 television. We'd usually say we're coming to you live from your studio, but tonight we're coming live. We're excited to welcome you to the South Berthlington City Council candidate forum. This is one of the many forms that town meeting television is bringing to you in advance of the first weekend in March, March 2nd, 2021, which is town meeting day. And as you know, town meeting days a day when Vermonters go to the polls or hopefully perhaps mail in an early ballot to weigh in on local issues and candidates that are going to represent you in the future. So this is a wonderful opportunity if you get to meet those candidates and hear those ideas that they're presenting to you on the ballot. If you're watching this live, we welcome your call-in questions and comments. You call in at 802-862-3966. Again, that's 802-862-3966 and we welcome your calls. If you're streaming this and some other methodology, know that you can watch town meeting TV live on Comcast, channel 1087. Also, Burlington Telecom, channel 17 and 217, as well as town meeting TV on YouTube. So with that, I'm very excited to welcome our two candidates for the South Berlington City Council seats. We have David Kaufman, who's an incumbent, a recent Fred Tuttle award winner I was noting David. Welcome. And we also have Matt Coda, who's challenging for the seat. Not Matt's first hat in the ring in terms of council races in South Burlington, but welcome Matt. Candidates, we'll ask you both to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about why you are running and why you think you're the best candidate for South Burlington. And if you could keep your answers tonight to around two minutes, that'd be great. Give a good share of time. So David, we'll start with you. Okay, thanks. And hello, everybody. And first, before again, I'd like to say the City Councilor, after the events of the last week, this past week at University Mall, I want to express my gratitude and admiration to our South Burlington Police Department and the neighboring agencies for the rapid response to the shooting incident at the mall. This is a perfect example of why we need consolidated dispatch and ensuring that any emergency is responded to immediately. Right now, we run the risk with limited dispatch of not being able to meet an immediate need. And just so folks know, your City Council has been strongly behind us, and that work is in progress. And I just wanted to begin with that. But in a nutshell, I enjoy my work as a City Councilor most of the time. There's some contentious time, but I think I'm good at representing the community as a Councilor and lots of residents have expressed their gratitude for being able to represent the City and the residents in a fair manner. After 44 years, which is amazing how fast, it's amazing how fast time flies in South Burlington, I participated in the evolution of the community through my legislative work, having certified terms in the General Assembly, participated in the creation of the Cairns Arena, which is arguably the best public product partnership you could you can find anywhere, it works spectacularly well. And all of our recreational programs as well as working with the city on variety of topics over the period. And I want to be clear today that my sole agenda as a City Councilor is working to ensure that our great city has a future that is sustainable socially and culturally embracing all all diversity environmentally, we must preserve our most valued natural spaces and economically, encouraging business growth. And with that comes the essential affordability of living here. I'm also supported by City Management that's committed to our success. And so, so we're in pretty good shape, and I'm excited about it. And, you know, I'm pleased with the decisions our City Council has made, our fabulous new community library in City Hall and nearing completion, into the zoning is close to coming to an end. And then a variety of other topics we've gotten progress and projects we have in the works, and and being right in the middle of many of them on continue until at least seeing some of them through to completion. Bottom line is it's enjoyable. And I'd like to continue to do it for a while longer. Thanks. Thank you, David. Matt, we'll go to you. Well, thank you, David. Thank you, Seth. My name is Matt Cota. I'm running for South Brompton City Council. My background is in public policy. I was appointed twice by the South Brompton City Council to the Development Review Board. And I was elected twice by my fellow board members to be the chair of that committee. Together we enforce South Brompton zoning regulations. We facilitate a public process that allows everyone in the city to participate in what our city looks like and how it works. We also mediate conflicts between neighbors. I also mediate conflicts here at home. I have two teenagers, bright, curious children who have thrived in South Brompton's public school system. But I'm not raising my family or volunteering here in South Brompton. I work for a not-for-profit organization that trains truck drivers, plumbers and heating techs. I'm a resource on energy policy and regulations at the state house and an advocate for fuel assistance for low income brawners. I think it's important that we focus tonight and throughout the campaign, not on our differences that we have in our community, but we highlight what we all have in common. We all want clean air. We all want clean water. We want to ensure safe roads for our cars and trucks and buses and our pedestrians and our bikes. We want development that enhances both our economic viability and our quality of life. We want to maintain our infrastructure, ensure access to emergency services, and we don't want property taxes that are so high that people can't afford to live here. I firmly believe that we can work together to ensure economic vitality and affordability to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in our city. And that's why I'm running for city council. Thank you, Matt. So move to our first open question. South Burlington has a unique relationship in that a city owns an airport that's actually located within the boundaries of your own city. Could you talk a little bit about the city's relationship with the airport? And could you also touch on whether you think it's appropriate that the Burlington