 With city councillors, please take their seats Would everyone please stand and join with me and we second the pledge of allegiance first First item on our agenda tonight. I'd like to convene the city council meeting regular city council meeting a 725 first meeting on the agenda Item on the agenda is the agenda is there a motion? Councillor Nodell president right I move to amend and adopt our agenda as follows Note all signatures for agenda item 2.02 police commission report remove from consent item 4.03 note correct version of Consent agenda item 4.04 a communication from Calib mana excavation Inspector DPW regarding 239 luma Street Note correct title and written material for consent agenda item 4.05 a Communication from councillors Nodell and Pine regarding Funding requests for the city council initiatives fund to approve funding for big heavy world To support the delivery of inclusive substance free all ages concerts remove from the consent agenda item 4.05 that communication which we did not get to on board of finance Note the revised bid tabulation for consent agenda agenda item 4.13 a communication from Laura. We lock calendar year 18 sidewalk and curb reconstruction program Per Ashley to per Councillor busher remove from the consent agenda item 4.15 a communication from Cindy Wright Director Parks and Rec regarding Old North End Community Center sub leases Another item again. We did not get to him board of finance Note written material for consent agenda item 4.16 a communication from Kirsten Merrill and Shapiro and Laura we lock regarding Great Street st. Paul Street construction contract approval with action to authorize Chapin Spencer director of public works To execute a contract with sd Ireland brothers corporation in the amount of three million one hundred and twenty nine thousand dollars and fifty cents Also authorize the use of an additional two hundred nineteen thousand seventy seven dollars and eighty one cents for contingency funds for a total of three million three hundred forty eight thousand seventy eight dollars and thirty one cents the construction for the Great Street St. Paul Street project Subject to prior approval of the city attorney's office to authorize Chapin Spencer director of public works the authority to execute an agreement with Brolin's electric in the amount of 254 thousand three hundred seventy seven dollars and also authorize the use of an additional twenty five thousand dollars for contingency funds for a total of two hundred seventy nine thousand three hundred seventy seven dollars for the procurement of lighting and installation for the Great Street St. Paul Street project subject to prior approval of city attorney's office and To authorize CAO Beth Anderson or her design rate to designate to affect all necessary transfers of funds To and from the above reference funding sources in order as needed to pay for the above reference Project expenses note addition of it or chart for considered agenda item 4.18 Which is a resolution to implement mark market factor adjustment for innovation technology project manager position? This came this was approved to the board of finance note revised version of Consent agenda item 4.19 Which is a resolution? amending the Cobra rates for fiscal year beginning July 1 2018 note the revised version and then remove it from the Consent agenda Because we didn't get to it at the board of finance removed from Consent agenda item 4.20 Resolution city personnel part policy approval updates to section 5.4 compensation plan 5.4 a step placement 5.4 c promotions placement After reclassification to higher grade 5.4 e red lining and 5.4 f transfer From the institutions and human resources committee place it on the August 27th city council Consent agenda per counselor busher note corrected appendix e for consent agenda item 4.25 a communication from Neil Lunderville interim CEDO director and Lynn Reagan HR manager and Stephanie Reed interim HR director Regarding creation of new positions and increasing the hours of two positions per Neil Lunderville. That was approved to board of finance Removed from the agenda item 5.03 this is from our deliberative agenda the discussion regarding rules and regulations of the city council placed on the August 27th regular council deliberative agenda Finally note the revised version and the title change for a deliberative agenda item 5.04 The resolution about the Burlington downtown improvement district phase one assessment coming to us from counselors roof and Shannon Thank You councillor modell and We will we will get a handle on those long amendments at some point seconded by councillor busher any discussion hearing none all those in favor of approving the agenda as amended Please say aye. Aye any opposed passes unanimously. We have our agenda and We will now bounce over the city reports from planning and police To item number three, which is a time certain public forum for 730 and it is 730 So I will open the public forum You have with time system in front of you will be three minutes the light will come on first will warn you You're down to last minute or so And all we ask in public forum is we will listen attentively to your comments And we just ask that they are respectful and that they go through the president and not directed at anyone else personally So we will open the city council the public forum up tonight with Liz Mariana to be followed by Bruce Wilson Good evening. Miss Mariana. Welcome. My name is Liz Mariani. Thank you My name is Liz Mariani. I identify as Italian-American Jewish heart of hearing and queer and someone who lives with active PTSD I would like to see this mural taken down and replaced with options designed by local muralists So that the students and the youth of Burlington, Vermont could vote on this option Okay, we need to dismantle how colonized thinking and white supremacy has manifested in our lives Leaving mostly only visible representations of white often males to gender heteronormative situations White supremacy is a problem and we need to confront it We have an opportunity here to lead by example when I lived in Portland, Oregon I walked around the corner to go shopping at Whole Foods. It was in a plaza with the Starbucks a UPS a library and On that mural was some graffiti of a swastika I went to the library and told them what was going on. Nothing happened. I went to the Starbucks and the UPS Nothing happened. I called the police. They told me that somebody was messing around and putting a swastika on backwards And that was probably just kids fooling around. It wasn't until I went to the manager of the Whole Foods Did that thing go away within 48 hours? This is gonna go away while they're not at the city council that does it is another question I have my own personal journey to dismantle the conditioning and colonized thinking and how white supremacy and how the cisgender Representations etc. Have manifested in my life. I have my own journey To go through which should be followed by action. So don't worry Burlington. You're not alone in this This mural this mural is an imagination station It is the pages of public children's book for all to see But only some feel like they belong This is about the mural But this is also about a message to all the white liberals in this town in this state I don't care who you think you are you can like as many posts as you want on social media and put as many bumper stickers As you want on your car. I don't care who you think you are. I care what you do This work is uncomfortable. It's difficult and it's necessary either we do it now or we do it later White supremacy and colonized thinking harms white people too Along with removing murals. I think we should name the straights the streets behind the Burlington College Condos names at the abanaki choose the white people Okay here in this city and state. This is what we should be doing I know because I'm a white person. We have to be dismantling white supremacy We need to listen to what people of color with children with indigenous people with trans people What disabled people what everybody is saying? We need to open doors We need to redistribute resources and stop hoarding resources including our imaginations And we need to do our own personal and professional inventories and we need to get out of the way I am done with performative social activism Life is not an LO bean catalog. I guarantee if you go to that website There are a couple of white kids holding hands Thank You Ms. Mariani Bruce Wilson is up next to be followed by Albert Petraca Good evening, mr. Wilson welcome Thank you So I'm Bruce Wilson Executive director of a nonprofit organization here in Burlington. Well pretty much in Vermont we work with our youth service providers Around Probably say around 95% of the murals in Burlington up through our program and it's we put those murals up around all the ones you around Handys all those cool ones and we created our own boxes and The reason why we did that because we have a graffiti abatement program and then and it's to mr In my studies in 2001. I find if you put graffiti I mean murals over graffiti that the graffiti vandals where they honor them as you can see the town is not really bombed up with graffiti and It's a lot of Expressions for the muralists who put those murals up there. We had some a Lot of people didn't like those murals in but they didn't understand the reasons why we did it It's because we didn't want the city to be have graffiti all around them We continue to still do that put murals up and Help the city Everyone loves the parade who's Who? Appreciate the work that we did or with the murals and the graffiti Removal programs Decided that the mural that he put up there that he wanted dedicated to our organization Those which you have a copy of that mural map is We are the only ones that can sell those maps in this whole Polly world except him and what he did was he dedicated that map We read the back of it to the chill out centers which we own which is free centers in the mall since 2003 for youth to have a safe place to be were healthy outlets Education on drugs is not called tobacco. We have college programs and all kind of cool stuff We have over 50 awards for that just want to get safe collaborative award Just in April maybe a fourth one that we won through them And so I'm here to support Pierre and the work that he did and the dedication that he did for our youth programs I feel that um The day of dedication. I was there. It was a very important day. Like he was there It was because dedicate like he was way that's naming that street back there where the murals are and I'm and then even that day That we couldn't even sell our maps for people from the commission and Director said we couldn't even sell our maps it to dedicate our for you know to Support our youth programs. So I don't feel that That I was treated wrong by in racism Everybody who knows me said knows I sit on a lot of boards and committees round racial justice I was appointed for the Attorney General to be on a disparity panels. I sit on a Burma State police fair and partial Policing as well as community In the community work in the communities and so I just want to say let's keep that mural up there, you know and in support here Thank you, mr. Wilson Albert Petrarcha up next to be followed by Joanna Hunt. Good evening, mr. Petrarcha. Welcome First I'd like to thank Consumman Ali Jang for What has been nothing but bold leadership in a really hostile pro-white? Burlington City Council We're now at the one-year anniversary of Charlottesville and In that time cities all over this country have overwhelmingly moved to removing Racist in offensive memorials artwork statues from their community I didn't know what the proposal was going to be. I just heard it tonight that the deal is that The mural task force which itself is a white concoction of Moreau Weinberger and Ron Redmond Is we're gonna recommend that the mural stay up for what is it for more years something like that? until 2020 so that the the capitalist investors of The mural get their money's worth But the people the communities the marginalized the vulnerable have to put up With four more years because this pro-white pro-majority white certainly City consul is gonna make the city of Burlington Against the historical trend against where every other city is moving in this country You're gonna make the people Suffer the pain the the exclusiveness the the the just the violence of the racist nature of this mural No one has made an argument. It's just that this mural isn't racist. I mean everyone knows that that's it's The debate that's been going on for the past what eight months now in the city I mean everyone knows this is racist. The only issue is what do we do about it? Do we do the morally right thing and remove it like the rest of the United States is moving? or do we inflict it on people of Particularly communities of color, but let's not forget. There's no LGBTQ people up there There's no organized labor up there. There's no Environmentalists up there. There's no one up there because the entire thing is a scam It's an urban billboard trying to pass itself off as art in history what you really should be doing tonight, bro What you really should be doing tonight is censoring this man for his remarks on Vermont edition on March 22nd Where he threatened on two occasions in that interview that there would be a white identity Backlash in Burlington if that mural was taken down That's really what you you should be doing is punishing him for the racial animus that he injected into this citywide Debate, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Petrarch. I'm Junna Hunt be followed by Jack Dagget Good evening miss Hunt welcome practice show up at UVMMC. We don't have a contract yet bargaining took place all day today with no movement I Also just want to say I respect What everybody else is talking about and I'm sorry that I'm not really participating because I'm working and trying to get To get this nurses thing figured out I I Thank you for the resolution and I think the last time I forgot to maybe thank Brian and maybe Joan But I think all of you and we need your continued support One of the approaches we've taken is trying to get the board of directors involved and they're Saying that they don't want to be involved which I find hard to believe because of course they're involved They're involved in all the financial decisions that the UVMMC makes It's feeling increasingly disheartening Given how much disrespect and how undervalued most of the nurses and the nurse practitioners feel At the way we're being treated not just because of the contract and the wages But just because of the way they've handled the negotiations At the last time I was here with when you passed the resolution It was kind of interesting that Eileen Whalen was here and Lori Gunn and some of the other top people Eileen Whalen has been to one negotiation session and that was basically to say that they weren't accepting our proposals I find it pretty disingenuous that even in their news updates The ones the administrators that are reporting back on how the negotiations are going have not been present in the negotiations I Also just want to really appreciate all the nurses. I'm not on the bargaining session But all the nurses who are in the bargaining committee This is not necessarily their job or what they're supposed to be doing But they're really working hard because we really believe what we're asking for in the contract We think it's completely reasonable most of the nurses many of the nurses have been underpaid and overworked for years and it'd be it's just I Feel personally just kind of shocked at times that That there's not any movement I myself have lost two PCPs in the last year because they weren't at both nurse practitioners and they both left because they weren't making enough money There's another nurse practitioner. I know that's going to be leaving this month also because she's making going to be making more money in Burlington at another place better benefits Loan repayment none of which you've amc offers So I know there's lots of other things on your agenda and other things going on But this really does impact the health of everybody in Burlington, and I'm asking for your continued support. Thanks Thank You miss Hunt Jack Daggett is up next to be followed by Nick for your flourish Good evening, mr. Daggett welcome. Thank you I'm Jack Daggett. I live in downtown at King and St. Paul And I think the mural should come down it Burlington needs to be more tolerant and open-minded as much as possible and that's not the message conveyed by this mural I'd like to remind everybody that before people started coming here from Europe The Western hemisphere was inhabited and had been for 30 or 40,000 years They had their own language religion law government and so instead of As the mural portrays Champlain looming over the indigenous person They should he should have been asking permission to land here and come Come into the country There's If anyone is interested in learning more there's a very good