 All right, so we'll get started Good evening today is September 12th, 2022. Thank you for joining us for in-person and contoist auditorium and online for the Burlington City Council meeting The time is now 625 so we're running a little bit behind, but we're gonna catch up We're gonna begin our agenda this evening with a motion to adopt our agenda Councillor Hightower move to adopt the agenda as listed on board docs Thank You. Councillor Hightower. There's a motion. Is there a second to that motion second seconded by Councillor Shannon Is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing none all those in favor of the motion, please say aye And any opposed, please say no We have an agenda which brings us to our next item Which is 2.01, which is a communication and expected executive session This is an update regarding collective bargaining with the BFFA, which is our fire union We do anticipate that this executive session will last approximately one hour And normally what we do is before there are motions to go into executive session Would turn to either council or the administration if you feel that there's anything that We can any information we can give to the public at this time And if there is great if not if you could just indicate so This is with respect to the executive session on the firefight. I mean, it's generally the nature of the collective bargaining process is just very little we can say about the The bargaining until it's completed and this is Maybe just the broader contacts we can share is that we have four unions We have completed the contracts for the other three unions the fire broke in firefighters Association is the final contract we've been in Started this process a number of months ago the conversations have Accelerated recently when we've completed the other the other contracts and I look forward to briefing the council on Where those negotiations stand tonight Wonderful, thank you mayor Weinberger with that will go to the first there are two motions to go into executive session We'll go to the first of the two motions and we'll look to councillor Shannon. I Move that the council find the premature general public knowledge of information concerning negotiations of labor relations Agreements with employees would clearly place the city at a substantial disadvantage with such negotiations Thank You councillor Shannon seconded by councillor McGee All the other is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing none all those in favor of the motion Please say aye. All right. Any opposed, please say no The motion passes which brings us to the second motion councillor Shannon Based upon that finding I move that the council go into executive session to receive confidential updates on labor relations Agreements with employees. Thank You councillor Shannon seconded by councillor McGee and to this Exit and to that motion it would also include the mayor staff attorney John Maitland HR director Karen derpy recording in progress CAO Catherine Shad City Attorney Jared Pellerin and acting fire chief Libby With that all those in favor is there any recording in progress? Is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing none all those in favor of the motion. Please say aye. I and any opposed, please say no That motion passes and we would we will move into executive session We do that downstairs and again. We expect to be back in open session. Hopefully By around 7 15 Might be a little bit later, but we're gonna do our best. Thank you So we're back in open session and the next item on the agenda is 3.01 Which is a work session on board docks and alternatives to board docks For this work session, this was a priority that came out of the council retreat in May and we're gonna be receiving a presentation from our CIO Scott Barker But he is not here with us right now So we were looking for for Scott who I believe is in the building, but not inside con toys So if we can just we'll just wait for a minute someone had texted him to see if he Is able to make it down here at this time and at this point we are getting close to 730 so we may delay this presentation and then move on to the Public forum as the as the time is now 726 there are three people who are signed up to speak in public forum inside con toys and there is one person Who has signed up to speak during public forum that is online? Given given that just to keep us moving along we'll we'll hold off on item 3.01 And move on to item 4.01, which is the public forum Before we begin public forum just a few items of information The system on the table in front of us has three lights a green light will shine when you start speaking Second yellow light when you have 30 seconds left and then the last red light will shine when your time is up we ask that you please complete your comments when the Sound indicates that your time is up so everyone has the same amount of time to speak There's a hybrid system for public forum if you wish to speak you can go online To Burlington vt.gov Slash public forum and a form will come up and then we'll populate that form And we'll come into a spreadsheet that I can see And then we'll be able to call on you in the order When you submit the form has been our practice Burlington residents will have first priority and We will go to Burlington residents in con toys who have submitted a form in person And Burlington residents online then back to con toys for non Burlington residents and then back to online for non Burlington residents The only request that we make is that you use respectful language when you speak during public forum We're much more able to hear you and listen to you if you are respectful and Would ask that you please not personalize your comments and direct them to me as the chair With that we have Three people signed up for public forum who are all Burlington residents that are in con toys The first is Sharon McCarthy Sharon please come forward welcome And happy to hear your comments and the next speaker will be pike porter after that. Oh We didn't say that you have two minutes and Plea if you could just make sure that the microphone is on there's a green light that comes on right in front of you on the microphone You just press where it says push. Thank you. Thanks a lot without my name is Sharon and I'm happy to be here So with all due respect to all concerned our city is suffering from a lot of the decisions that you have made in the last two years We have become overrun with homelessness and drugs gangs and random shootings not to mention the crime and the theft that is rampant These people are going rogue in every area of downtown Defunding our police and decreasing the force was a fantastic error in your judgment Burlington is now a city that is not being cared for and its citizens are suffering from your choices Unruly people are setting up housing tents and squatting in public areas that used to be illegal and considered loitering. It was not allowed We have a segment of the population being drawn here and they are going rogue because they know there is no oversight that isn't forced The sanitation situation alone is a problem. They use fountains and backyards as bathrooms. My backyard is one of them and Trashes everywhere they stay up until four and five in the morning fighting and drinking at Different locations pearl and battery is one of them keeping us up all night long with their ruckus. It's disturbing. What is happening to the city? Let me be clear that I have a heart for the homeless And I certainly feel that those of us who are more fortunate need to put in place a solution for those who cannot afford housing And we need to take care But in an organized and productive way Not like this giving free reign to do whatever wherever however, one pleases without any rules and regulations in place This used to be as I said loitering and it was not allowed We used to have a vibrant beautiful city no longer the economy is suffering Businesses businesses are closing and people are leaving in droves Because of the decline in safety and morale of our city servants police fire ambulance social workers, etc We all need to work together with our police officers not either or Since when did the rights of the homeless override my rights as a tax-paying citizen? My taxes went from six thousand to ten thousand this year, and I don't feel safe You need to think about what you're doing and you need to I mean thank you thing is the city used to be thriving Thank you. Thanks so much our next speaker is our next speaker is pike porter to be followed by I'm Todd the Croy Good evening. I'm not here to Emphasize the emails that I sent to you this weekend Also to ask or to advise you that I don't believe that the lease the beta technology it's Lisa They'll be in front of you today has been approved much less seen by the airport commission Which I understand is just really a symbolic position with no authority But I would think there should be at least some Acknowledgement that they should have some role in encumbering airport land for 40 years or more. That's that in principle. I approve this lease however in practice I have reservations mainly because Nick Longo the airport director has identified a parcel near Airport Parkway near Three parcels with eight units in it all red all rentals where he says that this is the only location Where a large new? Airport maintenance facility can be installed This doesn't seem right to me. It seems like if there's room on the West Valley For beta technologies there should be room for an airport maintenance facility So it's not to further encumber further Harass the quality of life of the the tenants the eight families that are still living there on a parkway So I think that's all I need to say with regard to the Ranked choice voting. I Certainly approve. I don't think anyone who's only received 40% of the popular vote should be there. Thank you Thank you very much Our next speaker is Todd LeCroy to be followed by Robert Bristol Johnson, and then we will move to online Quality not quantity of police. That's the real problem You guys are just talking about numbers and budgets, but you don't talk about the real issues Let's talk about some real issues There are more registered gun dealers in America than McDonald's Wenzies Burger Kings and Taco Bells and Starbucks combined Okay, while all these restaurants been independent going out of business and most of them are ex-military and ex-people with badges Selling these weapons now 20 years of the war on terror What is the result of this as they promise to make us happier and safer all they have done is Manage to make everything worse Let me give you the numbers right now children are number one cause of death amongst our children is guns more than 6500 children aged up to 19 are shot and killed in the US every year and 1500,000 are shot and wounded and an average of 51 kids a dead a day and the Psychological impact goes deeper with about three million witnessing it annually this violence brought to us by men with badges and their for-profit prison systems and our dysfunctional parents who want to Tell us the children and the youth that it's our fault when they have given us 30 trillion dollars in debt for wars and Police forces that treat us like we don't belong in our own towns Like we don't belong in our own families like we don't belong like we're Taliban. They hunt us They put us in schools that are like prison systems and then prison systems They're even worse and then you wonder why everybody's So angry our next speaker is Robert Bristol Johnson And then we do have one person who has signed up online and we will go to that person next to follow So this is about redistricting and a map that you're looking at tonight It says it's a seven ward 12 counselor map, but it's not really seven wards It's actually five wards and two half wards Now imagine you're in on this map either Ward 3 or Ward 7. Let's say Ward 3 On the even numbered years everybody in the city gets to vote for city council except you Are you gonna feel about that if you're on Ward 7 on an odd numbered year Everybody in the city gets to weigh in on city council except you who wants to be in that ward so We've heard some complaints about all these district counselors. They have to represent twice as much and they they have twice the Constituency, but they get paid the same they they get the same vote and they get the same term length of term Those are four persons in the city one one hundredth of one percent of the population of the city that are disadvantaged But otherwise every voter in the city is treated equally in the current 812 system so imagine you're in that 16% that's you know wards 3 or 7 and What we get to tell the district council is well if you if you don't like it don't run for office You don't have to do that. What would I tell these folks in a wards 3 and 7 if you don't like it? don't vote so I Have a even though I had something to do with the map I have a fundamental problem with the notion of the 712 map Just thought I'd tell you why Thank you very much We do have we do have one person who has signed up online a Burlington resident. I Would leave it to you to just sort of find this person if you could or if Aaron can is Bob Duncan and Then if you can enable that person's microphone You don't see that. Okay, we'll give them we'll give them a minute Hi, this is Aaron Stetsner. I'm currently looking for Bob Duncan in the attendees right now. I'm not seeing him, but I'm continuing to look Okay, thank you Okay, it appears as though That person can't be located online with that will close the public forum at 740 and Returned to item 3.01 which was the work session on board docks And at the risk of repeating myself for this work session This was a priority that came out of the council retreat in May We'll have a presentation from our CIO Scott Barker And then we'll have time for questions from the council and a discussion on next steps In this process CIO Barker, thank you so much for being with us this evening You are welcome. Do you I think everybody has the presentation in board docks? Do you need me to bring it up and throw it up on a screen? If you if if we can that would be great. Yes Oh, there it is. All right You can bounce to the first one. So when we started talking about board doctor placement it was at the impetus of I think I've spoken with several people on the board on the council and the mayor as well as Catherine and Even Laurie and I have had some conversations There's several reasons You can go down that we want to that we need to look at it the first and foremost and these again These are all things that people have talked about in the past and board docks is certainly a little long on the tooth It's probably Laurie can probably tell me better, but I bet it's at least eight or nine years old But responsive design is one of the first things we talked about Where it's not really built to do it to work anywhere Effectively except on desktops or laptops, so it's not built to work on tablets or phones things like that There's this improved accessibility and equity those two things go hand-in-hand And if you were to look at putting board docks and the sites that board docks creates through any of the free Accessible accessibility meters they score well below fifty percent seventy five percent is where you Have to be above seventy five percent. You typically won't get sued for accessibility issues So there's some major accessibility issues and as we all know