 Hi, my name is Elaine Haney, and I am a member of the steering team of Our Village, Our Voices, which is an organization that is helping to spread the word about our upcoming vote on November 2 on Essex Junction Independence and approving the charter of the City of Essex Junction. Today with me is Village President Andrew Brown and State Representative Lori Houghton. And we're going to talk a lot about what's in this new charter that we're voting on, what the process is, and what's going to happen once it's out of our hands after we've voted. So thank you Andrew and Lori for being here. Thank you for having me. So Andrew, can you start with a brief history, brief history of how we got here? Sure. So even though, you know, Mergers has been something that has been talked about over many generations, if you will, really this current effort started in 1999, and through various iterations has placed us to where in March we had that vote on merger, which failed in April. We had a revote on that same merger question, which also failed. In that vote though for Village residents was a question to the trustees or was a statement of should the Village trustees research separation should merge or fail? And to put the question out to voters this November 2021, that passed overwhelmingly with over 75% of the voters saying yes, please do this. So since April, we have been meeting as the Board of Trustees for about an hour to an hour and a half of every single one of our meetings to figure out what would a separate city of Essex Junction look like? And what would it cost? What would we need to get there? And the vote we're having now is a final result of to make a city of Essex Junction fully separate and independent from the town of Essex happen. This is the vote to make that happen. And so that explains why this is happening in an off year when we normally wouldn't be going to the polls in November. Correct. Because of that referendum, that's why we're having this now instead of waiting in a year or so as this is what the voters had asked for. Right. And so we're voting on a charter. Tell us what's in the charter and why we need to vote on a new charter. So a charter in the state of Vermont is really the governing legal document that creates and governs municipalities. While the state legislature has the ultimate rule over how towns, cities and villages are created, this is the only avenue that we have of having a charter to be an independent city of Essex Junction. Without that, it won't happen. So from a simple version, it has all of the legal requirements to allow the city of Essex Junction to be formed. There are details in there such as how ordinances are passed, how we would have a city council, how the budget is approved of. There are some of those details in there for sure, such as Australian voting or Australian ballot voting for the budget. It can frankly be quite the lengthy document to get through, quite the technical document to get through. But frankly, everything that we currently have in the village of Essex Junction from a municipal standpoint would continue. There's nothing in this charter that would really create anything new or anything that village residents aren't used to. The only exception would be we would no longer pay taxes to the town of Essex. So Andrew, why are we becoming a city? So in the state of Vermont, because we are a village, once we separate, we have to become a city. We can't become a town. We can't stay a village because a village in as a state defines it is a municipality within a municipality. And so since we are currently a part of the town of Essex and a part of the village of Essex Junction, we have to be a village. Since we wouldn't be a part of the town any longer, we can't be a village anymore. And so the only option left is to be a city. Got it. And outside of the charter, there are agreements that you and the trustees have worked on with the select board of the town on the terms of how we would untangle our governments. Can you explain what those terms are? Sure. So we have a couple of short term agreements. So for things like the real estate reappraisal, which is going to be happening in the next couple of years, the town of Essex already has the funding and the staff necessary to make that happen. For us to do that would likely be a financial hardship to the city of Essex Junction, village of Essex Junction residents. So we've decided to work with the town on carrying that process forward and working with the town through reappraisal. Once that portion is done, we can then no longer share the appraisal services with the town of Essex. Similarly with the town of Essex and the finance department, the towns and the town in the village currently have finance staff that are jointly paid for. And as such, the workflows are well intertwined. And so to unwind those, it's going to take a few years. So we're working on an agreement with the town of Essex to make sure that can happen in a thoughtful manner. And then similarly, we have other agreements for the police department, which I believe we're going to be getting to a little later on, as well as tax delinquencies and some other fairly minor or into the weeds details to really ensure that once the city of Essex Junction is formed, we are formed in the best and most cohesive way possible without any disruptions to the community. So in general, the shared services that the new city would have with the town are pretty limited to appraisal and police and finance department. Correct. The overwhelming majority of all services that that city residents would would be provided would be provided by city staff. They would not be coming from the town, unlike today, where we have a mix of services that are provided by the town, a mix that are provided by the city or by the village, as well as services that that the village pays for, but only serve those outside the village. All that would go away. Elaine, if I can, if I, you know, might be just jumping in real quick. I