that South Burlington regulations are moving in a good direction. We're... So we are encouraging good, vibrant, dense housing in our transit overlay district along Route 7 in our city center. You know, that's how I lived when I graduated when I started on the workforce. My wife and I lived in an apartment in Manhattan. You go downstairs, you get a bite to eat, you go to dry cleaner around the corner. It was a hardware store. That's good housing. And I really wanted to encourage that. I think that's really important. I think we need to look at short-term rentals and make sure that our housing stock is well used. We have some commercial industrial areas that we can rezone for housing. I'd like to promote some more accessory dwelling units. So there's stuff we can do, but we've done a lot too. We've got inclusionary zoning, which requires at least 10% of new developments to be affordable. And we've got a lot of affordable housing. We've got 1,000 perpetually affordable homes, 200 more in the pipeline. So the city's doing a lot. I want to continue that progress. Thanks, Andrew. Jimmy, does South Burlington have a housing crisis? Yes. And one of the places where housing can be rebuilt is in the Chamberlain neighborhood. As everybody knows, 44 acres across from the airport had affordable housing demolished because of military jet noise. And that has to stop so that that house, once that noise stops, once the F-35 departs, housing has to be restored. The grant agreements that the airport has with the Federal Aviation Administration require the airport to sell the land for housing. And so on 44 acres, we can do a lot for affordable housing. It's publicly owned land. So that is really a positive place for building affordable housing on a mass scale. And it's something that this city uniquely has. This is a real jewel for the city. We have a strong reason if we're serious about housing. It's in the city center area. Building on those 44 acres is a way of preserving open space and pristine open fields further out from the city center, where we want to preserve the natural environment. So we need to focus on that, and the way to do it is to use the city's authority, existing authority, delegated by our federal and state governments to the local government to protect the health, safety, welfare and convenience of the people by regulating vehicles of every kind. And the F-35 is one of the vehicles that the city has authority to regulate and we can prohibit it from operating in our city. Thank you so much, Jimmy. So our next question is kind of a fun one. It's about why you love South Burlington. So tell us a little bit about why you care about and want to work as a city counselor for the community of South Burlington and what are your favorite spots in South Burlington? Why do you live here? And we'll start with you, Jimmy. Okay. Well, I've lived here for 30 years and I'm really so happy about South Burlington. My children grew up here and went to the city schools. They really thrived from those schools, from kindergarten all the way through high school. And it's just a wonderful place. We're near the lake. We're near the mountains. We have the bike path. We have the skiing nearby. Both of them are avid skiers. I just think this is a fabulous place to live and we can do more to make it a better place to live for all our residents. Particularly, we need to focus on our low income and working class neighborhoods. This is where we could have a city committee that is for renters. A renters committee. What about renter rights? What about rights of people in this Chamberlain neighborhood who are being so demolished? You look at how our government responded to this disaster in Ohio. Just because it's a working class neighborhood where these toxic chemicals are being emitted, it seems like it's being ignored. We don't want to be like that in South Burlington. We have an issue with the F-35. We can fix it. Thanks so much, Jimmy. Andrew, why do you love South Burlington? I tell everyone that I feel so fortunate to be here. This is a special place. The scenic beauty, the lake, the mountains, the bike paths, the parks. Being able to have all that and have access to Burlington, which punches above its weight in terms of culture, go down to a lows, go to a target. It's a special place. What's really unique about this place is the community and the people. When we decided to come here, I knew all that other stuff, but I didn't appreciate as much as I do now how great the people of South Burlington are. Just the kind, gentle people, people willing to devote themselves to community. We put money to affordable housing. We put money to bike paths. We put money to open space. The level of commitment of the people and the willings to do that is amazing. My favorite place is, I love to hike around Hubbard Park. The New Dark Park is a gem. I love to kayak out to Juniper Island. I do that just about every weekend with my son. It's a good paddle. Surrounding, I love hiking the greens, White Rock and Hunger Mountain are two of my favorite. It's a great place to live. Thanks so much, Andrew. Our next question is about language access. As a community with a diversity of languages spoken, in what ways do you see that the city government can expand access and accessibility to more community members who want to participate in local democracy? We'll start with you, Andrew. It's critical. I was a little surprised to learn recently that 11% of our population speaks English as a second language. I don't know, honestly, what the majority of those folks, what their first language is, whether it's Spanish or something else, and I think we need to find that out. I like to find that out, understand that a bit better, and those folks need to be able to participate in our democracy, so we need translators. We need to make sure when we put information out that those folks can understand it, that it's written in the language they can understand. Honestly, it's really critical, and I have to say, before I saw this question, I hadn't really focused on it. I hadn't gotten a lot of thought, and I'm glad that you guys have raised it because it's something very important to address. Thanks so much, Andrew. Jimmy, what can South Burlington do on language access? I'm very interested in this issue, too, because both of my parents started to learn English when they went to kindergarten, and it's just language, my great-grandmother who never learned English, and on my father's side, my