 Hi friends, Janae would be procure with some exciting news. Town meeting day elections for mayor, city council, and more will be using ranked choice voting and all burlington voters get to participate. Unfamiliar with ranked choice voting? Keep watching or visit the link below. Ranked choice voting is a simple way to let voters rank candidates in order of preference. First, second, third, and so on. If your vote can't help your first choice win, it counts to your second choice instead. Here's how it works. If one candidate gets over 50% of everyone's first choice votes, they win and the election is over. However, if no candidate reaches a majority, the candidate with the fewest first choice votes is eliminated and their supporters votes will count towards their second choice. This process continues until one candidate reaches over 50% of the vote. Ranked choice voting is an easy way to give voters more voice, more choice, and makes for a stronger democracy. Learn more about ranked choice or try it out for yourself at betterballotvermont.org slash BTV 2024. Good evening and welcome. Here we are at town meeting television. It is another town meeting election season and we are here with the candidates for Burlington's Ward 3 city council. So I'm going to just move your chair so I can not choke on the microphone. Awesome. That's good. And I am going to introduce the candidates. But I'm going to remind you that you can call us at 8-6-2-3-9-6-6 if you have questions and we'll be really happy to take them. Christopher Aaron Felker, you are running as a Republican. Malik Meinz, you are running as a Democrat. Welcome. And Joe Kane, you are running as a progressive. Glad to see you all here. So why don't we start with my first question, which is why are you running and what qualifies you to be city councilor for Ward 3? Thanks Lauren Glenn. My name, like you said, is Christopher Aaron Felker. I am the Republican candidate for Burlington City Council in Ward 3. In the 12 years that I have been a resident living in the Old North End, I have slowly begun to see our city that we love deteriorate. Our community is in trouble and many of our neighbors are concerned and they reach out to me and they ask me what we can do to make our city better. We're facing multiple issues, public safety issues, an affordability crisis, an inadequate lack of housing stock, and an unrelenting drug crisis. Our leadership can do better and it must do better to rise to the occasion. My campaign is about connecting neighbors, communicating with each other, building relationships and addressing the multiple concerns that everybody has in our town. I ask everybody that's interested to follow along to join me in our fight to restore balance to the Burlington politics and for people at home who are watching to go to www.felkerforward3.com and follow along. What qualifies you? Well, I'm the chairman of the Burlington Republican Party. I've been active in body politic for quite some time. I went to the sales university and studied political science and I'm a Navy veteran. I care about my community deeply. I'm a parishioner at St. Joseph's. I care about all the members of our community and I want to make sure that we can all succeed and rise together. Thank you very much. Thank you Lauren Glenn. Let's tell us why you're running and what qualifies you. Welcome. Hi. Yeah. I'm running because as a resident of Burlington, I lived there for ten years and I have been in the public service ever since. I was 18. I was a preschool teacher for six of those years and then I transferred over to the Burlington school district to which I was a program coordinator. I ran the after school programs as well as the Burlington-Winnowski Middle School summer programs. I served on the board of Pine Forest Children's Center as well. So I truly care about the growth and development of education at the center of everything that I do. I'm running because I love Burlington. It has given me all the opportunities that I would not have gotten at home back in Philadelphia from the neighborhood that I so truly love but also which needs help. Also the community engagement aspects and the relationships that I've built here qualifies me to continue those relationships and just going door knocking and meeting people who have also felt the same way that I have about this community and they feel that I am able to connect people and build those relationships to help solve some of these crisis that we have. I bring a lot of hope to this community and I bring a lot of hope to City Council and I do believe that we can get over these problems that may seem insurmountable but they're not. So. Thank you so much. Yes. Joe Cain, nice to see you. Your running is progressive. Tell us why you're running and what qualifies you. Thanks Lauren Glenn. I am running because I'm inspired by the work of the community members. I'm inspired by the work of the Progressive Party in Burlington over the last 40 years and I know there are urgent issues and I think I have a skill set that could be helpful. I'm an economist by background. I have done research and taught courses on housing policy, environmental policy as well as healthcare policy and labor policy. I would be well prepared to come in on day one with pretty precise policies that I think are urgently needed including tax reform, democratic process reform. I'm very rooted in this community. I have family living in three wards. I live with my 93 year old grandmother and yeah I'm inspired by the community here that does great work. We have a very vibrant public that engages with town meeting TV with various other ways to get involved in the civics of this town. Wonderful. Thank you so much. So let's go to our first formal question which really has to do with well what will be different for the community if you are elected. So you've touched on this a little bit but why don't we just go to that Malik. What's going to be different because you are a city councilor in Burlington