 Good evening Today is Monday December 18th 2023. Thank you so much for joining us in person in Contoy's Auditorium and online for the Burlington City Council meeting. The time is 6 0 7 We'll begin our evening With item 1.1, which is a motion to adopt the agenda Councilor Hightower if you would be willing to read the motion as indicated on civic clerk, please move to amend and adopt the genders follows add to the consent agenda Consent agenda item 7.24 communication from lender regarding toilets to the Item 8.5 ordinance Burlington code of ordinance sections 21 through 45 and 21 through 49 trespass For councillors Paul and diverse per city council president Paul Thank You councillor Hightower is there a second to that motion seconded by councillor King Any discussion on that motion? Seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion Please say aye. Aye Any opposed, please say no That motion passes unanimously and we have our agenda would also want to acknowledge that councillor Berkman is Joining us on the big screen Hope you're feeling better councillor Berkman. You'll be lucky. I'll be quiet Thank you so much the second You can get me for that late you can get me for that after the first of the year councillor Berkman The second item on our agenda is 2.1, which is a presentation the University of Vermont housing memorandum of understanding We have several presenters who are with us this evening Richard Kate the vice president of finance and administration for the University of Vermont Wendy Koenig executive director of government relations for the University Brian Pine our CEDO director and Megan Tuttle planning director Welcome to each of you. Thank you for joining us this evening We've allotted about a half an hour for this item and I imagine you have a presentation And the floor is yours Okay, thank you president Paul I'll just start us off really briefly and then turn it over to Richard who will walk us through a presentation about the proposed MOU that's on your agenda tonight You may remember that we were here in front of the council back in February of this year to talk to you about the Trinity campus the proposed Zoning amendments for Trinity campus that had been reviewed and referred to you by the planning commission that was one of the three major zoning amendments that the planning commission has been working on over the past 18 months that came out of the 2021 housing as a human right action plan that the city many city departments have been working with all of you on At the time that we were working on that We heard a lot of input about the need for more housing the support for more housing on UVM's campus But at the same time a concern about making sure that that housing was being provided in a way Considered the future the current and future enrollment needs of the institution and how the Housing plans for the institution would be facilitated by these owning changes When we came to bring that amendment forward to you there was a presentation by the folks that are here from UVM and much discussion about that issue And the council actually voted to table the Trinity campus owning amendment Which will actually expire at the end of this week per statute So after a bit of a pause We re-engaged in conversations with UVM in April and have been working over the course of the summer and this fall to Bring forward to you the proposed MOU that is up for discussion tonight and to work to reflect what we understand as the institutions housing and enrollment plans that would be Reflected in that MOU and reflected in some of the commitments in that MOU as well as a range of Additional amendments that would not only address the Trinity campus But other sites within UVM's campus that could support housing through additional zoning changes So we'll turn it over to Richard and Wendy to present The scope of this plan and how it relates to their housing and enrollment plans and then happy to answer questions that you might have Good evening Start off by talking a little bit about UVM's housing goals as President Durma has said on multiple occasions our enrollment for undergraduates is the target is Sorry, we'll go a little closer. Does that work better? Sorry? In regard to our housing goals, we will Are targeting 3,000 for first-year classes entering classes coming into the University? We Also, our goal is to increase that capacity by one and a half times Of that any growth as that comes in going forth in future years Our goal is obviously to secure zoning from the city in order to enable that that's far We are we're pretty well found The campus is pretty well filled other than the sites that we're going to talk about a little later tonight And therefore we're seeking zoning from you We're also Going after providing options in terms of graduate students and faculty and staff that refers to a project again And I'll describe a little later, but that is under construction in South Burlington And I won't dwell on on the latter pieces because we'll get to that in a little bit this is a Rendering of catamount run in South Burlington that is under construction I only showing it to give a sense of what we're trying to accomplish there There will be 620 beds of housing for graduate students faculty and staff on that site It is in city center The other one that's under construction is for undergraduate students This is going to take place on the parking lot of the conference center of the Double Tree Hotel The University owns that site and has leased it for many years to the hotel and what will happen here is that we will build on the parking lot and Then the hotel will in fact Build a parking garage to deal with their needs and so the housing in this case is on the Left upper Panel there What you see is kind of a white roof there is the parking garage that is not built in the The darker colors to the right or the hotel as it exists today and in addition that they intend to put in So in these two cases we've tried to Already begin to demonstrate our commitment in terms of housing both to the the area and and to the state as we Go forth these two projects will have Almost 1200 Students faculty of staff in them in the MOU The university's obligations are to in fact do what we said in the goal Which is to have 1.5 beds Still We will go even closer that even better. I apologize the Now I know I'm close enough We will build 1.5 beds for every additional enrolled undergraduate Over and above the enrollment we had this fall and then each year as we have For many years we will provide the enrollment data But in this case what we're suggesting we do because sometimes is Some concern about the source of the data So we'll simply provide exactly the same format that we provide to the United States Department of Education To ensure that it is a firm in that regard Then we'll provide the city with the access to the federal site so they can look at it We will continue to provide the housing information that we have provided annually and Then this commitment would go on for a five-year period of the 1.5 beds for every student in turn the city's obligations as Megan described Would be the first parcel is East Avenue East this is right at the corner of Worcester Road and East Avenue You know we call it our rugby field site. It is a 280 East Avenue and What we're looking for there is to be able to build the buildings that are High enough to have density that we need on that site So we're asking for 80 foot height limitation and a 75% coverage area In the Waterman block and this is the large parking lot that is behind the Waterman building and beyond besides UHC There again, we are looking for the same 80-foot height and the same lot coverage area and Lastly is a Trinity campus, which we've discussed before in that case. We are again looking for 80 feet high and 75% Coverage area. I will note though that one thing that a number of the citizens have brought forth concerns about is in the original proposal and what is in The amendment that is going to expire is A request to change the setback right now the setback is 115 feet. We're trying to get it pulled back to 45 feet We're not we're no longer suggesting that we're saying we'll leave the setback where it is at 115 feet If you can give us the 80-foot height limitation of the 75 foot Excuse me the 75% lot coverage area and this map just shows the sites on the right is the rugby field on the top is the Trinity campus and on the left is the Waterman site. Oh, you've got it. I'm sorry I'm sorry. It it moved. I'm sorry. This is this is I Had this slide in a different configuration. I apologize so the at the end of the day We believe that we are the University is making its best effort here and trying to Give the assurance that people have been concerned about in terms of enrollment as it's tied to housing And we're hopeful that the city can see its way through to provide a zoning as needed in this In this case, I Think that we are I Guess we're trying to bridge Try to find a way where we can all agree that everyone is making an effort and And that we can accomplish the goal that we have one other thing that we wanted to share I know that in the presentation when we were here in February and several times during the planning Commission's deliberations on Trinity campus, we were asked to just take a long view of how Enrollment and beds on the campus or beds dedicated for undergraduate students have been trending in Burlington over the years and this is a version of a chart that UBM actually put together originally had presented a number of times that reflected their commitments from the previous MOU the 2009 MOU Which committed to providing one additional bed for every one additional undergraduate student You can see on this slide the orange bars represent the changes in the number of beds that they provided from the number of beds that were on campus in 2009 and the gray bars reflect the changes in their undergraduate enrollment Every year related to 2009 You've heard in previous presentations Richard and Wendy state that in up until 2021 they were keeping pace with that commitment in the 2009 MOU in that the number of new Undergraduate beds they had created had actually exceeded the number of new undergraduates that were enrolled And thus were helping to offset some of the off-campus housing demand The enrollment started to grow in 22 and 23 and that's no longer the case and that at that MOU has expired But the two bars all the way on the right are an attempt to reflect that same trend and how the commitments in the MOU and The projects that the capacity of housing on campus that could be enabled by these zoning changes will relate to our understanding of their Plans relative to the 3,000 undergraduate student goal that they have for enrollment Really starting in the short term as the projects that they have publicly committed in South Burlington become available To once again see a bed number that is higher than the new enrollment since 2009 And in the future as projects are able to come online on the campus to start to really move that On-campus housing capacity and therefore Influence the off-campus housing demand really decreased off-campus housing demand So this is something that we've been looking at at the city and Talking quite a bit with UVM about in terms of how the MOU commitments relate to these trends. I Wanted to provide just a very brief historical Overview of previous agreements. I have that advantage of having been here for the last agreements going back to 1990 when I was I came on the council a year later the 1990 agreement really came about Because the city and the university were really at odds for a few years over Growth and permitting buildings and it really reached a kind of a boiling point And so the 1990 agreement was the first major agreement and it laid out that the university would endeavor to build Apartments and that's how we got redstone apartments on South Prospect Street the 2000 agreement Came about after a couple of years of pretty regular negotiations between our team and the UVM team and Then president Romaley in 1998 commissioned a study to try and determine what impact our students Really having on the housing market and the evidence was quite clear There was an impact and so she said we will move ahead and build something eventually There were several a couple hundred units that came out of the 2000 agreement best forward to 2009 and our two teams weren't that involved but CAO at the time and UVM vice president for finance administration the sitting next to me tonight Essentially negotiated the 2009 agreement and that's how we got this this first time ever Where the growth of the university and the housing stock were related to each other in the agreement prior to that It was essentially a number that the city kind of got UVM to agree to this So this represents a real change in how we approached this arrangement in this relationship I think Megan did a great job describing this current agreement. I think I just want to say that your team and Megan and I Feel that we have Not only devoted significant time, but have taken the diligent approach to ensure that there's a real balance here So that as the university We of course we want the university to thrive we do also need our housing market to be more in balance And we feel that the progress that will be made as a result of this really will begin to make a significant impact on that Market and bring it into greater balance. So we feel We feel confident about that Great. Thank you. Thanks so much. So If we can put that down just so that I can see counselor Bergman that that's great If there are counselors keeping in mind that this is a presentation We're not voting on this this evening, but this is an ideal opportunity to ask questions Going into the end of the year. So if anyone has questions counselor Dority Yes, thank you President Paul Brian and Megan thank you so much for your work advocating on behalf of the city in these negotiations And Wendy and Richard, thank you very much for being here and for your work on behalf of the university I represent the East District as you know and so along with counselors high tower and King represent wards one and wards eight and For multiple reasons Our neighborhoods are particularly affected by these potential changes One of the dynamics and this is no news to you because I've expressed it to you That my constituents are particularly concerned about and that I am particularly concerned about Is the influx of? undergraduates seeking housing in the wards one and wards eight Neighborhoods we have increasingly seen more and more single-family homes being sold To landlords who chopped those homes up and market them to undergraduates And we have increasingly seen fewer and fewer Rental units that are affordable to anyone who is not an undergraduate but this dynamic is not driven uniformly by Undergraduates it seems to me anyway, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on this that this is predominantly Driven by upper-class students juniors and seniors who leave On-campus housing and go out into the neighborhoods and look for apartments I'm one of the things that I wanted in this MOU And hoped to see was an agreement or in a commitment on behalf of the university To a certain number of units in these proposed new projects that were devoted to upper-class students So my question is sort of twofold one. Why was the university unwilling? To agree to that and two can you speak to what you are in in the absence of a provision in the MOU? Can you speak to the community a little bit about? What the university intends for these units vis-a-vis upper-class? Students, thank you as I said Catamount run is the one that's under construction right now is a different situation. That's that's for graduate students and faculty and staff, but Catamount Woods is specifically dedicated to undergraduates and of course freshmen and sophomores have to live on campus and so in fact the primary purpose of Catamount Woods at which is at the double tree is for juniors and seniors and In terms of what is being proposed to be zoned here I'm not saying that there won't be any Sophomores there won't be any freshmen in any of them But for instance if we were on Trinity or in Waterburn or something like that I won't say there won't be any sophomores, but the primary purpose is for upper-class students We are trying to pull them back as much as we can we can't direct them but but These are being built as apartments. They are not dormitories and the reason they're being built that way is to attract Upper-class students because that's what they want My first question though was why can't we have an agreement to that effect or a commitment to that effect in the MOU? because The relationship with the students and the degree to which they're going to come is not something we can control absolutely So I can't tell you that there will be enough upper-class students coming into a particular Apartment complex such that I don't need to move some sophomores there simply because there are empty spaces So the goal and the target group is juniors and seniors But it is not an exact science and there has to be enough revenue to support the building obviously we have to fill the buildings so The guarantee can't be made Did you have anything else? Okay, so we'll go to any other counselors counselor Shannon Thank You President Paul and thank you for the presentation And all the work you've done to get here Does UV can you tell me what kind of plans UVM does on a ten-year basis? We have a campus plan which is we used to call a campus master plan, but basically for That we just went through the process of updating here last spring and so That looks at the usage of all the property on the campus and where Different activities should occur and that sort of thing. That's it. That's a ten-year plan the Other than that, I'm just I'm just trying to think Really the the only other thing that's on the exact Time table is our accreditation, but that's not something we set the the accreditors said that that is on a ten-year schedule What's the schedule of any operational plans that you have or visioning plans or? You know determining Where the school is going in terms of say As a research facility or going more in the direction of trying to You know beef I know you're trying to beef up your business department out at some point What are those kind of plans and on what term are they? They're almost entirely either three or five year plans because in our business things change so quickly it just We can't really say exactly what's going to happen in ten years and somehow we've managed to Stay around for 230 years doing it that way, but To the outside it may may feel like everything is on a ten-year cycle But we just can't judge it that way people were always asking me on the budget side What's the ten-year budget and I tell them I can't tell you what the five-year budget plan is going to look like because There's so much change from from moment to moment So we don't really have much other than that campus master plan that I'm thinking of that Goes in a longer cycle than five years So what are the plans for? Graduate students students and the research program in terms of expanding that or I'm Contracting it how how are you seeing that in the future relative to undergraduates? Mean in terms of timetable No in terms of the numbers of people are just in terms of growth. Yeah, right So there is a desire to significantly increase the online graduate program and There certainly is a desire also to have more graduate students on campus But the split on this is still still being determined, you know in terms of how many of which there will be but a Major portion of the additional growth would be online and The reason for having catamount run be dedicated to graduate students was to make sure in advance that we were building more than enough building Units for grad students If that growth occurred, we don't anticipate that it's going to be 600 Additional graduate students on the campus, but we have at least tried to plan ahead such that if there were It would not have had any adverse impact on the community in terms of where people can live so when we're when There's a commitment to build one point five beds for each under for each increase in undergraduate enrollment Are some of those one point five beds going to graduate students negative? No, not at all This is only beds for undergraduates