 Hi friends, Janae would be procure with some exciting news. Town meeting day elections for Mayor, City Council, and more will be using Ranked Choice Voting and all Burlington voters get to participate. Unfamiliar with Ranked Choice Voting? Keep watching or visit the link below. Ranked Choice Voting is a simple way to let voters rank candidates in order of preference. First, second, third, and so on. If your vote can't help your first choice win, it counts to your second choice instead. Here's how it works. If one candidate gets over 50% of everyone's first choice votes, they win and the election is over. However, if no candidate reaches a majority, the candidate with the fewest first choice votes is eliminated and their supporters' votes will count towards their second choice. This process continues until one candidate reaches over 50% of the vote. Ranked Choice Voting is an easy way to give voters more voice, more choice, and makes for a stronger democracy. Learn more about Ranked Choice or try it out for yourself at betterballotvermont.org slash BTV 2024. And welcome to Town Meeting TV's coverage of Town Meeting Day 2024. This program is a part of a series of forums we are bringing to you in advance of Town Meeting Day on Tuesday, March 5th. Town Meeting TV hosts forums with all candidates and covers the questions you will see on your ballot, introducing you to your community decision makers, and connecting you with issues that shape your local community. You can find all of our forums on cctv.org slash 2024, or on our Town Meeting TV's YouTube channel, where auto-generated captions are available. On tonight's program, we will hear from two candidates running for the City Council Ward 8 position, and those candidates are Merrick Broderick and Hannah King. Thank you so much for joining us. We have prepared a list of questions for each of you and you will have 90 seconds to answer each question. If you're tuning in live, we also welcome your questions at 802-862-3966. If you call in, we will do our best to prioritize your question, but we will be screening calls to ensure questions are not repeated. We will ask that you share your name, the tone you live in, and that your question will be directed to all candidates and not just one. We're going to start with one minute opening statements, and we will start with Hannah. Thank you. My name is Hannah King, and I'm proud to be running for the Ward 8 City Council seat. Thank you Town Meeting Day TV for hosting this forum tonight. I'm the daughter of a single mom, a mom who has dedicated her life to serving as a health care worker in Union Steward. My father was a construction worker, someone who worked tirelessly while living with his own deep struggles. Growing up with three siblings and one parent often created challenges. The realities of my upbringing have instilled in me an unwavering commitment to advocacy and progressive policymaking. I intimately understand the challenges faced by our community because I've walked the same path. Serving as your Ward 8 City Councilor has been nothing short of an honor and a responsibility that I hold dear. I prioritize my constituents' views in every vote, especially our toughest votes. In the face of challenges, Ward 8 deserves leadership that doesn't waver. I'm here to be that leader, to stand by you, and to continue working relentlessly for the betterment of our neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you very much, and we will now hear from Eric. First of all, thank you to Town Meeting TV for putting these on. My name is Eric Broderick. I'm running for Ward 8 City Council here in Burlington with the Vermont Progressive Party. And I'm running because so far in Burlington, in my time being here, I've witnessed a city government that has refused to take the aggressive actions that we need to address the many crises that we're experiencing in this city. And as a Ward 8 resident for three years now, I have been witness to the struggles among the working class, the students, the tenants, and the status quo that we see in city government has refused to address these or has taken measures that have not fully allowed us to live in an affordable, livable, and traversable city. That's what I want to do. If I'm elected, I'm going to work with city government in order to take decisive action and not put forward lukewarm measures that are merely band-aids on the problems that we're experiencing with our housing crisis, the climate crisis, and many more. Thank you very much. So we'll begin with a question from Robin Lloyd, who is from Ward 8. And this question is, what is your stance on the ceasefire now resolution and why? And we will begin with Merrick. So if I'm correct, the ceasefire now resolution was from the one that was presented and fell into the council, right? So I was a supporter of the ceasefire now resolution. I vehemently disagree with the stance that this is a matter that we in Burlington should not be putting our name on. Burlington is a history of letting our opinions shown in international affairs and as a beacon in the state of Vermont where our fellow towns seek to follow, I believe that it is our obligation to let the opinion of our citizens known on these issues and advocate for what is right. So I was very disappointed with the ceasefire now resolution failing. Thank you. And we will now move to Hannah. Thank you and thank you Robin for your question. In the December 11th city council meeting, there were two resolutions that were put forward. One of them was centered on a ceasefire and I was the only Democrat on the city council to vote in favor of the ceasefire resolution. I also want to mention that I understand that for a lot of our community members, this is a deeply personal and emotional topic. And I hope that in the upcoming months and weeks that we're able to have