 Good evening and welcome to channel 17 town meeting television We have a full night of candidate forums for you tonight for the Burlington City Council And we will be starting off the night with Ward 5. I have two candidates here with me Jesse Warren Progressive and Chip Mason the incumbent and a Democrat Please do give us a call if you have questions for the candidates. The number is 802 862 3966 we'd love to hear from you And we're going to get things started with opening statements. Jesse go ahead. Okay Well, first of all, thank you Morgan for hosting tonight and channel 17 for putting this show on and the voters of ward 5 who are Being so involved in this democratic process and tuning in tonight and watching this on the internet later um, so I think it's you know good to start off with why I decided to run in this race and the the uh At a most fundamental level what got me involved in this is my own experience growing up as a Kid who moved around a lot um And the reason for that was mostly about money and it was about trying to find an affordable place to live And I did experience firsthand how that really impacted my Development as a kid my brother and sister The impacts that had on our family were very uh powerful And so when I talked to families across the south end who are going through similar things who You know are being forced to move in the middle of the school year It's in some at in some points because they can't afford the house they're living in I think about my own experience where I struggled in school as a result of those sorts of things Um, so at a most basic level it's about seeing that that's happening in burlington And wanting to do something about it because I lived through that myself um You know, I think it's also important to talk about The benefits though that that experience gave me which is That it really taught me to it forced me to have to understand the people in my community and to have to Listen to people that I may disagree with but just to try to find the common ground between us That was something that was instilled in me As a result of growing up like that and so that's something I think that we could use more of Across the city on every issue and something I want to bring to this the the city council As as your city councilor for ward 5 All right, thank you very much great councilor mason. Thank you morgan I'll echo, you know, thank you jesse for being here. Also. Thank you morgan for hosting tonight And first jail 17 to allowing this opportunity to connect with voters Um, for those who don't know me. My name is chit mason. I am the incumbent I have had the privilege and honor of serving as a city councilor for the last six years I was born and raised in burlington. I grew up in the north end Attended burlington public schools as well as the university of vermont I lived in the south end and particularly on scarf avenue for over 20 years With my spouse and two children who were both in the public schools I faithfully serve the community as a coach volunteer non-profit boards And in various offices on behalf of the city over the last 20 years In part because of you know, how passionate I feel about the city of burlington and trying to make it better I have tremendously enjoyed service the last six years It has been a privilege to represent the constituents in addressing some of the legal and financial issues that we were grappling with I'm proud of the work that we've done in turning the city's finances around Restoring the city's credit rating working collaboratively with the unions to tackle some of the unfunded pension liability Opening up bike lanes and making our streets, you know more walk bike friendly Adopting form-based code that we believe will incentivize infill development in the downtown And add to our our grand list which is required Knocking on doors the last couple weeks. I think jessie and I will sort of we're hearing the same thing Affordability is a huge issue And although it's not necessarily a city council issue the schools are a major source of tension and confusion and concern in the community If if I am fortunate enough to be reelected These are issues that you know, I hope to work very collaboratively with the administration and the council to address And i'm sure we're going to touch on you know more detail on those points through the q&a tonight Thank you. Absolutely. Yeah, thank you. Um, okay, so staying with the topic of affordability and Personal experiences or relationships that you have that will inform your time on the council Could you each tell us about someone, you know, who is a renter? Using food stamps having trouble paying medical bills or who makes less than $15 an hour and How that relationship? Will inform or that experience uh, or talking to people about that, you know How that will inform your time on the council if you're elected and uh chip will start with you sure That's a big question and i'll try and break down into parts. Um I'm part of the community of course, you know, there are many people that I know that are struggling To exist in the city of burlington. It's an issue every door. I knock on you know, you hear about questions about affordability It's an also an issue, you know, we grapple with not as just as a matter of policy on the council But i'm also the chair of the board of Tax appeals and I hear, you know all the very hard cases Of residents of burlington who can't afford to pay their taxes And it's an issue we struggle with in terms of compassion, but also Trying to figure out, you know, what can we do? As a city in terms of informing what that will do as we've touched on I think affordability is of housing in particular is an issue That we are going to have to deal with as a city. We are dealing with that I would say but um We obviously have not solved it. Uh, it remains a huge challenge for many people To live in burlington and I think the risk and the concern that that many have is we become You know stratified, you know such that you have really just two classes You have those who can you know high net worth individuals we can afford to live in burlington And then you know the other tier being people who are receiving social services Or you know are getting some assistance to live here and the gap or the hole and is you know the critical part of what makes you know those are You know the middle-income families who are putting their kids into the school and are heavily involved And I am I think as the rest of the council is very concerned about that that missing middle piece Okay, jesse. Yeah. Um, well and answer the first original question about you know, um the experience of people I know or Or who have you know been struggling with these issues? Um, look, I said it in my opening statement This is something that I've been through in my own life in my own family growing up. Um, so I certainly bring that to the That's gonna in many ways inform my perspective on this um Further, I mean again same thing talking to families all across the south end who are going through these These uh, these difficult, uh issues surrounding affordability surrounding Um the ripple effects of that Um, uh, but I've lived it myself It sounds like we're sort of this question. We can sort of answer the affordability question. Um, and um You know when we talk about affordability You know, I I do think Market rate housing is part of the solution But it's only a part of the solution and it's not going to lift up the quarter of burlingtonians who are living in poverty as as councilor mason alluded to to a degree and um, you know, it's it's it's We have to be doing more. So I think I think that's when we talk about, you know affordable housing You know, I think that that's what people are saying is is we have to be doing more for those people who are really struggling Again as councilor mason was pointing out I think I think we also have to be looking at this issue though Talking about the systemic issues underlying the affordability crisis because another one of the questions You know, we might talk about tonight is is is people that are don't have enough food in burlington are people who who Um, you know about wages in burlington and all these issues are connected And I want to see us get to the root of them and talk about that. We do need to be doing things like Um, you know talking about building more affordable housing and all these things But we also need to be focused on the deeper issues underlying it which is connected to issues of education. It's connected to um It's connected to um, you know our political process and making sure everyone feels represented so that the decisions We're making are adding up in a way that's going to be representative of their needs as renters as Homeowners whatever it is. Um, I guess we'll talk more about talk more about that with the next couple questions But yeah, well and staying in that vein. Um, let's uh move on to housing specifically What are what are solutions you would propose for the housing issues that burlington is facing? Especially, uh, generating housing that's attainable for minimum wage workers And if you would like to in your answer touch on either of the recent housing reports Either the 2014 one that was about housing broadly or the more recent report on burlington's inclusionary zoning ordinance Again, that's something that requires large developments to have Uh, affordable housing at least as defined in city statute. So, um, this time starting with jesse go ahead So i'll just continue on what i was saying before. Um, you know Just in terms of we can talk about inclusionary zoning Um, the report i think said it We have we built close to 1800 total units and 270 of those were inclusionary zoning inclusionary units affordable units That is good, but i think we can do better. Um, i think I think we have to remember too that the issue of affordable housing is also about our entire economy as a city Because when people have don't have any money to spend at going out to eat at, you know, um Yeah At a restaurant or anything or they don't have enough money to go buy something at one of our great local shops That's going to be hurt our economy because they're spending all their money on rent So we have to be looking at this more holistically. We also have to look at how Housing is connected to wages and how we can raise wages for people. We have to do that Based on sound policy based on effective solutions, but we do have to talk about that Um You know And we can talk about little things again on on housing all day. I think another thing we need to do is Maximize the full potential of our current housing stock. Um, I think um, I think you know when we talk about You know building housing that's good, but we have a lot of units In homes that could be accessory units that are not being brought up to code because you know people A it's hard to deal with code or it's hard to um, you know, they don't have the money But I think we could talk about a grant program where people could We could provide a grant to bring up for example a basement up to code build the egress windows they need Build the second entrance they need and then in exchange for that grant offer that as a unit of affordable housing And I think we should be looking into how that would How many units we could build across the city? By taking that approach in addition to the other approaches we're taking and looking at the issue Systemically and talking about all the connected issues connected to it. All right. Thank you and chip. Thank you morgan I think part of solving the housing crisis or the affordability crisis is more housing I know we you know there has been disagreement among the council and among some of the political candidates over You know whether the economics support that or don't but from my perspective We are not going to solve the housing crisis unless we build more housing and I don't mean you know high-end housing I mean housing across the board Both inclusionary units affordable units As well as high-end units There is a demand and really you know from my perspective. That's one of the only ways that we're going to bend the curve Affordability has also become a major problem because of you know the increases in school You know school funding is our school taxes are driving in part You know those taxes don't get absorbed by landlords. They get passed through to tenants So working with the school board to try and identify ways to keep their budget in check Is one way to solve the affordability crisis if i'm reelected i'm hoping to you know kick back off We had a cost control committee that was convened four years ago That was you know designed to work collaboratively with the school board in order to identify ways that we could save dollars It doesn't make sense that we have a parks and rec department that mow fields and the school district have their own people That know the same fields they plowed driveways we plowed driveways These may not be millions of dollars of savings, but we conservatively went in feeling we could save a half million dollars No problem that effort went nowhere because the school district couldn't be bothered to send someone they were in such disarray They're not in that position now You know I have already spoken with many of the board members as well as the superintendent and they feel that's a good idea So to me that seems like low hanging fruit to address you know that the tax increases that keep coming through on a year after year basis There's the state piece which is deeper in the weeds. We'll also have to work on that Those are just some of the ideas. We also have to revisit You know potentially workforce housing and amending our ordinances in order to require that as well It's not as simple as just raising the note as we know from developers There's a limit what that you know where that threshold is has to be seen, but I think we're going to revisit that Excellent. Um, and then also staying in uh, sort of the same vein this could address affordability And this could also just address quality of life here in the city We're going to talk about food policy and specifically uh, burlington had set a goal for itself of producing 10% of its food within the city What do you think burlington's of burlington's current food policy to the extent that it has one and then also What more could be done to eliminate hunger and give equal access to Nutritious foods for all residents while growing our local economy and chip. We're starting with you. Sure Um, I'll be honest when I saw that question I mean it has not come up in the six years on the council So I had to go back and actually look at what our food policy was It has not been a hot button issue or somewhat a reactionary body And this is not an issue that has come up, but in sort of thinking about this question You know, I think the interval center has you know, sort of this hidden jewel in the city And I think you know continuing to support the mission of the interval center And doing what we can as a city to foster both community gardens And others certainly working with the school which