The Burlington, Vermont City Council had a number of items on its agenda to consider this week including the sale of city property and whether it should weigh in on contract negotiations between nurses and the UVM Medical Center.
One of the first items on the council’s deliberative agenda Monday was consideration of a lease agreement with the Community Justice Center.
Brian Pine, director of Burlington’s Community and Economic Development Office, explained that the center’s needs have outgrown the current facility and there is an opportunity to relocate to the former VFW building.
“Champlain Housing Trust was also looking at a redevelopment of the former VFW,” Pine said. “And it seemed like a good direction to pursue to be meeting the needs of the city through the CJC but also to serve as an anchor tenant so that Champlain Housing Trust could ensure that the VFW site gets fully redeveloped and it will also include a home for the VFW. And by the way a 100 percent tax exempt property will go to the tax rolls as well.”
After the council unanimously approved the lease agreement, it took up consideration of the potential sale of property at 200 Church Street. The city acquired the property in 2005 to house Burlington Telecom and retained ownership when the assets of Burlington Telecom were transferred to a holding company pending a sale in 2017 to Schuer Communications. That agreement stipulated that the city would sell the property by 2034. Pine explained that two-thirds of the building has been leased to Burlington Telecom while the rest has been leased to the Community Justice Center and Human Resources.
"The key hurdles that the city faces with continued ownership of the property, it has significant capital needs, an HVAC system which is beyond the end of useful life and a rubber membrane roof that needs to be replaced in entirety,” reported Pine. “We’ve reached agreement on this sale at $1,571,000.”
Ward 8 Progressive Marek Broderick, a first-term councilor sworn in on April 2nd, said he would reluctantly vote in favor of the sale.
“I hope that the sale of 200 Church is the kick in the pants that this city needs to end this culture of deferred maintenance and putting things off,” Broderick said. “I understand the budget that we’re in. But the more we defer our maintenance on these buildings that our city owns the more likely we end up in this situation where we have to sell it off.”
Burlington councilors also considered a resolution that expresses support for the nurses’ union, the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, and calls on the University of Vermont Medical Center to negotiate a fair contract.
City Council President Ben Traverse of Ward 5, Tim Doherty of the East District and Ward 6 Councilor Becca Brown McKnight, all Democrats, recused themselves. Traverse works for the University of Vermont Medical Center and Doherty and McKnight recused themselves due to unspecified potential conflicts of interest.
Ward 1 Progressive Carter Neubieser then explained why the Progressives on the council introduced the resolution.
“I think our intention as a caucus is to show that the city has the backs of workers unequivocally,” Neubieser said. “Particularly when we are talking about working people negotiating with an organization worth $2 billion, or running a $2 billion annual budget I should say.”
Ward 4 Democrat Sarah Carpenter said while supporting workers is important, weighing in on negotiations at this time is inappropriate.
“The main resolve in it, which is something different than we’ve done in the past, asks us to take a specific position on a labor negotiation that none of us know where you are specifically, what is being asked for, what is being given or not given and to be honest the city’s not party to these negotiations.”
A motion to postpone consideration of the resolution was defeated. Debate continued and the resolution passed 6 to 3 with three recusals.
