 Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. I can't talk now. I'm on a call. Yeah, Robin, you have to mute yourself. Okay, thanks. Okay, Tatu. Go for it. Robin, you have to mute if you get a phone call. Yeah, I was trying to, but I couldn't see my mute button. Oh, there it is. Okay, I'll turn my phone off. Maybe the best thing I should say is to ask that if we are not speaking, maybe we should mute ourselves so that we do not interrupt speakers. That will work well for my coughing fits. Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and my name is Tatu Ratsabe. I work for the Association of Africans Living in Vermont as an Associate Director and Programs Manager. Welcome to everyone who is watching, as well as the mayoral candidates. We thank you for taking your time this evening to participate in this debate. We are pretty sure that the Bellentine residents are very appreciative of this opportunity to learn more about what you have in planning for the coming, for the coming processes in your running, as well as managing the city. This debate is being sponsored by three collaborating organizations. The Vermont Institute of Community and International Involvement, the VICII, and it is a non-profit, an educational organization based in Bellentine, Vermont, working to build a vibrant just community with engaged citizens through dialogue, education, debate, discussion, and friendships. The Association of Africans Living in Vermont, where I work, helps new Americans from all parts of the world gain independence in their new communities through a range of integration services, including bridging case management, workforce development, behavioral awareness, and interpreter services programming. The Caroline Fund helps women in emergencies and gives free legal consultation at the pro bono sale or clinic. I hope I said that right. I'm not a lawyer. Funding is provided by the community in honor of Caroline Burt Critchfield, who was killed in an incident of domestic violence. May her soul rest in peace. Tonight we have the four candidates who are running for the mayor of Bellentine with us in alphabetical order. City Councilor Ali Deng, City Council President Max Tracy, Mayor Miro Weinberger, and Patrick White, Mayor our candidate. We only this afternoon learned of another candidate, Will Ammons, but we are not able to bring him in at this late time. We hope he will have the opportunity to participate in future debates. Again, I want to thank you all for participating this evening, and I ask that we remember to mute ourselves as we start our debate so that we can give the candidates the maximum time to talk to the audience. Thank you. Thank you, Tato. Before we start, I'm going to share some of our ground rules that we would ask everyone to follow. And thank you to all of you for joining us tonight. Member of the sponsoring organization will ask questions that have been provided in advance to the candidates. We'll ask the candidate to speak in alphabetical order and then rotate. Each candidate will have two minutes to answer. If a candidate specifically mentioned another candidate in his comments, that candidate will have one minute to respond. Candidate will then be offered the opportunity to ask a question or two of another candidate. Each response is limited to two minutes. Each candidate will have two minutes for a closing statement. Finally, the timekeeper will hold up a card that says 15 seconds. When there are 15 seconds left, and a card, exactly as Befa showed us, and a card that says time is up when the time is up. I'm now going to turn over to Louise Andrew to begin the question. Thank you, Jacob. Let's see. Burlington and the country has been hit hard by the COVID pandemic. Racial tensions and deep political divisions. Most city buildings remain closed to the public. Public discourse has been severely limited and divisive, and Burlington's vibrant cultural life is virtually non-existent. What are your priorities for how to restore Burlington to its cultural, civic, and physical health? And we will start in order with Ali. Thank you, first and foremost, for having us all here today. And Patrick White, nice to meet you for the first time. Yes, my name is Ali Jiang, and I am glad to be answering this question, and you are correct. It has been hard for me not being able to see their families, to celebrate events and birthdays, because in our local government it has been harder, even harder, because of the type of leadership we endured in the past years. It was all about the optics and never the vision, and I am here to change it. With you, with your vote on town meeting day, we will definitely get there. Now, to your question, and as the next mayor of Burlington, I will ensure that 30% of my time will be in the community, to rebuild trust, to strengthen the sense of community. And under the cultural health, I will direct the Burlington Parks and Recreation, the Burlington City foster collaboration with organizations such as the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts and Local Artists, and more to bring back the cultural life that we desperately need to reconnect and celebrate our collective sacrifices that we have done during the COVID-19. One, I will support our NPAs by providing more resources and decision-making powers. I will also establish a neighborhood ambassador program. These are appointed individuals that will work in collaboration with my administration to revitalize each neighborhood in the city. Three, we will build on and expand the community dinner that already exists, and I want to take the time to thank the community members in the New North and that are working proactively to bring that community building efforts via the dinner. In the civic life, I will inspire, as I inspired many new Americans to run for office and will want to continue to do it at the next mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Ali. Burlington faces a host of critical economic problems. Each one of them is going to- Oh, yes. Sorry, people. Max is next, sorry. Well, thank you all. So I really appreciate the opportunity to engage in this debate. I know a lot of work goes into organizing events like this, so I just want to thank you for that as well. I certainly know that this pandemic has been a deeply isolating time for all of us, and I've heard from many neighbors that they're exhausted and want just to return to a sense of normalcy. And I'm with you in this struggle, and I share that wish that we can- and we can totally get there. Through my work as a union organizer fighting alongside nurses at UVMMC, I experienced firsthand what frontline workers in our community have been going through. And I've also seen it from the governmental side, because my entire presidency, council presidency over the last year, has taken place during the pandemic, and we've had to find new ways and more effective ways to involve people in the political process. I've kept our city council running during this pandemic and have held emergency meetings on COVID measures, and in so doing, I've facilitated some of the largest public forums in Burlington history, making sure that people's voices could be heard. I've also worked directly with Burlingtonians who are in deep pain over ongoing systemic racism in our city. COVID-19 did not create systemic racism in Burlington, but did exacerbate the challenges that our BIPOC neighbors are facing. Our community members have worked so hard to push for necessary transformation, and they are both tired and angry as their loved ones continue to be harmed every day that we delay to making these changes. Mayor Weinberger's recent veto prevented us all from being able to share our voices about a proposed charter change on Town Meeting Day. Now is a time where we need to be listening and providing opportunities to people to lend their voices around this critical issue of oversight and accountability. My priorities as mayor will be about getting us back on our feet, but also making sure that we become more resilient for whatever storms may come. This means that we are making making sure that we are more established and that emerging businesses make it through this pandemic, revitalizing our downtown core, providing essential financial and hunger relief, and expanding safe, affordable, and quality housing options across our city. I offer bold yet pragmatic leadership. I lead with the value of taking care of those in need, and I bring my nine years of on the ground and in the weed city government experience to make change happen. Mayor Weinberger, you're next. Well he has a minute to respond, right? Yes. Right. I'm happy, sorry just to clarify, I'm going to answer the... You have a minute to respond to Max's mention of you, mention of you, and then two minutes to answer the question. Great, well whatever I think, let me first start by saying this, we've certainly been through a extraordinarily challenging period as a country and as a community, really the test of our generation, but democracy is resilient, and we see that in yesterday's very dramatic inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president and vice president, and as the brand new president said, democracy prevailed, and our commitment to civic engagement is prevailing right now in this public forum, and I want to thank everyone involved in making this happen tonight for that, and bringing this group together, so the Vermont Institute of Community and International Involvement, the Association of Africans Living in Vermont and the Caroline Fund, thank you, and to all my opponents, including if you want to welcome Patrick, who I'm to a meeting for the first time tonight, I look forward to continuing to discuss and debate the issues Burlingtonians care about over the weeks ahead, and so the pandemic has been challenging, I do want to push back a little bit just