for word three? What's going to be different is transparency. Back in my line of work again working with children and families there's a lot of transparency that is needed when really in any sort of information whether it's about behaviors or whether it's about what's going on with like certain issues with the budget that we were dealing with so I do believe in a transparency and bringing communities together will be super key in getting a lot of work done especially around public safety around our housing prices and around climate. So I do think once I'm in office that again a lot of the divisiveness that we're seeing currently will hopefully come to an end. I'm not just the only person that can just bring that there though. It takes a whole community to help with that too. So I hope that that's what I bring. Thank you. So what's going to be different because you are a city councilor from word three. Thank you. If I get elected I would support the platform of Emma Mulvaney Stenek or my oral candidate she's interested in rent stabilization. I'm supportive of that. She's interested in overhauling the way we collect property taxes to make it easier for owner occupiers particularly of lower and middle income. So yeah I think the tax reform would be felt by renters and by homeowners. The renter protections would obviously be felt by renters. I would also work on democratic process issues so that it becomes easier to run for office. You know it's mostly wealthier folks who are able to do it because it doesn't pay very well because we have no public finance campaign finance system so it costs thousands of dollars to run a campaign. Other municipalities around the country are modernizing the way that they conduct elections to make it easier for folks from different backgrounds to run for office and I think if we make certain democratic process reforms it'll become easier to tackle all sorts of issues from environmental issues to affordable housing and other things that our community cares about. Okay very good thank you. Christopher Aaron tell us what will be different if you are city council from word three. Terrific. So first and foremost we're going to rein in some wasteful government spending. Burlingtonians are reeling from ever present tax rate and fee increases. Every single tax rate and fee increase negatively affects renters and the poorest of the poor the hardest. We need to recognize that there is an absolute link between increasing taxes and increasing rents and in our city where we have such a high percentage of our residents that are renters they are suffering the hardest. So we're going to rein in wasteful spending number one. We're going to provide balance to the city council because many of our problems do require a forgive the term all hands on deck approach and we do have offer multiple vantage points to the situation to any issue that we're facing. Burlington progressives and democrats are already strongly well represented on Burlington City Council and I the Republican candidate for word three hope to be a voice for downtown Burlington and all Burlingtonians in word three. Okay well I hope we get to some specifics and what you would rein in but for now let's go on to the city finances question and Joe Cain we're going to start with you. I just I'm going to remind folks eight six two three nine six six if you like to call with any questions. So do you support the proposed public safety tax increase for the city budget. Yes or no. Let's just start with that. Okay I do support it. I think that though that the way that we collect taxes the way we structure the collection of revenues in the city needs to be overhauled. You know I think we need a vacancy tax for vacant properties blighted properties around town. I think we need a land value tax or an anti-speculation tax that would tax land more than structures which would incentivize more development. I would like to see us copy what the state does to fund the education program which is a tax based on occupancy and income. We right now have a flat rate for our municipal property tax. So I support you know the the requests for additional tax revenue that are going to be on the ballot but I you know have significant trouble with the way that we currently raise revenues in the city. And you did mention a little bit about your background as an economist. What other experience do you bring to the overall financial management of this of a city. So in terms of my my background I used to work in financial services in auditing for years after undergrad I used to work at the federal housing finance agency so I have a background in finance that I think would be helpful for coming in on day one and being ready to you know serve on committees. I watch the board of finance meetings. I don't think I would miss a step. These are two year terms so I think electing someone who's ready to come in on day one and it's not going to be overwhelmed by any of you know any of the work is is important and I do think I have that background. Thank you very much. Christopher Aaron do you support the public safety tax increase. I haven't decided yet. I'm torn. I support our police department. I support our first responders and the mission that they're on. I also recognize and acknowledge that this year we're facing serious budgetary shortages and so we're already going to have to go in and modify or by make budget cutbacks. I'm wondering if we should truly it's up to Burlingtonians. I tell my voters I tell people in Ward 3 please vote your conscience on this don't listen to me or really any any one of us really vote your conscience I haven't I haven't decided yet I'm still wrestling with it. I want to support our officers but I'm wondering if maybe we should just have this the increase offset by by the additional budget cuts when we do our budget in June. And what kind of financial background do you bring to the table. Well I do our taxes at home you know and pay our bills. So you're you're a domestic