Burlington, Vermont Mayor Miro Weinberger is in the final days of his term after deciding not to seek a fifth three-year term. The Democrat took office in April 2012 and after a dozen years leading Vermont’s largest city, he will leave office next Monday. Speaking with WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley, Weinberger says he is focused on getting as much done as he can before he leaves while helping the new mayor’s transition into the office.
Weinberger: When I announced last October that I thought it was time, that the city was in a place where it made sense for me and for the city to hand off leadership of the city to someone else, I did say that there was a lot still to get done. In the six months, we have been working very hard at a focused list of projects and I'm happy to say that we have gotten done just about everything on this list. So I feel very good and proud about that. So grateful to the great team of department heads that I’ve built over the last 12 years, and that has been working so hard to get that done. I feel hopeful about the transition process. It's a really a priority to me to do everything I can to help the mayor-elect during this transition period and beyond. We've had a couple of really good meetings and I'm going to do everything I can to help that continue and support her. You know, it's a great thing about this town, we have these competitive elections, but then we put us, people put aside party differences and work for the good of the community. That's what's happening here. And then, you know, beyond that, after April 1st, it's you know, I don't know exactly what the future holds. But I'm excited about it. It's going to be an exciting time for me and my family.
You have been mayor for a dozen years. Has it struck you yet that you're just going to be a civilian member of Burlington’s population?
Well, it's going to be a change for sure. I've talked to other mayors who have gone through that transition and it's certainly a bittersweet moment, it is both in some ways. You know, being mayor carries a lot of responsibility and you always sort of feel like you're on and responsible for whatever's happening in the community and it will be nice to share that with someone new. On the other hand, yeah, being mayor for me has been an opportunity to get big things done for this community, to advance the community on housing issues, public safety issues, on the environment and to no longer be clothed in the mayor's robes, so to speak, to get that done will be a change. I know I will miss it. I've loved the job. I'm so grateful to the people Burlington for giving me the opportunity four different times to serve in this role and at the ballot box on Town Meeting Day and sometimes in the fall supporting the initiatives that we've worked on. It's been very special and I absolutely will miss a lot of it.
Some of the speakers today talked about how the housing issue hasn't changed over the last 10 to 12 years and you mentioned some of the other issues haven't changed over the years. What has changed over the 12 years as you've been mayor, some of the issues or perhaps completed projects, things like that?
Well, there's a lot of discussion of the many pro-housing reforms that we have already implemented. Housing has been a priority for me since day one. I was an affordable housing developer before being mayor and we have been working on these issues throughout. The two biggest housing projects in Vermont history are being built right now at CityPlace and Cambrian Rise. We have quadrupled the rate of housing production from the time I came into office until now. So, you know, I think what people were speaking to is what the difference in the Neighborhood Code and the changes that we made previously is this is a change that affects all of our neighborhoods citywide. It really enables the possibility that every neighborhood would be part of the housing solution, which is not really where our focus has been until now. What else has changed since I came into office? Well, you know, some of the highlights. We became in 2014 the first city in the country to source 100% of our electricity from renewable sources. We got over that threshold and then we have kept going since then and we're now trying to meet a much more, even more ambitious goal, substantially more ambitious, of essentially eliminating emissions in this community as soon as possible by electrifying everything with our ground transportation and our buildings. And we announced this week that we have made it 20% of the way there. We’re down and since 2018 in emissions community-wide by 20%. An amazing step forward and really that the fact that that change has happened before the Inflation Reduction Act and the electrification incentives in that federal legislation have fully kicked in before this new Carbon Pollution Impact fee that we created last year fully kicks in suggests we are going to continue. This is going to be an enduring progress towards that goal as a result of some of the things we've done in my time. You know, there are challenges that we haven't been able to solve and the one that is heartbreaking to me is that despite years of focus and effort we have seen unprecedented numbers of Americans and Vermonters, Chittenden County residents die of overdoses. In the last few years. I have never, since I made this a top priority in 2015, we have innovated so many different changes and then if you go into the emergency room now you get screened for an opioid use disorder right away. You can be inducted into treatment at our needle exchange, something that couldn't happen before. We have brought down the amount of prescribing of opioids dramatically, 70% by some counts. In this community through changes that in part that I've been advocating for we eliminated the waiting list for treatment. And despite all those things, we've seen this issue just get worse and worse. It was hopeful to be able to put out a press release showing that for the last six months after a whole batch of new innovations, new Firefighter Response Team, new treatment options in downtown Burlington, new enforcement efforts to interdict fentanyl and xylazine that we have seen much lower overdose rates, overdose responses for the last six months. So I'm hopeful that we have made some changes that will show some enduring progress.
There's a lot of speculation as to what your political career will be once you leave the mayoral office, especially if you're going to run for governor. Are you taking a look at further political campaigns specifically statewide or perhaps higher congressional, etc.?
Here's what I can say, Pat. It has been a great privilege to serve the people of Burlington. I think it is important work that I've been so grateful to chance to do to, to be in the public arena to serve in elected office, I certainly would consider further opportunities. I will say right now what I'm focused on is getting as much done before April 1st as I can, helping the mayor-elect transition into office. And beyond that, I'm going to be sitting down with my wife and my kids and we're going to be considering a bunch of different things and figuring it out. You know, it's actually an exciting time for my family. My oldest daughter, believe it or not, is now college bound and so we're going to visit some of the schools she's gotten into and I'm excited about the summer ahead.
Weinberger will leave office on Monday and Progressive Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, elected on Town Meeting Day March 5th, will be sworn in as the city’s first female and LGBTQ mayor.