on the question that Burlington has been particularly hard hit, because the opposite is actually the case, Burlington has been less hard hit because of the public health measures that we have together achieved in implementing here to a remarkable degree between city government, state government, our institutions, businesses, and the public, we have done better than, certainly just about everywhere else in the country, if the nation had followed Burlington's lead and Vermont's lead, 250,000 of the 400,000 lives lost could have been saved as one publication recently estimated, and we did that through immediately setting up a resource and recovery center to deploy relief funds to anyone who needed it, using our, instituting an early mask mandate, we did so immediately as soon as we were allowed to, and then actually fabricating 25,000 high-quality reusable masks and doing things like setting up a low barrier shelter. So I'm just going to use my extra minute, too, since I'm sort of, if that's all right, Beth, you know, so the, another early step that we set up right at the beginning of this pandemic is committing to a racially just response through new teams like the trustee community voices team, which has given us new ways of communicating throughout the community and making sure that there are interpreters at testing sites. So we've been able to keep our eye on the ball and move forward. Other big initiatives not related to the pandemic. We continue to make progress with the Netsur Energy City effort. We open City Hall Park. We have launched a task force against racial, that was looking at slavery and reparations here in terms of how we rebuild after the pandemic. I'll just say this here's the bottom line until our community is immunized, suppressing the virus must remain the city's top priority and even at the cost of some of the trade-offs that were noted in the question that we've been talking about. Once the pandemic is brought to an end, then we will bring the same kind of all out effort to leading a just and equitable recovery. It is a tested proven leadership team. We'll be key to that and that's why this election is so important. Thank you. Thank you very much. Patrick and your time will respond. All right so I'm gonna have to keep a few of my answers short and sweet just because I'm I'm fighting off the end of a cold so having kind of a hard time talking and not coughing. Thankfully not COVID. So one of the big things as far as moving forward and unfortunately hindsight being 2020 I wish we could have found a better way to begin with is we need to make sure that our main street businesses and restaurants can open up of course safely and following the advice of medical professionals locally here but as far as recovery goes many of these businesses are not going to be able to recover only being able to do a portion of if any business that and on top of the events that we normally have in Burlington down by the waterfront and on Church Street without those two things we're not going to really see any cultural or economic recovery anytime soon. Those are really two big things that we need to to get back running. Okay thank you. Okay Burlington is facing a host of critical economic problems primarily arising from the pandemic. Many small businesses struggling or closing a hole that has been in the middle of the city without generating revenues for three years. Significant commercial and industrial tax-based revenue losses among others. How would you address these economic problems as the mayor of Burlington and we're going to start with Max. Great well thank you so much for the question really appreciated I think it's a crucial question because it deals with exactly what we're going to do not only in this moment but how we move forward and I'm so grateful for the small businesses that make Burlington what it is whether we've been getting groceries or in takeout buying supplies they've certainly gotten us through this pandemic and I think it's our duty and responsibility to now get them through it as well so that they can keep functioning and thriving both in the in the midst of the pandemic but also on the other side and so we need to make sure that we do everything we can to partner with state and federal entities to make sure that complex grant and loan programs are made more accessible and that we do everything we can to go beyond these these programs. We'll also be a mayor who grows district specific so we have four districts here in Burlington that represent different neighborhoods in our city and so we need to make sure that we're doing everything we can to bring business owners together to share expertise and plant and offer planning resources and a municipal context at the neighborhood level so that we can really draw on that mutual support and and collective and collective goodwill as we as we come out of the pandemic. We also need to make sure that we are keeping businesses running in people housed and so I think a key aspect as we come out of the pandemic is preventing commercial and residential eviction protections and leveraging every possible power that city government has to prevent people from becoming from losing their business spaces and becoming unhoused. We'll also explore delays, reductions, or deferrals of taxes and fee collections for small businesses to help minimize the drain on already reduced cash flows and I'll also support low and no interest loans using a combination of federal small business association, state agency, and municipal funds to provide much needed relief. The kind of downtown development we need strengthens the health and viability of small businesses and provides significant additional and truly affordable housing to our residents. We must have a strong local economy and we must end the trend of working people, families, and people living on fixed incomes being priced out of Burlington. When it comes to city place we cannot continue to give developers whatever they ask for in hopes that in just giving them a little bit more we'll be able to move this project forward. I oppose the project from the beginning and have since been calling for holding developers accountable to promises that were made. We need to call this. Thank you. Your time is up. Maria Weinberger, your turn. Thank you. So first of all when we look back on the last nine years the time that I've had the privilege of serving this community up until the pandemic was a period of substantial economic growth and increasing vibrancy in our downtown we went through a period where we saw the downtown thrive as it never had before record numbers of people coming to enjoy our downtown meals, arts, festivals, expansion of the number of hotels in the downtown. It was just a very prosperous period for the downtown and it gives me a lot of confidence that on the other side of this terrible pandemic we're going to emerge from this crisis if we do it right stronger more just greener and more affordable than before. That period of real success and improvement included the creation of over 1300 new homes more than twice the amount of new homes that have been created in the comparable prior period because it was a real focus of city governments. We believe that to make good on the idea that I think we all agree with that housing should be a human right if you're serious about that you have to build a lot more housing and that's exactly what we did for people of all income levels over the last nine years. We've taken a huge hit in 2020 like the entire country like the entire world. The key going forward from here is for the city government to lead the recovery with the same kind of focus and energy and focus on data and community and making sure no one was left behind that we brought to fighting the pandemic and you know we're going to need just to give a scope there's currently about five trillion dollars that is going to be dispersed by the federal government a lot of that is going to go through state and local governments. This is again a reason we need a proven leadership team here in Burlington that can deliver on this not just talk about leveraging the fund but actually has a record of doing that. So thank you. All right thank you very much Patrick. Sorry just finishing a coughing fit there. So similar to my first answer as far as some of the economic impacts and stuff I don't think we're I think we're yet to see some of the full impacts of all the shutdowns and we really do need to find a way to get some of the businesses and events up running safely. As far as the pit goes I think the current leadership which actually includes all three of the other candidates here has no valid excuse for the failure as far as the pit goes. We need to get a new plan in place we need to get the project finished out. Generally we need to look to develop the city more in certain aspects we need more housing we need a lower cost of living generally which is really going to be kind of push forward by more availability of housing. Right now I know the city is taxing apartments at market value of 1400 for a one bedroom. Most of people my age and younger and I don't know many of them that can afford 14 to 1600 which is what I'm seeing for one bedrooms in Burlington and we need more housing to help drive that down. The pit needs to get done because right now it's a loss as far as tax revenue. Yeah. Thank you. Each of you can have one minute to respond since you mentioned all three candidates. Oh I thought it was if I mentioned anyone person specifically. Who would like to respond to that? All right. Mayor Weinberg. Thank you. I appreciate it. So let's let's talk about city place. So first of all it was the right decision to go forward with this ambitious important plan to try to fix that part of the city which has been problematic since the 60s since the city tore down a vibrant neighborhood back