Okay Can you tell me what the terms what what the length of the term was for those previous Agreements were nineteen ninety two thousand two thousand nine Thousand two thousand nine expired, I believe in fifteen, but we had a couple renewals, and then it finally expired in nineteen. I believe the previous agreements were ten year agreements and Did we give any? Zoning changes or those kind of long term arrangements in those previous agreements the 1990 agreement Again, it was on the heels of a contentious process around permitting new buildings So that was actually the agreement was we will let you go ahead and permit your new buildings They weren't housing at the time actually were academic buildings, and that was at the time was a was a lever that the city had and I don't think that lever is is any longer available. We haven't taken that approach either But that was the exchange really was the city will green light your projects and you will build housing The 2009 agreement also is what laid the foundation for the long discussed amendments to Trinity campus It didn't explicitly Lay out Requested amendments the way that this MOU does but it talked about the city and university working collectively to identify Additional sites on campus that could be suitable for housing and to work together to get zoning barriers out of the way to enable that And we and I think through the process of talking about sites Really zeroed in on Trinity There was also a commitment in the 2009 agreement for the city to move away from a pending amendment that likely would not have been legal But it did request that the city not move forward with any further discussion of an amendment That was pending at that time that would have applied to part of the campus Thanks Can you tell me what the cost is going to be or what's the estimated? cost for for New student housing as well as what's what's your cost now for for student housing and your existing dorms? the the proposed Undergraduate project is in the neighborhood of a hundred million dollars We're still we have I meant the cost to students to rent them. Okay, sorry the the It's actually two different things because Right now students are paying to live in a room with two or three other people and so those rents run between 7,000 and 11,000 dollars per year depending on the size of the room the number of students and whether it's private and there's a bath and all Many variations of that but those are student per student, but those that's just for the two semesters that the other the units that we're doing now are Number one their apartments and their annual leases and so in those cases their Again, it's not of the exact science, but it's somewhere in a neighborhood of probably 1300 dollars per month per per person Thank you. So just lastly I'll just make a statement because it doesn't really require a response now but I would note that in the past we've done ten-year agreements and for Things that generally have less longevity than what we're talking about now with these with these zoning changes And I don't really understand why A ten-year agreement has been off the table in these discussions When we're being asked for something that has a 50-year life So I guess you can respond if you want but you don't have to either Great, thanks councillor Shannon will go to councillor Hightower great I won't touch on the issues that my councillors have touched on except I'll go back to a question councillor Dordy was asking Which is just want to First say the baseline of using 2023 while it makes it sound really good. There's going to be 1.5 beds I think it's a little bit disingenuous Given that there's record enrollment in 2023 about how much progress the public can actually Expect in terms of what we're seeing on the housing side So I would just really like there to be a comparative number compared to I understand We're not using the old mo you but at least give it some historic context of what that means as opposed to Just using a historic baseline of because I I know we're not talking about the like previous mo you But we're going to need a few beds to even get back to the one-to-one And so making sure that the public at least understands that as we talk about this mo you and the materials We're publishing about this mo. I think is pretty important Second I don't know if we should use new beds as a metric given how we've seen the use of force triples So I guess maybe a question which is How do how does quality of housing and quality of life factor into this and is it new beds Like there's no square footage There's no any other kind of and so if we're just talking about new beds a lot of people have been very disappointed with how New beds have been implemented on campus over the last few years. So how do we guarantee that that's not part of this? agreement I Was trying to get a sense of it was more of a question. There's more questions coming, but I'll pass for this particular point These are all going to be apartments. So they don't look anything like the residence halls We've had although the residence halls we've built in the recent past have been They're very well suited to the number of people that are living in them and that sort of thing we have older residence halls that are More in a different situation, but but these these are all apartments. So If you've got two people Or three people in the apartment, they've already got far more space than two or three people in a room Because they'll have a bedroom and then they'll have the living area in a kitchen and that's great So then a follow-up question is is do we know how many beds were in the hole considering getting rid of force triples? And how far we are from the 2009 agreement now in terms of what we need to make up before we even get back To the baseline of the previous MOU I know the numbers generally, but I won't I won't try to memorize them exactly for you I think you've already if you looked at Megan's chart. I think you've come pretty close She's got a spreadsheet that goes with it Okay, and then maybe to go back to Counselor d'Ordi's question because I just in this time I'm just legitimately confused I don't understand how we can say we're keeping enrollment exactly the same And then we're building one and a half times as many beds But then we can't guarantee that the upperclassmen are gonna fill those beds that just like Who's then I don't like why can't that those can't both be true because otherwise We're filling them with more underclassmen. And so if you're saying we have to fill the beds with sophomores And we'll just do whatever we can No, actually The point to be made here is that the same number will go into each first-year class So we've been doing that for the last couple years. We do it one or two more years. It it adds modestly to the total but The bottom line is that the vast majority of people that are going to come into them Will have to be upperclass students because we have enough housing on the campus right now other than the 500 odd people that are in the in the fourth triples other than them It what's left is juniors and seniors Right, so I don't understand why we can't have if we are sure that we're keeping enrollment the same And we're sure that we're increasing beds by one and a half for every increase in enrollment Why can't we be sure that upperclassmen will be in those there are no absolutes here? Target is where it is even even if we say the target is to bring in three thousand one year for instance this past year It was less than three thousand next year. It might be a hundred over it. It's gonna bounce back and forth Okay, then I'll just end with my last comment, which is just that It just does it like I understand that there were a lot of good Conversations that were had in this and I definitely respect the time that went into it And unless I hear very differently from my constituents on this, it just doesn't feel like this is First of all the length of agreement that we want in terms of time and I understand the Universities desire to not have long-term agreements, but it's a lot to ask for long-term things when you're only willing to give short-term things It doesn't feel like we're being as transparent as we could be even in this memorandum of how people could or couldn't expect Which doesn't feel like a great start to a Relationship there's not even a suggestion of like what could happen other than coming back to the table if this Does it play out the way that we hope that it will which doesn't give me a lot of hope for like Like I don't actually understand what the sticks are and I feel like the only thing we're getting out of this is information Which a good partner should be Should have been providing to each other for a really long time, so I just it doesn't feel like the It I am I'm sad that this is what months of like Conversations has come to because it doesn't feel like the next step that we need to actually like work together to solve a problem it so it feels like the beginning of Getting a little bit of what anybody wants and not I I as is I highly doubt that I will be able to support this memorandum. Thank you Thanks very much. Councillor Hightower. I Don't see anyone else who wishes to speak. Oh Well, I was looking this way my apologies Councillor Grant Thank you. I Agree with what was just said and I I feel like the question that Councillor Dorothy had was just very important and not well answered. I'm in the central district I've got a lot of Students and our area as well. We're seeing the same thing Homes that ideally would be available for families are being converted and they're being converted in some pretty funky ways Right when people are desperate for housing. They're literally moving into all kinds of situations I have a few Questions I won't I still feel like what was asked needs to be answered a little bit clearer, but When we look at that graph and we say first we're dealing with Undergraduate students and we're saying net new beds. Where do the force triples fall in that? Is a net new bed a force triple? No So this is all new beds for the time period that's indicated from 2009 and None of these students were put in triples That's correct. We're not suggesting that making more force triples is creating more beds Okay, can we have that in writing on the MOU that? New beds will not be force triples We can have a conversation about it if we get further with it. Yes Sure, I think that'd be a very important conversation to have When we because it's not clear in the MOU I I can't tell so I have to make an assumption That UVM might do that To say we're going to create these extra beds by forcing triples on more freshmen and sophomores So if you're not going to do it, that's great, but we I We need to see it in writing, please I Would like to see some data including graduate students and I do have if we look at the and correct me if I am wrong with the data that I was looking at from 2002 to 2003 The enrollment would have increased by 288 students. Is that right? It's under 300. I'm sorry. Did you say 2002 to? 2022 to 2023 I would actually have to go back and look I I can't tell you Okay, because my concern would be that Even at that increase because I think it is also I agree that it's disingenuous to start with a baseline of 2023 Because we're already looking at that year having had an increase Which is again going to put pressure on our housing market as early as the fall of 2024 and That is due to the fact of how far in advance people have to sign leases in this town, especially for student apartments so Let me just make sure I Guess I also would like the enrollment plan to be a little bit more. I mean if we're going to What happens when we get past these? Five years. I just feel that there isn't It's going to take a while to build these units So does that mean that that enrollment will in fact? Because if we don't know what's going on with graduate students How do we know like the actual total amount of students is going to remain the same? So that's a concern that I have and not really seen an enrollment plan So I'd like to see some more data if you can with graduate students And the last thing I have is that just kind of a statement on the quality of life issue These dorms that are being forced as triples I mean when we look at the city's code with regards to the amount of space that individuals need Some of those rooms fall below that and that is that's a big issue for me in terms of the quality of life And I have heard from students that sometimes they can't even get three sets of the furniture They get the three beds, but they get to desk or they can only get two wardrobes But there's three of them in a room But then you'd have another dorm where maybe somebody left and they force those kids to keep the furniture in the room, so Just some things to think about. Thank you. Thanks so much. Councilor Grant will go to Councilor Travers Thank You President Paul like my colleagues here in the council. I want to thank all of you for your Strong work on this and other members of the mayor's administration for their work work as well In addition to my colleagues in the council many of whom I know have met with you and have weighed in To reach that draft of the agreement that we have here this evening. I also recognize that Well, we can't go into the details of that negotiation I know that this has gone through many forms and And I appreciate the concessions that the university has continued to make to get to the point that we're at right now You know in a town and gown community like Burlington in many respects It's sometimes difficult to distinguish us from each other, but It's worth a reminder that we are two separate parties and we're two separate parties in a negotiation here that is an arms-length negotiation and while I applaud you for Coming back to the table to engage in these negotiations I also want to acknowledge that you didn't have to do this You didn't have to engage with the city on this And and reach the draft that we have this evening I also want to take a moment to remember and acknowledge that you know that this is a negotiation and in any negotiation We have our hopes and dreams and our wish list and I know that you've heard that from everyone at this table And I know you've heard it from the mayor's administration as well I also know that in any negotiation You eventually reach a point where you've gone as far as you can go and I suspect that There's there's that point for the city As well as there is for the university and I appreciate your being here this evening to engage in this discussion to Have an honest dialogue about sort of where are we at right now and how much further from our perspective? It is the university willing to go in response to some of the concerns here. So I suppose I have Two questions for the university one is You've you know heard some concerns raised from colleagues here this evening and you've expressed and I give you Grateful for this some some willingness to on some of these points perhaps Consider the discussion and continue here. So is there some openness to continuing to make tweaks in this agreement? Are we at sort of the end of the line from your perspective sort of where are you in terms of? an additional room here and then my second question unrelated is Really sort of a chicken or egg type question here Which is you know, you have your enrollment plan. It's been discussed here You've mentioned it here this evening in terms of what your plans are to enroll and I'm wondering if you can speak to What extent that enrollment plan is contingent on Burlington opening up additional housing opportunities for the university. Do you plan on? increasing your enrollment numbers regardless of what happens here and if that is the case Can you speak to what the university's plan would be to? house those students would you plan on still building additional housing? I know for example, you've turned to some of our neighboring communities from my own perspective I would love to have this housing here in Burlington and to welcome more students to our community Rather than going to other surrounding communities and would just appreciate hearing your feedback on Where are we here in terms of this agreement and then if for whatever reason reason we aren't able to reach an agreement What does that mean for your enrollment numbers and what does that mean in terms of where these students will be housed? Thank you for the comments the to the first point I would say that That based on the very clear direction we have from our board we have gone as far as we can on the material terms of the agreement I considered the definition of a bed not including forest triples as Basically more of a technicality, you know a clarifying point in the definition That's why I said we could go back and talk about it so but in terms of material terms of the agreement and The vast majority of the language. I think we are as far as we can go As a matter of fact, I'm quite confident of it To the second point, I want to make clear Saying that we want first-year classes of three thousand is not any sort of Consequential increase in undergraduate enrollment because that's what we've been doing for the last couple years It you know again as I said it goes up and down one year. We were we were a hundred above and You were a hundred below But the target remains three thousand there is no plan to make any sort of significant increase in undergraduate enrollment anytime soon So in that context, however To go one step further to your other the other part of your question is We believe that we have a Need and a desire to build more housing for our students and As we've demonstrated already if if we can't do it in Burlington, then we will have to turn to other municipalities to be able to do it Because we are we are also concerned about the quality of the housing in in Burlington as some of our students are in And you know, they've made a conscious decision to go into it. We can't control the quality in those places But we'd like to offer many of them a different opportunity and that's again. That is why we're building apartments We're not we're not building dormitories We're about out of that business for the moment. We have enough dormitories Modern-day language residence halls, but we I don't think we're done, you know, we we're gonna build this, you know Almost 1200 beds that we have part one on under construction and one under development but we'd like to do some more and Again, if we're not able to get the zoning to do it in Burlington, we'll do it somewhere else Thank you very much for that. Just a very briefly here I look forward to the discussion to come over the coming weeks until the council's asked to vote on this I also look forward to the public dialogue and appreciate the mayor's Stated interest in engaging in that public dialogue. I see we have members here, for example from the Ward 1 NPA and think that that would be among the places where I anticipate that there will be a discussion to come Around this issue and would certainly appreciate that I think we're all in agreement though that we're facing great housing pressures in our community I understand the MOU as presented may not have every Goal that folks in this council are looking for But from my perspective the the alternative here to our reaching an MOU is are doing nothing as a community to allow you all an Opportunity to relieve the housing pressures that we're facing in terms of on-campus and off-campus student housing here in Burlington and to me Doing nothing is a much worse alternative Because it's continuing to perpetuate a number of the housing pressures that we're seeing here So I'm grateful again for your coming back to the table and appreciate the work that's gone into this. Thank you Thanks, councillor Travers will go to councillor carpenter and then perhaps try to wrap up with councillor Dority Thank you all I'm going to follow up a little bit on councillor to versus Comments and just make sure I'm clear as I understand your undergraduate enrollment. Is that three thousand and that is your goal? indefinitely to keep it about the three thousand mark is that Accurate that that is our only undergraduate with the moment I can't sit here and say what another person is going to do seven years from now or something But but that that is our only goal right now. Okay Have you done a comparison the three sites that we're talking about needing joining