if you can't get to something from if you're blind or visually impaired You have motor or dexterity or cognitive issues those accessibility issues pervade throughout the current system in terms of Increasing the efficiency for someone like Laurie and and president Paul when you all work on building the genders Modern sort search architecture is one of the pieces that we've heard a lot Know there's some people that have figured out ways to make the modern the search in open doc's work But there's much more modern applications research docs or search engines and then community visibility One of the things we've heard a lot is how do we how can we do a better job of managing the boards and commissions and the vacancies? Terms and seats and things like that and something like board docs has a difficulty doing that But there are other systems out there that that do allow for some of those improvements So we can so the next one so we started a process based on all this we put an RFP together We put it out in late June early July And we asked interested parties to submit and we gave about we gave a two-week deadline for asking questions We asked questions posted those on our RFP site and then another two weeks to respond to the proposal Having been on that side of the table in the past generally speaking four weeks is more than enough time to pull a proposal together We unfortunately only got to we got one from a web developer That was just going to create a custom website and we got one from a company called Granicus, which is they build specific municipal Purposed sites that are not only Websites but also what we're looking at from a board box replacement We started reviewing them and it quickly became evident that the the web developer the custom web developer wasn't going to deliver What we were really looking for and so we did ask for a brief demo We invited Lori we invited Catherine Schaad we invited several other people in innovation and technology and across the city to come in and take a look Just to see what specifically about board docs The replacement for board docs how that was going to work and what we came up with is we do think that board docs is or that Granicus is probably Viable solution, but I don't know that it's the only one out there And I'm not a hundred percent sure that we want to jump into the that boat right now without seeing anything else So in reality, there's four options that we could look at One is we could continue with just using board docs there We can explore to see if there are any updated versions of board docs that would meet the requirements that we'd have We could reopen the RFP process and in reality that may be the best option We have for doing this is to reopen the RFP process and see if we can get other respondents or even reopen the RFP process and Actually pointedly look at certain companies if we wanted to find out if they were interested and at least alert them what we heard Ironically two days after we close the RFP. We got a marketing email Just literally a marketing email out of the blue for another company that we do use some of their modules here at the city They asked us to come to a webinar to show us their board and agenda management system Where were you two weeks ago? Where did you not see the RFP? And then finally we could decide as a as a group. We could just decide to go to Granicus I'm kind of leaving it a little bit here, but I think my recommendation would be either Going through and asking for a reopening RFP asking for more respondents or even pointedly asking certain Certain software providers where we already use some of the modules of those software providers But we know they have others we could ask to see what their offerings are In reality it boils down to this No matter what we get whether it's Granicus or a custom website or something from someone else if we don't do Process re-engineering we won't see the benefits of it So we will see some of the same issues But we'll have new more frustrating screens because no one will understand the new frustrating screens So part of this is all about making sure we not only pick the right solution but also pick the right Make the right efforts to do process re-engineering so that we can really take advantage of the new system and I would argue that standing still and not doing anything just using Board docs as it is probably the least desirable from anybody's position I can't imagine that's the way anybody wants to go at this point But it is certainly a viable option if we want to go that route. So that was kind of me walking through everything Open for questions It's kind of a lot to take in Councillor Barlow Thank You President Paul and thanks for that update. It's a little disappointing though. You know only get to us respondents Yeah, totally disappointing That I want to comment first off I saw superintendent Flanagan here the district uses board docs as well So we should probably collaborate with them a little bit and see if they've done any I'm happy to But then also a couple of questions the cost of Granicus is it? Expensive and is it configurable that what little you know about it anyways? It's it's very configurable It would definitely handle what what we need from a city council perspective My gut would tell me it would probably handle what you're looking for as well if we wanted to collaborate that direction It definitely manages boards and commissions very well It also has a community engagement piece and it has a focus built Municipal website capability which is important because we have some of the same issues on our website as we do with board docs in terms of responsive design and accessibility So we could do all of those it is not an inexpensive solution I want to say we spend between 10 and 15,000 a year on board docs and I want to say the first year for the Implementation buying everything is somewhere close to a hundred with Granicus and maybe 50 50 to 60 year going forward But we would be replacing several systems with that Including potentially the website Thanks, and can you talk a little bit about the process engineering need reengineering needed? They sure mention I think it's that's a little bit of an effort to dig into how is it How is it that we can leverage the new system? So Understanding exactly what we do to go what goes into building an agenda managing the minutes all those pieces understanding what what is working very well and what the friction points are and then Designing a process around fixing those resolving those friction points and using a system like Granicus Board Docs Civic Flux any of them will it will allow us to kind of leverage some of that technology if we better understood Where the friction points are in our process and how we want to get around Thanks. Yep Thank You Councillor Barlow. Are there other counselors who have questions? Councillor Shannon who Certainly should be credited as when she was council president who brought us board docs Before that we are gauges We have stacks and stacks of paper that were delivered to our homes and promise we don't want to go that direction Yeah, I think I think we can all agree there. I I just wondered if You know the board doc system has remained the same for us all of these years Are there upgrades through that company that can meet our needs that price differential is? Is Pretty big and I'm a little bit unclear why board docs doesn't work for commissions I think part of the reason board docs might not work for commissions is maybe partly the process engineering We may need to dig in and try to leverage the system differently or better for boards and commissions I do know that what one of the main differences between the pricing is that we've only chosen to use one piece of board Docs and that price for Granicus was really for the entire suite of things they offer if we were to start cutting things out and only Using certain pieces it would be a considerably different price at that point. I believe And I think you know in terms of how we could leverage either one of them going forward I do think that there are new releases for board docs They did not respond to the RFP either I wish they had even Responded it's one of the ones we could go after and say hey, we'd like to figure out and talk to you about what you do have Well, I don't think that we should Particularly if you feel like there's something else out there if there may be something more compared both either something better or something more competitive and The least painful thing maybe if board docs has something that meets our needs better We actually got the system from the school started using the system before before we did So we adopted what they were already using right and Having yeah fewer the fewer system the fewer different systems the better I think But I would certainly be open to You know soliciting bids from other companies that can provide the service for us. Yeah, I think that's a great response I think if we can go and ask board docs and ask a couple of the other Companies that we do use modules from today. I think it might give us a better view of what? What's out there? absolutely Thank You counselor Shannon Thanks, yeah, I would agree that we should reopen the RFP and keep looking and this is a you know, this decision will probably last for years down the road and we want to find a Website that's easy to use not just for folks in the city, but for the entire general public. So I think we should open it up and You know get get more options on the table and more prices on the table So I would support that but thanks so much for your work on this and yeah giving us the update you bet Thank You counselor Hansen I Don't see any other counselors with questions. Oh counselor Travers Sorry, just briefly Agree, thank you for the presentation and agree with counselor Hansen's point that I Think we should open the RFP process as you suggested and if there's any particular programs that you've identified I would also suggest are reaching out to them perhaps more pointedly to invite them to respond to the RFP And just the only other piece on my end is In reaching out to these companies, I don't know if you have already, but if they have a Testing platform or some opportunity for us to hop in there to see how it operates Versus board docs or or even if we're aware of other municipalities that rely on these programs if counselors could have an opportunity To work within it and understand how it works I think that would be helpful before we're asked to fully move forward with Any platform that we want to go with so thanks. Absolutely. Yeah, we can make that happen We definitely for Granicus we can pass along some municipalities that we know we're using it and as we open it up We can look at more as well. That'd be great. Yeah, thanks. Thank you counselor Travers I agree with that that would be incredibly helpful if we could take a look at that Where there are other counselors who had questions and and also are there any counselors who don't It appears as though the broad consensus is to continue the search. Is there anyone who feels otherwise? If not, I think you I hope oh counselor Jang Yeah, I think The sentiment of Having board doc to upgrade What we're looking for to make it more accessible. I think Should not be rooted out Yeah, I think Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, totally agree. Thank you Yes, we don't need to reinvent the wheel if we have a wheel that just needs a little help right and With the an upgrade if board docs offers any upgrades and a process re-engineering effort We may get as much benefit out of that as anything else. So absolutely a great idea Do you feel like that's enough direction from us? I think so. Okay. I think I'm good. I'll keep it. Well, that's great Um, I guess the one question I do have just to make sure we are not in from from our perspective We're not up against a date from a licensing our contract. Are there any are we up against any dates from your perspective deadlines? Or is it just a matter of let's make sure we get the right one I? I know I mean, I think the I think when we had the council retreat in May One of the things that did come up was the fact that we felt You know board docs is as councillor Shannon said I mean when we started with board docs I don't think it's any different now than it was when we started with board docs It was a huge leap forward for the council But in terms of the actual system that we're using it's Effectively the same and it's done in a piecemeal approach As you've mentioned and that was I think that's probably one of the The biggest challenges is that people just don't know where to look for Information it may it's very good if it's confusing for us Then it certainly is confusing for people who really don't understand the system right as we do Correct. Okay, great. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you so much for your work on this we'll look forward to hearing hopefully we'll get more responses and Even if it takes a little more proactive work, we'll pull some responses out of people. Okay. Thank you so much With that we'll close item 3.01 we've completed the public forum which moves us on to Item 5 which is climate emergency reports. Is there any councillor or the administration who wishes to offer a climate emergency report? Mayor Weinberger Thank You President Paul There are actually two notable updates. I wanted to share with the council and the public One is that in on your consent agenda tonight. We talked about at the board of finance. We are Making a airport purchase of a Electric sweeper which will help maintain the facilities At at the airport. I like this just because I think this is a really promising exciting direction that we're now starting to see this sort of large piece of equipment that we use for Maintaining the city is is starting to switch over from being fossil fuel burning to electric and this Nick Longo our acting aviation director I said to me that if the only else in the fleet we had like it was our electric Zamboni out of the Letty arena and turns out that It's a pretty similar piece of equipment, but so just As the council knows we are looking to electrify everything we can When we are making fleet purchases and here's an example of kind of new innovation and progress there the other Update one that is quite exciting and ultimately I think more impactful is that the Burlington Electric Department is Moving forward with plans and seeking a public service board approval for a Basically taking advantage of a new tariff that will allow low a moderate income user Customers to receive Different electric rates and And to use on-bill financing for certain electric Upgrades and this is you know one I think appropriate criticism of the move towards net zero and electrification is that the benefits and the of of this direction are Up until this point. They you know, it's been a real challenge finding ways for those benefits to flow to Customers or low and moderate-income customers they BD has worked very hard on this and made some real progress This is a substantial new policy change that Should open some real additional possibilities as soon as this receives public service board approval We will Be you know very be there'll be a lot of communications about how people take advantage of this and that's still a little ways off But We're making progress towards that Thank you. Thank you mayor Weinberger are there counselors Who have a climate