charter change adds Winooski to having a seat on the charter or the airport commission? And then could you also talk a little bit about what you're hearing from constituents about the F-35 and the basing of that jet here? And Matt, since we started with David last time, we'll start with you first. So, yes, Burlington, the city of Burlington, not South Burlington, has that charter change and certainly Winooski deserves a voice. Understandable. When it comes to South Burlington, you know, we spent a lot of money over the past several years in battles over the F-35. And those have come with a direct cost and within direct costs, legal fees and divisions within our community. We should be focused on mitigating the impacts instead of trying to oppose something which we really didn't have a say over. We can work collaboratively with the airport and we have and with neighboring cities like Winooski in Burlington and Williston on noise mitigation strategies. As city counselor, I will continue to do so. You know, your question, Seth, when I listen to neighbors talk about, you know, the airport, the Vermont Air National Guard, you know, I hear a lot of support for the Guard's mission and for the people that work here. I also hear about the noise. Absolutely. The airport and the base are important partners to South Burlington. They bring jobs and opportunity and will for decades to come. But I understand that there is an impact, particularly those that live near the narrowboard, particularly those in surrounding communities that are in the flight pattern. You know, I support Burlington sound mitigation project, which will help both soundproof and weatherize homes inside this high noise area. And also like to say that as chair of the DRB and the rest of my board members, we help develop in concert with the airport a master landscape plan, which over the next few years will greatly improve the area immediately surrounding the airport in the neighborhoods in South Burlington. David will go right to you with the same question. Okay. And honestly, I can't I can't wouldn't disagree with anything that Matt Matt has said. I think we're going to we're pretty much on the same page with with that. The council folks probably know recently passed that memorandum of understanding, supporting the new ski participation on the airport commission. It's only fair. And and I should should note and folks may or may not know the airport commission really has no final decision power make recommendations. But the three communities have impacted the most of Burlington, South Burlington, Manuski, and, you know, and they the commission facilitates communication. And, and hopefully, and it does have a positive impact, as Matt mentioned, we are advocating for no more home removal, secure great progress on noise mitigation. The grant to up a grant to upgrade chamber in schools HBA system is a AC system, heating, ventilating and air conditioning is a prime example. That's going to that's going to make a big difference. But the fact is, as as Matt has noted, there's not much we're going to do about changing the operation of the airport or the F 35s. I certainly hear from people about concerns, probably not on where I live in town, probably not as much as the folks in a direct flight path, where our kids used to live in Manuski, and with right in the direct flight path. And I'd say, what do you think? And you say, well, makes a lot of noise for a few seconds, or half a minute. He said, we live with it. And, but, you know, the guard is indeed a critical part of the economy of the state. Does a great job in the community. And I think thinking back to 9 11, when some of the folks that are possibly listening or a whole lot younger, I was extremely thankful. We have had the F 16s in place to go out and protect us or anything further gone wrong. And I heard that directly from pilots who are friends. And so, supporting the mission of the guard is critically important at the same time, doing everything we can to minimize any negative impacts, whether it's landscaping, noise mitigation, not taking down any more homes, and, and pushing hard our agenda as South going to on the airport commission to hopefully get our voices heard and we'd be quite successful with that really. And so, we're about the best shape we could be with the airport right now. Thank you both very much. David, we'll start the next question with you. South Billingsons had varying degrees of shades of closeness for recent budget votes. Financial viability has been a big focus, clearly of the taxpayers and voters. What's the, what's the biggest part of financial viability for your city? What do you think the most important source of revenue is? And what do you think about the overall financial health? Well, I think the last budget, the challenge was that the schools were looking for a tremendous amount of money to rebuild essentially the high school complex and, and the voters obviously did not think that was appropriate. I, I agree that was not, that was something that was just not timely and we've got to find a better way. We can't afford taxes that would be impacted to the degree that would have required. You know, financially, we're actually in good shape. Our biggest impact, our biggest challenge is caused by COVID. That's, that's had an impact on our, on our revenue, not so much on the property tax side, which is our primary source of revenue, but certainly on our share of the local options tax, which is several hundred thousand dollars a year when the hotel's restaurants close, that's pretty much evaporated. And so budget management is, is essential to ensuring the stability of the city. And as a counselor, as a, as a former business owner and still, my life still holds medical practice in the, in the city, you know, I'm, I'm very budget conscious. And the city management has done a, an excellent job at really taking a scalpel to the budget and ensuring that we're spending what we need to spend, to do what we need to do to keep the city functioning safely, efficiently, and, and attractively. You know, keep our, keep our roads loud and our, and our lawns mowed and over public areas looking great. And, and we'll probably have another, we'll probably have another challenge in FY, you know, FY 22, we pretty much got figured out. I'll give a yell out to, shout