 Good evening and welcome to channel 17's continuing coverage of town meeting 2019 and tonight We are talking with candidates for winiski city council. There are two There are actually three open seats for winiski city council But we're talking to the two candidates for the two-year seat and there are two seats So you are not contesting each other. There are two open seats Okay, and Jim Duncan and Amy Lafayette are our candidates that we're speaking with this evening And of course if you have any questions for them, please feel free to give us a call at 8 6 2 3 9 6 6 We'd love to hear from you here at channel 17. I think um It's the 12th or the 11th. I don't even know what day of the week Sorry, it's okay. You just call us. We'll talk. So Jim why don't you start and let us know why you're running and what qualifies you for the position of winiski city council Sure. Thank you. So I believe that winiski is on the edge of great things at this point And I really believe that we have seen a council and a staff to get some really good strategic planning and see up some Projects that are really ready to go and hit the ground running and make the city a better place And I want to step in and kind of continue that trajectory forward and provide a way to help manage and Oversight oversee those changes as we're going forward so that we can see this city kind of live up to its potential And I think that being responsible and effective in that means being a good conduit for the community And that's something I think that we're starting to see more of as this engagement with the city council through its commissions And also directly with citizens that we can continue to improve that. So I'd like to see our Community being more involved in these decisions as we go forward. So that's one reason I'm running is to try and be a voice and be a conduit for all those voices coming from our community I believe that I'm qualified because of my current work experience I work at running a five-state environmental monitoring cooperatives. So I've been overseeing partnership building across the five-state region here in the Northeast and That means working with a lot of partners. It means managing complex budgets small staff and working with federal and state bureaucracies to figure out What we can do how we can leverage each other's works and get the most done in terms of all these environmental monitoring projects So that's something that I think I can bring to the table Professionally and I've also worked in transparency and accountability for governments in international development before so that's also something that I can bring to the table In my volunteer work, I've worked on the South Burlington Natural Resources Committee I'm running the Winooski tree board currently trying to do tree plantings and tree Inventories around the city so trying to get that up to spec and finally I'm a parent I have a kid in the Winooski school district We own a home really invested in seeing this community succeed for all these good reasons And I want to I'm excited to have the opportunity to be on council and be have a hand in making that happen Thank you. Just nailed two minutes really good Amy Lafayette tell us why you're running and what qualifies you for the position of Winooski City Councilor Thank you so I'm running ultimately because I love Winooski and I really see this as a way to give back to the community more and community service capacity essentially You know, I think as Jim was saying we have a lot of projects on the table And I want to see them through to completion and make sure that all of the good work can continue for me affordability is something that I think a lot about and Accessibility and I really want to work to make sure that Winooski remains an affordable accessible place while pushing these projects forward In terms of my qualifications, I'm a board member of downtown Winooski, which is a nonprofit organization Dedicated to promoting the vibrancy of Winooski businesses I've done everything from event planning to strategic planning for that group and I've met a lot of great people along the way I've been able to build up a lot of relationships with business owners and with some of the city staff And I think both of those Sets of relationships would really lend themselves well to a transition on to city council In my professional career, I do marketing and communications work And I think that that could also come in handy with not only communicating with the city staff and my fellow counselors But also just being able to talk to the you know to a common Winooski citizen to hear what's on their mind and make sure that their Voices are being lifted up So both of you before we went on the earth Mentioned this question of affordability and so what does affordability mean to you? I'm gonna ask you both, but why don't we start with Amy? Yeah, so for me affordability means ensuring that we have a mix of affordable housing Essentially making sure that if we're thinking about a new development That we're not Inadvertently pricing out our own citizens, you know, we want to keep people here We want more people to be coming to our city and I think that Housing is one of those areas that we are at risk of gentrification. We could easily be pricing out our folks So for me affordability really is tied into housing. Thank you. What's your view of that question? I think that is definitely the biggest driver of affordability in the city is going to be the ability to rent and own Housing stock in the city. That's decent quality and livable quality I think there are two other kind of pillars of affordability in our community one is going to be property taxes and being able to Support the budget of the school the budget of the city and we do have some that's directly where we can make an impact But ultimately the differences that we see in property tax rates are going to pale in comparison to a hot housing market and a tight rental market So we need to figure out how to provide those units at affordable rates Both for sale and for rent and making sure that they're good enough to actually want to live And I think that's another challenge that the city can look at and then I think the third component is actually affordability of Services and making sure that we're continuing to provide affordable services Affordable rental space at the community center affordable access to the pool affordable access to classes that community services run so that we can Provide as many opportunities to residents once they're here and they don't have to pay Exorbitant fees or go outside our community to access those services So what are the top three issues that are important