think it's important to Andrew's information is obviously spot on. I just like to simplify it a little bit. There is nothing that we are taking on that we haven't already done. Prior to 2013, when we started collaborating and merging things together, we operated as a municipality, as we always have since we were incorporated. So for people who are concerned that we don't know how to do this, we do know how to do it. We've been doing it. And as Andrew said earlier, the only difference is we will no longer be paying for services that we don't receive. Thanks for that clarification, Lori. That's really important. And so Andrew, probably the most important shared service that residents are concerned about is the Essex Police Department. So can you go into some detail about how we're going to manage to maintain the current level of police services we have? And what's it going to cost? Sure. So the police department in the state of Vermont, a municipality is, if you don't provide police services on your own, your only option is to pay for it through a contract. And that contract is either through the state police, a local sheriff's department or another municipality. As the village is currently policed by the Essex Police Department, and we are currently paying the bond on the physical police building. And frankly, the Essex Police Department is a very progressive and wonderful police department. We want to maintain that. And as such, we've been working with the town select board on a contractual relationship where we will pay for the Essex Police Department on a per capita basis, so based on our population, and including both the direct and indirect costs for those police services. This contract will be for approximately 10 years. And after 10 years, the current contract would have us continue for another five years beyond that. And we would continue at that point in time to discuss contract renewals beyond that 15 year time period. So paying for police services on a per capita basis means that all residents in the village, which would become a city, could still expect the same kind of services, the same police officers, or having police coverage at five quarters during the morning rush hour, seeing coverage at the CVE during concerts, and still being able to call on them for any emergency whatsoever, as we currently already do. The biggest thing I do want to make sure that residents here on this one is that at the end of the day, if there's an emergency and you call 911, and it's a police emergency, the Essex Police Department is the place that would receive that call and would respond from. So the Essex Police Department as it currently is will continue to police our community exactly as they have in the future. And for things like the Champlain Valley Exposition and the Fair, those police services are also paid for exclusively from the Champlain Valley Exposition. So the city tax dollars will not go to support that. And with the police department having somebody out at five corners is a practice they have done for over 40 years and will continue to do for as long as it's desired. Since we're on public safety, I'm going to drop in an extra question and ask you to clarify what happens with the fire department in the village and the town. And does this change if we become a new city? Will it impact Essex Rescue? Thank you for that. So currently our fire departments in the village and the town are two separate entities paid for through both entities. As such, when this village separates and becomes a city, what would happen is the fire department in the village would become the city of Essex Junction fire department. Or so it would continue to be Essex Junction fire department. It will also be the only fire department that those of us in Essex Junction will pay for. Currently we pay over 40% of the town of Essex's fire department, even though we have our own. So needing to pay for the town's fire services will go away. All of our fire firefighter members, they will all continue to be firefighter members, the pay compensation, everything that currently happens with Essex Junction fire department will continue to happen. With Essex Rescue, we currently pay for Essex Rescue through town taxes or a portion of it is paid for through town taxes. That cost would come to the city for the city of Essex Junction residents to pay for, for only city of Essex Junction residents. So currently we pay a portion based upon our town taxes. But again, that portion would go away. Essex Rescue though will continue to be the Essex Rescue that it has always been and will continue to be in the future. And Essex Rescue is a private entity and we are technically subscribing to their services by paying on a per capita basis. Correct, correct. And just again, the main point of this is if there's ever an emergency for public safety, public health, and you call 911 currently, whoever would answer that call now would answer that same exact call should this article pass and the Essex Junction become an independent city. And can you just go ahead? I'm sorry, I just want to throw in one more thing. Andrew, can you confirm that the mutual aid agreements that are in place today with the fire department? I'm sorry, if you were going there, that they are still in place. This will not change that. This will not change mutual aid agreements where currently during certain instances the town of Essex Fire Department will come and help the village. Similarly, the village or city of Essex Junction Fire Department would also continue to help the town of Essex Fire Department should it ever be needed. We have those agreements with Williston, Coldchester and other entities and those will absolutely stay. Great. Thank you. So shifting to non-essential services, but what some would consider very essential is recreation and our village, our voices as we're going door to door talking to residents, we're getting the question, what happens with WREC if we separate? And will I still be able to go to