has a wonderful program of affording, you know free meals to anyone no questions asked I think those are the best, you know from from a city perspective It has not been a priority, you know of the city thus far and I you know I don't see that changing in the upcoming administration But I think working with our partners that are already, you know making, you know doing well in those areas Okay, thanks Jesse Yeah, um, I think first of all we should be taking the approach that when we invest in our local farms We're really investing in our local economy Um and thinking about the fact that those dollars we spend on our farms, especially in a state like vermont Um and in a city like burlington Um are going to pay dividends in terms of how much food we can provide for people as a result So I think that's the first approach to to be thinking of Um, the second thing is, you know, we can make progress. I think on issues, um You know, uh in terms of, uh, you know, gleaning and and can we can we gather more of the food that's being, um Right now wasted because it maybe is bruised and it's not quite fit to be at city market or go to one of the restaurants But it still is really good food food that could be feed a lot of hungry people I think we can invest in programs that support those efforts as well Um, but overall it's just it's just recognizing how how much it can help our economy When we invest in it as a city and that's the direction I'd like to see us move in All right. Thank you both. Um And now thinking a little bit about, uh, the community culture that you would like to foster in, uh Burlington if you are elected or reelected, um Um What do you plan to do to address systemic racism in burlington? And how can burlington do a better job of weaving together a community of diverse backgrounds and interests starting with you jesse? Yeah, well, this is you know, I think everyone in this country has been thinking a lot about this issue, especially in the past couple years Uh and really had to question Whether we should be doing more. Um, what else we can be doing no matter what color we are what background we have um You know, I think no discussion about race can begin without talking about the mural and I know the mural is a really controversial topic um All I'll say about the mural is it is um, it seems to me that when we Have an image in such a central place in our city um We have to be thinking about how powerful an image Uh Is and how much it can impact anyone who looks at that image whether they live here whether they Um are visiting here and whether they are thinking about moving here whether they just moved here from another country And I I don't think I think this is an opportunity to unite our country, uh our city um Our city together Um and talk about and listen to the voices of the people who right now are are not Are are being a little bit left out. I think infinite that is one issue that infinite's campaign has really been um Supporting all of our campaigns have um, but but I do think that that's a really important issue So I would like to see us talk about first of all um Bringing the community together to talk about what image can go there that is not going to show us who we've been But it's going to show us who we could be as a community Bringing an input from everybody every every member of our of Of every community in our city. I think that's a direction to go and I think by the way it's just my opinion This can be something that we do With good will and it doesn't have to be we don't have to play a blame game I think we can bring people together talk about something Talk about how we can unite our our city and move forward Great, I think about who we want to be excellent and just for viewers quickly infinite Cold pleasure is an independent candidate for mayor. Um, we'll be on the ballot along with these folks in march and Chip your your thoughts sure. Thank you. Um So the question was about community culture, you know, what can we do to address systemic racism? Um, I think at a minimum we started down this path was to continue the work with the council In terms of implicit bias training um counselor seagull one of you know formally on the council Was one who insisted on it, you know, we we did go through the council did go through that training And we're due for you know, yet another training We also have talked and I think it's it's a good idea to require that training at the commission level as well Because all commissions, you know commissioners interact with the public on a regular basis We've also continued our efforts in terms of expanding. We specifically expanded the police and other commissions You know to a larger group in order to pull in, you know people from different cultures To address the mural, which is sort of the hot button topic I think there's universal acknowledgement at least on the council that the mural Something needs to be done with the mural. I don't know that there's any what maybe one or two who feel the mural should Stay exactly as it is. I'm not in that camp We um someone asked for a report from you know, rather than tear it down, which was the initial or take it down the initial proposal Because it was a complex legal issue You know, it's not clear to the city attorney nor to the council at the time If we you know, who owns the building that the mural is on who actually owns the piece of art and what writes if any Does the city have to potentially Modify the mural so we are expecting back and I envision there will be public process and a community discussion About what to do with the mural once we have the facts back from the city attorney in terms of what we can and cannot do with the mural Thank you. All right. Um, and it looks like we have a caller on the line. So, uh, we will hear a question from them Hello, you're on the air. Welcome to channel 17 I'm on the air. I want to uh applaud chit mason for his leadership In getting through that difficult process of burlington telecom That was difficult and new and I think chip's done a great job in that area Now i'm calling from a remote situation, but has chip Discussed the sampling parkway No, it has not come up Okay, well i'll take my answer off the air. Okay. Uh, what would you like to know? I want to know what the status is and will it be uh, built in the next two years or When can we expect destruction to begin? Okay. Well, thank you for the call And I would just amend that to say what what are your views on uh progress so far and uh, you know, how can we actually Move the dial on that. Is it something that should move forward? Sure. Um, and yeah chip, we'll start with you Is that mine? Um, so yes, uh, in my view, we should move the dial the parkway Needs to be built and you know as soon as possible It is a fully fully permitted project, you know, all permits are in hand The project has improved dramatically since I joined the council, you know It has gone in its 40 year history from a four lane highway You know down to a very limited two lane walk bike friendly, you know dedicated bike path lit bike lanes Traffic cutouts flashing beacons. It is a very different project Notwithstanding that I still here, you know, I live in the addition Which is you know a part of the south end where there is significant traffic at five o'clock or any time There's back up on pine street and what i'm hearing is build it now There is not and the state has made clear there will not and should not be any changes to the design you know timeline or cost or State and feds are not going to go along with that So I appreciate there may be dispute, you know, there are some in the public who would like pine street Not to end or other changes to be made, but unfortunately the time has passed for those changes The city has made clear and we've the state has acknowledged if the city wants to revisit that And reopen pine street after the champlain parkway is done. They will allow us to do that But now is not the time to talk about additional changes to the parkway Okay, jesse Yeah, so I you know The parkway is something that and I agree not going on doors in the addition The the attitude really is get the parkway built and I do agree that we shouldn't kick the can down the road in terms of some of the very specific parts of the parkway in terms of Paving pine street in terms of getting more connectivity walk by connectivity and I do think that the parkway project has improved A lot I also talked to a lot of people who I think need to have their concerns addressed about You know How traffic is going to be affected across the whole ward and look this is something that's going to change It's going to impact the entire ward and change the face of the ward in a lot of ways. So I do think I do think we need to move forward on on On the parkway, but I do think we need to do it with more Addressing the concerns of the people who still have very serious concerns on the parkway I think we can do that The narrative is that nothing can change and and I'm not I don't intend to slow down the process If that is if that is what's happening, I haven't had the chance to talk to the state about it I will do that as soon as if you know if I do make it on the council and see where we stand for myself But but I do think we need to address those issues that the addition is having I do think we need to pay a pine street I do think we need more connectivity But I think we can we can still move forward in a way that addresses the concerns of everyone in the community And that's that's what I will work to do as a member of the council Thank you. I think everyone in the city can agree that we need to pay of pine streets So well, can I just sort of I mean it not not a rebuttal? We're actually just gonna I'm not sure how we're doing on time. So we're gonna move to closing statements And well I just I mean, I don't think it's a controversial one minute one minute Yeah, no, I mean to I hear the very same concerns that Jesse does and I think The second piece of this which was not part of my response due to time limitations is the rail yard enterprise project Which is a separate project, you know, that will basically create a new Route from pine street behind the hardware store directly to battery street So the concerns that we have all heard, you know from those who live in the king maple neighborhood who don't want all that traffic I think, you know, and we are moving full speed ahead on the rail yard enterprise project, you know in terms of scoping So the hope is we hear the concerns too and we're hoping that you know with the rail yard enterprise project That will address an ameliorate a number of the concerns from the northern part of pine street in that area Jesse, would you like to add anything? Uh, no, I think I think the parkway is I think we've said most of our Great. Well, we'll move to closing statements now. Um, two minutes each and uh, jesse, let's start with you okay, um So I guess, you know, I first of all want to say thank you chip has been a very uh Worthy opponent and and we've uh, he's led a very positive campaign and and I think both of us appreciate that that's the direction We've been both taking this campaign um I also want to say, you know I've never done anything like this before in terms of running for office in terms of going out and knocking on doors and near sub zero weather and and um And there are a lot of times when you are out there and you're like Why am I doing this? You know, this is this is really hard people are, you know, a lot of times You know, don't want to talk to you. They're a little, you know, I get it. It's late on a week night They don't want to talk But then you get to somebody who is really really excited to talk to you brings you inside Tells you about the concerns they're going through Uh, the concerns they have and the things they're going through and really gives you the inspiration to keep moving forward And I just want to say to all those people who have done that Um on on this campaign Thank you for that because I I am continuing to do this because of the inspiration you've given me Um, and to the rest of the ward, I want to say I do. I hope I get the chance to meet all of you before election day um and and uh And what this is what I want the voters of ward five most importantly to know I believe in making progress and I do believe in moving forward My my first instinct is to fight for the working class in that progress My first instinct is to fight for the people who are getting left behind while we're making that progress Um And that is what I hope to do. Um, but I am I do have a disposition for taking action and for moving forward Um, I think there is a way to move forward though that is going to involve every member of our community And the different communities we have across the ward and across the city And I actually think that's the way we're going to make more progress as a city Um is when we involve all of those groups That's how we're actually going to make Burlington's going to reach its full potential That's the kind of counselor I want to be someone who's going to listen Try to understand every perspective make hard decisions when they need to be made and always try to take action and move our city forward Thank you. Great. Thank you. Jesse chip your closing statement. Sure. Thank you morgan again. Um, and thank you, jesse I won't use the full two minutes. I want to you know echo and thank constituents who you know are taking the time to educate themselves on the issues You know that we're discussing Also who you know are willing to open their door let you you know come in sit down and talk to you about what's important to them Um campaigning, you know, it's it's uh as much as it is time consuming It's also a great opportunity to sort of pull out from the weed You know, you're so deep in the weeds as a counselor and get a good sense of what's going on We didn't you know, unfortunately tonight We didn't really get to touch on something that I'm you know Most excited about and hope to carry forward in the next two years, which is planned btv south end Um, you know, not a huge city issue, but certainly critically important Um to the south end and I would say I would argue to the city as a whole Development, you know hasn't stopped just because plan btv hasn't been finalized. It's continuing But it's in an odd haphazard manner. Um, I had the privilege of you know Going to generator earlier today and learning about all the wonderful work You know that they're doing and have a discussion about how generator and siba, you know fit in the plan btv south end In terms of sort of preserving the funky arts, you know That exist in the south end and also working on you know mixed use housing Which is a little bit of a third rail, you know in the south end But if I am reelected, um, which I ask for your vote Those are the issues that I hope to carry forward, you know, most passionately over the next two years And thank you Great. Well, thank you both and thank you to our viewers here on channel 17 town meeting television We really appreciate, uh you being with us tonight and