emergency report? Seeing none will close that item and continue with item 6 which is our consent agenda Our consent agenda is there a motion to move our consent agenda and take the actions indicated? So moved Thank You counselor McGee seconded by Counselor Jang is there any discussion on the motion to move our consent agenda? Seeing none all those in favor Please say aye Any opposed please say no We have approved our consent agenda which moves us on to item 7 Which is the deliberative agenda? We have a number of items on our deliberative agenda in the interest of time and being able to accomplish Everything on our agenda and adjourn within our rules. There are minutes allotted to the agenda items Which we approved when we approved our agenda as per our council rules I will do my best to see that we adhere to our approved agenda And with that the first item is 7.01 Which is a public hearing on two proposed ordinance changes? The first is regarding ZA 22-07 which is maximum parking and transportation demand management and then the second is ZA 22-08 on short-term rentals The way that public hearings work is that you may sign up to speak either in person or online we will open the public forum and Those who wish to speak Even if you haven't even if you haven't filled out a form you're certainly welcome to just simply raise your hand And we will have you speak Or if you're online you can use the raise hand function as well We will then close the public hearing after all those who have wanted to speak have spoken And move on to further business with these two items. So with that we'll open the public Hearing and if there are people who wish to speak to either item, please raise your hand or And as well online use the raise hand function and Erin if you could just let us know if there is anyone who has used the raise hand function that'd be great is That to is that to indicate that there is no one who has used the raise hand function online? Councillor Shannon. Thank you. I just want to clarification about this process If there are amendments to this ordinance, I know there are some cases where We can't make a change unless it's based on public comment And so I wondered if there was a desire to make an amendment Does it require warning another public hearing in the future on this or? So I think you understand where I'm going. I I think I understand where you are going My understanding is that yes, in fact, there there is But I can defer that to Our parliamentarian who may have an opinion on that as well Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm prepared to address that in the abstract What specifically are you contemplating here? Not contemplating anything in particular actually. I just I just thought that there might be some potential amendments to this and Wanted to clarify what the what the process would be for amending this looks like Director Tuttle may have some If it's okay, I could weigh in This question was asked of Attorney Sturdevant earlier today and she shared a section of state statute that oh She's here. I'll let her address this Sorry City Attorney acting City Attorney Sturdevant, please Good evening So with zoning ordinances, it depends actually what the changes are what level of process is required The statute which is 24 VSA 44 42 me Talks about that the legislative body may make minor changes to the proposed by-law amendment or repeal Bell should have not do so less than 14 days prior to the final public hearing if they make the legislative body at any times make substantial changes in concept meeting or extent of the proposed by-law it shall warrant a new public hearing and If there's changes legislative body at least 10 days prior to the hearing she'll file copy the changes for the clerk And there's a little bit more to that but we can I can certainly share that depending on The outcome of this process Okay, thank you. Thanks so much With regard to the public hearing there are it does not appear as though there's anyone who has raised their hand to speak remotely Nor are there persons in con toys With that we will Close the public hearing and move on to item 7.02 which is the CDO parking minimum and maximum parking requirements and Transportation demand which is Z8 dash 22 dash 07. This is for a fourth reading And with that I'll go to the chair of the ordinance committee, which is councillor Travers for a motion Thank You President Paul I've moved to postpone this item until our meeting on October 17th 2022 and would ask for the floor back on a second Thank You councillor Thank You councillor Travers There is a second to that motion from councillor Hightower. You have the floor back. Thank You President Paul this item with respect to Minimum maximum parking requirements as well as transportation demand management Has been making its way through the ordinance committee and planning commission Well before I joined this council and has had quite a bit of public input We've received as of late though Some further feedback particularly from the affordable housing community with respect to this proposed ordinances Impact on their operations and the intent behind this further postponement Is to meet with partners in the affordable housing community To fully hear and understand their concerns and take them into consideration before ultimately moving on this So that is the purpose of the motion and is why I will be supporting it. Thank you Thank You councillor Travers. This motion to postpone is debatable So if there are other councillors who wish to offer any comments Now would be the time councillor Hansen great, thanks and thanks to councillor Travers for doing really a lot of legwork on this policy not only the policy itself, but engaging with different stakeholders I Will vote yes some postponement although I don't It's not what I think we should be doing but you know, I want this policy to pass I think it's critical and I think postponing probably gives us a better chance of Getting the strongest possible version of this policy adopted But I I just wanted to voice My concern which I've voiced many times which is that On the issue of transportation. I feel that as a city we continue to really drag our feet and and we're moving very slowly On changing a system that we need to change really rapidly in order to address the climate crisis As well as the other co-benefits of shifting our transportation system making it safer more accessible more affordable So Yeah, I'll support postponement, but I think we need to From a process perspective and from a policies perspective I think we really need to change how we're addressing this issue of transportation and we need to be Moving more quickly on policy and we need to have processes that enable us to move more quickly if we're Really going to make the shift that I think Many of us agree is necessary Thank you Thank You counselor Hansen Again, this is on the motion to postpone. Are there any other counselors who wish to offer comments? Seeing none Sorry my hands up I'm sorry. Oh I'm sorry Counselor house. We can't see you so I don't realize my my apologies Not really sure why you're not showing on the screen, but by all means please go ahead No worries at all. Thank you president Paul. Um, yeah I just I wanted to say I'm in favor of the postponement and I certainly agree that we do need to Make decisions about this rapidly, you know, the the climate crisis is not going to wait. However, I also don't think that we should build the Climate justice movement on the backs of You know the most the folks who are most marginalized in our city And that includes the affordable housing community, so I'm glad that we're doing our due diligence on this. Thank you Thank you, counselor house. Are there other counselors who wish to offer? Any comments on the motion to postpone? Seeing none we have a motion to postpone with a second all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. All right Any opposed, please say no That motion passes unanimously and that item will be We'll come back to us in October on October 17th. Is that correct? Yes, correct. Yes, so it won't be at our next meeting but the meeting after that the first meeting in October Thank you counselor Traverson to all for your work on this as well as director Tuttle That will move us on to item 7.04 or 7.03 Which is an ordinance the comprehensive development ordinance on short-term rentals, which is z a dash 22 dash 0 8 And this is for a third Reading I will go to counselor Travers for a motion Thank You President Paul I'd moved to waive the third reading and adopt the ordinance as amended by the Planning Commission And upon a second would ask for director Tuttle to provide us a report Thank You motion has been made and seconded by a Counselor high tower Thank You we will go to director Tuttle and certainly if you could let us know if there have been Any changes and if so what they were when it went to the Planning Commission that would be helpful. Thank you And thanks for being here of course This amendment is a complement to the changes you adopted earlier this year to Implement the short-term rental framework in Burlington This is to adopt the zoning pieces of that framework Which is pretty straightforward compared to the policy that you enacted earlier this year through the minimum housing code This simply provides a definition for a short-term rental in the city's zoning ordinance provides some clarifications to definitions for other lodging types and indicates that short-term rentals are permitted in The city wherever residential uses are provided It then makes reference to the specific standards and limitations for where short-term rentals can operate and how That are contained in chapter 18, which you've already adopted The only change that was made as this went through the Planning Commission process was a simple technical correction to the document that Is called article 14 plan B TV downtown code This is a section of the use table that applies to the two forum districts in the downtown core Previously there was a reference to a section of our ordinance that where we were going to put all of the short-term rental Details in our ordinance, but since we moved it to article 18. It was no longer relevant So we just cleaned that up Otherwise, this is exactly as it was referred to you earlier this year Great, thank you very much for that that update Are there any questions or comments from the council? Councillor Bergman As I indicated previously, I'm not a big fan of short-term rentals I ended up supporting that chapter 18 and I voted to refer this and I am inclined absent to hearing something shocking to support this as well, but I do Want the administration to provide a report to this council about the numbers of people who have registered Their units and the locations of those units I'd like to understand The same with regard to what is now called lodgings so that we can get a sense of that and Get the other information like the The tax revenues that have been raised. So we made some Serious changes people said it's gonna be the best thing since sliced bread and I want to see the loaf I can relay that. Thank you. Thank you councillor Bergman. Yes, please No worries, I can relay that request as well to DPI As of the adoption of the article 18 ordinance and the warning of this amendment for public hearing The changes that you all adopted have been in effect since August 3rd and I know that DPI has been working incredibly hard to get set up with Granicus who is helping us with enforcement and Kind of moving through the process of getting everybody set up with the licenses that they are required to have So I can share that with them and we can talk about what would be the right point in time for bringing that report back Just to be clear I would like that sooner than later and I see this as being something that we want to visit Periodically during the course of the year not just a one-snup in time. The housing crisis is outrageous and the amount of people money that people are paying is sickening and I want to make sure that what I have supported is not making that worse. I'm not Sure that I made the right choice. So I would like the data data to Help me. Thank you Thank you, councillor. Sorry councillor Bergman. We'll go to councillor Shannon. Thank you President Paul While I Agree really with everything that councillor Bergman said this is really just aligning the zoning Ordinance with the what was adopted in chapter 18? And it's a bit of a quandary when I don't agree with what was adopted in chapter 18. What do I do with the? Changes to the zoning ordinance that help that make sense. I Think that It's actually taking this out of zoning that I find most objectionable At a baseline I disagree with the council's action to make it easier to To get a short-term rental True because we were not enforcing our regulations people were Creating short-term rentals illegally and it became kind of a rampant pattern in the city, but it was not legal and What we've done is made it easier by law to establish short-term rentals and By taking it out of the zoning ordinance. We've removed the public process that we have always had on You know when you created any kind of bed and breakfast It was always required that you went through a zoning zoning process and now it's only requiring a registration process Which I object to so While it is a quandary I am going to vote no because I think it's important to Voice my disagreement with this policy and and that's the way I'm going to choose to do that tonight. Thank you Thank You councillor Shannon. Are there other councillors who? Wish draw for comments on this ordinance before we go to a vote. Oh, yes. I'm sorry sad councillor Travers Thank You President Paul. I believe this council for the most part has had a number of opportunities to debate the issue of Short-term rentals and I'm very pleased with where we landed in June I agree with councillor Bergman that I would similarly like to See a report because until we have that report the feedback we'll receive is is merely anecdotal But what I can say is that anecdotally what I've been hearing is that? folks particularly in those buildings that we were most concerned about which are non-owner occupied residential dwellings That are being converted into short-term rentals anecdotally. I've been hearing that that folks have gotten the message That no longer is that going to be? Permitted here in Burlington So I do not agree that with the actions we took Earlier in the summer that we've made it easier in Burlington to operate a short-term rental I think our ordinances and zoning regulations as they were Were not adapted yet or adopted yet to Comply with this relatively new Lodging in short-term rentals that we see on Airbnb's and VRBO And I think we've taken steps to we kept saying before that we were trying to fit a square peg into a round hole with respect to Short-term rentals, and I think we brought a lot of clarity To the matter, but do agree with councillor Bergman. I will look forward to seeing where we're at Sooner than later once we have that information in hand. Thanks, and I will be voting in support of this because I do Understand and believe that is simply bringing our zoning ordinances into compliance with the actions we took earlier in the summer Thank You councillor travers are there other councillors We have A motion to waive the third reading and adopt the ordinance as amended by the Planning Commission Seeing no other comments