economist. Yes ma'am. Very good. Thank you very much. I know that I keep the lights on and the food in the refrigerator. Okay that is not insignificant. It is not. Yeah. Malik could you tell us your position on the proposed public safety tax increase for the city budget. The answer is yes that I do support the tax increase for the budget but I think that's just a step forward towards where we need to go with public safety. I do think that echoing what you said as well Joe is that the way that we tax our Bronson citizens is a little outdated and that we do need to start looking at some other avenues about like how we can actually start implementing taxes that are equitable and is also fair to Bronson citizens. Again a lot of property taxes do get levied on to a lot of people like renters such as myself and I'm just yesterday just looked at a tax not tax increase but a rate increase to a house I just moved into a year ago. And again we're taxing people out of our homes and we're taxing renters out of Bronson. So there needs to be some sort of look at different systems. As for my background I do serve on the finance committee for the Pine Forest Children's Center and I have been doing that for almost two years now and I've also managed a program budget for the Bronson school district as a program coordinator. All right thank you very much. Again 8-6-2-3-9-6-6 if you have any questions for the ward three city council candidates for the city of Burlington school budget Malik we're going to start with you. Bronson school district administrators have proposed a $119 $120 million school budget resulting in a tax rate increase of 14 percent. Do you support this budget why or why not? So again a little background I have been an educator since I was 18 years old so I have been a part of the Burlington school district. The work that I do now with the Department of Education at UVM I also work pretty closely with some of that work as well still working with tons of school districts around the state of Vermont. This isn't just a big tax for the Burlington school district it's also a big tax for a lot of school districts around Vermont so the short answer is yes I do we need to fund education because education is the keystone for any sort of healthy functional community specifically Burlington so short answer yes. Is there a little longer you have a little more time did you want to say more about the overall education financing crisis? Yeah I mean so just like internally I've seen a lot of what's going on and again if we're going to increase this tax for our citizens and have them pay more I do think there needs to be a little bit more transparency about what this tax is going to go to besides just the high school but how we're going to fix a lot of the literacy problems that we're facing as well and also how we're going to fund a lot of the support systems that we need as well within the school. So I know the Burlington school budget was presented earlier tonight so perhaps they got into a little bit of detail there. I always watch the meetings on this afterward so I will watch this one. There you go I'm wondering this is a why wouldn't you run for the school board? Well so again I no longer work for the Burlington school district and I think that my higher up position as I keep going forward the as I keep progressing in my career I do want to be a part of the Department of Education federally more so than locally so yes. Okay thanks for answering that. Okay Jo Kaine tell us about your position on the Burlington school budget and the increase that we're facing. So I support the increase I watched superintendent Flanagan's presentation last month and from what I can tell there's not very much that we can that we have control over. We have to pay for this new high school we owe on the order of or we will owe on the order of 130 million dollars I think or more the quicker we pay that back the less expensive it'll be. There's also a common level of appraisal adjustment based on the equity program which which I support to make schools equitable across the state which means that places with booming real estate end up you know paying a bit more in property taxes so while this is a large percentage increase and it is something that households are going to feel quite a bit in terms of what we're actually arguing over I think it's very minimal in terms of like the actual you know programs that would be included or cut I would I would support you know fully funding our education system here and I think what this really shows what the pressure on the tax system and the upcoming budget shortfalls really show is that it is urgent for us to control what we can control which is to revamp the way that we collect municipal taxes as I discussed earlier. Okay well let's move on to Christopher Aaron in your view of the school budget. No I'll be voting no on the school budget that's a solid no. I've I opposed the the new school bond last year because I knew that it exceeded and maxed out the city's general obligation bonding capacity which puts it in a very very dangerous position for being able to restore and maintain city infrastructure projects. Every single year that we come around the school budget keeps going up and up and up and the school is not turning out positive results there's we're below average in literacy and mathematics and and science testing they we are just throwing good money after bad the new school on on Institute Road is really just kind of a money pit at this point and so it's time for Burlingtonians at home to say enough is enough you really need to go back to the drawing board this is what you these are the cards that were dealt and you need to tighten your belt and make this work we are not an endless supply of money for the school district that is underperforming get back to work. And so what kind of latitude do you think they have in the school budget? I think that they can sit down and figure it out and present something better