make sure to vote early at city hall And if you can't do that make sure to get out to the polls on march 6th It's been great having you and uh, stay tuned for some more city council forums. Thanks a lot In the middle also In case I gotta run quickly Put that somewhere I don't want to hide my tie Do you want people to know that you're wearing a tie? Add some dignity to the group It's so warm outside. You don't really even need a sweater Well, it's always warm in here with these lights Oh You're gonna have a few more times It's not uh, um, this is not gonna last Yes, is this yours? We're recycling that you like those? Those are my favorite pens. Yeah. Well, I'm left-handed Yeah, I have to do something that doesn't go on Because we push So, um What, uh Alex who's directing has said is Looking to the camera with the light on I'd been telling people to look at director answers to me But apparently it's better if you look into the camera with the light on Two minutes for an answer. I'll rotate who goes first Uh start with opening statements and with closing statements. Obviously we'll get really many Oh, come on Morgan. Let's be let's be a little more creative than that We're gonna get through as many of these questions as we can But i'll just kind of been going a little bit in a random order if we have time or if it feels Topical, I'll try and work in some ballot questions Um candidate Good evening and welcome back to channel 17 town meeting television We are here with our second city council forum of the night and uh, We have three candidates for the ward six seat And we will be speaking with all of them in the moment. So I'd like to Introduce them now. We have charles simpson a progressive We have incumbent city councilor caron paul a democrat and we have joel fits jale the republican Thank you all for being here and um We uh, we'll start off with opening statements and charles, uh, i'm gonna kick it to you two minutes Sure. Well, thank you very much channel 17 and thank you my colleagues here For this opportunity to discuss some of the issues I've uh been a resident of burlington for about 20 years and got involved in activism um in uh 2004 when we had a helped organize a poets for peace Conference, uh at uh at con toys and uh been very active in things ever since I'm a retired professor of sociology and urban affairs at state university of new york and platzberg and um What I've uh, what I've seen really is A uh a city which has prioritized the needs of developers and the tourist industry Over the needs of residents. I'll give you a couple of quick examples Uh, look at the case of the redesign of city hall park Instead of putting a toddler play area a bathroom A place for seniors to play chess And to congregate What the city has chosen to do and spend three million dollars to do it Is to build a garish lighted Uh pulsating fountain in the middle of it paving a third of the of the park cutting down Perhaps 30 percent of the trees Creating an amphitheater The whole idea really is to lure tourists into The city and not to meet the needs of residents Second is the demolition of 200 homes around the city's airport, which unfortunately The incumbent garen paul to my right Was instrumental in crafting that is to say a plan which opens a gate to military aircraft of very loud Generating very loud noises which has caused which has made 200 homes unlivable And now we're moving on to a new aircraft, which is going to make 3000 more homes. All right. Thank you Karen, it's your turn next so you can use your time to respond or you can just give us your opening statement Go ahead. Well, I think I I would hope that I might be able to do a little bit of both I'll try to in the two minutes that I have So my name is Karen paul. I am the incumbent city counselor from ward six I was born in burlington born in ward six and Both my mother and my grandmother were also born in burlington My husband mark and I have three children Andrew adam and caroline who have all attended or are continuing to attend burlington schools It's an honor and a privilege To serve the residents of ward six as your city counselor I'll focus on three things that I I bring to the office and what I feel qualifies me to serve and that is experience leadership and passion I bring significant and effective experience in government even prior to serving on the city council professional experience and expertise as a cpa and with a career in finance and experience in non the nonprofit sector advocating For children seniors and tackling social challenges that we have in our community I believe these experience show a track record of proven leadership and civic involvement in this in the community I've led on issues ranging from quality of life economic development and fiscal stability And perhaps even more important than both of those. I bring passion to the role Passion in a proven record of listening to residents um And a deep broad and long connection with the residents that I serve I am Always available and very responsive to people's needs and in communicating with residents All the time My philosophy is just simply fiscal responsibility and stability I believe it is from that posture that we can keep taxes as low as possible And take care of many of the social needs that we have in this community And because your opponent did invoke you in his opening statement, um, I'd give you a minute to respond to what was said Okay, well, thank you. I appreciate that. So, unfortunately, this is sort of part of a pattern. Um, that, uh, charles seems to Like doing which is to Say things that are not factually correct The issue of the airport and the 200 homes that have been destroyed Was actually started long long before I was a city counselor Was actually started under the sanders administration was the f a a by Home by program If uh, if anyone including either one of my opponents would like to check the board of finance Meeting minute meetings and minutes as well as the tapes that are all available They would know that over the past several years. I have been a leading proponent in stopping the home by program um, so to say that I crafted it is Is is not true and I I really really wish that through this debate that we would stick with the facts and um And just be honest. Thank you. All right, and uh, joe your opening. Okay. Hello. My name is joe Fitzgerald Um, I'd like to start off with a plug for my children that are out of state my two oldest ones. Hi guys They're born here educated here couldn't get a job here. So they're listening tonight um Thank you to channel 17 for allowing my fellow candidates and myself the opportunity to speak here this evening My decision to run now For my local governing city council has been a serious consideration for quite some time Every citizen who chooses to run for public office is inspired by something here. She believes can be Repaired and a recent incident. I believe made a lot of neighbors very powerless And indeed propelled me to run for the current opening seat I believe I have a lot of skills and knowledge to offer the residents award six And I would like the opportunity to be a greater service to my community if elected I promised to see people as people and not by party. Thank you All right, great. And um, we are seeing the phone lines light up, which is excellent If you'd like to ask a question of any of the candidates the number is 802 862 3966 So, uh, we're going to kick things off by going to the phones Hello, you're on the air. Welcome to town meeting television Oh, I'm my name is Paco to francis and I have a question for um, councilor paul Please direct questions to all Oh, all right to all the counselors. Yeah, this is a question that they'll all have the opportunity to address Yeah, okay. Sure. Yeah, this was pertain to the um Brilliant to telecom vote, but um, you know, I would say we're interested to know what the other counselors had You know would do in that situation go right ahead during the vote the uh When shers was eliminated the first time in september 29th um It became apparent that uh, the two cows organization. There was a uh There are millions of shares that were sold by insiders at two cows, you know, the parent company the king Um, during this time, I made that apparent, um, two city council and the counselor paul and it was noted and uh What's your question, please miss that that was an issue and then what had happened? Um, Paco, what's your question, please? Yeah, so and then so the um, there's a lawsuit now with two cows. So how would um The counselors choose to you know, kind of You know better, uh vet um, you know other risks with, um, Risk companies are making bits to acquire city assets. So how would you vet uh companies trying to buy city assets and uh, we'll actually start with you counselor paul Okay, um, so i'm not familiar at all with the situation that he referred to in terms of two cows So we've you know, I think that that did happen after the burlington telecom decision was made Um, I'm not sure I I'm not sure I understand what the question is. What is this a general question? It sounds like yes, I mean for our purposes. It's a general question Well, I think we you know, we all as city counselors try to do our due diligence. Um, each in our own way Um, you know, I know for myself, um, I use the skills that I have as an accountant to uh, to look at The proformas that were given to us and with the In the case of sure is being that it was a privately traded a private a private company not a publicly traded company I actually did go and ask to sign a confidentiality agreement to be able to view their audited financials That's how I have gone about vetting that And I've also looked to other city counselors who go about their due diligence in other ways in learning from them as well Okay, joel well On that deal, I think I think at the time we got the best deal that we possibly could Um, it was a long drawn out process. Um, I was a little surprised that Um When you recused yourself in the night of the boat that did surprise me and I and I did speak of it that That it did surprise a lot of our neighbors and and I think it put I put everything I think it put a lot of things at risk and and I just think that we didn't do a great job there You know with with any of the companies that were Um involved with the vetting process Okay, karen one minute to respond. Thank you very much. Um, so in the city charter Article 46 section 133 If you want to take a look at it, um, is the information regarding conflicts of interest The city charter Asked that if you um, if you have a conflict of interest that at the earliest opportunity that you should disclose that I did disclose that The charter actually doesn't require that you disclose what the nature of the conflict of interest is But I did do that. I went that additional step and and let people know that I had a professional conflict of interest It was through the employer that I had Over the weekend before that vote And the appearance of a conflict of interest to come to my attention and work that I was doing And I brought that to the councils and to the public's knowledge as soon as I was absolutely Absolutely able to do so. Okay. Thank you. And um, charles your uh response on the general question of how You might have handled the burlington telecom sale or how generally you would approach The sale of city assets and vetting potential buyers Sure, I would have taken it very seriously this, uh Principal criteria which was to keep ownership and control local And I certainly would not have participated in a midnight deal to To approve the sale of the asset which is very important to our economic well-being We need broadband. We need inexpensive broadband But I wouldn't have approved its sale without any written documents beyond midnight after Uh, the public had left, you know, this is behind the scenes shenanigans And I would not have participated in this know what I have said. We have to sell it now I would have waited for due deliberation and a rational analysis of the new bid that came up at that time All right. Um, well, thank you for that. And uh, we have uh more callers. So we're going to can stay with them. Um Hello, you're on the air. Welcome to town meeting television. Um, sorry, your your connection is not great try one more time Can you hear me? Yes, now we can Great, um, I'm calling because you know, I'm a little bit more of a positive note Oh, you know, I'm really sorry, but uh, the connection is just I don't think good enough, uh for the air We do appreciate you calling, but we're gonna take our next call. Sorry about that Hello, you're on the air. Welcome to town meeting television Hi, uh, did I get through? Yes, you did. You're on the air Great. Thanks so much. Uh, just didn't know for a second there. Um, I've got Just a quick question for you guys. Um, it's kind of multifaceted. Um, could you describe how long you've lived in ward six? Um, and each of you, I guess will own your home in ward six Um, and just go into a little bit of what specifically kind of attracted you to live in ward six and um Why do you feel you're better qualified to represent your neighbors in our ward than your opponents? That is a great question. Thank you very much. And um, we will get right to it Joel you're first go ahead. Okay, so, um, I moved towards six. Um Actually, um, I moved there because I worked there and my daughter went to school there and it was a passing my wife that actually made me move there because of my job and and um Um, my child's school I um I came to burlington because I loved burlington and I played hockey there. I visited the restaurants and and I and I fell in love with it at a very early age and And I decided that it would be a place for me when I grew up and was able to afford a home. So when Um, when I when I went to look for a home I did move to burlington and then I did move towards six about 10 years ago. Um, I think um why I believe why I would better serve um my ward over the other candidates is Is I'm just a regular guy. I'm a regular working guy. Um, you know, we pay taxes and and we work hard And we're just I'm a regular class people just like my neighbors and and I think I I fit in well with my neighbors and um, I just think That gives me advantage over everybody else. I'm I'm involved in the neighborhood every day All right, great. Um, thank you for that And uh, moving on charles simpson to you Yeah, I've lived in burlington for 20 years. Um, I uh We um, we had an issue with with with my family my mother-in-law needed a place to live in her and her husband And uh, so we were able to build a house that had an in-law apartment something that I'm very much in favor of and So it was one of the last few empty lots in the in the city and we were able to To purchase it and and build a house there It also fit in with the educational needs of my daughter because it was more of a diversity of educational Facilities in the in the burlington area um, I think I'm I'm certainly uh, qualified because of my deep involvement in community activities. I've been on the steering committee for npa6 for