from the council. We will go to a vote all those in favor of the motion Please say aye. I Any opposed please say no No, no Okay, there that would be councillor house councillor Hanson and councillor Shannon who have Indicated a no vote And I don't believe that councillor Freeman is online. So that would mean 11 so that is I'm here No, I think my device just didn't unmute. I'm sorry. I was again. You're a yes. Okay. Yeah, sorry about that Thanks for clarifying and I'm glad to have you here That would mean that we are an eight nine two nine to three vote So the motion passes We will move on To item seven point oh four Which is a presentation in response to a resolution that we passed at our last meeting regarding the creation of an additional Seven Ward redistricting map and for this presentation We have director Tuttle with us who is joined by Nancy Stetson the senior our senior policy and data analysts My understanding is that you will be presenting this alternative map and a plan that you've developed with next steps In this process to get us to a charter change Coming in March Which seems like a long time from now, but really isn't that far when you start going through the dates that the benchmark dates So thank you both for being here and We're we'll look forward to your presentation All right, great. Are you all set to share? Nancy is actually going to walk us through a brief presentation to share with you the map the seven by twelve Counselors map that was posted on board docs as well as some information about next steps. Great. Thank you So I want to start with just reminding everybody in the public that you can find more in information About redistricting on the city website including interactive maps where you can zoom in to your part of the city and see how you might be affected But we're here today to Bring you this map that you requested in August The request was that it was a seven ward map with five wards with two members two wards with one member and In the with the goal of keeping the new north end and the old north end distinct So I'm going to show the map and then I have a couple more slides, but this should be brief so this The colors do not show up so well there, but this map is is what I drew I see this as a draft map to sort of get us closer to what we're looking for The overall planned deviation is nine point seven percent, which is very close to the threshold But just barely under it the main changes that this map makes to compare to previous maps is with these two smaller wards, so Ward seven becomes a third of the new north end and then Ward three becomes a sort of downtown Ward that again elects only one counselor The other the other thing these this map does Is it tries to preserve the polling places for the wards? This particularly pertains to the south end where Edmunds remains part of Ward six and The block that has Bob and mill and the barge canal and BD is split in two so that BD can stay The polling place for Ward five, but Bob and mill can join the King Maple neighborhood in Ward three This is the map. I guess I should run through the slides before questions The other thing I looked at for for this meeting was on the student population There's concerns about how the students will be divided across the wards So we only have data on where on campus students live, but city-wide there are about 6,000 students They are really you can see here. They are concentrated On the UVM athletic and redstone campuses south of Main Street on the top of the hill That's where nearly 4,000 students live. So that is the area that we have to grapple with I Also looked at how these students make up Parts of wards depending on which plan we choose so you can see in the current Ward configuration two-thirds of Ward eight residents are on campus students These students are moved to Ward six and some of these other plans. And so in the map I just presented 60% of Ward six Residents would be these on-campus students the one thing I do just want to note that this does not account for off-campus students and Off-campus students are concentrated in certain neighborhoods. And so This doesn't show the full picture of where student populations are Finally we have a draft schedule there. I guess the the final schedule for when These maps need to be approved hasn't isn't set yet, but we expect it's gonna be by December at some point So working back from that our hope is that we can come up with a final map or a couple final maps for the October 17th meeting And work towards that goal with the rest of the September and in time to send it to Charter change and have it approved in December And I think with that We're happy to any entertain any questions or comments that you have about this additional map that was requested And you know, we're happy to work with a couple of counselors moving forward from tonight To help refine either this map or any other maps To help us meet the objective of having something for a referral in October Thank you. Thank you both for for this presentation We'll go to We'll go to the council now counselor Counselor Barlow, please. Thank you President Paul. I Thank you for that presentation and for that additional map that you've made for us all I'd like to move That the council approve a work session during September with Nancy Stetson in a small group Including counselors high tower McGee traverse And myself to discuss and revise the maps that have been presented to the council so far So, thank you. That's a motion. Is there a second to that motion? Seconded by councilor high tower Is there any discussion on that motion to refer this to a smaller working group who will work with? Nancy Stetson I'm bringing us something back on October 17th counselor high tower and then we'll go to counselor Jai not gonna lie I wasn't expecting that motion, but I'm glad to have my name in it more probably text to me And I just didn't see it. I do I am curious as to What folks think more generally about this map? I do want to just point to Robert first of Johnson's comments and the comments about if we did work on this map that that doesn't means potentially having Elections every year for some words and every other year for other words. I wonder how folks feel about having Elections every other year for all of the words, which I think is an interesting option Especially with us considering or implementing ranked choice voting for counselors So just throwing that out there as a part of a larger discussion, but I'm also fine with Moving this to a working group Thank You counselor High tower if there are counselors who wish to offer an opinion they can certainly do so we in the meantime We will go to counselor Jang thanks Thank You President Paul, and I don't know which one I need to respond to the motion or What I think about the map Well, we have them we a motion came to us right off the bat So we are talking about the motion after that. We certainly you certainly could if you wish We'll try to stay within the the item that's in front of us Absolutely. Thank you and whatever I say here if I Basically My intention is basically to just rate here that being an independent elected official is not easy But I want to recognize the work that you have done here. It's a beautiful. Thank you so much And this has not been this is not start today. You've been around I'm pretty sure maybe a baby can be born. This process is not even done yet, you know so What I? Just wanted to understand The names of the people that were picked to be in this small How the decision of bringing those people forward came true. Are they all in the same committee working together? Or is it a specific committee that will be working on it? And if not, how did you decide on picking couple people to work on this? Councilor we'll just go for it answer to councilor Barlow and then if you want the floor back councilor Jang, of course Sure, and thanks for that question. I don't know. It was probably back in Like probably early July maybe some of us had been talking about redistricting and The four of us had met because we represented geographically Sort of the different areas of the city and then politically we also had a diversity there as well and some of the Some of the objectives that were more important to certain groups Or and some of the concerns groups had were sort of well encapsulated within the four of us So we thought that streamlined group then could work to try to arrive at some consensus or at least Try to forge a consensus position that the council could support and so we've been Continuing we've met a couple of times since the initial Redistricting discussions, but this map came out of one of those discussions. So my thinking was since this group had been sort of steeped in a lot of the minutiae of redistricting That it would be a logical group to Continue to try to do this last refinement on the maps that have been presented to the council so far Councilor Jang, thank you. Councilor Barlow. Thank you. I definitely will not be voting Forward for the motion in front of us Yeah, because I do believe that it is not at the discretion of some city councils to make this decision But at least the president of the council based on people's interests can appoint people if they are interested to be In that committee, but not at the discretion of some city councils. I'll be voting. No, thank you Thank you. Councilor Jang. Councilor Shannon. Thank you, President Paul I Think sometimes we do a point that the council itself appoints a committee and one has been offered I don't object to Councilor Jang's idea that the council president could appoint the committee But I also appreciate that some councillors have taken the initiative to Try and find consensus. I actually really welcome that and I'd like to thank those councillors for for doing that. So It does make sense To me to proceed with those same councillors unless the councilor council president had some Objection to that So I will support that Thank You councillor Shannon any other comments from any other councillors Before we would go to a vote on the motion Yes Councillor house you have your hand up. Yes Yes, sorry. I'm my mic was not unmuted. That's okay Paul Yeah, I think Just when it comes to this issue in general, I just want to say I Am still in favor of the 8 or 2 rep map. I think I've made that very clear But I've heard from a lot of my constituents especially those who You know, we'll end up in Ward 3 that they They have some real concerns about only having one representative whereas Folks in other districts will have two And I also see that as a concern. I think that even if we put Elections on every other year across the board You know, they they have a great point, which is that they would only have one Representative to contact as opposed to two. So I think it's really important just to keep that in mind for The folks in the ward That would only have one representative Thank You Councillor house Any other comments from the council council or carpenter? First off, I want to thank the council that have worked on this and I totally support this Resolution we we have a month left. We've got a Narrow our decision points and we can't have 12 of us doing it To be blunt I shuttered to think if there were 16 of us trying to do this, which is my Concern about the 816 map So I'm just that's an editorial comment and just an editorial comment on the 712 it It has a wee bit of awkwardness, but I live in a legislative district with one state legislator Who serves me well and she's quite capable of serving me well She's smart and bright enough that she can serve me alone I don't have to have to and in fact she serves people in the old north end and in the new north end and Does it very well? So I don't think we have to say it can't work because it at least works in that case Thanks Thank You Councillor carpenter Any other? Comments from the council before we go to a vote We have a motion that has been seconded All those in favor I have my hand. Oh, I'm sorry Councillor Hanson You're your size you're in size tiny and I can't I can't necessarily see now you're in size bigger So please go ahead. All right, so should we wait to give it seems like folks are offering some Comments more generally about the map and redistricting should I do that now or wait until after this vote? Well, we we sort of have started that so if you have any comments by all means Okay, yeah, I would just say, you know my preference has always been smaller wards and whether it's 12 14 10 whatever but individual single member single ward or secondary to that is the 82 Potential but I think from a compromise perspective. I think this is this map that we're seeing here today is the best path forward that I've seen to find a compromise that Satisfies a lot of the different Concerns and desires that I've heard from from councillors so You know with the interest of Not being stuck in in our current system, which I think is much worse than what's being proposed as We've talked about we are running a little bit short on time. So in my mind. This is our best way forward to date unless other folks Change their opinion on things or we come up with more creative solutions. So I'm supportive of it I'm supportive of This motion to have some councillors, you know dig in deeper before We look at it again in October. Thanks Great. Thank you councillor Hansen. I don't see of councillor Shannon and then councillor Travers And then we'll try to get to a vote is it is it okay to comment on the The map itself It is okay to comment on the map itself So if this does go to committee I just wanted to point out one thing that that I noticed in this which is It it does create a downtown district that a lot of people had wanted But the way the lines are drawn the For example Main Street one side of Main Street would be in Ward 3 and the other side of Main Street would be in Ward Ward 5 and I would think that people on Main Street in particular would want to be part of that downtown ward And it looks a little bit gerrymandered I don't think it was gerrymandered in the sense that it you know There was some intention to do something in particular include some group I can kind of understand why the piece of Ward 5 Current Ward 5 was taken But I think it might be preferable to see if Main Street could be included in that downtown both sides of Main Street included in that downtown ward And it may come down to the Challenges of census blocks, you know, I understand that we it's not always easy to do exactly what we wanted to do But just wanted to throw that out there for the committee to look at. Thanks Thank You councillor Shannon councillor travers Thank You President Paul first of all, thank you to councillor Barlow for including me as a part of this Committee and I look forward if that were to happen to continuing to work with you and Councillor hightower and councillor McGee and building a consensus not only amongst ourselves not only for this council, but On a map that that we feel voters will ultimately support in March Since we are talking about the maps Among those we've seen and this is no fault of director Tuttle or Nancy Stetson You know none of the none of the maps are perfect, right? If we had a perfect map We wouldn't still be here at this point in time All the maps that we've seen have pros But they also have cons and so I will look forward to our fully hashing those out I will just say one item here and this is an item that applies to pretty much Every map we've