changes on today can accommodate Some amount of housing can do we have a comparison of what those three sites would accommodate today as opposed to with it with the zoning changes Well, the problem with most of it right now is we can't build much of anything in The current configuration they we're not allowed to go high enough But Megan can speak to it better than I can but it it's a it isn't worth building on on these sites If we can't go high enough to have the density to make them worthwhile, but she can talk to them Yeah, I think it is it's a great question Councilor Carpenter that all three of these sites are currently located within the Institutional district and our zone to allow housing However, the current zoning limits are essentially would allow for a three-story building under normal construction I think what we've talked about in the context of the Trinity discussion is just that more modern building heights and particularly Buildings that are built by institutions tend to be a little bit taller So I think probably fitting a three-story building within the existing zoning envelope might be tricky anyways And so really I don't have a number in terms of the number of units that might translate into But I think what we're talking about is potentially a doubling of the capacity that exists on those sites today Okay, and that's sort of I was going and I'd be curious offline to have that because Part of my thinking is if the University does not get zoning changes We can all say it's not worthwhile, but it may be still worth some while to build a three-story building but we'd have an underutilized site and half the amount of Housing with the same amount of undergraduates if I'm kind of understanding that Accurately and maybe there are Twists through our planning and development once we've been talking about changing anyway So I'm just trying to lay that out as a kind of a context of if we stay at 3,000 indefinitely we can today have three sites that'll build X and I'm hearing Megan say that X is Half as much as potentially why if we do These zoning changes and I'm really just asking that as a clarification Because that's some of how I'm seeing it is that these zoning changes will maximize the use of those Sites as opposed to underutilizing them in their current configuration even with Little things we could do and I want to add also that one of the purposes of the institutional core campus Overlay districts, which is essentially what this MOU is articulating that we will consider Is to enable greater intensity than what's allowed in the institutional district for select sites in order to help us Meet our needs and a lot of times what the purpose of those districts is to do is to help Institutions grow within their boundaries to help reduce impacts on the nearby neighborhoods And so we have examples for the medical center and other parts of UVM's campus where we've enabled more development intensity for those purposes and this these zoning amendments are very much in that spirit Okay, so again, just to clarify Even if the university keeps its 3,000 mark, they can build Something just clearly not we'll just say half as much as what they're needing or asking us for today Thank you. I think I need this to say Even though it's not up to me But I could never recommend to the president and the board that we build under the current zoning requirements because it would just be too expensive and not Not an efficient use of resources to do that. It'd be much better off to build a building twice as high next door Then to build one half at high Use resources is just too scarce in this day and age to build short buildings Thank you Thanks very much. Councilor Carpenter. We'll go to Councilor Bergman Thank you, I had wished that some of my questions had been answered, but they haven't Mr. Kate, thank you for all this work. Can you please put down on paper what the Developments that you're proposing for the three university sites that you want to have rezoned would The number of beds and the the target for those beds. I it's not in your discussion paper. That's on the That's posted on board docs I'm having a hard time finding it and I think the public really needs to know exactly what it is that we are That we're talking about with that development the eight stories basically for I think Two of those sites Maybe even three. I so can you do that, please? again, we haven't we haven't done the design on these sites because we haven't got the zoning but It's clear that we could build 15 to 1800 beds on on the combination of the three sites if we had them It would be very helpful to get numbers that you are thinking about in You know for each of those sites Let me I will state that is that So understanding that I need to be clear without doing even a preliminary design It really isn't possible to give you a number that I can stand behind so I Guess I would say that range. I just gave you as good as it gets at this point Well, how did you come up with eight stories? 80 feet 80 feet enables us to go high enough so that we can Make efficient use of the site It it doesn't take any, you know, we can say we've got so many square feet Ground we go up this high, but the units haven't been designed the configuration The buildings haven't been designed other than what we had brought brought forth on Trinity and what we brought forth on Trinity We're just going to get us about 500 undergraduate beds at the time But we were also going to build graduate beds as you recall further forward on the side The other side Haven't had that level of design Let me just say that for all three sites, I find it to be very unsatisfactory to have a Lack of knowledge about what we can contemplate there. So we don't have to get into a Further on this So in the first years if you go under the MOU over the 2023 baseline year you are not gonna have These projects build How are you going to accommodate the increase in in students? If you first years after if we sign this if we sign this MOU in January But what the agreement says is that we either have built them or we have a contract to build them and We're confident that what we're building right now will help us in that regard With the 545 beds that will soon be under construction after we get it permanent so the buildings that you are Currently building could be used and are contemplated to be used to meet your obligations under this agreement only one Just just the undergraduate building not the graduate building and remind me again So I don't have to flip through the slides of how many units are in there Catermount run is in city center of South Browinton That is for graduates the one in the parking lot behind the hotel is undergraduate And so just numbers on that please 545 for undergraduates yes, so if there were an increase in undergraduate enrollment of 400 then That that development would not cover it No, that would seem to be the math of that not not quite right. That's correct. Yep Okay, so then in that scenario like how you you'd have to come up with another contract That's correct. Okay Why didn't you include grad students in the in the MOU? There have been multiple iterations of the MOU and in the negotiations with the administration At one point it had grad students another point it didn't and we decided that because most of the attention was focused on the undergraduates In the downtown that it would be more Precise measure as it were now what Megan and Brian speak if they have anything else on that But we we talked about both sides of this I would say that the Impact is somewhat mitigated by a couple of factors one being that the graduate students have a higher proportion that Participate online was one of the factors as well as the fact that in many cases grad students are coming from somewhere in our region Already, they're not necessarily relocating here to enter into the program and those numbers University can give us but that is part of the metric there And Just for clarity I we've been through We've been talking about this MOU for quite some time and talking about the Trinity amendment before so I don't specifically remember Talking about having a specific commitment to graduates in the MOU, but certainly In our work on behalf of the city early in those discussions We fully understood that the interest was in Undergraduates and particularly upperclassmen undergraduates and that was the focus of our discussions on behalf of the city Thank you. I'm disappointed since I've been raising this point for months With city staff, but be that as it may The the last calm it's a comment and then I then I'll stop I believe that the 1.5 number is way too small for the Get considering that the the housing deficit that we've got with the the housing of students, so I would I Just want to express that and be really clear about it. I understand that you are maybe at your last best offer here, but I'm I just think it is not sufficient. So thank you very much Thank you so much Councillor Bergman Councillor Grant The just wanted to remind everyone we do have public forum at 715 so if we're in the middle of something We'll just have to recess this and then go on to public forum Thank you. I did appreciate the meeting that I was able to have with you, but Keep in mind that we largely As council members have not Been part of this process, which is why we do have so many questions. It is a really sensitive Issue in the community and sometimes I am concerned that you fully don't understand that and so I'd like you to think a little bit about that When when you say that you know a shift in enrollment could be You consider it small enough that it might not be consequential But given our market and given the things that are going on And the difficulties that people are having it's very con you know it consequential So I think it's very important that you always keep that in mind. It's a real sensitive topic We have so many people in our city concerned about public safety. I talked to students They're concerned about cost of housing. That's their number one concern and has been for quite some time. Thank you Thank You councillor grant My apologies councillor Dority. You were in the queue Thanks, and I'll be brief. You know again. Thank you very much for being here and and I guess a couple of suggestions that might Might be more of a might be more considered hard suggestions as we go forward one I really hope that as we move forward that you are remain committed to engaging with the community Councilor travers to mentions the ward one NPA put a plug in for the ward eight NPA and that you're willing to come and Engage with the community and answers questions like the questions that we've been asking you So that you know our constituents can help us make a decision that's right For the city and for our neighborhoods number one and number two as part of that process I think it would be extraordinarily helpful. You've heard a little bit about trust. You've heard About this concern about underclassmen filling up these spaces and then pouring out into the neighborhoods and worsening a situation that really cannot be worsened anymore We cannot afford to have you know a tighter less elastic housing market at this point And I think it would be tremendously helpful at the university. We're willing to commit in writing to some sort of description of the kinds of units that you're planning on Building here and the way you're going to market them to upperclassmen and I understand That until you get the zoning changes, you can't have the design and you might not be able to say with specificity But a commitment in writing that these are going to be apartment style Units that you have a plan to really really fill them with upperclassmen I think the community would it might not be satisfactory, but I think it would be helpful to the community to have that kind of written community Commitment from the university. Thank you Thanks very much councillor Doherty Thank you all for being here with us this evening I really appreciated the presentation and we will move forward to the community engagement aspect of this And we will see you again in that in the not too distant future In the new year Thank you. Thank you So it's now 7 15 which is time for public forum my apologies to the Community Justice Center. We will come back to you The For those who are not used to our public forum process We do have one and I would I will I speak for the full council In saying that we all share a strong commitment to an orderly process and one that honors all voices and respectful discourse For those who are joining us in con toys There is a timer system on the table in front of me that has three lights The green light will shine when you begin speaking The second yellow light when you have 30 seconds left and then the last Light is red and that will shine when your time is up Please complete your sentence on the sound and light indicate that your time is up So everyone will have the same amount of time and we can keep the public forum moving along If you're joining us online, there is a timer system that will be set up on zoom We don't have a light system, but when your two minutes are up and the clockwides down to zero Please complete your sentence so that we can move on to the next community member We do have a hybrid system for public forum If you wish to speak in person there are forms to my right in the back of the room Please fill them out and then leave them on the table. That is also on the right side of the room or my right And we will make sure that you're able to speak If you want to join if you want to speak via zoom you can go to Burlington vt.gov forward slash city council forward slash public forum When you do that a form will come up just complete the form and your answers will come into a spreadsheet that I have in front of me And I can call on you in the order which you submitted the form It is our practice that Burlington residents will have first priority We'll go to Burlington residents in con toys who have submitted a form In person then to Burlington residents online Back to non Burlington residents in person and then we will complete public forum with online non Burlington residents The the only request that we have is that During public forum. We ask that you please use respectful language We'd like to remind everyone here this evening and joining us online that there are families who watch our council meetings as Their connection to civic engagement Parents use this to teach our city's children about city government and we expect that everyone will refrain from using profanity When you do speak during public forum Please face me direct your comments to me as the chair and not to anyone else at this table Nor to the audience that is gathered in back of you. Please do not personalize your comments This rule to the best of my ability will be strictly enforced We just want to hear what you have to say and it's a lot easier for us to listen if you speak respectfully With that we will go to public forum. The first speaker is Jonathan Chapel Sokol to be followed by Dave Marr Good evening Do you have the is the little green light right there? Right on top of the microphone. Yes now it's now we can hear you good. This is a this is a statement from the From the board once NPA steering committee. We're currently currently collecting Signatures from the residents of Ward 1 and Ward 8 so we expect there will be more than just us Who will be saying that who who are saying this? We believe that council decisions like the upcoming MOU with the University of Vermont are of such community import that Significant time be allowed for public review and comment Specifically we request that the city council delay any votes on the MOU for at least 45 days following It's being made public so that would be today This will allow NPAs all NPAs time to meet time for residents to be properly informed City councilors need to get a clear understanding of the opinions of their constituents on the proposed MOU to help them make an important decision And we see this as a little bit of a test case because we believe that there are more resolutions and more decisions that the city council makes may make that That really need more attention from the from NPAs from the community. So thank you very much Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Dave Maher to be followed by Romeo von Herman Good evening. Thank you. My name is Dave Maher I live in the North End and I was at the Public Safety Forum last Thursday, and I heard State Senator Phil Baruth Talked about a new law that was passed that requires landlords to report certain drug activity on their properties or face Consequences well funny thing. I wouldn't be skiing with somebody Sugarbush just before that who happened to own a property on Hyde Street in Burlington And wouldn't you know it one of his apartment units there became occupied by a bunch of drug dealers and drug users And they weren't even on the lease So I thought it'd be easy called the police And the police didn't do anything He spoke with his city councilor city councilor didn't do anything So we had to go to court spend $3,000 and wait three months to get these people moved out of his unit and They weren't even on the lease So we've got to do something better We've got to find a better way to get people out if they if they're doing drugs selling drugs And especially if they're not on the lease, so I have an idea Landlords have the right to enter a property they own For inspections maintenance and similar things that landlords have to do And I don't see why a landlord couldn't take a policeman with him for the inspection And I don't see why a policeman couldn't if he happens to see something some evidence of drug dealing or drug use Make an arrest or at the very least arrest the people for trespass Anyway, that's my idea. My idea some of you may not like that, but I think we need to do a better job Because landlords can't do it on their own they need help and his support to get people out. Thank you Thank you very much Our next speaker is Romeo von Herman to be followed by Todd DeLuca. Good evening. Good evening madam president So for me tonight is just to say more. Thank you rather than going into the topic itself for the night Um, good evening madam president mr. Mayor city councillors city administrative team city staff As we complete this year's final regular city council meeting I'm honored to express my gratitude for the incredible resilience and dedication shown by our public service personnel Including our mayor the city council city council president and The city staff as well, of course I also am grateful to the residents of our city for their endurance on everything that goes on in our city It goes without saying that this year has been a filled with challenges Yet in the face of these challenges our city demonstrated unwavering strength and unity Our public service personnel who are the backbone of our city work tirelessly to ensure the safety and well-being of our residents From the first responders including our police department fire department who bravely face emerging issues That I'm grateful thankful for their response to everything that happens in our city. I Can go on to thank everybody for all that happens in our city Two minutes does not necessarily cover to all that is happening our city But I just want to say happy holidays. Happy Hanukkah and thank you. Thank you very much Our next speaker is Todd DeLuca to be followed by Todd LaCroix Good evening. Can you hear me? Hello counselors? I'm Todd DeLuca from Ward 4 and I'm here tonight because I'm very concerned about some of the actions the city has pursued Against the free speech of the people of Burlington It is well established in constitutional law that the government may not abridge freedom of speech based on the content of that speech However in March as the city council unanimously passed a resolution condemning Bill Ochen's speech and calling for his prosecution He is now being prosecuted In October the city responded to Jeff Comstock's use of pronouns at an NPA meeting By rewriting the NPA laws to censor speech These actions by the city are unconstitutional Exactly because they are based on the content of speech This political persecution Is particularly problematic in Burlington Where gender affirming care is mutilating minors When the people vote this March I Hope they remember that mayoral candidate Mulvaney Stenek