Dear Neighbors,

This Monday, the City Council will convene its third of three meetings for the month of January. We will begin our evening with a brief Local Control Commission meeting. We will be voting on First Class Liquor Licenses for Deli 126 on College Street and the Friendly Toast on St. Paul Street.

The Council meeting will begin immediately after. We will begin our Council meeting with the annual report from the Burlington Police Commission.

We have several resolutions on our agenda Monday evening. The first is a resolution to approve the FY17 Audit Management Letter and Audited Financial Report. This resolution marks an important milestone for the City’s financial health. This year, the City received a Management Letter from our auditors that did not contain any findings and no material or significant weakness in our internal controls. For the first time in our City’s history, we were awarded a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association. There have been significant financial savings to the taxpayer due to these improvements and the approval of the Fiscal Stability Bond as they have contributed to our improved credit rating. I am proud to sponsor this resolution and have worked with the Administration on this item.

Our next item is a resolution regarding an advisory question on the ballot regarding the basing of the F35. The resolution seeks to clarify the language submitted by the petition to avoid concerns of voter confusion. Ballot questions should be as clear as possible so as to avoid voters being unintentionally misled. This resolution seeks to make that possible with this ballot question.

At our meeting last week, we voted in favor of a resolution that laid out a process for determining if the City should elect to have a “carried interest” in Burlington Telecom under the ownership of Schurz Communications. We will hold a work session on this subject during our Council meeting Monday evening.

We will then hold a public hearing on a proposed ordinance change on retaining walls. This will be followed by a vote on this ordinance.

The next three resolutions relate to agreements that have been reached between the City and UVM and the City and Champlain College regarding participation in the City’s 10 Year Capital Plan, and in the case of UVM, a fee for service agreement. These agreements are the culmination of many months of work by the Administration to work with the institutions to get them to contribute to the capital plan. I know holding the institutions accountable for their share of the City’s infrastructure needs and improvements is important to Ward 6 and am happy to co-sponsor this resolution.

The next two resolutions concern the “Everyone Loves a Parade” Mural on the Marketplace. There have been concerns about the mural’s lack of inclusivity and its insensitivity to some in our community. The mural did not go through a complete vetting process in 2009. Each resolution approaches this issue from a slightly different perspective. One wants the mural taken down immediately and the other wants a process to look at alternatives. Each would appoint a committee to do the work of finding more inclusive artistic alternatives.

The last resolution is regarding revised ballot language for the question on prohibiting the sale of tobacco items from 18 to 21.

You may access the Council agenda at http://www.boarddocs.com/vt/burlingtonvt/Board.nsf/Public Please note that all Council meetings are televised live on BT Channel 317 and streamed live to your computer or phone. Please go to youtube and type in “Burlington City Council meetings” and the live stream will come up.

As always, I welcome your questions and concerns. I hope you have a good weekend.

My best,

Karen

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