 We can't have a discussion about affordable housing without a real conversation about economic well-being and livable wages, right? So, the cost of housing is rising much faster than wages are rising. And so if folks are not making a livable wage, then affordable housing is that much less accessible. And this city actually has exempted some entities from the livable wage ordinance, which I think is a problem. I also think workforce housing, which was talked about during the mall development, but never came through and never materialized, is also an approach to keeping housing of people who live in the city. And finally, I know, well, I heard that in the 80s, rent control went down really hard because the real estate industry organized themselves and made sure that the state of Vermont, the legislator didn't let that happen. But we're now in a different time and we're increasing the density of the city. And so I think it may be time to start revisiting a conversation about rent control in the city. The simple answer to how we address our affordable housing crisis is that we need much more housing for people of all backgrounds and incomes and ages. And that is the belief that I brought into office after having served as an affordable housing developer in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York for 15 years. And it's what we have done as an administration for the last six years. We've created more than three, we've done it a couple of ways. First of all, created more than 300 permanently affordable homes or preserved more than 300 permanently affordable homes. And we've done that in part because we have outstanding housing nonprofits. We have also done it by being a very active and engaged administration. My budgets have all included doubling the housing trust fund, this local tool that allows us to be flexible and respond quickly when emerging needs like the need to address the Farrington's mobile home park being sold and turning into a North Avenue North Avenue co-op. We have done it by actively lobbying in Montpelier on issues like the housing bond that passed last year with the support of the mayors who I helped organize and the League of Cities and Towns. And that's what we're gonna keep doing going forward. However, what we also said is we did a study when I first came in office that found that the average Burlingtonian was spending 44% of their income on rent. And we realized that we weren't gonna address that, that was one of the worst ratios in the country of its type. We weren't gonna address that if all we did is focus on permanently affordable housing because there will never be enough for more housing for people of all backgrounds and income levels. And we are seeing that start to work. For example, when the downtown mall has turned into a mixed use, mixed income neighborhood there will be 55 permanently affordable homes there, which is one of the largest, if not the largest inclusionary zoning project in the city's history. We need to keep pushing on both these fronts. We're just starting to see it succeed. If given the chance this will make Burlington more affordable in the years ahead. Already mentioned in her opening remarks, Memorial Auditorium has been shuttered because of structural issues forward for Memorial Auditorium. Well, I see Memorial Auditorium actually as a perfect opportunity to engage Burlington residents on an all year round basis and trying to figure out and decide what to do with that space so that our mayor and city council aren't the ones who are deciding what to do with that space, right? That's also, we can use bonding, we can bond to raise money. I know it's gonna be a very expensive project, but for me the money actually comes second. It's the process and how we decide as a community what to do with Memorial Auditorium. All right. Thank you. This administration has been very active on Memorial Auditorium going back more than three years now. In the fall of 2015, after quite a bit of work, we went to the city council and we said, Memorial Auditorium is in trouble. Years of neglect have put it in a situation where it is no longer a safe building where we need to do more than a quarter million dollars of emergency repairs, which we then went out and did, and we need to find the right long-term use for this building. We did those repairs, we retreated from the building as a city engineer said we needed to and we began working on the right long-term plan. We looked at a possibility of a joint venture with UVM, which would have continued to be a city-owned public assembly space. That didn't work out and what we have, so our position that we announced last fall is that the way forward with Memorial Auditorium is that we are missing having a publicly-owned publicly-assembly space in the downtown. When we had a Democratic caucus a few weeks ago, we had to have it out at the high school because there's no place to get a big group of people in the downtown anymore and that's a problem. I've committed to, after a robust public engagement process, like we have done on all major projects in the past, we will put in front of the city council and then if they approve the voters, a plan to modernize Memorial Auditorium, turn it into an outstanding 21st century public assembly space and put that before the voters to see if the voters are willing to make the investments that it's going to take to put in air conditioning, to put in modern acoustics, to put in other modern amenities and whether they support a modern programming plan that can actually cause the billing to be used actively instead of the long years of decline that we had leading up to 2015. Thanks. Thanks, so Memorial is an example of an ethic for how the leadership we're seeing come out of City Hall. As recently as September, when we were looking at what to do with Memorial, City Hall had put out a request for proposals, basically a request for who would like to come along and solve our city's problems, who would like to do something with our assets and essentially when you put out an RFP, you're putting out a highest bidder request, who can come forth with the best answer for our community asset. I feel strongly that this building, Memorial Auditorium, has served our community for 90 years to, as I said before, to foster a music and art scene and to be a civic engagement space as well as to be a market space and we need to continue our investment in that building. Without answers, the city has shuttered the building and turned off the heat and I am concerned as are many people throughout the city that this is resulting in a more rapid deterioration of the building and I think that comes from being in a space of not having an answer. I think we can solve our own challenges in our city, we can be creative and we can find a way to move forward with this asset as well as the other assets that we have in our community but first we have to bring people together, invite them to the table and that includes inviting our private businesses and our private investment, our local investment, with people who are creative in our city and who have lots of ideas and energy, they need to be invited to the table again as well as nonprofits and organizations. It used to be that City Hall would invite the nonprofit partners in to solve our city's problems and now it seems that our nonprofit partners have to show up at this bidding process and compete and there are numerous examples of that happening in the city and what it's doing is it's stalling some of these projects and it's disempowering our citizenry and it's disengaging us from determining how we can provide creative solutions to our city's problems, thank you. Thank you, we'll offer Mero Weinberg a minute to rebut. Great, thank you, I do appreciate the opportunity to speak again because there's a couple points there, facts are really important and there are a couple facts that just aren't the case. We never put out an RFP for Memorial Auditorium, we did consider it and we also continued to engage the community and got the strong sense that there really was strong support for something that has never been put before the people before which was a plan to keep Memorial Auditorium a publicly owned public assembly space so we've committed to doing that and again that's what we'll have before the council and the voters by the fall. It's also not true to say we've turned off the heat, that would very quickly lead to the erosion of the building. I don't wanna see the building erode, I think it's a great building, I think it's an important historic building, I have spent a good chunk of my career doing historic preservation projects, I would like to save it, we're gonna put a plan in front of the voters to do just that. Thank you, I'm gonna ask Infinite, is there anything else you'd wanna say on this? Well, only that the Memorial Auditorium came to my attention as a really big issue after Jim Hallway and folks from the NPAs got together and stood up and decided to make it an important issue. Before that I hadn't heard anything about this administration doing anything towards keeping that building and opening it back up. And we'll give Karina one minute to rebut as well and then we'll move along. Yeah, just really briefly, I think there were several times that the message was coming from City Hall that an RFP was coming for Memorial Auditorium and other partnerships were explored. But the RFP did not come and I do appreciate the fact that this September, this fall, after pressure from the NPA and after our campaign made it an issue that the decision was made to keep Memorial Auditorium for the people and to make that commitment. So I think we actually are all on the same page now. Thank you, great. This question will go to Moreau first. Come July one, small scale cultivation and recreational use of marijuana will be legal in Vermont. Do