to you? You've mentioned some of them But we could just summarize for us and for our viewers I'll just remind people you could feel free to give us a call at 8 6 2 3 9 9 6 6 That's 8 6 2 3 9 6 6 if you have any questions For the candidates for winiski city council these two candidates are are Fying for two seats, so they're not opposed to each other Just FYI. All right, so tell us what your top three issues are Jim Well, so the first is affordability. We have a housing trust fund that's ready to be populated But we don't have money to put in it so figuring out how we're gonna put money into that Fund so that we can support lower-income folks in our community is gonna be a key issue Something we really got to get right so that we can balance development and the needs of people in the community I'm the second issue that I would like to focus on is Successfully closing out the downtown tiff on the tax increment financing district, so that's going to be coming up in Four years, I believe five years So we know that we need to do a couple more things to finish out that district to make sure that We're set to close it out successfully and then use funds that are going to be coming to us from those increased property taxes Appropriately and to benefit the city and balance the budget The third piece that I would like to focus on is Creating tangible connections in our community. So how do we? Think about our community from everything from the infrastructure to the services We're offering to the spaces that people have to connect and that we're making as many investments in those as well So looking at our streetscapes and making sure we have good landscaping public trees Multiple multimodal use is accessible to people of all abilities Making sure that we have Services that people need and want and can utilize so that they can connect around classes and then also providing venues that people can participate in from the senior center to the community center to the pool and Seeing those as places that we build social cohesion and have a community that's united. Thank you so much Amy Well, yeah, what would are your top three? So I would say my top three priorities would be affordability Communication and inclusivity, you know, I've already touched on the affordability piece, but I will just say I think the next city council and the city of Wynuski in general is gonna really have to take a hard look at all of the issues and policies coming forward through an affordability lens to make sure that our folks can still stay here and afford to live here And to Jim's point, you know affordability is something that affects all of us when a property tax bill goes up That has a trickle-down effect to renters as well, you know landlords are not just absorbing that cost out of the goodness of their heart So I think that affordability is something that affects all of us and is something that's really crucial for Wynuski to be thinking about My second priority in terms of communication, you know, I think Wynuski does a great job compared to a lot of other cities informing residents of What's going on through front porch forum through social media? You all record our city council meetings and they're available for public view But that being said, I don't think the average person has three hours to watch a council meeting or to read pages and pages of meeting minutes So I would really love to explore ways to pare down that pertinent information and get it to folks in a really tangible way So that they can be informed of what's going on in their community and create a two-way dialogue so that we can get their feedback To hear what their thoughts are And then the third piece for me inclusivity, you know, Wynuski is one of the most diverse is the most diverse communities in Vermont But I think there is still a there is a still a language barrier for non English speakers so when we're reaching folks on front porch forum or on YouTube and Non-English speakers are not communicating in that way. We need to think of more creative solutions to reach those communities and I would love to look into translation services to be able to Let those folks know what's going on and again create a two-way dialogue so that we can lift up their voices and and hear What's important to them? So given your concerns about affordability. Do you support the Wynuski budget as it's proposed? I do you know, I think that the budget is It it there's a level setting for some of the city services, which is great and then also included in the budget are Capital expenses that voters have already, you know voted in favor for so the capital improvements include the Myers pool and also Main Street revitalization and one thing that I really like about the budget is that it includes a local sales and Local sales tax and also rooms and meals So a lot of other surrounding communities Burlington, Williston, South Burlington They have these taxes and Wynuski doesn't so I think it's a really great idea to roll that into the budget to try to get some Of that earned revenue And take it off take the burden off from local taxpayers to have to foot the bill of some of these big projects That again voters have already voted in favor of Putting forward. Thank you. Jim. What's your view of the FY 20 budget for the city of Wynuski? I also fully support it. I think if you look at the total tax impact it is high I think around 8% but most of that is through bond votes that the city's already the voters have already approved And you look at the actual city budget is about a 2 percent 2.6 percent increase And that's barely above cost of living adjustments that we'll likely see across the board Here in businesses around the county So I think that we're looking at basically Maintaining these investments and making some strategic choices about how to close the gap There's been a series of budgets that probably have under invested in the city And we're seeing that impact now from the water main breaks up on Main Street to the school There's there's deferred maintenance that needs to happen And I like that this budget not only tries to tackle some of those key issues like on Hickok Street with the water main replacement there But also identifying strategic points which we really need to make investments in our fire trucks and other Components of our infrastructure so that we're not going to be facing these issues again in 10 years to 5 years down the road So I think it's a I think it's a pretty responsible budget I think they've managed to do a lot with quite a little so the swimming pool is something that's You know very emblematic of Winniski. I think it gets a lot of Attention because it's seen as a community