productive dialogue and bring the community together to create necessary healing that we need. Thank you very much. And we will now move into the questions we have. So our first question is related to housing. In April, the Motel Housing Program is set to expire and more people may be without housing in Burlington. What is your understanding of the impending end of that program and how can the city better support folks without homes? We will begin with Hannah. Thank you. It is clear that the state has failed to create safety nuts to support our community's most vulnerable neighbors. Recently at our community development and revitalization committee meeting, which I serve on as a counselor, we heard from Sarah Russell, who works with CEDO. She gave us an update about the work being done at the warming shelter, which opened earlier this December. And I feel that we need the state to provide more funding so that way we can create more avenues to house our most vulnerable neighbors. We just need more space and we need to understand that Burlington cannot solve the homelessness crisis on its own. We need surrounding communities and the state to do their part as well. Thank you very much. We'll move on to Merrick. It's clear that the housing crisis is a crisis that doesn't just affect Burlington. It affects the entire state and the entire country. And I do agree that the state needs to do its part in order to ensure that all citizens of Vermont are housed as a Burlington City counselor. I believe that we need to move beyond things such as rezoning in order to increase our supply of housing and placating to private developers. I believe that we need to utilize and advocate for money from the state and make available funds of our own in order to create housing that is available to all Burlington and affordable to all Burlington. And when I say affordable, that's a term that has varying opinions on what that actually means. So I believe that no one should have to pay more than 30% of their income to rent. And I believe that is a good start for Burlington. However, I want to lay the groundwork for an aggressive push to create housing for all and house every Burlingtonian. Thank you very much. We'll move on to our next question, which is about school budget. So Burlington School District administrators have posed a $119.6 million school budget, resulting in a tax increase of 13.97%. Do you support this budget? Why or why not? And we will begin with Merrick. So I do support this school budget. I believe that that education is paramount to creating a bringing up the next generation to become contributing members to our society. And I'm of the opinion that it's necessary. Like we cannot have our students continuing to be taught named Macy's. However, it's very unfortunate that this burden is going to be placed down on a flat rate for our taxpayers. And I'm especially worried about the impact that this is going to have on our renters, especially here in Ward 8, where once this tax increase goes up, it's only a matter of time before the landlords of our city put that cost on our renters. While we're not going to be able to stop the bleeding for this instance, if I'm elected, I'm going to be pushing aggressively on measures such as rent stabilization, rent control, in order to ease the suffering as these tax increases continue to burden the renter population. Thank you very much. And we will now move to Hannah. It is critical that as a community, we do all that we can to support our students, teachers, and folks working in our public schools. Our Burlington schools truly are such an important part of our community. Ultimately, the city council and administration has very little oversight into the school budget. We are lucky to have administrators, teachers, parents, and a school board that care very deeply about the well-being of our schools and the children in our community. They are experts in this work, and thus I support the proposed budget. Thank you very much. Our next question is about transportation. So sometimes there is a trade-off between accommodating car traffic and making the city safer for bikers and walkers. North Buñezca Avenue is an example. Do you think the city needs more bike, bus, and walk-friendly infrastructure? And how would you change Burlington's transportation infrastructure and systems? We'll begin with Hannah. Thank you. We absolutely need more bike, bus, and walk-friendly infrastructure. Over my last year on the city council, I've served on the Transportation, Energy, and Utilities Committee where I've had the opportunity to take a deeper look at current infrastructure. I believe it is critical we continue expanding upon programs that all neighbors can utilize, whether that be students, families, or any resident that will minimize car reliance. Some of those programs include Car Share Vermont and the Bird Bikes. Our city works best when neighbors can safely and comfortably access climate-friendly alternatives. And I look forward to continuing my advocacy for those options in my upcoming term. Thank you very much. And now on to Merrick. I believe that all Burlingtonians deserve the right to be able to safely and comfortably navigate this city without the need for a car. Not only are cars one of the biggest sources of pollution in our city, but as we see, no amount of car-friendly infrastructure will stop us not being able to find parking. It's not going to stop traffic. We need to de-incentivize the use of cars. And that means expanding our bus infrastructure, making it safe and easy for people to walk and bike throughout the city. And I think that ties a lot into my vision to create a more dense and traversable city. So I think we need to give more money to GMT or ask the state to give more money to public transportation. And on the topic of public transportation, I also