you support any additional city regulation of marijuana growing or use? Thank you, Sasha. After a lot of thought and work with the Mayor's Coalition and the League of Cities and Counts, which is the main way in which I engaged statewide legislation, I did support the legislation just passed this year. I believe that before taking the next step and having broader legalization, commercialization of marijuana, there are questions that still need to be answered about how do we ensure public safety? How do we ensure that other municipal impacts are addressed? I think we can learn, I think we can do those things and we will do those things and we should move towards legalization, but I think we have an opportunity to learn from states that are farther ahead of us and where you have seen very rapid rollouts following referendums where there have been some issues, I think Vermont's approach of being a little bit more incremental and deliberate has served us well and I support what's happening and I will continue to be engaged in it going forward. Sorry, Murrell, I just specifically, are there any additional city regulations you would put in place? Yeah, I appreciate the ability to be more specific. The city needs to get money out of any legalization. There needs to be local taxation like we have with alcohol and sales tax and gross receipts. There will be some increased pressure on the planning and zoning department, on the Burlington police as a result of the addition of these establishments to the downtown and there need to be revenues so that the city can properly address them. There needs to be authorization giving to the municipalities to have zoning authority to decide where and how many of these types of establishments can be created. Those are the main things I'll be looking for is taxing authority for revenues and the ability to control the locations and the number with strong zoning policies. Thank you. Karina. Thank you. As it stands right now with the legislation, no. I don't think we need any additional laws or zoning regulations as it stands right now. I think it was the right move. What I would say as a parent is that we need to be thoughtful on how we move forward and the message we're giving our kids and we need to be take the time to consider the impact and the message and make sure we're sending the right message. That's what I would add. So I would also consider attacks and it would not just be for services. It would be actually for education. I think the education around this issue for our young people is a must. I feel like there may be some people, some winners and some losers and some folks who will be benefiting from the legalization of marijuana and then some of our most vulnerable population who may not be informed about what they're doing and what they're putting into their body. And so as far as city regulation is concerned, I would actually require all marijuana dealers to pay into a fund to educate young people. Thank you. This question goes first to Karina. Do you support safe injection sites in Burlington and why or why not? It's hard to believe that we're living in an age where safe injection sites make sense, but they do. And I do support them and I do think that Sarah George was bold in her move to put that forward publicly and I do understand that there are people who have concerns about them. But essentially, when I think about what is happening at a safe injection site, we are not providing any drugs and we are not normalizing any use of drugs. What we were doing is we were compassionately welcoming people inside and we were saying, you come out of the shadows and we will make sure that you do not die today. And from there, we will connect you with rehabilitation services and case management. We have seen that this can work. This is a perfect example about how Burlington can be bold and we can lead the way. This is not something to shy away from. As I said, I understand this is something that our chief of police has concerns about and I do look forward to having the conversation with him to find out exactly what those concerns are. But by and large, when talking about people in our community who are struggling with addiction or struggling with homelessness or struggling in some way, we need to be approaching that with compassion, not fear. And I think this is a perfect example of where we can welcome people in and show that compassion and help people get to a place where they would probably much rather be. So that's my position, yes. Thank you. Infinite. Safe Injection Sites is something that I would wholeheartedly need to hear from the voters about. That is something that I think, you know, very difficult for a public official to say yes to because whose neighborhood is it gonna be in? It's gonna be in World Five? I think it probably will wind up in my neighborhood in the Old North end. And I think that the voters should decide whether they want a safe, you know, they should be able to weigh in on that. We're out. I do support the legislation in Montpelier around Safe Injection Sites. I think we, America has not figured out yet how to turn around this opioid crisis until we do. We have to be open to all solutions, including this one. And that's why I support the legislation. At best, Safe Injection Sites will be something that addresses a small part of the addicted population. And that's why we need to be doing a whole lot more than just debating Safe Injection Sites. And we are doing a whole lot more. In this room, once a month, we have about 70 people that sit around this U-shaped table. We make it a little bit bigger. And it has housing providers and it has social service agencies and it has prosecutors and it has the corrections officers and it has the hospital well-represented there and the Howard Center and its treatment folks are there. And for more than almost a year and a half now, we've been sitting at that table and we are making real innovations here in Burlington. That I think gives us a chance to finally turn around this terrible epidemic. The keys to the solution will be stopping over prescribing and it will be getting as many people as possible into treatment. We have failed thousands and thousands of Vermonters and they became addicted in many cases just by following their doctor's orders. We can't fail them again now by not giving them opportunity, doing everything we can to get them into treatment. And that's what we do at Community Stat. We figure out new ways to get people into treatment. That's where we just launched this new program last week where after we used to be in a city just a year ago, if someone overdosed, they went to the hospital, they would go home. Make sure that within 60 hours, our fire chief, our deputy chief from the police and this position, our opioid policy coordinator, one of the few cities in the country that has such a position, show up at the person who has overdosed door and help urge them, push them into treatment. And we need to keep coming up with new creative solutions like this going forward. Inferno, is there something you wanna add? To add that, when we talk about the opioid crisis and we talk about how we're treating people addicted, I think it's a really incomplete conversation because I think the other side to that are the folks who happen to be drug sellers who are really thrown in a fire. And so when we can afford to extend some compassion to people who are addicted, I wonder what our community might look like if we extended the same kind of compassion to people who may be drug selling for economic, well, economic and security reasons. Thank you. This one goes first to you, Infinite. And Moreau said in his opening statement, I would have supported keep Burlington Telecom local. It was really difficult to see Burlington Telecom as a Burlington Telecom user myself. It was really difficult to see Burlington Telecom in that situation to begin with. And we have a long history of, Burlington has a long history of cooperatives and being a way to stabilize and have a durable local economy. Seven generation, gardener supply, ace. So I'm actually really disappointed that as a city, we couldn't figure out how to support, keep Burlington local and give it another chance. Thank you. Moreau on to you. Moreau, yeah. And you, like me, answered the same question, what would we have done differently? So, if anything. You know, certainly I think anyone watching and I think everyone was watching last fall, there were some very difficult challenges in the final months and it took a long time and it was in some ways painful. Others will have to judge if there are specific things that could have been done differently in that process. I think if you take a step back though and look at the last six years, I think the city has a lot to be proud of about how we addressed and dealt with what was truly one of our most challenging crises the city has ever faced. You know, six years ago, we were in a lawsuit with one of the biggest banks in the world and again, they were threatening, they were attempting to hold taxpayers responsible for tens of millions of dollars of lease payments that had not been paid, not any payments had not been made on those lease payments. And they're also threatening to rip the fiber out of the ground or at least asking a judge to put it into receivership, at which point the city would have had no control over its future. We negotiated tough, we negotiated hard, we had two different sessions, a mediation, ultimately we got a resolution that protected the taxpayers, kept the fiber in the ground and it gave the city this ability to direct who would get to be the right long-term partner and we went out to the public, listened carefully to what people wanted to see in that final agreement and we are in the end took to the council an agreement that was approved 10 to two, again, with