Dear Neighbors,
On January 25, the Council had its final meeting for the month of January.
We began our evening with a presentation on the Burlington School Budget from the School Department leadership and the chair of the School Board (and Ward 6 board member), Clare Wool. Although budget increase is 3.5%, surplus funds have reduced the need for an increase from the taxpayer supported Education Fund to 1%. However, factors outside of BSD's control result in a tax rate increase of 6.88%. This increase is ballot question #1 on the Town Meeting Day ballot.
The Council voted on what is known as "short form" language for the Town Meeting Day ballot. A motion was made to amend this such as with your ballot, you will receive the long form language. Given that many of us will be voting at home, and ballots should be to you by February 12, this will allow plenty of time to read the complete Charter language and also plenty of time to reach out to me or others if you have questions. I would welcome your questions and will have a blue newsletter to you by the end of next week that may address some commonly-asked questions.
We moved one step closer to Amtrak coming to Burlington with a number of easements we approved.
The two remaining resolutions the first being a public safety continuity plan, was postponed to this coming Monday, and the second resolution that would ask the voters in March an advisory question regarding the number of police officers in Burlington failed 11-1, mostly due to either the way the question was worded and concerns over the idea of voting on a policy that must be addressed prior to Town Meeting Day. There were other concerns as well.
This Monday, February 8, the Council will hold its first of two meetings in the month of February.
You can watch and participate in the meeting via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85416176252
by phone: (312) 626-6799, Webinar ID: 854 1617 6252
or on BT Channel 317
or on via Town Meeting TV youtube channel: https://bit.ly/3joeFmN
You can participate in public forum beginning at 7:30 through this link https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/citycouncil/publicforum
Our first item on our agenda is a work session regarding an update on CityPlace. As many of you will read or hear about in the media, today, Friday, at noon, the Mayor announced a settlement with BTC Mall Associates, the owners of the mall property. Among the highlights of the settlement are:
• The land for the St Paul and Pine streets will transfer to the City at no cost as soon as the settlement is completed .
• As a condition of the settlement, the City will receive a guaranteed contract from SD Ireland with an estimated value of $4 million to reconnect St. Paul and Pine Street no cost to the taxpayers if the developer does not succeed in starting to build its project in the next approximately two years.
• When the project moves forward the developer is responsible for repaying $150,000/year in lost property taxes into the TIF district (estimated $300,000 to $450,000 depending on when new construction begins).
Thus, there is now a near certainty with this agreement that the City will reclaim the streets lost to Urban Renewal years ago, at no cost to the taxpayer and the project will repay lost property tax revenues, thereby insulating the taxpayer and City from risk. The Council will be voting on the settlement at our February 16 meeting.
Following the approval of an outdoor entertainment permit for Arts Riot, we will have a presentation on District Energy from BED General Manager Darren Springer. This project, a long time in the making, is designed to capture steam and heat from McNeil, and harness this into energy. In other words, this is a way to use much of the energy that is lost at McNeil and use and reuse it efficiently, helping us to achieve our Net Zero Energy goals.
We have two resolutions on our agenda. The first is a resolution to create an airport police division within the Burlington Police Department. The Airport pays the costs for the police presence at BTV as we are required by TSA to have sworn officers at the airport. Eight of BPD's sworn officers are assigned to the Airport at any given time. The resolution also requests a study be done by the Airport staff to see how other airports of like size meet these TSA requirements.
The last resolution is regarding a public safety continuity plan postponed from our last meeting. There is a lot to this resolution; I would encourage you to read it at:
https://go.boarddocs.com/vt/burlingtonvt/Board.nsf/files/BXWR2E61DBE4/$file/Police%20%20Appr[...]pdf
As always, I welcome and am grateful for your input. I hope you have a good weekend.
My best,
Karen
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