biography of Champlain that was published 10 years ago By a man named David Hackett Fisher and they have a copy of that in the library in the Fletcher library, so I Guess that's all I have to say. Thank you Thank You mr. Daggett Nick flourish Good evening and welcome. Hello. How are you? My name is Nick flourish I am a co-captain of code for BTV and we are your local Vermont code for America Brigade We believe that the efficient delivery of community services is a matter of social justice So we try to adjust those issues of injustice by volunteering our time to build could you pull the microphone a little closer? I'm in trouble hearing you we try to address issues of injustice caused by Inefficiently delivered community services by volunteering to build the digital equity the efficient digital equity for the government non-profit significant organizations That often can't afford it with modern technology and tools and methodologies So because I work or I work with code for BTV and we are represented at the national level by code for America my work represents Burlington and I thought I would fill you in on this past Saturday when we had the national day of Civic hacking which was the sixth this time around the theme was housing and We invited Vermont housing finance agency the Vermont coalition in homelessness and the Vermont affordable housing coalition To come down and bring some projects to us. They did they brought some website updates that they desperately needed to have fixed 15 civic minded technologists is what I'm calling civic hackers Came out and helped them address the issues that they had with their websites We updated the rental codes Org website we updated the VRSC the Vermont resident service coordinators website And then we helped for my affordable housing coalition and the Vermont coalition to end homelessness with new website updates and fixes and redesigns And that's what we did on Saturday for Burlington. That's all I've had Thank You mr. Flores our final speaker this evening is Catherine Avery Antly sorry printing was small Good evening and welcome. Thank you for having me the purpose of My visit this evening Is to introduce you to the idea or the concept that? This epidemic of addiction that we have in Vermont and all over the United States is preventable and That we have a fantastic model in Iceland if you haven't already heard about it. I want to introduce it to you That is has been proven to be successful, and I think that's pretty profound in and of itself so in 1992 Iceland had the worst alcohol and drug epidemic of the entire continent of Europe and For the next couple of years. They did a little bit of what we're doing They taught we're trying to keep teach kids to say no and Teach kids in schools what the different drugs do and It didn't work there their rates going up the sort of the way ours have I have a little packet Which you can follow along so ours have started to go up to and so it's sort of emphasize the parallel paths that we're on here So at that point they brought three groups together the your group the legislators the leaders parents the power the people And the scientists and led by the scientists and based on scientific method and Uniting bringing down silos and bringing these people together. They were able to create a model Which you eradicated addiction essentially so the island had 365 people they had six rehabs allegedly and I believe I've been told that they've closed all but one of them So those costs are absolutely astounding and As I sit here, I know that everyone in this room has been touched by the disease of addiction If it's not in ourselves, it's in our kids if it's not in our kids It's in our parents if it's not in our kids It's in our friends and if it's not in our friends. It's in our employees our employer and Therefore this disease has its hand in every single person's pocket even if you're the parent of a Three or four year old and you think you're bulletproof and so, you know, that's really the purpose of my of my my talk I read the article in the Atlantic I Went to Iceland for a professional conference and met the leaders You know as an aside I was invited back to a three-day conference to learn in depth how this worked And I've come back with an enormous amount of information that I haven't given you near not even a Very small percentage of it, but given the opportunity I would be happy to do that Thank you very much Public forum is closed. That was final speaker this evening Sir to do have you spoken? Oh, okay. I thought you were I thought you had spoken. Would you like to speak? come on up and just Tell us your name and We'll set the timer for three minutes Professor philosophy who moved to the wonderful city of Burlington less than three years ago and As a philosopher, I'm used to being in a minority which I am But I'm speaking from the standpoint of somebody who has written extensively on First Amendment and art and the problem with the report is that The report is asking the city council To violate the First Amendment specifically by violating the First Amendment law That states that you point censorship Not be done by the state Now there's a very famous statement about this that was made by the Supreme Court in 1943 To the extent that no official higher petty can say What is proper for opinions in nationalism politics religion or force the citizens To confess their face there in Robert Jackson 1943 West Virginia versus Barnett Now for many years many decades This idea has dominated some of the most powerful opinions by the Supreme Court And Oftentimes they've gone against the left oftentimes. I've gone against the right but these opinions have demanded neutrality and Those laws still stand that is the opinion of the Supreme Court, but many people now basically don't follow it and There are two reasons in particular. I think that has led to this growing disbelief in the law of the land of the First Amendment One is that the kind of things that we now censor are now vaguer They're not specific anymore. They're very vague and Again, the Supreme Court doctrine then is if you have a vague doctrine that you're censoring for that chills so that What is being censored in this mural is very vague because we don't know what else will be censored nobody knows What will be said will be censored and this vagueness has now dominated With very few references to whether this is consistent with the Supreme Court The other problem is that the attacks on these vague Targets have become Increasingly ill it's in their use of force one of the speakers defaced the plaque That was an attack on the intellect Milbury College in Vermont is the most famous of these examples Infamous throughout the country because professor leading a speaker that the students didn't like was beaten up Ben Shapiro Somebody who is who has written and talked extensively against each code of the sort that are really unconstitutional Has been shut up many many times And we're not trying to shut you up, but your time is up but but thank you for those comments and and Glad to see you at your first Burlington City Council meeting. I'm sure we'll see you again With that that concludes tonight's public forum and we will now I am now going to recess the regular city council meeting for a minute and convene the liquor control Commission and First item on the agenda is the agenda Commissioner Dean Vicki commissioner, right. I'd like to move to adopt the agenda Seconded by commissioner roof any discussion hearing none all those in favor of the agenda As amended, please say aye Any opposed we have the agenda item number two is the consent agenda commissioner Dean like to move To adopt the consent agenda taking the actions as indicated seconded by councillor roof Any discussion on that motion hearing none all those in favor of adopting the consent agenda and taking the actions indicated, please say aye any opposed and Motion to adjourn motion to adjourn is in order seconded again by councillor roof and all those in favor of adjournment, please say aye We have completed that agenda of the liquor control Commission. Thank you And we will now go back to the regular city council meeting reconvene the regular city council meeting at 755 and item number two is annual reports to the city council Item number 2.01 is the planning commission annual planning commission report director white former city councilor Montrell former president Montrell and chair of the planning Commission Good evening I'm Andy Montroll the chair of the planning Commission. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you president, right city council mayor As you saw from our report It's had a very active year on the planning Commission from very small things like some technical corrections to our Zoning ordinance to some very large things like finishing up the downtown plan be the downtown form-based code to beginning the Taking a look at What's next for us which we came to the council a few months ago on our municipal development The plan be TV For our future that we're working actively on We've highlighted some of the other items in here But I want to and I'm happy to take questions in just a moment if you have any on on what we have But I also just want to take a moment to talk about the people that's this is something that's not in our report Let me begin by just saying our from my perspective at least our planning Commission has been a really good group to work with It's we come with a wide variety of views on it We don't all see the same way, and I think that gives a lot of strength to what we do on the planning Commission I think by and large we've come we come to agreement on most things But not every certainly on number of items we find that we have Minority points on our Commission, but we all work well together And I think we come together with some really good proposals that we bring forward We have a great group of staff that works with us David Megan and Scott, thank you who who is a staff person to our To our ordinance committee and comes to many of our meetings when we're talking about specific changes to our to our zoning code And the others at the planning office all work really well together None of it could be done none of the work that we do could be done without their help They really are very strong in that and then the people that come to us the members of the community that come to us on a regular Basis and share their viewpoints to us who come to us with different items that they have concerns about People in Burlington as you know are not afraid to share their ideas, and we really value that we really take that to heart and You know many of the things that we work on come from people who bring their concerns bring their ideas to us so it's been a Really great year for us. We're looking forward to another year where we're focused a lot on on our Burlington plan of what we're going to look like over the next number of years and It's a pretty ambitious project Megan is heading that one up And really resetting the way that we look at it policies that we have in there I don't think are going to change very much, but the way we look at it I think we'll you'll see some dramatic changes And I think we'll make it much easier as we go forward in the next times these have to be reviewed and redone To focus on that and to be able to keep our vision alive in Burlington of what's so important to all of us David Megan did you have anything to add? Okay, we'll turn it over to the council councillor no Dell Thank you. Thank you President right great report especially like the photo of Chair Montrell with chair right I don't know if you notice that president right I did I like the especially the list of amendments that are in process and very stage of process And I do hope that we can make some progress on the enforcement period of limitations issue And I'm happy to see that this is kind of I understand that this is now Filtering up to the top of the list at least I hope so and as remember the ordinance committee I'm ready to go to work on that. Thank you Thank you. Thank you councillor no doubt councillor busher. So thank you. I like to look out of the faces here. So So goes the planning commission so goes the ordinance committee for the city council So I think you know work. We're very much connected as councillor. No Dell just stated What's really important to me is the diversity of ideas that your membership has it's so important that We get the right people that have don't all agree but can bring up Different ways of seeing Burlington and seeing the world and then working through that and representing the public So to me, it's not about Ultimately one voice one decision, but it's really that diversity of Ideas and representation and I think that this commission does that very well The few times I don't go as much as I used to but I but when I do go I'm happy to hear the the back-and-forth Discussion About how each of you see things and then how you wrap it up and come to a conclusion So I just wanted to compliment you on that and I think for the council. That's really so important when we're making Appointments, I mean, I know we there are so many issues that come forward But that diversity of ideas are really important on on Commissions like this that are creating ordinances and creating policy for the city that it's Representative of all aspects and all viewpoints. So I don't have anything else to say I thought the picture of David White was also you look very dapper very nice and congratulations on your award And I don't want to take away from from president right and andi Montrell's photo, but thanks again Thank You councillor busher councillor pine Thanks a lot for the report and I just wanted to call out that the City Council Community Development Committee working alongside with the ordinance committee is going to be digging into the inclusionary zoning provision of the ordinance for those who don't know it's a piece of our ordinance which says that all housing development shall Include affordable housing, and I just want the commission to be ready for that because it will the steps are that it goes through our committees It then goes to the Commission, I believe for their consideration So we're shooting to have it done by December and hopefully it'll be on your work plan to dig right into it when you get it We look forward to getting it. Thank you Thank you councillor pine anything else from the City Council for the team Hearing none Thank you very much for that presentation and that are that report. Thanks. Thank you With that we will move to the second annual city report From the police commission Good evening Welcome. Thank you. I'm shereen heart. I'm the vice chair of the police commission I'm here with deputy chief Jan right and also with the chair Michelle ash So thank you for letting us speak as you know, you have our annual report, but just some highlights We are seven commissioners six six of us have joined in the last two years with our newest joining in the last month so it's a very young Commission and We turned over in addition to turning over two chairs in that two-year period just because of Their own personal life Experience has nothing to do with the board itself. So a lot of you know, we're trying to get ourselves organized and I Write writing our ship, I guess I would say just to get things moving So this year we're a little more prompt with our annual report in terms of what the police department Handles approximately 40,000 calls every year 5,000 of those are criminal in nature Handles all emergency communications for police fire Rescue operations throughout the city as well as providing additional services such as Chittenden unit for special investigations drug task force operations street crimes unit school resource officers beach and Parks patrol citywide parking enforcement and Security at the Burlington Airport One of the big challenges for the police department is keeping the force The numbers up and so currently or the lat when the report was written. There were 99 Uniformed officers or officers 41 support personnel the the goal is to have a hundred and five Officers or uniformed folks and I know there are nine identified retirements for this fiscal year alone And then the unexpected so there's a lot of work and one of the focuses for the police department is Recruiting a diverse Police force and that takes a lot of effort And so and scrutiny and I think there's a new recruitment officer looking at it with a fresh set of eyes And I do think it from what I understand there has been an improvement in the diversity of the force There has been however You know we have had some departures within the last month So we're still dealing with a lot of challenges and that's just not Burlington It's countywide statewide and nationwide in terms of highlights of this past year one was that the Burlington Police Department made recommendations to the Vermont Police Academy in terms of the entrance exam because that has proven to be one of the hurdles to diversity hiring and so Burlington suggested a longer