 Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you so much for coming today. We're really excited about today's caucus, and we have some fantastic speakers lined up for you. My name is Andy Voda, and I will be serving as the caucus chair today. It is now exactly four o'clock, and I would like to open this nominating caucus of the Burlington Democrats for town meeting 2022. Today's caucus is for city council, inspector of elections, and ward clerk for each of the eight wards in the city of Burlington. So let me explain how today is going to work and go through the agenda for you. So shortly, I will open up the caucuses for all the wards and then open floor nominations for eligible positions. We will then hear from our invited speakers, state party chair Ann Lisak, Speaker of the House, Representative Jill Kroinski, and Mayor Murrow Weinberg. I will then close the floor nominations. We will then hear from city council nominees and wards four, five, six, and eight who submitted nominations in advance of the deadline for our bylaws. Floor nominations are not permitted for these wards. We will then announce the floor nominations, which we have received, and hear from those nominees. And then finally, we'll end the meeting portion of the caucus and send out the links to the electronic voting system. As we indicated in the notice, you must have registered by midnight last night to be eligible to vote. OK. So at this time, I will now open the word caucuses for wards one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. And so now I'm going to talk about floor nomination process. So for the positions of Inspector of Elections and Ward Clerk, floor nominations may be made in all eight wards. For the position of city councilor, floor nominations may be made for wards one, two, three, and seven. So to submit a nomination for any of these eligible positions, registered caucus participants may call 802-777-3255 and indicate your name, ward, and the role you are nominating for. The floor nomination period will be open until the end of our first round of speakers, at which point I will then close it. And again, that number to submit nominations is 802-777-3255. And you must be a registered caucus participant to submit a nomination. So I'm going to assume that everything is good with our stream and everyone following along can hear us OK. Are we feeling good about that, everybody? Any confirmation there? Good. OK, great. Thank you. OK. Now that we've got the unfun part out of the way, let's move on to our speakers. So first, we're going to hear from two people with a view from the state perspective. Our party chair, Ann Leesack, and Speaker of the House and Burlington rep, Joel Kroinski. After that, we'll go to our Mayor Murrow Weinberger, who will bring the focus here to Burlington. Before I introduce our first speaker, though, I'd like to take a moment to thank someone who has worked tirelessly on behalf of the residents of the city of Burlington for decades. And that is my friend, Councillor Chip Mason, who's going to be mad at me for doing this. Chip has announced that he has retired from his council seat and I wanted to recognize his significant contributions in as many, many years of service to this community, well beyond city council. And I wish him well in having some amount of free time in 2022. So please join me in congratulating and thanking Chip virtually from home. This is always the weirdest part of his Zoom meeting. Thanks, Rob. Thank you, Ann. You bet, Chip. So that said, our first speaker is someone who has probably a lot of less free time in 2022. And that is our new Vermont Democratic State Party Chair, Ann Lisak. Over to you, Ann. Thanks a lot. Adam and Andy, first of all, I want to thank you not just for this, but for all the work you've put in. Because things happen in Vermont at the local level. That's where it really matters. And I just commend all of you who've made the commitment to join in whatever role you're taking. And you two have really stepped up in a big way. So thanks a lot. It's been an exciting six weeks, but who's counting since I became chair. On day two, I got a call early in the morning and was invited to a Zoom call where we know what happened. Our legendary Senator Leahy announced he was stepping down, which first I just want to, on behalf of all of us, Democrats and Vermonters, those are some very big shoes to fill. And he's been so important to every part of us in every way, every part of Vermont. So tip of the hat always to Senator Leahy. As we know, this creates a very exciting, as people have said, the dominoes begin to fall. So there are some openings that we haven't seen in many, many years. And it's just going to be an incredible year. And what I think, what I'm confident is going to happen is that having people run for these seats who are stepping up in really important ways is going to energize Democrats in a way that we haven't seen in a long while. We were energized about Trump too. All of us were, of course. But on a state level, I think this is going to bring so many folks into the process. We already have two really incredible qualified candidates stepping up for Congress. Of course, we have our very esteemed Congressman Peter Welch. And there will probably be other candidates stepping up to run for Senate. And this is just going to be very energizing. And what it also means is we at the VDP want, need, and will be right there with data, with training, with messaging. And I've just been so buoyed by the incredible team, both the staff and the really great and diverse group of new state officers. So that has been terrific already. And those of you who join us at the state level will just see we have some incredible energy going into this election. And not more than energy, we have a lot of talent. And we are going to be very disciplined and focused on making sure that from the very top down to city council races, folks underground, because that's where it matters in Vermont, have the tools and the resources and the support. And having been a county chair for some years, back in the day in Rutland, and then serving on the, yes. Jill and I go way back, because Jill was first in Vermont when I was county chair. And I've been on the executive committee. I've seen how it goes from the local up to the state. And I have to tell you, local is really where