a broad coalition supporting it that first of all, ensure the fiber stays in the ground. It has price protections and it has anti-monopoly provisions that I personally fought for. Our lawyers said we might not get that insurers will never go back to the monopoly situation that marked the Adelphia Comcast Years before BT and it ensures that the company going forward will honor Burlington values. It will honor the privacy policies that are currently in place. It will honor the net neutrality policies currently in place. It will honor our digital divide efforts. It is a very good outcome that was not at all clear we would get six years ago. Thank you. It is possible that I am sitting here today because of the BT process. I would say that in my experience in government, when things get hard and decisions get hard, you know when you had a good or a bad process because of this. When you reach the end of a very challenging process but it was a good one, you have a lot of people who maybe are, you know, wiping the spot off their brow, shaking hands and saying boy, I didn't get what I wanted and you didn't get what you wanted, but you know what? In the end we got what was right for Burlington and that is not what we got at the end of the BT process. What we got was a decision made at 2 a.m. after an effort to push things through in a partisan manner that was based on a decision that a small group of people thought was right for Burlington. And you know, I think we had all of the elements for an entirely different outcome, but it would have involved not employing a highest bidder process to arrive at our conclusion. We had a performing asset, which was Burlington Telecom. It was performing very well. We had, and the BTab, the Burlington Telecom Advisory Board, it said very early on there was a strong commitment and a strong desire for local investment and local control. That was admitted and spoken to very early in the process. In the end we had bidders and we had threats of lawsuit and we didn't have collaboration. I believe that if we had brought people together to the table, including that private money that was already engaged and said, hey, can you hang in there a little while longer with this and brought that to the table with the people running this performing asset along with that small group of committed citizens who really wanted to see things done differently. We could have come up with a compromise that put Co-op in second position for a while with the possibility of local ownership in the long run where that private investment stayed at the table and continued to guide that telecom infrastructure business successfully until Co-op was ready to take over. That's an example of how we can do things with collaborative leadership in this city and I think we could have ended up maintaining our local control and local ownership of this Burlington Telecom asset that without, you know, we are where we are today. Thank you. I'll let Maro have another minute there. Great, thanks Sasha. You know, again, when we're talking about these complex issues, facts really matter and what was clear here is that the kind of process that Karina just described was not possible. It's actually what a bit violated the agreement that the city council had unanimously approved and that we had agreed to where we agreed to having arms length transaction to find the right long-term partner. And that was an absolutely essential part of the settlement agreement that kept Burlington Telecom fiber in the ground and kept us in control for three years and kept the taxpayers protected and it just couldn't be ignored. You know, when I hear these positions that suggested that that condition and other constraints the city faced weren't real, I hear just candidates who are not recognizing the mistakes of the past and are all too willing and eager even to repeat them. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. This question goes first to Maro. Where do you stand on the F-35s being based at Burlington International Airport? Ian, did you sign the petition to get an item related to them on the ballot? I did not sign that petition. I was offered it several times by the people working very hard and I respect how hard people worked and how passionately many people in this community care about the F-35. I didn't feel appropriate to sign that petition because my position is where it's been for the better part of four or five years now which is that I, like all three members of the federal delegation, like the past governor and the current governor, support the basing of the F-35s in Burlington. I do that because I believe and I think my colleagues believe that the Air National Guard has been an important part of the landscape here in Vermont for decades and if they did not secure the F-35 basing, the future of the Air National Guard and its mission was very much in-depth. We had a great deal of public process back from starting in 2010 going through a decision made in this room by the city council, by an 11-3 vote to support the basing and to go forward and we have taken many actions since that decision was made and since the Air Force awarded the F-35s to Burlington that are very difficult to undo now at this late date. So while I respect the hard work and the passion behind the petition, I will be voting against it and I encourage others to do so as well both because I think the Chittenden County needs the Air National Guard here and strong. The Air National Guard members are important parts of our community, important part of the public safety and because we made this decision and we can't reopen it at this point without very significant consequences. Thank you. Thank you. Karina. Thank you. So as far as getting the F-35 valid item on the agenda, I think the citizen referendum is something that we need to respect and I was glad to see that the city council did not change the language after much debate and that it will be on as put forth by the people who that small thoughtful group of citizens that is out there working on this issue. So I did sign the petition because if someone asked me to get something on the ballot, I will sign the petition as a matter of course. I do feel as though it's a fact that our entire federal delegation did support the basing of the F-35 at the Burlington International Airport. However, we have a citizen referendum on the ballot and if Burlington overwhelmingly supports not having the F-35 per our election on Tuesday, March 6th, then as mayor, I would take it as my responsibility to figure out how to move that forward. In addition, I don't think you can speak about the F-35 coming to Burlington without talking about the demolition of housing that's happening in South Burlington and Manuski. You know, we are struggling to make sure we have enough affordable units and we are demolishing affordable units every day in South Burlington and Manuski. Well, I don't know if it's every day. In fact, it's do matter, Mr. Mayor. But what I will say is that we are demolishing these houses and we do not have a plan to replace them and we need to be doing it in cooperation with South Burlington and Manuski if that is something we are doing. So I'm greatly concerned about that impact and it's something we need an answer to and it actually needs to be our priority rather than talking about putting up a hotel. We need to be a hotel at the airport. We need to be working on replacing that affordable housing, thank you. I did sign a petition as well and I am opposed to war machines in our community. I don't really understand why it matters that our delegation is supporting the F-35s when the people are deciding that they don't want the F-35s. I don't understand why that matters. And this whole too big to fail mentality of well, we're already too far into this process and we have already spent all this money. What I do hope is that our air guard, which I do believe is really important to Vermont and our governor perhaps can come up with a different mission for the air guard and one that is responding possibly to natural disasters and local situations, especially since we are having this whole global warming thing going on, we'll have a lot more natural disasters going on so maybe it's a stretch but maybe if we can figure out a different mission for our air national guard, then everybody wins. Yes. Thank you, Sush. I'm at infinite and I don't agree about this but I appreciate you taking such a strong and clear position tonight and you did that at the city council meeting last week as well. I have not heard a clear position from Karina yet in this race. Though this is a topic we have been discussing for the better part of eight years, even though the Burlington city council explicitly took a position on this even though 11,158 different comments were submitted during the EIS process and I don't quite understand that. I think either Karina isn't being straight with us or she's trying to have it both ways and I think Burlingtonians expect more, I think Burlingtonians expect more out of their mayors. They expect mayors to lead, they expect mayors to take a stand, they expect mayors to be clear with the people they represent, what their positions are and I've always tried to do that. We'll offer Karina in infinite a minute. Do you think I have an opportunity to rebut that? Yes, you do. Okay, thank you. It's true, people do expect more from their mayors and they do expect their mayors to lead and what I will say is that as for the position on this, it's very similar to my position on a lot of things that are already in progress. There are some things that are happening in Burlington whether they are the mall transformation project which I voted to support because you don't turn around 200 plus, turn away 200 plus million investment in your community but you accept that into your community and you