out to Tom Hubbard. He's amazing when it comes to, to managing the budget. He's been just terrific. As has all of city management. We'll have to do it again at FY 23. And, and I think we'll be able to do that. Economic development is the key to a healthy financial future. We can look to the future of commercial, professional, and resident, residential development and city center, as well as the future potential of the U Mall properties is tremendous, as well as projects in progress along both Shelburne Road and Williston Road. So I think a vibrant economy combined with very, very strict, very sharp budget management. We'll see us through to a continuing fiscal future that is responsible and working for the people of South Burlington and minimizing tax, tax increases at the same time because none of us want to do that. And one quick example is of our fiscal management is our pension fund in South Burlington is funded at 90 percent, which is better than almost any other community you find anywhere. That's just indicative of the financial management of the city by city management overseen by the council. It's great. So we're a good shape for the future. Thank you. And David, just as a quick follow-up and Matt, I'll ask you the same. Just in one or two sentences, as South Burlington looks to replace Kevin Dorn on a May timeline, will this be a priority in terms of a set of skills for the next city manager for South Burlington? It will be. I mean city managers, city managers and assistant managers, as you know, we're replacing both. We're the new assistant manager, the new manager, select the assistant manager, but fiscal understanding and responsibilities absolutely critical. Plenty of towns, as we all know, have gotten themselves in a heap of trouble by not having management that understands the importance of managing their finances. And, you know, our objective is to bring somebody on board probably by April, so that there's a couple of months of overlap with Kevin, with Tom, and bring the assistant manager on hopefully by May. So we've got a seamless transition from current management to new management. Everybody's got a right to retire at some point, and we happen to hit both at once. And we'll be fine for it. Thank you, David. And Matt, asking the same financial well-being question about the city's financial future and what the most important aspects of that are. And also, please feel free to tag on some additional time at the end to answer that management question as well. Well, I'd like to answer that first if it's our right, Seth. You know, I think I echo David's comments that losing. I think we're very fortunate to have both Kevin and Tom at the helm managing our city. And they will be very difficult to replace. And there'll be some change over. And, you know, that's what happens. And we wish them well in retirement. But, you know, having that overlap is critically important. So that the new city manager has time to hire an assistant and make sure that the city stays on its fiscal footing. You know, but your original question, Seth, was about how do we maintain the city's financial viability? You know, having high quality schools, safe and diverse communities and affordable housing will help make that happen. You know, at the point where people begin leaving the city because they can't afford to live here, you know, we're going to go into a decline and none of us want that to happen. You know, we all understand the high value of our high quality schools. And of course, this comes with a cost, you know, as city leaders, our goal is to minimize the cost for taxpayers while delivering the best services that residents deserve. The largest and most important source of revenue for the city's South Burlington is property taxes. The municipal property taxes represents two-thirds of our general fund. It's about 16 million dollars. Now, this is the municipal tax rate, not the school tax rate, that's separate. But this is vital to paying for our central services such as police, fire schools, snow plowing, recreation. But new development is what generates income from zoning permits, inspections, various impact fees above and beyond what we raise in property taxes. You know, we are growing, but we're growing slowly, right about one percent, which is less than the two percent anticipated by the Regional Planning Commission and what we may need in order to continue for our community to thrive. You know, ensuring that we put in place smart development that will grow our grand list, but not add more congestion to our roads will help keep South Burlington financially sound and making sure that we have new leadership that will ensure that our hand are on the making sure that fiscally we're we're paying attention to how we pay the bills and read a balance sheet. Thanks, Matt. Can you keep pulling that thread a bit? David mentioned city center and animal properties. What would you bring in terms of a vision for that area of South Burlington? Is that is that the core of that redevelopment and that financial stabilization that occurs through development? Yeah, you know, it's at this time sat during this pandemic, it's hard to think about shopping and retail, but they really are these shops, these restaurants, they're the backbone of our community, these small businesses. And we will, I look forward to a time where we can congregate more freely with our masks down and less than six feet apart. South Burlington residents deserve a shopping district that's close to home that's accessible and really has a wide array of, you know, diverse experiences and shopping that are inviting to everyone, not just the few, the plan for the Burden City Center just does that, you know, it's really quite remarkable. Earlier this week, I took a tour of the library and community center, which is nearly complete. I think this area will play a critically important role as we rebuild the connections in our community when we can lower the medical masks on our face and face to face with one another. And I'm very excited for it to reopen, hopefully this summer, you know, while the mall itself is, feels like a relic, doesn't it? But it also meets an immediate community need we had. It's an indoor downtown. I remember in my campaign last year, I would go there early in the morning and that's where I would meet so many seniors