 Hi, welcome to ongoing general election coverage by Town Meeting TV. This is one of a series of forums we're bringing you in advance of the general election in November. Town Meeting TV hosts forums with all candidates and covers all ballot items that you will see on your November ballot. Town Meeting TV election forums introduce you to your community, decision makers, and connect you with issues that shape your local community. If you're watching this live, we welcome your questions. You can call in to 802-862-3966. Watch Town Meeting TV on Comcast Channel 1087, Burlington Telecom Channels 17 and 217, as well as online at youtube.com slash Town Meeting TV. I'm your moderator this evening. My name is Christine Lott, and with me tonight is Irene Renner, candidate for the seat in one state senate seat in the new Chittenden North District. Welcome Irene. Thank you Christine. So I have a series of questions for you to answer. You are running for the seat against Leland Morgan, who unfortunately could not join us tonight. So we'll just go through these and learn what your positions are. Thank you. Why don't you start by telling us why you're running, what experience you bring to the role, and what might be different for the people of your district? Thanks. I've been an active citizen for 17 years in the town of Essex. The larger town, which includes the former village of Essex Junction. I first got active about an issue after serving on a task force. Then I was elected to the select board and I served for 12 years. And then I became an active citizen again starting a newspaper called the Essex Retorder, which we use to hold feet to the fire and never expected to run for office again until I saw this new district and it was intriguing to me and so I decided that voters in this new senate district deserve to have their voice heard in Montpelier in a sort of different way maybe then from the centers that they currently have. Well that's a good segue to our question about redistricting. Can you tell us how that's impacted your election and the constituents in your district? I'd be glad to. First I should probably show you a map in case anyone's curious. It's a little dog ear. Sorry, it's been running around in my clipboard all over towns with me. This particular district includes Olive Milton, thank you. Olive Fairfax, which is not in Chinden County, but they are included in the Chinden North District. Olive Westford and then the part of Essex town that is north of 15, north of the Cirque and east of Allen Martin Drive. So it's a 4,000 resident portion of Essex, so not the bulk of the people, but certainly the bulk of the land mass. And I wanted to have a logo that reminded people who was in that district so you'll see a pinwheel next to me here. And that's to remind us that we are turning together toward the future and the names of all four towns are on this pinwheel. I handed those out at the 4th of July parades so that folks could remember who's in the district and the fact that we've never really worked together as four towns on anything, but now we will be. We'll be trying to work on what we've got in common and being a mostly rural district, a lot of it has to do with preserving scenic views and keeping open spaces open as well as developing thoughtfully because we understand that we need some more housing and we want to bring in new business. So the idea is how do we keep it looking like Vermont because these four towns certainly do look like the Vermont. I moved to 25 years ago. Thank you for that. My next question is about criminal justice reform. How does Chittenden County address crime? And I guess you're going to be representing beyond Chittenden County. Is there a problem with policing that needs reform or how would you address community safety? Safety is huge for all of us. I think this district is not Burlington, but we certainly get the news reports from Burlington and people are very concerned and a number of people have volunteered to tell us that they no longer go into Burlington. They are afraid to be here and that's unfortunate. I think fully funding the police is very important to the folks in this new district, but they also understand that a cop with a gun is not the solution to every single call. Mental health counselors are often brought in and in Essex when I was on the select board there, we in fact arranged with the street teams the Howard Center to come in and help on a number of the calls that were meant to help was obviously a big part of the issue. And so I think we do need to understand that it takes many people with many different skill sets to keep us safe. And so we need to spend money in that direction. We do not want to, I think, be caught short as more and more serious crimes are happening. We are more and more connected to New York City via the new Amtrak service and we need to be prepared. Let me ask you a question. You know, you just were sort of mentioning funding. Similarly, this is about education and that the legislature can impact how education is funded statewide. Do you see the need for changes in how we fund education or how would you use your office to move anything forward? Well, I've heard from a number of people that they are now house poor. But the values just keep going up and their property taxes keep going up and by basing the education tax on property values that catches a lot of people short and they are somewhat concerned that maybe we should be spending more of that formula, that very complex formula, attaching more of it to actual income. Thank you for that. At least, yeah. I mean, it's a hard nut to crack, right? Lots of people have examined education from over time. We need to keep on that. It is not working for people. It's not done, yeah. And yet, we do need to fund education. Well, because those children will be the workforce of the future. They'll be the voters of the future. We want to have citizens who are engaged. We want to have workers that are productive and so we can't ignore the funding. We do need to adequately fund education and we do need to keep people who serve in the schools paid so that they will come to work. We've seen a huge