to the Burlington voters and no matter what whatever the results are on election day that's what we'll abide by that's what the people said so I'm hearing from Burlingtonians that they cannot afford another increase at all to their taxes. All right thank you very much okay next question direct democracy Burlington's and we're going to start with you on this one Joe Burlington City Council recently decided against putting two proposed questions on the town meeting day ballot one on police oversight and the other calling for an apartheid free community do you support the council's decision to prevent these questions from reaching the ballot and then I'll ask you a follow-up okay thanks for the question this is something I deeply care about I actually was the lead canvasser on the apartheid free community initiative I wished that they had allowed the public to advise them this would have been purely advisory it wouldn't have been binding in any way it wouldn't have cost any money this is also something the apartheid free community pledge that was written by the Quakers the friend service committee the Nobel Peace Prize winning friend service committee so yeah Burlington has a long and storied history of involvement you know on issues around the world Bernie Sanders in the 80s literally went to Nicaragua we were involved in anti-apartheid efforts related to South Africa so you know I would have liked to at least have been able to take the the temperature of the public on this issue and see if there is a demand for the city council to do more the city council did consider a boycott divestment and sanction related initiative in 2021 from the racial equity inclusion and belonging committee this is the sort of aftermath of the city council inaction then and so you know the city council kicked it to the public and now this the city council isn't letting the public weigh in so I am personally frustrated by that and I think it's a democratic process issue I'm a process person when I was in graduate school I noticed that the graduate student organization seemed to be making decisions in a nonsensical way where a few people would attend meetings and they would decide things on behalf of a much larger collective group of people and there wasn't a quorum there wasn't a minimum number of votes necessary to make decisions and I spent a lot of time trying to improve that process I think there are real process issues democratic process issues at the council level here that's a really interesting discussion for another time but let's move on and Christopher Aaron what's your view of these two ballot questions that did not make it on the ballot one on police oversight and the other calling for an apartheid free community would you have supported putting those on the ballot um if I was on council probably not uh I'm not a huge proponent or advocate of of ballot question initiatives especially in this manner our nation was founded to be a representative democratic republic and I think that that is the best of our government that we have I've seen after living in burlington for 12 years I've seen quite a few of these ballot measures be brought up by the community and then presented to council and and that's great I appreciate the the process but I've also seen like back when we had the f-35 issue signature petitions were circulated a question is worded one particular way it was submitted to city council and then they reword it and the wording of these questions tends to be confusing or divisive and we can extrapolate that conclusion by looking at the total overall vote counts from like the mayor versus who vote how many people voted in these and then we come back to asking the question is it really doing anything other than dividing the city or confusing people I don't really like confusing voters when they turn out to vote because it makes them more discouraged and less likely to vote again in the process so it's it's a really difficult situation but I don't think that it was necessary I wouldn't have supported either one of these issues I think that if we want to address these issues that we should bring them up through city council committee meetings and then see if it rises up to the level of bringing a full resolution to the city council again and can you just say something because I did hear this in other forums about confusing the public yeah what would what's can what are you worried about being confusing for people do you remember when we had the f-35 question that went around and the petition was circulated with one question then it was reworded by council that almost made it the inverse of what the petition signers went so people who originally signed the petition are then receiving their ballots thinking that it's the same question but it wasn't it was flipped so there's a little bit of meddling that can take place in the process that that interrupts the purity of it thanks for clarifying my do you mind if Joe adds sure I would appreciate the opportunity for a direct response since I this is something that I worked on a lot I dispute the notion that we live in a representative democracy because we only pay counselors it's like five thousand dollars a year so you know some cities do make it a job if it was an actual job and and we had public campaign financing then it would truly be available for any engaged member of our community the job is currently not available for any engaged member of our community and so I think it's an arrogant misunderstanding of council's role to not be allowing advisory questions on the ballot okay very good Malik please let's love to hear from you on this question yeah I think this actually rolls off pretty well after what you just said too because there's also questions as well direct democracy and also who's well represented for direct democracy and who can show up for direct democracy I know a lot of people growing up who just did not have the chance of the time to actually go to the ballots and actually