five years um, very active in religious activities And I have been very active in all sorts of Social improvement groups everything from the pine street coalition to the uh coalition for livable city to the open space group Um, so on that basis, I I think I'm I'm qualified Karen thank you, uh, so that's a great question. Um, in my case It's easy for me to figure out how long I've lived there because it's pretty much my whole life um, I did go to college out of state um, and uh spent one year right after college Working in new york, uh, but rather quickly came back. Um, I you know, I I think going away for a couple of years Uh got me to understand really the beauty of burlington the beauty of the landscape that we have in this queen city Um, and the beauty of our ward, you know, I like the closest to downtown Um walking to school my children went to the same schools that I went to as a as a child and When I walk the streets of ward six, it's like being in my own backyard Um, so I have a long history in ward six um a long record of service in ward six and in burlington And what I believe um, uh, qualifies me to represent my neighbors more than my opponents is my deep Understanding over many many years of what is on the mind of people in ward six I've lived in one section of ward six. I've lived in another. Um, I've lived near the institutions. I've lived farther away Um The experience that I have can't be duplicated by running for office It's something that comes from within and it's something that is Gathered over many years and many and decades of getting to know the people who live in ward six And I will be honored to continue to serve Okay, great. Um, thank you all for that and we are going to stay with the phones because they are blowing up Thank you viewers. It's 802 862 3966 if you have a question for the candidates So here we go. Hello, you're on the air. Welcome to town meeting television Yes, thank you very much You know part of the job of the city councilor is communicating with their constituents and Controlling the quality of life in those areas. I just like to know You know what they would do to communicate with us That live here and how we'll be able to get a hold of them if need be Okay, great. And um, I believe we're starting with karen on this one. Sure. I'm happy to Um, so, uh, that's a wonderful question because you're absolutely right. The caller is absolutely correct the Communicating with your constituents is really job number one Being able to uh, it's really the only way that you know What's on their minds is if you're communicating with them Since I was elected in 2008 I have been on front porch forum with a preview of every council meeting. Um, I haven't missed one and I and people have told me that that Makes them feel extremely dialed in to what is going on in city government. Um, I have Since since being elected have had a blue newsletter that has gone out to constituents several times a year for those people who perhaps may not be on social media and I'm also Communicate as often as I can and as well as during council meetings even in terms of Facebook and twitter. Um, I do hold coffees at the spot, which is our ward six eatery and Do that several times a year in order to connect with constituents in that way Um, that is one of the best parts of the job of being a city counselor Is being able to interact with your neighbors and hear what's on their minds Okay, great joel so, um social media Is is a great avenue to um To keep in touch with people what's going on and um surveys um You know get involved with your community go to the schools go to school plays last night. I was at a brollington school um high school basketball game You know other than I just enjoy being out in the community. I went to that so um, the other thing is is just call me up I'll come visit you. I'll come to your house. I'll come talk to you. I have no problems coming to people's homes Talk to them about the issues talk about them. What's going on? They can come to my house I make a pretty decent cup of coffee and they can just come to my house and we'll talk about it um, yeah, and in last night I was answering emails at 11 30 last night email me. I'll get back to you as soon as I can Thank you great, um Charles Yeah, communication is really shouldn't be top down It should be us listening to the to the constituents What I'm really frustrated by is the fact that we have a city council that gives Two minutes for the public to make a speech and city council too often has its mind made up ahead of time So what I would like us to do is something we did in in the academic world We had office hours and if we had uh offices and places in city hall where the council could meet It was set times. I think that would be enormously useful And of course, yes, I have social social meter and yes, I I would certainly answer the phone if someone called and I would certainly Go out and visit people, but I think we need to do this more structurally I think the council needs much more resources in terms of office space And uh staff help and we need to be able to tell Constituents when and where they can meet with us over issues Great. Um, well, I'm going to stay with the phones here because these questions have been excellent. So, um, Here we go. Hello. Welcome to town meeting television Good evening. Thank you for taking my call. Um, so this and this of course addresses all of the counselors So as all of you know, um, some of the uvm campus as well as champlain Both reside in ward six, which makes us fairly unique in the city So with that in mind, what specific experiences as well as relationships can you all speak to With these institutions as well as the approach you take in dealing with the quality of life issues with with the people Having to do with these institutions Great question. Um, and we'll start with you. Joel. Go ahead. So, um, you know, that is a great question, um and and um You know, it's nice to see champlain and the university of vermont Stepping up with some financial um Financial help with the infrastructure. So we applaud them for that As far as the housing and the issues that we've been dealing with for years We are actually I believe that we're getting closer with conversations to give choices of housing Whether it be students being on campus or off campus I I believe that's a great move forward My experience working with both is actually I live and work in both So I the positive the experience for me has always been positive Because I work there and I live there. I interact with both all the time and the experience has been positive And I believe that the conversations that are going on can only Expand the partnership for the future All right, Charles Yeah, I think let's let's be frank the city has not cut a very good deal with uvm at all Um, there's no solution to our high rent problem Unless we can convince uvm to get 3 000 off campus students back onto the trinity campus And if they did that with student cooperatives, they could cut the cost of room and board for students by half Instead of that uvm looks upon housing and food service as a cash cow And the city simply goes along with this For example, the latest deal we have essentially passes the the control of the university Parkway to the to the university and and the city pays almost all our great part of the Improvement costs for that. So I think we we just are not standing up to uvm Uh uvm has defa is it divined its own interests to its administration has not really Benefited the students or I think unfortunately the wider community So I would be much tougher in our dealing with uvm. We've actually cut our pilot Over the last couple of years. We're actually getting less in pilot funds from the universities Pilot funds being payments in lieu of tax made by major tax exempt institutions in the city To you counselor paul. Thank you. Um, so first, I just wanted to create uh, correct again I think it's I think it's important that people the voters have actually have the facts and the the fact is that Charles just said that virtually all of the Expenses are being paid by the city that that is actually not true We are sharing the expenses for some of the work that's going to be done on university place with the university We are not financing it. Um, and that is not coming out of taxpayer dollars So that's that that I just wanted to mention first as far as You know, I think this sort of brings to light Approaches that work and the approach that works the best with the institutions is that they are our valued neighbors And the way that the best way to work with valued neighbors is collaboratively I have a long history of working collaboratively with the institutions And uh, particularly addressing quality of life issues I have participated in foot patrols in neighborhoods to deal with late night noise and walk by noise I have been calling landlords since 2009 to deal with noises incidences Have worked with the university on they have a heart campaign Have advocated for the university to actually pay for our foot patrols, which they have agreed they have done They're under no obligation to but they have done it because we've worked collaboratively with them And uh, I guess the only other thing I did want to mention is that You know, those are the things that I think benefit ward six greatly is working collaboratively Not only with our neighbor to neighbor, but also with the institutions as our neighbors All right. Well, thank you and uh, because your response invoked charles charles one minute to respond Yeah, um universities and uvm in particular are fairly hard-nosed in their In their negotiating with the city In the latest Agreement for example There is not a single bed A new new student bed on campus, which uvm has committed itself to not a single one And yet the university place issue Was a source of leverage for the city. It could have gotten much more And it didn't and instead it has underwritten Much more than half of the committed itself to much more than half of the cost to rebuild This this roadway separating the campus from uvm green All right. Um, well, thank you for that. We're going to move on now to look at some issues surrounding the airport And so the first question I have on that is, um, do you believe that, uh, burlington airport, which is located in south burlington But operated by the city of burlington. Um, do you think that there should be a transition to a regional governance model? What should that look like and um, should surrounding communities have more say in, uh, key decisions at the airport that are now made in burlington and uh, first to you charles Oh Okay. Well, thank you very much. You know, this is a big issue. I worked very hard to To get item six onto the ballot which gives citizens finally a say in airport policy And the incumbent unfortunately seems to want it both ways. She wants to say she's was co-chair of the strategic planning committee On the airport, but at the same time does not want to take any responsibility for a decision to bring 18 F 35s To the airport, which as I say will increase the noise umbrella The city of burlington has unfortunately a colonial relationship with south burlington It calls all the shots and south burlington has to pay the penalty pays the penalty in terms of housing loss in terms of tax shrunken tax base And this is something that we simply have to end and we have to end it with a regionalization of our airport The airport is is fairly well run within it. I I think it's quite an attractive airport But its relationship with the pentagon with the air force has been a disaster for the city We don't even take one dime of lease payment We get more money from skinny pancake at the airport than we do from the pentagon Okay, um counselor paul Okay, um, well, uh, uh, I was the co-chair And i'm proud of the work that we did I was the co-chair of the strategic planning committee for the burlington international airport a few years ago And we grappled with many issues To do with uh with the airport one thing that a lot of people don't know is that the f a a has only been around about half of the Have been in existence only about half of the time that the burlington international airport has been in existence and Prior to the f a a the taxpayers of burlington invested millions of dollars in the airport Another little known fact is that the burlington department of public works actually Installed the first runway at the airport You know if we're going to make a change in governance. I think what we have to do The first question that we should be asking is What is what is it that we hope to solve by making this change? I think we need to define that first and from the committee When we did discuss this we know that there are others who want to seat at the table Burlington taxpayers have spent have invested millions of dollars in the airport and one of the members of the airport strategic planning committee was the former ceo of us airways edwin collodney who very appropriately said That those who want a seat at the table You know need to have skin in the game If that is the case and and there are communities in our region who want A seat at the table and are prepared to come with skin in the game I think we should have that conversation and I would be happy to work with anyone On on having that conversation You have some additional time. Do you want to reply the respond to anything that charles said? Sure, that would be great. Um, so the first thing is that um, uh, it's been said that The air force does not contribute a dime. Well, that is not true are They spend about two million dollars providing the airport with fire protection And I think that's a lot more than a dime It's a lot of money and it's a commitment that the guard has to the city of burlington and for that matter to the city of south Burlington the other issue that someone that Uh, one of my opponents that just simply said had said was that there was a shrunken tax base this the the airport pays property taxes And uh, does it pay property tax to burlington? No to south burlington because it is in south burlington So there is a payment to the city of south burlington a rather substantial one. Thank you All right, um, joel your perspective on regional governance at the airport I think the convert. I think the conversation of issues, um, should be open I think um, it should be receptive, but I don't think that We should give anything away on that All right, thank you for that and um, I wanted to because we're talking about the airport and because we touch You guys touched on it in your responses I wanted to talk about one of the advisory questions on the ballot, uh, which charles mentioned that's question six and um, it asks, uh Shall the voters of burlington request the cancellation of the placement of the f 35 at burlington international airport and request instead Low noise level equipment with proven safety records and appropriate for a densely populated area And um starting with you counselor paul go ahead. Sure. Um, just wanted to just just for the record That's not exactly what the