make sure that it works for the people who live here. I voted for that as did many Burlingtonians with a lot of reservations but that project is moving forward. When it comes to the F-35, I have a lot of reservations but that is already moving forward but if the people of Burlington speak up and ask for us to do something differently then I'm gonna listen and so I think what I'm hearing from you is that you have made up your mind despite how the ballot turns out on election day. So what I will say is my position is that I support with Burlingtonian support on this ballot item and I am of the position right now that this is moving forward but if we are proven wrong that the people of Burlington really wanna reconsider this then as mayor it's my obligation to listen to you. Thank you. Just a quick announcement here. There are two League of Women Voters volunteers ready to pick up audience questions if you hold them up. So anybody? Moving on. This question is for you first, Karina. Do you support improved bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure at the cost of on-street parking? At the cost of on-street parking? Yes. Okay, I see what you're saying. I absolutely support bike and pedestrian enhancements in this city. I think right now I've been spending a lot of time during this campaign speaking to bikers and asking them what is more important right now? Protected bike lanes or roads that are managed well. And what I would say is that we have been diverting a lot of our public resources first to accommodating the developments that are accommodating private interests and the developments downtown but we're also diverting a lot of our energy and our focus on public works on public bike lanes. And right now it's been 10 years since we've paved Pine Street and no one is in greater jeopardy from a pothole than a person on a bike. So I would absolutely support adding bike enhancements at the expense of parking. But as your mayor, I would prioritize our basic public infrastructure first because I think that serves everyone. People in cars, people on foot and people on bikes. Thank you. Infinite. Yes, I would support bike friendly, pedestrian friendly at the cost of parking. I think right now if you either driving up Pine Street, whatever time of day it is, as a biker is very dangerous. Also, I have to say, things have changed a little bit in the New North Inn neighborhood with the bike lanes. I have talked to people who have said that they are actually rotting their bikes more now because of those bike lanes, which is something that I, quite frankly, did not think was a good idea. Yet it turned out to be that some folks are finding it useful. So we'll see what happens with the development of the Burlington College land and what kind of impact that might have for bikers and walkers and drivers in the city. Thank you. Murrell? Thanks. Let me start by saying that although we're having a difficult winter and it's creating some very unusual road conditions, the current quality of Pine Street and parts of North Avenue is not acceptable. And that's why I've been out there inspecting it, talking to Chip and Spencer, our director basically every day, trying new ways of addressing the situation temporarily until the asphalt plants open in the spring and we can do a proper fix. I think the condition of those roads does point out the need for sustained major new investment in our core infrastructure. This administration has been very committed to that. That's why we took this five-year, $50 million sustainable infrastructure plan to the council and the voters last fall and I was very excited that the 76% of the public supported that and we have just finished our first year of implementing that plan in which we have paved twice as many roads as we have done historically. We have replaced three times as many sidewalks as we have done historically. This is an area where I would love the opportunity to finish the job for the people of Burlington over the next four years, continuing to implement the sustainable infrastructure plan. One of many areas where a change in leadership would really be a setback to our improving of the infrastructure. Let me say specifically about bike lanes. I think I've been pretty clear on this. I think protected bike lanes are a key part of our future. I think successful 21st century cities need protected bike lanes. We will have to be very careful about the trade-offs that we impose when we move in that direction and we should never take lightly, we sweat out every single parking space that we lose. If we are unwilling to lose any spaces, we will never get to the kind of system that Montreal has, that Pittsburgh has, and New York City increasingly has, these Northeastern cities that have outstanding bike infrastructure and a new transportation network that makes a big difference on the quality of life that people living there. Thank you. I just have to say, when you talk about 70% of the public past a ballot item, I'm having a hard time with that number. I will say that one thing you really have been good at is manufacturing consent for the ballot items that you want to see passed. And just to say that you've been, because you've been pumping thousands of dollars into a pack, does it mean that we've been having extensive public engagement on these ballot items? So I just think it's necessary to make that point. Thank you. I just wanted to add in a follow-up. Everyone mentioned the potholes, specifically on Pine Street. I think it's sort of unavoidable at this point. So my question to starting with Infinite would be what would you do to improve roadway conditions when you have a winter such as this, when there are these massive potholes, impeding travel, whether you're riding a bike or riding in a car or riding on the bus, anything. Yeah, that's public works, right? And I have to say, not being a public works expert, that I would have to weigh in with that department and figure out what their long-term plan is, what we've been doing for the past decade, and sort of just take a very long-term look at that. So yeah, I trust that the folks in the public works department have the tools to do what they need to do. And so I would defer to that department. Murrell. Thanks, Sasha. Do we have two minutes for this, or just one for this follow-up? Two minutes. Well, I actually think what's going on on Pine Street is a really interesting example of the approach that this administration has tried to take to core infrastructure efforts. We are, it has been a long time. It's really, for decades, an issue the city has faced is that we have under-invested in Pine Street because of the approaching, what used to be known as the Southern Connector and now the Champlain Parkway, when the federal government will make, and the state government will help us make massive investments in that corridor that will dramatically improve that corridor. And we are, I'm happy to say, closer to actually building that project than we have ever been before. We have an Act 250 permit. We have cleared many of the right-of-way issues and we're about a year away from constructing it. And when we do, we have also changed the plan. It is not the plan that our administration inherited six years ago is actually a plan that has outstanding 21st century features. It has, it will improve bike and pedestrian infrastructure and make that safer all along the corridor. Since that is coming in a year, what we are gonna be doing in the 2018 construction season is we'll actually be replacing the water lines which are very much in need of repair, have never been proactive, we replaced, and we really have not had a policy of doing that anywhere in the city. And as a result of that former policy, we would see our water lines, we would wait to replace them until they broke and when would they break? In the middle of a winter like this, in the middle of the night, often, too often, where there are dozens of streets where the lines broke the year after we had done a repaving effort. We don't wanna keep making that mistake, that's why we'll be using the new voter-approved bond. We will be replacing the water lines on Pine Street over the course of this summer so they won't have to dig into it and rebuild Pine Street once we finally build the Champlain Parkway about a year from now. Thank you. Karina. So I have spoken to this a little bit before, but I would say that as a person, the mayor being responsible for the management and the direction of the city, I have found in running my own business that you can find your best way forward often by asking the people who work for the city, ask the people who work for the city why it's working and why it's not working. And as mayor, I will take their lead. I also just wanna address that the mayor has implied that I'm going to bring the city backwards. And as far as management of the city, what I will say is this. I know, well, I have served this city, both as a counselor but also on the budget transition team for Mayor Weinberger and I know he respects what I bring to the table. And it has been four and a half years since I left the mayor's administration and I would appreciate it if the mayor didn't disparage what it is that I bring to the table. I do have the skills to manage the city as a business owner and I do know what I'm getting into and I don't plan to take us backwards. I plan to take us forwards. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This question goes first to Murrow. Do you know anyone who's on food stamps has trouble paying medical bills or makes less than $15 an hour? And how does that or how will that inform your marriage? Yeah, Matt, thank you for this question. I know many people that fit that description. Many of the parents in the school where Lee Lynn went to school in the old North End for the last five years meet that description. I spent 15 years as an affordable housing developer building permanently affordable low income homes for people in New York. New Hampshire and Vermont and basically the population that we were serving fit that description. And as mayor, one of the times that I'm proudest of and one of the accomplishments I'm proudest of is that when the Farrington's mobile home park was at risk of being sold and when that vulnerable population that was living there faced a very uncertain future, the city got involved and I personally got involved and I sat with the head of the residents association Teresa LeFave out behind station four and we worked out the details about how the city could use the housing trust fund and make some zoning changes to help add a few new energy efficient mobile homes to the park that would make a difference with the refinancing of that. And after that work because of the leadership of the residents and because the city was able to play an important role the residents were able to take control of their future and ensure that the Farrington's mobile home park became the North Avenue co-op and where it is successfully improving today. That's how I've tried to use that, that's how I've tried to work with some of the most vulnerable people in our community when I've had an opportunity to as mayor. Thank you, Karina. Thank you for the question. One thing I think people don't know about me and I will share is that, you know my mother was a single mother until I was 14. And as a child, we grew up with food stamps and we grew up with red tickets which we were trading in for our lunch trays which some kids had red tickets and other kids did not and that was challenging. The library was my childcare after school and I had a working mother who worked incredibly hard to figure out how to accommodate the needs to be able to move ahead in this world and in this life and she was very challenged to do it. And because of that, she founded the mayor's youth office here in the city and out of that gave rise to the Burlington after school program which was called City Kids. We didn't have one before that. And also the 242 main teen center. I am so proud of the things that my mother did to accommodate her family but also families all throughout this community. You know, we also saw the development of the Burlington children's space in Burlington and it was the city's first sliding scale childcare program because no family should be able to be in a position where they couldn't afford childcare. Our commitment to these programs is waning. We currently have an after school program in the city where workers are paid between 11 and 14 50 an hour for the elementary school after school program and the most hours they can get working all week is 17. So the problem is nobody wants the job and it's understaffed and it's a struggle for our families who say my only choice is $14 a day after school and it's understaffed and chaotic and it's not good enough. We have to re-up our commitment to Burlington's working families and we need to commit to make sure that there are no childcare waiting lists and we can do that in this community. And you know, I would just add if I don't know if I have time but I think that the mayor's quote when Farrington Trailer Park was going to come on the market was basically to the effect that the city did not yet have a position. And it is the affordable housing community and the co-op community that rose up and said, we need to stand by the people of Farrington Trailer Park and make sure they keep their homes. So when I moved to Burlington in 1991 alone with 20 bucks in my pocket, I didn't, frankly, I didn't want to be on food stamps. And so I compromised my integrity and did the stupidest thing and dealt with drugs and learned from that. Today, now I live in the Old North Inn at the center of the gentrification, the affordable housing crisis, the opioid crisis, and I think they're all connected. You know, in order to receive services in the city, you have to really have next to nothing in order to get any help. You have to hit rock bottom. And so it's really difficult, you know, for people to come up. And as a community organizer in the Burlington School District, you know, working with folks who, you know, have gone through some of these experiences, I've learned that there's actually a lot of power there because we have come together to collectively identify issues and partner with administrators, public officials, classroom teachers to identify solutions and find ways to implement them. And so we don't need to feel sorry for, you know, low-income communities. I think we need to go into low-income communities and work with low-income communities and follow their lead, actually. Murrow, do you want a minute there? I appreciate it, Sasha. Just in that I do think it's important to state that the city's commitment to our youth and to working with the communities as infinite described has, we've not taken any step back from that. In fact, in many ways we have doubled down on those important progressive policies that have defined us as a city for so long. Again, we doubled the Housing Trust Fund in the budgets that I've been responsible for. We have, in the budget this year, for the first time a half a million dollars to start a early learning initiative because we don't invest enough in Burlington children, low-income children in their first thousand days of life. And as a result, there are all sorts of downstream negative impacts that our low-income kids too often suffer from. We have joined President Obama and launched through the CETO office a My Brother's Keeper Initiative to ensure that all of our youth, particularly our young men of color, have the opportunities that they need to succeed. So we launched the Old North End Community Center, which is an important addition to the Old North End. This is an important part of what this administration has been about. Thank you, Murrow. And Karina, would you like an opportunity? Thank you. I would just say that as a member of the Champlain Housing Trust Board for six years, two things. One is that as I go around the community and meet with people in our community who do not meet the qualifications to afford Champlain Housing Trust housing, I am very aware of the acute need to get out into our affordable housing communities and work on that issue. I would also say that there was a time that our nonprofit partners worked in partnership with our Community and Economic Development Office and very much it seems as though our nonprofits are working on their own. And when we talk about the St. Joe's Community Center, I'm not sure what credit, you know, the city is allowed to take for the decision to make a public investment into St. Joe's and make sure that those tenants, AALV, Robin's Nest and the family room all have the opportunity and others to continue to be in that space. I think that we have to give credit where credit is due and that is to the leaders in our nonprofit community who made that happen. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I just wanna briefly say that, you know, while I do appreciate that the mayor has looked at my brother's keeper as a means for addressing what's happening with our youth of color, we cannot cut and paste programs from the Obama administration or anywhere else and expect them to work in this community. I think we really need to roll our sleeves up and figure out what's happening here in order to figure out, you know, how to move forward and actually make a real difference. Thank you. We want to thank the audience both here and online for submitting so many good questions tonight. Molly Walsh from Seven Days and Megan O'Rourke with Channel 17 are working over here off to the side. If you have a question, bring it to them. And they are kind of consolidating these questions for us and bringing them to us. We're hoping to get to as many as possible. So with that in mind. Sure, I'll start here. And this goes to Karina first. Do you think the everyone loves a parade mural downtown is problematic? And why or why not? Thank you. You know, I have been speaking up on this since members of our community brought up, you know, the experience of walking by that mural as a person of color and seeing such a parade of white individuals that a small group of people in our community have decided are important to put on the wall. You know, I feel very strongly that we cannot kick the can down the road until after election day to decide what to do with that mural because that is communicating disrespect to people in our community who are hurt by that mural. I would say that we got ourselves into trouble. The moment we did two things as a community and I think we all need to take responsibility for this because this happened while everybody was watching and participating and most of us acted as if it was fine. We had two things that happened. One is that we decided that the premise for our mural and celebrating our story should begin with when the European settlers arrived here. I think that was a mistake. Our story began before then. And also there are a lot of people who feel that the parade that followed European settlers arriving, well, the rest is history. And I think in addition, the other mistake we made was we empowered a small group of people, people who already held power in the city to come up with a list of names as suggestions to the artist for who should be represented on the mural. That's an exclusive process. You know, we have a much, much bigger story to tell than what is that can be told by selecting certain individuals and painting them on the wall. We need to celebrate all of our people and celebrate all of our accomplishments in this community and it does not mean just people who hold power and have made accomplishments and have done so with privileges that are