Indian Brook? Can you solve those mysteries? Sure. So currently as a helicopter goes overhead with recreation, the Essex Junction Parks and Recreation will continue to be the fantastic department that it has always been. Currently Essex Recreation and Parks is also within the building at Maple Street. That likely will be changing in the near future. City of Essex Junction Residence would not be paying taxes to support the town of Essex's Recreation Department. Instead, the city of Essex Junction Residence would only help to support Essex Junction Recreation and Parks. So in terms of what would happen to programming, there would be no change. You should see absolutely no difference in the programings that are offered. You should see no differences in the fees. So the amount of access, the types of programs, those will all continue to be there for Essex Junction residents with separation. In regards to Indian Brook, that is a portion that we are currently talking about with the select board to try and create a contractual relationship to allow the city of Essex Junction residents to maintain residence status as we hear that there is a desire from the community to be able to have an annual pass, which is currently only available to a town of Essex residents, which with separation we would not be. Should we not be able to do that, one thing that I do like to remind residents is that during the months of April to approximately October, those are the only months of the year in which a pass is necessary, and you can get a day pass. So while no, or while should we not be able to come to a contractual agreement, a year's pass may not be available, we would continue to have daily access through a daily access fee. Great. Thank you, Andrew. We've talked a lot about the changes that would come as a result of the new charter. Can you talk about what the tax impacts on residents of the village are going to be, should separation happen? Sure. And if you don't mind, I will show a quick slide to show or to help show this. So I hope what you are seeing on the screen is a financial summary of what would happen for village taxes, should we become an independent city? And one of the big takeaways I hope you notice are those green arrows that point down. Basically, if you look at that second line where it says a tax rate change, this is how our property taxes are calculated. And you will notice that our municipal property taxes are estimated to go down by a little over 7%. So that means if you look at your tax bill, don't look at the school budget portion, but look at your municipal portion. And that total section would go down 7%. And if you compare that to an assessed home, which is assessed at $300,000, then that would go down by almost $200 a year. You can also see this last one here, general fund spending on government. So this means how much money the city would need to operate will actually go down $800,000 compared to what village residents currently pay. A big reason as to why this is the case is what was mentioned before about how we are paying for services as village residents to support town of Essex services that do not provide services for village residents. Instead, they are exclusively for those outside the village. Take the fire department as we talked before, we are currently paying 42% of a fire department for the town of Essex, though we have our own within the village of Essex junction. And so that is just one example of many other departments that exist where that duplication exists that we would no longer pay for. So Andrew, please keep this slide up and let's chat a little longer about this. When we separate, the idea is that some of the services that we had been sharing with the town will come back to the city. And does that mean we'll have to hire new people? And does this the do these figures include the hiring of additional staff to cover those things? So these figures include what it would are these figures are based on the current fiscal year's budget. So what we are currently in and what it would take for the city to provide the services that the village of Essex junction residents currently benefit from. So in order to provide everything that we currently use here in Essex junction, this is what the budget is estimated to be. I do need to say estimate as because the act the final budget will not be developed until the city is formed. So this is an estimation. But yes, based on all the details we have, this is a conservative estimate as to our tax is going down by 7%. Okay. And so if I have a house that is assessed at less than $300,000, I can expect a slight increase in the amount that it goes down. And if I. So if your home is assessed at say $250,000, then your property tax decrease would be less than that $195 that you're seeing. If your home is assessed at over that $300,000, say $350,000 or $400,000, then your property taxes would go down by even more than that $195 that you're seeing on the screen. Thank you. I've been doing it for a long time and even I get confused by it. So I can imagine how residents who are just paying attention now might be confused by that. So and do you anticipate any additional expenses that might cause these figures to change significantly? No, I cannot think of any situation where these numbers would change significantly unless it is desired by Essex Junction. If Essex Junction wants to create a new department of something, then yes, that would be a significant impact. But other than that, no, even the working on an agreement with the town of Essex for Indian Brook, that would not have a significant impact on our taxes. As one thing to keep in mind is when we're talking about an overall budget, we're talking about an $8 million budget here. So if we end up spending say 10 to even $100,000, that is not going to have a significant impact on this budget. And these figures are great. Thank you for sharing them. I think this might be the first time we're seeing new figures since back in March when