question is. It's going to appear on the ballot. Thank you That's sort of a synopsis. Um, the question that's going to appear on the ballot is is a is a lot longer So, you know when the uh, there were a number of citizens who worked very hard charles among them To get signatures To be able to bring this to the council and ask us to put it on the ballot I have a great deal of respect for people who stand outside in the cold weather and get signatures and Because of that, even though I I do think that the ballot question is misleading I did vote in favor of putting the ballot question Which was legal and had the approval approval of our city attorney I did agree or did vote in favor of putting it on the ballot as is And uh, you know, it's an advisory question If the uh, if the ballot item is successful And it is certain and is successful in ward six then if reelected I would certainly advocate to take action on that advisory question Could you say anything you have more time? Could you say anything about what that means? Um, well the question, you know, the question is a little bit convoluted It it says that uh, it talks about support for the guard and support for the mission of the guard Which is protecting the citizens and then it asks as as you had just mentioned about the About the basing of the f-35s and looking for alternative low noise equipment in its place I guess do you support the basing of the f-35 at burlington international airport based on the information that I that I have I will be voting um Now, let me remember. Yeah, I will be voting no on question six. Okay. Thank you. Joel So is the shortened question do I support the basing of the f-35s? Yes, and also if you have thoughts on the question as it appears on the ballot This is your time to talk about that Well, I did I was at the meeting on the night that the council it all went down. I don't agree With the way that the council voted I I think it opened up a lot of issues for votes upcoming I do support Okay, I do support the basing of the f-35s And I just I believe that they're it's going to bring jobs staying jobs to the region. So I do support it. Yes All right. Thank you. Charles Yeah, I a couple of things what I meant about taxes is of course when you when you destroy 200 homes The value of those homes for tax purposes is gone. So that's what south burlington has lost in terms of the Of the ballot item It's important to realize that a citizen initiative while only advisory is a sharp rebuke to city council For not taking a stewardship role in this very important area where they could be protecting children against Cognitive impairment from loud noises and they could be they could have protected a viable Community with its own privates with its own primary school where children were able to walk where adults were hoping to To maintain their homes into into old age They didn't do that and so it took 3 000 citizens to sign a petition to get this on to the ballot The these planes, of course 150 million dollars each the 18 will cost 2.7 million it's 2.7 billion dollars If burlington sends a yes message sign says yes on this ballot item 6 This will send a national message that we have different criteria We have different values than simply the militarization of our entire society. Thank you. Thank you And I Apologize that we're not going to be able to get to all of the callers that we have But we are short on time. So I would like to go to closing statements and Two minutes for each of you This is your opportunity to address the voters of ward 6 one final time and tell them why they should vote for you We will start with Joel Okay If if elected I will do my best to work with you on these and other city issues to them In the most transparent and collaborative way I can I will seek and listen to the collaborative voice of my ward And bring that voice to every council meeting. Thank you All right. Thank you Charles go ahead Yeah, I think we really need a change in both city government across the board and also in ward 6 One of the issues that we didn't quite get to but I heard it discussed in the ward 5 discussion was the Champlain parkway and it's a good example of how the city gets it wrong And how the council supports the city getting it wrong What this highway will do 150 foot wide swath We'll go right through the middle of our preciously small industrial area precluding small new small businesses jobs and tax revenue from that area Because it will have simply taken over much of the center of that industrial district This is just short-sighted just because we're reaching for maybe 39 million dollars with the federal funds. We we will end up damaging ourselves So it's one thing after another where the city has gone for something big often Subsidizing it as the case with the downtown mall subsidizing it to the tune of almost 22 million dollars This is not what we need what we need rather is to put the citizens first And we need a livable city as a criteria for our All of our decisions and one way to do that is to Listen to the citizens to bring them on board to put decisions Decisions about commission appointments and board appointments back to the npa's let the npa's begin Begin a conversation before the decisions are made at the beginning of things such as the memorial auditorium discussion Not afterwards. Thank you. Thank you and uh counselor paul to you So, thank you, uh, and thank you. Thank you to channel 17 and thank you Morgan you get a lot of credit here. Thank you for moderating and doing a great job So over the last uh month or uh month or so I've been to over 800 homes in ward six and have spent a lot of time talking with voters I am so heartened by the kindness and the warmth and the welcome that so many voters have given me at their door The way that they've opened their door have spoken with me have shared with me Their thoughts their dreams their hopes and what's on their mind One of the best parts about being a city counselor is the door-to-door experience And I learn so much From you when I do that I'm grateful to the many people who are supporting my reelection Including the now well over 200 voters in ward six who have agreed to endorse me with their name on my website And that number is growing daily These are people from all parties all points of view have agreed with me on some issues have disagreed with me on some issues But on balance Feel that I am the most qualified person to lead them for the next two years I believe that I bring a record of experience, a proven leadership And passion A lot of passion that I bring to this role And which which I believe are the reasons why the voters of ward six should should re-elect me It's been an honor to serve and I ask for your vote on march 6th So that I can continue to serve this ward and the city As your city counselor you inspire me every day I'll look forward to seeing you at the polls. Thank you All right, and thank you to all three of our candidates again That's progressive charles simpson incumbent democrat Karen paul and republican joel fits jerald We really appreciate our viewers for turning in for For tuning in and also For their calls. It really helped inform this debate. Again, you're watching channel 17 town meeting television This has been our ward six candidate forum Thank you all and stay tuned because we got a couple more coming right at you. Thanks a lot Thank you Good evening and welcome back to channel 17 town meeting television. I'm morgan true and I'm here with The candidates for ward seven city counselor. We have Another candidate forum for you here so you can familiarize yourself with the candidates and their positions we have incumbent democrat progressive ollie jang and Independent james loop the third and we are going to go ahead and get started here with opening statements And I will go to you first ollie Thank you very much morgan for having me and thank for everybody watching here tonight with us And yes, my name is ali and I am the current city counselor for burlington ward seven I immigrated to this country in 2007 Seven and since then I've been working for the burlington school district. I was electric six months ago To represent ward seven and my time at the council has been just great Incredibly by learning a lot about the city and also by contributing meaningfully Thank you All right james Hi, my name is james loop and I'm running for ward seven city council Um, I own a couple small businesses Locally, I own pampered pat on north avenue and I work with my partner at a real estate office in downtown burlington So I feel that I have a lot of experience with housing Also managing budgets and business So i'm really looking forward to bring that experience to the city council Um, and also my parents recently retired. They've been a long time burlington area residents and I think working with them on that whole process. I can also help seniors in our community Transition into retirement and bring some of those strategies that I worked with them To the council. Thank you great um And a reminder to our viewers if you have questions for either of the candidates give us a call 802 862 3966 and to kick things off here We are going to go to the phones because we have a caller Hello, and welcome to town meeting television. You're on the air Yes, uh, good evening. Thank you for taking my call My name is dale tolson from ward seven Which is the ward that these two gentlemen are running to represent My question goes back to about nine days At a city council meeting nine days ago. There was an issue brought up about a Burlington basically investing into burlington telecom and trying to Stay involved within the situation Um, 11 of the 12 counselors voted. Yes on the subject Uh, the candidate from ward seven Voted no I would like the candidate from ward seven to answer his reason for voting no and the other candidate to answer How he would have voted on the issue. All right, great. Um, thank you for that question dale And um, they are both candidates. All these the incumbent and current city councilor and, um, james We will start with you. How would you have voted on that issue? So I would have voted yes. Um So basically what that resolution was is um to whether We could reinvest those funds and in order to do that we needed to go to um the public utility commission Um to see if that was an option for burlington to reinvest some of those proceeds from the sale of burlington telecom And that was basically the question. So I think that's something we want to keep Moving forward with with um, seeing if that's a good option. I think We definitely want to see if that carried interest if there's any risks involved And if it's a good option, but I think it's worth asking the question So I would have voted yes All right, councilor jane. Yep. So, I mean, thank you so much for your question And this again, I will make sure that everyone will understand my position on that and my position on bt specifically has been always that it needs to come to We wanted to make sure that we leave a legacy to our children by making sure that Burlington telecom is operated Um by burlingtonians and also managed by burlingtonian Now that did not happen. We had an option to have a carry interest in order to ask for us to stay on the game But the options were very limited for burlington having one board member at the seat Doesn't make any sense in my own sense to me With everything that is going on in this country everything that is going on in the state and specifically around burlington telecom We need to cash out To take what we sold it Let's cash out and then with that money we will be able to invest it in something else That's a greater and that has more Invest return for the burlington uh for the burlingtonians reason why I voted no I knew that doesn't matter my vote. Yes or no, it will pass So I wanted to just again say that the whole process since it started It has not been very well vetted It has not been a great process and the best option for burlington is to move forward By caching out and then with that money we will be able to allocate it in all the Um things that we need such as having a library at the new north end having a community health center at the new north end Thank you again for your question and those are the reasons why I did not vote. Yes on that All right, and thank you both and we're going to stay with the phones as we have another caller Um, hello and welcome to town meeting television Thank you My question to the candidates is where do you stand on the f-35 question? And what's your opinion of the wording of the ballot question? All right, thank you. Um, and we'll bring that to the counselors again. This is a question that broadly, uh, asks whether uh, residents support Canceling the placement of the f-35 um, and instead requesting, uh, some noise mitigation stuff or in a Another mission another air force mission to be brought to Burlington instead of the f-35 again, there has been some controversy around the wording of that And so we will start with you counselor jane. What are your thoughts? Thank you? um So basically you asking about the ballot question item question That's number six and it is an advisory of the basing of f-35 in the burlington international airport so as we all know that the Vermont national guard the military has recently clarified that no jobs will be lost if the f-35s are based somewhere else Right, the process is very far along but our neighbors continue have already expressed their opposition on the basing of the uh The f-35 in the burlington international Airport after careful consideration We have concluded that the goal of a health is safe and sustainable city The community we are not considering Wanting to have the basing of the eighth f-35 in burlington international So I will be voting yes on that ballot item question because when we talk about sound of freedom It's not exactly with so much noise. We also know that there are so many different Um consequences that that noise and also something else that will affect the well-being of the resident in here It is imperative. It is very important as elected official or also leaders of this community The first thing we want to preserve is the well-being and safety of our resident and to me It is not bringing that to this community and the surrounding communities. All right, james So I've been door knocking and asking a lot of um The community what they think on this issue. I've gotten a lot of feedback from friends and neighbors And I think overwhelmingly what I've heard in word seven is they support the guard. Um, we really haven't heard Um Another mission. I've heard a lot of people talk about an alternative mission an alternative plane But what really concerns me is there's 1100 jobs that the guard supplies to the area And I think that's critical We want to keep those jobs All three members of the vermont delegation Fought to bring that f-35s to vermont Um, I know there's concerns Um over the noise level I know Part of our politicians have gone down to florida listened to the noise I don't think there's been an opportunity in burlington