it matters so much to so many folks in our communities. As important as these statewide races are and as much attention and money and resources they'll get, it also really matters what happens on a local level. And I mean, folks in Burlington certainly know that it's not been a quiet few years. And with COVID, and of course, our governor who's, we don't know what happened to him, but what a failed response. We're seeing right now, which affects every one of you and every one of our communities. We have a lot of work to do. I'm very excited to step up and to be working with incredible leaders like Jill and like all the folks that we have in the state house. So I will hand it over to, I think, to Jill next. Thank you very much and thank you again for all you're doing. Thank you so much. And I'm so grateful to you for stepping up. And so just again, congratulations to Annelise for stepping up and for leading the Vermont Democratic Party. Being the chair of a party is a huge commitment. And I know she's already hit the ground running. So, and just thankful, so thankful for you for stepping up. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you, Andy, for chairing this. And Adam, for all your great work, I want to thank each and every one of you for your role in electing Democrats up and down the ticket. This all takes teamwork, right? From registering voters, thanks again, and shout out to Andrew Champaign, to fundraising, to recruiting people, to run, we all play a role because we care about the future of our city. We care about our state and we care about our country. We work hard together to elect Democrats and to support people that share our values and we'll get things done. From Joe Biden to Pat Lathley, to those we nominate and get on the ticket tonight for March, we are working hard to be welcoming, to getting, recruiting people to join us in this effort. Those who care about fighting for reproductive justice, for tackling climate change, to solving our affordable childcare and housing challenges and building a recovery plan that leaves no Vermon are behind. We are fired up. We are fired up because of the outrageous legislation to curb and ban abortion, our audit control and a person zip code now determines your access of abortion care. Many of you know I worked at Planned Parenthood for years and it's one of my core values, protecting and spending access to healthcare and reproductive justice. We now have an unprecedented law that puts a bounty on those who help people receive abortion care in Texas. And let's be clear that stripping away an individual's reproductive right is not a difference in opinion and the healthcare policy. It's about controlling certain populations and their ability to make decisions that impact their lives. As Democrats, we are leading and we are protecting reproductive rights with Prop 5, which is a constitutional amendment that will protect reproductive rights for everyone, no matter what happens with the Supreme Court. And that is so critical. We will be taking that up in the House in January. It's already passed the Senate. And after we pass it, it's gonna be on the ballot in November along with Prop 2, that removes slavery from our constitution and that work to get those constitutional amendments across the finish line is gonna be huge. We are fired up because we are taking action at the state and local level to combat climate change. We are fired up because, as Anne said, we have a chance to send a woman to Congress. Vermont is the only state in the country that hasn't sent a woman to Congress and we have the power to change that. And we are fired up because we have some amazing candidates here tonight. It is such an honor to be your speaker and I am just so proud of all the work everyone is doing. Moral, thank you for your hard work and together we can get things done. Thanks, everyone. Thank you, Jill. I think I'm jumping in next. So good afternoon, everyone. Let me start by also saying thank you to Anne Lisak for stepping into this new role. The chairs, the chair role really matters and we are excited about your service. We're excited to have someone who knows Burlington so well in that role. And your presence here today shows that in your time in this position, you're gonna make sure there's great coordination with Democrats down to the local level. We really appreciate that and look forward to supporting you in any way we can. Thank you for being here. Since chairs do matter, I do wanna give a shout out to Adam Roof who is the second virtual caucus that Adam has had to preside over pretty challenging times to serve in this role and he's done a great job and the excitement and the energy and the candidates that are coming together today are a function of that. Thank you, Adam. And thank you, Andy, for all that you are doing to strengthen the party and leading this caucus today. And finally, it is also awesome to have a Burlington Democrat leading the Vermont House. Jill, thank you for your outstanding leadership in these challenging times and continue to be so engaged in the issues here in the city despite your statewide responsibilities would be easy to lose track of what is happening here and you never do and we appreciate that, we appreciate the partnership. Let me also say thank you and note the decade of outstanding service to the city that Chip Mason has given this party and given the city, Chip and I were elected the same day almost a decade ago and it's hard to envision what it's gonna be like in city government with Adam. We've all been so fortunate to serve together. I am excited and grateful that excellent city counselors, Karen Paul and Sarah Carpenter are running again this year and I'm looking forward to our work together, Sarah and Karen. And we're really fortunate to have great committed first time candidates, Ben Travers and Hannah King running right for the city council for their first time, both of them bringing a great deal already of experience working in this community and new energy into the party and into their campaigns. Certainly we all hoped and expected last summer that this caucus would not be virtual. That it would be in-person and that the pandemic would be receding in the memory by now. Instead, we're meeting just after it has been confirmed that Omicron is circulating in Vermont and in this city. And we know that as