who would like to walk the mall in order to avoid the slipping on the ice. Most importantly, it represents an opportunity. It may be a relic, but it is also, you know, an opportunity for the future because it's not located out in some distant corn field like you see some suburban malls of New Jersey, but it's in the heart of our emerging city center. So there's an opportunity to expand or tip district boundaries, ensure that this gateway to the city is improved, but we need to get going on this. The clock is running on the TIF and we need to improve our public infrastructure. This is the key to getting it redeveloped. Of course, it's private property, but we need to be ready when the opportunity presents itself. We need to take action ensure that when it is developed, we understand that what our smart development goals are, how we can have mixed use residential homes near retail and commercial space so people can walk that we can rather than drive so we can reduce emissions. I think that is a fantastic opportunity, but it is going to close if we don't act quickly. And you're supportive then of the new proposed TIF district as well? I am. David, same question you started addressing the mall and city center a bit. Could you keep going down that path? Sure, and I'll start with the TIF district, expanding the TIF district so that it encompasses all of the city of the Market Street city center property as well as University Mall. The University Mall property is really only going to work and work well if it is included in the TIF district, which is tax increment financing which gives more working money to a project in simplest terms. And I think we can the council is optimistic working with city management we can make that happen and Kevin has been in discussions with the owners of the mall very recently and they are enthusiastic about doing something creative with the property as Matt had mentioned housing. Housing affordable housing market value housing retail commercial professional space and recreational space that they've mentioned an ice skating rink an outdoor ice skating arena and those have proved to me tremendously popular and then something exciting that I find really exciting is as you know as folks may know there's been a discussion about a pedestrian bridge a pedestrian bike bridge over the interstate bypassing all those dangerous intersections so that the thousands of college students have access to the center of south Wellington the mall owners are definitely interested in that potentially being a part of the rehab and the redevelopment of the mall and think how fantastic it would be if we could invite all those college students as market street grows as we develop more businesses restaurants boutiques whatever retail goes into the mall whatever entertainment and recreation if we can bring all those college students at full bore here talking 15,000 college students in the immediate area within with a bridge in less than 15 minutes walking and that would be that would be fabulous and the owners have expressed interest and this does have to move quickly because the window of opportunity will close although the deadline for TIF has been pushed back a year we've got some time but as you know some of these things don't happen quickly is a multi-million dollar project but I see the mall as part of that center of the city and indeed Dorset and Market will be the main intersection in our city and I think what the future looks like in that area is fabulous and folks may not know that I was in the legislature and chair of the House Transportation Committee when we rebuilt Dorset Street in the late 1980s it took a lot of effort to do that and especially to get the utilities underground but to me that was the launchpad for city center the only thing is we envisioned city center being where it is today 20 years ago we didn't quite make it but I'm very glad we're getting there now and I know most of the residents of South Brownington are extremely excited about what our future looks like in that area absolutely excellent and just as a short form follow-up David the Southeast Quadrants gotten a lot of attention in terms of zoning and the bylaws for zoning how does it look as South Brownington plays out the tension between development and conservation of open spaces we move forward are we going to see a comprehensive zone rewrite what's the zoning rewrite what's this look like as some folks know the planning commission has been working on this for just about coming up on a couple over a couple of years now we've been in interim zoning if I've got the dates correct and the idea was the concept was that our land development regulations needed modification in order to ensure people look to me and I think a lot of people think of me as somebody who's a proponent of balance it's not going to we're not going to achieve perfection either in development or in preserving every piece of open space there has to be a balance and that balance has to be fair to those to the open spaces which would be the forest blocks and the grasslands and the wildlife corridors and our streams but also has to be fair to development because without development without especially in the southeast quadrant without some more housing some of which would be affordable housing our future is in jeopardy we can't expect to grow the economy of the city unless we have affordable places for people to live you know and honestly one of my concerns is that even what's called market rate housing is becoming unaffordable and that's just not in self growth and that's across the land across the whole country and so that's a concern and so I'm hoping and I have just seen some you know that they're looking at adjustments of planned unit developments which is one form of development of an open piece of property to ensure that the natural resources will be preserved but the appropriate that the landowner the developer can make the appropriate amount of money on that piece of property but in order to have a strong economy we've got to have development you know a strong economy equals a bright future and we don't have any options there and I think most people look at me as a proponent of balance we could get into a long long discussion on what the final outcome is going to be but the planning commission hasn't quite finished its work and