sponsored a bill last year to secretly sterilize children without parental knowledge or consent without parental knowledge or consent Instead of persecuting people who speak out Against gender ideology, which as we all know is a very controversial topic. I Urged the city council to end the malicious prosecution of Bill Ochen and Take a closer look at the harm being done To the children of Burlington by gender affirming care Thank you Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Todd Lacroix to be followed by Jake Schumann. Good evening Let's take a look at the track record on freedom of speech here in the last decade or so under This administration and many of these people's overseeing Democrats progressives. Yes, they're both been a disaster I look at this town having grown up here most of my life and I am Completely disturbed by the legacy that you are leaving and now abandoning and trying to pretend is Some sort of great legacy. You're leaving us. We got all these problems There's nothing for kids left in this town. You've gutted everything that made this town Wonderful all so that you can service rich people and I don't know some sort of politics that you know People will give you money want you to follow while at the same time Let me remind you that the legacy of all the things you're so proud of when black lives matter happened What did these people do? They gutted our our police They gutted our police force with no reform They took away our ability to speak more than two minutes to say anything in two minutes of meaning is ridiculously hard We used to have five minutes No, their response was to give us two minutes and they never rescinded it because that's how they respond They took it as an opportunity to take our speech away and Then they call it progress They take the steps To act like they're the victims. Well, they stomp on our rights Because they have the power because they have us all divided talking about all these different political issues That are dividing us But if we look at the issues just like we did on Occupy Wall Street We realized that 90% of this country 99% of this country is united with what's going on and we're sick of it Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Jake Schumann to be followed by Karen Sita my apologies Here that's not on just press the button right in front of you. So the light is green Mike Mike. Yeah, that's it like my girl Barbie I too am constantly thinking about death and Rememble mental morey remember we all must die. That's why I'm constantly living a life of love beauty fashion Honesty I wish I'd remind people that Mussolini is in the grave Those that want to be malicious those that want to be evil those that want to be Condescending destroy the voice of others they end up in the grave. I will not be there I will be in heaven in my mansion smiling going somewhere doing something and I wanted to remind people that this is a time to speak up Wellingtonians who's the judge the judge is God? Why is he God? Because he decides who wins or loses not my opponent. Who is my opponent? He doesn't exist Why does he not exist? Because he's merely a dissenting voice of the truth. I speak speak the truth Speak the truth. Dr. Maya Angelou made it very clear. We must tell the truth first to ourselves And then to the children I'm done. Thank you Thank you so much And our last speaker that's joining us in person is Jake Schumann, and then we will go to online Good evening. Thank you. That was actually a really good switch Good evening council president Paul Karen I think that at the end of my remarks you might understand as I do Probably the sense of solidarity that we have right now with each other You know I usually come before this body with comments And I'm confident and I am put together a little bit, but I am wearing my house clothes I am not respecting that timer at all because I think that You all on this body really need and want to hear the things that I have to say And I think that the community needs and wants to hear the unique unique insights that I have I'm I'm just I'm really I'm not in a great space right now. I am feeling really hurt betrayed for Lorne I Feel that I was tokenized and exploited And I want to tell you that I played a central role in Writing the resolution that was so divisive last week It was not my Resolution right I was not The lead sponsor. I was not a sponsor. I was not a counselor. I did not vote on it. I did not introduce it I Did not decide which ideas were included in which were not I didn't do any of the negotiating But it was my hands on the keyboard and I wrote the words And I did not attend the meeting last week because I Was happy to remain anonymous Excuse me Having it known publicly Your affiliation with something like that as a Jew is Dangerous I already experience in community My apologies take there is a two-minute limit. Well, so then let me take another minute and all Need to hear I apologize there everyone gets two minutes You need you need I understand that I understand that we can talk about it another time And you can certainly talk about it with anyone else at this table who I'm sure would be interested in hearing what you have to Say but not during public forum We're going to go to those people that are joining us on zoom There are two people who are joining us on zoom and we can just put that timer up, please So we do have two people that are joining us online The first is Stephanie Douglas and Stephanie. I'm not able to locate you There is there's a couple of people with just initials, but none of them look looking similar to yours the second is representative Troy Hedrick and Troy, I have found you and enabled your microphone. You should be able to speak Thank You Madam President Can you hear me? Yes, we can please go ahead. I'm just one very appreciative to the conversations Surrounding the MOU with UVM, and I just want to I just want to insert a little more data the first kind of informs my skepticism for The process itself and I'll just share these dates with you and the enrollment numbers so in the fall of 2006 when the university opened University Heights the new residence hall at that time enrollment was at 11,882 Five years later enrollment had skyrocketed at 13,486 then CCR a to central campus residence hall opened in the fall of 2017 Enrollment was at 13,340. So yeah a bit of a dip but not by maybe a hundred students Five years later Enrollment had done increased to 14,088. So my worry is that every time UVM opens new housing They expand beyond their enrollment Within five years, and then that has a significant impact on our rental market undergraduate enrollment for the fall of 2022. So last year was 11,326 This is up from 11,081 students for the fall of 2021 that represents a Delta of 245 of if those students all move off campus, they would have signed their leases this past September in groups of four That would have been 61 additional needed housing units In total enrollment for this year. I'm doing total enrollment Was 11614. That's a Delta of 288 Again, those students are going to be signing their leases in September of 2024 If they move off campus in groups of four, that's an increase of 72 housing units that will need so I'm worried that and with respect to Consor Doherty's comments that we're we're not doing anything to keep those students on campus If we increase enrollment according to past trends Within five years that Delta is going to be unmanageable for our rental vacancy unit we are on a razor thin kind of Razor thin right every hundred additional students that we bring into campus is roughly 25 additional housing students Unit needed great. Thank you. Yep. Thank you so much for your time once again, the other person who had wanted to speak was Stephanie Douglas and I am Unable to locate you so with that we will complete our public forum At 736 let me just say this was the greatest regret of my life like to have caused that division I need you to know that I I just it hurts me so deeply and we have to bring some healing to bear And I know I have evidence. I have seen the facts on both sides of this issue Your leaders are lying to you. Please just stop listening just show up for peace and unity and love We are here in this together Thank you. Thanks very much and with that we will end public forum at 736 and Thanks to all who submitted comments and spoke during public forum We will now go back to item 3.1, which was a presentation from the Community Justice Center and we have with us Rachel Jolly Ceto assistant director for the Burlington Community Justice Center Becky Penberty the adult restorative and volunteer manager for the Community Justice Center and As well, we have state representative Taylor small Thank you so much for crossing the river to join us this evening Welcome to each of you and thank you for your time We've we've allotted a half hour for this doesn't mean we have to use it all But we have allotted that and I do know that you have a presentation Which we are anxious to anxious to see and then we'll go to some questions and comments from the council Thank you very much. So again, my name is Rachel Jolly. She her pronouns I'm the assistant or one of four assistant assistant directors at CEDO heading up the Community Justice Center The our plan tonight is to give you some context about the CJC It was two years ago that we did a work session like this So I know I'm confident some of you are very familiar with the Community Justice Center But it's I think as we have the focus on public safety and the community is especially interested It's always worth expanding or even introducing the knowledge about this city resource So I just want to start with a glance at our referrals in terms of like just the scope of what the CJC does We do have 10 programs that run the gamut from Prevention and community disagreements and when there's just maybe a need for mediation all the way to post incarceration around reentry We have 17 staff that are in three locations We had been in four locations until actually the end of this year So we're in four locations right now, but at the end of this month We'll go down to three in that we were have been present in the schools and where a grant is is finishing on that So we're in three locations We have a 1.59 million dollar budget and almost 1500 referrals The year of the pandemic we were headed towards 2000 referrals I think we'll be climbing up to to that neighborhood again Since the pandemic we've been inching towards that way And to give you a sense of how that where the revenues from that budget come Primarily, we are very much a part of the criminal legal system the majority of our primary funders are part of the system So even though one of our funders is the Burlington Police Department We don't currently get funding from them, but we do get funding from The Attorney General's Office the Department for Children and Families the Department of Corrections as well as Jag is federal money justice assistant grant that does fund our community mediation program and The Center for Crime Victim Services that primarily funds the parallel justice program, which is primarily for victims of crime As you can see that is the majority the city of Burlington does make up 9% Mostly in matching money for some of these grants that is required As we'll get to a little bit tonight I think the vision of and in terms of expanding this notion of public safety is What we could invest in more prevention as well as just community referrals self referrals, which we really don't have a funding stream for for right now currently Just a little primer I know some of you are familiar but the the 10 programs don't all actually do restorative justice But we all do the programs in the center does follow a philosophy of restorative Principles and so just in terms of that for those who might not know Howard there who's considered like the grandfather of Western restorative justice though the the concepts and the principles and the values go back thousands of years to indigenous communities all around the world Once has really introduced it into our criminal legal system. So just as a review sometimes you might hear the words restorative justice program It's really not a program. It's an approach It's a philosophy or a paradigm that is asking very different questions than the typical system So that in this kind of slide you're seeing it compared to the traditional system Where in the traditional mainstream system crime is a violation of the law So the questions asked there are what law was broken who did it and what punishment do they deserve? Whereas restorative principles or restorative justice the questions are different because it's relationship based at the center and so This is the first question still might be what happened. Maybe what law was broken Maybe just what harm was done who has impacted what are their needs and whose obligation is it to meet those needs? So it's a very different Kind of paradigm and again, so it has a role even without like it's right We serve a lot within the system of the criminal justice system But it has a whole life life beyond and apart from or even integrated with the system So in terms of those principles a lot sometimes there's a misnomer that restorative justice is light on accountability It's a slap on the wrist or it's a Pass-through I do want to note that accountability is primary to restorative justice It just might be a different version of that kind of accountability in mainstream System a punishment is equated with accountability restorative justice looks at the whole Human human and non-human actually parties in some parts of the world where environmental restorative justice is a thing But it looks at you know, what what the harm was and who what are the needs of all parties impacted? Restoration is a key part obviously to in terms of looking what is needed I do want to note that it's also definitely not the right Solution for some and it one of the things that we've learned it when we've Encountered a few civil disobedience cases that came our way in hindsight. I really think we mishandled those I think that Civil disobedience where a responsible party is purposefully breaking a law and sometimes does not have remorse About the actual impact they may be very proud of what they did and may be rightly, you know saying in in their view They would do it again In hindsight, I wish we had used a different kind of model to handle those cases We've learned I actually ended up co-writing a chapter in a book about civil disobedience and restorative justice because that those two cases gave me so much thought but just as a is it We don't want to talk about it in a holistic way of like it's it's this panacea. It's always the right thing It really isn't and it's very case-dependent But for certain situations it can be exactly what the parties involved need so to say that that's just giving you a baseline some kind of Some context of where the CJC lies I really I feel like the power of the work is in the stories themselves And if you haven't had the privilege of being able to observe a case or be positively impacted by a case Then you may have some different associations or even no associations Associations with what restorative justice is so I want to hand over to my partners here and person storytelling Good evening everyone. My name is state representative Taylor Small. I use she and her pronouns And I'm a CJC participant and want to share with you my interaction with the Community Justice Center and restorative practices Justice and background as a former student at UVM restorative practices were very much ingrained in our residential advisor program And one that I was well versed in and supportive of because of my time there but in August of this past year I was the victim of A violent act from someone in my community. It was an incident of road rage as I was on my way to work I was coming out from my home just about 1500 feet from there And as I pulled into the road had a mistake a near accident with another car I swerved around I thought nothing of it and continued on my way to just go get some caffeine before work as I think All of us might be able to relate to and in the process of me pulling into the gas station I heard a screech and a car pulled in at the same time as me I Thought the car had looked familiar and it happened to be the same car that I had nearly missed just outside of my house and As he came in I was going to park my car Something in my gut said not to and as I turned to look at this car that had come perpendicular to me I saw that the man that was in the vehicle started reaching down into his passenger seat And I didn't know what he was going to grab But again, I trusted my gut and said this is not the place that I should be right now So I continued rolling forward in my car and was getting ready to leave and at that time I saw the man exit the vehicle and he was wielding a hammer and was storming towards my car yelling At that moment I had no idea what he was going to do. I feared for my life I feared for what could have happened in that moment and all I could think was I just want to get out of here I just wanted to drive out of that area and yet it was so congested that I was waiting for traffic to just move and In that moment as he was getting closer I finally was able to pull out and as I pulled out I heard the back of my vehicle crash and saw my entire windshield Come into my car and I pulled out and immediately hit a red light and Was grateful for only a moment so that I could safely call 911 and get law enforcement on the line After that I had no idea why this man had thrown a hammer at my car that had never happened to me before I continued down the road until I was in a safe spot I Gave all of the information that I could to the people on the end of the line and waited for a response Luckily, I was so close to home that once I was able to confirm all the details They said that they could have an officer meet me back there As I arrived home, I pulled in Went to my fiancee at the time to share what had happened He was so gracious to come out and turn my car around because I refused to back into my own driveway But he was thoughtful enough to say that that should be blocked And I was grateful for that because as I looked outside. I saw a Collection of gentlemen standing across from my Across from my house and they all seemed to be construction workers And they seemed like they were waiting for someone and all I could think in that moment was this person that had just Thrown a hammer was probably going to be turning down my street is going to be meeting up with these people across from me I was terrified and so I called the police once again and told them what was happening and they showed up We had a great conversation I gave all of my information to them and they said luckily there was someone who was at the gas station That was able to take video and got the person's license plate And so that they were going to reach out to them and then confirmed for me that the people that were outside of my house We're actually not connected to this individual But gosh in that state of panic it could have So been true Later I got a call back from the law enforcement officer to say that he had tracked down the individual who had thrown a hammer at my car He admitted to everything that had happened and he was apologetic to the officer And so the officer said well because he was so apologetic. I'm going to be referring this to restorative justice And I was heartbroken I was heartbroken at a time when I had felt completely unsafe in a community that I represent and love I could not imagine that what was being charged was unlawful mischief when I felt like my life was at risk and That it felt like it was just a slap on the hand that this person was going to go on And we were what going to have a conversation and that was going to solve everything. I Absolutely did not like that and they said well you can take that up with the Burlington Community Justice Center when they give you a call and Luckily that call came just just the next day I work in the adult programs as the adult restorative Manager and I've done this for a long time. I do want to give one small disclaimer that the other person that was involved in this incident We did talk with them. They know we're talking about this So I get pre-charges from law enforcement and they come into my email and I'll open it