exodus among teachers and their assistance in the last year or two and that's very concerning to a lot of the people I speak with. Well, and, you know, another pressure on households is the increasing cost of healthcare, which COVID has sharpened our focus on those inequities in healthcare. What do you see as next for healthcare changes in Vermont? Well, I know that it's completely unaffordable. I'm glad to see at the federal level they've been paying attention to the prescription drug costs and some of the Medicare, at least, costs will be negotiated, but it needs to, of course, go farther than that. And healthcare, I believe, is something that everyone needs to be able to afford. However, we come around with solutions to that. I know the Green Mountain Care Board works very hard on that. It's going to be one of my focuses at the state level. Let's pivot to the election and the ballot items. So there's two constitutional amendments coming. Proposition 2 and Proposition 5 will be in front of voters this November. Can you tell us about those and your position on them? Sure. Proposition 2 is outdated language about slavery. It should have been taken out a long time ago. I think that's pretty much a no-brainer for all of us. Although I hesitate to say that, but I think it should be. Proposition 5 is an amendment that talks about the agency of women and how they get to control their bodies and their healthcare. And I believe it also should be second nature to us to want to give women the right to control and make decisions about their bodies with the help of their doctors and their families. I think it's unfortunate that that amendment, whose language is very simple, has been, I think, distorted by some parties. And I see signs about no late-term abortion. Well, I don't know anyone who's having a late-term abortion willingly or joyfully. The rare cases in which a late-term abortion happens is because there's dire circumstances. The fetus is in distress. The mother has her health, perhaps, maybe even her life endangered by that pregnancy. And those are situations which the medical ethics board at the hospital gets to weigh in on. These are not people just willingly saying, oh, I'm tired of being pregnant and it's been eight months. If that were the case, a doctor would induce labor and deliver a baby if it were healthy. So I think there's just been some fear generated around this issue, and that's unfortunate. And I know this is where my opponent and I differ. He voted no three times at the legislative level on this particular language, and that concerns me greatly. I think that people, especially women, but everyone in this county that's voting on this, especially my Senate district, should know how he stands on this, as well as how I stand on it. Thank you. That was very informative. I'd like to ask you about the regional ballot questions, too. Sure. So the formation of a Chittenden County Communications Union District, a bond for a new materials recovery facility for Chittenden Solid Waste District, are described as revenue neutral ballot items. What is your take on these? Is there anything else voters should know? Well, we love that it's revenue neutral. We don't want our taxes going up for any reason whatsoever, but of course, it makes ballot items like this easier to pass when you can promise people that they will not see a tax increase. I'm all for shoring up and installing new infrastructure as we need it. I've talked to people in all four towns who don't have good internet service. And as we try to attract more people to Vermont or keep people in Vermont, it's imperative that people are able to work from home or for their children to study from home because we're told the next pandemic could be around the corner. So for people to have that connectivity is critical. So I think that the folks who can vote on that Communication Union District ballot will perhaps want to. That's something I personally get a vote on. The funding for the new Materials Recovery Facility at Chin and Solid Waste District is really also important. That facility is 30 years old, I believe. It's fantastic to see it in action, but it does need to be replaced. And again, the people who use that will pay for that through the tipping fees. They will not see a tax increase. Interesting trivia, a couple of interesting points. One would have to ask for a ballot for that issue. It's not on the ballot with all the candidates' names. So if you want to vote on that, for example, living in Winnowsky, you need to call your town clerk or ask at the polls when you get there for that extra ballot. That's important as is the fact that in Fairfax the other day, someone asked me a question about that particular bond issue and because Fairfax residents don't live in Chittenden County, they don't get to vote on that. However, their recyclables do go to that facility. They might want to encourage their friends in Chittenden County to vote for it. Fairfax uses that through a contractional basis and the people sort of holding the bond are only those who live in Chittenden County. So that's why they vote on the bond and not the folks who sort of contractually are plugged into it. But all of the people in the Senate District actually will see their blue bin recyclables go to a new facility if it's passed. Okay, thank you for that. I want to ask you about language access and what the value is to Vermonters in supporting language access to information about health, local government, education issues. Tell us your thoughts on that. Well, I think there are more and more people here in Vermont that speak English as a second language. And so the more that we can do to reach out to people and keep English language simple and understandable and communications the better. But I also know that there are some districts where they have translated meeting notices and things into other languages. And I think that's really welcoming, especially as we have people like Afghan refugees coming here and they're going to fill a lot of the job openings perhaps in some of the local factories. I can't think of a better way to show people that we are open and welcoming then by putting