believe that we should be advocating on a state level to increase the rail infrastructure in the state of Vermont. Really allowing rail construction from Burlington to Montreal and bring our two cities closer together. Thank you very much. Our next question pertains to policing. What does effective policing look like in Burlington? Should the council have the authority to discipline police officers? We will begin with Merrick. I believe that effective law enforcement means that when you need help, someone will arrive and that person who does arrive is specially trained to deal with your specific need. Just as it's not adequate for you to call for the authorities and no one show up, it's just as inadequate to call for the authorities and someone shows up who's not prepared to deal with the crisis that you are having at the moment. I believe that we need to increase the incentive for our CSOs and we need to make sure that our ways of law enforcement are properly staffed but also properly trained and specialized to deal with the many different types of emergencies that we have in this city. We can't arrest our way out of mental health. We can't arrest our way out of homelessness. We can't arrest our way out of addiction. When we have crises such as that and emergency situations, we need to make sure that we're sending people who are able to help these people. Thank you very much. And now to Hannah. I first want to call out that as a white straight woman living in Burlington, I experience our public safety systems in ways that our neighbors of color do not. I believe we need community centered policing that works for all neighbors and that each community member can feel safe calling BPD. I'll echo your comments that residents should be able to call BPD and get a response. If they feel that they need a sworn officer to show up or a CSO, they should know that making that call, that person will be available to come. We need to increase the number of not only sworn officers but CSOs and CSOs to respond to calls that our sworn officers are not needed at. I look forward to continuing to follow the work done by the Joint Committee on Policing and the Police Commission. Thank you very much. We will now take a question from a caller. Hello. Not sure that it went through. Go ahead. I think we're having some phone difficulties. In the meantime, when we try to sort this out, we're going to move on to our next question. So our next question pertains to climate change. Barlington's net zero energy by 2023 initiative aims to reduce and eventually eliminate fossil fuel from the use of heating and ground transportation sectors. What does the city need to do to meet this goal? And do you support the continued operation of the McNeil power plant? We'll begin with Hannah. Thank you for this question. I'm very proud of the work I've done to address our climate crisis. There are so many incredible people, activists, and fellow counselors who have spent a great deal of time working on these issues. Most recently, I've been working with Progressive Counselor Bergman to strengthen the city's carbon fee. In regards to the McNeil plant, I voted against the expansion during a meeting earlier this year. As the youngest member of the council, I felt it was important to stand in solidarity with the large number of young folk I represent and voted now. As a steward of the city, I believe it's paramount to address their concerns about climate change. And I look forward to continuing my work on climate justice in my upcoming term. Thank you very much. And now, Merrick. I've been a tireless activist in the climate movement and in the cause of climate justice. And I'm of the belief that Barlington needs to take aggressive and decisive action to decarbonize our city. Coming off of our carbon impact fee is a great start in allowing all forms of new construction to get off of carbon heating and increasing the penalty for refusing to do so. On the topic of the McNeil plant, I believe that it does need to be decommissioned. But before we can do that, we need to have a comprehensive plan on how our city plans to replace the energy and the heat produced by the power plant. How are we going to create something that is equal or greater, that is also clean energy? And if it's possible, I would love for our city to be able to create a clean energy generating station in our city. However, we may have to look outwards and increase the amount of energy that we take, for example, from Hydro-Quebec. Therefore, I do believe that Barlington is in a climate crisis and we need to do everything we can to completely decarbonize our city. Thank you very much. We now have a question from Robin Lloyd from Ward 8. Robin asks, to continue my question about city council votes on Gaza, how did or would a vote on continuing the apartheid, how will that be affected, how will your decision be affected if it's on the ballot in March? I may restate the question if either of you would like. You good? Yeah. Okay. We will begin with Merrick. So I was in favor of putting the apartheid free pledge on the ballot. And while I did support the substance of the ballot resolution, my argument when I spoke at public forum was centered around the topic of allowing direct democracy to happen in Burlington. I believe that those who saw the resolution as divisive have every right to believe that. However, you also have every right to campaign against it. That is what direct democracy does. City council should not be able to shoot down a measure that the citizens want to vote on. And while we may be able to draw lines on specific wordings, and that can be discussed, however, in a resolution like the apartheid free pledge that is non-binding, I believe that it should be allowed to go on the ballot and the citizens should have the right to determine whether it is right for the city