argue for their point of views or advocate for their point of views through direct democracy and I do think that is one of the reasons why we do have a represented democracy as we sit here and we canvass for a position in a representative democracy for police oversight for one of those things um it's one it's an issue that I saw that needed a lot of more thought on and I'm so happy that it did go back to the board and that people could draw on it because I come from a community where police oversight isn't even a thought at all and if we're gonna do it we need to do it correctly otherwise we'll be right back at the drawing board again on police oversight and again I've had cops kick my doors then when I was a kid and it's terrifying understanding that like there's no police oversight so the fact that it did go back to the drawing board I understand that people expected a response that day um and it wasn't given but I do think the reason for why it was given was also pretty appropriate to the fact that we need to do things correctly in Burlington and that things need to be transparent when they are on the ballot okay very good why don't we move on because we have some more yeah we've got 15 15 or 20 minutes left we have more questions so let's remind people 862 3966 we'd love to hear from you if you do have questions for us Christopher Aaron Felker you are going to take this one first addiction and opioid crisis where do you differ from other candidates in your proposed approach to the opioid crisis and what are the most important initiatives the city could undertake and is within its power to undertake to address this crisis okay thank you lauren glenn uh yeah the addiction crisis is something that is has been growing and expanding in Burlington especially in the last 12 years but more so in the last six we've seen with the advent in the proliferation of fentanyl uh more and more overdoses we've also have a large increase in methamphetamine abuse and in our city and this all is terribly concerning to me um a lot of our reforms to try and help people achieve recovery from addiction will be coming must come from legislative action and and through the executive branch carrying that out properly as a city councilor we can advocate for some strongly for some of these measures i really strongly think that the legislature needs to take action this year to make sure that people suffering from addiction can that have medicaid can receive a full 28 days of inpatient treatment uh the city of burlington itself sadly once people get out from treatment an inpatient treatment it's important that they are supported and in a structured environment where there's feel safe and and able to thrive and grow again and sadly in the last few years burlington lost two halfway houses halfway houses are crucial for being able to provide wraparound support and care they um they keep people safe and they they allow people to get another day away from the drug another day sober another day of hope another day of rebuilding relationships in their lives and so we need to in addition to bringing back halfway houses we need to relax our regulations so that way um cohabitation dwellings of like oxford houses and recovery houses that have more than six unrelated people living there can be allowed and zoned in our city because we need to tear down the barriers to supporting our fellow burlingtonians for recovering from addiction thank you very much thank you Malik you'll have two minutes for this one tell us about your view about how to address the opioid crisis in burlington to me i don't think it's a difference of opinion at all the fact that we need to actually handle this problem and the fact that some of the parts or part of the reasons my reason sorry one thing we can do is bring resources closest to where the issues are happening and that is in burlington the closest methadone planet is in south burlington and people have to catch the bus there they have to uber they have to find rides and it's not fair and it's not equitable to the resources that we should be having in burlington um we also recognize that we can't police ourselves out of this issue by arresting people who are being public disturbances whether or not they are suffering from mental health issues or they're suffering from substance abuse issues so that is another part of it once people do receive treatment we need to understand too that the time limits of which we provide treatments is also pretty crucial because right now the time limit that we give them i believe it's not anywhere near what other states are doing i believe three months is what i'm hearing from other states too for people who are receiving treatment and then when you get out of treatment what are the resources that you have available to you too to get you back in your feet to get you a job to get you an education to feed you to house you you know so part of our issue is that we only have solved some of these problems and we also make it pretty difficult for people to get help so bringing resources closer to where the issues are happening and then making sure that we have external resources after the fact that they receive treatment and how much of that is something the city of burlington can do it's not something that the city of burlington can do along there's a lot of pressure that needs to be put on the state and it's also the pressure from the state putting on to the federal government too because this isn't just a burlington issue other counties are facing it other states are facing it there are other countries that are facing this so we need to realize that like whatever is happening needs to happen nationwide as well too as well as the states issue so again with the opioid funds that we have from the state they need to start releasing that at a faster rate so that we can start solving this problem as soon as possible thank you very much joe kane your view how do you differ from the other candidates on this question and