in the 60s. We are now on the cusp because we prioritize this of for the first time in decades having homes and jobs and reconnected streets in that part of town. This is something that people at Burlington called for in plan BTV. It's something they called for when they went to the polls in 2016. It was the right vision so I don't know why any candidate would proudly say they've been against this from the start. It's this is the right project. Second of all it's not accurate as one of the other candidates just said to suggest the city's lost a lot of money over this. We haven't because I negotiate an agreement that protects the city. We've been paid over a half a million dollars by the developers since the since the delays began because I got in place an agreement that protected us and they have been in breach of that agreement and we have been we have been holding them accountable. Finally the last thing is if I'm given another three years to lead this city we will deliver on the jobs and the homes and the new streets here just as we have delivered on a new city hall park just as we've delivered on transforming the northern waterfront rebuilding the entire bike path. Me and my team are the team to get this project done. Thank you Max you wanted to respond also. Yeah yeah absolutely thank you and I I think that I don't know how when we're in year three of having hole in the ground that we can call this the the right project or that this has as having been a wise decision for our city it was something that was out of scale with our city and that did not meet the the the diverse needs of our community and create opportunities for people across the socioeconomic spectrum to participate and enjoy that that public space. So I think that it is a real that the project is a real failure at this point and what we need is not additional special treatment given to the developer but we need real accountability brought and we've seen continuing acquiescence to any demands made by the developer I think we need to really hold them accountable in this setting setting real milestones and making sure that taxpayers are not on the hook for any future expenses related to the public improvements. Ali would you like to respond you're on mute you're on mute. Yeah let me unmute good okay so I think it will be important for me to address that I completely love any type of development in the city and in downtown the pit I am hundred percent I want to see it true and as the next mayor I would do all in my power to see it happen but the issue here is a failed leadership from middle Weinberger about the pit I'm responding to this because we lost tax base downtown businesses are leaving because of a lack of leadership from him and the other element about this is also why do we need to bring these developers to court because of a failed development that he brought to Burlington and Burlington Indians did reject but he pushed it on the people and now here here is where we are I think it's completely unacceptable and we cannot afford another three years of a failed leadership but I am completely in support and want to see this development completed. Right thank you candidates Robin I'm passing it on to you but I have not answered the question yet I think each candidate did receive a time to speak about it I have not yet if you could allow me sorry yes thank you and I think the question number two was specific about how would you address these economic problems at the mayor of Burlington correct sorry sorry Ali no problem no problem thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about it of course so as you all know we have experienced a failed leadership like I said before even COVID-19 came to our shores downtown was already struggling businesses leaving to all the municipalities a huge pit on the ground due to a pipe dream development project that never come true the loss of tax base is right there even the sense of feeling safe in our downtown was a problem from workers bathrooms are not even accessible or available we can no longer afford what we all are aware of a failed leadership from I have a solid plan to rebuild our economy one I want to control spending fiscal responsibility stop borrowing from our future selves and control the city's debt that's the first fundamental aspect that I need to see two to support businesses my administration will eliminate sooner the personal property business tax sooner than 2026 to better support our local businesses I have what we call a community wealth building plan this plan will can be will be available by tomorrow on my website and number four have an open line of communication with local businesses via the Burlington business association here is a question that we all need to explore how can the city and the local businesses work together to make sure that our local economy becomes vibrant for every single person that leave and work or raise children thank you for giving me that thank you Mayor Weinberger one minute great thank you so that plan laid out at least half of that plan laid out by Councillor Jang actually sounds a lot like the leadership over the last nine years I mean to hear that fiscal responsibility is going to be a priority need to point out it has been this administration that has taken the city from the edge of junk bond status to a double a credit rating saving 17 plus million dollars and counting for taxpayers locking that in in terms of future future savings and we with that sound basis we've been able to do dramatic expansions of our investments in social services and in infrastructure but we have been very disciplined as we did that we've kept the increase in property taxes below the rate of inflation well below the rate inflation so there there is not there Councillor Jang is right Burlingtonians pay too much in terms of property taxes in general but that's not because of what city government is doing thanks for the chance to respond to that thank you Robin you're on mute you're on mute now i'm now i'm back again so our next question is on the subject of education rethinking education in the light of this pandemic those of you with children know that for many of them this has been a failure remote learning has been very difficult and education in Burlington is facing some major decisions in the in the near future so my question is how might education be improved during and after the pandemic how would you foster exchange amongst diverse communities and build critical thinking among Burlington residents and how would you create public spaces for students i think we've all felt sort of estranged from each other we need to create some way for people to get together again as soon as possible so those are my questions let's see Miro is the first to answer great thank you Robin yes remote learning is incredibly challenging for our students and has some terrible outcomes in terms of equity we know and that is a big reason why it has been such a priority of the last year for the city to box the virus in to contain the virus and box it in so that we could get the important parts of our society out of the box as much as possible in particular the highest priority was getting our our kids back to in-person learning and and we have succeeded at that to a remarkable degree here in Burlington where our elementary and middle schools have been open since the fall and have stayed open even as there has been some spikes in the overall virus and at the interdisciplinary education our college is open to in-person learning and bucked the national trends because of their coordination with local government and the state because we're all working together we saw incredible success at the colleges that happened very few other places so that has allowed us to keep the in-person learning going the exception to that of course is the high school which is not as a result of the pandemic but is because of this environmental issue that was encountered in the renovation as soon as that crisis began my team offered any support we could I personally have been on the phone with Superintendent Flanagan very frequently throughout throughout this crisis and I was supportive of this plan that has come together and kind of incredible speed to repurpose Macy's for a downtown high school and to have that open in hopefully as soon as March and I'll say as a dad of a 14-year-old who's a fresh freshman this year we're going to do everything we can to make sure that that plan succeeds longer term I'm a big supporter and a big believer in experiential education that's why I've been a big supporter of this lake in college program that has been a great opportunity for many high school students having a high school downtown is going to give us even more opportunities for that experiential learning and the city is going to fully back it under my under my leadership yeah well thank you thank you Miro Patrick you're next so the youth these days being so internet focused and gaming focused I would have hoped that remote learning would have gone better but I do have a 16-year-old brother and I can tell you that it hasn't worked out possibly because of those internet and gaming distractions moving forward I think that because of that stuff also though so many young people are already great at socializing with their friends via you know games zoom you know video calls things like that but of course it doesn't really quite measure up to hanging out with your friends in person I think also moving forward the most important people to talk to as far as what we should do and what is working and what isn't working are our students I think a lot of times you know people make these plans and and try to put push things through is that a lot of young people will blatantly say this isn't working this isn't going to work here's what might work and a lot of times their voices just get drowned