resource, but it hasn't been entirely figured out how to pay for it So Jim had how important do you think that the pool is and? How do you think we should pay for it? Well as a parent of two young kids I think it's extremely awesome to have the idea of a pool being back in our community We made use of it when our oldest daughter was young and it's been kind of hard to not have it these past two summers But even more so I think that it's a huge asset to the community I look at all the people who show up at Maple Street pool on a hot summer day and Pay some substantial amount of money to go there and I think that Winniski's ready to take advantage of that too I think there's people in this area who will attend that pool become a regional resource not just for our community So it's something that I think that does need to be rebuilt And it doesn't quite matter what I think because the voters have approved it so at the job of the city council is to figure out how to make this work and I think that's Where we've seen some really great work by the pool committee to do Philanthropic fundraising we've seen a grant that's probably going to come in to help offset those costs So I think that the city is making reasonable efforts to try and lower the cost of the pool of the community And I think that's great and then down the road as we look at the pool being open and how to keep it going I think there's some potential room to adjust rates in the future if we see that utilization is high And we can support higher non-resident rates. I think that's something we could look at too How about you Amy? How do you think we should get that project off the ground? Yeah, so, you know very similar to Jim I do support the pool. I Voters supported the pool so I would definitely want to move move that project forward I think getting creative about looking for funding sources is something that we're gonna have to do So as you were saying the committee the independent committee to fundraise that's great I think they're responsible for something like three hundred thousand dollars of the budget And I learned this morning that we were just awarded a grant of a hundred and forty seven thousand dollars to go toward the pool Which is amazing, but you know again That's sort of a drop in the bucket if you look at the larger budget So I think we're gonna have to get creative to look for these outside sources that maybe we haven't explored yet And I also think we can learn from other communities. So to Jim's point that Essex has a thriving pool They've had one for decades and it is successful. So I think we should be having some conversations with them to understand What their structure is like and how they how they maintain a successful pool? So You've talked a little bit yours and already about the diversity of Winiski and how to include people from different backgrounds in The cultural life and the political life. Is there more that you want to add to how the city could practically make that happen? Sure. So, you know, I think with reaching non-English speakers Our first idea is to turn to technology and to think what's out there that could help us bridge this gap But I think what's gonna really make a difference is kind of going back to old communication models and just having face-to-face conversations. So looking into a Language liaison, I know that the school works at the school district has some folks In the ELL program maybe utilizing some of them to be kind of our on-the-ground folks To have these face-to-face Conversations and meeting non-English speakers where they are if they're not online But if they're at a community event making sure we have a presence at that event and making sure that we can create Pathways for them to give us their impact input. Thanks, Jim. What's your view on how to create a more inclusive city? Sure. Well, I think that Amy's idea of translation services being more widely utilized as a key one I'm I'm really glad to hear that one coming up. I think that Continued training for the staff is going to be important in the council. I think that they've done some work on Unconscious bias is a great way to look for your weak spots And I think that's probably one of the biggest challenges We have is that it's difficult to know what you don't know and it's difficult to know your blind spots And so I think that continuing as a council and as a staff to try and find those and be very aware of them as we Do the job of governing of building budgets of Legislating what we should do in our city that we need to be Thinking about those things on a regular basis and know how to incorporate it into our decision-making so that it's not Something we're trying to build in post-hoc I want to see it be something that we're thinking about all the time and that Once we know our weak spots then we can make sure we're ensuring alignment Between the services that we're offering in the communities that need them So we have some great programs and through community services and thrive and others that are providing ways for the community to Be engaged and involved both in taking advantage of the city and contributing to the city How do we make those better aligned with the wide range of cultures we have in the city? And I think continue to support those services like thrive that operate at the school that provide these venues for cross-cultural Communications and integration are really important So there's a kind of related question in terms of including and engaging young people and How do you think when is he is doing in this realm and what more could we do? To support the young people in the city. Mm-hmm. I think that This is a harder one for me to answer because I think there's also a context around substance abuse and kind of these issues with Youth and I think that it's not totally my area of expertise But what I have looked at might have been thinking about this question and trying to figure out what we're in the city That we're seeing good examples of this I think things like the what the Winnowski Police Department have done to do events within the community to Get officers in contact with youth in positive situations And in trying to do more community-based policing is really a great way to connect youth to a key Segment of our city that can help support them at times of need and then I mentioned thrive I think that we're I think it's a great program It just earned another star from the Vermont Department of Education So it's improving its quality as a child care program and I think that's a way that we are providing services for our youth I think the pool becomes a great resource for keeping kids Engaged in the summer when there's no school