seen which is that one of the top concerns that we've heard all throughout this including Dating back to before and through the ad hoc redistricting process is that folks are very concerned with the existing makeup of war date and the Vast majority student population within that ward and in interest there seem to been a general consensus Behind an interest in more evenly distributing the student population across wards And one of the concerns that I saw in the presentation that we just saw here is Whether it be a seven ward map or whether it be an eight ward map That we seem to be for the most part Simply moving an existing problem into potentially another ward we see I think I don't have that Up in front of me right now, but I think the existing student population in Ward 8 is 66% With the seven Ward 12 counselor map In Ward 6 the student population would be 60% with one of the eight ward options We've seen it's it's 67% and I get why that's happening, right? I suspect that one of the biggest hurdles that you've found here is that we've been measuring these maps based on census blocks And and for the most part We don't have census blocks Of populations over a thousand individuals the one exception to that is the census blocks that contain The university dormitories and when you add that block to one ward or another suddenly the population of that ward increases by a thousand two thousand plus individuals and we end up with the situation where we're out of sorts with what we're required to do with respect to even populations so I Don't expect an answer necessarily now But in proceeding from here one of the things I would be very interested in further exploring is the extent to which in the interest Which again there appears to be common consensus behind this and in more evenly distributing the student population Whether or not in that interest we can break the census blocks that contain student dormitories And to that end I think it will be important for us to not only know What the population of students is on a particular campus? We've had the athletic campus in the redstone campus But we're really going to need to know what the populations are in individual dormitories to decide The extent to which we can fairly and more evenly distribute those census blocks So if we are to move with this committee That is something that I would be interested in taking a look at is is first of all What is the city's position on whether or not we can break the census blocks given how those census blocks are completely different than the Other census blocks you see throughout the rest of the city and then second if the city is open to that whether or not we can get information further information from the university says to the Population or general population of the individual dormitories. Thanks. I Can't answer that we do have data by dorm or the UVM Dorms so and from what I understand it would be possible to split those blocks The only thing I would I would just say is that that block while it's also while it's a large block It's also the densest block in the city and that there are just a lot of students that live up there And that they will have to go in Even if we split them in half that would end up making Two wards have a lot of students in them. So they will just have to be put somewhere Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you councillor travers I Be I Don't know if councillor Hanson and councillor house have their hand up again or if that was from a prior It was a week. We put them back up. Okay. All right Councillor Hanson to be followed by councillor house Great. Thanks. I just I wanted to respond to councillor Traverse because I Think we I mean Yeah, first of all, there's no getting around that We're a college town and there's gonna be super student-heavy districts or wards But I think a lot of the concern with Ward 8 is that it specifically gerrymanders on campus with off-campus student housing and the Percentages I on the screen. I think we're just showing on campus students, right? That's I can't really see the room. Yeah, so I think what councillor Traverse said about this shift I actually don't think is True that I think it is actually a substantial shift because It's less on campus students in the new Ward 6 than The current Ward 8 but it's also way less off-campus students because it's not It's not combining a neighborhood. That's almost all Students in with dorms. It's combining a Neighborhood that's mostly non students in with dorms. So I think the overall mix Is is much more balanced in this new map than what we currently have Thanks. Thank you councillor Hanson will go to councillor house and then we could maybe get to a vote councillor house, please Yeah, I do I do agree with councillor Hanson's point I think sometimes it feels like we as a Council kind of play hot potato with the student Population but specifically the dorms just because of how difficult it is To campaign there giving the University University's policies That kind of stuff, but I think it it also opens up this greater Dialogue of the fact that UVM restricts students access to information about their local government that every other Person who lives in our city is afforded I Don't believe there are very many other places in our city where we can't Go door-to-door and campaign and I think it you know, I think that students are smart. I think they Would love to hear sort of all opinions from around our city and I I think that it also Kind of begs the question of what can we do? As a council, you know to potentially work with the University to kind of Change that because I think that an engaged Student population is going to be a population That cares about taking care of our city versus right now. Maybe they don't have access to The knowledge or the information that they need To really understand how our city functions and take care of it. Thank you. Thanks counselor house There was one item that I did want to ask Because we do have acting city attorney Kim Sturdevant who's still on zoom with us The motion that was made is to approve a work session and this is not with a committee This is a small group of counselors as opposed to a committee and I'm hoping Attorney Sturdevant that you could respond to It was your opinion that Because this is not the formation of a formal committee that we did not need to go through any more of a process than just simply Emotion and if you could also speak to whether or not that this smaller working group would need to be publicly warned and how that would How you would encourage us to move forward with that work session with Nancy and the Forest City Council or should this be approved? Certainly, so I looked at it a little bit earlier This afternoon so didn't have a full review of it, but Basically based on that review of looking at informal work sessions And not setting up a committee But I also have heard that term being used a number of times by counselors So I think that you should be clear of what you're trying to set up and Then yes, I think you know input and then Suggesting the the working committee is Was the way that the motion was stated so I believe that's fine So So the question that I have is that I I hear what you're saying and I did get that emailed from you earlier Because there are four counselors. It's not a majority of the council But there are four who will be working on this is this Is the protocol that they should use going forward with this work session to be Warning this as a public meeting and to have a public forum at that meeting So I was certainly a look at it closer before they start having their next meeting But initially as an informal working group I don't believe so, but I will follow up with the staff to make sure that that occurs correctly Okay, I think that is a concern and it certainly is something that others have voiced to me during the day Today so would want to make sure that we do we do this correctly and give the public as well as other Counselors if they wish to be there the opportunity, so I'm I'm a little bit concerned about that Do you want to go to a vote, but I know that counselor Bergman wants to Wants to speak please go ahead and then hopefully we can go to a vote sure two things I would like some clarification again on the members of this so-called small working group and The second thing is I don't think there is any doubt that this is A body of the of the council no matter what you call it no matter what art Full language you use and therefore it is subject to the open meeting law And I think it was it is just suicidal to hold a redistricting meeting Not in public Insanity is another word that comes to my mind. So I think that even if you got a Opinion from an attorney that said that you didn't have to do it. I If I were on that committee I wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole and I would tell you right now I would think that it's a terrible terrible idea and I would say so again and again and again so you take that for what it's worth but the the recitation of the members of the This so-called group non-group Are you looking for the names? I am okay? Well as as put in the motion. It was councillors Barlow Traverse Hightower and McGee. Thank you and I I think I For what it's worth. I I do tend to agree with councillor Bergman and would hope that the members of the committee would Take that to take that to he take that is that word those words of wisdom and Incorporate that in their working in the meeting that they have should this motion pass We have a motion on the floor in a second to refer this to a smaller group to work with Nancy Stetson and That would be councillors McGee Hightower Traverse and Barlow All those in favor of the motion, please say aye And all those opposed please say no no So Councillor Jank says no And that motion passes 11 to 1 Thank you so much. I'm director Tuttle and to policy analyst Stetson for being here and We'll look forward to You coming back to us in the month of October We will then move on to item 7.05, which is a school presentation the Burlington High School And Burlington Technical Center project to include an update on funding efforts and other progress being made since our last meeting in August Which included a vote to place a bond on the November ballot? And I know we have Superintendent Tom Flanagan Chairperson Claire wool and others who are here to speak to this item We've allotted We've allotted about 15 minutes for this so if you could sort of split the difference with us and give us a brief update Which we are anxiously awaiting and then we'll go to councillor questions and comments Thank you for being here The floor is yours Great. Thank you very much for having us. I hope it's okay if we brought a couple of our members of our new members of Our team up who you they're not new members of our team But members of our team you haven't seen up here and certainly if you want to introduce them that would be great So thank you so much for having us tonight president Paul and city council we appreciate the opportunity to be here and we Are really grateful for your partnership throughout this process to all of you. Thank you We are joined tonight by Joe Weith our project manager from White and Green and Jesse Beck From Freeman French Freeman and Joe and Jesse have been key to the Project thus far and will continue with us throughout the project as well as chairperson wool It's here and so we'll move through we will each take a couple of A couple of us will take a few points. We'll try to move relatively quickly but not too fast and Save time at the end for for questions and discussion So we're gonna we're planning to update you on the MOU On our engagement efforts on the financials on the environmental work and permitting and the timeline We there are three documents attached It's the September 6th NPA presentation That's actually a presentation an NPA presentation that we're giving at all the NPAs So we've taken off the September 6th But the rest of the presentation is the same as we're giving to all of the NPA All the NPAs we also have the September 6th board memo to the school board So you can see the information that we provided the school board that memo has it has a number of links that many of Them take you to our website and the landing page of our website we are continuing to refresh with updated information about the project and Then we have our memo to to the city to you all And those are those are our three documents First the MOU are the school board approved on September 6th and chair person will signed the MOU late last week, so we're in the process of Moving moving that forward. We again appreciate the the collaboration and partnership of the mayor mayor Weinberger and city council throughout that process and So that's an important step for us to document and to be clear on the way that we will work together through this process one of those one of those Stipulations is that we are coming to you at regular with some regularity this being one of those times So that's the MOU we are continuing to fundraise actively We told you about our partnership with the Burlington students foundation We have received about $50,000 in donations to the Burlington student foundation at this point I think what that's just a start for us with private philanthropy And we're going to continue to do that work. That's really is just getting started We're also pursuing similar to last time multiple existing Appropriations and grants in the FY 23 budgets both federal and state budgets I think it feels like we're gaining traction in many of those In a couple of a couple of areas And so I think we'll start to see that we will be eligible for some funding for To support this project whether it be So and there can be a number of different places where that could that could happen In addition to that we're gearing up for FY 24 the FY 24 legislative session So we're going to continue to work with Leonine public affairs and Maggie Lentz and she's Gonna is helping us with our strategy on on preparing for the FY 24 legislative cycle So we're going to continue to work aggressively in in that area And with that I'm going to pass it over to and the financials haven't changed from the original Conversations of those finding the financials are still are on the Presentation the MPI presentation and those haven't changed significantly, but we are we have committed to Doing as much as we can so that we don't do not have to borrow the full 165 million that we are asking voters to approve on November 8th If they were to approve that and so we are truly committed to that we already have 50 50,000 That's a little in many ways, but also a lot if you think about philanthropy in the first month of our of our of our Kind of work with brilliant students foundation and getting that really Running so feeling good about that with that. I'm going to pass it to Jesse To talk about architecture and engineering design Sure. Good evening We're proceeding on to the next phase of design from schematic design into design development So that allows the engineers to fully integrate into the team We have We're keeping horizons and on top in the locations that they are so they've been removed from the floor plans that are in your report That's helped us reduce the square footers to around 250,000 square feet So as we work along through the building process, we're finding ways to tighten up the design Try to work towards reducing costs as we go while