out by you know bureaucracy and people who are telling them that you know they know better whether or not the process actually works so I think it's it's going to be important to look to our students and oftentimes they'll they'll come out with some pretty inspired stuff so you you told special sessions with getting the opinions from students somehow how would you do that I don't really think it'd be too difficult social media is a great way is looking to our teachers in their classes it it wouldn't be all that hard to to get the opinions of students of course probably middle school and up our younger students may not have as much of an ability to put some input in there but I don't think it would be all that difficult to put something together okay Ali you're next Ali you're muted thank you so so far I don't know if my opponent have been answering this question this is such an important and critical question and it seems that they're dodging the question now here's my answer education funding is one of the biggest issue in the state of the month I'm a parent of two school age children attending the Burlington school I am also an educator a property taxpayer so I am a stakeholder who understand our needs and values of a good education in the 21st century education is happening every single day everywhere the city and lake semester is a concrete example of how kids should learn with this emerging technology in place community-based learning proficiency-based learning place-based learning are concepts that are no longer new but they have potential with the technology to be strengthened I am I was at the sitting committee from the with the partnership for change and was charged to look into education in the 21st century how it should look like and different from the traditional education where you have a high school a student and also teachers I am the only candidate here with a platform that speaks to the need of strengthening the relationship between the Burlington school district and the city of Burlington we could use the pilot fund of about 1.7 million now you know and my administration will look into education from early childhood education to high school graduation as well as vocational technical educational opportunities I am also the founder and manager of the Burlington school district Penn University we have been building community bringing people together bringing organization together and to empower parents our equal partners in their children's education I want to continue to do this when the voters give me the opportunity to lead this great city starting March 2nd at 7th here thank you well thank you Ali so Max you're our last one here thank you for that so it's certainly no secret that students and their families are really struggling right now in this moment I see that directly as I watch and work with my partner to support her in working with her her fourth grader at admins while trying to balance work and I think we also know pretty clearly that the pandemic has made all of the things that were challenging about education before whether it be poverty or systemic racism that much worse and so we need to be focused on meeting the needs of students however that can best happen certainly with Burlington high school students have been deeply impacted by remote learning but also the lack of even having a physical campus as a result of the PCBs and so we need to make sure that we're doing everything we possibly can to partner with the school board teachers and the agency of education to reduce the burden that that this relocation will have on taxpayers to make sure that we have ways to to cover the this unexpected expense but also to make this as as positive an experience as possible for the students who will be attending attending high school at the Macy's and so to me that means expanding experiential education opportunities and skills and development skills development offerings setting up internships with city departments and local businesses and just making sure that we do everything we can again to to to also make sure that the students are being educated by a diverse set of teachers so that they that their teachers look like them we know that COVID has changed everything we thought we knew is possible and so I think our job is now to really pivot to prepare our students for life after high school by really making sure that we're providing meaningful opportunities to engage while also working with teachers that look like our community and so that's I think a really crucial aspect of it I think we also need to go beyond the idea that education takes place just in school and continue to build on on work to expand services for teens in our community and establish a teen center making sure that we're providing round-the-clock support for for students both in and outside of schools yeah all right well thank you very much has anyone I think no one mentioned another candidate in what what they spoke so maybe we'll move on to sandy barrett asking the next question right and I'm going to ask this question from the perspective of the caroline fund um I became last summer when the bat one battery park was occupied to draw attention to the behavior of the city police department it raised concerns with the community and especially with members of the caroline fund about how the demand to quote defund the police and the caution for people to quote think twice before calling the police could put women especially women in domestic violence situations in real trouble even life-threatening situations so my question to all of you is what in the current mood of criticism of the police will you do to ensure that women kids and all victims of crime particularly victims of crime in their own homes are really protected and that their safety and health is ensured and I guess the first person I would to answer this in alphabetical I guess uh order would be whom Ali right Patrick Patrick Patrick okay uh you can you can move to Ali I'm about to have a nice coughing fit and I'll take up the lead or the uh the end Ali Ali Ali um yes um thank you thank you for the question and I think alphabetical order I will be on the baller first I think it's good on that side now in terms of to your question I think we have made a big mistake defending the police without a plan despite my presentation my amendment that I brought to the racial justice alliance the most critical part about all of this is the current mayor has not vetoed that resolution so basically with his power he could have vetoed it and we go back to the drawing board but he did not why because maybe he's in support of defending the police which I was not and I will never do because I understand we should not be targeting the police or putting them under the microscope this is about public safety and public safety should be managed by those who have the knowledge and expertise women children need to be protected 24 hour 24 hour seven every single day we should not afford another three years of hardship of lack of trust lack of transparency and the change need to happen today need to happen tomorrow another element about this is also the city councils my colleagues none of them has spoken up when we had black children being victimized here it was maybe from a place of privilege I understand what discrimination it is how it looks like I understand not having a voice and it is about time that we change that and make Burlington the best small city in North America thank you since Murrow's name was mentioned does she he has an opportunity to respond is that correct and much yes thank you yeah Murrow thank you sandy um yeah this is a suggestion by Councillor Jang that I'm for defunding the releases is just patently incorrect of course as everyone knows I've been the voice standing against a council that has taken I think some very dangerous action I offered a whole alternative in my budget that would have kept a floor of officers between 85 and 90 well above the emergency staffing level and fought very hard for that and unfortunately the council stripped that out of the budget and created the mess we're in now because there was no plan for what would happen if that budget was not passed and you know speaking of vetoes I mean it was shocking that Councillor Jang did not support my veto a couple weeks ago that would was instituted because of how concerned I am about the police department being dismantled and not supporting and retaining the officers we need to provide proper public safety here so I'll more say about how we keep people safe with my answer but I just needed to respond to that blatant inaccuracy that's his next yeah so I should I take should I take the rebuttal and then answer the question or how do you prefer that we do this looking to our fabulous rulekeeper Lou I think that yes you have a chance to rebut and also to give your answer all right well let me start with my answer and then I'll get into the the issues that have been raised here so I think that there's no question that transformation is needed in our public safety systems and certainly this call for transformation has has always been and will always be about making people safer as a community with limited resources we must be thoughtful and efficient about how we use these resources to take care of everyone that lives here and so I appreciate the deep sensitivity that went into this question because we as a community do not focus on supporting survivors and victims of domestic violence enough and so our public safety system however is rooted in patriarchy and white supremacy and is not the only or the best way to ensure safety for people identifying as women I think both to support our black and brown neighbors and who are harmed at the hands of police at alarmingly higher rates than their than their white counterparts and to protect those vulnerable to abuse