afforded to them through just basically the stroke of luck. So I support taking it down and I think we need to take it down and decide to take it down before election day and I think everyone should have to take a position on it. It's not comfortable for people that this is the conclusion we have to arrive at, but it's our responsibility to make this right. Thank you. Thank you. Infinite. So speaking about discomfort, I think the person who I wanna give credit to for bringing attention to that mural is an individual by the name of Albert Petraca who, not a very popular person, in our community, but I just wanna say that for someone to put their body on the line and go up there and make a statement and to say take it off the wall, I think I'm really actually proud that we have white folks in our community that's willing to put their body on the line and take that risk, okay? It's an easy one. I think the mirrors should come down. I think it's just the beginning. I think if we look around us, we'll see white supremacist culture and a lot of different parts of our community. And I think it's pretty clear that the process of having that put on the wall was decided by, I think we need to take a step back and look at that process and see how we got there and see how we came to put such and its outlandish narrative of our history on a wall downtown Burlington, which quite frankly isn't for Burlingtonians or really for visitors and tourists who come here. So I think we really need to take a hard look at how we're using our downtown and who it's actually for. Thank you. Murrell. Thank you, Sasha and Matt for this question. The, you know, this is a challenging issue. It goes back to 2009, 2010 with the Quadra Centennial. And I think it's important to acknowledge that the mural represents a well-intentioned effort by many Burlingtonians who were involved back then. It was that I did some positive things. That alleyway is a lot better than it used to be with respect to some of the public safety concerns that had been raised. And there are many people who enjoy the mural. At the same time, it is clear to me that there are important omissions within it. It is clear to me that it does not tell the welcoming inclusive story that we strive to as Burlington in the year 2018. And really that we need to succeed as a 21st century city. And that's why for weeks now, I, you know, I appreciate in particular, Councillor Ali Jang who has been a real leader on this issue and is with us tonight. I have been saying for weeks, this is an issue we need to do something about. And I supported the resolution that came to the council last Monday that would have addressed this issue the way I think it needs to be. This is, there are complexities here. There are artist rights. There are issues of government overreach since the city did not pay for this issue that need to be sorted through. I think the best way to do that is to create a balanced committee with people that have many different perspectives and have them grapple with these issues and the possible solutions to it for some time and come back to the council and the mayor. I don't think this is an issue where the mayor without listening to Burlingtonians should be imposing a solution. I don't think it would be well-received. I think it may well lead to a problematic backlash if we just did that. I think a better route is to short our way through this with a well-respected committee with many different perspectives. I think that's how we get through this. Thank you. This question goes for us to infinite. How do you see the city resolving the Moran plant situation? Give it to the artist. Moro? So, you know, the Moran project is certainly, when you serve as mayor for six years, not everything goes exactly as you hope it will. And, you know, I was very optimistic and hopeful about Moran when we went to the voters in 2014 with a slate of other improvements to restore, rebuild, really give a new birth to the Northern Waterfront. And I was hopeful that this last best effort to secure an ambitious redevelopment of the building might succeed. And we gave it three and a half years to try to succeed. And it was very painful for me to acknowledge that over that three and a half years, the effort just had not gotten far enough. And I didn't think it was doing anyone any favors to continue to hope that it would ultimately succeed. Which is why I made that difficult decision last summer to go in a new direction. You know, this isn't the first time that the city struggled to redevelop the Moran plant because there are many unique challenges to that site. It has environmental challenges. It has constitutional challenges and that the Vermont Constitution limits what you can do with the site. It has, you know, it is a unique building that defies easy adaptive reuse. I think we need a new goal. You know, after 30 years of attempting a full ambitious redevelopment, I think we need to say, and I'm excited about this opportunity. It's one of the things I'm most excited about getting to work on next three years. I think we need to say, look, we have reserved about $6 million to do something great with this site. And we have a good chance to do something great because so much other progress has happened over the last few years around that. How do we figure out the right solution that uses this money that we've reserved to get to an outstanding outcome? I envision that going through a significant public engagement process like we always do for major projects. And I'm pretty optimistic now that we change the goal, we'll come through this quickly and get to an outcome where that site supports all the other progress that we've made on the Northern Waterfront. Thank you. Marina. You know, I spoke to Memorial Auditorium in my opening statement because it's very important, sorry, Moran Plan as well. I spoke to the Moran Plan in my opening statement because I think this is really important to our community. You know, six years ago, Mayor Weinberger ran on wanting to get projects moving again. And this has been a tough one. But what I saw was that we had a local group of people who came together and went through a public process. We had local investment at the table. We had creative individuals. We had businesses. We had artists. We had the farmers market. And what we had a group who thought they had a plan. And what we got was a unilateral decision to end that conversation. Before we really got transparency about why that was happening. You know, this is an example of something that we can move forward with. My role as mayor would be to restart that conversation and pick up where we left off. If we fell short somewhere, let's figure out how to make it work because I know that there are people throughout this community who still wanna see this project happen and still want new Moran Inc. to be a reality. And I think as a community, we ought to invite them back in Tecanto's Auditorium and invite people in and let's say, how do we get there? Because it was a great idea. Thank you. Thank you. Infinite. So I was only half kidding about the Give It To The Artist. I was actually very much involved in that process under Bob Kitz's leadership. And it was really the financial crisis that halted that project. I was on the Moran Advisory Group and I wanted to make sure that whatever they built there was accessible to low income folks in our community. And so I do think there is a plan there that needs to be invested in. Thank you. Thank you very much. This next question goes first to Murrow. We've had a lot of questions from the audience about the role of neighborhood planning assemblies. What do you think is the role of NPAs in local government? Thanks, Asher. I mean, clearly the NPAs are a really important part of the Burlington community landscape and they have been for a long time. And I support them. There is this notion that somehow we have continued the funding for the NPAs in recent years and would be open to a specific proposal to increase them going forward. My belief is that in addition to the NPAs, there are many other, there's a lot of other important work that the city needs to do if it is going to properly respond to its constituents. And make good decisions. And that's why we haven't stopped with going to the NPAs when we're doing something like rebuilding the Northern Waterfront. We also had this public investment action plan process where we crowdsourced the ideas for the Northern Waterfront from the community. I got 140 different ideas and then had a committee take public testimony and narrow those ideas down and then take a slate to the administration and then the city council and then ultimately the voters. And I think that having that inclusive engagement process led to broad support at the ballot box. We believe that the way, this is an administration that came into office at a time when it was very difficult to get anything done for the city and when the public trust really had been shattered between City Hall and the rest of the community. And we have believed the way you restore that is through good communication, is through being a very accessible administration. It's through having these good public engagement processes like we did with the public investment action plan. It is through transparency efforts like the BTV data effort. And the way we know that it is working is that every time we have taken an initiative to the voters over the last six years, a strong majority of voters have supported it. Thank you. Thank you. Karina. Thank you. In the 80s, when the neighborhood planning assemblies were founded it was really with the concept that we need to decentralize power. And they are a great concept and at times they have run well and at times they have not run as well and some NPAs are more effective at engaging citizenry than others. But what we do know is