what world do you think burlington has to play in helping to solve the opioid crisis well i don't think i differ very much from what malik and christopher and have said uh you know there's only so much we can do as a city right so we control the funding of our police department we can continue to try to modernize the police department right now we have staffing caps for community service officers and then community support liaisons the social workers who are now working in the police department i think the cap is six we could increase caps we could continue to modernize uh this department that we do run that we do pay for in our city um there's a lot of work that obviously is above the level of of the city of burlington um ed baker hosts the show the addiction recovery program i think right here um he recently had represent state representatives small and borhovski and states attorney sarah george um on i think a month or two ago to talk about um yeah state level efforts to open an overdose prevention center to make sure that social services are reaching people um you know even if we have social services around here people aren't getting to them so you know street outreach programs are are effective and need to be expanded so our state reps are doing this work and i think the city of burlington um you know should partner with our state reps and work with them to the extent we can i'm proud to be endorsed by ed baker who hosts that program excellent thank you very much so next question and we start with malik mines on this one and the question is what does effective policing look like in burlington and should the council have the authority to discipline police officers those are really two different questions yeah they are um i will definitely start with the first one yeah you take about what effective policing looks like yeah please um from coming from where effective policing isn't a thing at all uh an effective police force yes in philadelphia uh it reflects the community um they have trust in from the community and also the community trust them as well um initiatives can start as early as uh going into schools and introducing yourselves and making yourselves known and understanding that like police officers are trusted people in our communities that we can go forward to for any sort of needs that we have whether or not we need to walk a child home because they're feeling unsafe or whether or not they just want to have some info about like what's it like being a cop um having more community based events in our uh like at the old north end community center for example where police officers come in whether or not they're in plain clothes or uniforms um we do need to tackle the fact that there's a lot of distrust in police um from a lot of communities specifically people of color um there's a lot of distrust i have an incident where i had run in with the police when i was in college and it was the most innocent thing that had happened but the fact that i knew what was going to come of that incident immediately shows that there's some levels of work whether or not the burlinson police at that moment was something that was terrifying to me um i knew just like from growing up that policing was something i was like okay well i need to make sure that i'm calm i'm safe we need to make sure that that stereotype is no longer available in our community and it's something that burlinson doesn't stand for and that police are trusted so again supporting our police and having our police support our communities and you have um 30 seconds to answer do you think the city council should have the authority to discipline police officers i don't think so okay all right joe kane your view on effective policing in burlington thank you so i think effective policing would look like a system where the community has trust in in the officers where the officers have have morale um to to do good work in the community i think we're not there um you know there's been a rewriting of the social contract kind of with with police forces um since 2020 as cd madison noted who who ran for the democratic mayor slot 900 officers statewide left the profession um or quit their jobs i think that is in the year after george george floyd's murder so you know we have a lot of work to do to modernize departments you know we need to have folks with the appropriate backgrounds and training and equipment on them to respond to incidents certain is incidents um you know shouldn't have probably a an armed officer you know so right now we don't have a very good system for traffic enforcement traffic enforcement is is very low i think basically an order of magnitude lower than it was in terms of the number of of stops number of incidents um than it was just five years ago so you know we need to be doing everything we can to modernize the department um and yeah i'm working closely with a former police commissioner milo grant who has endorsed me and is a big supporter of mine and and uh i think a voice of wisdom on this issue and i think we're going to continue to see a problem until we have some sort of oversight board or some sort of revamping of what the police commission looks like because right now i think there still is uh you know lacking community trust in policing i think right now we still have an issue on the morale side for officers um one thing i'd like to see is you know certainly a police chief who um you know is interested in modernizing the department uh you know the public can go and read the chief reports uh the chief has to file a report each month and and get a sense for you know the tone and the you know interest in modernizing the department and um yeah i think that's a very important part of the process and should the city council be able to discipline police officers i don't think so okay very good just quickly because christopher erin falker your view on the effective policing and what it looks like in berlington terrific thank you lauren glenn my vision of