in session and providing safe opportunities for recreation And again thinking about that building our spaces for connections So having ways that we can have cities that are putting people in contact with each other on the street and through classes Making those social connections that provide greater cohesion. I think a ways that we can continue to support youth Amy, what's your view on that question? I know I think in terms of supporting youth and making sure that they are involved in our community I think it's great that one of the school board members is always a student I think that's one of the best ways to really make sure that we're hearing from From folks what's important to them when it comes to drug and alcohol and substance abuse, you know for me I'm very concerned by the levels of Middle schoolers and high schoolers vaping and trying that for the first time I think that the city definitely could be doing more you know to to educate and Let folks know about the dangers of vaping in particular It wasn't that long ago that you know smoking in restaurants and bars was commonplace and it took some Pretty forward-thinking cities to kind of stand up and say, you know We're not gonna stand for this anymore, and then it became kind of common across the country So I think that the city of Winooski could could potentially take a similar approach with something like vaping or you know even other substance-a-use disorders by educating and letting folks know about the dangers of these issues I also to agree with Jim about Utilizing police officers and their partnership with the Howard Center in particular To help folks when they are in crisis Let them know that there are resources available So I know that you're not running against each other, but I just wondered if you had questions for each other Because you seem to be pretty aligned. Yeah So I'm just wondering if you have if you're curious about what each other's thinking about a particular issue that you care about Well, I was actually struggling with this and that I think because there's a difficulty in knowing how much space there is between candidates in this election and think that I mean that's a sign that we're all kind of pushing in the same direction That's just great But one question I think that I would like to see kind of talked about is what you think are some of the key Qualities or values that you feel like you are gonna take on as a leader Like what is it that you are gonna do or things that you're gonna have in the back of your mind when you're Thinking considering a situation to think about how to solve a problem or make a decision. Mm-hmm. It's a good question I think first and foremost. I'm a critical thinker. I don't do anything, you know, just off the top of my head I really research every decision Whether that's you know buying a car or something like running for counsel I would want to consider all sides to an issue and really make sure that I've put the work in I also think I'm a good communicator and I can easily talk with lots of different types of people. So For me, I think it's gonna be really important to make sure that we're lifting up the community's voice and I want to you know, I wouldn't want to put forward any policies without getting their input So in the back of my mind, I'm gonna be thinking what would voters say about this? How can we get their input? how can we have them turn out turn out to these meetings and You know, just make sure that we really are serving the people Have a question for Jim My question for you is what do you think is when you ski's greatest asset? I honestly this is probably gonna sound tripe at the people I think that what has shocked me over and over about when you ski so I grew up in Essex So I drove through a new ski. I came to the Champlain Mill when I was growing up I loved coming here, but it was a very different place and coming here to live and try and settle a family here I was amazed at how Involved people are in very different ways and how aware people are of what each other are going through and what their neighbors go through I feel like we're a small community. So we are tight quarters We're close to each other and I see a lot more neighborhood cohesion and Community cohesion here than I've seen in other communities even in South Brilinton where I live for a little while in Essex I think it's just the nature of being a small one square mile city but we have people living close together who really actually seem to care about each other and That we are also this diverse and really interesting group of people and I think that that's kind of a fun place to live But it also makes us I think a pretty vibrant and energetic group and I think you got to look at the Distribution of people trying to serve on City Council is pretty uncharacteristic of Vermont So I think that says something to the quality of our community and what we're trying to do Thank you so much. So Jim Duncan. Do you have any closing comments? Well, I wanted to start by thanking you Lauren Glenn and CCTV for having this and Amy for your interest in expertise I'm really excited to see you running. I Would like to say basically that I think that we're really are on the cusp of doing some great things here in the city I'm interested in being a part of that and I'm excited to be invested in the outcomes of what happens whether or not I'm on City Council so as our community continues to Consider who to vote for and as we knock on doors over the coming weeks. I really look forward to meeting Some of our community members and really look forward to the opportunity to serve on City Council and and help Continue to do this process of making great change in the city. Thank you Jim Duncan. Amy Luff yet So I just want to also say thank you for having me and for this opportunity You know again, I'll just say I I love when you ski. I think we're a really special town city very special community and I just really I just want to serve to be able to advance those plans That we've talked about earlier and make this an affordable place for years to come. So That's you know, that's essentially why I'm running and I hope that both Jim and I will have everyone's vote on March 5th Well, thank you so much. Thank you both Jim Duncan and Amy Luff yet are running for City Council in the city of Winniski And they are running for the two-year seat the two-year seat has two two openings so two positions two years and They will join other city counselors. We're going to be coming up with the unfinished one-year term Candidates are coming up next so stay tuned and stay tuned here to channel 17 for all your town meeting 2019 Questions and answers. Thanks for watching