exam and that has already proven to be a Success a longer period of time sorry Sorry, yes longer period of time to complete the exam and then the substance of the questions remains the same but the language is more direct and that they just accepted that in July they Accepted a few months ago and that new format has gone into effect in July And so it's going to take about a year to see how that's working And I believe the department is hiring hoping to get a national expert to look at examinations And more robustly dive into that as well Also the police department Received or took possession of the emergency resource vehicle and related equipment and this is to contain in one spot less lethal equipment and Have that available and so that took place about two months ago And there's been training on the vehicle and the equipment that's on it In terms of the police commission work we have been charged The Public Safety Committee Last year or the year before was reviewing the role of the Commission and whether the city Charter should be amended and we are continuing to Review that as I said due to the change in so many commissioners I think we're really regrouping on that point and trying to dive in and get a grasp on it And one final point is we are currently hiring a deputy police chief to replace South Burlington's chief Burke Okay. Thank you for that report questions for Commissioner Hart or acting chief right Commissioner Tracy Counselor Tracy, excuse me Thank You President right and thank you for the report certainly appreciate it One of the issues that we've discussed pretty continuously at the council is the issue of racial bias and how that figures into policing and how We can do a better job of providing bias free policing in our community One of the things and I think there are two things in this report that sort of stand out in terms of the work that the police are doing Around that the involvement in the community council of accountability with law enforcement Officials and then also the state police advisory committee. So in terms of questions I'm wondering within those conversations that you're having with Kaleo Are there things that have come out in those conversations that have then translated into actions or policies that have been Implemented with the Burlington Police Department And then as a second part with regards to the state's advisory committee model That was sort of being tested kicked around seeing if it works I'm wondering what strengths you think that that model has in terms of addressing racial bias in our policing And what weaknesses are and and if we might want to continue with that Or if you think that we could have some sort of amended model of that that would better address bias and in Policing in Burlington Sure, so unfortunately our chair Christine Longmore Kemp was is the founder of Kaleo And so Christine was the direct representative who chief Birkin and miss Kemp Really were keeping keeping the connection between the police department and Kaleo So I can't speak to that Really Christine was the person and miss Kemp and so that's unfortunate It's unfortunate that she is no longer on the commission But we she and I are trying to stay connected on these issues So again, she just stepped down a month ago But it's my hope that we will stay connected and chief Burke really was the one who was attending those meetings, right? so I think back in February of 2017 is what the date on this resolution is I think there was the fair and impartial policing and The SPAC was were together on that resolution basically After February of 2017 those two were separated so the Commission then had the Public forums on the fair and impartial policing. We developed the policy that sort of thing So that was kind of separated out. We're still working on The accountability piece when it comes to what you were what you were speaking about One of the counselors that is Or I'm sorry one of the commissioners that hasn't been present at the last couple of meetings We haven't wanted to move forward With that conversation until that person was there We want the as many people from the commission to be there as we possibly can We want all the voices and all the ideas that we can get together My my guess is the next meeting will be fully discussing that With the accountability piece and how it fits in with Kaleo's back and that sort of thing. So this conversation is continuing Right in fact that commissioner had asked that we table it until he could return because it is something that he is deeply interested in So I guess my question though is more about like so you've they've used it a little bit to review some cases and some complaints What do you think are there weaknesses or strengths that you think are the things that we could add to that model to make it More specific to Burlington and some of the the issues that we see arising with with racial profiling Through the work that you've done using this model, you know, that was part of the the plan of trying to Guess do it. I don't think we have worked with it enough to be able to I haven't worked with it enough to give a fair assessment Of that I think there there could potentially be More that we can do but I don't feel like I have had enough experience Truly we are we haven't Had gotten as far down the road as we would have liked just because we are Starting from the ground up in in some respects So I wish I could give you a more direct answer on that, but I just don't feel like we maybe others would Would comment differently, but I don't feel like I can fairly at this point say I Just think that we need to assess it more and there could be more we would find Okay, thank you very much. Thank you councillor Tracy councillor busher So I want to follow up just a little bit with that if did I understand that you said You were tabling the process where the commissioners reviewed complaints and what did you say you were tabling or postponing? we had The discussion about that so we In June we're going to discuss whether this process feels robust enough whether You know different opinions on the commission, but we couldn't have continued in July I think we're hoping to have that discussion this month So I'm I'm gonna be Bold and say that I think that it's always helpful to have external eyes look at complaints I Work at the hospital still and it's and there are regulate regulatory agencies that look at us to make sure we comply and Look at some of the challenges that we face and how we handle them So I think that the role of the Commission looking at complaints against police officers Was meant to be helpful and insightful and strengthen the department And so I'm hoping that I know it's a new commission But I'm hoping that there is a recommitment to that and that it's cohesive in it and the police force and the the management of the police department feel that That they take it in the spirit that it's meant So I really hope that the Commission will stay with that having said that I wanted to Acknowledge how important it is that you are recommitting to or continuing to commit to looking at deescalation techniques because I think that is so germane to every situation that is You know, I I get so distressed by watching National news and seeing situations that I know very little about but feel like I Didn't feel like the outcome had to be somebody dying and so that's just one Non-police officers opinion, but it just really is troubling to me And so I'm really pleased that our community is still emphasizing that So those are two serious things then on the another Point I read that the Department of Homeland Security. It might be scaling back at some airports and I don't know if that's going to happen here But I also note that you have like eight officers that are dedicated So I'm hoping that this information. Mr. Mayor will be shared and we will be able to anticipate Because that will change staffing potentially in a way that may not be positive I mean we may have to fill the gap or we may have reduced staffing out there That's just an aside that I just wondered about also and just wanted to highlight that so anyways, thank you Thank you, and if I I certainly didn't mean to suggest that we aren't committed to the advisory to We are committed to it. I think the question is whether that is robust enough We don't continue. We plan to continue with looking at the individual Complaints against police officers. It's just whether the process for doing it is is the right one or you know I think it is something we need to take a big look at and and not just be satisfied with Checking off the box of this is what we were told to do and this is what we're doing But is is that enough? Thank you Also just to be clear We do share citizens complaints with the commission and we also discuss more serious Personnel issues in executive sessions, so that has not stopped it was just a matter of What the resolution said and parsing that out and trying to determine Whether what Cherine said was whether this was the right process and whether we should have something Different or something more similar to what the state police have in reference to that. Thank you Just anecdotally we do here We get a chief's report every month and my impression is that Burlington has really taken a role in the Chinden County community in terms of teaching other Police departments about less lethal Methods of handling situations. I don't know if I misspeak, but that's the impression I have is that when Burlington has been called to other sites there has been a good reaction to the The methods of less lethal reaction to the situation Thank You councillor Bushard councillor pine and then jang Yeah, thank you. I will just add that The Public Safety Committee chaired by councillor roof is meeting on Wednesday and one of the topics we'll be discussing is the issue of Basically implicit bias in police stops and so Dr. Stephanie Seguino will be presenting her the findings of her data and I think it will be something we'll be focusing on as a committee and perhaps coming back to the Commission with You know a resolution asking for Basically interacting around the issue of how to take that data and really structure training around it and use it as a Training tool so that we can help, you know bring Officers along on this journey that we're all on and we all have bias I'm not trying to say officers are worse or better than anybody else But because of that position they're in with the you know the fact that they are Armed law enforcement. It's a different relationship, and I think You know the data basically shows that we continue to have some bias There is a data analyst which is incredible and also we see that you have a position that look Specifically about domestic violence. You also have another position that looks specifically about opiate addiction All of those are wonderful great things And I do think that still we have way to go in terms of making sure we have people from diverse Background that leave here so the demographic can reflect the population of Burlington But you making substantial amount of progress and one of them is to bring the exam here in Burlington and also to rewrite The exam itself to make it more accessible. I think we we're getting there I am pretty confident that one day we will get there and we'll all be proud of the Progress, but there is one specific point that I feel like is very easy to do very simple and it is basically the Park patrols You don't need an exam right to be a park patrol Yes an interview and I do I think I have this conversation with Del Pazzo last year But it was in the middle of the of the year in the funding So you didn't have more funding to add but I was just wondering if These part patrol you included any person of color or even female if you can elaborate on that Yes, there there was there were two females this year, and they were basically summer parks patrol and there was I Don't think there was anyone of color, but there was someone who was I Don't want to say I shouldn't say for sure, but I believe they were Bosnia But you're right we do want more applicants and The only thing that we can do is to get the information out there more In the neighborhoods of color who who want a position like that because that is almost our gateway To hiring police officers. We have several people on staff right now that started in the big patrol So it's good. You're right Maybe we could do a better job of getting the information out there when those positions are open and those communities where we want We want those people to to come into our police department to be part of that community You're exactly right Yeah, the second question is basically for the Commission This is very specific. Have you ever thought about the correlation between policing and climate change? We have never Yes, I mean, I think it is important and I do think that a couple years ago. There was great wonderful You know up rush from Del Pazzo around patrolling the street by foot and also by bicycle and I don't know if that has evolved or it Stages stagnant. I will just prompt chief right that when we were putting the report together I learned that we be it that is more robust if you want to speak to the Breath of the foot patrols right the geographic area expanded, right? So As it works right now and it may change Because I think there's more senior officers that want to do foot patrols, but how it's happening right now is when a Rookie officer gets off field training. They go immediately to foot patrols whether it be Church Street or North Street something of that nature During the summertime. We also have bike patrols. So we do have a bike officer to actually two bike officers out there right now They work like a swing shift 11 11 to 9 or or 1 to 11 something like that in that area So we do have foot patrols out there Unfortunately as as anyone who works in business knows Summertime people want to take vacations So it's really hard to try and balance a shift with someone who's on vacation and then your short shift So it's been a pretty busy summer If you haven't seen as many foot patrols as you think you should have seen that maybe because they're out on calls but they are there is a Number of people who aren't on foot patrols every single day in both of those areas on Church Street City Hall Park and North Street Thank you. Thank you. Councilor jane. Councilor Hartnett. Thank you Deputy chief right you mentioned that you've we've lost a few officers Excluding Chief Burke as are we listening for to other departments? Are they are they going to the state police or I? Would say it's a combination of reasons We lost three to retirement Which is good for them. They've they've put in their time and we commend them for that We have lost a couple of people to medical retirements We did lose two to the Vermont State Police And everyone has their own reason why they're leaving There's some people aren't from Vermont and they want to go back to their families that are in different states Because they they just don't feel like they maybe have that familial support here and you know There are some people who feel like they They're a better fit in other agencies No, no, it's fine. I wasn't accident asking that in a good way I just didn't know if somehow we weren't being competitive enough or if there were some things we could do better as a city Really to recruit and to try to retention And and really maybe spend some resources in that area to figure out. What's the best way to keep our officers? I would like to say I have been to quite a few police commission meetings over the last year and I can appreciate The independence that the Commission is now working with which is very refreshing And so when I heard tonight that you had tabled Some of these things because there was a commissioner that was working Pretty exclusively in that area and that he really wanted to be a part of it and weighed in that never happened in the past It was really just rubber stamp before and I'm not saying, you know Some commissions just work that way and I understand that but from a councillor standpoint of you It's just been refreshing to see this commission work independently and really for the people of Burlington along With partnership with the police department. I appreciate that but it's really been a different approach It's been a refreshing approach approach and I certainly appreciate the work that the Commission has done. So thank you Okay, I think that we are all set. Thank you city councillors for the questions and thank you vice chair Hart and Acting chief right for doing the great job that you're both doing on the commission for your service and Holding down the fort and doing a great job while chief del pozo was out. Thank you for that and also in the audience chair ash Thank you for your work as well and also, of course, I know you by another title scooty's mom, but Well, thank you Okay, that concludes the two city reports and we will move back to the agenda item number four is the consent agenda councillor nodell President right I move that we adopt