uh berlington policing is to restore the officer account to 86 to 88 officers sworn officers which was in line with what the cna report stated um to add a specific uh bpd aspca sworn officer to um combat and investigate uh cases of animal cruelty it's very important that officers be specifically trained and be able to collect evidence in this nature increasing the going back to the higher officer count of going back to 88 officers having that level of officers allows our police officers to get out of the cars to begin foot patrols again and begin rebuilding relationships in the community i agree with what malik said we really do need to rebuild relationships here it is imperative the only way we'll get there is if we have enough officers to be able to staff the police department and be able to do these outreach missions it's crucial it's an absolute crucial component furthermore i've always been a supporter of the cso csl program i continue to advocate for the expansion of that and the community service officers and community service liaisons also the the crisis assessment response engagement services boy that's a mouthful uh gotta love government but yeah the the cahoots model is really what's necessary for outreach in our community for the people that are suffering on our streets that don't necessarily need full-scale police intervention uh i think that this is what my vision is and what the vision that my fellow neighbors in burlington have been asking for all right and your question and the last question the city council thing should yeah no that's a big no for me i think that it should be the police chief and then the mayor's office should actually be able to discipline officers but we should also further advance this community oversight uh independent community oversight of the police but the discipline should be coming from the chain of command and that should be the chief of police and the mayor's office plain and simple okay so depending on how long it takes you to answer these questions we have two or three left okay so just to let everybody know and um i think we start with joe this time is that right did i lose maybe i'm not sure but joe can go right it was the first person that answered last time me yes so joe i'm right good okay so this is the racial justice question which just seems to me it's not just a question this is an existential issue the city declared racism as a public health emergency in 2020 what would you do will you do as city councilor to address systemic racism in city hall and across the city generally i appreciate the question and i'm glad that burlington has taken steps including establishing the racial equity inclusion and belonging committee um i would you know fight to make sure that the efforts we have made including modernizing our police department continue to receive funding and um and support from from city council uh you know we have use of force uh incidents that are costing the city a lot of money and that are disproportionately in interactions with black men the meli brothers case mavi or jack case kathy austrian just um finally i believe filed the lawsuit this past week um in relation to the incident with her 14 year old son um so you know clearly we have more work to do uh to create a safer environment for all um i think uh yeah the city of burlington has has taken good steps and i've i've been focused on this topic for for many years in my teaching so i'm glad to see that society is you know taking taking the issue more seriously i also think progressive policies um are just helpful to minorities generally speaking given socioeconomic discrepancies across racial lines um not to be class reductionist because of course there are non-economic elements to this crisis all right thank you christopher erin your view of what you would do as city councilor to address systemic racism in the city and across the city generally sure loren glenn thanks for the question i um well the city of mayor weinberger's administration created the office of racial equity inclusion and belonging director uh kim karson's a fantastic woman i've spoken to her on multiple occasions we've even had conversations about uh outreach efforts to engage the new american community and make sure that they can now that they're able to register to vote in burlington to be engaged in participating in society i think that director karson is a is a very intelligent woman and i defer to her judgment she is the person who will be creating the strategic policies to combat the question that you just asked and when she comes to council for for support we'll listen to her and we'll give her the support that she needs thank you so much yes ma'am well like mines your view of how to address systemic racism in burlington we need to start removing barriers that we have to have in place for decades if not even longer that has prohibited people from being in positions of leadership and power within the city um one of the reasons why running for city council is because i want to reflect the community that i have served and i will continue to serve um specifically i can't wait for one day we see a merit that reflects some of the communities that we see like um so i do believe that racism is a public health emergency but also that there are things that we can do within the city of burlington by first a recognizing some of the systems that we have right now um for instance uh we tend to to amalgamate a lot of new americans and provide them housing that is uh so condensed and so like just certain parts and sections of the city and as a babysitter for several people within the community it's very weird to me to just walk around certain neighborhoods and only see a fraction of what the actual school population looks like uh that i worked with and when you do finally get to realize that there are like certain practices that goes on specifically around housing and job opportunities you then start to ask those questions about hmm how and why are