tentative figures were created by the finance director. So this is really helpful for folks. They've really been asking for this information. So now that we've gone down to the home stretch and we're getting ready to vote, let's say the vote passes and everything goes well in the legislature. Andrew, what are some of the things that the trustees or this new city council would start working on that we haven't been able to work on or focus on because we've been thinking about separation so much. Yeah. So there have been conversations that have come to the board of trustees over the past few years where unfortunately what we've had to say is, yes, this is great. We'd love to do this except our staff and our own capacity are focused on other efforts related to murder and separation. With that being gone, there are conversations related to cannabis we have not had yet. There are conversations related to a local options tax that we have not had yet, which could help to bring in additional revenue while reducing the amount of tax dollars that go to support our community. We haven't talked much about ordinance enforcement. Do we want to have a rental registry in our community? We haven't been able to talk about the housing commission that was recently created and in our community do we want to have a housing trust fund and or are there other things that we want to do here in the community that we just have not had the time to dedicate, such as traffic calming. We regularly hear about concerns in relation to traffic but we as a board have not had the time to really dedicate to exploring our traffic calming procedures and even recently have had to ask a group of community members to help take this on. So these are all types of conversations that we really haven't been able to have through to fruition that we would be able to have and even just as important is economic development. While we've had a fair amount of residential and commercial development here in the community, there are other communities who are leaps and bounds ahead of where we are in terms of working with area businesses and working with business associations or even a downtown district, a downtown development district. These are all opportunities that the city of Essex Junction could have but we just haven't had the time to explore. It sounds like there's a lot of great things in our future, assuming we can get past this. Absolutely. So what do you say to voters in the village right now who may not want to be an independent city who are concerned about what becoming a city might do to the character of the village, development, density, any other issues that they might have? What would you say to those voters? One of the things I hear is in becoming a city, how are we going to ensure that we don't become musky? And frankly, in part what I say to that is there's a mindset. One is the village of Essex Junction is a mindset. We have said for years that there's a village way of doing things where if you have a problem, the village will take care of it. That can continue, except instead of saying the village way, the village way just becomes the culture of the city way. And so that would continue to play out where, as I had just talked about with economic development concerns, if anything, we'll be able to dedicate the time as a city council to hear these issues, to deal with these issues and resolve these issues instead of being distracted by governance. I've said numerous times at our board meetings that once we can get past the stage of governance, we can finally best work on governing, which so many of our other communities and neighbors have been able to focus on for over 100 years, that we've been a little busy dealing with back in governance. Well, Andrew, this has been a very busy summer for you and the trustees pulling together the new charter and making these agreements come together. So it's a mountain of work that you've accomplished. And thank you for that. Hopefully in November, we will see the results of that in a good way. So I'm going to transition now. We're going to talk to Lori Houghton, who is one of our state representatives along with Karen Dolan. So Lori, once the vote happens on November 2nd, the village is essentially going to hand off our request to the legislature. Can you first tell us why it's really important that the November vote has a strong turnout? Sure. I can do that. If you don't mind, I just want to also extend my thank you to the trustees and Andrew for his leadership. This is a long time coming. I come from a family who's lived here a very long time and we're pretty excited about what could happen with the future of the city of us extension. As you said, Elaine, it's been a long process. I will say the trustees have been extremely transparent with that process. They've allocated, as Andrew said, an hour and a half to every meeting. That's been helpful and that will help as this moves into the legislature. So I just want to say thank you again. So it's important for the legislature to see that the village has a direction. You know, I will be perfectly honest. I support where we're moving forward here and I hope it's a positive vote. But either way, whether you want to or not, you need to vote because if we don't have a strong turnout and a strong direction, the legislature could very easily just kick it right back. You know, they have every right to do everything they want with this charter that is not allowed. It's a double negative by the Constitution. So we need to say yes emphatically we want to do this or no emphatically we do that. Just to quickly emphasize that, can you explain why the legislature has this authority over something that voters of a municipality might want to make happen? Yeah, so I think this has been brought up a lot in different conversations. But you know, the legislature created villages. We are a dill-enrolled state. They have the authority over towns, villages, cities, every entity. And you know, they've shown that in the