the consent agenda as amended and take the actions indicated Moved by councillor nodell seconded by councillor busher to adopt the consent agenda as amended and take the actions indicated a Discussion all those in favor, please say aye Any opposed that passes unanimously we have passed the consent agenda and I am before moving on to the next item. I'm going to recess the regular city council meeting again briefly at 828 and convene the Board of civil authority meeting I'll turn it over to the mayor Great to convene that meeting yes President right I will convene the board of civil authority at 829 and the first item of the agenda is the agenda. I would welcome a motion regarding it councillor Paul By council roof any discussion the agenda all those in favor, please say aye. Hi being posed We have an agenda and that brings us to the consent agenda Is there a motion regarding the consent agenda Move to Adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated Thank You president right do we have a second second by a council roof discussion All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Hi any opposed The consent agenda is adopted unanimously and without objection We are adjourned as a board of civil authority at 830 back to you president right Thank You mr. Mayor. I will now reconvene the regular city council meeting at 830 and Move back to the deliberative agenda for item number 5.01 and that is a communication from Interim CEDO director Neil Lunderville with an update for us on the Moran plant and I have requested this and at the request of others Constituents and councillors and so we appreciate Hearing what you have to tell us tonight directors. Thank you mr. President and I guess I can say in my first month at CEDO. I've learned that CEDO juggles one or two low-profile small-scale projects And the rest of them are like Moran And tonight we're going to talk about Moran And excited to come back to you and talk about this My report is not a long one tonight But I do want to tell you where we are and our thinking on On what's next so as you know a little less than a year ago The city and new moran ink wound down plans to For a big redevelopment of the project on the current site CEDO was tasked with coming back to The the mayor and the council with how we get to resolution on The moran site and the moran building To date we've We haven't spent a lot of time on it. We have been focused on another large Brick building this one in our downtown not on our waterfront And that's the memorial auditorium site a little sidebar here and a little plug for the work that's that's gone on We have wrapped up a citywide survey Which I know we had great participation. I'm sure from everyone on the council We had nearly 2,700 responses in the two weeks. We were we were live with that Which is a great response? And we did a lot of public engagement efforts that i'm really proud of our team for having done that We are back in here in coordination with the PAC committee On august 23rd to release the results publicly 530 meeting here in kantois And then we're going to do our first workshop public workshop on memorial on august 30th So we uh, we've been really focused on memorial auditorium and are excited with the interest that the city has Shown us in that really important building On moran. We have we have started an internal process to With a goal to get a roadmap to resolution On the facility. I think there are several pieces of work that we are looking at to to start this process one of the first items is Confirming the viability of the 7.2 million dollars in funding streams that have been available to the project in some of its previous forms that the 7.2 Million is a combination of three different funding sources ones about 4.05 million in tiff bonding one is 1.75 million dollars in HUD funds section 108 loans And the third component is a 1.4 million dollar grant from eda economic development agency of the federal government Making sure that those funding streams are in place that nothing has changed that we still have access to that money and Whatever we do going forward further we want to take a In-depth look at what worked in what didn't in previous proposals and see if there's a creative alternative to Either on one side the sort of large-scale redevelopment of the site or on the other side Demolition we think there may be Some ground in the middle that we can do a creative proposal That would meet the community's needs so ultimately I think we want a functional facility that improves the public's enjoyment of the waterfront And can be constructed within available funding and that's something we're going to be looking at So in addition to our great internal team working on this we are going to bring in an outside consultant to help us Especially with some of the scoping and estimating to look at a few of these proposals We're going to do that work over the next few months With a goal of returning to the council in november the november timeframe to talk to you more about what we've learned Also at this point, we really don't want to step on our good work on memorial to start a public process on moran So when we return later in the year, we want to fill in some of the gaps On what our public component will be if there's if there's a public component of that Obviously, it's important that we make progress and get to a point where we have some resolution On moran and and we feel confident that the work plan we've I've sketched out Will help us get there and we are eager to report back to the council by the end of the year Thank you, mr. Londonville questions from the council councillor no doubt Thank you president right. Thank you very much Mr. Londonville for that great update So just some questions about the funding So the 4.05 million dollars from tiff right is debt that's already been issued or just been authorized I don't I think it's been authorized been just been authorized. Okay And the the plan is to whatever we come up with we we need to live within the 7.2 million dollar budget You know, I think we want to see what we come up with I mean, that's uh, it would be great if we could live within that and have a great functional facility that serves our community's needs Something that we know will get built without having to draw down additional funding um, but then again if it's uh, if we have a Being a proposal that maybe to do it for less or a little bit more. I think we would entertain those We won't um We won't feel that's a kind of a tight Absolute constraint because I think that could be limiting Um, I don't see it a council. I don't see it as an absolute constraint I see it as a good a good set of guideposts for us to go for Um, I'd like to remind us all of the waterfront tiff district, which was created how long ago Many many years ago. I think during the clevelle administration Um has performed extremely extremely well Um, but we do have until december 31st 2019 to incur debt in this district Right. Um, and there I'm just Let's not squander that potential resource. Um, are there other public projects that that we may want to Bring forward either at moran or somewhere else on the waterfront I mean, I hope that we're exploring all all the different options Including maybe some ideas that came up in the papp process that weren't timely then but could be timely now Thank you. Thank you. Councillor nodel. Councillor busher Thank you. Um, so I I'm hopeful once again. I really never gave up hope but i'm more hopeful And I really feel that that there's a potential if we could get A tenant One tenant I don't feel like we have to do it all but if we got somebody That really served the needs of burlingtonians that maybe others would come and and then occupy more Of that space so I feel like There are lots of different ways to look at this and So the money that you currently said might be available and you want to I I didn't understand Did you reconfirm that the HUD money is available or you need to do that? We need we need to do that Okay, that's what I thought I believe it is but we before we We come up with we want to check all those check them twice But I i'm just really hopeful that um, there might be some potential still To do something that the public would really be enthusiastic about and would provide greater public access year round So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor busher. Councillor jang my apologies to you You were in the queue to be next and I bumped you for councillor busher by accident my fault. You're up You're up next my apologies president. No worries, but thank you So if I understand correctly, I feel like last summer The administration wanted Declare that modern plant will be tear down if I understood correctly And it sounds like it it is back on the table and it is being revisited, right? Is that correct? Am I I think I maybe let the mayor. I wasn't here for that Um, councillor jang, that's not uh, uh, exactly how I characterized what we announced last summer I think what we announced last summer was two things one that we didn't see a viable path forward with the project that we had been pursuing and secondly we released the results of a Substantial piece of analysis that Put kind of a new piece of information on the table, which is that Removing the building would cost at least four million dollars three four million dollars and potentially substantially more depending on the full scope of that demolition and what we said at the time was that We needed that we need given those two things we needed to figure out a way forward and that is What we are still in the process doing is uh, director wonderville has described Thank you, but I mean, I know you weren't here, but if you If you can just maybe, um, refresh our mind of why the modern plant ink, you know, did not meet the requirement in moving forward in developing that that that area What what what did they miss in their effort? to get there so with Thank you for the question. I I think it is That it's safe to say that I need to spend a little more time looking at what worked and didn't work in that project Before I could give a good answer on that We've not begun the work to really study Not just the numerand ink project, but all there's been numerous Proposals, we may be able to see a pattern of of items that Things that have been a struggle and a challenge again and again and out of that intelligence an insight we could Derive a plan that that would meet the public's need Will making it viable and achievable in a reasonable timeframe as the counselor and they'll point it out We do have a timeline on this so if we We want to make sure we can get it done in that timeline, but I we need to do more More studying to that to give a good solid answer Thank you for clarifying. Thanks. Thank you counselor jane counselor hartnett. Thank you Closure, I think that's the word that always comes to mind when we talk about this because I think that's what we owe the brook and taxpayers And I hear tonight that around the table Well, maybe we could be a little bit more patient and and come on and I said to myself how much more patient can we be? How many how much more time and resources and stuff and I think about all the other projects in the city that we've kind of Yeah, you know not Really spent time on intention. I don't know it just seems like we need closure on this project and I'm not in favor of spending 8 9 10 million dollars to tear this thing down And so if there was an alternative that we could look at I I've said it many times over the last couple weeks Of months and years I'd take another bite at this thing. Okay, but It has to has to be soon, right? And we can't you know We've gone out there so many different times and We have a new marina that's coming next year. We have the Community boat center and is so is the waterfront going to be under construction constantly summer after summer after summer? and so It's my hopes that You know sometime and I know you're coming back in November, but you know, we we get cost Analysis of how much it really is going to cost to tear this down If it's a couple million dollars two three million dollars, then I've said all along then let's take the building down You we can't we can't be criticized for not trying here We have put good faith efforts in year after year after year And we just haven't really come up with something that that works And if the cost is in that range, then it needs to come down And I hope we make that decision if that's the case If it's going to be between four and ten and 12 million dollars I've heard all kinds of different estimates Then I do think we should take maybe a little time to consider something that might be worthwhile All right, but I think the time has run out a long time ago And I think we are we were we were on We're on reserve And I think the people of Burlington deserve closure with this project. Thanks Thank you council heart net. Um, I would like to it's been brought up to me and and Suggested to me. I should say by a constituent. I think it's it's been passed on to the mayor's office or whatever, but If a demolition must occur or we haven't decided that but if a demolition or a partial demolition or maybe even a Read, you know redoing the project Can we save x number of dollars? Maybe millions by sealing the foundation It's always been talked about we have to dig down underneath the building and but Can we save money and I don't know I'm sure you don't have an exact number, but could we seal the foundation and potentially save a significant amount of money doing that A demolition or even just a partial demolition of some kind That's a really interesting idea and one that I will explore further. I think I do have that Communication and we will look into that because I think we want to you know, there I hope we can look at this with somewhat fresh eyes We've got great experience, but we also know that as council hard and said we've got to reach some resolutions some closure on this So I'm trying to be creative and help us find new ways to do that. I think it's a good idea and I'm looking at how we might be able to Deal with that the basement area in a new way might be a really interesting thought So let me do some more work on that and we can report back Thank you director Londonville and yeah, I agree. We do need to have resolution in the near future one way or the other I think we're all set. Thank you for that report and update director Londonville and with that we'll close that item out And move to item number 5.02, which is a mural task force report to the city council So if the members of the mural task force would come on up And first if you would each identify yourselves for for us for the listening audience Uh on channel 17 and also, thank you very much for serving on the mural task force I know you had I think I think I understand nine Nine different meetings. So it's some significant work. Yeah, I was each. Yes Um, thank you. So my name is Wei Wei Wang. I'm the chair of the task force Uh, yeah, hi, I'm tom carol task force member I'm jen berger task force member And not represented also part of the task force are patrick brown gary de caroless terry melon cough and brian sullivan and we were assisted by anthia duckster cooper who I like to acknowledge and during craft with bca And and we of course have the written report that you have given to us And I've looked at it and now if you could just Uh, see a few more words about that and then we'll turn it over to the council for questions Sure. Um, so thank you President right and city council members for having us here tonight Since late may of this year. We a seven member task force consisting of berlington community members Including educators business people and artists have been meeting at the pass of the city council in regards to the everybody loves a parade mural During this time our task force Was charged by the council to quote While respecting the principles of public art property rights artist rights and limits on government power To review and consider a wide range of options that leads to a more inclusive outcome Respects berlington's and berlin and vermont's diverse history and educates our residents and visitors That the option should include considerations Of amending the current mural removing it and or creating a new or additional work of art That better represents berlington's diversity and other options not yet discussed So We sought to gain a better understanding of the history of the mural and its current condition in order to provide grounded recommendations that reflect our charge This included meeting with various actors in the development of the piece such as business owners ron redmond included And reaching out to the artists Involved in the mural looking at other examples of similar cases across the country And having public forums for the community to provide feedback On a personal level this time was extremely enlightening about the process of how public art comes to be Both in terms of the good and not so good After weeks of information gathering and despite the differing