keeping the quality strong the Sustainability aspects are now becoming more clear as we get more detail and engineering into the project We are in a path to a high lead rating silver or gold We are looking at a path to net zero with the addition of PV systems and working with a third party to try to play that out The good news on sustainability front is that we're starting to work with BED in Vermont gas and We have a schedule of values for incentives Of around 200 to $400,000 So there's some good savings that we can achieve as we work through that path to net zero We have bid the construction manager role for pre-construction services and post-construction The bid was awarded to Whiting Turner who was the low bidder and the good news is that our cost estimating that we've done to date by both independent cost estimators The bid was under those numbers. So we're tracking very well You'll see some renderings in your packet. So we're starting to go into NPAs and public sessions with some more You know building the static information. So that's my report Thank you, Jesse, and we'll pass it to Joe to talk about the environmental work and permitting So just to back up just I want to make sure that everyone is aware So the our environmental consultants and district representatives have been meeting on a monthly basis with Vermont a Department of Environmental Conservation and also EPA For the last couple of years since the school was closed down. So that communication With the regulators has been continued continuing and will continue in the coming months Site investigation reports for building materials and soils have been submitted and reviewed by the regulatory agencies and the team is now in the process of Preparing a building materials corrective action plan or CAP and is shooting to have that submitted and Approved by Vermont DEC and EPA by mid-November Simultaneously with that the environmental team is also Preparing a demo and abatement big package With a target of awarding that package to a an abatement contractor also in mid-November so that would be right after the CAP is officially approved and Assuming we're able to keep this timeline going This will allow for demo and abatement to commence as early as late December or early January Regarding permitting we have begun the local permitting process We met with the technical review committee several weeks ago. We've met with a couple NPAs and We also presented the sketch plan application to the DRB a couple of weeks ago The design team is currently working on plans and supporting documents to get them to a level where we can submit the Coa level 2 zoning permit application at the end of this month. So by September 30th and Our you know our goal is to get that submitted on the 30th and we're projecting to have DRB approval by the end of November One item that I believe super and tendon Flanagan wants to discuss or at least raised tonight is the issue of the Zoning permit fees and development review fees Those fees total about a hundred and sixty five thousand dollars for this project Which we will be required to submit at the end of this month when we submit that that zoning application I think you wanted to maybe talk about some opportunities for Potential waivers I am done. Thank you Joe. Yeah, so I think for discussion later We would like to make a formal request to waive the permitting fees that Joe just mentioned And so we can we can discuss that and and lastly I just wanted to give a sense of the engagement Timelines or engagement timeline. We we are in NPA season. We're doing two this week We did one or two last week. We're doing making sure we're getting out to the NPAs We have two town halls September 21st is the first one October 19th is the second mail-in ballots on the 26th for a vote on November 8th and Demo is scheduled to begin January 2023 assuming hoping that voters approve The the bond so at that point at with that I'll leave it for discussion Thank you. Thank you all for being here Are there? questions or comments from the council on this update And then perhaps we'll go to the administration after I'm looking online to see if there's anyone with a hand up doesn't appear to be the case right now Councillor Travers Thank You President Paul and thank you all again for that presentation. It's nice to have you back And it's great to hear the efforts that you've undertaken in the progress you've made. So thanks very much to that the one point that you just mentioned there that sits heaviest with me is that Ballots are being mailed to voters two weeks from today and Folks will have an opportunity here in Burlington not that long from now to begin Voting on this item. So I appreciate your all's efforts to be out there and engaged It's a reminder to me As a big supporter of this project is something that I think is completely necessary for our city to continue to thrive that I need to Wearing my counselor hat be out there and engage in the community a bit more and I suppose if this is a call to action to My colleagues here on the council as well as as well as any folks Who are tuning into this meeting who are interested in seeing this project through that now is the time for us to be out There and to be engaging with neighbors into supporting this Given that again folks will have an opportunity to vote on it just two weeks from today So thank you and I'm looking forward to getting out there in the coming weeks and months Thank You councillor Travers There are other councillors with either questions or comments on the presentation or questions that you have of the school leadership Councillor Barlow. Thank You President Paul and thank you for the update Just following up on what councillor Travers said if there are engagement opportunities if you could let all of us know how we can be helpful to you That would be that would be good That was my responsibility tonight to inform you tomorrow night September 13th. We have our BHS open house for the first time in three years We'll be inviting all four grades and parents families guardians to BHS now We know BHS the students currently there the ninth graders would be 12th graders at the opening of the new school So we will also be attending the middle school Edmonds and Hunt as well But tomorrow night is our kickoff night to our internal community high school and signing families Guardians like I said up and students to help us in this campaign We plan to kick off this campaign on September 21st with the open house We will inform the public as well as engage Yourself via email with an invitation to go door-to-door with us with printed materials This is a grassroots effort on behalf of the 12 school board members present and online tonight as well as the 12 city councillors and mayor Because we know district leadership cannot be part of that campaign So yes, the answer is you will receive an email from myself and the entire board inviting you to these public engagement events as long as well as Honking waves we have an entire campaign timeline and signs that will be distributed Shortly in the coming week. So thank you for your offer of support and we appreciate that greatly Thank you. Well, we all love a good honking wave Thank you councillor Barlow. Were there any mayor Weinberger? Thank you president Paul. I'll just add a couple of quick things In addition to these great events just heard from from from Claire people who want to come and talk to Tom about the Project ask questions are welcome to come to the bagel this Wednesday In the morning the coffee that I have every week out there. It's gonna be dedicated to To the project this week and there's a good example to talk directly About the project and I Just I'm really excited here that the the campaign is as Taking shape and planned out and Echoing councillor Travers is a point some I do Certainly I I want to be a resource for you and doing anything I can to help with the campaign and I Think if you look back on some of the key ballot items we've had together over the last decade They're being concerted organized effort between the council and the administration to make the support clear It has been important and look forward to partnering with you that in the in the weeks just ahead as a councillor Travers points out Thanks for the beam back here and giving this update and look forward to we'll say that The moment the fundraising effort and the conversations with my superior figures the moment of that is is picking up and I'm gonna be attending maybe virtually, but somehow joining in meeting later this week with a state commissioner and I You know appreciate and See that the effort is starting to get get some momentum I look forward to working to support you there as we've committed in the in the MOU Thank you. Thank you mayor Weinberger Seeing no other Comments, we'll look forward to our the next update and to the public engagement opportunity. I'm sorry Councillor house. I'm sorry. Please go ahead Hi. Yes. Sorry my um Computer's been a bit wonky. Thank you president Paul Yeah, I just I also want to you know express my my support for this and I really Um Kind of think of our school system almost like preventative medicine, you know, we we talk so much about You know issues facing our community and challenges, you know, such as addiction crime all these things in schools Really can be a mitigating factor to this and students through this project are going to feel such a sense of pride such a sense of Belonging and so this is a an incredibly important Project and yeah, thank you councillor Traverse for that for that call to action. I could not agree more Thank you. Thanks councillor house If there aren't others and it doesn't it doesn't appear that there are Other councillors who have comments and questions We'll look forward to the next update in the community engagement opportunities that you've laid out for us Um, and in the meantime, I just want to again express our collective enthusiastic support for the project And thank you for being here Seeing no objection will place the informational and presentation items that you provided on file with our thanks And I look forward to our next update from you Thank you again for being here We'll move on to seven item 7.06, which is a security camera system update and expansion For this item. We have CIO Scott Barker with us who can give us a brief overview on this Welcome once again, and thanks for thanks for hanging out with us for a little while between this and the work session Before we go to a brief overview of the item, I'll look to councillor travers for a motion on this item I moved to approve and authorize the chief innovation officer to execute Execute a contract with the royal group in an amount not to exceed four hundred and twenty five thousand dollars to purchase the FLIR security camera system and all necessary server equipment from royal group subject to final review and approval by the city attorney's office Thank You councillor travers. We have a motion and a second seconded by Councillor carpenter Thank you very much councillor carpenter CIO Barker if you could we did discuss it at the board of finance But if you could certainly give us a brief overview and then also the memo that you did submit to us Later in the afternoon if you could if you could summarize those those items as well sure So in summary that the quick rundown of this of this is that the current Security camera system software and servers are end-of-life out of date and need to be updated so that we can continue to meet the needs of the city and across any of the buildings public spaces things like that where we have security cameras the The system is built out on in two two pieces one is the software and the servers That is designed to run the security camera systems And then there is money in the quote as well or in the proposal to buy an additional 100 cameras both for break fix We know that there are 12 to 15 cameras that are not working right now that we need to replace right away We also know that there's 15 to 20 that we know that we need to add in certain areas And then the rest of it as any of you have paid attention to supply chain issues in the technology world as well as grocery stores and other places Trying to make sure that we can as we can get them we can get them in and have them available for down the road I Am Let me see if I can find my Memo that I sent later in the day give a quick summary of that it basically boils down to we Have we've priced the or that we've we've sized the Servers Even though the system itself the software itself can can carry up to 600 cameras We don't have any intention of doing that anytime soon and it's not intended to expand like that In fact, we've only built the servers out in that proposal to cover about 280 cameras We do know there is some growth that we need to have over the course of the next two to three years The system is designed to be ready to go for five to seven years with the typical security and Coverage that you would expect on anything like this It is not a true monitoring system as much as it is everything goes through dispatch and it's it can be used for Gathering information after after an incident where we can try to identify People and places etc. So this is not something that anyone outside of the police dispatch has Availability or access to it's as I was mentioning earlier It's ironically one of the few systems in the city that we propose Purchase help install and then never get to touch again. We don't have admin privileges. We don't have even regular privileges on that system It's all through police dispatch Thank you. Thanks for that overview We'll go to questions or comments from the council and actually councillor travers. Did you want the floor back after? No, okay, so if there are counselors who have questions Now would be the time councillor McGee, thank you president Paul and thank you Scott for sticking around and for fielding the questions that I had over the weekend. No problem. I Will be voting no on this as it's proposed tonight as I discussed at the board of finance It's not that I don't understand that the system is at end of life And that these upgrades need to be made in order for the cameras. We currently have to continue operating or that And I also understand that there are a Select few areas that would benefit from having new security cameras the concerns that I have Relate mostly to the scope and the scale of these Updates and I have serious concerns about the initial purchase of 100 cameras As well as concerns about the potential capacity of the system to hold up to 600 cameras if we were to Go to the full capacity that is allowed under these upgrades Without seeing the policy that is used for camera deployment without seeing the policy connected to How the video captured is used I can't support this item tonight, so I will leave it there for now Thank You councillor McGee will go to councillor hightower and then if there are others Please raise your hand. I have similar concerns as to what councillor McGee just said. I think especially around the policy I don't necessarily disagree with the five-year plan or even with having the Extra cameras on hand for when things break down I do think that spending another half a million on a security system when I haven't seen how we're gonna use that or Don't have enough information, which is no fault of scott's In any way shape or form he gave us so much information before this meeting, but I think I would need to