past by 1999 not taking action and requiring a mediator to move forward with this. And they've showed it in other ways by not taking action at all. And it's not just us. I mean, they've done it with other charters as well. But it is the way we, as a state, were created. And it is the structure we have to operate in now. And so what happens if it passes? Can you do the nuts and bolts of those next? What happens if it passes on November 2nd, I believe, is the date? So the Secretary of State, well, first it starts in our clerk's office. Information will be provided to the Secretary of State. That information will all be put together and it will be sent down to the legislature. And at that point, nothing really happens unless Representative Dolan and I submit a bill, which we will do, that basically, you know, says what the charter says, what the transition plan says, and what we want, what the voters have asked for. All charter changes start in the House. And so it will start in House government ops. And they will review the charter. They will have a hearing. We hope they don't have to. I want to be clear on that. We do, they may not, or they do not have to take this up. But if they do, they would have a hearing. I would suspect that people will be asked to testify. And then it would either pass out of House government ops, which is a 11 member committee, or it will sit on the wall. If it passes, it then could potentially go to House Ways and Means because it does deal with taxes. And it would go through the same process. A hearing, House Ways and Means would have to pass it out. Again, it's a 11 member committee. And then if that happens, it will go to the House floor for a vote. If it passes out of the House, then it will go to the Senate and the process will start all over again in Senate government ops. If, for some reason, the legislature chooses not to take this up. As a community, since we have voted on a charter change, it is a bill that Representative Dolan and I could put in year after year. But our hope is that the legislature will take it up this year. Lori, can you clarify a phrase you used? You said that they might use it. They might take the bill and hold a hearing or it might sit on the wall. Sorry. Yes. Sorry. I'm still envisioning we're actually in the state house. So what happens is when a bill is drafted, so we'll put in a bill draft request. It goes to our legislative council. They put the bill together. We seek sponsors or not. It gets introduced to the body and it goes to a committee. Again, charters always go to go ops. And if you've ever been in the state house, what happens is you have these index cards with the bill number and the description on it and it goes on a bulletin board. And as the committee chooses to take up bills, they take that down. They will, you know, not physically take it down, but they will choose to focus on that, take testimony, and then they can say it's going to stay up there or we're going to pass it out of committee. And then it goes into the past column. So that's what I mean by off the wall. Apologize for that. It literally could stay on the wall. It literally could stay on the wall. They do not have to take this up. That is why back to your original question, we need a really strong turnout in the polls to ensure that they see how important this is to us. Right. And so today is October 6th and we've learned that the ballots are in the mail. So it's really important that people turn them around in the mail or they can even go to the polls on November 2nd at the high school. Yes. Can I can I clarify and this is a question maybe for Andrew? Will there also be a ballot box? Drop it 81 Main Street as a way to return the ballots. Yes, there will. So yes, they're all active registered voters are being mailed a ballot. So in addition to that, once you have the ballot, you can choose to bring it to 81 Main Street where just as we did this past November, as well as March and April in the previous votes, you can take that ballot and put it in a very secure locked box that is right outside of the front door of 81 Main Street. And that's if you don't want to bring it to the physical voting location at Essex High School on November 2nd between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. you can bring it to the drop box or you can mail it back. Great. So Lori, let's go back to the process one more time. I just want to confirm. So it starts in the house in the GovOps committee. It moves on to houseways and means because there are tax considerations, then it goes to the full house, then it goes to Senate GovOps, and then it goes to the full Senate. So let's say everybody votes it out of committee, both bodies vote yes, does it go to the governor? It does. Everything we pass out of legislature must go through the governor's hands and the governor can do two or three things. The governor can sign the bill, the governor can veto the bill, or the governor can choose to allow it to come into law without his signature. So one of the three things would happen. Let's say on the off chance, the governor decides to veto. What happens? So at that point, a couple of things could happen. We could choose to have a veto session, which highly unlikely that would happen because it is a local issue and it's not a statewide issue. We could regroup and determine what the governor's concerns are and reintroduce the bill the next year. Okay. And so during this process, you said that residents or that the community, excuse me, the committee could take testimony. Is that a period of time when residents of the village could actually participate in this process at the state house? Absolutely. I think what will happen, and it's difficult because of where we are with the pandemic. So all indications are we will be back legislating in the state house. However, I don't know what the success will be physically into the building, although all rooms are getting outfitted with the technology to Zoom. So everyone will always be