or not. Thank you. Thank you very much. And now to Hannah. Yes. Thank you. So as I stated in a question asked prior on December 11th, I voted in favor of the ceasefire resolution following the lead of our congressional delegation who called for a true negotiated ceasefire earlier on this year. Our congressional delegations are the ones working each and every day on international topics and so I feel it's important that as local democratic leaders that for the most part we look to them for insight on how they would vote. This is an incredibly painful and challenging topic and in the lead up of the votes I spent a great deal of time meeting with constituents, activists and folks on each side of the issue to hear how they would like me to vote and ultimately I made my decision based on the feedback that I received. Thank you very much. Our next question pertains to connecting with constituents. So as a candidate and as an elected official, how do you gather your input and balancing different perspectives from your constituents? How do you ensure you're hearing a wide range of perspectives? We'll begin with Hannah. Yeah, thank you for this question. I truly prioritize my constituents' views in each and every vote and decision I make as the Ward 8 counselor. It is critically important to me that I reach out and meet with folks on all sides of an issue, whether that be neighbors, activists or thought leaders on a topic. I was elected by my neighbors and I believe that they deserve to have a say in the decisions that I make at City Hall. Thank you very much. Anne Tamarick. As a candidate, my campaign has been knocking every door in Ward 8 and we are doing that particularly so we can solicit what every resident has to say on the issues that I'm running on and how I can most properly represent them. The benefit of the new Ward 8 is that it has a diversity of demographics in terms of age, in terms of occupation, in terms of renter versus homeowner. And I think that's important because as a Burlington City counselor, I am representing Ward 8, but I am making decisions for the entire city. So I believe it is very important to be soliciting the input of all my constituents and that is what my campaign has done and that is what I will continue to do if elected. Thank you very much. Our next question pertains to racial justice. The city declared racism as a public health emergency in 2020. What will you do as city counselor to address systematic racism in City Hall and across the city generally? We'll begin with Merrick. The city is right to consider the topic of racism as a public health emergency. And I think the biggest example that I've seen recently on a city council level is neighborhood code. As councilor Grant said, the current proposed plan is highly inequitable in terms of where we are rezoning for more housing. We are creating dense areas in very specific places that are, and for a lot of those places, they're mainly populated by the minorities of our city. And I believe that we need to be equitable with this. We need to expand housing across the entire city so that everyone has the freedom of reach to inhabit any portion of our city. And, yeah, thank you. Thank you. Antonia? Yes, thank you. As not only a white person, but a leader in the city, I feel it's paramount to do what I can to bring all perspectives and all voices to the table. We make the best decisions on behalf of our community when our leaders are diverse and frankly look like Burlington. I will continue doing my part to bring the topic of diversity and inclusion into each and every policy decision made. Thank you very much. Our next question is about development and change. Places like Memorial Auditorium, the Vermont Department of Health, and Perkins Pier, and a lot of Burlington is undergoing a lot of change. What is the first location you would address a city councilor, and how will you leverage public and private partnerships to get this done? We'll begin with Hannah. Thank you. This is a very important question. It's true that Burlington is going through a lot of change. It's great to see so many infrastructure projects being worked on. I actually had the opportunity to celebrate the start of the Great Street's construction earlier this week, which began right in Ward 8. That project will be an important way to improve our walking and biking infrastructure. Keeping on theme, I would love to see movement on the development of Memorial Auditorium, as it is in Ward 8, but also it's such an important building to so many neighbors across our city. Thank you. And not to Merrick. I also believe that the beginning of the Great Street's project is a huge start to creating a more traversable and livable Burlington to those who do not have cars and choose to walk and bike. And I think something, a building that I would really like to see refitted is our auditorium. I believe that it should be turned into a type of a community center where that is community owned, community owned and community operated, where many types of people can congregate and share ideas, do activities, et cetera. And I think it is of paramount focus that we are improving our infrastructure and making sure that Burlington can last through specifically the climate crises. Thank you so much. So thank you all. And thank you for our candidates for being here. And thank you so much for tuning in to TownMeetingTV's ongoing coverage of local candidates, local budgets and ballot items. You can find this in many more forums at cctv.org slash 2024 or on our TownMeetingTV YouTube channel. And you can tune into our live election results after you cast your ballot on March 5. Contact your local clerk to find out how to obtain a ballot and to register to vote. In Vermont, you can register to vote on election day. Thank you so much for watching and for sharing TownMeetingTV.