up on my email and read it and Then figure out what to do next or who I want to collaborate with on my team and I Opened up Taylor's case and I didn't know Taylor except to have met her a couple of times and I Did what I think should be done in the best when you're doing your best work I reached out to Taylor first and I said I have your case Taylor was not happy that I had her case She was really really mad about it. And so I went on to explain. Okay, I get it We talked about what in the criminal legal system though The law is regarding unlawful mischief like for me it sounds like we'd be having fun and being mischievous It's not fun at all and it's misnamed and we talked about how the names of our crimes don't match how we feel and I talked about what happens in the criminal legal system that this person would likely come into court with their own attorney or They would get a public defender. They wouldn't have to speak their public defender would speak for them They would come back a time or two and at some point Probably be convicted of this of this offense and they would pay a fine And they would have a criminal record and that record could be expunged at some point and there's good reason for that but Taylor would never have an opportunity to speak to them because the judge would say you can't have contact with Taylor and And that would end the case and maybe six months from August 10th You would have had a residence, but it wouldn't have felt like a residence. So I Just said to Taylor. I said you have options. We don't have to keep your case We could take your case for a while. We could give it back or you could meet with him I didn't talk to them yet, but I said or you could meet with him and What did you say to me? I Could see where Becky was coming from in that moment and I think what stood out to me most was there were so many questions that I had Why was I targeted? Was it simply a mistake on the road? Was it because of being trans was it because of being an out-elected official? and I just did the wrong thing at the wrong time and they were coming after me and To hear that there would be no conversation between me and the person that perpetrated this crime against me meant that I felt like I wasn't a part of the process at all and I Checked I said well What happens if I come into this and this man actually feels no remorse if he doesn't really care if it was intentional And but he said then we won't be going through this process and when I have that conversation with him Then we will find out what the next steps are So I called him up and when we work with people at any of our restorative processes We do a full intake. We learn about who they are and what's happening for them I learn about their health and their support network and I ask them all the questions about what happened that day for them I'm gauging whether they're willing to take responsibility and accountability in like the best of ways and so I I Won't at some point. He may share his story, so I won't share it with you now But he was clear that he was responsible He was worried about what Taylor was thinking. He wanted an opportunity to talk with her That doesn't always happen, but we do bring people together lots of times So it's a lot of work to get up to that point. I have to meet with him Taylor was Connected to a victim service specialist named Hannah from the Burlington Community Justice Center because Sometimes it's nice to have your own person That's not working with the person who's responsible for the harm. I hear that there may have been some yelling when they talked I don't wasn't there So we did we did come together and I think everyone was nervous So what was that like for you? Yeah, so the meeting happened about two months after the fact And what was really reassuring was up front I was told about what the process was going to be what the conversation would be with the perpetrator of this crime What was going to happen when we were in a restorative session together and everything that was going to happen in between? and And everyone knows everything in that process which is amazing because in that time I was about to organize what was going to be Burlington's largest Pride event yet and then And also get married the month afterwards so there were two big life events happening where I did not want to be thinking about the fact that someone threw a hammer at my car and What was really Resounding in this process was that I didn't have to think about it because I knew that the process was happening and that we were Going to come to a resolution and that date was already set And so when I came in I think what shocked me most is that I looked at this person that had committed this crime against me and They were more nervous than I was coming into that room. They were shaking They were obviously prior to me coming in were already crying and all I could think was why are you? Why are you acting like this? You are the one that committed this You are the one who was so wild that day and just wanted to harm me. I can't understand why you would be crying and That's where we started was allowing him to tell his story first And he shared about what was going on in his life not as a way to say this is what preempted me or this is why I did it What he shared was that the reason that this altercation happened is because there was no sense of control in his life And when this incident happened on the road He just wanted to confront me and tell me what I had done wrong that I had done something wrong against him and When I was not willing to have that conversation for very obvious reasons and he threw that hammer There was someone else at the gas station that came up to him and said what are you doing? What are you doing? He said they just they wouldn't talk to me. They all they almost cut me off I almost got into an accident and they said and you threw a hammer and That was the moment that he realized that there was something completely wrong and when I Really appreciated in that moment like he said can we go back? Can we can we talk about when you were reaching for that hammer in the first place? Why were you reaching for a hammer? And he said I have no idea what was coming over me in that moment. I just wanted to be listened to I just Wanted to have that conversation In that moment, I thought he was reaching for a gun and that moment I I had no idea It was what I had thought about every single time that I went and replayed this incident I always thought about the what if what if that was a firearm that he was grabbing and I couldn't help but imagine and I came in talking to my victims advocate ahead of time saying There's one agreement that is really important to me and that it is that this person Relinquishes access to a firearm if that if they do have one what they have shown here Is that if they had a firearm in their car that day that I would be terrified that they would have actually used it against me and that was also that the feeling that I had coming into this was that this person was intentionally trying to commit harm against me and When he shared that story he paused afterwards and he said after the incident I learned that you were trans and I think that's what hurt Me most what hurt me most was recognizing the violence that is happening towards trans people across this country That is happening in the state and I can't believe that I contributed to your lack of feeling safe in a community that you represent He was like I cannot believe that I intervened and that I interrupted your ability to feel safe and community and for that I am so deeply sorry And that is reflection that I never I never expected to hear I thought that I would have to bring this forward I thought I would have to share all of the emotions that were coming up for me and how I was feeling in that space And yet he had done so much deep reflection that he was able to share exactly what I needed to hear and more and All he kept saying was I keep beating myself up about this I keep beating myself up about this I cannot I cannot stop thinking about that day and the lack of control that I had And I said why are you are you getting counseling? And he said well, I can tell you that after I threw that hammer I went to the gym and the first thing I did was called my counselor that I had just stopped seeing and said I think I need to come back in for some appointment. So yes, I am seeing a counselor on a regular basis and And then it came time to talk about agreements and I brought up that piece of asking about a firearm and At that time he was very willing to share that that is not something that he had access to and had previously relinquished because of completely different situation So that was really resounding what I didn't expect myself to ask to be put into this Agreement was to ask this man to stop beating himself up That it was not serving me that it was not helping me in any of these situations It did not improve my sense of safety What I told him is that would improve my sense of safety was being able to have this conversation with you and Being able to know that there is someone in my community that yes did something wrong But will never do something like this again And that's what was resounding is that he will never commit an act of violence like this again In all of these conversations we ask people who are responsible to tell their story to take responsibility To talk about what they were thinking at the time to talk about who was impacted and how and Ask them what they think they need to do and make amends and the most important question we asked victims of crime is And that's what we did in this situation and we didn't front-load it I never told him about Taylor's identity because that wasn't mine to tell I didn't tell Taylor about what was his concerns were because that was his to share with Taylor and Yeah, he had a pretty lengthy agreement I feel like you felt satisfied that he had repaired the harm he paid his restitution and We've successfully closed his case and we do this a lot One of the things that we want to share with you is that Just one now hopefully a story gives a little illumination to the kinds of things we do and two One thank you for the 9% of our budget, which is great And I think in the future as we do hear from more community members of the about the Wide variety of things that victims and affected parties need from crime. It's not just a clear-cut solution Punishment not is not something that some people want It's not necessarily what everybody wants and sometimes the victim doesn't get a choice to stay in the matter regardless So I do see more and more an arm of the CJC could be about sulfur furrows to a community division That is led by community members in terms of their own seeking justice really bringing out the true meaning of what a Community Justice Center could be and we're open for questions Thank you so much So yes, we maybe we can just take down the the presentation so that we can see Councilor Bergman But in the meantime, we'll go to Councilor Hightower. Yes Great Thank you all so much. I also just want to acknowledge One thank you for sharing that story Taylor And then also just want to acknowledge the great work that the CJC does and that restorative justice is not Like you said a map like it's a it's it's a little bit of an art And so just recognizing that You know the impact that that has on the folks that that work in the CJC whether it's the victim services specialist or anyone else and just How much like like you said like you're still learning and figuring it out and just what an amazing team it takes to like have the results that you do and so just thank you for Continuing to be creative figuring it out and just being such empathetic people to bring this work to Burlington I think it's a really big and important job and it's not easily defined And so just thank you for it's been beautiful to see you in action and to hear your stories and so just thank you Yeah, and then yeah, my question is I would both the self I think that because of the skills that you have and the reflections that you do I think both like self referrals, but then also So many times issues come to the city council when people are really frustrated and there is some really unproductive Conversations and I think that I would also love I think this was in the original legislation That there was like some understanding of like oh could these also be centers where we have like really difficult community? Conversations and so would love to hear Like capacity and what Burlington can do to support you all both having that like independent referrals But then also to have like community-wide conversations in ways that are maybe more productive than having them in this room Not a camp in this room, but in front of us a different setting sometimes can help Yeah, I mean right now we have one part-time person on our conflict assistance program So that's the program that does take community referrals oftentimes neighborhood disputes of things that might be escalating Sometimes just one party reaches out, but sometimes both party does both parties do or a landlord does a property manager That's the most common kind of case we're seeing there But I will say in the last year or so especially we've been getting given the tensions of the world of the country of the region and state We are getting all kinds of outreach of could you help us or in the schools for sure? Could you help us with these difficult workplace conversations these school conversations these neighborhood community conversations? contentious topics just in terms of holding space of facilitating Mediating and we have to just be very careful in terms of what we say yes to because we don't have a lot of capacity again We have a 32-hour week position that's funded by Jagdollars that does you know have a lot of Strings attached about what that money can be used for and so The short answer is that's where I see the city CDs Municipalities the the county has four community justice centers I do see a role for municipalities investing in this kind of preventative work from escalation It may be post harm, but it's pre-crime and so that's a good thing Thank you. That's it for me great. Thanks so much. Are there anyone else Councillor Shannon? Thank You President Paul and thank you for that presentation that was just That was just an amazing story and thank you Taylor for sharing that with us And I wanted to thank you for the work that you've done since since two years ago reflecting on How you're working with people that's really meaningful to me and also last time you came here you shared some data with us and I Had suggested that You do your own surveying and I actually have heard that you are doing your own surveying and wondered how That's going and what you're learning from that Thanks for asking I remember I was just saying to Taylor and Becky two years ago They asked about our data and we didn't have a good answer and I will say that we're still not where we want I will we Given I do think we have an especially competent staff right now that is very experienced and they have actually brought some Tools and techniques from other CJC's and other counties that they brought to our center just about methodology about how you increase Likely had that you'll get surveys back because that's the trickiest thing I think this when we do get surveys back, which is still a very small percentage of the time Victim satisfaction is high Generally, we're asking questions about do you feel seen and heard do you feel like you're the restorative practitioner or the staff Made it possible for you to get your needs met in terms of those agreements that are made things like that are high We're still having trouble. I think as a state in defining better off You know if you're familiar with results based accountability that third and most important question to be asked to be answered Is how are people better off and recidivism isn't is an unsatisfactory kind of measure Especially given how many cases we get in the pre-charge method where somebody doesn't have a chart somebody doesn't have a record So you can't measure recidivism you can see if they come back to your CJC, but that's not necessarily is so effective so my short kind of Still not quite satisfactory answer is that the statewide network of about 23 centers They do state-funded restorative justice have written a congressional earmark and are using it now to hire a data Analysis to do an assessment of all 23 centers and come up with better metrics and better tools That don't just rely on surveys going to participants and getting them back because we're just not getting over the years of this work The 40 years that a geo has been doing core division work. They've always had a low response rate in their surveys So I wish I could have better data for you We can give you the successful closure rate and that's about 80 percent in the pre-charge work that Becky has shared 60% of the folks who are coming to us in this past year. We could not even get to engage So of those who engage in that we do open cases with 80 percent Closure successful closure rate that doesn't we could go go so much more And that's one of the ways we could use city dollars to is having a data person to have better metrics and analysis Did you mean 60% of the victims don't engage or those responsible parties? So What happens then? They go back to I mean back to BPD where where they're gonna sent try and send them to the state's attorneys But without reliable information So I returned the case to the police department and I Actually have that data because I can I'll track what happens to the case whether it was charged or not and by Enlarged the majority of them are charged and then the person goes to court once in a while And I will just say this is a definitely a difference and it is compounded the pandemic the houselessness issues substance use mental health issues These are driving that 60% that we have never seen numbers like that before the vast majority of our pre-charge referrals did come to Resolution of some sort Okay, thank you Thanks very much councillor Shana. We'll go to councillor Grant Thank you, and thank you for sharing It's really important because one of the things that I found really frustrating especially when I was a Police commissioner is that people didn't value restorative justice. You they would say things like it's not real Justice and so getting out stories like this is really important so that people have an Understanding of the value that when people do go through this process there is a higher Satisfaction rating with regards to having been heard and and and healed in some way So, thank you Thank you so much councillor Grant If they're councillor McGee, thank you president Paul and thank you to the three of you for the presentation and Taylor for Agreeing to come and share your story with us. I really appreciate that I just wanted to note that I Think a little over a year ago when I was chair of public safety. I took the opportunity to Shadow Becky and the pre-trial team at the courthouse for a morning And it was a really eye-opening experience the kind of work that could be done if we funded restorative justice at the level that I think it deserves and Really started to see the CJC as part of our larger community safety response especially as we're dealing with Significant levels of backlog in the court system clearly things aren't working the way they they should be and I think there are different ways that we could Approach the the issues that we're having in our community and so I I hope that's the takeaway that we're Having here this evening and I truly appreciate this very personal Experience highlighting the important work that the CJC does so thank you Thanks very much counselor McGee will Counselor councillor jane did you? Yes, I was not going to but let me just say thank you for the presentation and Was just wondering What elements do you use to say this is a CJC case or it's not a CJC case? How do you determine that? Receive a case. I'll read it. I'll make sure I Must be a low-talker I'll look at the case and make sure that it's something that's eligible to be referred If most cases are eligible to be referred and most of them are Misdemeanors and they're not involving intimate partner violence I want to hear from the victim of the crime and I want to hear from the person responsible to check in with them