that they're important and in order to decentralize power, you have to share power. And I think we need to look at how we have evolved as an NPA. Initially, when NPAs were founded, I believe it was $1 million of community development block grant money that was put out to the NPA with the question, what do we do with it? That's not the kind of conversations our NPAs are having today. And I think it's time for us to re-empower our NPAs with some actual money and some actual roles when it comes to setting priorities and setting budgeting priorities. I would also add, in addition to our NPAs, our neighborhood planning assemblies, we need to look at the role of commissions in our community, which are also about decentralizing power and sharing power throughout our community and really engaging people to be active and involved in our communities. Right now, when we appoint someone to the NPA, excuse me, to a commission, it comes to the city council. You know, that very much limits who can participate on our commissions. And I do think we should involve our neighborhood planning assemblies and identifying commission candidates and participating in that. If we're gonna change the way we do things in the city and if we're going to actually bring people back into the conversation, it's because they're gonna have a seat at the table, which includes our commissions. Thank you. Thank you. Infinite. So I have spent a lot of time at our neighborhood planning assemblies and there are some very, very basic things that I think we could do to empower them. One of them actually being funding them more and not taking money away from the neighborhood planning assemblies. Right now, we have one public engagement specialist that has to work with all of the NPAs across the city. And I think we can afford to actually staff each NPA with at least one public engagement specialist. I think we could also afford to provide childcare for people who are interested in coming to our neighborhood planning assemblies. I think we can afford to help with transportation. I think we can afford to feed people to be in those spaces because that is the laboratory. That is actually where we are going to learn what's really going on in our neighborhoods. The neighborhood planning assemblies are one of the gems and which don't always work in every community, but they are one of the gems that we have and our local government that we should be relying on more often for not just boards and commissions, but also hearing from them around who we appoint as our department heads. If you want to talk about decentralizing power, it shouldn't just be, in my opinion, up to the mayor to decide who our department heads should be. Thank you. Thank you. This question goes first to Karina. What makes you stand apart from the other candidates? That's a tough one. Well, I am a woman. That is true. And we have not yet had a woman mayor, but that is not why I'm running. I think what makes me stand apart is that I am someone who has business experience, who is a mother in this community, who has the skills and experience to step up to running for mayor at this time. This is not a question that I have a canned answer for. I think that that is really up to the people of Burlington to figure out. Thank you. Infinite? What makes you stand apart from the other candidates? You should ask to press that. What makes me stand apart from, I think the other candidates is what sometimes makes me seem to people unelectable, actually. And it's not just the color of my skin or my background. It's also the way I approach problems and not in a managerial fashion. But collectively, it's the way that we've approached in this campaign where we are very process-heavy and there's no top-down way of working with each other. And quite frankly, I think the reason for me taking this on right now, which is really not the best timing, is because of, I feel like, willingness to make a sacrifice to my community and to give back all that I have, which is my body and my experiences and my love for people. Thank you. Thank you. Nero? Thank you, Matthew. I think I bring a few important differences to this position. At this point, I have a six-year record of proven leadership and establishing that I can move the city forward and address some of our biggest challenges. That leadership I think is in areas that include getting all the different city departments to work together as they never had previously. We have a history of fractured silo city government that goes back to when we actually had the 11 different commissions try to run the city. And you had, as a result of that, where you had different department heads reporting to different people, you did not have all the different elements of the city working towards common goals, working towards common visions, understanding common priorities. I bring a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility to office. I've heard the other candidates suggest we've kind of checked that box and we can now move on to other more important priorities. I don't believe it works that way. I think you need to stay vigilant on fiscal responsibility. It's an ethic that you need to continually commit to, like every household has to worry about their budget every month and make sure they're not overspending month to month if they're gonna make progress towards their long-term goals. It's the same thing for a city and that's gonna need to be the case for the next three years as well. And finally, I think I have proven record also in making investments and improving our core public infrastructure, our public assets, our public spaces. And we're just at the beginning of that. We're beginning of this, I think, outstanding era of improving our public assets and I would love the opportunity to continue to lead that effort. Thank you. So I have one last question here and then we'll get to closing statements from every candidate. This question goes first to infinite. Do you support the proposed school budget calls for a nearly 8% property tax increase? Is that too much? It is too much and I still support it. I support it because of the constraints that the school board has because of what's going on in politics in Montpelier. I support it because I know some of the folks on the school board who work really hard and don't just show up to vote to make that organization work. I support it because I know that there are some teachers and administrators there who are working really hard and we deserve to fund the best education we can pay for. Thank you. Murrell. Thanks, Sasha. I do support this year's school budget as painful as an 8% increase will be just as I have supported five of the six school budgets in the time I've been mayor and I agree with infinite on this that the main source of this tax increase is from the statewide financing system which has not adopted, has not responded to the new reality which is that Vermont is losing its school children and that we need a new system to ensure that we don't continue to see these kind of year over year tax increases. This is why I did support Act 46 which was and did that through the mayor's coalition and the Vermont League of Cities and Towns as an important step towards encouraging other school districts to become more like Burlington's successful school district and that there wasn't, you know, we were moving towards a system where there's one board that is responsible for the whole K through 12 education system which I think is an important part of local boards getting, taking responsibility and getting the system under control. It's why I'm very much open to the new conversation happening in Montpelier this year that has some promise and energy behind it and will continue to engage that. Also believe that what the mayor can do and needs to do is recognize that, you know, the schools are critical to our future. I'm a big believer in public education. I'm a product of Vermont Public Schools. My mom was a public school teacher in New Hampshire for over 30 years. My daughter, Lee Lynn is at Edmunds Middle School after going to IAA and I expect a younger daughter, Ada Will, when she gets to kindergarten in a couple of years, go through a public school system as well. There's nothing more important for the future of the city for its economic future and social future than a strong school system which is why as mayor of the last six years I've done everything I can and the limited role the mayor has to support the school district. Thank you. Thank you. Karina. You know, I wanted an opportunity to rebut the last time when it was mentioned about fiscal responsibility and other candidates are saying we could check the box. I do feel like I should have an opportunity to rebut that in this question and I request a little extra time. Okay. Okay, great. So, yes. Right now in this year, we are seeing that our school board has put forth a 7.999% budget that has only put forward a 1% increase. So if you couldn't have a better illustration of the education financing system as well as what's happening in Montpelier is negatively impacting our city. We have that this year. So, you know, I think though, I would frame it a little differently. This past year, you know, last year, Governor Scott wanted to give an unfunded tax cut funded with surplus dollars which meant they're gone after one year. In addition, Act 46 contributed to this education hole that we're trying to fill. You know, it was 40 million then it was 50 million and now it's probably gonna be higher. So we're continually hearing that this hole is larger to fill than we had thought. We need a mayor who's willing to stand up to Governor Scott and say that the kids in Burlington need to come first and our education needs to not be funding the governor's tax cuts. It's not acceptable that Burlington is paying a significant price right now when there