a result that in the weeks ahead we're gonna see a surge of infections. The science, however, tells us because of our high vaccination rates and our booster rates, Burlington is better ready for this new global wave than just about any city in the country. And first and foremost, that is because of the sacrifice of Burlingtonians that we've made for each other over the last two years and because of the commitment to science and to public health that the community has shown again and again. However, with our commitment as a local government in the belief that in a global pandemic, local actions matter, the city government has also played a role in what we have done over the last two years, approaching two years. Since March of 2020, we've been focused on getting our COVID policies right and this continues to this day. In recent weeks, you can see examples of it. The city stepped in with a well-designed mass mandate when there was not a willingness to act at the statewide level. We have implemented critical employee vaccination policies and that are playing a key role in making the areas safe as possible, especially when other organizations take these on as well. And our groundbreaking wastewater testing program continues to give us early warnings of shifts in local infestion rates. In 2021, your democratic leaders have also been focused on the other big issues of the day, the issues that Burlingtonians care most about, solving our acute housing crisis. Doing more than our share to address the climate emergency and rebuilding our economy from the challenges of the last couple of years. For examples of how active and impactful this work has been, let's look at what has happened just in the past month. On December 7th, voters passed the net zero revenue bond that will dramatically accelerate our efforts to stop using fossil fuel as a community by the end of the decade. We have hosted in recent weeks something new in City Hall Park, this newly renovated City Hall Park. We have a winter market now where we have given opportunity to dozens of small businesses, many of them BIPOC owned to be part of the magic and the vitality that is downtown Burlington and being just adjacent to Church Street. And we have just in this past week released a far ranging, substantive, impactful 10-point plan to fulfill the promise of housing as a human right with the production of 1,250 homes at least over the next five years that we're aimed at, including hundreds of new affordable homes and homes targeted explicitly to serve the formerly homeless. And critically, the Democratic caucus has been resolute and standing up to a rushed effort to defund the police by the progressive party and progressive city counselors. Good policing, transformation and reform-minded policing that protects everyone in this community and makes Burlington a place where everyone feels safe and welcome requires more resources, not less. And Democrats have known this from the beginning. The message for this town meeting day should be clear and it's gonna be on us really, really quickly. The voting will start early in February. And again, this will be a by-mail election. So it's important that we are gathering today and that we're clear about what this election is gonna be about. If voters want racial justice and public safety, if voters want a council that focuses staff time and city resources on the crisis is confronting Burlington, if voters want competent, responsible government that delivers for the people of this community, they need to elect Democrats. I want to thank you all for responding to this important moment and energizing this caucus, your presence, commitment and energy matters for the future of this city. Together we have come through innumerable challenges over the last decade. This has been, these have been historically tough times but we've gotten through them and together we will work hard and with focus we will get through whatever hurdles and surprises remain ahead in this difficult period and forge our way to the brighter days to lie ahead. Thank you all again for being here and I wish everyone happy holidays and safety this holiday season. Thank you so much, Mayor Weinberger, Speaker Kowinsky and Chairperson Lizak. Wow, really appreciate what you shared with us today and what all of you do for the citizens of this great city and state and for your tremendous leadership. So thank you again for being here. At this time I will now close the floor nominations for Inspector of Elections, Ward Clerk and City Council. We will report out on floor nomination that we received after we hear from our next set of speakers. So what we're going to do now is we're going to move to City Council nominating speeches and so per the City Democratic Committee bylaws in words where City Council nominee has submitted their name 10 days prior floor nominations aren't permitted. And so we have four wards where we have nominees. You've heard their names already. And so we're going to hear from them. Each of them is going to have someone nominate them and then they're going to share some brief remarks with us. So we're going to start with Ward six and we're going to hear from Janet Stambolian who is going to nominate City Councilor Karen Paul. So Janet Stambolian over to you. Okay, thank you everyone. I've never done this before. So all I know is that it is very easy for me to nominate Karen. I've known Karen for quite a number of years and it's very easy for me to nominate her because I see her in action in our ward and I see the devotion that she has to our ward and our city. So it's very, you know, it's, this is not something that anybody does for personal gain. This is something that you have to do if you have a devotion to people and Karen has that devotion to people. She has a devotion to the city to making this a more livable, equitable, just and fiscally responsible city while also acknowledging that there are problems that we have to deal with that we can only deal with as a unified party and a unified city. So the public service that I've experienced Karen doing, I mean, the first time I saw her she was standing outside Edmunds in a snow suit in the dead of winter. I mean, it was like, it was insane. It was freezing cold and there she was. And that's just kind of who she is. So it's my honor to nominate Karen Paul for another term on the city council. And I know that she will have the support and she will have the gratitude of Ward 6 residents for her next term. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thanks so much, Janet. And thank you all so much for your time today. Also thanks to Andy, to Adam, to Julia, to other members of the caucus committee for organizing this event. One of the highlights of public service is the wonderful opportunity that I've had to interact with so many neighbors. And to me, my constituents have become so much more than voters. I'm honored every day to call so many of them my friends. Janet is a dear friend who we met, she may not even remember, we met at an NPA meeting shortly after I was selected and it's been together for ever since. Thank you so much for nominating me and to represent this caucus and in the upcoming Ward 6 council race on town meeting day. I'm glad to be able to be here to share a few moments with all of you on what is still a little bit of daylight left on a snowy winter day. I'm very proud of the work that I have done with each of you, the residents of Ward 6. And I'm grateful for the collaboration and confidence that you have all shown me over so many years. Public service has been a part of my life and a responsibility that was instilled in me for as long as I can remember. I grew up in the city, I grew up in this ward and watched my father who together with my mother continue to live in Ward 6, watched him serve on the city council many years ago, going off to city hall on Monday evenings when I was a very small child to enact policies that impacted our community. A deep love of this community and public service for me is a proud and inescapable bond it's an unbreakable desire to give back, to serve a city and community that is so much a part of who I am. Serving in public office is truly a family commitment and I would be terribly remiss in not taking an opportunity to express how grateful I am to my husband Mark and to our children, Andrew, Adam and Caroline who are all watching us right now on YouTube who are for supporting me so that I can continue to do this important work with you. It would be difficult for me to encapsulate all of the moments over all the years that I've been on the city council and it would also be hard for me to cover all the priorities that I have in the next two years to come. I'll just talk about a couple of them. For those of you who know me, you know that I am deeply committed to the fiscal responsibility given my professional background over many years as a CPA and a financial manager and in working with the administration our current administration with Mayor Weinberger I am deeply committed to strengthening our credit rating balancing our fiscal priorities and very much investing in Burlington's future. These are all critical to Burlington all our communities priorities everything that we hope and wish for this community are gonna be very difficult to achieve without strong fiscal responsibility. I'm also very committed to housing as a human right and wrote the resolution that strongly advocated for UVM to house many more of its students on their campus. I'll continue to advocate for that in finding ways for students to want to be on campus housing that's attractive to students as well as affordable and climate committed which will then allow more people to call Burlington home in our neighborhoods. I'm also very committed to helping our neighbors who experience food insecurity. Many of you will remember the community food pickups that we had for over a year during the height of the pandemic. And together we distributed over 2500 bags of groceries for our neighbors in need. I consider these events to be some of the proudest moments that I've had as a city counselor working with all of you and I'm grateful to so many who participated in these events in the past year. I'd just like to highlight a couple of the couple recent highlights of my service to you and this community and they include writing key resolutions that have promoted public safety in the past year as our community has faced and continues to reckon with social equity and justice. Playing a significant and pivotal role in bringing counselors together to successfully increase our sworn officer headcount just a few months ago. Creating a system to ensure compliance with minimum housing codes that have raised the bar to ensure safer housing, safer rental housing. Working to bring to Burlington an exciting mental health initiative modeled after Eugene Oregon's very successful and effective CAHOOTS program. And leading the effort on the council regarding harm reduction from substance use disorder including advocating for overdose prevention sites. I've all been highlights of my recent service to you but by far, by far the highest and the greatest highlight of my role as a counselor is the people that I have met addressing constituent needs be they navigating a permitting issue to handling a noise complaint. These are incredibly rewarding and energizing moments and the joy of making things happen that enhance your life is the best part of this role. Thank you so much to the residents of Ward 6 for your confidence, trust and support. Over the years, I have done my best to be here advocating for you, to communicate with you often through quarterly blue newsletters, front porch forum postings, but not only communicating consistently and frequently but openly and honestly and above all to listen intently and represent your interests. If reelected, I hope to continue to work on our many challenges and priorities. I'll continue to be mindful of our fiscal needs and reflecting our community's values that are so much a part of what we are most proud of in Burlington. I truly believe and I believe we all feel that we are truly at our best and can achieve our best when we work together. I ask for this caucuses support and in the days and weeks to come, I ask for your vote so that I may continue to represent our ward as your Ward 6 City Counselor. Thank you so, so much for listening. Wow, thank you so much, Counselor Paul. Appreciate your words. So now we're gonna go to Ward 4, move up to the new North End and we have a candidate for City Counsel who has put her name forward, Counselor Sarah Carpenter who will be nominated by Nancy Ellis. Hello, Sarah Carpenter is a lifelong resident of