to really hear the noise and that's a concern Um, but overwhelmingly I think word seven supports the guard and I'm also a little upset about the language And I've heard from word seven voters that it's a little misleading And there's a lot of concerns and I think on the council level I would have voted to change that wording And that means maybe the petitioners would have gone to court and I think that's okay But I would have liked it to move further and language been really clear on the ballot So the voters can make a really clear decision So just to clarify I'll be voting now All right. Thank you both. And again, we have another caller on the line. So we're going to stay with that Hello, and welcome to town meeting television. You're on the air Hi, um, I agree with mr. Loop on that issue. Um, let's see. Um, I'm sorry about the bike lane issue because, um We did have a language change after submitting a question by petition and You know, despite morrell and chavin's falsely dishonest so-called data notwithstanding the majority of what they've said ma'am, if you could uh What is your question, please? The last election cycle ali jang said was asked if he would vote with his constituent Against the bike lanes, even if he did not agree with them and he stated that he would Could you please address your question to both candidates? My question for mr. Loop is will you vote with his constituents even if you disagree with them And my question for ali is why don't you keep your promise? Okay, so the question is Will you vote with your constituents and we will go first to james? I think that's a concern that i've heard from a lot of wart seven residents and it's certainly One of the reasons why i'm running I talked to ali About a couple votes And was disappointed And then when I gave him the opportunity Later to discuss it. I felt Like it I was brushed off. So I think that's why I felt passionate to get involved To make sure that wart seven's voice was heard and I will continue to work To make sure wart seven's view is heard and I also think it's really important that you work Um with the council as a whole Um And I'm running as independent because I feel passionately that bipartisanship is really important on the council And we want to keep moving forward All right, great. Um ali Yeah, so I mean During my campaign six months ago I made it made it very clear that what we want to do in this city is to promote healthy active lifestyle That could not be happening With having four lands and those four lands were not safe And also the north avenue were not is not welcoming Now it is very welcoming Now it is also responding to the safety needs and also concerned that so many residents have been expressing about Now when you tell me that I told a couple people that I would be voting on what the new north enders want I am telling you what I trust Is the door knocking and also the people that I connected with there might be all the data They might be anything but before I run and won over 62 percent of the vote I almost knocked at every single door in wart seven Every single door and I talked about every single person the candidate. Uh, we'd appreciate that Otherwise I'll have to cut you off now north avenue is more welcoming And people are using the bike lane every single day as a leader That I will be continuing to promote healthy lifestyle for every single resident in burlington All right, thank you both. Um, and we are going to stay with the phones. We got another caller here Please keep them coming if you'd like to ask a question of the candidates. The number is 802 862 3966 Give us a shout Hello and welcome to town meeting television. You're on the air Hi, um, I wanted to just um Two things if I could one is ask award seven voters say that I I know change comes hard to a lot of people But I think the bike lane change is a good one and people will grow to really like it Uh, if you could just follow up questions. Yes, please a question. Um, Mr. Loop if I could Um, please direct a question that both candidates could answer if that's possible. Okay. Okay. Um So I guess I would say what are your three top Needs that you see in the ward Um in terms of services that you would work to bring or um improve And that would be my question Could I ask one little thing also follow up? Let's stick with that. That's a lot there It's the three top needs that they that the candidates see in the ward Let's get let's get them started with that all e to you the three top needs you see Definitely, and I think one of them I am doing an incredible job It is to make sure that the ward seven residents Um are connected to the city I am the only counselor that are providing updated healthy updated items Through front porch forum. I also started a dumpling every other thursday with my constitution They show up strong and last time we held it at simple routes You know, it was to improve the communication which did not exist before I was at the council even ward four take my What I update on ward seven and they take it and share it with ward seven so new north end has been forgotten for very long time and That's one to improve the communication the second thing we have over two thousand Ward seven residents that are using community health centers And they all drive so much long time to get there and sometimes they seek to spread the germs We need a specific area where we can have a community health center. Over two thousand will be able to access those Just last two weeks ago. I talked to an older elder elderly And she was telling me how she drove all the way to the Fletcher free library She could not find a parking and she had to drive back to her house with the books We need a specific area Dexinated area where we can have a community library and your third item That's the third item the first one to improve the communication The second one is to bring things such as the community health center and the third one to bring also Community library in the burlington. Thank you. James your top three priorities. Should you be elected? Well, one of the biggest items I've heard when door knocking is affordability Um, I think there's a broad spectrum of not only seniors um, but the middle class that are really Disappointed that maybe and I hear that maybe they might have to move So I think we need to look at sustainability. I'm in the city with the budgets I think we're on track. We're doing much better. There are when just a few years ago there's a 31 million dollar lawsuit against the city and We're struggling with the bond rating. So I think we're on the right track. It's improving But I still think there's a lot to do On the housing front. I think we can do a lot to Make it more affordable and Bring about more units To relieve that pressure So the affordability is the main thing. Also, I think I agree with Ali transportation But how I would address that is I'd like to see more transportation to services we already have by adding services To the new north end. I'm worried about What kind of tax burden that would already put on our city? So I think improving access to the library and definitely to the community health centers and to Fletcher Allen is critical To seniors and also what I've heard from residents is That their kids need better access to parks. So I'd love to see Maybe a free loop to Help them access Those services Great. All right, and let's stay in that vein of affordability And just talk about the perspective that you bring to the city council And I'm wondering if you could both tell us about someone who you know That is a renter or on food stamps having trouble paying medical bills Making less than $15 an hour And how knowing that person having that relationship or even experiences you may have had in your personal life How that will inform your Role on the council should you be elected and james will start with you So I have a lot of people come in to pamper pet and we chat a lot of the time when they're dropping off their dogs And I look forward to it at least once a week and if I can't do it every week I do it every couple weeks and Just to see what's going on or maybe I stop in the bagel bakery And I'll chat for a little bit to see what's going on the community so And I think there's a lot of people that are making affordable wages and I Hear the struggles they're going through. So I think When I'm getting that feedback And when I'm on the council I'll turn to them and ask what can we do better? What are we what are our successes? What are we not doing well right now and how we can improve? So I think by partnering And having that access to the community and also people Can call me and they've been doing that the last two weeks. So thank you very much So that feedback is critical to going to the council and Having that to Hopefully improve our community. Okay. Thank you. And all you what relationships or experiences with people who may be struggling in the city Will inform your Next term on the council if you should be elected Thank you And I just want to also to clarify that when we talk about affordability it is not a north avenue problem It is a burlington problem. Just want to make sure that it's very clear Here. All right. So me as a new american I work directly with the most vulnerable populations in burlington Right Not only that I know people who are renters not only that I know people I witness people being evicted. I help people to apply for childcare subsidy. I help them to apply for Food stamp. I help them even to apply for housing assistance That's the specific reason with us. Many people at the council may not have an Understanding of what those struggles are. I am also a person With lived experiences as a new american I interact every single day with the most vulnerable in our community and also in our school Just to tell you reason why I started to serve Before the council at cvoio shamplain valley office of economic services to understand the Knowledge and also the struggles of many people in here I am bringing that perspective every single day to everything that I do at the council at my services in what's At cvoio as well as advice for democracy The struggle is real many people who don't understand them won't be able to Address it effectively. All right, we're going to do one more Call in and then move to closing statements. And so here we go Welcome to town meeting television. You're on there. What's your question for our ward seven candidates? Thank you My question is for both The question is will either candidate Make it a priority if elected to the council to bring some type of enforcement of the bikes That ride Wherever they feel like it And they seem to think I can take over the city. Is there I know the police department's position on that is Um Basically no interest. So it would be nice to know if either candidate supports some type of enforcement before it We do have a tragedy. Um, the other question is more towards ali Actually, if you don't have a question for both candidates, uh, we'll just stick with the one that you had But thank you for that. It's a great question. Um, and I will put it to the candidates now Um, so james, uh bike traffic violation enforcement. Is that a priority for you? And do you think the city should be doing more of that? I think public safety is always a priority. I think enforcement can be tough. You're on a bike. Um, I know I think we could talk to the police department more. I think they're a great partner So I think that's one way I would look at it, but I I agree. It's a concern and it's both for the bikers and for the drivers. So enforcement I think something needs to be done. Um, Whether I don't know if tickets are the answer, but I think a dialogue definitely needs to be opened up Maybe some meetings and maybe a small steering committee To talk about that issue. So I think public safety That's definitely an issue we want to look into and address All right council james. Yep. Thank you. And I think, um, it is a very good and important question Because there are so many email exchanges between me Chief del Pazzo and also some of the constitution who raised this concern And I'm glad that you are raising you are using the bike lamp now Here's a thing And the chief's position is very clear that he would rather focus on crimes and also all the safety concern in this city Other than implementing bike safety, which does make very big sense but We know that the bike lanes. Yes, we put them on but they are it's not a done deal yet They need a lot of improvement and I think that will help the second thing is when we talk about those Food patrols that we have during the summer We can empower a group of people who would be doing whose role would be to just look into ways in making sure that Bikers are safe and also drivers are safe And that it won't be possible through Just talking but I'm willing to put a resolution forward that the council will weigh in in order to bring more bike safely And friendly in this community Excellent and we're going to go to closing statements now Ali, I'll start with you two minutes. Yeah, thank you so much. And I mean I've been at the council maybe six months now and my Presence at the council has been felt and greatly I received so many great feedback from my constituent because I'm representing them to the best of my abilities Not only to improve the communication But also to making sure that their voices are being heard and respected All right, we have been doing so many things in this city with us of proper Uh processes, you know the way we do things need to be changed And I think with the Burlington DPW they're doing an incredible job in engaging more the community and I want to bring more ideas to that I also want to look into ways that we prioritize safety As well as education as the city It is our moral obligation in making sure that our students Our families Everyone is safe and also we are investing To the best of our abilities to our education because we want to raise a building a brighter feature Right. I hope that you all will join me on march 6 To get me reelected again To be your voice at the council and also to making sure that The services that are needing in our What seven in our area of town are being met? Thank you so much James to you closing statement so I started this process only for short weeks ago and I got involved by going to a few council meetings And all of a sudden a passion and me just to get involved And also I I was talking to neighbors and I felt Maybe our voices weren't being heard and Some of the issues that word seven was facing really needed More attention and Brought to the council's attention and I also feel a lot of Collaboration needs to happen with other counselors And across the aisle I don't always agree with curtain Dave on issues, but When a neighbor is right on the other side of my North avenue the issues are are close to both Me and my neighbor so I feel like that collaboration needs to happen I'm really passionate about it And because I think that's going to make the new north and stronger because these issues Can really get solved So I think that needs