views of the task force members We have submitted the report and recommendations that you have in hand Among the eight actions the task force Recommends that the city remove that everybody loves a parade from leigh. Hey Lehi way Additionally, we recommend that the mural be removed as soon as possible and certainly within the next four years by august 29th 2022 During this time we recommend that the city update the information informational placard To reflect the reasons for this ultimate removal and to provide correct Historical information relating to the images depicted on the mural that the city council update its arts and public places Guidelines and funding requirements and replace the elap mural with a mural that correctly reflects the history of berlington That is inclusive of the people of color That have helped to grow the city I would like to conclude by thanking council again for your attention to this important community issue And hope that you will take time to consider The information and recommendations We as representatives of the berlington community have provided as best practices for the future of elap And for the future of public artworks in berlington Could can I turn it over to my absolutely? Okay, thank you. Um, you know, I hadn't really planned on actually making some comments to that I thought I'd sort of have it to back at the room and be a fly on the wall, but but Yeti way way has really expressed pretty well what we we conceived our charge to be and I think Listening to the public forum this evening It's inescapable that this issue is a is a really is a is a powerful one in the city And more than that that there's great divided opinion in the city within the community as as to What this mural means and what needs to be done about it? But You know, they're I think that I can certainly speak for myself and I think I can speak for the group of us who produced this report that That there were there were lots of complexities in our different positions and our deliberations But that we came to some kind of agreement at the end, which you know, you have in hand Um that yes, the mural does not reflect adequately reflect Burlington history Burlington community all of the Tributory, you know members of the community and their role here over the years And certainly at the time it was produced Burlington was diversifying probably at a relatively rapid rate as it still is And so It's really difficult to argue that it that it could not have been done differently It could have been done differently, but the the circumstances that obtained at the time as you all are well aware Were really highly problematic Funding was not in place I don't think there was a clear vision or a clear plan to to produce this mural It had a very high profile because of its location And it had a it had a sort of approximate An immediate mission to to kind of To kind of create a better atmosphere around Leahy way and that that transit from the parking area to church street And so all of these things were kind of being grappled with and the the The process kind of moved along kind of with its own energy One thing I also want to say is that well I I I believe that the mural does not reflect adequately the diversity of the city and the broad interests of the community There are silences in this mural I don't believe they were acts of Commission I think that the silences were acts of omission And that that still can be harmful those effacements and silences create absences And and they create a feeling among the some community members that That that that there's a wrong bit that has been committed Um, so there's a great deal of complexity here. I think we've come up with a good solution You've charged us with with recommending to you some some actions that might be taken and And sort of we've come back to you and charged you with at least The the role of leadership in in affecting those recommendations and addressing these issues And expressing Burlington's true diversity in in a very In a very strong and forceful and definite way. So We're looking forward to you know, I've been listening to what you've all been hearing from other People and in other reports, and I understand that there's a lot on everybody's plate. There's a lot of money that that's involved We're asking you or asking the city administration or asking the arts commission to come up with real funding to get a process going And and that's not an easy task, but Here we are So, um, thank you very much. I'm grateful to have been part of this process and to contributed something and It's great to be here tonight. Thank you Thank you um I'm also not totally prepared For you make a statement. Um, I guess I did want to say that As an artist And as somebody who has been working in the community doing anti-racism organizing work Those are the lenses that I came into this conversation with and also, um, as a long time Berlin tonian with a very strong community mind, uh, was very open to the entire process and very, um, looking forward to hearing the multiple perspectives and I think we As a group really did do a thorough job in looking at all the different Participants and pieces that went into making this the history of it And also hearing from people why they think it's an issue With that being said, uh, I think the recommendations came together I think we also were able to recognize Thomas saying some of the businesses that were involved some of the artists who were unrecognized in the process some of the Information that was uncovered that was not Shown to the community as far as how that mural came to be and what its purpose was It was not clear to most of us that this was a completely sponsored mural It was touted as the history of berlington from 1609 to 2009 If you look at it, that's it's not accurate. It it really should say it's just a A nice picture of church street. It's a little bit more of an accurate representation So I feel like what we came up with and how we got there For the most part we could agree on I think the thing I just want to touch on the thing that we Talked about a lot and kind of ebbed and flowed as we got more information In our conversations and trying to think about whether we keep it up Recommend keeping up a recommend taking it down And then the conversation around the length of time which you'll see in the recommendations We kept coming up. We had a public forum session It was just one meeting just for public forum just for people from the community to come So it wasn't quite as limited And really to get that Piece that was missing from the original process into this deliberative process There were a number of people Long-term Burlingtonian people have born here who are people of color who came to speak to talk about the invisibility That they have they're experiencing on this mural and they talked about Generations younger folks who don't see themselves in this mural and what that means and the power of being able to see yourself in representation Um, I myself I'm a white person. I don't see I I don't have that same experience when I walk by that mural I don't see myself represented, but I don't have the same kind of Invisibility aspect um that people who do have that experience happen So I think for any of us who are white we don't have we can't I think we need to really look and listen To the what that experience is because it's not something that we have on a regular basis So that was something so doubt for me is hearing from People representing younger folks and also communities of color What that feels like on a regular basis to not see yourself and what that means to actually see yourself And how power powerful that can be moving forward to see yourself In community representation, so that was something that I really pulled away Took away from that and in our deliberation that kept coming back to me as far as how we were talking about that So I wanted to share that with you tonight. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Let's turn it over to the council now for questions Any questions for the task force Councillor jane Thank you. Thank you very much and um, thank you even for those who applied to be on the task force But they were not chosen But I think the amount of work that you It took on which was not it's not easy And I can recognize that and I've been watching you also, you know from distance from a distance And I could feel the weight In you know, what you are tasked to do it's it was not easy But But I just wanted to know exactly why that specific date is there Like august 22nd 2022 Yeah, how did you come to that conclusion august 29th? Yes, so that would be actually the 10th anniversary of the mural being up so There really wasn't any kind of a contract or anything written down about how long the mural should stay up There was verbal agreements that it would stay up for 10 years So we felt that Giving it that deadline Would be somewhat symbolic It would also give the city enough time to Find the funding and then also to find a replacement mural for that space Given that deadline so that would be the very End date I guess that the mural should be taken down but again, like I said I had something if I may the What way we said is absolutely correct and But I think that One of the things that we felt too, I think I can speak for all of us certainly for myself again was that That the merchants stepped into the picture Uh at the time the mural was being produced an artist had been commissioned And I felt certainly that the merchants were acting in good faith They were performing a kind of public Service it was certainly an opportunity to get their images up on the wall But many of them didn't put themselves on the wall They put their employees on the wall and so it is kind of a kind of a snapshot of burlington and they were Performing I think a public service I think they I believe that they were they were acting out of good faith performing a public service It became a kind of billboard And I think that criticism is a valid criticism But I think under the circumstances it was really difficult to do otherwise And so those merchants who In effect paid for the mural Paid for the mural with the expectation that they're resourcing that that process would be You know available to the community for a certain amount of time and I think 10 years was sort of the unofficial or the What they felt what everybody kind of understood there was nothing I don't know how much it was in writing I think there was some some things but really it was public test Testimony from individuals who came to our meetings who indicated that so You know, we tried to strike a balance between all of the voices we were hearing And this was certainly one of them so The symbolic nature of the 10 year the date 10 year anniversary. That's really important and also giving the merchants their due Recognizing the mural for what it is and what it is not And proposing a possible solution down the road that will be we hope a vigorous program to sort of work to reflect the diversity the the nature of the city And and involve the community and and do some some proper planning for future Artistic production in the city public art in the city I'll say One one Okay, yep So lastly, I think we need to highlight this aspect too because you guys I don't know how you'd have done it but you got In contact with the artist. I think that aspect and also his letter coming to you as maybe none of us tried to Contact him in the past. I think it was a big aha moment for me. And I don't know how it felt for you But what I what I wanted to say is again Thank you for your time and thank you for your courage and thank you for the work well done Yeah, thank you Thank you councillor jeng before I go to another council. I just would like to a clarification for myself It was just said that that I think the phrase was mentioned Taking the mural down and my understanding was that you were calling for the mural to be moved somewhere Which one is accurate? I think it's to be moved. I think it's to be dismantled and Reconstructed at another location Okay, so to clarify the The mural right now is in four panels that have been that were created outside of the wall and then added Involtaed to the cement wall So it's not actually a fix to the wall and is able to be removed without damaging the Composition of the mural so that it could be moved somewhere else inside Burlington as the task force And then I'll turn it over to council because the task force feeling that If it was moved somewhere else It would be okay as long as it wasn't on church street That it would not bother the people who are bothered by it would no longer be bothered by it somewhere else I there's two. Yeah, I think there's there's two pieces one is the where it is and what it is trying to say has a very strong impact And so if it is housed somewhere in a spot that explains what what it actually is in some of the history What's happening right now is it's Appears to be one thing which is the history that is an inaccurate history If it's in another location where other viewers are seeing it and it's more intentional that it won't have the same kind of I'll have a different type of impact. There's also, um, I don't do you want to talk about that part? Uh, yeah, so there is the vera laws, which is the visual artists rights act Laws so it prevents from the destruction of any Piece of art. Um, I think specifically public art. Um, so we want to avoid those legal complications Um, and there is an option to give the mural back to the artists But I don't believe that it was addressed specifically in our email to the artist PR Hardy, so that is something that the city council can take up. Okay. Thank you other questions for task force members Councillor Jang, did you have another question? It looks like nobody else has any so we can for city attorney City attorney Yeah, so my question is about the contract itself and it sounds like there were no signed agreement between the commission The just street commission and also the artist, but looks like there were Verbal agreement, you know existed between them But I wanted to know if Vera, you know, um, if It has the same impact if an agreement was made only, uh, in a verbal setting or Will it would that be the same? Okay, so what I'm trying to ask is this Vera does Vera protect public art That were commissioned with us assigned to contract or agreement between the two parties Yeah, yes, what what a signed agreement would do Like today if we were looking at an agreement what we do with most of the bca Art projects public art projects. It does is that we deal with the vera rights right in the agreement We say what is going to happen what they are In many of them, for example, we asked the the The artist to waive them we may ask the we may negotiate with the artist For something related to them, but we would generally deal with them in the written agreement But if you don't deal with them if you don't have a written agreement that says otherwise then vera says Here's what the artist rights are And in this case, that's what the mural task force looked at I'll second sir jane Mr. Tracy Thank you president right and thank you to the members of the task force for your work on this I certainly appreciate your recommendations and agree with agree with what you've what you've put forward in terms of not only Going in a different direction with this particular mural, but also talking about putting up additional murals And I think one of the positive aspects that's come out of this conversation Has been a renewed interest in the history of burlington, which I think is a rich and beautiful history that has a lot of Really interesting characters and stories and cultures within that throughout its scope of history, and I think that we've seen some of that with the the emergence of the renewed partnership between the city of burlington and the abinacchi And so I think that that's certainly positive I'm wondering if in your conversations Around adding additional murals if you talked about additional opportunities for education around the history of burlington to provide That context which it seems like you're interested in providing in the context of everyone loves a parade, but it seems like You know in you're saying that things are missing from this which I certainly agree with What over the any ideas in terms of how we might in addition to public art might bring into that story and provide Additional context because I think that's certainly important to me. Yeah, I think just to um to point out that I think the more we learned that I everybody loves a parade doesn't it's not a historical mural, right and So thinking about something that does represent the history of burlington would be multiple pieces of public art and then detailing a process in which Community input is part of that And that it goes through a process And I don't remember if this was in there or not, but that would go through a probably an approval process before Like there'd be a panel that would make sure that it was accurate Before it was approved