we must create trauma informed non-police roles that can better engage with and address safety concerns for these populations police officers currently respond to community needs that extend far beyond their purview and training and just as we've transitioned parking enforcement away from armed officers we can also transition responses to routine noise complaints to officials without guns and while also trying to free up resources for us to hire trained mental health and substance abuse treatment disorder treatment domestic violence specialists to meet with and respond to the needs of our community so the goal here is really to to better meet the needs of our most vulnerable in the community and to turn to armed officers only for situations in which they're absolutely necessary I would also just want to respond to to councillor Jang's point that none of us were speaking up about police misconduct or violence I have spoken up over the time on council in 2015 again in 2017 calling for police oversight and then again in May 2019 some of my colleagues on the city council and I put forward a resolution specifically around accountability and around police accountability that councillor Jang voted against at that point so I have been raising these issues clearly and I I think we need to do much more to bring oversight and accountability to our police Patrick yeah um so just first and foremost I got to make this clear nobody should fear for their safety when reaching out to the police for help um and I'm I'm not going to sit here and pretend like every interaction I've had with officers in and outside of Burlington has been positive I've had more than a few negative interactions with with officers even if it's just you know a bad disposition if I'm saying hi you know or worse but when it comes to the the protest at at Battery Park some of the specific examples that the protesters were pointing to I think were completely valid and I think if the city had taken those instances of violence seriously from the get-go we would never have seen an occupation of Battery Park like that all all three of the the primary instances there were cleared um and looking at them you know hindsight being 2020 but they shouldn't have um as far as the the call to defund the police and the city councils knee-jerk reaction to without very very much forethought you know just cut it down and demoralize and destroy our current police force I think that was an absolute mistake um you know you don't start home improvement by striking a match um and and destroying your house I as far as reforming the police we you know max is right we do need to transition some officers to you know non-armed roles that respond to certain circumstances where it's clear that they're unnecessary but also there's a lot of circumstances where we can't predict whether or not an armed officer is necessary uh there are perfectly normal traffic stops where officers are killed um so to to act like we can just know every single situation in which one's going to require an armed response is we're kidding ourselves okay thank you right my rose next thank you um so domestic violence is a terrible and enormous problem in in this country in this community and there's a lot of reason to be concerned that like many of our social problems has gotten worse uh as a result of the pandemic and the isolation of the pandemic and clearly the police have a major role to play in keeping women and children safe from domestic violence and um that is a big reason why I have always been very clear we need a well-resourced professional police department in this city and it is one of the big reasons why I am so concerned by the direction that the city council has been has been taking our city even when told that one of the things that we would have to step back from if the department was allowed to get to be less than 80 people would be we would have to end this position that I created about five years ago uh that is a domestic violence specialist within the police department that has played a big um has really expanded our capacity to help uh survivors of domestic violence um at the same time of course we need transformation cultural and structural transformation of our police department I have long stood for that it has been one of my top priorities since 2015 we have implemented so many reforms over the last five years whether it was being one of the first departments in New England in mandate body cameras on all its officers to severing its ties the military years ago to completely overhauling the way we respond to acute mental health calls and one of the most innovative and progressive strategies in the country we've made many changes we need to make many more going forward that's why I've created a new position the department of police transformation I'm very committed to to both things finally um let's be clear that it's not just the police of course that play a big role in keeping uh keeping our survivors of domestic violence safe um the steps to end domestic violence is an outstanding partner to the city and it's one that I've stepped up to support numerous times when they lost funding suddenly from a big funder a few years ago I went to the state and got that funding um I got funding to help replace that and we're working with them now to make sure that the resources and infrastructure in Chittenden County for domestic violence remain very strong thank you mayor the candidates will now have the opportunity to ask one or two questions of each other depending on the time that we have a lot of it here um each candidate will have the opportunity um as I said in the order that I call on people because this was alphabetical to start with but now we're rotating so the first person to uh ask a question of another candidate is Patrick you're on mute yep uh so I have two questions prepared um the the first of which is is for mayor Weinberger um you've had three terms and during these three terms uh you know you have had some economic successes I will give you that but uh during those three terms the the issue with the water treatment plant just constantly polluting our lake has seemed to fall to the side while projects like redoing parts of the bike path that don't need it uh the the city hall park um and uh the pit they've all taken presidents if you are elected to a fourth term during that term can you promise us that before the end of it that problem will be fixed thank you Patrick I appreciate the chance to talk about our record of protecting Lake Champlain which is one I'm proud of uh we um uh start in 2009 um the city created a stormwater utility on my watch we've dramatically expanded resources for that stormwater utility to protect Lake Champlain we did have some challenges uh in the summer of 2018 in particular where we had a significant breakage and from equipment and we responded to that we went to the voters and we got a historic 30 million dollar uh bond to um to to address that and we are in the process of implementing that money yet actually 2021 is going to be a huge year on that where you have about 11 million dollars worth of projects in one form or another of implementation that will replace that old equipment and make it make it better than ever um and uh we also it is it is uh this is one of the reasons this kind of investment that we actually have far less as a historic basis we've gotten better and better as a community uh at protecting Lake Champlain we have less of these emissions um than we did even as recently as the last decade by a substantial amount we have less of these CSO events so we're moving in the right direction do we have more work to do uh we do this is a generational problem um but we're we're well on our way with that historic 30 million dollar um investment which uh over 90 percent of the city supported um and surprisingly uh which was not supported by uh by by Councillor Jang in a boat that I've always found quite um uh surprising okay um Ali if you have a question to ask another candidate it's your turn um thank you again for bringing us here together and I think in terms of the process whenever a candidate's name is is mentioned please allow that candidate also to respond initially yes um yeah so I I want to respond first if you would allow me that if it's if it's okay okay of course yeah um so I think uh Mira Weinberger here has uh mentioned my name in terms of the vote about the the water treatment vote I think it was about the 30 million dollars that was going to go to the ballot to voters I proudly voted against it and if we are to do it again I would do I would vote against it again because I will not ask taxpayer 30 million dollars to fix the water and the groundwater utilities we have without an insurance that will actually work it seemed as if to me it's just throwing money outside of the window it's not good governance good governance should be practical good governance should be forward thinking and good governance should also have a plan that will fix a problem voters did support them and from there I started to support the program because what the voters wants that's what I want I am always about the people now thank you my time is up now the question that I have to answer the question yes the question that I have is for Mira Weinberger and I am asking him why didn't he veto the racial justice resolution when the council passed it from uh nine to three why didn't he veto it thank you councillor jane you know again on the next night I presented a whole lot that it wasn't necessary to veto it and strike down all the other a number of other very positive provisions I came forward with a whole alternate plan in my budget the next night that was a very reasonable compromise and that that would have kept us out of this mass it would have preserved the floor of 85 at least a target of between 85 and 90 