Dear Neighbors,

I hope this post finds you and your family well and safe.

Before I get to the City Council meeting preview, I wanted to share with you that we are holding the second South End Community Food Pickup on Saturday, June 20. I will have more details in a separate post but for now, wanted to put it on your calendars. Due to the overwhelming response, we are doubling our efforts and will be doing everything possible to provide food assistance to our neighbors in need. I will be in touch with more details tomorrow.

This coming Monday, June 15 at 7pm, is the second of three Council meetings for the month of June.

The meeting will be entirely remote and virtual. There are several ways to tune in and watch and participate:
1. You can watch on YouTube or on Burlington Telecom Channel 317. The You Tube link is: https://bit.ly/3hwMoJI
2. You can join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87977795546
3. You can join by audio only: The number is 312 626 6799 Webinar ID: 87977795546#

Following a legal communication from the City Attorney on pending use of force litigation (expected to be held in executive session) and our standing agenda to report on Climate Emergency initiatives and updates, we have these items on our deliberative agenda:

• We will hold a public hearing and vote on Common Area fees for the Church Street Marketplace for Fiscal Year 2021, beginning July 1.
• We will voting on ordinance changes to public health emergencies and accommodating businesses with parking spaces issue permits to provide areas for businesses to temporarily expand their operations.
• At our last meeting we voted to postpone until June 15 voting on a resolution to refer a number of issues to change our City Charter, some of which to be voted on in November and others next Town Meeting Day. The same resolution is on our June 15 agenda. The issues in the resolution wants to refer to the Charter Change Committee for review are: protections for tenants in just cause evictions, prohibiting discharge of employees without just cause, creating a municipal income tax on residents making $125,000 or more a year, a luxury sales tax on property sales in excess of $500,000, setting a minimum wage for all Burlington workers and standards for a work week as well as including citizens in the City's budgeting process.
• We will hear a communication on the Chittenden Solid Waste District FY21 budget (which we contribute to as part of our City budget).
• Our last item is a resolution in support of fair and direct federal emergency aid to reopen and rebuild local American economies. This resolution sends a clear message of the City's need for the federal government to assist us and other municipalities with direct funding given significant and non-recoverable revenue shortfalls.

There will be an opportunity to participate in the public forum. Please provide a notification to the City via email that you want to participate during public forum by sending an email to publicforum@burlingtonvt.gov We hope you will join us virtually for this important meeting.

I hope you have a good weekend. As always, I welcome your questions and concerns, so please be in touch.

My best,
Karen

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