Dear Neighbors,
This past Monday, the City Council held its first of two scheduled meetings for the month of December. This coming Monday, in view of the number of community members who wanted to speak during this past Monday's public forum, we will be holding a special meeting on December 14 (NOTE: TIME CHANGE, the meeting will begin at 5:30PM) where we will complete the work on the December 7 agenda. I had encouraged the Council to hold our public forum, approve our consent agenda, and hear the report of the police commission on their response to our September 8 resolution. That motion passed and we heard from every person who had requested to speak. Approximately 100 people spoke in our nearly four hour public forum, many speaking to the police oversight board Charter change with several discussing the just cause eviction Charter change.
We did hear from Police Commission Chair Jabulani Gamache who presented the Commission's report. One of the main takeaways from the report was that while there have been improvements recently to stronger disciplinary measures involving brutal or excessive use of force in police incidents, doing more will take a revision to the police union contract that will be renegotiated to go into effect in mid-2022.
On to this coming Monday, we have one presentation and four resolutions, all relating to Charter changes for placement on the Town Meeting Day ballot in March 2021:
The first item is a presentation regarding streetscape improvements on University Place. This process started several years ago as the result of an agreement with UVM regarding the institution bonding for its share of City infrastructure improvements. Part of the agreement including improving safety concerns and collaborating on community needs for this street which included improving accessibility and environmental design. There are two designs, the basic and enhanced approaches. The purpose of Monday's agenda item is a presentation of the designs, the costs which would be shared with UVM according to our agreement along with a review of the community input that was received. Construction is slated to begin in the summer of 2022.
Monday evening, we will debate and vote on four resolutions that all relate to proposed changes to our City Charter that would to be put before the voters this coming March.
The first relates to Just Cause Eviction. We took this up at our last meeting in November and then it went back to a committee for further review. Just Cause Eviction would mean that a residential property owner who rents their property would have to have a 'just cause' in order to evict a tenant. This issue has been reviewed on one Council committee, has been taken up by the Charter Change committee and a great deal of work has been done to try and arrive at an amendment to the resolution that may garner broad support. The Community Development and Neighborhood Revitalization Committee that has done a lot of work on this will be meeting at 3pm this Friday to attempt to craft an amendment to this resolution so it may get enough votes to go on the ballot in March.
The second Charter change is to create an independent community control board to oversee investigation and discipline of police misconduct. This is a significant change to the current Charter. Currently, the ability to discipline Burlington's police officers rests solely with the police chief, something I see as problematic, particularly in response to events that may warrant higher level discipline. Many communities have adopted more inclusive, community-based models over the past decade which encourages a police force that works alongside the community and is more transparent than our current Charter language that is very insular and does not build broad trust. I encourage you to read the proposed Charter change on board docs at: https://go.boarddocs.com/vt/burlingtonvt/Board.nsf/files/BVXLA7553C11/$file/Charter%20Change[...]pdf
The third Charter change relates to adding two seats to the Airport Commission, one for the City of Winooski to have a formal voice on this commission and an additional seat for the City of Burlington. Lastly, the fourth Charter change relates to the regulation of thermal energy systems in residential and commercial buildings.
As always, I welcome your questions, concerns, and comments, so please be in touch. Your voice matters and I am grateful for your input. I hope you have a good weekend.
My best,
Karen
Dec 6, 2024, 12 PM
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