officers which would have kept us well above emergency staffing and would have given us the time to provide these assessments so came forward with an alternative plan it was rejected by the council very unfortunately now we have another plan before the council and it will be for the council for a vote on monday which again would raise the cap back to the 84 that 284 and would provide additional resources to ensure that public public safety and I hope that this time the council listens to us and is not dismissive of our concerns of dropping into emergency staffing and the cutbacks that I would involve on positions like the domestic violence specialist on our 3 30 in the morning to 70 am shift hopefully this time the council will take this opportunity to work with the administration work with the department and ensure the safety of brawontonians while also making progress on police transformation that is needed okay max uh to your turn to ask a question of another candidate thank you I also have a question for mayor weinberger so mayor weinberger you mentioned the importance of professionalism in the police force and however during this term you have hidden information from the council and the public related to police misconduct sought to have a medical examiner's report changed and were dishonest to the media about former chief del pozos conduct while allowing him to do the same what would you say to burlingtonians who have lost faith and trust in your leadership thanks max um so um as I've spoken many times this has been one of the most discussed events in burlington uh for the last couple years and I was faced with a very challenging situation um it that involved um the question what you do um when um an employee has has made a serious mistake but also uh when we have um responsibilities to uh all of our employees uh to protect their sensitive medical information um it was very hard a very challenging situation um and I uh have acknowledged numerous you know I have acknowledged that uh if I had to do it all over with 2020 hindsight there there would be things that I would do differently um I have uh you know what what I would say to burlingtonians is um and what I believe burlingtonians believe is that what's important over the next three years is um these issues that we've been talking about tonight where we go from here is a city where we go um uh with our department from here and um I think that is you know certainly this um uh one of the most important um issues in this election is going to be around policing um and there um I stand for uh continued reform and innovation in policing as we have been doing for years um I can stand for cultural and structural transformation but I also stand for a well-resourced professional police department something that uh counsel tracy I think unfortunately I think you have been working against and working to dismantle and I hope you know that's the policing issue that I think voters are going to be focused on and where there is a very clear choice between us hey thank you and morrow now you can ask another candidate a question and they'll have two minutes to answer great thank you um I uh I have a question for max um I um you know max and I we've we've uh we came into office um uh at the same time we were both elected nine years ago um in that time um I've been as as the mayor focused been very focused on our housing crisis and creating uh as many new homes as possible I believe again if if we're serious about making housing a human right we got to create a lot more housing for people of all uh income levels I hear a lot about um uh additional enforcement and and regulation uh what would you do um max to actually create more homes and create more availability of housing uh and more affordability for pro lintonians really appreciate the question mayor I think that it's a it's a crucial one in this race and I think that what we've seen over the last nine years has been an emphasis on market-driven housing policies that are focused pretty exclusively on supply um and where I think we've gone wrong has not been has been not doing enough to to stabilize rents wages have not kept up with rents in our community we've seen people having to spend well over a third of their income and make very difficult decisions between whether to buy food or pay their rent whether to um buy crucial medications for the themselves or their families or to pay rent and what we've what we have not seen in response to this trend is a willingness to embrace bold new policies to control rents and bring a real stabilization to a market that is completely out of control when it comes to the costs for the average burlingtonian and so I do support taking a more aggressive stance as a city in order to bring rents in control because the market-driven approach that your that your administration has taken has been a failure I mean look at it look at the the rents and and housing prices in our community have they gone down over the course of of this administration have they even stabilized I don't think so so I think we have a situation where we need to explore and implement different strategies to address this crisis so do I have a chance to rebut that one minute okay thank you um so okay I appreciate so I think what I heard there I did not actually hear any ideas or even commitment or even sense that it is important that we create continue to create new homes and uh I think that's unfortunate that this this strategy is uh working and it is it is one that is uh needs to be committed to for many years if we are going to dig out of the deep hole that the uh kind of policies that you just listed created in terms of housing affordability it's those kind of policies over regulation constraint on the ability to create new homes that created the housing mess that we're in but it has stabilized on our our term and we've seen published reports that show that creating new homes has increased vacancy rates doubled vacancy rates and brought down significantly the the rate of inflation of housing has it solved everything of course not this is going to take years of commitment to get done and that's why uh the policies just listed there are so troubling I do have to say though it's unfair to say that we have just been about market housing we have built more permanently affordable housing hundreds and hundreds of new homes uh permanently affordable housing on my watch and we did that because we doubled the housing trust fund I'm very I'm as committed the city is committed as ever on my watch to permanently affordable housing and I suggest and otherwise it's just not true thank you mayor um so if Patrick we're going to do a second round since we have time so back again we're going to start again with Patrick and go through all of you so Patrick you have another question um so real quick before my second question I just wanted to ask Mayor Weinberger uh my question of you um very simply could have been a yes or a no and I I didn't hear either are you able to commit to solving that problem by the end of a fourth term um am I am I able to commit to am I I'm absolutely able to commit to you by the end of uh another three years um we will have the by far the best uh wastewater and stormwater infrastructure that we have had in the city's history where we are making historic generational investments uh in those systems and the lake um uh we are going to do a better job than we have ever done in our 150 plus year history as a city at protecting lake Champlain um is it uh that that's that's what I think the goal um should be and we're we're well on our way towards it and yes over the next uh uh next three years we're going to fully deliver on what we've committed to to the people of Berlin and and the region thank you um sorry uh so my my actual second question I just needed some clarification from for mayor Weinberger on that uh my my actual second question is for both Ali and Max um basically both of you are city council members while a lot of the things you are campaign campaigning against right now were either established or continued to happen uh as mayor will going from city councilor to mayor in some ways you're actually giving up some amount of power what is it as mayor that you expect to get done that you can't get done as city councilors who would answer first I think it was directed to Ali right or not it was it was and Max okay so I I I think if I understand the question is uh why I'm running for mayor knowing that I had the power to get to advance a couple of um couple of what I want to see through as a mayor right okay um so I think it is why I'm running it's not about getting things done as a city councilor as a city council I am the only independent and if you have noticed I stopped bringing resolution forward because why partisan politics many of my piece of legislations whether they die six to six whether democrats board in support or progressive board against it why I'm running for mayor is I want to change the direction the city is going this direction is not working for anybody transparency we have not experience what it is for so long people no longer trust the city government people no longer respect the city workers people no longer are putting an emphasis in terms of the social services and programs that burlingtonians need and want people want to live in dignity and I want to change the direction no more development and I also want to make sure that our city taxes are used for the right programs and the right services that works for the people and that what people need the direction to change it it is for me to build a team a new team great and incredible people that have the same values that I have make sure that our downtown is vibrant businesses are booming that's why I want to run for mayor and also tackle systemic racism because of all of these people running I know