The Burlington, Vermont City Council held the first of two public hearings this week on proposed city charter amendments to potentially be placed on the March 5th Town Meeting Day ballot. While there were few public comments, a motion on one of the amendments led to sharp exchanges between councilors.
Vermont state law requires that local legislative bodies hold two public hearings on any proposed charter changes prior to Town Meeting Day before authorizing placement on the ballot.
Acting City Attorney Jared Pellerin summarized the two pending Burlington proposals.
“We currently have two proposals that are under consideration,” Pellerin said. “The first one to increase the revolving line of credit for Burlington Electric Department from $5 million to $10 million to provide for more working capital for the electric department. They have not used that line of credit in many years but it opens up greater opportunities for them to have that. The second is a charter change around police oversight.”
Two residents commented during the public hearing. Jake Schuman focused on the police oversight measure.
“This police oversight charter change proposal you all have opinions about it,” said Schuman. “But nobody cares. We’ve been talking about this for three years. It is the minimum acceptable thing. It doesn’t need a discussion. Just put it on the ballot.”
Ward 7 resident Lee Morgan agreed that the council should approve placing the police oversight proposal on the ballot.
“I was very impressed by the level of public engagement,” said Morgan. “Whether you completely agree with this measure, I think it’s ready. And for me I think getting it on the ballot is important because the ultimate public engagement is the ballot box.”
South District Democrat Joan Shannon, who is also a candidate for mayor, offered a motion regarding the police oversight amendment.
“There is much of great value in the police oversight charter change that I think we are trying to move forward here,” began Shannon. “But I also think that it needs more work as did the commission. And so with that I would like to move to refer the proposed charter change to the Police Commission for further consideration and a request that the commission provides edits or a proposal that address comments made at the commission to the council by June 3, 2024.”
Several councilors were adamantly opposed to the idea of postponing a public vote. Ward 2 Progressive Gene Bergman was livid.
“The referral is fundamentally a move to kill this,” asserted Bergman. “I don’t think that there is any doubt about that. We are consistently kicking this down the road. The voters deserve to get this before them.”
Fellow Progressive Melo Grant of the Central District, a former member of the Police Commission, weighed in to agree with Bergman.
“This is a broken promise,” said Grant. “A promise to the community. A promise to people who care about equity in policing. And if it passes this is stopping it.”
Shannon countered the Progressives, citing minutes from a past council meeting.
"As I’m being accused of stalling by referring this to the Police Commission,” said Shannon, “I would like to state the record where three Progressive councilors voted not to put this on the ballot. I have 8.3 resolution...”
Other councilors begin to interrupt.
City Council President Karen Paul cautioned, “Councilor Shannon has the floor!”
Shannon continued, “On December 11th. Resolution: Councilors Grant, (War 1 Zoraya) Hightower, Magee dissenting. This is from our minutes.”
Ward 3 Progressive Joe Magee said Shannon was misinterpreting their vote.
“The resolution assumed that the ballot measure would fail,” noted Magee. “That was my opposition to it. That was not a vote to put this on the ballot and it’s disingenuous to suggest that. So I take issue with that.”
The motion to refer passed on a 7 to 5 vote. The proposed police oversight amendment will not be placed on the Town Meeting Day ballot and might instead go on the November ballot. A second public hearing on the bonding charter amendment will be held Monday.