and the the pieces were created So it would go through multiple levels of how like the different pieces of the history Because there's more than one mural and there's more than one piece of public art in the Program that we recommended What the piece that goes up in lehiwe That would be based I think through community input on how to and it may be It One idea which is not that we just discussed lots of things. It could be like an agricultural history history But somehow that it's an accurate representation But the multiple pieces in different parts of the city would represent different parts of the history Yeah, if I may just briefly add on to that I think that this idea of education was implicit in many of our discussions and For one and for another though The the process of community involvement is a discovery process So there are lots of aspects of history local history That don't quite make it into the public discourse Their elements of neighborhood life their elements of migration in migration Settlement things that are that are parts of community knowledge, but are not really accessible until you make a You know an active attempt effort to get at those things And I think that this process that we're proposing Can provide that so we couple that with whatever formalistic, you know Understanding we have a burlington history We do a discovery process of Consulting with the community members about their experience of history and their contribution To to the the ongoingness of of history history community process historical process in the city And that becomes a really powerful and dynamic Um process and it is educative it's open and Cumulative so I think that's that's kind of what we're The other piece just to add to that in the context of the genre of community art or public art that there are Like principles ethics tenants of things that do kind of speak exactly what tom's saying. So there's it's not There's not a void if they're not recreating with there is something to look to Many many many examples of how to get public input and also to create the education Awesome. Thank you very much. I certainly hope that we can tell You know more textured history of the city of burlington one that includes not just rich and powerful and business interests But people from you know, normal normal people working people people of color lgbt folks Disabled folks just people from all walks of life in burlington That would be a really powerful statement for our community. Thank you for your work. Thank you councilor tracy any other counselors who have a question um no The council indulge me to ask one more quick question on my own Um just a brief answer to this Um, did the tax force consider at all? um Having another mural On the other side of the building or whatever that actually would reflect Burlington's more recent history as opposed to actually at some point removing that mural Just a just a brief answer. We did And just obviously decided that was not You did not Say a couple words on it We did discuss many options including that one and ultimately The inaccuracies were so deep in this one that it felt Uh, I'm not sure not anymore, but it just didn't feel right to leave it up So it didn't feel like having something across the way would Soften or lessen some of the impact that this one has. Okay. Thank you councillor shannon Okay I think you're waiting for a motion, but if I can I'll just you can do your question and comment and then motion Okay, however you want. Um, did the task force consider Um Merits of Putting this question to the public for a vote we had um and it was I believe we had decided that um It it's a lot of opinions and so that's why we opened it up for a public forum um to get At least some idea of what people are Thinking of in the community Yeah, it just also felt in the timeline that we had that was outside of the How much time we were able to be efficient and to be able to get all the other research So we did the public forum versus the larger public vote Okay, thank you. I'm not I'm not suggesting that that's necessarily a good idea. I just wondered if it came up in your um conversation and uh, I know that you're Waiting for a motion. So I will make the motion to order. I think the mayor would like to speak Point of order councillor hartnett. Okay, councillor mr. Mayor. You want to speak before councillor shannon makes a motion Is you um, I just was hoping to say a couple words before we lost our our guests, but if I'm not really clear what the motion is going to be I'm sorry Okay Let's get the motion out there. We can still come back to you and you can just stay for a couple minutes more, okay councillor shannon I moved to waive the reading accept the report and place it on file and ask for the floor back after a second Seconded by councillor nodell councillor shannon. Thank you Um, I really want to thank all of you for the effort that you put into this It was nine meetings over the summer And it was a lot of time in those meetings and I'm sorry. I didn't make attending the meetings, but I was watching you um on my computer in the off hours for a good bit of the time not all of it and I think that you approach this very thoughtfully and um Appreciated the weight of the decision on our community And I also know that you came into this with very Divergent views on what should be done and rather than plowing forward with Those divergent views. I'm really impressed that you were able to reach consensus in the end And I thank you for working towards that consensus and that that is my understanding is that this was a consensus opinion So thank you for that I also Wanted to note that the committee we heard in Public forum about how this committee was formed. I just wanted to clarify that the committee was People applied to be on this committee The committee was selected by a subcommittee of myself councillor jang and councillor nodell And recommended to this council and council approved Our slate of candidates for this committee. So this committee was definitely created by By this council through a very collaborative process and we had really good applicants to choose from so I'm grateful for that Also, you had asked there was a question about Was the mural to be Relocated or removed and I just wanted to read directly from this report what that recommendation is And that is that the Everyone loves a parade mural will be removed from its current location by august 29th 2022 That the mural may remain in its current location and in its current form until that time and that after that time The mural will be relocated within the city of burlington and new play cards be created And then it goes into more about those play cards and some other things but just to be clear on what this says I think that We need to we need to do more work after tonight to come up with more direction about How we want to proceed with these recommendations and I know I've had discussions with councillor roof and have heard about discussions with councillor nodell and We plan to be working on a resolution with a little bit more detail to Bring forward in the very near future Thank you councillor shannon. Uh, mr. Mayor. Thank you president right Uh, councillor shannon just said virtually everything I want to say and and better than I'd be able to so I won't reiterate all that Other I would just like to add my personal. Thanks to Uh The entire committee. I think you were given a very difficult assignment here and you have done exactly um from my perspective what I hoped You would you know have really um grappled with this difficult community challenge from a variety of perspectives? And I I'm hopeful have emerged with uh some recommendations that really um might help us sort of way through a Significant challenge and it's possible. We will see what happens from here We have as councillor shannon noted substantial work to do but you have given us a real chance to succeed at that work I believe and I'm really thankful for your your work and doing that over the summer has noted as well Was a additional sacrifice that we're thankful for Thank you, mr. Mayor councillor nodell and then councillor busher. Thank you president right Just want to add my thanks and I think it's expensive your recommendations carry especially a lot of weight Because they do represent The work of a group that worked through a loss of different approaches to the issues and came up with something That's a consensus and in my book that carries a lot of weight Tonight, we're just accepting this report But we will take action I think it's important that this council take ownership of the issue with the mayor And come up with a real plan of how we're going to move forward on these recommendations Which as councillor shannon said will happen in the near future So we're not kicking the can down the road We just wanted to vote tonight to really understanding the report and our next step will be to make a real plan for Moving forward and deciding We may not all on this council agree on all the recommendations But we need to find where that majority and consensus is and then move forward. Thank you president Thank you councillor nodell councillor busher So, yeah, I just needed clarification So just members of the council are going to come forward with a resolution or is this going back To the three members councillor shannon councillor nodell and councillor jang to come forward with the resolution I wasn't clear about this process. I think I can address that I think councillor busher that the expectation is that It will be ready for it to come back to the full city council for some kind of action a resolution that will come Before the full council not a subcommittee But the resolution is going to be created by somebody Yes, it will be it will be it will be yes It will be worked on by councillors who are interested in bringing forth a resolution That will be the process and my expectation Will be that it would be at the Last meeting in september All right, it just noted that it Normally we refer things to a committee and I didn't I had no problem referring it back to the people who Put the task force for me the the subcommittee really was only tasked with actually picking The members of the task force. That's really what their only charge was in that regard Thank you councillor jang Yeah, just wanted to also have clarification questions. So basically From here tomorrow I can write a resolution and present it to the council But it's not specifically the same member of the subcommittee who need to come with the resolution But anyone here can bring a resolution forward around how to move forward Anyone can always bring any resolution that they choose to forward forward. Thank you. Thank you councillor jang anyone else I think so we're ready to vote all those in favor of the Of the motion for now that is to simply accept the communication. Please say aye Any opposed no One uh one no vote. So that passes by an 11 to one vote with uh, excuse me 10 to one councillor mason I hear it with uh councillor hartnett being the one no vote Um that will conclude our item. Thank you very much for being here tonight for your presentation and for The number of different how many people were at your public forum? Sorry Yeah 12 13. Okay. Thank you Thank you. Thanks for thanks for all your work. Appreciate it That concludes that item and item number 5.03 has been removed from the agenda. That was a Discussion that we were going to have on council rules that will be coming back to us on the 27th And so we'll move to item number 5.04. That is a resolution On the burlington downtown improvement district and we'll go to the sponsor council roof Thank you president right. I move that we waive the reading and adopt the resolution. I'll note That i'm moving the revised version And after a second request the floor back for some comments. Thank you Second by councillor nodell and back to council roof and you'll explain what the revised resolution basically The changes were yes. Yes. I'll go into detail as we can talk some more. Thank you president right. I am Pleased to be moving forward this resolution which if adopted will mean taking the next step on A process that was initiated by the council with the goal Initiated by the council in 2015 With the goal of investigating options to how to better manage our downtown area through our Downtown improvement district and our business improvement district more commonly known as the church street marketplace Well, there was a report that's been included in the materials And i'm happy to answer any questions that I can on that during our discussion our decision tonight Is not to accept or endorse this report but instead To commit to a process that will give this council and the community Full opportunity to assess the report and its recommendations So report aside for the moment this recommendation accomplishes three things First it details some relevant information about the downtown district About our downtown district and lays out which council actions. We have taken in the past to lead us to this point I invite the members of the community to read this this section in full But to highlight in broad strokes the d id was established by charter back in 1999 The d id collects a tax which is recommended by the church street marketplace commission on commercial properties at the rate of nine cents per 100 in appraised value And for context, what does that mean? That means that the d id collects in 2017 about $317,000 Secondly, and this is really the meat of what we're deciding tonight The resolution sets forth a process To guide this conversation going forward the process is to include the following We'll start with a full council work session and public forum To dig into the details of this report and the recommendations With the consulting professionals present Who put this report together? They are progressive urban management. It's also known as puma From there the board of finance will take what was learned from the work session and engage With the various scenarios and their greater impacts. Well, Of course also putting special attention to fiscal and budgetary implications of each The board of finance will then Will then select their preferred option and recommend it to the full council At which point we will go through our process Around this table on voting on our preferred option What comes out of that process then will be sent to charter change The charter change committee to draft the appropriate language To draft the appropriate language After all of that only after at least all of that The full council will vote on whether to place charter change language as a ballot item The goal right now is to move that process in a way that Puts the charter change committee in a position to get back to us by december And in time to meet the march 2019 ballot So that's the process and i'll close really quickly with the final point of appreciation I was appointed To represent the council on the didac downtown improvement district advisory committee And i want to share that that group of citizen stakeholders worked diligently In devising the rfp selecting a fantastic consulting group And assisting in the report outreach efforts This group will still have an important role in providing input To the council and helping communicate updates to the various stakeholders that this potential change could impact So thank you to the didac members. I look forward to our continued work together Thank you Thank you councillor shannon for the cosponsorship and president no dell and and con sorry Councilor can still refer to her. She always maintains that title former president no dell and councillor pine for helping with this resolution president right that Former councillor all right everyone That concludes my remarks. Thank you president right Thank you councillor ruf. Uh, we'll open it up to the council now. Um for discussion Who would like to speak on this? councillor no dell Thank you. I want to thank councillors ruf and and shannon for bringing this forward Um, there's been a lot of good work done. We have a lot of Issues that have been unaddressed around downtown for quite quite some time Including top of my list are is under investment in the the bricks of downtown Um, the side streets off of church street marketplace really feeling That that they are not part of downtown an equal partner in downtown. Of course, they're very important to us There's lots of issues of this report highlights that i'm confident. We're going to now take it on Um, I think this is a good a good process that we've laid out here. Um I'm now just noticing that That this has the board of finance Choosing a preferred scenario which i believe Which would then go to charter change committee And I think it should I think the intent is it would be Come to the full council And then go to charter change. So I think as long as we understand that that is the the process that's intended here Um, I just wanted to clarify that Um, I think that of the three I look forward to the work session um, the report recommends a scenario which I