what discrimination is how it feels like and how it plays out thank you Ali max I think it's a great question I in terms of why I'm running for mayor is because as a city counselor you're one of 12 you and you're trying to balance your your your work responsibilities with the responsibilities that are quite expansive and could very well be full-time experiences and it can be very frustrating honestly to have big ideas about a wide range of different challenges that our community is facing whether that's around housing climate action systemic racism and not being able to to be fully dedicated because you have to put you know food on the table you have to pay your rent and it's challenging to balance those things as a counselor I've learned how to do it over the the course of nine years but it's a real challenge and so I I look to to the mayor's office and and rising to the mayor's office as an opportunity to expand and build upon the work that I've done in the city council in collaboration with that council while also having significant support from department heads and city departments as well as other organizations that can be leveraged in service of of these goals around climate of a brooding systemic racism of making housing much more affordable in our community and so those are the kinds of things that I'm really excited about as as your next mayor and what I'll bring to the table and why I want to make the change from being council president currently to being the mayor. Thank you Ali you now have an opportunity to ask a question of another candidate. Okay thank you um yes so I know that the we all have experienced so many scandals as a city and this has been very very very hard um you know so many lies so many there is this lack of trust truly the economy it's the city's death is its style of marketing and I think to Patrick's point I just want to know from Max Tracy we've been serving together since 2017 and I cannot recall any policy idea that you Max have brought forward and I'm not saying what you co-sponsor but I'm just saying something that you passionate about you worked on and that you led to bring it on the table and was just wondering if we can remind me one or two that came specifically or directly from you and not another organization. So a couple of things I've been in the last year I've had to shift towards facilitating the council and keeping the city council going managing significant public. Sorry but I'm saying the past three years. Can I can I can I please answer the question so the the question you know to your to your answer I have done a variety of different uh worked with a variety of different counselors just this year I worked with Councillor Paul to forward a resolution regarding overdose prevention sites. I also worked with the Racial Justice Alliance and Councillor Freeman in cooperation and collaboration with Taisha Green director of racial equity inclusion and belonging to bring forward a resolution around creating a reparations task force and then did the work to make sure that that task force got up and running and is currently operating looking at Burlington's role in chattel slavery. I've also brought significant big plans around transforming our transportation system specifically planned BTV walk bike. I played an instrumental role in that. In terms of other transportation goals I was a leading member of the the transition to make North Winooski and while the entire Winooski corridor safer leading the way when it came to the four to three conversion in the downtown section and then I also played a leading role in making sure that we found a good solution of where to overnight the Amtrak train instead of putting it next to one of the the largest concentrations of people in color and people of color in our community I pushed back on that worked closely with DPW and other stakeholders to find an appropriate and beneficial solution which was to keep it in the water to keep it in the rail yard so those are just a few things that I've worked directly on. There's obviously a lot more because we're working constantly in the city but I think that to say that I haven't done anything is a complete mischaracterization of what I've done and what I've what I've worked on over this over this time over my time on the council. All right thank you Max it's now your turn to ask a question of another candidate. Sure so one of the things that has one of the changes that we've experienced in Burlington is that we've we're now experiencing the arrival of what of the F-35s and I have a question for Mayor Weinberger because Mayor you said that the F-35s would be only modestly louder than the F-16s that were here before and so I want to know if you continue to feel that way and continue to support the basing despite the near daily disruption to people's lives. Thanks Max. So I believe in the science and I believe in the analysis which in the way that we measure noise which said then and has been confirmed by since the arrival that in the way we address noise impacts they're only they're only modestly greater in fact they're less in some places we're able to save homes close to the airport near South Burlington because there's actually less sound impacts there than there were under the F-16s. So what I what I said was accurate and we where the impacts are greater we've taken decisive action to address those impacts and we're succeeding it's that we've secured a new sound program moving away from tearing down homes and instead improving homes throughout the noise impacted area in Winooski and Burlington and South Burlington we're going to be investing tens of millions of federal dollars and utility dollars to improve those homes in the years to come. So listen this is a very challenging issue it was it was one of the toughest over the last nine years I I know that many people disagree with it and that's that's that weighs on me. What I said then I still believe the National Guard the Air National Guard has been an important presence in this community for for decades we have seen examples of how important just in the last year the National Guard can be and the way that they they have served the community helping us set up pop-up testing sites and played a key role in the pandemic response we we also benefit from the Air National Guard being here in terms of their other commitments to the community and I that there's always been sound impacts from the Air National Guard presence and we've been able to manage our way through that as a community we're going to continue to do that here and in fact we're going to bring far more resources to this than we've ever had before. Thank you Maro and now you can ask a question of another candidate. Great if I can follow Patrick's lead and and make it a double I would be interested in hearing or even from for all three if that's allowed you know a key issue in this race is that the mayor is the chief executive officer the mayor is responsible for over 20 direct reports and overseeing a budget that you add all the different budgets together it's about $200 million a year good management of the city team and the budget has a huge impact on everything on all these issues we've been talking about tonight and certainly be critical in responding to this or in rebuilding leading the way out of this recession with an economically just recovery I was hoping three of them could talk about what their experience is managing significant budgets and teams of personnel. I'll give each of you one minute to respond to the mayor's question. Do you want to start Ali? No he's on mute. You're on mute Ali. I was saying can you allow Max to start? Okay thank you. Max. Happy to so this is a great question and I thank you mayor for it I think it's a crucial one our time in in city government has overlapped and during that time I've gotten served on a variety of different committees been through nine different budgeting cycles and developed a deep and intensive understanding of the functioning of city government as well as the people that run city government during that time I'm all and both in and outside of city government I've also cultivated relationships with bargaining units you know keeping open communication with with people like Damian Gilbert who's the president of the AFSCME union while also getting a first-hand experience for what it's like to to actually be on the other side of that as a union organizer understanding the complexities of collective bargaining and learning how to how not to work directly with with collective bargaining units but also how to effectively work with with collective bargaining units and really that's the understanding that will be bringing to the table um as your next mayor. Thank you um yeah um I can go next okay yeah I mean I think that's it would be important to talk about the different our differences first Mr. Miro uh because I am a city council and I understand the process is how things work and you became mayor without even sitting as a city council I think it's it's a very big difference that we have I know the ropes exactly and I also have the ability to be able to build a strong team I came here 13 years ago and what I have created and accomplished I am not sure if you would be able to do it create the program with no funding I found the funding look for it find it and also hire people to work under my leadership to get things done we manage budget we manage people and also we look into bringing new partners to the to the work that we do right I think that is exactly what I would want to bring and again I said it before I'm going to say it again I may not be an expert for everything but the leadership that can take us forward I have what it takes and just my track record coming here with nothing building and sitting in front of you to want to become mayor is just obvious that Ali would be an amazing