we in a position that we're in right now where we are not seeing a reflection of what burlington actually looks like so again um as a city counselor i hope that people who are watching and people who do see this uh have the courage to step up and do things that um they want to do and join those leadership roles um i would hope that whoever the mayor is uh that they would hopefully help open those doors to certain positions within the city and that all the children who are watching too can look up and see and say hey like he's doing the thing that i want to do yeah thank you so i'm going to go right to the question about a new mayor just so kevin knows in terms of bringing up the titles this is our last question and it builds on what you are saying malik just now christopher erin fulker um the mayor has been in office for 12 years and what would you build on and what will you change um from the previous administration just i mean you're not going to be mayor you're going to be a city counselor but just what's your vision of the future for the city okay um terrific so i think that we need to tackle our housing crisis first and foremost and right now um i'd like to say right off the bat nobody should be forced to sleep on the streets in our community and it's well within our mayor's power right now to exercise some emergency authorizations to open up the doors of the old north end community center auditorium and the miller center up on goss core in north um the new north end to provide emergency shelter to people who are homeless to have some place warm to sleep over the night and we have to come together and work together on these issues i'm not going to be beholden to any of morose uh past horrible policy choices i'm not a huge fan of his 2030 net zero energy goals i know gas clutch your pearls but you know the truth is vermont gets cold and i really have no problem with energy efficient natural gas i think that that's that's vital to um have to burling tonians to be able to be able to heat their home and feed the people in their home and we have to stop with the ideologically driven good faith efforts that are really harming people in our communities we need to dial it back and have some common sense reforms in our city and we need to start with housing and we need to make sure that we can people can afford to stay in their homes excellent closing comments thank you malik minds tell us let me keep it simple and keep it short just because um this is that will tie into the past and the future um i'm hoping the things that we can change first starts with housing and the way that we view housing i don't think that building more units for the sake of building more units is building the affordable quality housing that we always talk about um as a person who has moved here 10 years ago and has had visions of having a family and raising that family i'm going on 29 now and i've have set myself back many many times just because housing is so unaffordable but it's also not quality i don't have a backyard where i can put a nice little swing set for whatever child that i was to have and that's our vision that we need to start changing if we're going to build housing we're not building units for the sake of units we're building homes for the sake of homes thank you and families and families yes yes exactly jocaine thank you closing comments your vision what will you build on or not for the future so i appreciate that uh the one burger administration has engaged with constituents that he's had the coffee hour on i believe it's wednesday mornings i do have a lot of problems with the administration i think the administration going after uh taisa green um investigating the juneteenth uh spending of a black department head when there are cost overruns uh for white department heads that don't get investigated was disappointing i think it's disappointing that the wine burger administration pushed through the air guard lease extension even though there are i believe there were i believe on the order of another 24 years on the current lease and the community doesn't support the f-35s um and the air guards presence i also was disappointed that um mirror wine burger uh permanently appointed a police chief who didn't have community support i'm disappointed with the lack of vision on housing um and the lack of vision on revenue generation uh we can tweak you know fees and such but um you know an overhaul of the property tax system uh would really be a way of stepping off of the necks of working class folks uh renters and homeowners alike um so uh yeah i think perfectionism and conflict conflict avoidance are core tenants of white supremacy culture that i see um on uh in this administration and on city council and that i would like to address i would like to address you know the tax system i would like to address um the democratic process that's used in this city and i have a very um set of very precise policy proposals uh to get that done these are short terms two years and i i think i'm ready to come in with um specific plans from day one all right thank you very much i really appreciate speaking with the three of you three candidates for the city of brovington's ward three we've been speaking with christopher erin fulker who was running as a republican thank you so much thank you lord got more to say on how to cut wasteful spending so that's something well it sounds like you got it you got to get get a forum to talk about that malik mines thank you very much you're running as a democrat it's nice to see you and meet you i'm also running as a writing candidate as well so if you do see this everyone please write me in uh on town ballot day and when you receive your ballot in the mail oh okay so that's right so you're running okay that's good thanks for pointing that out i'm sorry i didn't and joe kane you're running as a progressive thank you very much it's pleasure thanks for watching and stay tuned for more continuing coverage of town meeting 2024 you