In May, Democratic Burlington Vermont Mayor Miro Weinberger announced the appointment of then-Ward 3 Progressive City Councilor Brian Pine to lead the city’s Community and Economic Development Office. Pine resigned his council seat to take the position. Now, three people are running in a special election to complete his term.
Independent Owen Milne, Progressive Joe Magee and Republican Christopher-Aaron Felker are running for the vacant seat. Among the issues discussed during a recent Town Meeting TV forum was the CityPlace development. It’s a project Magee calls a failure.
“We are stuck now several years later with a pit in the middle of the city that doesn’t seem to have any resolution in sight," Magee said. "When I think about what we can do downtown to really support the community I believe that we need to have an ethic of investing in our public resources in a way that we have really shied away from in the last several years.”
Republican Felker said CityPlace is needed because of its requirement to include housing.
“The CityPlace development is 400 new homes including I believe 69 affordable units that are below market rate," Felker said. "Burlington families need these homes.”
Independent Milne lives in the downtown core and says he is less concerned about the CityPlace development than other issues affecting the center city.
“While I can appreciate conversation about CityPlace you know it’s a private development," Milne said. "The thing that I actually hear more often from the neighbors who also live in the downtown say that issues around mental health and substance abuse are far more challenging to our day-to-day experience than what happens to be going on in the pit.”
Last year the Progressive-controlled city council mandated the police department reduce the number of officers by 30 percent. The resultant public safety issues dominated discussion during the forum.
Felker denounced the council’s policy.
“These actions have been reckless and irresponsible," Felker said. "They did not have a proper plan in place to keep our city safe.”
Milne said he has been working on a new police reform and transformation plan.
“The plan that I’ve put forward changes what police are accountable for and work towards creating a merger of the other public safety entities into one Department of Public Safety so that the police are accountable to a broader department that focuses on issues of health and safety," Milne said.
Magee supported the council’s decision to reduce police staffing.
“The decision they made was to reduce the number of officers through attrition," Magee said. "We need to do more to invest in Community Service Officers. We absolutely need more mental health professionals on our streets. We shouldn’t give into fear mongering messaging that is saying that our streets are more dangerous.”
The trio continued their exchange with Felker calling his opponents’ views on policing radical.
“One of my, Mr. Magee believes in abolishing the police department," Felker said. "Mr. Milne seems to believe in dissolving the police department and has demonstrated a serious amount of contempt for officers on beat.”
Moderator Lauren-Glenn Davitian: “Owen why don’t you respond to that?”
Milne: “Ah, yeah, I don’t carry any contempt for officers. When I talk about the police transformation plan that I put forward what I’m talking about is actually realigning the resources towards what the reality is on the ground.”
Lauren-Glenn Davitian: “Okay thank you. John Magee?”
Magee: “Sure. I do envision a future where we don’t need a police force.”
The special election is Tuesday August 17 and the winner will serve until the end of the current term April 4, 2022.
Audio is courtesy of Channel 17 Town Meeting Television.