think, um Has worked well in other communities. We have to make sure that's the right model for burlington Um, and that it really is the best model in terms of addressing the issues that had been identified as in terms of public safety cleanliness Services for a homeless population outreach to the homeless community Um, it it's kind of the most private model of the three that were were presented And of course, we're a community that that feel strongly in the you know pro-active role of the public sector So I think that's still that has to be tested in our thinking as we move forward And I hope that at the work session members of the public safety committee and the cdnr committee will bring The perspective of public safety and economic development to that work session So that we can benefit from the thinking of those committees without separate referrals to You know umpteen committees. So again, thank you very much councillors roof and shannon Thank you councillor nodell councillor shannon Um councillor nodell raised a really good point about the condition current condition of the bricks and it's something that um Few of us have had the benefit of traveling to other communities really to look at their downtown districts And compare our church street marketplace with How they're doing it in boulder and denver and ithica and that has been really helpful in the process and And uh going to these different things different places one of the things you find out is they're just astounded By how we can do what we've done with so few people Uh property owners vying into This concept and it's a very heavy burden that we've gotten away with so far Largely because they were paid for by a grant so long ago But it's time to pay the piper again. And I think it's really important to bring in More commercial taxpayers into a larger district to get that economy of scale And we're really at a critical point in burlington. This is Um the time to do it and maybe a little past the time to do it, but I very much appreciate The efforts of council roof and the didac to bring this For because it's going to be really important work for our downtown and and somewhat visionary. I would say too. Thank you Thank you councillor shan and councillor traxy Thank you president right. I certainly appreciate councillor nodell's remarks I thought that they were spot on in terms of just the process as well as some of the concerns that that emerged from that As well as the need to reinvest in the downtown one area that I do I'm have some concerns with is that of governance and the need to continue to maintain public oversight of public spaces And not just turning that over to The business community writ large but really maintaining the ability of citizens and normal people again to have access to And say over decisions regarding their downtown Just because you pay in doesn't mean that you get to say Everything that happens in downtown and I feel like one of the scenarios would lead us more towards that path And I would really advise strongly against that with the hope that we can find a way that Creates an opportunity to expand that Creates opportunities to reinvest but that maintains democratic process around that reinvestment And reinvigorates the the citizen involvement in downtown And I say citizen involvement because it's important to recognize In these conversations that it's not just businesses downtown But there are residents that live in this downtown that we need to bring into the conversation and that need to have continued say Whether or not they're you know, they're part of the actual Entity or organization they live here. It's just as much their downtown as it is anybody else's so thank you Thank you. Councillor Tracy Councillor jane Yes, just wanted to have a quick clarifying question about puma Is puma an organization? contracted by the city or by church street marketplace businesses who and Is it a consultant or they just we they just partner in this work Mr. Roof. Thank you. Councillor jane. Councillor roof. Can you respond to that? I can So puma was is a consulting firm that is being paid with city funds So this this is a as I noted if you look in the resolution it lays out some steps getting back to the act of 2013 Would maybe give the the latest trace Laying out a plan now there there is a partnership agreement between the city City departments and the Bernalindon business association who has been assisting in Staffing the didac and providing support Um, but the it was the didac paid by city funds who were who selected the the puma group and That was a public public rfp process Paid for by city funds councillor jane Thank you. You have a further question councillor jane. Yes, it has to go through the council president and I will I know So go ahead proceed and This is more this is not a question, but basically more a comment around This is berlington. This is not san jago, and I like Really the report of all the similar cities from puma's report to the council. I I like that. I mean it's good to Find best practices outside out there But I think it would have been more powerful If we want to redistrict our downtown if we want to make it better to be Truly truly and wonderfully. This is a community led and like local people led initiative That from scratch We can put together. This is what we want Because we work with our constitution we work with our businesses. This is the ideal and from there Where can we get? I mean, I think the experts in the nation coming, you know Doing some work for us. It's amazing But I think sometimes we need to own our own, you know Registricting our own downtown. This is not an expert is from anybody, but this is from berlington. Yeah I I don't mind Personally, I don't mind for puma to be part of the work session and all of that. It's good but We're not taking recommendation from anybody around how your downtown should be or could be But this should be basically just Something from us and I think it will be important for this resolution to include Who are all the businesses or organization that we can invite in the work session here? If it's possible Council president. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor jane. Council roof. Did you want to respond to? Anything there? I'll wait and I think councillor pine might have okay a comment. All right councillor pine I I just wanted to express, you know that the This work is incredibly important. I think this Both our Partner in dba and the marketplace staff have done an excellent job and this consultant. I think Was was worth the resources that were devoted. I would add though that the Along the lines of what? councillors tracy and no dell were speaking about I think The scenario that's recommended as the preferred model Didn't sit right with me. It didn't feel like that was a burlington solution. I felt like it was a perhaps A solution that was brought from A different perspective and it doesn't feel like it's uniquely burlington So I think if i'm gonna state my opinion early on which is helpful I lean more towards something that is a balanced Board balanced governance system that has the public still having a pretty significant role. So I just wanted to put that out there All right. Thank you councillor pine councillor roof. Did you? Yeah, I would just to the point of I think that puma has proved himself to be incredibly valuable have a great perspective on communities that they've worked with historically And their record speaks for themselves. I'm not going to defend them any more than I have to But to both councillor to councillor james comment president right about the community driving this We are this is the first step We now get this we'll hear from puma. We'll hear their opinions Then the the football is handed off and then they're out. We can use them For whatever resources we want or exclude them completely But from from the point going forward. It's our process. It's burlington's process So I just wanted to to clarify that to his point president right about inviting certain people To the work session. That's a public meeting which means anyone Can come. I know that I'll be making sure that didac members are going to be available I think we'll do some public outreach The resolution caused for not just a work session But also a robust public outreach to that point I have been talking a little bit with the consultant about their availability in october And they'll be able to be here for a week So I'll be working with councillor right I'm getting not just just the items in here, but maybe talking more broadly about how else we can Have them available so that the community can get the information that we need to then move on On our own to to move this forward. However, we want to President right to councillor pines point about number three the scenario that was recommended Again, I won't speak for puma But I don't think it's lost on them given all the work they did in burlington that that scenario three I think they're they're aware of the reality in burlington I think that and they'll defend this themselves They made that recommendation because when you look globally when you get elevation on the on the issue The best practice generally is a more privatized model Privatized models have delivered well for other communities. That's not up for them to decide that's up for them to recommend We can do whatever we want with it Thank you council roof I think we are ready for a vote So and just to make clear we're voting now to this will now go to the board of finance It will uh, will there will be a work session created which I will work with council roof on a date probably in october um, depending on What we do it'll come back to the council and ultimately end up with the with the charter change committee potentially to Craft a charter change potentially for next march And with with that we should be ready to vote all those in favor of the resolution, please say I I any opposed That passes unanimously. Thank you council roof shannon and others Uh Item number six is committee reports any committee chair who would like to report on activity to the city council council roof Uh public safety committee will be meeting wednesday at 5 30 in room 12 We'll be having uh, well two items on the agenda First has already been mentioned a report from dr. Stephanie seguino on police bias second we'll be looking at a report on on downtown waterfront in park bathroom access Um, which has been put together not by a consultant but by Regular folks in the community. So those will be discussed Thank you council roof. Councilor hartnett and then councillor tracy I'd like to let everyone know on august 23rd, which is a wednesday, I believe or is it thursday thursday At 5 30 here in con toys will be the next pack meeting The only thing on the agenda will be the auditorium and The format will be a public forum and then a presentation On the results of the survey and then probably another public forum After they give their presentation. So there'll be input before And then afterwards an hour and a half. It will be the only thing that will be on the agenda and um There'll be steps there about what the next process is going forward And uh, obviously the survey results. So I hope everyone can make it. It'd be a 5 30 On the 23rd and it's 5 30 to 7. We hope to have everybody out of here in about an hour and a half Right here in con toys And so we'll get that out to the media. I'm sure Cito has worked on that. So hopefully you can all attend. Thanks. Thank you councillor hartnett august 23rd con toys 5 30 Councilor tracy Thank you president right the transportation energy utilities committee will be meeting on september 11th at 5 30 down in pine street And one of the issues we currently have on our agenda is that of uh, Colchester avenue and some of the changes there as well as some musky bridge alternatives for Changing that up and fixing that bridge More more will likely be added in the intervening time. So Keep an eye out for that. Thank you councillor tracy councillor shannon Uh, thank you. The charter change committee had Put something on the agenda for tonight Which we took off because it wasn't quite ready for prime time But what and there were a lot of uh questions among councillors about what that was with regards to our council rules So the charter change committee was Charged with reviewing our council rules and making some recommendations and before we we wanted to have an opportunity to Um go back and forth a little bit because obviously it's going to affect everybody. So we had our ideas We wanted to bounce that off the council and um But we wanted to have some actual language for you to review and that wasn't ready So I expect that to come uh at our next city council meeting and I would like to remind Councillor tracy and myself to respond to the doodle poll from city attorney blackwood about scheduling our next meeting Because councillor dean already has Thanks Thank you councillor shannon councillor dean Thank you president right. Um, I would like to just give the council an update on an An issue that came before the license committee on tuesday of last week concerning Updates proposed updates to the downtown peddling district and then inclusion of additional food truck spots Our action at that meeting was to postpone any decision on On that Adding additional food truck spaces within the downtown We are looking for additional information from both cito and the church street marketplace commission On their thoughts about this. We have not The last time this this Peddling district was addressed was in 1995 the language is from 23 years ago So we feel as though The downtown has changed the conditions of the the construction downtown And then and our bricks and mortar restaurants in the downtown Has changed significantly since that time. So our intent is to take A lot of input and and have a work session before coming to any action on that proposed change All right. Thank you councillor dean Any other councillor on committee? reports Hearing none We'll conclude that item and go to item number seven, which is city councillors on general city affairs councillor Hartnett Thank you. Um It's kind of with great sadness that I talk about passing of one of the one of the nicest and Nicest guys one of the greatest guys that I've had the pleasure of dealing with and date krakowski um Battled 17 months of brain cancer lost that battle last week Way way too young to leave us But more so way too good. He was an incredible individual his family was Just so instrumental and so many things have happened here in brovington And it's been a it's been a tough Seventeen months for that family. It's certainly been a tough week in the new north end for sure We had a wonderful celebration of his life that the mayor was attended president right attended as well 700 800 people there today to celebrate his life. He loved to live in brovington. He loved politics He lived very across from apple tree park in brovington and he took care of apple tree park And he was in constant communication with the parks department letting them know That it has been mowed. They don't need to send somebody out that he took the initiative Rain was coming and he wanted to do it before they could get there He he was just He was just just an incredible person and his parents hank and liz are just wonderful people I'll share a brief story that was in his little bit, but it was talked about a little bit today in 1988 um Dave was out on lakeshamp playing in a boat And uh came up on another boat that had capsized mom and dad and a little daughter and and they had their Dog with them the little girl and the dog got caught underneath the boat Dave jumped in saved her save the daughter's life and the dog It's an amazing story. It was back in 1988 here in brovington They actually did a little mini series on a local television on on the whole episode And I remember watching it and the first question that they asked dave and he was 24 at the time Do you think that you're a hero and dave's response was It's not me. That's the hero. It's my mom and dad who always taught me to do the right thing And I think it was just so powerful And it speaks volumes about that family And so to hank and liz and his wife stef his brother mike and steve and john Uh where thoughts and prayers are with you and we we will greatly Miss dave and keep them in our thoughts and um And we'll just miss them tremendously. So thank you thank you councillor hartnett and um I'll be you know, I think we can extend those thoughts To the entire greekowski family as you said to wife stefany parents hank and liz brothers steve mike john and his in-laws and and everybody that The council extends our sympathy to the entire greekowski family I think that the one thing I heard that we all said over and over to everybody today was You couldn't find a soul and you can't say this about many people That would have anything bad to say about dave greekowski that um, and so let's take a moment of a silence for the greekowski family Thank you councillor hartnett councillor tracy Thank you president