even when they do there will be discussions negotiations and compromises that will come to put it in the best possible like we can so that we ensure we go go forward responsibly and everybody's best interest 100% confident go out good and in the compromise of time Matt same topic subject you've worked on this on the DRB certainly Seth you know if South Brallington sees itself as a vibrant community two decades from now you know we have to allow residential development we can't ban it can't ban utility hookups or put in place other hurdles we can't have interim zoning forever we need to provide consistency and clarity to our regulations you know from my time on the development review board that is critically important you know as chair I'm well aware of the tension in the southeast quadrant where I lived you know three decades ago this is where city planners determined where South Brallington should grow and it has happened but for people that have lived through it they should know that we're near the end of that process keep in mind half of the southeast quadrant currently off limits to development of the land that is undeveloped that's not set aside for open space our zoning regulations provide significant restrictions where development can go and what it looks like I know because I'm chair of the development review board and we have to review these projects there are nearly 200 parcels in the open space report which is an excellent report everyone should read but about 70% you can't build on it's already conserved part of the natural resource protection area there's about 8% that's owned residential and of that just 1% just two parcels with all the 35 acres of land there is a balance to maintain but to think that the development will keep pace of the way it has been for the last 20 years it's just not going to happen so we need to think strategically and we need to place development where we have existing infrastructure and we can't have gated communities we need to ensure a mix of housing throughout the city great I want to give you each one minute and I'm going to hold my hand up in that minute's up because we're running out of time so I would like to give each of you one minute for any closing statements and to touch on anything we didn't get a chance to touch on tonight that you think is really important about your canisee and Matt we'll start with you well you know those of us that are fortunate to call South Burlington home I consider myself and my family in that category you know we have absolutely benefited from the volunteers that have come before us you know we benefited from those with a foresight to develop this system of roads and infrastructure from you know which a city has grown the second largest by population here in Vermont you know from what was a former agricultural community community you know it's been 75 years since those orchards and dairy farms in South Burlington began to disappear and subdivided and we are absolutely at an inflection point whether we grow or whether we stay static how that affects our budget how that affects our quality of life you know they're understandably competing goals inevitably some conflicts and when they do exist these conflicts we rely on volunteers like David myself those in the community who care enough to show up to sort it out to mediate our differences to compromise to negotiate in the effort to reach the best results for the most people and that's when local government truly works and I'm thankful for the time that I've spent volunteering for the city and I'm thankful for the city council to point me for the development review board and I'm hopeful the residents of South Burlington will elect me to city council David well it's a a lot of questions you didn't get to we needed an hour but I think I think vitality is one of the questions we didn't get to and I see South Burlington extremely energetic community you know I've been here for a long while and I honestly haven't seen us make too many mistakes to date and I don't intend to let us go down the wrong path at any point in time and we've got tremendous vitality in the community one example is our pennies for paths we have one of the best recreation path systems in the state if not in the country and pennies for paths is enabling us to improve on that we are working hard to ensure that our housing going forward is fair is inclusive is diverse meets the needs of all folks and indeed as Matt alluded to mentioned where we have infrastructure is the most natural places are the most natural places to put housing and development I think we talked about the city center it's going to be spectacular and you know one of the questions was what impact does COVID have well we're living that right now we're doing a form on Zoom and I think some of that technology is going to enable more inclusive opportunity for self-grown Tonians in the future because we now know how much we can offer and how much we can do in person and using technology I think that's going to enable more and more people to be involved and the more people we have involved the better it is and so I think I've been a thoughtful engaged contributor to the governments and management of our city and honestly I'd like to keep going for a while longer because we've got a lot in the hopper and I'm dedicated to seeing through the completion and I think I've done a great job and I appreciate your continued support I will thank Matt for the excellent job he's done chairing the DRB my preference would be to continue to do that for a while for a while longer well gentlemen thank you both for your contributions to your community and your willingness to step up and run thanks very much yeah he bet thanks everyone for joining us on town meeting television remember now's the time to check in with your town clerk and come up with the voting plan so March the second that first Tuesday in March from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. there will be polls open but also it's never too early to make a voting plan hope you'll tune in in more sessions learn more about what's going to be on the ballot in your town thanks for joining us today and David and Matt thank you very much South Burlington's got a difficult choice to make thank you very much thank you for joining us on tell me thanks Matt thanks Jeff thank you guys