to happen and I would like To see that happen during the next two years, so I hope you'll vote for me on march 6th Great. Thank you to both of our candidates and for our newer viewers curtain Dave our City counselor curt right and city counselor Dave hartnett both representing the new north end I'm morgan true. Thank you for tuning in to town meeting television. This has been the ward seven candidates forum Thank you to both of our candidates. It was a excellent forum And we really appreciate all the calls that we got. Stay tuned. We have one more forum for you That's the ward 8 forum if you have questions for those candidates give it a few minutes Then give us a call 802 86 to 3966. Thanks a lot and be back with you shortly Relax a little yeah Hello, and welcome back to town meeting television here on channel 17 I'm morgan true your host for the evening and we have one final candidate forum I'm here with the candidates for ward 8 city council. We have incumbent independent But endorsed by the democrats adam roof and also jf carter newbeiser a progressive Thank you to both for being here and um, we will go ahead and dive right in with opening statements Two minutes each and uh adam start us off. Great. Thank you. Um morgan I know you've been here all night and they saved the best for last ward 8 Thank you all for for tuning in at home Hello. Yep. My name is adam roof. I am the current city council representing ward 8 I live on pearl street just down the street here from channel 17 And I am seeking a reelection This town meeting day on march 6 quickly about myself I've lived in the ward 8 slash ward 1 neighborhood area for About 10 years now and I came to burlington as many young people do To go to uvm. I was a first generation college graduate While at uvm. I served in in various community leadership roles and eventually graduated With degrees in political science english and vermont studies To give you a sense of my workload Unless I think my experience over the last three years As your city councilor Um, I want to kind of go over some of the some of the committee work that i've done and the initiative worked that i've done Some of the committees that i've served on uh have been the community development and neighborhood Revitalization committee of which i'm currently chair The public safety committee of which i'm also the chair The licensed committee the local control subcommittee the human resources committee and the institutions committee That's a heavy workload for for a new city councilor, but I wanted to take that on I'm also the council appointed member of the downtown improvement district advisory board The vehicle for higher licensing board as well as the parallel justice commission In addition to my committee work i've led two major policy initiatives the first um out of my out of The public safety committee initiative supporting burlington's homeless community and out of my licensed committee and public safety committee Sorry, i'm going long Initiative on preventing sexual assault so to close I think i have a track record of getting things done and taking a collaborative approach to public service And i'm i'm looking forward to the next few weeks and election day coming up. Thanks Great carter your opening statement. Yeah, thank you very much. Um, my name is carter newbieser I'm running for city council in ward eight You know, i'm running because i've talked to a lot of students and a lot of uh permanent residents who are just tired of status quo establishment politics and economics You know when we talk about the affordable housing crisis that our community finds it finds itself in and in ward eight The the housing crisis is pretty acute You know, there are really two distinct visions One that's being handed down by my by my opponent in the mayor's office Is you know, we could just build our way out of this problem continue to build more and more market rate housing Continue to put the interests of wealthy developers A lot of the times from out of burlington You know ahead of the interests of seniors of working class folks of students And i fundamentally disagree with that So, you know, what we're proposing is that you know, if you're a student if you're a senior If you're a young person trying to come into burlington, you should be able to afford to live in the city You should be able to You know be making minimum wage and still afford rent and still have some money left over to save You know, we think this is a complicated issue obviously affordable housing and affordability But we have, you know, really a an array of options in terms of solving this problem So one thing we're proposing is investing in more affordable co-op housing and getting uvm to really invest in Co-op student housing because I can tell you from my conversations and From a lot of my experiences as a current student You know people want affordable co-op housing that really does increase quality of life And it would go a long way to reducing rent prices downtown Second we need to strengthen our inclusionary zoning laws that has been a success And we need to build upon that progress Third we need to hold landlords accountable because when we talk about You know affordability it is the prices, but it's also the quality of housing So more aggressive enforcement of our housing code And then the last two are just you know, we need to raise wages in the city That's you know You know essential to your last affordability. Yes, the last thing I apologize and going over We need to build on you know the success that we've already had With the land trust model. That's been something that you know Our community for decades has supported and we need to continue supporting that Thank you carter and because you did invoke your opponent in your response I'll give adam a minute now to respond to that. Yeah, I can probably go point by point Pretty quick. We said a minute. Yes. Okay, great. You know first this notion that there's some unified approach from The cabal of the mayor and city councilors handing down some housing policy from from high above is Is just erroneous. It's baseless. It's a deviation from the truth And I've been consistent on on on kind of rebutting that each time affordable housing and co-op housing student co-op housing I've done that research and and and spoken with the berkeley folks who do this model really well Commonly invoked in debates around student co-op housing. Great idea. Good model They operate off of a 501c3 model But their start was when they had buildings and property gifted to them And they are first to admit that starting from scratch and that model is really difficult And so it would probably take community partners coming together That would take some experience to make happen The iz you know that thank you for Coming up, you know bringing that agreeing with me on on strengthening the iz Landlord accountability. I've done it for all right Rages. Well, so yeah, I mean, thank you for that response. That's a minute And I'm actually going to go to the phones now and get we have the phone lines blowing up If you'd like to ask a question. It's 802-862-3966 Hello, you're on the air. Welcome to town meeting television. What's your question for the candidates? My question is are you happy with the city's current inclusion or rezoning policies? And what changes if any would you propose? All right, thank you for that and we will go first to Adam I'm sorry. No, you're correct. You're correct. Carter. Go ahead. Yeah, so I am in support of our city's inclusionary zoning laws I do think that we need to be increasing the percentage of new developments coming into the city To you know, hold landlords accountable hold developers accountable and say, you know If you're going to put money in here and you're going to make a profit off our housing market That you need to be you know building real affordable units I'm not against in in principle the mall development that happened a few months ago The problem is is that what is being labeled affordable in the mall development isn't affordable for working class You know working class folks for students for seniors Excuse me. So, so, you know when we talk about affordability We actually have to find define affordability And that has to mean that if you're living in the city, if you're a working class resident You can also afford rent and to invest in a house or something like that All right, go ahead Adam. Yeah, so defining affordability is now something that my opponent and I share as As a as a priority. I think the difference is You know, how do you get there is it takes experience With working in this policy environment the way that you get to it's really easy to say we need to define it Well, this is how you define it you have to shift how we Measure area median income which is handed down to us from housing and urban development federal HUD Establishes that standard right now. It's not burlington specific. It's chitin and county wide includes some of the islands in frankincone as well We need to be re-estab redefining that based on those terms We also have to be realistic and consistent with our with our narrative and how we talk about affordable Affordable housing development in burlington if you're a supporter of the inclusionary zoning ordinance You must also then be in some way shape or form A supporter of new housing development at market rate levels because iz doesn't kick in Unless we're developing more than in most parts of the city four units at a time in one development So that would be in really short terms how you can improve the inclusionary zoning Ordinance, I think if you're going to increase the percentage of any development that's going to be affordable You need to take into account the competitive marketplace of capital within chitin and county because developers will decide to go elsewhere And yes, they will make a profit, but they can go elsewhere and their their their dollar will go much further Just over an imaginary line that does not have this ordinance. So you have to be able to broker those Broker those relationships and those economic terms. All right. Thanks, and we're going to stay with the phones We have a ton of callers here. Thank you guys for that Um Hello and welcome you are on the air of town meeting television. What's your question for our ward 8 candidates? Hi, i'm a current college student and i'm wondering what actions the city government can take in order to reduce sexual assault on college campuses All right. Thank you for that and um, this one does go to adam first. Go ahead adam Yeah, and this is something that i've worked on so it's it's good that um That it that'll go to me first. Uh, so sexual assault something that i've been working on since i was actually a student at uvm I started my work in student health student life issues as a freshman and then I served as the student trustee at uvm for Several years and worked on from the top down model on how to do student life and student health issues better At uvm i'd worked at the national center for campus public safety on delivering sexual assault training Two campuses all across the country and now as a city counselor I've been leading like i said in my opening and initiative on preventing sexual assault in the downtown Especially the nightlife Environment we know that instances of sexual assault happened disproportionately to those age 18 to 24 and Most in most cases alcohol is involved as a former bartender, which I was just Four or so years ago. I know how impactful that sort of intervention can be in those environments so This training which actually kicks off this week Or rather next week. Apologize. We'll go for the next 18 months. We'll measure that success and then hopefully bake it into The city licensing policy which will require all city licenses who furnish alcohol to be providing this training to their staff Carter your views on what the city could be doing to address campus sexual assault Yeah, so I just want to take a moment In politics we often are divided on a lot of issues and I want to thank adam as my representative and as a student For for making progress on this issue. So i'm going to acknowledge that that being said there's a lot There's a whole lot. We still have to do Most college sexual assaults for students happen on campus versus off campus And so, you know, we had this really nice training when I was a freshman coming into uvm Around sexual assault and it was actually really effective and got to You know got to a lot of you know white dudes like myself who You know when we're talking about sexual assault, we have to pair it with a conversation about white supremacy in our society and with systematic oppression of Of women and of people of color So that's something that we really have to bring to the conversation that being said I think that you know uvm really does have to do more And you know what we're proposing as a campaign Is that we take that sexual assault training that we get freshman year and then keep that conversation going and have a continuous Conversation around this issue and have them, you know require mandatory training Every year for all grades Because we have this great conversation and then you know as a student we just hear nothing about it for four more years So we have to do more on campus And and that's really an important issue for our campaign All right. Thank you. And uh, we're going to stay with the phones again. If you have a question for our candidates It's 802 862 3966 Hello, you're on there. What is your question for our ward eight candidates? Hi, I'm just curious. Um, what experience do you both have in managing a budget? And um, could you tell me how big the burlington city budget is? Um, right now All right. Thank you for that. Um, this one is Uh, carter first. Awesome. Yeah, so, um, the burlington city budget, it's, um You know, it depends what you're talking about when you're talking about the size of it right now It's roughly 70 to 80 million dollars a year. Um, you know, we do have experiencing That might be the general fund. Is that what you're referring to? That's the general fund. Yes. Um, so We do I do have experience and I'm and I'm getting experience. Um in in managing a budget right now through the campaign Um, in addition, you know, when we talk about, um, experience It is great to have experience on city council and I and I don't fall at them for that But experience can be learned versus values are really inherent in the politician running We think that we are running a strong values campaign And we're excited to get to work for the people of burlington Adam go ahead. Yeah, um, the the general fund is um, it's 73 million dollars and About three 73 million three hundred thousand dollars and change that's general fund We also have our special revenue funds as well as our enterprise funds and that's about another Uh, like bd is a special revenue rather enterprise fund that's a 63 million dollar budget a year. Uh, we got 12 In a half million coming out of our Our special revenue bond, uh, that's our tiff district our church tree marketplace million dollar budget