Dear Neighbors,
Due to a snafu with my FPF, my preview of the Special Meeting we held this past Tuesday was not posted in time for the meeting. The meeting came together in very short order and the agenda was a public forum that lasted 2 hours, after which there was a discussion with some of the protest organizers and an executive session on the three officers.
The Council unanimously passed a resolution on the protests and public safety that I introduced. In my comments introducing the resolution, I stated that the resolution is forward-thinking acknowledging the need to change current policies regarding discipline and oversight of our police. It requests that the Charter Change Committee review options for who makes and reviews disciplinary decisions and report on the various options to the full Council in October and requests that the Police Commission immediately begin a review and analysis of impediments to stronger disciplinary measures in police encounters involving brutal or excessive force and recommendations for modifications with a report back date of November 15, 2020. While the protesters want the termination of the three officers involved in use-of-force incidents, this does not diminish from the larger discussion of addressing systemic racism and the need for reform. We need to get moving on these issues much more quickly and effectively.
This coming Monday, September 14, the Council will have its first of two scheduled meetings for the month of September.
As the meeting will be virtual, you can watch on YouTube or on Burlington Telecom Channel 317. The You Tube link is: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLljLFn4BZd2PwCge7lNoKug676jIf_iUA. You can watch via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81403681383. By phone, you can access the meeting at 312 626-6799, the webinar ID is 814 0368 1383.
Our first order of business will be an expected executive session on CityPlace from 6:30 to 7pm. Following this executive session, which are expected to end by 7pm, we have eight items on our deliberative agenda.
The deliberative agenda items are:
• The first item is a presentation from the Mayor's office, Jackie Corbally, the City's Opioid Manager, and Grace Keller of Safe Recovery updating the Council and the community on the City's opioid crisis efforts.
• This will be followed by a resolution regarding an analysis of establishing Overdose Prevention Sites (OPS) in Burlington which I will be introducing. The recent rather groundbreaking decision in Philadelphia along with the increased rate of overdoses in Chittenden County during the pandemic have heightened attention on the need for action and additional harm reduction measures. As we all know, OPS (also known as Safe Injection Sites) are not legal in this country despite over 100 operating around the world, but the fight continues and now is the time for the Council to show its support for these sites. While syringe exchanges were once thought revolutionary, they are now commonplace in most parts of the country. The resolution calls for a legal review and a presentation to the Council on what an OPS would look like, what the budget would be, so we know and can understand the financial structure and begin to prepare for them.
• We will be voting on two ordinances, one regarding minimum parking requirements. This new requirement to parking will, among other changes, reduce car dependency and the cost of housing. The other ordinance will increase the solid waste generation tax (we budgeted this increase, but it must in our ordinances as well).
• In late August, the Council voted to limit the size of indoor and outdoor gatherings and the hours for sales of alcohol. We agreed to revisit this at our September 14 meeting, We have a resolution on our agenda to extend this order to October 5, 2020.
• We have two remaining resolutions on our agenda. The first resolves that the Burlington City Council supports the resumption of Amtrak passenger service in Vermont as soon as possible and urges the Governor and his administration to announce a date for service resumption along with a clear explanation of what criteria is needed to permit this outcome. I am supportive of this resolution and agreed to cosponsor it.
• The last item on our agenda is a resolution which asks the Council to place a question on the Town Meeting Day ballot in 2021 that would adopt Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) for the election of the City's city councilors beginning in March 2022 and to allow for the adoption of IRV for the election of mayor and school commissioners upon an affirmative vote in a subsequent election.
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 by sending an email to publicforum@burlingtonvt.gov.
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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