Mostly people are eligible if they're willing to take responsibility and take some steps to repair the harm We do have a little it gets a little tough around restitution if somebody does not have the capacity to pay restitution We can't we can't successfully complete their case. So that is sort of a stumbling block but most Nonviolent misdemeanors are eligible Yep, and I'm pretty sure you came across a lot of cases Why did you decide to bring this specific case to the city council? People don't want to tell their stories These are really highly private matters and if you're the victim of a crime You might not be ready to talk about it now or ever and if you're the person responsible for harm You're concerned about sort of being put here at this table and worried about what people will think of you I offered to have the person that Harm Taylor come because I will do that every time if Taylor wants to tell her story And he's not ready. He worried that somebody might be angry with him for what he did Not understand how he took responsibility and want to harm him. I don't know that that would happen But I mean, I think it's hard for people to do that. I really didn't thank you I really didn't want to ask questions, but since I'm asking them Now what if the person who'd done it do it again? You are responsible or the police officer who referred them to you is responsible Police's decision to decide. It's the police. It's the state's attorney. It's the court It's probation and parole's decision as to whether to refer them to our programs so if I had a person who Successfully completed and they did it again The what it is would matter like what they did again would matter Like if this person did the same thing to someone else, we absolutely would not take the case again if someone Unlawfully trespassed and they three months later had another case where they unlawfully trespassed I think we would take that case so it's It's really hard and it's individual. We would have to like look at the case and understand Yeah, I mean you are not here to Seek more funding. I think you are here to tell us a little bit about what you do, right? But personally I did not feel comfortable listening to a story that you already closed Right and especially putting it in public and there is a TV's people with watching it I personally did not feel it was necessary, right and hope that next time Maybe you focus on the work that you do the elements of the work and what the needs or requires Just wanted to put it out there, but thank you Taylor for being here and thank you both for your presentation Thank you so Rachel Thank you so much and We really appreciate that all of you were here to Rachel to Becky to Taylor. Thank you so much I think it speaks to your meaningful work I know we've been talking about this presentation for some time and needed to find a good meeting where we we know that we could do it Do do the do the work that you do justice as you do Yes, that probably didn't come off exactly the way I'd hope for it, but you know what I mean Thank you again, and thank you all for all the work that you do. Thanks for thanks for being with us Taylor We will go on to item number five, which is climate emergency reports Is there any counselor or if the administration wishes to offer a climate emergency report? This is a an opportunity for an update or or a report Mayor Weinberger Thank You President Paul Want to note that as we meet here tonight much of central Vermont is facing flooding again Washington and Rutland Counties Have been hit very hard efficient evacuation underway in Waterbury village and more town village and some parts of Barry and Mad River has been a flood stages since this morning for another climate disaster to strike these same small Vermont communities just six months after the devastating floods of last summer and in the midst of the winter holiday season is really terrible and a Further indicator that we need urgent action At all levels of government to go beyond be doing more to address climate change several Other updates here from Burlington. I wanted to share with council that I signed the letter In earlier this month It was a mayor's letter to urge the EPA to finalize new greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty highway vehicles starting in 2028 and Running through 2032 to revise certain greenhouse gases standards for that sector is starting in 2027 Finalizing this rule will protect public health address client climate crisis in this sector and align heavy-duty vehicle industry commitments to Transition to zero emission vehicles The EPA forecast the proposed rule would lead to 25 to 50 percent of new sales of Heavy-duty vehicles being zero emission by 2032 I would do want to say we're starting to see indications of that even locally that they're starting to be an industry for these heavier-duty vehicles We know this is a sector that could directly impact city operations as we have with a few exceptions like the electric bucket truck Zamboni, I'm not sure that quite counts as heavy-duty, but you know we have had limited limited success with these larger vehicles the buses of course that we've helped fund with The Green Mountain transit it's been an area I know anyone involved in the approvals for new acquisitions. We've struggled in That's starting to change this new EPA rule could accelerate that and I was happy to sign on to this letter We'll note that Earlier tonight on the board of finance agenda and then it's on your consent agenda that I think was just approved the We did the airport did purchase its first three electric vehicles I believe that the airport is purchased to date so these were two they were not heavy-duty vehicles, but there were two trucks were lightning trucks as well as a SUV electric SUV, so Wanted to share all that. Thanks person Paul. Thank you mayor Weinberger if there are If there are no counselors Then we'll move on to item number six, which is public health and safety emergency reports and Same situation here. Are there any counselors or if the administration which is to offer a public health and safety Emergency report now would be that time And we'll go to counselor Dorety first and then to the mayor. Did you have one mayor Weinberger? I do okay, well Go ahead counselor Dorety I just wanted to remind everyone that we have the second of our public safety community forums tomorrow night Here in con toys at six o'clock and I hope everyone attends Great. Thank you If there are any other counselors counselor grant Thank you. I just would like to say it is the return of the city council public safety committee meeting which will be Thursday evening starting at 5 30 and You can find the information by going to the city's website Clicking on calendar and then under the 21st public safety committee to see the items that we will be talking about and I am also contemplating a third forum To capture some things such as community feedback That I feel when we talked about allowing feedback from employees of Burlington and Businesses people work for businesses as well as people in the community So to have a real opportunity to discuss their surveys there, excuse me to discuss their experiences Other than just submitting the online questions. Thank you. Thanks so much counselor grant will go to mayor Weinberger Thank you, President Paul. I had several items. I wanted to raise one of them was to remind folks of the second of these Public safety forums is coming up tomorrow night. We'll be here and The topics tomorrow night include substance use disorder and property crime and the panelists are going to be State Health Commissioner dr. Levine Jess Kirby from VC JR one of the city's partners and various addiction responses Chief Mirad will be there again as well having recovered from his Cold that kept him from being there last week US Attorney Colo Karest and the state's attorney Sarah George will also be a part of the panel as well as Rachel Jolly from the CJC who we just heard from and I will be there as well talking about the city's Drug response on the treatment side primarily People who can't attend here in person can stream the the event will be streamed by town meeting television and Hope we will once again have a large crowd. It was it was noted It was a large crowd in person here last week as well as I Think it close to a couple hundred folks that we could see we're watching through the stream as well, so Appreciate the council's partnership and leadership on The resolution that created these these forums another council administration Action that wanted to give an update on the I wanted to share what has happened since the $100,000 of additional public safety funds Focused on downtown during the holidays. What's happened with that? Green Mountain concert services Security provides patrols from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Seven days a week based on staff availability And that started on December 4th and is going to go to at least January 4th There are also voluntary BPD overtime shifts that are taking place Again Up to those hours the 7 a.m. And 7 p.m. Seven days a week doesn't mean every one of these shifts is filled but that is that is the the the target and This is in partnership with the BPO a is Helping to promote these and This is in addition to the regular marketplace detail, of course, which is 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Tuesday through Friday in which It was something we were able to add back this year with a slightly improved staffing there's new lighting on paths to downtown garage and These again there has been a Business and workforce development survey with 200 local businesses participating that has Focused on that said the top choice was these security patrols as well as getting better lighting to the garages So these additional funds allowed us to be responsive to that survey and Then finally another Significant piece of progress that I wonder a happy report here is that the new winter warming shelter Was opened on the target date of December 15th last Friday This took a enormous effort from the CEDO team in particular special assistant and homelessness Sarah Russell Just an incredible amount of work managing vendors and contractors interviewing for the new city positions and All in an area that really the city has had no operational responsibilities for in the past But despite that because of that effort this new critical resource is is up and running We'll we'll run until until the spring That is what I had to share person Paul great. Thank you so much Councilor McGee or actually have my apologies. We'll go to councillor Chang and then councillor McGee Counselor Dorothy and councillor Paul sorry that I was not able to attend the public safety Meeting forum that you had here Because I was outside in the community doing God's work Really connecting with people Experiencing homelessness, especially on buttery park Every single one of them and To understand really why they hear What they doing here? the stories that they shared are are Chilling hard-broking We have serious problem about mental health and substance use disorder just to say the list with the help of Jim hallway, we were able to and also Cindy right We were able to help them the one that was most affected a woman Around 43 years old We were able to identify a hotel in South Burlington for at least two days because the hotel was full They let her go Saturday Sunday Cindy White Was there cleaning up the park and she's a director of Burlington parks and recreation and waterfront She did not send the staff. She did not wait for CSL. She did not wait for Park rangers. She was there also doing God's work and Today we were able to help that same woman for one week where she has access to a motel in South Burlington We've been talking for too long we've been investing a lot of money and the past three days I Identified that the issue is actually deeper than the way we think it is If you are on battery park you look down. There is a camp right there very scary and No one can see it unless you go and put your eye in it Those are people that we need to connect with at an individual level Understand what are the needs and try to help them? How are you able to do this work God's work because we have great people such as Parmalo family Who gave us resources to help another woman who's now in a much much better place? Taking her medicine now has ID and already doing interview to have her own home So much work is Happening that the city is unable to do but people like city council Ali jeng Jim hallway and all those who are stepping up to help the people The right thing that we need to learn is to connect with them at an individual level We will be solving the homeless problem one person at the time and so far We have two success stories is willing to share it out there and hopefully I'll come here next time. Thank you Thank you so much We'll go to counselor McGee Thank You President Paul. I just wanted to quickly say that the states Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee is meeting this Friday the 22nd From one to three o'clock and they will be discussing Funding recommendations for The legislature which reconvenes in January and on that list will be overdose prevention centers I Know that we have talked about overdose prevention centers quite a lot in this room the state legislature has taken testimony on overdose prevention centers I am hopeful and it seems like Overdose prevention centers will be moving forward through the legislative process Hopefully expeditiously as we all know that this is a intervention that we critically need here in Burlington and so I just encourage folks to attend that meeting if possible and express support for overdose prevention centers whether At the public input period at the end of the meeting or in the chat during the meeting I think it's important that the committee here How much the community believes that we need this intervention, so I just wanted to say that thank you Thank you so much Councillor Shannon Thank You President Paul I just wanted to draw the attention of the public to information that we received late this afternoon About an incident downtown where somebody entered a local nonprofits office wielding a knife And people inside the office called for help the police The police arrived and they were able to apprehend this person and The notice that we got says the police have had hundreds of previous encounters with this person among them numerous incidents involving assaults including assaults on Howard Center workers and incidents where Officers have been injured He was involved in more than 20 police encounters in December 2023 so far and these encounters were not only in Burlington I think sometimes there's a narrative that you know Burlington is unsafe But these incidents Were in Barry Berlin Essex Montpelier South Burlington and Burlington he has a criminal history that reflects 13 failures to appear and We get reports like this on a pretty regular basis and what we don't get is any information about what happens next at the at the court level and Why are we failing? We don't actually know that but clearly when somebody like like this is Released again and again back into the public. This person is not safe We are not safe and I think we need to Dig a little deeper to figure out why Also, I want to say to Councillor Jang. Thank you very much for what you were doing and digging deep And getting involved in the ways that you are. I appreciate it. Thank you so much councillor Shannon If there are No others we will move on to item number seven, which is our consent agenda I would entertain a motion to move our consent agenda and take the actions indicated Thank you so much councillor Shannon Seconded by councillor McGee. Is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing none all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Please say no bless you We have approved our consent agenda, which brings us to our deliberative agenda We have five items on our agenda The first is item 8.1, which is a communication mayor Mara Weinberger on the appointment of an assistant city attorney For this item. I'll go to mayor Weinberger for an introduction Thank You President Paul. I am excited to bring forth Eric Ramek Rom I apologize. I tried even to get prepared for this Eric welcome for appointment to the position of assistant city attorney Eric brings with them an extensive legal background and has spent a significant amount of time providing legal counsel to both municipalities and Other local governments in particular Eric has experience advising cities and counties Such things as public financing Contracting zoning and land use as well as election matters it is particularly exciting that Eric's has advised localities on affordable housing development matters and bring some important additional expertise to the office there He also has strong proficiencies in trial practice mediation and conflict resolution, so We're very excited to bring Eric's appointment to tonight I'm confident he's going to hit that ground running and make a strong addition to our city attorney team and Eric if you'd like to make any statement yourself go ahead and then hope we'll have the council strong support okay, well, I'm just very excited about this opportunity and Look forward to working with the city and helping them helping you move forward with your initiatives And I'm happy to answer any questions that you have Great. Thank you so much and thanks for being here and thanks for your patience with us this evening Before we get to any questions, we'll go to a motion Counselor Doherty Thank You President Paul. I'm very happy to move to a point mr. Ramakrishnan as a Assistant city attorney for the city of Burlington. Thank you, sir Thank you very much Counselor Doherty as there a second to that motion actually Do we need a second to that motion? We do it's not a not yes. Okay. Thank you We could use that as a test for our new assistant city attorney We'll get to that at the next meeting Thank you so much Counselor Travers You've got you've got two two lawyers here who are our whole heartedly supporting Your appointment and we also have counsel Bergman joining us who's a former assistant city attorney Are there any commons or before we go to a vote? Okay, councillor councillor Jang. Yes. Thank you for being here and Yeah, I just noticed as part of your resume, you know You've been moving around a lot and was just wondering if you're expecting to stay at least for a couple years I do yes Then thank you Great. Thank you so much. So All those in favor of the motion to confirm Eric Ramakrishnan as the newest assistant city attorney, please say aye Any opposed, please say no that motion passes unanimously Congratulations and welcome The the next item on our agenda is 8.2 Which is the appointment to the Chittin in regional Chittin County Regional Planning Commission An alternate position for a term that expires June 30th of 2025 The floor is open for nominations. Is there are there any nominations for this position? councillor councillor McGee Thank You President Paul. Give me a moment while I navigate. I would like to move that we I would like to nominate Larry Lueck for this position Great. Thank you so much And that does not require a second So are there any other nominations are there any other nominations going once going twice The floor is now closed for nominations. I'm going to look to see if mr. Lee Wack is joining us Remotely do not see do not see him and don't believe that he's present with us this evening So with that we will simply go to a vote or actually is there any discussion on the nomination Seeing none, then we'll go to a vote all those in favor of mr. Lee Wack for the position of the Chittin County Regional Planning Commission alternate position Term expiring June 30 2025. Please say aye. All right. Any opposed, please say no That motion passes unanimously which brings us to item 8.3, which is a resolution the adoption of the city of Burlington engineering standards We do have a couple of people here with us from DPW you can you can all it I'll introduce yourselves and I believe you do have a brief presentation Before we will go to a motion on this Yes, that's correct. Thank you Thank You chape and Spencer director of Public Works We have a great team tonight Julio Saki nor Baldwin and Laura Wheelock on a very historic night And we will make this quick, but