Burlington and has lived in the new North End for over 15 years along with her parents, Tori and Dot Carpenter and her three brothers. She's been involved in many Burlington activities over the years. Sarah is an alumna of Adams Elementary School, Edmunds Junior High, Burlington High School and the University of Vermont. And she has a master's degree in public administration at Harvard University. With a degree in social worker, social work, Sarah's first job was at Birchwood Nursing Home. She then served in several positions at Agewell. After stint in graduate school, Sarah returned to Burlington as executive director of Cathedral Square Corporation. There she helped build the organization from a single residence for seniors to a nationally known nonprofit organization providing affordable housing and community services. In 1998, Sarah was appointed executive director of Vermont Housing Finance Agency, VHFA, which serves as Vermont's largest affordable housing funder. As the executive director, she provided leadership for all of VHFA's activities and served as the lead in policy working with federal, state and local officials. She has been involved with numerous Burlington community and nonprofit boards, including Champlain Housing Trust, Committee on Contemporary Shelter, we know familiar as COTS, Housing Vermont, Fannie Allen Hospital, Fletcher Allen Healthcare. Sarah currently serves as chair of the Vermont Rental Housing Advisory Board and on the boards of Fernhill Housing and the Heineberg Senior Community Center, and that's a lot. After Sarah retired in 2019, she decided she would love to use her skills in government and community services to give back to her beloved hometown, Burlington. Sarah was elected ward four city counselor by an overwhelming majority in March 2020. She has proven that her analytic and moderating style can get things done. She's a balanced influence on the current council and that's something we desperately need. We need to have Sarah return to the council to represent ward four and to continue her work, protecting and promoting the interests of all Burlingtonians. I nominate Sarah Carpenter for the position as city council member, representing ward four, Sarah. Thank you, Nancy. I so appreciate that. Thanks to all of you who've helped organize this. My first nomination, which was not quite two years ago and I was very new to party politics, was live and in person. So this is interesting and different and I actually miss seeing everybody and seeing that process, but we will carry on. I am really very excited to be running for re-election and continuing my service to ward four. It's been a real learning experience, but I'm proud to have represented the ward during really quite a difficult two years and try every day to try to bring together the diverse views of our neighborhood to city hall and do that in a moderated and balanced way. We need to solve the city problems, not be divisive about them. And I think that's a style I can bring. Maybe more behind the scenes, but I think I could bring those ideas to the table. I had lots of experience in government, in organization when I was executive of Cathedral Square and VHV, and I think that helps me in the city council role. And as well, like Councillor Paul, I'm a lifelong resident of Burlington and I want a place that we all can comfortably live in. Every citizen needs a comfortable place and we need to be proud of our city. And I will work hard for that. I'll continue my fight for affordability, particularly in housing, taxes. I'll fight to bring needed services to the new North End. And as well, I want us to be a leader and we need to be a leader in both racial justice and public safety. We have so much work to do and I wanna be part of that. I feel like we finally have a roadmap. Now we need adequate personnel and resources to carry that out and a true collaboration among all of the parties to get the work done. I also love and will continue to advocate for the health of our Lake Champlain, which is right down and covers much of Ward 4 as well as our wonderful bike path. I wanna be able to continue to tackle all these complex problems and more in my next term. The first term was pretty much a steep learning curve. So I'm just getting my feet on the ground and I look forward to digging in even more. I've had the honor of serving as actually chair of three committees, which is somewhat unusual in your first term and it certainly kept me plenty busy. I chair the Community Development and Neighborhood Revitalization Committee where affordable housing is really our highest priority. And right now we're grappling with the immediate needs of the houseless in our community. We've gotta develop some creative solutions and work to get the state behind us in that. I'm chair of the Tax Abatement Committee. That's not always an easy one. And as well, I did a stint on the Tax Board of Appeals, which was an eye opener. And as part of that, I was integral in drafting and proposing a new ad hoc citizen committee to look at our recent reappraisal process. We've got a lot to learn from it and we need to kind of tackle that now, not wait for the next time that we do a reappraisal. And then finally, I serve as chair of the Human Resources Committee. The city was without an HR director for almost a year, but I'm pleased now to be working with our own Karen Durfee and we'll be working closely with her in the committee in our many issues, but most of which is recruiting and retaining city staff. We, like other businesses, are suffering from the employment problems. And really front and center to that is our continued struggle in staffing public safety positions that we've now fortunately been able to authorize. We've gotten the full council to accept a reasonable transition plan, but we need to hire more personnel and we need all brilliant Tonians to really get behind that efforts and help transform our public safety programs. In addition to the many direct council meetings and committee meetings, I hope and I try very hard to be responsive as I get your requests for assistance and information. And it's quite ranging as somebody said, it's potholes to world peace. I'm not quite doing as well on either one of them, but I will try to get to the information. We don't run the city, but I could help constituents navigate as issues come up. So