mayor yeah Ali thank you for that Patrick well uh first I want to thank uh Mayor Weinberger for including me in the question um when when it comes to my experience dealing with um you know essentially management roles and large budgets things like that uh I currently and have worked in insurance I've dealt with commercial insurance and businesses that are far larger than the city of Burlington as far as the monetary scale goes um a lot of people when they think insurance they just think oh the guy who you know sells me my car insurance but when it comes down to it I have to deal with other people's budgets multiple budgets for small and large businesses employment liabilities general liabilities and assessing all of those things and I have CEOs call me and ask me for advice on how to report on things so isn't exactly going to be any sort of huge transition other than instead of being called for the advice I'm the one making the decisions okay thank you um Jacob Jacob is uh not in the room right now so I think okay is he available okay there he is great thank you so much thank you to our candidates and uh to all of you for attending we want to give an opportunity to the candidate to make a closing statement and uh each of you will have two minutes for your closing statement we'll start uh we'll go back uh following the alphabetical order and we'll start with Ali Jani thank you yeah so as a closing statement I want to talk about what I would do as an ex mayor because our city currently needs an inclusive and trustworthy leader with an inclusive vision geared toward bringing people together and transforming this city to be the best it can be the best small city actually in North America so this campaign and our campaign is specifically around implementing that vision for an equitable just city that works for everyone as the next mayor I will seek to eradicate all systems of oppression and discrimination against the people of color and minority group I want to restructure and rebuild this community in making sure that residents trust the city trust our local government I want to make sure and ensure that public safety fiscal responsibility and sustainable economic development will be at the forefront of my leadership on top of all of that here are key priorities fight the public health crisis with expertise and leadership and I'm not talking only about the opiate crisis but also COVID-19 support youth of all ages and also bring fiscal responsibility transparency back to budgeting restructure our downtime I want to also eradicate what we call homelessness right and hope that you voters will join our campaign visit my website Ali Jani.com and hope to get your vote vote early thank you well just want to again thank you for hosting this debate it's been a really I think helpful conversation for me as a candidate but I think also for our community so just want to thank you for all the work you put into this I'm running for mayor to make Burlington a city where all can afford to live especially low income folks working-class people and people living on fixed incomes where city government is accessible to all and transparent and accountable with its actions and where we invest in a vibrant future for the whole community using progressive policies that lift the local economy expand public transportation and other sustainable transportation resources clean up our lake and reduce the impact on our climate throughout my years of service to Burlington I've been increasingly learning how to reach out especially to people who don't agree with me sometimes you have to reach farther because there might be folks who aren't willing to meet you halfway there can be nothing more frustrating when folks won't meet you halfway all the while telling you that you're not doing your part that happens but people aren't fooled people at Burlington are smart people and understand the difference between politics and progress those who know me know this or my heart on my sleeve and I work hard every day they know that there is nobody I can't work with and very little I wouldn't do to ensure that the people of the city are afforded the promise of the oath of my office I fight fiercely every day to ensure that people in this that the city serves the people not the other way around we must end the trend of working people and families people living on fixed incomes being priced out of Burlington property taxes rent child care and utility costs are too high and they're preventing so many people from being able to put down stable routes in Burlington we must address systemic racism by leaning into efforts to transform public safety and community oversight but it's not enough to prevent harm to our neighbors of color we must create the conditions for people to thrive and but through economic and cultural empowerment my administration will enact bold climate policies to reduce carbon emissions related to transportation and heating and city government can and should be leveraged in this fight more of the same is not enough I'm committed to working with all of you to do better for all of us I believe that together we can and we will build the future that we deserve thank you so much please go to my website maxvermayorbtv.com for more information Miro we'll be next great thank you Jacob thank you to all of ALV VIIC and the Caroline fund for organizing tonight making it possible and thank you to Ali max and Patrick for the discussion tonight looking forward to to to more of them over the weeks to come so as a community we have been through so much together over the past nine years and together we we have met every test when I first came into office the city was on the edge of junk bond status because of a combination of poor management and decision-making blinded by ideology over the years we rebuild our double A credit rating and locked in more than 17 million dollars and rising of taxpayer and rate payer savings with our found financial foundation secure we've been able to make massive infrastructure investments in our sidewalks our streets our parks and as we've been discussing tonight our water resource systems that protect the lake and we have launched groundbreaking new initiatives to ensure equity and to protect the most vulnerable including new housing options for people experiencing homelessness like our low barrier year-round homeless shelter that we just opened in the last couple months and a high quality child care scholarships for low-income children and new resources to fight the opioid crisis all of this while exercising fiscal responsibility while keeping municipal tax increases lower than the rate of inflation and in 2020 the most challenging year in local government in generations we fought and contained the virus as well as any community in America while also forging meaningful progress on racial justice and addressing the climate emergency not everything has gone smoothly or as quickly as we hoped however my administration has the persistence and the commitment to keep working at problems until they are fixed after long years or in some cases decades of trying we now have a beautiful new bus station City Hall Park has been revitalized and the Moran frame is now at long last in construction in this election amidst multiple simultaneous crises the city faces a clear choice to continue forward with a proven experience team that has in partnership with you completed all this and much more or returned to the type of leadership that created such trouble a decade ago I ask for your vote on on town meeting day which is or before it in the early voting starts on February 10th thank you and have a good evening so first I want to thank you guys for for inviting me to this without associations like yourself and inviting people without a lot of a platform like myself you know our options would be basically people who are already in power I am here because I I haven't liked what I've been seeing I don't like what I see right now the fiscal irresponsibility the pollution of the lake the infighting with with police reform and how that's just singularly going nowhere at least nowhere positive when it comes straight down to it I am the only candidate here and the only serious candidate that I know of I know there's some people just running as a troll which I'm not one of but I'm the only one out of the four here that has not been here or in power while all of these problems have continued to go on or were established in the first place if you want to see more of the same I guess I'm not your guy but if you want to see actual change and in progress and the success of Burlington and the success of businesses here and the people here that's what I'm all about and why I'm here well on that note I'd like to take this time to thank all of you for participating in this very respectful dialogue in my view I want to thank you for also engaging with the community virtually in these very challenging times I want to thank all the moderators who asked the questions this evening I want to thank the town meeting TV which will be re-broadcasting this debate on Comcast 1087 as well as Burlington Telecom 317 and 217 in the near future the days will follow to the lives lost due to COVID-19 to those families I want to take this moment to say we are deeply sorry and I hope that we continue to do better as a community to protect one another to the health care workers frontline workers at grocery stores and any other outlet that makes sure that despite this challenging time our community continues to function we would like to send our deepest and sincere thank you you are our heroes in this time thank you to the virtual participants who took the time to listen in we are hopeful that we will be back in the near future to learn more about the plans that our candidates have for the city of Burlington thank you again and have a good evening