for church tree marketplace Um, it all all under together. It's about 200 million dollars under management. Um, this is so experience I think the question with our experience I've gone through several budget processes municipal budgeting is really different than normal budgeting Um And well there my time at uvm, which are the budget which was was much larger Institutional budgeting higher ed budgeting is a lot pretty complex as well And and I think there was an invocation there with regard to Uh, principles and standards of of political ideology, uh, just to be clear I consider myself, uh, socially liberal, but but fiscally. Um, I consider myself just responsible Uh, a millennial who lived through the the great recession Uh, I take my dollars pretty seriously and and actually they're not my doll to take tax tax dollars very seriously So, um, I think that carver and I share a lot of those ideologies I think that I have the experience in uh in in translating those into action and policy We're in this case wrote it to the budget. All right. Thanks And we are it's going to stick with the phones as they continue to light up Thank you for your calls again if you have a question for either of our candidates It's 802 862 3966 here we go Welcome you're on the air. What's your question for our ward eight candidates? Hi, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your background and what it was that inspired you to get involved in local politics All right, great question. Um, adam you yeah um, I guess my Yeah, my background and then I think it does lead into why I got involved. Um, Both what do I have a minute? Two minutes. Wow a lifetime So I I come from massachusetts. Um I I came to uvm. Like I said in my opening I came to you vermont for uvm It was at uvm that I got involved in a lot of In a lot of community activities. I got like I mentioned the board of trustees a few times now, so I'll lay off that but involved in the Peer judicial board the academic integrity council adena students advisor board the athletic the athletic council It was really there that I started to get a sense of what leadership was it hadn't really translated into Politics yet. Um, I'd studied political science. I had helped manage campaigns democratic progressive candidates in boston, which is I guess my first touch of conventional electoral politics But it wasn't until 2014 when this opportunity to run for city council Sort of by default side of kind of fell into my lap after someone who was running dropped out And it was then that I first considered myself someone who would run Run himself in our campaign setting and we tried that out and it was successful and and I'm back trying it again so All right, carter awesome. Yeah, so my first experience with electoral politics was bernie's historic 2016 campaign You know, he really spoke to my values as a young person and it was the first candidate I saw on the national stage that I could really feel comfortable You know, I put in hundreds of hours of organizing for him phone banking while being a full-time student while having two part-time jobs And he really inspired me and what I kind of took from that even though we lost the campaign is that We as citizens and it was we you know as young people and as activists need to be constantly involved You have to be you know, not everybody has 24 hours seven days a week to be committing to the political process But we have to be involved somehow and so, you know after bernie's campaign. I did a couple of different You know small just activists non-paid projects I worked for v perk and I really fell in love with vermont because I got to go to all these different homes and Talked to people all across the state who I didn't necessarily agree with but nonetheless, you know There were bernie supporters trump supporters hillary supporters all who were just genuinely nice Invited me in fed me dinner wanted to hear my life story And just had an honest conversation And so that was a really really formative experience for me politically You know, the reason I jumped into this race specifically Is because there's a really big gap that's really acute in warty Specifically, and that's the gap between students and more permanent residents in our community You know what I've learned going around talking to both groups is that there's really a breakdown of communication between those two groups And unfortunately, you know when there's a breakdown of communication. There's a lot of misunderstanding But when you speak to issues about affordability and real affordability when you speak to issues about climate When you speak to issues about racial justice and you know breaking down systematic oppression Most people in our society or in our community in warty Agree with those issues and so it's our job as a campaign and as an elected officials to bring people together around shared progressive values All right. Um, thank you both and we have one caller here one last caller But if you have a question for our candidates again, the number is 802 862 3966 Hello and welcome to town meeting television. What's your question for our candidates? Oh, hi My question is how do each of you plan to retain young people and grow up in Africa graduate and the carter? Do you plan to move out of Okay, well We'd like questions that both candidates can answer so I think we're gonna Okay, well you guys can both answer whether you have plans to move in the next two years Um, but again the question was as about retaining young people in the workforce. So to you adam, go ahead Yeah, uh, this is something near and dear to my heart because it's something that's affected me quite personally over these last few years The vast majority of folks that I graduated with have Have left burlington. Most of them have left the state To pursue opportunities, whether it be in dc or new york or out west somewhere And that is I think maybe one of the one of the bigger problems that our economy needs to overcome In the next few years There's a few ways to do it First I think we need to be it a lot of this stuff goes back to housing and we need to be developing housing and building opportunities for people to Frankly find upward mobility in their housing options because right now Like myself I can I'm still renting because there's nothing for sale Um, and there's uh, you know when when you're someone who doesn't who's not required to live in A map because of the service that you do on a city council You're going to choose for the most part Places that are going to you where your dollars are going to go Go further the the second part of the affordability equation, of course is always income Um, yes, we need to be raising the minimum wage another vermont state senate took action on that This week, but from a local perspective, we need to be Building jobs that that can support the levels of income that are necessary for For recent graduates and young professionals to find so they can again find that upward mobility Great Carter to you. Yeah, so just quickly. Um, yes, I do consider burling to my home And I will be staying here regardless of this election or going forward or if I win or if I you know Server to your term through your term I consider this place, you know my home And so why I'm running and why I'm so involved and I want to get young people involved Is because I think that you know, we contribute so much As young people to this whether it be the music scene the art scene We financially we contribute quite a bit in terms of uh, you know room and board costs and housing costs once we move off campus So, you know when we talk about retaining young people There's kind of this thought out there in the community that you know We had to fight for the right to vote for college students and things like that So we have a huge huge opportunity as a state and as you know, a city of burlington Um with Champlain and and uvm Um to retain young people and that's good for everybody whether you're a progressive conservative independent left wing far right Whatever it may be you want young people putting down roots here and it starts with being able to afford a house It starts with being able to afford rent. Um, it starts with being able to find a job Where you know, you're not just scraping by and you can start to save up and really invest in the community A lot of people who are my age feel like Um, we are invested in the community like this is home And we just want to fight to make it as you know as equitable and a sustainable community as we can All right, and thank you for that and I forgot to press you on this Adam any plans to move in the next two years? No as that was part of the question Um, all right cool. Well moving on. Um, we've exhausted our callers And so I would uh like to ask a question on food policy We've actually had some incumbents say that they had not Been as aware of burlington's food policy or what it is currently But um at one point burlington had the goal of producing 10 of its food within the city What do you think uh of that goal and what else could be done to eliminate hunger in this community? while also giving um equitable access to quality nutritious food And also using that as a way to grow the economy to you adam Yeah, um So yeah, I think that's a great goal. I have to be really curious to find out what currently that that percentage is How what are we sourcing within the city? Um, I think it's a little bit off the mark though Too often in municipal politics, especially in places like vermont or in the north east of america We think in terms of municipalities or cities where really the systems that we're talking about are more suited for Um More than just one city more regional or in this case maybe like a county So I think we'd want to look at both of those metrics A big thing for me that we need to we need to start working on and i've been working on some of this through my involvement on the The downtown improvement district advisory board is finding a way to to facilitate or to attract a more affordable grocery store in our downtown We we love uh city market. They do great things for the community But the fact of the matter is that folks who can't quite afford it are finding themselves having to travel Shaws or price chopper or wherever it might be So as we look forward to a new newly developed a future of downtown and as part of that conversation This expanding of the of what's called the did a bit a downtown improvement district, which will uh businesses are funding It's the downtown improvement district Another big another big conversation a key priority of that needs to be bringing More affordable food options into the downtown where where folks can be purchasing those goods All right, carter. Yeah, so food policy is something i'm really passionate about Right now we have a mandate coming down from the state house in act 148 and basically that's saying that You know, we can't be sending food waste to the landfill anymore that we have to properly compose or Sorry, we have to properly Compost that food As a community and so I think with this new mandate coming down from the state house There's a real opportunity to set up a network with restaurants and with grocery stores And and really to to fill some gaps that are currently within our system So for example, you know if a restaurant has an excess food It just goes in the dump So as we're going to create a network to properly Compost that food we could say hey, is there any food that you know You know we can get to people who need it and help to solve some of the Food insecurity issues that we have in the city and we could actually and I you know I like adam's idea of getting a more affordable grocery store. Obviously city market isn't something that's You know perfect for a lot of working-class residents or students But I think a big thing and the biggest opportunity we have going forward in terms of food policy Is actually this mandate for completely composting our food waste and then hopefully getting some food that You know doesn't need to just be thrown out but given to people at an affordable price You know who are who are suffering from food insecurity and that's a lot of folks in our community And a lot of folks are struggling right now So we have to recognize that and we really do have to speak to their concerns All right Great and we are going to move to closing statements two minutes each Carter will start with you go ahead Yeah, so I just uh, you know want to say that I This is this entire process has been really humbling winter lose I I feel like I've really Talked to a lot of folks in the community who just genuinely are fighting for a better life for themselves for their families And that's been a really humbling process You know, I do think that there are really two distinct visions for how we solve affordability in the city One is more of this, you know trickle down housing economics that just doesn't work and there's been decades in our community On the national scale To show that you know just playing to the interests of the wealthy of the economic and thus political elite in burlington Aren't you know, isn't really going to do anything for working-class folks for students for seniors Struggling with affordability. So I humbly ask you, you know on march 6th to to give me your support and And you know together I think we're we're going to create a more equitable sustainable inclusive society Thank you Great. Yeah You know, it's late and so I won't go on a lengthy oration or I probably won't take up the total two minutes But I think my closing thought that I'll leave you all with tonight is a bit of a personal one And it's a simple fact that I that I really do love this community and I am invested in it Um, you know 100 percent It's it's a place that has given me a lot of opportunity and has given me A place to grow and to be successful in a lot of different ways And my service on the city council Really is nothing more to me than a way to give back For everything that this city has given to me So far and I plan to be here To receive from it and to give back to it for for many more years to come And so with that I want to thank carter for another good debate But also I think we should both thank morgan for for a long night of work Yeah, and you get to go home saving the best I do get to go home. That is true And thank you to channel 17 for having these forums. It's a real community asset And so yeah, everyone get out there and vote you can vote early. It takes very little time You can do it at city hall. It's quick and easy Also, if you can't manage to get there before get there on march 6th We really really appreciate you tuning in these were our ward 8 candidates incumbent independent adam roof Who has been endorsed by the democrat and by the democrats there's more than one of them in burlington And uh carter new bizer who has been endorsed by the progressives and is himself a member of the progressive party Thank you to you both excellent forum excellent evening of forums. Thank you everyone for tuning in and uh, yeah We appreciate it. Have a great night Thank you