see a Policy, I guess my ask is that the administration and I know that individual councillors aren't supposed to ask for thing But that public safety committee would do some review the administration would give some presentation of how what our actual policy is on These cameras because I think right now if a constituent came to me and asked like oh My property was stolen. Can we use those cameras to retrieve it? I don't even know the answer to that so Yeah, I think I want a better understanding of what level of crime This is used for and how we use it and how we Grow the program if at all and what that decision-making looks like before I can approve this. Thank you Thanks councillor hightower. We'll go to councillor Barlow and then councillor Bergman Thanks President Paul. I Had a question about you said that the cameras aren't They're not monitored they're just used after the fact by dispatch to To see if you know if there's additional Evidence I guess about incidents that happen. What's the retention policy on the video today? My understanding is that dispatch keeps it for 90 days 90 days and the other concern I had was that in your memo from this afternoon it says that the cost will increase by 15 to 20 percent if we don't act by September 17th, that's correct. So that's even before our next meeting And for you know, I just did the quick math. It's on the $425,000 that you were asking for that's somewhere between $63,715 $85,000 more than what if we execute a contract with the vendor before that is that correct? It is not an insignificant amount of increase correct. Okay. Well, I'm I am I'm supportive of this and I will be voting us tonight Thank you. Thank you councillor Barlow. We'll go to councillor Bergman Thank You President ball. I share the concerns that my colleagues McGee and Hightower have expressed but I do think that The cost increase is significant and it is Worth our going forward. I would like to see a presentation by the administration on the policies on the way that this is going to fit into the big public safety strategy that we have and Be able to explain all of that to To the public as well to make this a public presentation. I think the people of Burlington deserve to hear that and And feel assured by the public presentation That the privacy concerns that people may have Are going to not Be Real concerns so I I hope that we will do that. I am Voting in favor of this on the expectation that the administration will Will have that That public session so that the people can get the best of all worlds the savings and the the extra security And all the information that they need to know that big brother is Not there Thank You councillor Bergman councillor Shannon Thank You President Paul Thank You for doing the work on this and Helping us advance our public safety in this way We don't have all the tools that we would like to have to Provide the public safety that our Residents expect and we hear that on a daily basis from our residents. I see this as something that can fill in our gaps and While In general I have privacy concerns. I don't really have privacy concerns about this. I think that Big brother is out there and big brother is all of us It's every one of us running around out there with cell phones that can record What everybody in the public space is doing and publish it on social media and people do on a regular basis I don't think that this city should We actually also feel it's very important that all of our police officers Wear these cameras that they turn them on when they're interacting with the public and so it seems to me not to really be balanced to prohibit us from Having cameras that maybe can record an incident before the police officers arrive Many communities all over the country have live cams where everybody can view the cameras all the time so we can all view it I think it's important that People know we have cameras out there, but I do think we all know there are cameras out there all over our neighborhoods. I Am not really concerned with the numbers, you know if we're talking about putting cameras in City Hall Park whether we put To or 20 or a hundred in City Hall Park. I think we are Trying to provide some accountability in public safety I would be all for putting cameras on every bike rack in the city at this point We're getting complaints about gardeners in Callaghan Park who don't fail feel safe I think there's a lot of opportunities to You know to Record what's happening to potentially hold people accountable And certainly when we're talking about the gunfire incidents the violent crime that is Rapidly escalating in our community sadly These are tools that can give victims families closure when The worst thing you can imagine happens and it's been happening here to our community members I want to know that the city is doing all that we can to solve Those kinds of crimes and I think that the cameras give us a lot of opportunity And there was a day when that wasn't true, you know that we were concerned about Even putting cameras on the on the stoplights Because not everybody had one in their pocket, but in a day where everyone has one in their pocket I Think the public expects that there isn't a right to privacy in the public space We're not talking about peering into people's windows though I do think there should be a policy that we don't do that and so I agree Let's find out what the policy is let's have some parameters around that But I do have confidence that that's not what we're looking to do here so Thank you, and I hope that the the council will in support this investment in public safety It's it's one of the things that we can do. We can't do all the things that we would like to do at this point Thank You councillor Shannon. I will go to councillor house Thank You President Paul. I Think what I what I have to add to this debate is that inequity and bias whether conscious or unconscious It's pervasive and it's a systemic issue and We know historically That you know our government has you know, whether it's intentional or unintentional Created policies that are our bias and that disproportionately impact people with marginalized identities and I do You know feel feel concerned moving forward with this without Fully understanding How and and where these cameras will will be used I think I think with great power comes great responsibility is as cliche as that is And so I I really call on the administration to Come forward with a plan for how they intend to use this survey and say, you know, I Hear the public safety concerns that are out there, you know, I You know feel some of them. I you know myself I think But you know, I want to know how how this technology is is going to be used So help, you know, help me understand that and you know, I understand that we We need a new security system we need an upgrade But I'd really like to know how that technology is going to to be used Thank You Councillor house Councillor McGee Thank You President ball I just want to note that at the board of finance I did express an interest in supporting a version of this contract that would allow for us to upgrade the current security system which With the the software and the servers Which is the part of the contract where we're seeing the increase on September 17th So I just want to be clear about that that that is not connected to the number of cameras and that My hope was that we could separate out the conversation about the cameras to a later date I think You know additionally To Councillor Shannon's point the video that we can all have in our pocket isn't funneled directly to police dispatch So to the extent that that could potentially be used against somebody I think there are barriers to police accessing that And I just want to challenge the notion that More security cameras lead to more safety. I think We have spent a lot of time in this room talking about Measures that are reactive that are responding to crime We haven't had nearly enough conversations in this room about preventing crime and so I would Like to see some of the money that is maybe going towards this contract. I know it wouldn't come from the IT budget, but I think the the point is is True that We need to invest more in prevention than we are right now and we need to have that conversation More explicitly so thank you. Thank you Councillor McGee Not seeing any other comments from oh mayor Weinberger Thank you President Paul I want to say thank you to Scott for In another area, and I think you're making a habit out of this Identifying an area where We need to act to address a real Gap in our IT infrastructure and thank you for moving swiftly to bring up a plan forward that You know addresses a concerning situation where this system that we have relied on for years needs investment or could be could be compromised and I appreciate Councillor Bergman that the That you're the comfort you expressed in in in moving forward While still having some questions that I think are our fair questions, you know, we have over time discussed and Made decisions At this table, you know largely, you know some of these years ago before many of the current members But you know over time the city's Use of cameras has expanded and I think We'll make good on the idea that we should find a way to have that that discussion and have The parts of it at least that they can be public public. I think there may be elements of it that you know Questions that would be legitimate for counselors to have the you might that maybe would be best handled in some kind of privileged Communication as we do with a number of security conversations and But I very much appreciate not Making this necessary decision subject to hashing out at this stage some New or expanded policy. I think we can have that conversation and see what what additional policy work Seems seems appropriate and so I appreciate the spirit of finding a way to get this done tonight In terms, you know one thing that will be in that presentation and it's very I think these cameras serve a number of different roles They serve some deterrent roles certainly One of the ways that we I think many members of the public feel much safer in our garages knowing that there are a lot of cameras in our public garages, which is you know Makes up a large component of the existing Camera infrastructure, it's an area where the public You know, there's long been concerns about the safety and the sense of safety in those Facilities and just having the cameras there Does improve some of that We got another way we use these and it's we know just that it is Coincidental but notable that we're having this debate a week after we Brunner police department quickly solved the homicide from a couple weeks ago and If you read the affidavit or talk look Watched the press conference that We had last week or the media around it It's very clear that the security cameras played a critical role in being able to reconstruct events that that led up to that homicide and so these are these are important tools I Welcome that it seems we have a way forward and happy to keep the conversation going about about where this Where are use of these tools goes in the future? Thank You mayor Weinberger Councillor Hansen and then we'll try to go to a vote from there Thanks, I'm just hoping because I'm a little confused following this debate If someone can clarify is voting yes on this is that voting to expand the The city's footprint in terms of camera coverage or not That's that's what I'm trying to understand and that my vote really hinges in on that So if someone could please clarify that would be helpful. Yes, of course go ahead. I'm sorry about that No, I believe this this proposal is strictly about do we go forward with replacing the system? Replacing the server replacing the software and then buying the extra cameras There's no there's nothing in this proposal that talks about expansion beyond very specific places That have needed them for some period of time. This is not about a general expansion of 100 cameras Okay, so it expands the stock, but it doesn't expand the Deployment correct expands expands potential stock, but not active Okay, that's helpful. Thank you Okay, great. Thank you, Councillor Hansen Seeing no other Comments or questions So just to get back to the motion the motion has been made and seconded and this is to approve and authorize the chief chief innovation innovative innovation officer to execute a contract with Royal Group and to purchase the FL IR security camera system as identified in the motion It appears as though it might be best if we go to a roll call vote on this if the clerk could call the roll, please Yes Yes Yes, no Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes the motion passes and We will and thank you very much to Scott. Thanks for being here and for your work on this The next item on our agenda And we will move on to item 7.07, which is a resolution regarding rank choice voting in mayoral elections And I'll come to Councillor Hansen for a motion on this item, please I'll move that we waive the reading and refer the resolution So the charge change committee with their cross that the committee returns the resolution to the full council by our October 24th, 2022 meeting Did you want the floor back after a second? Yeah, great. Thank you, and that would be seconded by Councillor McGee So we'll go back to you Councillor Hansen. The floor is yours Great. Thanks. I don't have a lot. I think we've Hopefully we all understand this issue. We've been debating it for years now And you know, we've had a public vote on the issue That public vote was limited to council elections. I think all the Reasons that we that the council advanced this to voters for council elections are also true of mayoral elections as well and I I think at seven of us previously supported that You know taking that action it was vetoed we didn't end up moving that forward But I think we still now, you know since in the intervening time We've gotten to see where voters are at on this issue and saw strong approval from voters So I think it's we should give them the opportunity to Expand this system if they if they so choose it'll be up to them But I think they've shown a preference for rank choice voting and I think we should give them the chance to Expand that system further it's We learned from the first iteration that Well, I mean we already knew this it takes a long time for a charter change to work its way through the legislature and for us to be able to use it So I think getting the ball rolling is is important and getting this to the voters so there would be some opportunity for the The charter change committee to look at this over the next Month, you know month plus But ideally the goal would be to get this on the the March 2023 ballot, thank you I'm a little disappointed that the legislature wasn't it was COVID and I do understand why the legislature wasn't able to Move forward with our previous charter change more quickly so that we could have had that in place People could have used it. We could have then moved on to consider whether or not to implement it in the mayoral election and With this timeline, we're not going to have that kind of opportunity but I As as we approach our next mayoral election I just really didn't want to be put in the position again of discouraging some people to vote because I'm sorry not discouraging people to vote but Scourging people from running based on the spoiler effect, which were particularly vulnerable to in