out critical information in their language so it's very accessible to them and to make them feel like this is the second home for them. Thank you. Speaking of access, just want to mention that if you're watching this live we welcome your questions, 802-862-3966. So we're here on town meeting TV which brings community access to decision makers. It's currently funded primarily by cable customers which the revenue is declining in that front. How would you see the legislature supporting continued community access TV like this? Well, this is a conflict of interest for me I think because I love Channel 17 and town meeting television so I would do everything in my power to see that this continues to be funded however it needs to be and I understand the cable portion of the funding is changing and this is incredibly important for people to be able to not only tune into meetings as they're able but also to have those archives stored in a place that is neutral and accessible. Nobody does it like Channel 17. When I was on a select board if I needed to go back and check something the videotape was always there. When I was running my local newspaper it was great to go back and fact check, double check quote that I was going to use in my article it's just a gold mine of information and it's a real way to preserve democracy by having that accountability that people can watch and listen and tune in and see what their elected officials are doing. It's just so important. I've also seen the flip side. I've seen democracy undermined by people who have Zoom accounts who during the pandemic recorded things, recorded meetings of elected legislators at the state level and those have now vanished and to me that's completely unacceptable to have that kind of record be a proprietary record rather than a public record. Once again I can't say enough good things about Channel 17 and the fact that the public can always access your records and has these archives available. Thank you. Good public service announcement for people too. So all the questions herein have referenced kind of complex systems issues. This year the legislature will see a big turn over in elected officials and we want to ask if a part-time citizen legislature in Montpelier will do the job that's needed for Vermonters. Wow, that's tough. It's tough for people to hold down jobs and then be away four days a week four or five months of the year. I don't envy them. It's not an easy job and yet there is real value in having people who work in the medical profession or people who teach or people who are social workers come to Montpelier and speak from the heart and be the lawmakers, who are restifying for an hour and then they leave, but to have those people physically there insisting that their corner of the community in this state be heard and not be forgotten and I think that we will lose something if we had lawmakers who were solely lawmakers and might have lost touch with that day-to-day working in sort of the trenches. But I'm not surprised that a lot of them are burned out. I'm not surprised that a lot of people find it unaffordable. I know several younger legislators who are just like, can't do it. Between their partner, the lack of income, the time commitment to be away from their families, it's huge. It's something I'm willing to re-examine. Do we increase the pay so that we can keep people there who bring a lot of value to the legislature? It's really tough to see some of our best umbraidists work so hard to get elected and then they have to throw in the towel a couple years later because they just realize it's just not sustainable for them and for their families and for their life, their work life. It's another one of these issues that we need to keep talking about. Can I continue about that as well? I find it concerning that one of my house associates, someone I know who's in the house, I don't want to be too specific, said that they worked on the budget for most of the session and then they had quote, a few weeks left to work on everything else end quote. And so to me that's just maybe not all 1,000 bills were worthy of consideration but I would like to think that more than a few weeks should be spent on legislation given how hard some of us work to bring charter changes forward for example and to see them dismissed or left on the wall year after year after year is very concerning to me as a resident. So I would hope that we'll find a way to somehow extend the legislative session and so maybe it's going to be a combination of things. Maybe we extend the legislative session two months, maybe we pay people a little more to make up for the fact that they can now work even less for their employer. But but something's got to change because there's just too much good legislation I think that can't possibly in my opinion as someone who's not been in the state house can't possibly be you know addressed adequately in such a short time period. Well thank you that was my the last of the prepared questions this evening. If you would just want to give a quick one-minute closing statement. Okay well nobody works harder for voters than I do I think I've proven that in Essex over the 17 years that I've been involved both as an elected official and as an engaged citizen I've worked to bring people's voices from their front doors into the halls of power sometimes elected officials forget who elected them, forget to call and contact their constituents and ask is what we're doing making sense and that was what my purpose I felt was to truly represent the people I was hearing on the streets and sometimes it was unpopular in the boardroom to voice what I was hearing but I felt that that was something I brought as a selectman and I would indeed hope to bring that to the senate. Thank you so much Irene Thank you for tuning into town meeting TV ongoing coverage of statewide and regional candidates and ballot items. Don't forget to vote on or before November 8th. This year ballots will be mailed to all registered voters in the state. To confirm you're registered and will be receiving a ballot at home visit the secretary of states online portal at p.vermont.gov. Thank you for watching.