grandparents never learned English. So language access is something that's really important to me, and I think that we want to have a welcoming environment and welcome people of diversity into our city government as well. I think that we should establish, with 11%, as Andrew mentioned, people who learned English as a second language, I think we should have a city committee related to this issue that will be populated by people who are foreign language speakers or have learned English as a second language so that they can provide proposals to the city council, and it's something that wouldn't be directed toward them, but something that could be initiated by people who are foreign language as their first language. Thanks so much, Jimmy. So our next question is about public safety, and the question is, the city of South Burlington has been in the news lately for issues of crime and antisocial behavior. Do you think the data shows a need for more attention to public safety measures, and how would you address this, and we'll start with Jimmy? I think that public safety has put too much on police. I think that public safety needs to be thought of more broadly when people are acting antisocial. It's not always a police matter. It may be a social work matter. We need to have more of a diverse answer to problems that arise, and I think the police are very good at investigating a crime, finding out who did it. They usually arrive after the crime has been committed. They've been called to address something, and it's over. That's what they're good at. That's what we want them to focus on. It's very rare that they stop the crime during the commission. So I think that it's for the situations that they're not really trained to deal with. Whether it's behavior, someone's acting, there's some kind of an issue of antisocial behavior. This is the kind of thing where we probably could do better with a social work response. I think we'd save a lot of money with a police force and avoid problems that arise when you have a police response that is not appropriate to the issue. Thanks so much, Jimmy. Andrew, how would you address public safety as a city councillor? I think COVID was a real stress to South Burlington, Vermont. The nation, the world at large, created a lot of mental health issues, probably exacerbated our opioid crisis around the country. Some people lost their homes, lost their jobs. So there's these underlying issues that I think we need to work through. The court system had a backlog, which has contributed to the uptick in crime. We need to help those folks, we need to help with the mental health issues, and we need to get folks into permanent homes so they feel good, they can feed their families, they have a roof over their heads, and we need to make sure that we've got that nice foundation that makes a good, safe society. We also need a good police force. There was a break-in around the corner for me, and we need police to investigate and figure that out and take action to prevent that. So I think we need both. I think we need to ensure that we provide the services that folks need to feel good, safe and secure, and at the same time, we need a good, strong police force. I think we've got a good one. I think Chief Burke is doing a great job, and I support him and I support the budget that expanded our police force. Thanks so much, Andrew. It looks like we're just about wrapping up on time. So we're going to move into closing statements here. So we'll start with you. Andrew, you'll have about a minute or so to make your closing statement. Go ahead. Sure, thank you. Well, I really appreciate the opportunity to answer these really great questions. As I said, I have a history of service. I want to continue that service. I love this community. I really, really enjoy working with the passionate members of this community. I have the skills and the background to help move this community forward. I have the support of the leadership of this community. I've earned their respect. And I want to do that. I want to try and make this world a better place for all of us. We haven't talked about climate change. That's near and dear to my heart. It's something I really want to work on. I want to work on implementing our climate action plan. That's really, really important. And I'm proud of the campaign I've run. I've just met so many great people that have given me a lot of small dollar donations because they believe in me and they believe in this campaign. And I want to make those folks proud. So that's why I'm running. Thanks so much, Andrew. Jimmy, your closing statement. Thank you. So I'd like to see an improvement in our childcare, a vast improvement in our climate action, particularly to weatherize the homes in our city at no cost to working people and to our renters who can benefit greatly because of the paying for the heat. I'm especially concerned about the F-35 issue because it literally assaults people in our city. We're seeing the Air Force itself said that this incredible noise, 115 decibel noise, hundreds of times a month causes pain and injury. It affects the hearing and learning of our children. There are 1,300 children living in the high-noise zone. And the F-35 is preventing housing, affordable housing from being built on 44 acres and forcing developers to develop out in pristine open field. There are so many ways that this is hurting people in our city and our city as a whole. It's also taking tax revenue away from our city because we lost 200 homes. They're no longer paying that tax. So I think that we have the chance as a city to make substantial improvement and we need something more than what we've had up till now that's been willing to just go along with the status quo. Thank you so much, Jimmy. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you both for joining us tonight. Thank you for tuning in to Town Meeting TV's ongoing coverage of local candidates, ballot items, and local budgets. You can find this forum and more on our website, ch17.tv. And most importantly, don't forget to vote on March 7th. Or actually, can one of you remind me, are the ballots being sent out automatically? You have to ask for ballots. You can go to City Hall. You can get a ballot at City Hall. You can fill it out there. You can take it home. Or you can go on March 7th. Great. Thanks so much, Andrew. And thank you for watching and sharing Town Meeting TV. If you're not already, please subscribe to our Town Meeting TV YouTube channel. So long. Thanks.