Dear Ward 6 neighbors,

The next City Council meeting will be this Monday, June 5, beginning at 6:15pm in person at City Hall or via zoom.

Along with the zoom link above, you can also watch via the CCTV link which is: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLljLFn4BZd2PwCge7lNoKug676jIf_iUA.
You can sign up for public forum via this link: https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/citycouncil/publicforum or in person by completing a sign-up form inside Contois. Public forum will begin at 7:50pm.

We have a busy agenda Monday evening. Key items on our agenda include:

• THE BURLINGTON CITY COUNCIL WILL BE TAKING A SITE VISIT OF CITYPLACE. The site filled with exciting and active construction, with foundation laid, work to accommodate the steel that will arrive shortly and give form to the buildings, culminating in many units of housing in our downtown beginning in the fall of 2024. The three local partners, Dave Farrington (a Ward 6 resident), Scott Ireland and Al Senecal, will be at the site for our visit on Monday. We plan to gather at 5pm and will be leaving for City Hall at 6pm.

• WORK SESSION ON HOMELESSNESS AND THE END OF THE MOTEL VOUCHER PROGRAM – At our last Council meeting, we passed a resolution, "Process for Updating Sheltering on Public Lands Policy Given the Rise in Homelessness and the End of the Motel Voucher Program." Among the other requests in the resolution, we asked that "the Administration convene a meeting of community organizations and City staff responsible for serving unhoused community members to inform a Work Session at the June 5, 2023 City Council meeting regarding the City's response to addressing houselessness." We will hear from the Administration on plans to address this 'all hands on deck' moment. Best that we stand united in our support for addressing this need with collective humanity and community. The work session will begin at 6:15.

• MAYORAL APPOINTMENTS FOR THE COMING FISCAL YEAR – Each year on the first meeting in June, we vote on mayoral appointments. These include mostly department heads and some others at assistant department head level for the upcoming year.

• APPOINTMENT OF POLICE CHIEF – We will be voting on the appointment of current-Acting Chief Murad as the Chief of Police.

• A RESOLUTION TO ACCEPTING GRANT FUNDING FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH FOR THE CRISIS RESPONSE TEAM AND EXPLORING THE CREATION OF A BURLINGTON CAIP DEPARTMENT – The City of Burlington has received a significant grant from the State, just over $667,000, over the next two years for Burlington CARES which is the program modeled after the highly successful CAHOOTS program started in Eugene, Oregon. This resolution also asks the Administration to explore having the successful care-based programs, including the Community Support Liaisons and many other social service-based programs become a city department of their own. Public safety, in the words of this resolution, is a critical community need and there are "three arms of public safety, law enforcement, fire services, and care-based crisis responders; we can't have one without the other."

I encourage you to review these and other agenda items at: https://burlingtonvt.portal.civicclerk.com Once there, you can read the agenda and also subscribe to be notified when there are changes to city meetings. Please go to "subscriptions" and sign up to receive up-to-date information on meetings important to you.

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

Event Info

Nov 15, 2024

Nov 16, 2024, 10 AM to 12 PM

Nov 16, 2024, 11 AM to 1 PM