able to watch what we're doing. And so the hearings can be watched. And residents can send letters, emails to reach out to the committee members. They can send them to Karen and I with their thoughts and we can put them out to the committee members. I would be really cautious. I'm going to put this out right now as a legislator and we're trying to get back into the group of things to not start emailing anyone right now. We need the vote to pass. We need to have the plan to go forward. But absolutely, it is important again, through your vote, most importantly, but then as a follow up through email communication to committee members as to how you feel about this, I would think that we will be asked on who should testify. And at that point, obviously we would have the trustees and work with them on who else we think should be at the actual table. So if a resident wanted to communicate their desire that this be passed to the legislator, they could email legislators, they could write letters. And if they're interested in testifying at that time, they could reach out to the trustees. Yes, absolutely. And they could also reach out to Karen Dolan and I. Absolutely. So let's say that everything goes according to plan and January comes when the legislative session begins. What's the timeline? Like do you, assuming that everything goes smoothly, how long will it take to find out whether this passes in the State House? I would say that is the really the unknown question. Everyone knows we have some big issues ahead of us, specifically that House government ops, which is where this all starts will be taking up, which is redistricting and potentially pension reform. So our hope is that we can get a bill drafted pretty quickly and get it introduced on the first week of session, and then work with the committee to determine the best path forward for them and for us to ensure that a hearing can be held. If all goes well, normally what would happen is the process would go through the House side and crossover, which is the period where all bills from either side have to cross over to the other side to ensure that they will be, or not ensure, but to and hope that they be worked on this session would have to happen. That is usually the week of March 1st, that first week when we have town meeting. And so the path would be we have the bill introduced, the House passes it before that March crossover date. It goes to the Senate and then they would pass it before the end of the session, which is usually mid-May. And then the governor, once the governor receives the bill, which takes a couple of days, he would have five days to determine what he wants to do with it. Okay, so it's conceivable. We could get news from the State House by late May, early June, that everything has passed muster and they're approving the creation of the City of Essex Junction. That is our hope. Okay. And so, Andrew, going back to you, if that happens at the State House, when would officially the City of Essex Junction begin? So, as of July 1st, on that timeline, as of July 1st of 2020, we were to be at 2023, 2022, that is when we would be looking to start the bud, or we'd start the process of having a City of Essex Junction. We'd be, we're looking to have a City Manager to hire the administrative staff necessary where the City of Essex Junction would be formed that following July. Now, with a budget process for an existing village and a potential city, is there an overlapped time when we are not quite separated and we're still dealing with two different budgets? A fully separate City of Essex Junction would be that following July. So, July 1st of 2024 is when City of Essex Junction residents would no longer be attached to the town of Essex. Okay. Now, you skipped ahead a year there. So, FY22 is now, and then FY23 starts July 1st, 2022. And so, July 2023 is when that new budget for FY24 would go into effect in the independent City. Yes. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. It's okay. So, I guess the only remaining thing to say is the details of the vote. We've talked about it a little bit throughout this time. So, ballots are in the mail now and residents can expect to get them in their mail boxes over the next couple days. Andrew, is the village also providing additional information for voters? There will also be a mailer that is going out to all village households that should be arriving within this next week. It will be, it'll have a nice overview as to exactly what it is people are voting on, as well as a link to where you can get additional details. So, the Essex Junction.org slash independence website will be a great resource to go to. Our Village, Our Voices, all their website as well, or your website as well, also is a great place to go for a lot of the details that will not be in the mailer. But the mailer will also have those details as to where to bring the ballot and where you can vote, should you choose to vote in person. Great. And our Village, Our Voices volunteers are fanning out all over the village. We'll be putting informational flyers on everybody's doorknobs over the next several days. So, folks will have information and nowhere to go to ask those questions. So, and then we have the vote happening on November 2. The polls will be open at Essex High School from 7am to 7pm. So, and you can also drop your ballot off at 81 Main Street in the secure ballot box in front of the building. Thank you both Andrew and Laurie for taking the time to explain this. This is a really exciting historic time for Essex Junction. It's the biggest vote we'll ever have, honestly. So, thank you both for your role in making this happen and getting us this far. And folks can visit Essex Junction.org slash independence for information on the vote. They can visit our VillageOurVoices.org for information. And of course they can reach out to the trustees and to Rep Laurie Houghton and Rep Karen Dolan for information. So, thank you again for your time and everybody don't forget to vote.