again, I'm looking forward to being returned to my seat with COVID still waiting with us, it'll be an interesting campaign. I'll try to get out masked and backs to distance just to let you know that I'm there, but I will need your help, the party's help in making sure I can reach out to everyone that lives out here in Ward 4. So thank you for this opportunity and I look forward to seeing you all in the new year and best wishes. Thank you so much, Councilor Carpenter. Appreciate your words and your service. We're now gonna go to Ward 8, where we have a candidate who has put her name forward, Hannah King, and Hannah will be nominated by Susanna Keller. So now we can turn the floor over to Susanna for her nomination. Hi everyone, my name is Susanna Keller. I'm a student at the University of Vermont and a Ward 8 resident who's excited to support Hannah for City Council. I met Hannah in the fall of 2020 during my first semester at UVM and my first year not only came with the challenge of adjusting to college during a pandemic, but also navigating my new home of Burlington. But luckily I had the privilege of meeting Hannah early in my semester with my involvement with UVM Democrats. Hannah immediately recognized the situation my fellow first years and I were in and welcomed us in the club. She immediately fostered a sense of community and stepped up to make the first year experience as enriching as possible for me and my friends. Her leadership on campus in that way is invaluable. Her kindness and advice about navigating the first year of college was extremely helpful and she quickly became not just an upperclassman in a club that I joined, but a friend who I look up to. She is definitely the person you turn to to solve a problem. From questions about what something means in a lease or how to pay a parking ticket or which classes to take, she has the answers. But even if she doesn't have them right away, she knows how to find them. And I know I'm not the only one who turns to Hannah for help, fellow students and long-term neighbors alike reach out to her. She continues to prove herself as a passionate advocate for making local government accessible for students and long-term residents. From what I've seen on her work with UVM Democrats in neighborhood planning assembly, she has the amazing ability to get students civically engaged. I know when elected, Hannah will be the advocate we need to push for a progressive policy and she's gonna do this in an intentional and impactful way. What I appreciate about most about Hannah is her commitment to ensuring our community is a great place to live, learn and work for people of all ages and all backgrounds. She is a compassionate and thoughtful listener who has been consistently working to bridge the gap between students and community members. This is something I think is critically important for the culture and future wellbeing of our city. Burlington then has become more than just a place I go to school. It is fully a community that I feel part of. Hannah has been working on behalf of our Ward 8 community for four years now. And I'm so excited to see what she can accomplish as our city counselor. That's why I'm proud to nominate Hannah King as the Democratic nominee for Ward 8 City Council seat. Please join me in supporting Hannah King for Ward 8 City Council. Thank you so much. Happy Sunday, everyone. My name is Hannah King and I'm proud to be running for the Ward 8 City Council seat. Thank you to the Burlington Democratic Party for organizing today's caucus. It's great that so many of our neighbors are watching and voting today. Thank you as well to Susanna for your nomination and support. I'm so grateful to have you on my team. I'm a renter, student and daughter of a single mother. My father was a construction worker and my mother is a healthcare worker and proud union member. The lived experiences of my family have served as the foundation to my commitment to pushing actionable, progressive policy forward. I truly understand the struggles so many of my Ward 8 neighbors face because I've lived them myself. I'm running for City Council to be a representative leader that listens and is responsive, is thoughtful in their approach to solving complex problems and frankly just puts real progress before politics as usual. I believe we can solve our deepest challenges through working together and listening to each other. I've worked tirelessly on behalf of our Ward 8 neighborhood serving as a steering committee member on the Ward's 1 & 8 Neighborhood Planning Association and as the Ward 8 representative on the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Board. Through these roles, I've had the opportunity to help expand language access in some of our community's most important events, such as assisting in organizing Vermont's first live translated mayoral forum, as well as working to strengthen relationships between students and long-term Brillington residents by creating a pen pal program to encourage productive dialogue within Ward 8. I've also worked closely with my neighbors and university leaders to de-escalate problematic situations in our student dense neighborhoods. As Ward 8 City Councilor, I will push for forward thinking policy and leadership in a thoughtful way. I am committed to centering climate and racial justice in every conversation and policy possible. Housing is a human right and is at the foundation of health, racial justice and long-term economic stability in our community. As Ward 8 City Councilor, I will advocate for rent stabilization and the creation of more stable long-term and fair housing options, especially for our neighbors experiencing houselessness. Brillington needs compassionate public safety that works for all neighbors. I will work to center community trust, restorative practice and compassion in our public safety discussions, as well as advocating for investing and hiring trained professionals to respond to mental health related calls. Sworn and armed officers should not be at the frontline of mental health issues. I'm committed to fighting for a more fair and just economy. As Ward 8 City Councilor, I will advocate where I can for big ideas like the creation of a guaranteed minimum income program and supporting raising the minimum wage to be a true livable wage. I'm excited to be running for the Ward 8 City Council seat and