is a very much an anti-Burlington agenda in Montpelier, but also it's complicated. You know, when we talk about the fiscal stability in the city and we talk about what's happening with education financing and what's happening with our bond rating on the city side, you know, we are talking about, we're saying, we're hearing that we have solved things in the city, things are really looking up, but we have to go back and say what is actually happening. We are in some regards balancing the books of the city on the school side. And the school department, the school board frankly has been having to figure out how to pick up the lost income. Because of the education financing system, first we, as a city, as the mayor was coming in, was that with extra time or? I'll give you another minute. Okay, thank you. You know, as the mayor was coming in, it was already happening that the pension payments for the teachers that used to come from the city budget were going to have to be picked up on the school side and it was over a million a year, somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 million. But we didn't have a corresponding tax decrease on the city side when we lost that expense. In addition, the education financing system said half of our pilot revenues from our, you know, the payments in lieu of taxes were supposed to go over to the school side can no longer happen because of education financing. The schools also lost that revenue to the tune of 1.4 million a year. And consequently, what has happened is our funds in the unreserved funds on the city side have been rising and with that our bond rating is going up. You cannot claim fiscal stability and fiscal responsibility when you have one house in good order and the other one falling apart. You know, it is related. We are experiencing good bond ratings on the city side because of money that used to go to the schools and we have not had a corresponding tax decrease. Thank you. Thank you. Did you, Maro? We'll give, go on. Maro, you can have a minute. Okay, great. Thanks. You know, again, I think this is a situation where facts matter, where laws matter and where the constitution matters. When I came into office in 2015, the agency of education in the Burlington School District were signed an agreement saying that these pilot funds could not lawfully, could not constitutionally continue to be used to fund the school district. And we worked very hard at that time to minimize, and this was four years ago now, we've worked very hard to minimize the impact that that change would have on the school district, found a way for hundreds of thousands of dollars to continue to help the schools, and we continue to do that work. And even in the last couple of weeks, we found another $68,000 that is gonna directly help with the school budget next year. What cannot lawfully be spent on the school district, we are now using to fund three big things. This is what is funding the early learning initiative. This is what is funding our part of our response to the heroin epidemic, which we've lost too many of our kids to. This is what is funding the improvements and enhancements of the library system. Karina's position would essentially gut and cut all those programs. I'm not gonna let that happen. Thank you. I mean, I would simply say that's not my position to gut and defund all those programs. And that a grant program that has started this year does not take, doesn't undo the fact that over the last several years, 1.4 million has not been advanced. And it doesn't undo the fact that we were no longer responsible for paying for these teachers pension funds and that the school board has had to really be very austere in its budgeting to be able to make up for the loss of that revenue. Yes, there's 100,000 here and 100,000 there, but it does not amount to the several million per year that we have not been forwarding. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to move up now to our final statements from candidates. As a reminder, these are up to two minutes long. First up is Mero Weinberger. Well, thank you again to Seven Days, to Channel 17 and the League of Conservation Voters for, League of Women Voters for supporting tonight's important forum. And we've heard a lot tonight about public process and engagement. And I just, at the risk of repeating a couple of things I've said, wanna make it really clear where I stand on this. This administration believes that nothing is more important than the public trust. And from day one, we have worked very hard to rebuild what had been a shattered public trust and to make good on that and to deliver on what the people of Burlington are entrusting us to do. We have done that again through being a very accessible administration. If you wanna meet with me or anyone else in this administration, we will make that happen. If we believe in doing it through good communication, through the traditional media and through using new social media in ways that the city has never done before. We believe deeply in responsiveness to the public and that is why we have innovated the C-Click Fix program so that constituents can track what is happening. And again, here's how we know that all these initiatives are working. 17 times we have gone to the public for support and rebuilding our downtown, rebuilding our waterfront, fixing our finances and every time the people have supported these initiatives often by large majorities. I wanna finish by telling a story about Tom and Carolyn, which is a young couple that I met in the old North End while door knocking this weekend. Tom works for a social service agency and Carolyn is, and I'm not using the real names just to protect them, but Carolyn works for a downtown restaurant. And they're building their apartment. They kept it beautifully, but it was in rough shape. It was falling apart. They're paying way too much for it. They're talking about moving out of Burlington. And I've seen this happen way too many times in the years that I've lived in Burlington and we've gotta stop it. And the way to stop it is to have new investments in our downtown, new investments in housing, new investment in jobs. I think in many ways that's what this election is about. We are making progress on these issues and I ask your support to make sure that we keep moving forward so that Burlington can remain what it has been for 150 years, the city of opportunity for people of all incomes and backgrounds and ages. And I would love the opportunity. I asked for your vote on March 6th so I can keep working towards that vision of Burlington. Thank you. Thank you. I wanna thank everyone for showing up tonight. I will just say a few things. I think one thing I've learned about politics, it's a lot about who you stand with and what you're willing to fight for. For me, when we think about what's happening in the city and we have massive transformation happening in our city and lots of investment coming in and I think a lot of us are asking the question, who is this good for and what is it going to do for the people who live here? What is it gonna do for us? And we're looking at this, the development of a lot of high rent housing as well as commercial space and it's not bringing the cost of rent down and it's not doing a lot for the people who live here. I think we need to take a pause and we need to check our priorities. CEDO has historically been an office that works very hard to engage the citizenry throughout this community and make sure that our priorities are about the people who live here. For me, if I'm elected mayor, the issues that I will work on in addition to managing the city in a fiscally responsible manner are making sure that childcare is accessible to everyone who lives here throughout the city. Afterschool programs every day are high quality and available to all. Our schools are high quality that no one has turned away from summer school for lack of space and that every day of the summer there is quality and enriching program so that we can support our families who live here. I think we need to foster our arts and music scene. We need to continue to build community and address our transportation challenges. We can do all of these things and more but only if we have leadership in city hall that knows how to bring people together and empower people who live in our city, nonprofits, business owners, creative individuals but first we must shake up city hall. I invite you to join me in envisioning a new era in Burlington with leadership that gets us and knows how to lead us forward. We can again lead the way. Thank you. So the seven authorities of a mayor carry out laws and ordinances, appoint department heads, assure performance of jobs by support to board and in offices, recommend measures, act as chief peace officer, my favorite, prepare the annual budget and act as the chair of board of finance and believe it or not, I can do that job and not only can I do that job, I will bring a totally different approach to it. As a community organizer, I'd work with the Burlington School District, University of Vermont and a small business community and other major institutions in the city to focus on building the capacity of our senior population, people trying to improve their economic wellbeing and cultivating the leadership of our youth because when we take care of these folks, everybody wins. Thank you. Thank you. We unfortunately weren't able to get to every question tonight but we're very grateful to the public for the many thoughtful questions that were submitted. On behalf of Seven Days, I'd like to thank our partners with the League of Women Voters and Channel 17 with putting this forum together for us. And most of all, I'd like to thank the candidates for turning out and sharing their thoughts and positions with us. Please join me in giving them a round of applause. Thank you all.