this has been a project eight plus years in the making to really help the city in ways that Behind the scenes will improve how we do our work and how Developers in the public does their work really excited to have a short time to talk about the importance of this Just so that the counselors have a good baseline Understanding of this watershed moment and if there are questions that the members of the public have to please forward them to us Thank you Yes, so as a city engineer, it's obviously my obligation to make sure we have good standards of practice and I Would say that My job is easy when I have a team that supports me as a team I currently have where Laura Wheelock and other engineers within the team and working on this for a number of years Gathering up all the information necessary to kind of bundle These standards of practice so we've had Olivia DeRis work on this We've had Maddie Swender work on this and as well as Julia And they've all done a great job packaging and Julia will present this But I'd just like to say that it's important to understand the importance of these standards of practice as you know There are a number of streets within the city that are unaccepted and have been built Not to a standard of practice that in years forward it becomes a problem for residents This process will hopefully eliminate future challenges like that and also clarify How people can move forward with those streets that are already built but unaccepted and So With that I would just pass this presentation over to Julia and it'd be very brief, but Hopefully insightful great Thanks. Alright, so just a super quick overview of what we're going to talk about tonight history of standards in Burlington What they are who created them who they're applicable for Then why we have them will go through just a couple examples and then talk about the process that we're proposing to Use to update and adopt the engineering standards So starting back in 2011 the city adopted the transportation master plan which really outlined Different street typologies throughout our entire street network. So that was a much higher level view Then in 2012 the city adopted the original v-trans town road and bridge standards, which was an obligation to Be able to accept FEMA funding and state and federal grants and those are really minimum standards Then in 2016 the city started using the v-trans specs. It was what we call them For any work that we contract in a right-of-way and also any work happening in the right-of-way that Happens through the DPW excavation permit process Then in 2018 the city adopted the Great Streets downtown design standards, which are much more geared towards Sort of materiality and allocation of spaces in the right-of-way, especially downtown or Only downtown and then in 2020 most recently we adopted some updated V-trans town road and bridge standards, which kind of set the baseline for minimum requirements So back to the standards that we're talking about tonight At the most basic level the engineering standards are this set of drawings and written specifications For features that we build in the right-of-way all the time So this is stuff like curbs and sidewalks and catch basins the standards are based on best practices from Our group technical services and the water resources division that we've learned from projects over the past several years We're pulling a little bit from the Great Streets design standards primarily around plantings and trees in the right-of-way And then finally these standards are really underpinned by the v-trans specifications for construction, which are a great resource and Have been modified in a couple ways to be a little bit more specific to Burlington in our urban environment So the v-trans specs is this really comprehensive long document that outlines Exactly how to build things really specific kind of construction processes And we have we are proposing to adopt these standards with some modifications When we presented this to the Duke a little while ago they kind of asked for some more info about how We have modified the v-trans specs So we kind of group them into these four categories, which are basically contractual and organizational updates so being able to use these specs for city projects instead of state projects for Kind of updating some language to reflect how the city is organized The second group is v-trans provides options for many different ways to build things and different materials and we're basically Choosing options where some are better than others, but don't have a big cost impact. So we have that consistency in Burlington Then we have some new sections that v-trans doesn't include And then finally we have sections that are significantly modified from v-trans And the main one is tree plantings, which I'll get into a little bit more later So the standards were created by Us DPW tech services and also water resources We're a lot of the engineers who are working on construction projects and so have this background to Know what goes into them We consulted extensively with DPW traffic and streets who do a lot of maintenance in a right-of-way or all the maintenance in a right-of-way the office of the city attorney Parks office of city planning and also DPI where there are overlaps with their work So we see the engineering standards being applicable for anybody doing work in the city right-of-way this includes contractors City staff and also developers We are proposing to adopt them and we have them primarily so that things are built Consistently throughout the right-of-way you heard norm talk about establishing a standard of practice in the city And that is really the main reason and these other points Kind of build from there, which is that if when things are built consistently We are more prepared to maintain and repair things throughout the right-of-way it also makes Developing contracts and bid documents easier and more uniform across different divisions when you don't have all the same people working on Different projects everyone still has access to the same standards That in turn makes the bidding experience more predictable and straightforward for contractors And then finally we are working with the office of city planning to cross-reference these standards in the comprehensive development ordinance so that this does apply to Developers we're either doing work in the right-of-way or planning to turn Right-of-way over to the city So getting into a couple examples This is a standard drawing. It is how to build a sidewalk So we include this in our sidewalk contract and in any other project that we're doing that involves building a sidewalk it It's quite technical. It kind of goes through the specifications for materials and their thickness And their width in the right-of-way so a couple examples of the written specifications and There's the drawings in this in the specs I had mentioned the tree planting spec was Significantly modified from v-trans. We found that their spec does not work for urban Street trees. So we have modified them to require minimum soil volumes based on tree species That a tree needs at a mature state to be a healthy Street tree Another example and this comes from the category of v-trans providing several options and we're choosing one After talking with our traffic division They prefer to have these square signposts rather than all Few other shapes that are available and this just allows for that consistency in the right-of-way And then another example of a new section that we created because it's not in the v-trans specs is about Driveway aprons, and so it describes the work required to replace driveway aprons with different materials Which we do all the time, especially when we're paving and doing sidewalks In addition to the technical specifications, we have a few City of Burlington provisions. So this describes the process for example to temporarily close streets to parking during construction It describes the procedure for what a contractor should do if they encounter hazardous materials on a construction site and it also has Our requirements for as built drawings and For contractors who are doing projects that we have a record of what was actually built and also GPS data for new infrastructure So those are just a couple of examples I'm not going through every single thing in the standards and specs, but they are in the packet and I Hope you've had the chance to look at them So the process that we're proposing to kind of adopt and update these standards Because we expect there will be new Totally new and additional standards either drawings or specs that we want to be able to add to our You know library of standards We propose that adding new standards will come to the city council like we are tonight through the Duke seeking sponsorships with the Duke and then for for large-scale design and policy Updates to existing standards We would go through the same process of going to the Duke and coming to the city council and Then finally for changes to existing standards that update them to meet current best practices for safety And construction those we propose that the city engineer has the authority to update So just really quickly back to our sidewalk Drawing example For updating this drawing we see like a change in the thickness of sub base or concrete If for some reason based on best practices that were to change from what we're showing now That would be a change that we would be able to kind of administratively update and not come back through the Duke and city council to do But a bigger design change would be something like Requiring six foot minimum sidewalks throughout the entire city versus five that would have big impact to the right of way and cost and Trees and property owners. So that kind of big skill change would come back to the city council So just wrapping up here. The standards are available in an online format We're kind of mirroring a little bit of what the state does there So we're able to track drawings as they're released if revisions occur we can track those in this table and It's just a bit of a cleaner way to provide Standards to the public or contractors versus just having them all in one kind of document They are all libelings on our website. So that's it for our presentation. Happy to answer any questions Great, thank you so much for that presentation before we go to questions We'll go to a motion. I'll look to the chair of transportation energy and utilities counselor Barlow Thank You president Paul. I will move to waive the reading and adopt the resolution Thank You counselor Barlow seconded by counselor Shannon Are there questions comments on the counselor counselor carpenter Thanks, um, I haven't really followed it and I'm gonna Trust it's been through its process, but just a few questions Are these putting all in one place? Um, standards you've more or less had and trying to make them be consistent Um, okay. I mean, they're not effectively new standards That's correct. Yeah, we've been using these in contracts for several years and they have evolved a little bit But it's more formalizing them and putting them in one place Was there I'm just curious and if if they've been in effect probably not but was there a process to get input on them or is this um Just trying to get them all in one place again We do see this as pretty highly technical Content so there's not necessarily well not not from the average citizen But from a contractor or developer, you know somebody who would use them so so I would just say that As uh julia had noted there was a number of If we want to take state federal funding Or any sort of recovery funds We need to adopt much of what is the standard practice of the state federal government and so you what you'll see is really us Following that practice because it is an industry standard practice With some overlays that that relate to specific to urban environment Which under a federal highway process or a state process May not have the same kind of focus that you would have an urban environment. So These are not surprising or shocking to anyone And uh, this is really kind of a place for us to capture Uniformly where that information is so that when people ask the question we can point to these things And we also it's a very live document in other words because it's on a website and we have to constantly update as technology and information changes or state and federal government adopts different standards of practice We need to follow that Is um, I'm just curious. There was a huge initiative. I had Some number of years ago about how these kind of standards for streets in particular affect affordability of residential neighborhoods and it sort of came and went but I And I'm not asking this tonight But you know, I think that's an eye that we need to keep it. I certainly appreciate that to get funding from the state We sort of need to do it their way but and The city of berlington doesn't have really Many subdivisions and we're not really doing those much anymore. We're doing But nonetheless, I just think that Making sure we have that lens Should we have opportunities for subdivisions and I'm assuming this applies to all streets accepted by the city. Is that accurate? So I just ask us that we look This is a funny thing. I create a parking lot where you Put some of those ideas because I do sometimes over time Worry that some of our state standards when applied to neighborhood subdivisions Don't always work So just to speak to the public process most of what is in the Engineering standards did go through Significant public process during the great streets downtown design and construction standard process The challenge is that document is very specific to the downtown And so there was a lot of residential input administrative input and Public body input during that process But were we collecting residential input during that process? Yes Okay, the the public process was citywide from contractors or persons of Knowledge so to speak in the cost and in particular. It wasn't limited and it wasn't targeted In its outreach Thank you Great. Thank you so much counselor carpenter There's a counselor barlow. Yeah, I just wanted to thank you. I know this is an enormous amount of work And the other thing that we'll get from this, I believe is Standards, I know that in the took we hear about road work or sidewalk work where Things in in past history haven't been done to standards. So this will give us something that will Make sure that everything's done to a standard that we We need to have in the city. So I'm really I'm really happy that we have this now So I think it's important to note that It's our belief these standards of practice in the long run save people money and time In pain and suffering because there are a lot of streets that weren't built to a standard practice And now are coming due to be in failure And costing more overall than if we were to do it and do it right the first time And just because we have these standards of practice in the development process Doesn't mean that we're necessarily going to accept the street But it does position them to easily accept it at some point in time. So If if a developer is required to meet these standards It's only a matter of flipping a switch in terms of its condition To potentially have it come over to the city as opposed to we have a street that's poorly built Then suddenly the residents who are Not really financially prepared to deal with that Are carrying all sorts of crazy costs that they were prepared to see and understand or were aware of Let's uh, it's been a real problem with these current streets as they exist today Great. Thank you so much Seeing Councilor grant I just have a good question. Do you have a list of all these streets that are below standards and are going to be Future problems. Yes, we maintain a list of accepted or unaccepted streets Could you email us the link? Sure. Thank you Thanks so much councilor grant Seeing No others in the queue will go to a vote on the resolution all those in favor of the motion on the resolution Please say aye. All right. Hi. Any opposed? Please say no That motion passes unanimously a lot of work. Thank you all so much for your time and thanks for being here with us this evening. Thank you We will move on to our next deliberative item, which is 8.4 in ordinance Um comprehensive development ordinance technical amendments Z8 24-01 Uh for a motion, I'll go to the chair of the ordinance committee. Councilor travers Uh, thank you I'd moved to waive the reading and adopt the ordinance with the following amendment to retain the quote-unquote and from line 448 and strike the quote-unquote shall be from line 449 And would ask for the floor back upon a second. Great. Thank you. Councilor traver seconded by councilor shannon Councilor travers the floor is yours Well, uh, we have charles dillard here who's patiently waited for his opportunity to shine So I don't want to steal that from you charles. I will just say that Um for the most part from my perspective these these technical amendments are just that technical and don't really move into Any substantive matters and have my full support, but charles. I know we have the memo from your office. Do you want to take an opportunity here? Yes, councillor travers. This is not the most glamorous amendment package, but it is necessary and some of you have likely seen a version of this before so this is In administering a very detailed document like the cdo Inevitably the public or staff from permitting and inspections or planning find errors Or the attorney's office And so this is just that it's the compilation of errors that staff has discovered over the last couple years It does break into a few categories Most of which are spelling and formatting errors so 18 of those A few others that deal with sort of minor Errors in site building standards. So there's four of those. There's seven items that are Sort of just providing clarity and clearing out some ambiguity And in in one error in the use table that incorrectly Categorize mental health crisis centers Be happy to sort of answer any questions you do have about these but again, this is mostly for Staff's clarity the public's clarity and for the development community's clarity as well Great, were there any questions or comments from the council before we go to a vote? Councillor travers, I would just like to say briefly the ordinance committee has spent A lot of time with the office of city planning over the past year and looking at The south end innovation district and now with our work on the neighborhood code and and just want to Take an opportunity to really thank the work of director tutel charles dillard sarah morgan and the other Professionals in that office. They approach every single one of these issues with great professionalism and clarity and and really a great sense of the need for Public engagement on these issues. And so just want to thank you for the work to date and Looking forward to the work to come Hey, thank you so much. Councillor travers Seeing no others in the queue. We'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion. Please say aye. All right Any opposed? Please say no That motion passes unanimously with our thanks so much for your time and effort Which brings us to the last item on our deliberative agenda 8.5 in ordinance Burlington code of ordinances section 21.45 21 dash 45 to 21 dash 49 on trespass This was on the On our consent agenda was moved to deliberative for this item. I'll return back to councillor travers For a motion And perhaps councillor travers. It might be good to just simply read the read the motion so that We can all know what what the motion is exactly and then I'll and then we'll get a second sure I would move to waive the reading and refer the proposed Ordinance to the ordinance committee for further review to include but not limited to Consideration of the list of parties authorized to issue no trespass orders Balancing no trespass orders with proactive harm reduction efforts and to evaluate expanding the ability to enforce the trespass ordinance on private property And I would ask for the floor back upon a second great. Thank you councillor travers. Is there a second seconded by councillor king councillor travers the floor is yours sure Let me say at the outset that the draft ordinance. I think by no means is The final version of any ordinance that Will come back to this committee after the ordinance committee has an opportunity