I'm proud to be supported by a dedicated team who believes in a shared mission of progress and ability to make real change in our neighborhoods. I'm looking forward to a productive and meaningful campaign cycle and hope you'll nominate me as your Democratic candidate for the Ward 8 City Council seat. Thank you. Thank you so much, Hannah. Appreciate you stepping up. Okay, we're now gonna move to Ward 5 in the city's south end. We have a City Council candidate who has put their name forward, Ben Travers. And Ben will be nominated by Drake Turner. So I'll now turn the floor over to Drake. Thanks very much. My name is Drake Turner and I'm here to nominate my friend Ben Travers for City Council in Ward 5. I've lived, worked and rented in Burlington for 11 years, the last six of which have been in Ward 5. I care deeply about my community and I wanna continue to build my life and my career in our amazing city. However, too many in Burlington and especially in the south end, myself included, are faced with a difficult decision. Absorb seemingly ever-increasing rents or move out of town. With the way home prices have recently skyrocketed, my dream of owning my first home in Burlington seems less and less achievable. I know that my story is a common one and we need to act now to make progress on this issue as well as many others to ensure that Burlington is a city that is truly affordable and equitable. That's why I'm so happy to be here this afternoon to support Ben. I know that he cares about the issues facing Burlington as much as I do. I've seen him bring teams full of diverse viewpoints together and I believe that he'll work to cut through the political divisiveness that threatens to slow our city's progress. My state representative, Tiff Blumlee, recently said this of Ben that I wanna share. The issues we face as a community intersect in myriad ways. Addressing them requires the humility to imagine we don't know all that we need to know, the courage to accept truths that may make us uncomfortable and a willingness to work across interests and differences of opinion to find common ground. I've observed these qualities in Ben again and again in private conversations and as an active steward of Word 5's NPA. I'm thrilled to support his candidacy for the city council. I couldn't agree with Representative Blumlee more and for this reason, I nominate Ben Travers for Word 5 City Councilor. Thank you, Drake and congratulations to you on your recent acceptance into the next class for Emerge Vermont. Thank you as well to Andy Voda, Adam Roof, Julia Shannon-Grillo, Abby Duke and others with the Burlington Democrats for putting this virtual caucus together. My name is Ben Travers. Since announcing my candidacy 10 days ago, I've been out there hearing from neighbors and starting to build a broad base of support. The first to endorse me was Councillor Chip Mason. Chip, thank you for your service to our community over the years. It is a true honor to have your support. Since Chip's endorsement, our diverse coalition has continued to grow with support from among others, Drake Turner, Councillor Joan Shannon, Representative Tiff Blumlee, former Representative Mary Sullivan, former City Councilor Franklin Paulino, our co-president of our Champlain Elementary, PTO, Buddy Singh, my fellow Neighborhood Planning Assembly Steering committee member, Scott Povett and my friend, Lucia Campriolo, who I am jointly supporting in her candidacy to represent Word 5 on the school board. I appreciate all of you tuned in to this afternoon's caucus. I look forward to our getting to know each other and I aim to gain your support. I've been a resident of Burlington for most of the past decade. When my wife Becky and I first moved here, we rented in Five Sisters. Seven years ago, we purchased our first home at the corner of Home Avenue in Pine Street. And just recently, when we welcomed our third child, we moved our family of five and do a new place around the corner on South Crest Drive. My oldest daughter Lola is a first grader right down the street at Champlain Elementary. My four-year-old Jack and my five-month-old Zoe are in preschool right here in Burlington. We love this city and are invested in its future. These continue to be incredibly trying times for parents and really for all Burlingtonians. I believe local government has a unique opportunity to better our day-to-day lives. I am running with the intent to work as a fair-minded consensus builder, listening to and respecting all points of view. I do not enter this race with any particular political ideology or agenda. My commitment to you is to view every decision through the lens of whether it is making life better and easier for my neighbors, from all walks of life. As a teenager, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and when I was 20, she passed away. At that young age, I learned the importance of community. My family would not have made it through that time without the support of friends and neighbors. Our community and our neighborhoods, our schools, our workplaces and among family and friends is what props us up and allows us to thrive. In Burlington, I am driven to serve the community that makes our city great. This is why after becoming a father, I joined the Burlington Parks Commission to be a better steward for our outdoor spaces. It's why I've spent years on the steering committee for our Ward 5 NPA, building a welcoming and inclusive forum for discussion on important community issues. It's why as a renter, I served on Burlington's housing board of review, resolving security deposit disputes and upholding minimum housing standards. It's why during the pandemic, I've quietly but regularly delivered food and other essentials to myself and neighbors. As someone who both lives and works in Burlington as a father, a homeowner and a lawyer working at a firm downtown, I aim to continue in service to our community as a city counselor, representing a new generation of leadership. Two issues I'd like to briefly focus on are housing and affordability. I am deeply concerned about the issues raised by Drake, about the rising costs of living in our city. I don't believe my wife and I would be able to afford a first home in Burlington today. I recently heard from a neighbor who's now unable to make property tax payments without the assistance of loans. This is not