Burlington and I think that we tend to look at these voting systems as to you know Did it did it produce a result that we that we liked under the current system? We have produced many results that I personally have not liked That's probably true for everybody at the table. I don't blame the voting system. I Hate to say it. I do blame the voters sometimes, but I don't blame the voting system Any voting system can deliver to us Results we like results. We don't like it's going to evolve with time Whether it favors one party or another party whatever system that we use and I think that what we really want to Look for is a voting system that best best serves democracy that engages the public and that produces a result that is reflective of the of the voters will and For that reason, I know that many people I respect disagree with me But I will continue to support ranked choice voting and hope this council is able to move that forward Thank you Thanks councillor Shannon any other Counselors at Councilor Barlow Thank You President Paul. I was under the Understanding that we would try our CV and the council elections and then review How it worked before we expanded it to to other elections and we haven't done that yet and just for that very Simple reason I'm I'm not supporting this tonight Thank You councillor Barlow. We'll go now to councillor Hightower. I Just have a question for Councillor Hanson if that's okay, which is that we didn't extend this to school board members And I wonder just because with this we're doing city councillors and the mayor why we didn't want to do all of the local local offices Sure, I I do want to do all the local offices This was based on what I thought was gonna Find the most support among other councillors, but for me personally I Would prefer to include the school commission in this Great, then I guess just a comment as this goes to charter change I wonder if that's something you all could discuss because I wonder not that I necessarily think we will have the most Competitive races for school board, but I think the logic that we're using for mayors and city councillors also applies to school board So I don't know why we would leave But why we would leave them out of it at this point. Thank you Thanks councillor Hightower Seeing no other comments We have a motion which was seconded and we can go to a vote And keeping in mind that the Recommended the action is to waive the reading and refer the resolution to the charter change committee with the request that the committee Returns the resolution to the full council by our meeting on October 24th With that said we can go to a vote all those in favor of the motion Please say aye And all those opposed please say no No All right, so that motion passes 10 to 2 Which brings us to? item 7.08 a presentation of the annual report of the Burlington Police Commission and I believe that one of the co-chairs of the Commission Commissioner Gmosh is joining us by zoom And I think you were able to find him and so we'll bring him up on the screen and I can certainly Give me just a moment. I'll I'll text him and ask Well, just in the interest of time we could I have not received a response from that text and We'll see whether or not that it doesn't does that person not have their microphone They're still on mute that that yeah, they're they're still on mute and you've tried you've been able to yeah, okay well hopefully they'll respond by a Text And I don't know if that I don't know if that's him So, why don't we why don't we move on to? In the hopes that we get a response We'll move on to the next item and then come back to 7.08 the next item is 7.09 Which is a communication a request to execute a ground lease agreement with beta technologies in the so-called Valley West Valley of the Burlington International Airport Before we get to the communication from Nick Longo the acting director of aviation I would We'll have a motion on the ground lease agreement and with that I'll go to councillor Shannon Thank You President Paul I moved to authorize the leasing of certain identified space at the Burlington International Airport To beta technologies Inc and to authorize the mayor of Burlington to execute the ground lease agreement Subject to final review and approval by the city attorney's office Thank You councillor Shannon for that motion. Is there a second to that motion? Counselor councillor Zhang Thank you very much And with that we'll go to Nick Longo who can we did discuss this? Fairly extensively at the board of finance and if you could perhaps give us that That overview and as well I noticed that Jeff Glasberg is also joining us by zoom Perfect. Absolutely. Thank you council president Again, we're talking about beta technologies. This is a separate and distinct location at the airport this is a much smaller location and a Site that beta technologies is looking to develop and build a Approximate 25,000 square foot hangar on what we call the Valley West apron This is a currently vacant apron that was built with federal funding some time ago and We're very excited to see beta as a respondent to our public process Over the last few years We also have received communications from the school district associated with the the technical center For the various programs that they have identified and we have specifically identified those Uses and and physical locations Separate from this lease meaning that we withdrew slight Location from the beta lease to to make sure that we are prepared for any future use on that particular apron There also is this is a 30-year initial lease with the option for two essentially 10-year leases at 10 and just shy of a 10-year lease If beta technologies meets the specific milestones of development Which is of course the phase 2 portion of this building, which is an additional 60,000 square foot space another investment on that particular location in which they will be granted the additional to 10-year option agreements There is no Rent credit unlike the larger lease that we just approved with beta technologies rent essentially starts upon receiving the certificate of occupancy and Once again, we're very excited to see that that apron and additional development by beta technologies Which will be the primary use as a culture and educational facility as well as to store their new electric aircraft online I do have Shelby lozier the director of ground transportation as well as Jeff Glasberg if there are any questions Thank You Nick as well. Yes. I did want to glad thank you for acknowledging that you've got Shelby with you as well Are there Questions or actually I don't know if either Shelby or Jeff Do you have anything that you'd like to add to this? Or an ice also see Jeremy Farkas as well I'm happy to add a few comments just to reinforce Nick's points This opportunity takes a currently vacant undeveloped non-income producing site and leverages that to Permit the investment of capital by others At the airport It will generate income for the airport and it will support the growth of beta Which as we discussed back in July when we brought forth the the larger transaction for their manufacturing facility is Really about groundbreaking technology significant job growth for the region and Multiplier effects of all of that. This is an arms-length market-based transaction As Nick mentioned there are no discounts or rent credits associated with this There's no investment of capital required by the city or the airport Upon Occupancy it should generate about $60,000 a year and income to the airport which will grow based on CPI under the terms of the lease Further under the terms of the lease we've preserved a footprint adjacent to this leased area sufficient to site the Burlington Technical Center with opportunities for Program collaboration among beta and the technical center In signing this lease beta is also committing to providing Infrastructure sufficient to serve that adjacent technical center The lease also contains a provision under which Beta will fund a capital reserve So that when the building reverts to the airport at the end of the lease term It will have been That building will have been properly maintained and the city could choose to either Take over the building at that point or to use the funds in the capital reserve To take the building down if that were its choice Thank you so much Jeffer for that Were there any Jeremy or Shelby? Did you have anything else that you wanted to add and then we'll go to questions? No, okay. Thank you very much. Are there questions from counselors as seeing None then we will We will go to a vote A motion has been made and seconded All those in favor of the motion with regard to executing the ground lease agreement with beta beta technologies Please say aye. Hi, and any opposed, please say no We'll note the vote is a 10 10 yes One who is not present Counselor House and one recusal from Counselor Travers and that motion passes I was able to get in touch with regarding item 7.08 with co-chair gommash who Unfortunately, there was some confusion as to the timing of this presentation and he is not available to join us This evening with that I would entertain a motion to postpone this item to our meeting on September 19th, and that was that is made by Counselor Jang and seconded by Counselor McGee. This is debatable. Is there anyone who has a comment or Question on that Seeing none all those in favor of the motion to postpone, please say aye. Hi, and any opposed, please say no That motion passes Thank you very much for for doing that which brings us to the end of our deliberative agenda and We find ourselves with a good fortune of it being 10 o'clock and being able to complete our agenda And that brings us to item 8 committee reports. Are there counselors who have committee reports? Counselor Barlow, this is my first committee report. How exciting the tax abatement committee is having an Organizational meeting on Tuesday September 20th at 5 p.m. In the Green Mountain conference room We'll be discussing our mission statement and reviewing web page content related to tax abatement and to the financial aid programs Thank You. Counselor Barlow counselor. Hi tower Yes, this is an update as much for the city counselors as for the members of the public Which is that CDNR is at least working towards a resolution? To bring a home share program in front of the council That is meant to encourage more folks to provide affordable housing and exchange for a house share So we're hoping to bring an incentive program along those lines Potentially from CDNR. So we reviewed a proposal for that or maybe gonna look at a resolution for it at our next CDNR meeting Which is tomorrow and we did not have a CDNR meeting in August Thank You counselor. Hi tower any other committee chairs or others that have a counselor Berkman so the Charter Change Committee will meet tomorrow night and We will be continuing to discuss the all legal resident voting in In local elections as well as another item on the siting of polling places There is a desire particularly in light of the work going on with redistricting to consider greater flexibility in the the citing the ability to cite a polling place that would be in close proximity But not necessarily within the individual ward and that is different than the way we do things right now would require a Charter Change from my opinion and It is something that we've been discussing with ward officials the the word clerks and the ward inspectors of election as well as the board of voter registration and anybody who has attended from the public so We'll be doing that tomorrow night and then we will Take a couple of weeks off so one member can enjoy themselves for a couple of weeks and then pick up and take on the the question of Ranked choice voting which I believe it if it was good enough for Sarah Palin. It should be good enough for us Thank you councillor Bergman Don't know really what to say after that Are there Are there are there other councillors with committee reports If there aren't then we can move on to item number nine which is City Council General City Affairs are there councillors who wish to give and offer comments on General City Affairs Councillor McKee. Thank you President Paul. I just wanted to take a moment to recognize the passing of a constituent of mine and advocate here in the city Tony Ridington who We are all very familiar with many many emails regarding public Excuse me transportation and public works and especially Roundabouts, so I'm hopeful that This body can find a way to honor Tony's legacy of advocacy And look forward to having conversations about that in the weeks ahead Thank You councillor McGee any other councillors with General City Affairs comments Seeing none We'll go on to council president updates. I do have one update just to give you a heads up On our first meeting in October, which is October 17th. We are going to have a Field trip posted by the Burlington Conservation Board that will happen before the council meeting They would like to share with us some of the nature-based climate action projects that have been currently launched in the city and these initiatives include Tree planting heat mitigation stormwater and flood resilience An inclusive nature connection local ecologically sound food production And to that end we're gonna we will be going to two locations in the city One at the intervail and the other at Champlain elementary We haven't worked out all the details, but it appears as though we will start the field trip at 5 p.m So if you want to mark your calendars for the October 17th meeting we will be starting that meeting earlier With that that brings us to the final item of the evening item number 11 Which is updates from the mayor mayor Weinberger Thank You president Paul just One announcement one thing I'd like to bring people's attention to tonight could have had this in the climate emergency report. I suppose but we this Saturday is the net zero energy festival at the Burlington Electric Department They've done events like this in the past. I don't think we've called it a net zero energy festival before a supercharged day of family fun And there's you know Champ and DJs and ice cream and kids games and stuff. There's also a real opportunities for Burlingtonians to test drive electric vehicles test ride e-bikes See demonstrations on heat pumps and solar power options and get expert advice on How what you can do with your household to move the community closer to the net zero energy goal There's this is really an area that There's gonna be lots of opportunities even more opportunities in in the months and years ahead the Inflation inflation Reduction Act that just passed the federal government as we've mentioned before really reinforces what we're trying to do here in Burlington with the Move towards electrification. There will be substantial federal incentives Around especially building improvements. This festival is an opportunity to go and talk to be the experts talk to others Who have made these kind of investments and consider what you might be able to do with your your home or vehicle? That's it. Thanks prison pearl Thank you. Thanks mayor wineberger for that update That brings us to the end of our agenda I would ask for a motion to adjourn so moved from Councillor McGee and seconded by Counselor Councillor carpenter All those in favor of the motion to adjourn, please say aye. All right And all those opposed, please say no We are adjourned at nine minutes after 10