Dear Neighbors,

This coming Monday, the City Council will convene its second of three meetings for the month of June. The Council meeting will begin at 7pm in Contois Auditorium in City Hall. My apologies in advance for what will be a long preview but there is a lot on our agenda and important resolutions.

We will begin our meeting with two annual reports: one from the Electric Commission and the other from the Fire Commission. These reports and presentations are an opportunity to hear from the Commissions who interact with their City Department on a much more intimate level than the Council. It is a time for the Council and the community to hear about noteworthy accomplishments, challenges and future plans for individual departments.

The first item on our agenda is a resolution honoring Jesse Bridges, the Director of Parks and Recreation who is leaving the City to become the Chief Executive Officer of the United Way of Northwest Vermont. Jesse has served the City well and we wish him all the best in his next endeavor.

The next resolution is reaffirming the City’s commitment to Climate Action. It reaffirms our support for the Paris Agreement and our desire to stand with other cities and private sector partners to advance the actions of the Agreement. Burlington has been a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and provided clean and renewable energy to our community.

Our next resolution is regarding the adoption of fair and impartial policing policy and reaffirmation of Burlington as a welcoming and inclusive city for immigrants. The City Council established an ad hoc committee to create a formal City policy consistent with the City’s long standing practice of ensuring that Burlington is a welcoming an inclusive city for immigrants. As well, the Committee and many other stakeholders and community members reviewed the Fair and Impartial Policing Policy and voted to make changes to strengthen the policy in response to significant input. This resolution, if approved, would formally adopt these changes as our City’s official policy for fair and impartial policing.

Monday’s City Council meeting is the annual meeting when the Council votes to adopt the Mayor’s Recommended Municipal Budget and authorize the tax rate and annual borrowing. There are four resolutions for these purposes.

The first resolution asks the Council to formally approve the annual appropriation and budget for Fiscal Year 2018. The resolution details the uses of unexpended balances from prior years, current year fund balances, describes new initiatives and funding sources, employee health insurance costs, how the City’s retirement plan contribution (both the City’s share and employee’s share) will be funded and details fees for water, wastewater and permitting. This budget resolution is 6 pages long so I can’t include everything in this preview. Suffice it to say, it offers a complete and comprehensive financial overview of the City’s budget for the next year and another testament to transparent budgeting by this Administration and Council.

The next resolution will adopt the City’s tax rate for FY18. The total Municipal tax rate is $0.7971 per $100 of assessed value on each property in the City. The resolution lists the 14 individual taxes for all City services.

The last two resolutions are for long-term bonding. The first will authorize the City to issue public improvement bonds for FY18. The City annually issues $7 million of improvement bonds. $2 million are for the City, $3 million for BED and $2 million for the Schools.

The second bonding resolution is the approval of the issuance of Grant Anticipation Notes for costs for certain Airport improvement projects. Due to the timing of when the Airport receives Federal funds for these projects and when the projects begin to require funding, the City issues short-term notes in anticipation of receiving these Federal monies.

As with all Council meetings, please keep in mind that you are always welcome to come and speak to the Council on any subject you wish during our Public Forum which begins at 7:30pm. Clickable agenda items can be found on the City's website: https://www.boarddocs.com/vt/burlingtonvt/Board.nsf/Public All Council meetings are televised live on BT Channel 317 and streamed live to your computer or phone.

As always, I welcome your questions and concerns. Please be in touch over the weekend and on Monday.

My best,
Karen

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