acceptable. We need to make equitable adjustments to our assessment system and fully implement a property tax relief fund for residents in need. As city counselor, I will also support amending zoning ordinances that currently prohibit residential development in the South End. I believe we can do this in the South End in such a way that maintains our character as a space for artists, makers, and small businesses and that properly preserves our open spaces. To further support more affordable housing, we at least need to fully fund the voter-approved housing trust fund. And for those neighbors who are houseless, we need to do better to provide empathy-driven support. I appreciate the comprehensive approach outlined by Mayor Weinberger the other day, which includes paths to soon achieve long-term stable housing with resources as well as more low barrier housing. As the mayor's plan moves forward, I will work to ensure the voices of additional stakeholders are heard, including my ward five neighbors and those with lived experience as unhoused. I look forward to discussing these issues and more as the campaign moves forward, such as how we can support programs like Burlington's Early Learning Initiative or ELI, which includes critical funding to address the challenges of finding available affordable childcare or how we can make further progress on public safety reform in a responsible manner, still founded in principles of racial justice and equity or how we can expand upon opportunities to support more inclusive community-driven projects in our parks. No city counselor can promise to be all things to all people. What I can promise though is that I will be available to you. I will listen to you. I will respect you. I will act to find common ground on areas of disagreement. I will work against divisiveness to the end of progress. I hope you will be in touch and that you'll stay tuned to our campaign on Facebook, Twitter and our new website, bendtravers.com. If you have the means, we would welcome your donation. If you'd like to volunteer or need a long sign, let us know. Most importantly though, please put us in touch with your ward five friends and neighbors. I'm honored to receive the Democratic endorsement and look forward to our working together. Thanks again. I'm thrilled to be running with this great team. Thank you so much, Ben. Well, that concludes the portion for prior nominees. And now I will speak to, we've had two floor nominations. And so the first one is in word one. We have Linda Shee who is nominated for word one inspector of elections. Linda won't be speaking, but she will be added to the ballots that will be sent out after this meeting concludes. We have a city council nominee in whose name was put forward in word seven. And that person's name is Alexander Stith and Alexander is on the call and we'll now say a few words. Alexander. Thank you very much. Yeah, hi everyone. My name is Alexander Stith and I'm a resident of ward seven and I will keep this concise. I've decided to run for city council in order to help bring a data driven approach and the plan do check act methodology that has served me well, both in my personal career as an engineer and a manager to the council. To dovetail onto that, I currently work as a plant manager and senior process engineer for a manufacturing company. I hold a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, a certificate of graduate achievement in plastics engineering and I've completed all the requirements for a master's degree in business administration. My wife Lori is a public school counselor who has taken a leave of absence to raise our two young children, a financially challenging feat given the rising cost of living in Burlington, something that the council should focus on. My family and I have lived in the new North End since 2019 when we purchased our first home. And prior to that, we rented a very small one bedroom apartment in the old North End for a decade so that we could save. As an engineer, I love to understand and solve problems, especially through collaboration. And I recognize the need to use a pragmatic approach to decision-making. As an engine or as a manager, rather, I understand that everyone is different and as such can bring differing opinions and valuable insight to a discussion. I have an open door policy in life as I do in work and I'm willing to seek to understand before being understood. And thank you for your time. Great, thank you very much, Alexander. So Alexander will be added to the ballot on board seven as a city council nominee. So that concludes our program. So let me explain what's gonna happen next. So first of all, let me just thank you all for participating today. It's really, as we heard from our speakers from the state leaders at Ann and Jill and our Mayor Murrow down to the ward level from our existing and future, hopefully city councilors, you know, it's really sort of about bringing all the stuff that we care about in the national and the state level, but it's really all what happens at the local level. And there's nothing more local than a word caucus and it's really pretty great. So I appreciate everyone's time and energy to coming into today. And I hope that you all are as inspired as I am by the dedication and caring of all the people that we heard from tonight. So these aren't easy jobs and I'm grateful that people are willing to step up and serve because it's tough. So I will now close the speaking portion of the Burlington Democratic nominating caucus and move to the voting period. And so all of those who registered will receive an email with a link to a secure voting system after the meetings ended. We need a few minutes afterward to add the floor nominees and do some final checks. And then we will initiate the voting and send out the emails. So you will then have a four hour period, approximately 530 to 930 to submit your vote. So at 930, that will be the official close of the nominating caucus and the end of voting. If you have a ward such as Ward 2 where we've had no nominees, you will not receive a ballot if there's nothing to vote for from this caucus. So if you have any questions, email us at BurlingtonDems at gmail.com if you need any support. And again, it'll give us a few minutes to get the electronic ballots out. And let me just close by saying thank you very much and good night.