Dear Neighbors,
The City Council is meeting on Monday, January 23, starting at 5:30pm. The public is welcome to join in person at City Hall or via Zoom at: https://zoom.us/j/91234899734.
Highlights of our agenda include:
--> CRISIS RESPONSE TEAM - we will receive an update on efforts to create a new Crisis Response Team within the Burlington Police Department. This team will consist of clinicians and medical professionals, and it will respond to calls for service that involve mental-health conditions, substance-use disorder, and other medical or behavioral health needs.
--> CITYPLACE PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS - as construction gets underway downtown at CityPlace, the Council will be taking steps to ensure financing for public improvements within the Waterfront TIF District, including the reconnection of Pine and St. Paul.
--> PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED CHARTER CHANGES - most of the Council's meeting will be devoted to a second public hearing on proposed amendments to our city charter. The public can speak on these items between 5:30 and 6:00, or during public forum at 7:30.
Two of the proposed charter changes were submitted through petitions signed by at least 5% of Burlington voters. Under state law, the Council must place these proposals on the ballot and does not have any authority to make revisions. These proposals include:
1. Creating a Community Control Board over the Police Department - the proposal will remove the disciplinary authority of the Chief of Police and replace it with a "Community Control Board," which will have jurisdiction to "review and make findings on any incident or complaint against a police officer," and discipline or remove the officer when they are "incompetent, inefficient or incapable from any cause, ... negligent or derelict in their official duty, ... guilty of any misconduct in their private or official life, or for any other just cause." The proposal precludes any individual who has "ever been employed by a law enforcement agency" from serving on the Control Board.
2. "Proposition Zero" – the second petitioned-for charter proposal, called "Proposition Zero" by its supporters, will grant voters additional powers to initiate non-binding ballot questions or binding initiatives to propose or repeal ordinances.
A number of additional charter amendments went through the Council's committee process, received public input, and have been endorsed by the full Council. Unlike the petitioned-for items, the Council can make final changes to these items based on input received at our public hearing:
3. Rank Choice Voting – rank choice voting (RCV) is currently in place for all City Council elections. This proposal would extend RCV to all other local races, including Mayoral elections.
4. All-Resident Voting – Winooski and Montpelier recently amended their charters to allow all residents the opportunity to vote in local elections, regardless of their U.S. citizenship status. Burlington voters will be able to vote on whether to extend this same right to all Burlington residents.
5. Siting of Polling Places – currently, our charter requires that every ward have its own polling place. This proposal would allow for two wards to vote in the same location (e.g., Wards 6 and 8 could both vote at Edmunds Middle School).
Finally, our public hearing will consider a charter proposal on citywide redistricting. Information on the local redistricting process is available here: https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/cityplanning/btvstat/redistricting. At our last Council meeting, we continued to receive feedback on: placing the Maple/King neighborhood in a single ward; moving Ward 1 boundaries to include Brookes Avenue; and, distributing the on-campus student population. To address this feedback, we may consider amendments to further tweak the currently proposed map.
Please reach out with any questions or feedback. I appreciate your contributions to our community.
Ben Traverse
Ward 5 City Councilor
btraverse@burlingtonvt.gov
(802) 357-2055
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