to take a look at it I do think though that One of the most frequent Concerns that we've been hearing from residents in our community From business owners from employees who are working downtown Are our concerns about Individuals and the behavior that they're engaging in in private property in In parking garages downtown in back alleyways Even within stairwells and buildings across the city and particularly downtown And I think it's due time that we take a look at our trespass ordinance, which we have not taken a look at in quite some time To further understand How it's currently being enforced whether or not there's any steps we need to take To further update its enforcement Making sure that we are Balancing no trespass orders as mentioned in the motion with with proactive harm reduction efforts currently in our ordinance, for example, we As a city are authorized in no trespass individuals Who Possess or use prohibited substances In city hall park or along the church street marketplace With all the efforts that the council has taken though and are wanting to take a more proactive approach in terms of harm reduction I think it's worth our considering here and bringing in city stakeholders to consider whether or not there's or something more we can be doing Rather than simply issuing a no trespass order under those circumstances And I think the last thing I'll say is that that one of the things that that I have continued to hear is that One of the hurdles that particularly business owners feel they're facing is that When There is an issue with individuals trespassing on their property that there's an expectation that that really Only the property owner Has the capacity to Have to have the time And the presence to be there to sort of hand A paper to those who are on their property and tell them this this isn't a place that you can be I think there are many communities around the country That have taken a look at their trespass laws to figure out How They can be more Productively enforced And perhaps including even to to not require for example that the property owner Or their designee have to be available to handpapers over but that you know if there is a downtown employee for example who Knows that someone who's not supposed to be In a place is there that that even perhaps they would have the opportunity to call for assistance to enforce the ordinance that we have on the books so Uh, I think it's again due time that we take a look at this I will mention that I've spoken to some other counselors about this And I also want to recognize that the police department and our professionals there are going to have to be a part of this discussion Because I know that we are still dealing with Recruitment and retention issues and whatever we stand up here is going to have to be something that works with Our law enforcement partners as well. So we'll look forward to inviting them to the ordinance committee at a time convenient to them Thank you Thanks so much councillor travers. Uh, are there any um, remember this is just a motion to refer to the ordinance committee If there are any comments, uh, councillor McGee Thank you, president paul I just want to say quickly that You know the fact that we're having this conversation about the trespass ordinance indicates that We are failing significantly to address harm done by the system to Many many individuals those who are experiencing houselessness those who are struggling with substance use disorder It's happening in public spaces and businesses Because people have nowhere to go. They have no other place To use substances. That is why they're using in city hall park. That would not be somebody's first choice As it wouldn't be my first choice to Use cannabis outside or drink outside. I would much rather do that in the comfort of my own home I Recognize that having this conversation is necessary. We should always be taking steps to update our laws But This is not a solution to the crises that we're facing We need much bolder action not just from the city, but from the state and from the federal government and the fact that These conversations continue to happen on such a local level where we don't have All of the tools or the resources that we need to address these crises is a problem and I it's unfortunate that you know, it's come to this point of us having to have a conversation about Making it easier to keep people out of certain spaces rather than figuring out The correct spaces to offer people In need So I just hope that we carry that forward as we have this conversation and hope that we can Be more thorough in our approach to this because Having a conversation about making it easier to trespass people is not a solution to this problem. Thank you Thank you so much counselor McGee counselor grant Thank you. So we're coming back to the concept of balance Right Trespass orders finds that's not harm reduction. So we should not infer That it is in any way when this goes back to be reviewed in We know we have significant experience from the past that You can find someone but if they're already unhoused The fines very rarely don't get paid Members of our police department have reported repeatedly over the years people just openly Tearing trespass orders finds tickets right in front of them So I think um, although I agree that some of that language needs to be looked into to update with regards to the New positions that we have that are involved such as the community service officers and the various security companies That we have Definitely, they all have to be added and mentioned Um And we are going to have to be really honest again and very careful what we promise Because there's some things that i'm really not Against like people like oh you're against you get i'm like no i'm not against everything I'm against promising things that we cannot deliver on Based on our current staffing situation Um, I know from talking to businesses repeatedly They have people that are trespassed because they're chronic shoplifters. Well, if Those we we have a whole bunch of we don't even know how many online incident reports around shoplifting Um, that haven't been looked at therefore there haven't been cases filed with the state's attorney So we have these other issues that come into play as well um, so these are things that we need to think about as that Committee takes a look. Thank you Thank you so much counselor grant If there are counselor travelers Thanks, um, just briefly I I appreciate the comments from My colleagues there and and agree that in addition to reviewing the ordinance and considering updates to language Of course, there's more that we need to be doing in a in a proactive productive way to help our neighbors who are Suffering and are in need. Um, I also just want to be clear though that to the extent, uh, we're, um Engaging in this review, you know from from my perspective This isn't focused on those neighbors who are Experiencing homelessness from my perspective um This for the most part could focus on on Those members of our community that are engaging in um really troubling criminal activity in our community right now Um, for example, you know, there's a list of reasons for which someone can be no trespassed from our church street marketplace Yes, a a private business Um could choose to issue a no trespass order to someone that's engaged in retail theft in their business I think we should take a look though at whether or not Um engaging in retail theft from a business along our church street marketplace should be added to the list For those reasons for which someone um loses the privilege to be able to Be in our marketplace for engaging in that kind of behavior. I think we've heard from many neighbors across the city concerned about This the state of graffiti In buildings in our church street marketplace, for example, I think If you engage in the act of graffiti and defacing buildings in our church street marketplace I think that we should Take a look at whether or not um that should be added the list of reasons for which you should Potentially lose the privilege temporarily at first But to potentially lose the privilege to uh to be in our church street marketplace. Again, this is very much in draft form I'm looking forward to the discussion to come and appreciate the council support and allowing the committee an opportunity to look at it Thank you Thanks very much councilor travers Seeing a counselor. I'm sorry mayor Weinberger Thank you president poll. I just want to say I I welcome uh the initiative by councilor travers to do a review of this we this an important um policy of the city is this important because it is and it is it is at times a very effective tool the city has used this is um It is true that municipal tickets uh at our in certain populations very Difficult to enforce and have little meaning trespass order is different. It is something that Has been used effectively by the library has been used effectively in city all park It has been used effectively on the church street marketplace. It is true that there are limitations to Our capacity for enforcement and that has been a frustration at times from Merchants who want to be able to use the tool even further So I appreciate that the way councilor travers has laid this out that there would be attention to capacity issues and and how this is actually operationalized But I think it's prudent and thoughtful to at a time when we are struggling in numerous areas to explore whether This tool could be used to address further Downtown goals and I welcome that uh that it's being brought forward Thank you very much mayor Weinberger Seeing no others in the queue. We'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion. Please say aye Aye Any opposed, please say no no That is a um actually we My apologies Yeah, so we because council bergman is remote. We need to do a roll. Okay. That's what I thought So if we could do a roll call vote lori Councillor barlow. Yes Councillor bergman. Yes Councillor carpenter. Yes Councillor jang. Yes Councillor dority. Yes Councillor grant. Yes Councillor hightower Yes Councillor king. Yes Councillor mickey. No Councillor shannon. Yes Councillor travers. Yes City council president paul. Yes 11 eyes one day 11 eyes one day the motion passes Uh, which concludes our deliberative agenda. Just have a couple of items left. Um item number nine committee reports. Are there any uh committee chairs who wish to offer a committee report? Councillor barlow. Uh, yes the transportation energy and utilities committee will be tomorrow um December 19th at the Fletcher free library and we're meeting at 4 30 So that we can get out in time for the public safety forum at sex. Um, we'll be taking up We'll be getting update on the winewski river bridge replacement and we'll be taking up the um Carbon pollution impact fee that was referred to us last week. Thank you Great. Thank you so much. Councillor barlow. Councillor mickey Thank you president paul the parks arts and culture committee met last wednesday the 13th We discussed a MOU between the Fletcher free library and the friends of the Fletcher free library Which will be coming to the full council soon, I believe And uh, so we'll be taking action on that and we also received a presentation on the final report from the Dog task force the much anticipated final report from the dog task force um, we moved to send that report to the full council And uh, would hope that the dog task force could have the opportunity to present their final recommendations to the full council as many of the recommendations will Require further deliberation and action from committees and the council. So that is my report. Thank you Great. Thank you so much. Councillor mickey. Any other committee chairs councillor jang Um, the racial equity inclusion and belonging committee will be meeting tomorrow at 5 30 in the bushel room Um, we will be receiving the final report Presentation from the Vermont new american advisory council around gun violence affecting new americans This was a two year project and it's final the report will be coming to the committee for discussion also, the city council did pass that um slavery reparation task force That committee did was not working for a very long time But now they back into order and we will be receiving the report of their Couple of months, but they have been doing also racial equity inclusion and belonging will provide an update the strategic planning the staffing and the future Basically of the organization of the department as we move forward and of course public forum. Thank you Thank you so much. Uh, councillor travers As I mentioned earlier When the office of city planning was here the ordinance committee has been meeting jointly with the planning commission to review the neighborhood code proposal Uh, we are meeting again tomorrow night in a virtual meeting at 6 30 Um, I anticipate that there will be a handful of additional meetings of this joint committee after that Um, whereas ultimately it will it will be a decision for the joint committee I think I will relate to this council that in talking to the chair of the planning commission Andy Montrell that the Hope and intention here would be that if this joint committee is able to vote on a On a neighborhood code proposal that it would be done So in a timeline such that it go through the warning and public hearing process in our current council year And that this council would be able to ultimately vote on it likely At our first meeting in march is the proposed timeline. Thank you. Great. Thank you So the only other is public safety. The public safety committee is meeting this thursday at 5 30 That's december 21st. There are a number of items on the agenda the emergency management plan a dispatch update and we will have a data overview from not only from the fire department But also the burlington police department Um And I think that will probably close out that item which Councillor paul Oh, of course. Oh, of course. I haven't had my hand. Of course uh tax abatement committee is uh having a hearing actually two hearings on the third of january at three o'clock And um, it is not unlikely that we will be referring um The matter to the full council with our recommendations. Um, either At the next or the the second to next Meeting in january. So look forward to everybody Doing a tax abatement Work at the full council in january. Thank you man, uh, that leads us to item number 10 city council general city affairs Any councillor that wishes off offer general city affairs councillor grant Thank you. Um, so last meeting we had really significant long period of time for public forum and um, we took a vote that allowed people that lived in burlington That had already signed up and were present in con toys to be allowed to give their comments, but Um, we cut some people off from being able to do so online I've gotten a lot of feedback about that and I just wanted us to think about um We allow people to contact us through different ways and for some people The best way that they feel Um that they want to contact us is to come to public forum And I think as elected officials as difficult as some of these long meetings can be it is what we signed up for And the least that we can do is listen to people And to cut people off that are online. There may be reasons why people are online Maybe they can't be here because they have to be home taking care of younger kids Maybe they have work schedules Maybe they're trying to avoid exposure to covet. There can be a number of reasons why people choose to give online um comments to public forum And you know, I can't stop future votes if if people vote that way But I would just like us to be really Consider it because the idea and I saw this a lot during conversation about public safety and accountability You can say well someone's already said something That you were going to say so don't bother saying it But then we really don't have an idea of how many people actually Think a certain way because we're cutting them off And as mentioned earlier, we used to give longer periods of time and now we're down to two minutes And that is not a lot So we will have nights like we had tonight where we don't have very long public forums and we will have For more controversial issues or issues that people care about We'll have longer public forums and I think we have to be We have to be aware of that and we have to be willing to listen to people And and if we're not then should we really be doing this job? That's something people I think people have to think about thank you Thank you very much counselor grant if there are Any other counselors who wish to offer comments on general city affairs If not, we'll go to item number 11 council president updates I do not have any at this time Which will bring us to the final item of the evening item number 12 updates from the mayor Mayor Weinberger the floor is yours Thank you president paul I want to talk briefly about housing and then some final kind of holiday announcements the I do find it a little bit hopeful that at the end of a year that I think has been marked by really one of the Probably the the toughest year for housing in vermont that the state has ever seen and a lot of Suffering and pain as a result of that that we are closing the year with a momentum a number of positive housing announcements That I just want to summarize here in addition to the significant step forward that Towards new student beds that could be represented by the new uvm Housing agreement. We also have announced in recent days Three affordable major new permanently affordable housing projects that are moving forward that we'll provide over the next couple of years here 180 new permanently affordable homes we have also Just in recent days seen that the long-awaited project that at the former ymca Is moving forward now under new ownership with the new property undertaking steps to stabilize that building and and move towards Demolition of a part of the building and then and then construction Looking ahead to 2024. It should be another big year for housing action as well the In addition to the major policy decisions around the neighborhood code that was just referenced by councilor travers. There's the State has committed to The most serious let let us hope the most significant Amendment of act 250 since it was created 50 years ago and there are Possibilities for actions that would be removed significant barriers to new housing development here in brollington and other municipalities On this issue that we've talked about many times here about double regulation of brollington projects There's a real chance that that could be brought to an end By the legislature in the upcoming session Turning just to some final holiday announcements the This weekend will be the final btv winter market on friday saturday and sunday I'll check out the love brollington website For details on that and what you can find there. I'm hearing the kind of I wasn't able to get to the front of the line myself but the The doughnut line is apparently quite long at btv market for good reason and people want to check out that if they're doughnut Fishing autos there will also this weekend be free hot chocolate At numerous participating church street stores for purchases of 25 dollars or more there's two hours of free parking of course on on the weekend as is our tradition and There is also an opportunity to Meet santa at home port on friday from three to six and saturdays and sundays from ten to two So i'm hearing very positive hopeful indications from people working on church street from our Business workforce development staff that the holiday season is going is gone well so far Let's hope it can be closed out with a really strong final week here and As we Certainly it's it's on our on our mind this holiday season the the health of the downtown With that president paul hand it back to you Thank you so much and thanks for that update. That brings us to the end of our agenda I'd ask for a motion to adjourn So moved Moved by councillor McGee seconded by Councillor I don't know however many there are that said they wanted to adjourn councillor councillor carpenter All those in favor of the motion to adjourn, please say aye Any opposed, please say no that means we are adjourned at 9 28 Our next meeting is tuesday January 16th We'll look forward to seeing you then in the meantime Happy holidays to everyone and a joyful new year and have a good evening