Dear Neighbors,
Out of the darkness of the past year, many are now fully vaccinated, more are on the way and I think we are all looking forward to a more carefree summer and hopefully lots of sun and time together. Tomorrow is the first Farmer's Market of the year, a sure sign of spring and brighter times ahead.
Before I get to the Council preview, I wanted to share some information on the City's FY2022 budget. Unlike last year's restrained budget given the uncertainty of COVID and its economic impacts, this year we are in a better position to, as the Mayor has said, deliver a full service budget, restoring some programs we limited last year and building upon our greatest needs and values, delivering to the community a strong budget with one of the guiding principles being one represents our priorities, including being greatly mindful of doing our best not to raise taxes.
We need your input and want to hear from you on your goals and priorities! Please go to the budget page on the City website that shares information about the budget process, invites citizens to share input through a variety of methods, and outlines the schedule for developing and passing the City budget. You can visit the website here: https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/mayor/FY22_budget_process.
Please complete our Budget Survey! The Administration has created a City Budget Survey for people to weigh in on the budget priorities: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/btv_city_budget_survey.
At last week's Board of Finance meeting, we encouraged the Administration to hold a community town hall in late May to offer community members a chance to be heard in a setting where discussion and opening the floor to questions was possible. More on that to come.
On to the Council meeting this coming Monday, May 10, our first of two meetings this month.
We hope you will join us for the meeting via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89472143363
Or by phone: 312 626 6799 Webinar ID: 894 7214 3363
Or via youtube: CCTV link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLljLFn4BZd2PwCge7lNoKug676jIf_iUA
Here is the link to sign up for public forum which begins at 7:30pm: https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/citycouncil/publicforum
We have 8 items on our deliberative agenda:
• Burlington is eligible to participate in the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD") Community Development Block Grant ("CDBG") Program and HOME Investment Partnership Program ("HOME") programs. As part of securing that funding process we must prepare and submit an Annual Action Plan to the government.
• For the past year, we have been talking about the rate restructuring plan for our water resources. Water rates are increasing due to aging infrastructure, but we wanted to ensure affordability frameworks for those most sensitive to increases. We will be voting to approve and adopt the rate restructuring and affordability program proposal.
• We will receive a communication from DPW on the CityPlace street parcels and other public improvements.
• We have three resolutions to vote on: one regarding referring to a committee to study City Councilor compensation, one tasking a Council committee to make recommendations about the creation of a dog task force, and the last resolution is a request to use $922,790 of ARPA funds to continue the City's COVID response and recovery. This is broad and well-developed plan to spend a modest amount of our ARPA funds as we more fully recover and move forward to hopefully brighter times ahead for our community.
• We will be voting on an ordinance regarding weatherization in rental housing. This is a second reading; the ordinance is aimed at improving energy efficiency and livability in rental housing.
• Our last item is a communication from the City Attorney on recommended changes to the Livable Wage Ordinance provisions concerning the Designated Accountability Monitor. This position is an important one and the changes are aimed at broadening the organizations that can be monitors and expanding and clarifying the role.
The link to finding all these agenda items and supporting documents is: http://www.boarddocs.com/vt/burlingtonvt/Board.nsf/Public
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 wonderful weekend.
My best,
Karen
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