right Last week we in the old north end on a completely different note. Um, we had some scary news that um, kind of bubbled up Around uh contamination in the old north end regarding a dry cleaning site received several Very frightened calls from residents Regarding that site and some of the testing that's taking place I'm stating both a desire to be informed around that And also to Have resources to conduct that testing and so I appreciate the administration's commitment to making sure that they have all the access that they need the epa The agency that's doing testing as well as the state have access to all the sites that they need to do accurate testing I hope that once we get those results that we can have a community meeting Where we bring together residents and explain exactly what we found out what the risks are and if we do find anything how we can mitigate those risks and Really do some some remediation of of those sites that exist in the old north end because this is certainly concerning Um, I think it's really disappointing to see this, but I think it's part of Just an indication of how poorly we've treated our planet in general and that this industrial waste when it happens Uh, it doesn't go away. It has a continued impact on our communities and the generations for time to for a long time To come our left to clean it up So I hope that we can take responsibility for this and address it in a way that involves the community Puts a lot of information out there And and continues and doesn't just you know, leave it, you know Sort of check the box and leave it be but really could Continues to get that information out to those residents who are feeling pretty frightened right now. Thank you Thank you. Councillor Tracy. Councillor busher Yes, yesterday, um, I joined the mayor and president right and um past mayor peter clavell and past council president bill keo and parks uh to celebrate the 100 years of north beach and it was Um underwhelming there was no one from the media. So i'm glad channel 17 is here tonight to capture this moment but um, I it was um It's the plaque is at the entrance to north north beach as you go into the campground and a tree was planted Which I asked what type and it is a magnolia tree And there will be a placard saying that this was planted on that day and what type of tree it is um I think that for me There was also a bulletin board of a little display of of the significant Components of the last 100 years of the fact that it was a farm and purchased we bought it and the and the mayor spoke to the The vision of people in the past of having access to to the waterfront and um, I thought The mayor's comments were spot on And then um Bill keo spoke about practices that we'd like to not Really acknowledge of how we threw our waste Into the lake, you know, um, he was that he was a commissioner I'm not a commissioner. He was the superintendent of parks and talked about you know how The ignorance of our past And That's just the fact. I mean there are so many practices that we all know that that have occurred that we If we had known what we know today, we would have done so differently um And then, you know, I was thinking um and and peter peter clevelle Spoke about access to the lake and saying that this was one of the you know The beaches were one way and talked about reminisced about How the barge came um to the bottom of college street to give other people access boat access to the lake So it was really a very interesting small gathering of people for me Um, I really never went to north beach. I brought my children there, but I never really went there Um, I I'm a late comer to north beach. I went there for one ceremony That is mayor bernie sanders got married at north beach and I was present and then he took his wife What a wonderful honeymoon to your slovel the next day So, um, it was an interesting so that's one recollection I had but now I as a resident of burlington go there on a regular basis in august because my daughter and son-in-law Discovered the campground and I discovered it too about three years ago and how wonderful it is Um, so for the people of burlington who like me, maybe it's right under your nose and you just never go there It is just really a wonderful place and um, whether you're on the bike path or whether you're just walking down from the high school Um, we're so lucky to have it and I was really Very happy to be part of that Ceremony and as I told president right I wanted to be there because it's one thing that's older than me And and just to make sure everybody understands too the tree that councillor busher was so interested behind the plaque Just to make clear that tree is not slated for removal here Thank you, uh, thank you councillor busher councillor jane Thank you. Um, so I wanted to Maybe all of us to just sometime picture how big is burlington How big it is and we sometimes also have Departments that are responsible of the old area and one of them Is dpw I know That chappan spencer is being attacked maybe from all angles sometimes But I wanted to take the time to recognize the hard work that he's doing in the new north end Our roads are clear well paved and well Wonderful signage all over every street that you go to There are great wonderful projects taking place and I don't know for how many years the flin Um school across the flin school for the first time We now having um sidewalks I think those are incredible things that people sometimes need to take the time and appreciate their work I think I wanted to say that and I think I told the mayor And I will tell him I'm just very proud of the great work happening in the new north end due to see his leadership chappan spencer The other thing that I wanted to share is Also, Cindy white Who put so many times and energy? In the new north end block party that we organized last time Not only we have all the equipments we needed But she showed up with the family and husband and even brought some games for kids And also wanted to take the time to thank Dave harness for Your leadership for helping with everything and also for consular right for being there. Thank you Thank you councillor jane Other councillors like general city affairs Council roof. Sorry. I almost sorry council roof President right. Thank you to quick update uh to the council on One of my council side hustles, which is a sexual assault prevention initiative that you all Helped out with and improving city council initiative funds Over a year ago now the next installment of that training Is it going to be monday the 20th of this month? It's going to be hosted at hope works In the evening. It's not a public event, but we are asking folks who work in the downtown, especially nightlife industry bars night clubs and restaurants to participate to get training developed locally by hope works on how to be effective in intervening in situations that are risky in the nightlife environment So that training initiative is going well. So thank you all again for supporting that and I look forward to continued updates Thank you council roof Any other councillor hearing none? We will close out that item number eight and number Excuse me number seven number eight is city council president Just briefly and the mayor i'm sure is going to mention this but The mayor is called for as we know a special meeting on september 11th I believe it's going to start at 7 30. It's and it's on a tuesday not a monday so Uh if councillors could just make sure to either let the mayor or me know if you can make that We need to make sure that most councillors can be here I also want to just clarify one thing in regard to the mural task force issue While it is true, of course that any councillor can come forth with any resolution that they want It is my intention that we will not be dealing with the mural issue at the august 27th meeting We will we have the schools are going to be here. I think we not that we won't have anything else on the agenda But that is an issue that we I don't want to miss mix the mural task force with the schools that evening And so it is my intention The resolutions on the mural task force will be dealt with at the final meeting in september With that we'll turn over conclude that item and return over to mayor mayor Weinberger for general city affairs and then we'll have to conclude the complete our executive session from earlier mayor Weinberger Thank you president right I Didn't want to touch on a few good topics one I did not know dave greekowski nearly as well as a president writer or council hardnett, but I I Have in my time in this role gotten to know Him in a krakowski family and and do just want to extend My deep condolences to the family and and everyone that love david which by today's funeral was clearly a enormous number of people and it was it was very sad and moving and memorable tribute to a life well lived today that um I was proud to represent the city being part of I Didn't want to touch on the north beach 100th anniversary as well As counselor busher noted And since yes, it was a small crowd Maybe we're sharing here someone what was said which I think it was an interesting moment of reflection for the city They're really it was quite a moment of active anticipation of the future back in 1918 when our predecessors moved to Purchase this former farm farmland in the in the northern part of brawlington and then Opened it as a beach about a year later for returning veterans from world war one And in some ways, I think it does it is one of the many examples We can all look around and see how we are fortunate to live in a community that had very active and and wise Leadership in years past And as we gather it really did seem to me in some ways, uh, north beach is more relevant and Than ever and has a brighter future than ever what we have done together in recent years to shore up Access to public lands both to the north and south with our rock point and with the cambrian rise new park I think ensures in with the new investments we've made the bike path. I think ensures that um North beach has in many ways a bright and active future at the same time I think that future depends on us succeeding at some a couple major and related environmental challenges that You know, it was notable to me that we had to sweat it out a little bit as to whether Uh, we would have to um be battling another blue-green algae bloom. Um, and the day that we're in august when we're, um Noting this hundredth anniversary fortunately, we didn't but it could easily have happened with the temperature of the lake and um with the fact that we have Are seeing increasingly warming temperatures probably related to it's clearly related to climate change And that we have not as a state been able to Get our arms around this uh phosphorus loads issues. So I think While i'm very hopeful that 25 and 50 and 100 years from now our successors will be very excited about what north beach represents I think that does Uh depend on us continuing to make progress on these major environmental challenges And doing what we can here at this in this body to achieve that um a couple uh a few successes, uh Notes of progress wanted to make sure the council and the public were aware of tomorrow is the official opening of 194 st Paul street the Sorry 314 bed facility on the lower part of st Paul that came about you know directly as a result of uh decisions of this council and collaborations with shamplin college I'm i'm excited about how the project is turning out. I think it it is uh, it is one that uh, I think will work On that On that street in terms of design And I think i'm increasingly and I think the public is increasingly confident of that as the details have been completed in recent months And as the streetscape Is filled in and and it's clear how much activation and vibrancy that building is going to bring to to that lower part of St. Paul And I'm encouraged by what we're hearing In terms of what this these additional beds are doing to the housing market. We are seeing competition for tenants At a level anecdotally at least that we have not seen in a long time I think this project and the substantial amount of new supply as uh, as playing a role in that and I hope it will Will energize us and galvanize us to make further steps As a city government in the future to ensure that we continue to bring on new supply of housing of all types to address our our housing crisis There was a memo i'll just note briefly here two significant tech projects have been rolled out within city government in recent Months that are on track and doing well one is and these things you know when when they go wrong everybody knows about it and it's uh uh On the front page Of every publication when they go smoothly it kind of goes with little notice I hope the council at least is is aware that the implementation of the new Parking system that we've made major investment in and worked towards for a long time has gone off To when I understand without a hitch so far, which is important in of its own right better management of that garage is important The additional capacity that's going to give us is going to be important for the future of the airport given What a large role that garage plays in the airport's finances It's also a positive thing in that the same system is going to be rolled out In the downtown with our downtown garages in the uh in the weeks and months ahead and the fact that we've had one successful roll out you know, hopefully speaks uh to You know the the likelihood of future success Secondly, uh, the computer is assisted dispatch That this council in the past voted to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in To upgrade the capacities of the fire and police department Also has been rolled out We'll have further reports in the future about Some of the changes that are flowing from this but a quick one from just the first few days of Work under this new system, which again it did was implemented without without a significant many significant hitch In the first six days, there were 30 fire alarm Fire alarms that went off which under our old system we would have dispatched At a level that there would have been 180 truck movements related to those 30 calls. There were been six There were six trucks activated With each call Because we can have now a more modulated response more fine grain response. There were only 90 truck Uh vehicle actions related to those same 30 calls. So again, there'll be more data and updates on this the months to come But it's a it's a great early indication that this is working Um, finally, I did just want to hit on what president right Noted about upcoming meetings we President right and I have agreed that there will be a work session in advance of the august 27th Council meeting which will be an opportunity for The administration to update the council and the public on the substantial amount of work that has been going on throughout the summer and throughout this challenging summer with respect to our wastewater system and and to some degree the stormwater system and We will have Be able to get into some detail about where we think we should go from here to do an even to do a better To address some of the challenges we face this summer in a continue. I think what has been you know historic Success that the city has had in getting better and better At protecting the lake. It's going to fall to us to continue that record and we have We'll be able to engage that at that work session on the 27th Depending on the outcome of that of that work session. We want to hold open the the possibility That there may be a needed desire to put some form of revenue bonding or general obligation bonding on the November ballot the last date that that could be done for any project whether it's wastewater or New high school or any of the other Bonding that's been discussed in recent months the last date that we really could viably do that Would be September 11th, which is why on that Tuesday president right and I have agreed that I will call a special meeting assuming that we will be able to secure a quorum So that we have the ability to act if we if we if we want to on some of these capital challenges President right, I think that's uh My full report for tonight. Thanks for the opportunity Thank you, mr. Mayor and and of course we hope that there'll be much more than a quorum But that most counselors will be able to be here Um With that before we take a motion to adjourn. I just real quick President a privilege to say If you're watching on channel 17 Don't forget to vote tomorrow. There's actually an election tomorrow that a lot of people I think may not know about it So Please vote and with that we'll take a motion to adjourn But remember that we have to reconvene the work session and go back into executive session to finish our Our work there still moved moved to adjourn by council roof seconded by councillor nodell Any discussion all those in favor of adjournment and reconvening the work session, please say aye Hi Any opposed the regular city council meeting is adjourned. We will now at 10. Oh seven uh reconvene