t hasn't been received i came up with all this in about 10 minutes councilor freeman strap saw hours and hours of comments revisions research etc i think the community is giving you a pretty clear path forward and i ask you other counselors to please not fall for the actions of the mayor tonight thank you and i yield my time thank you um ali sarhanis is next to be followed by sarah noel um ali i've enabled your microphone hi my name is ali so harness and i live in berlington ward three i've lived in berlington for a little over six years and i'm calling in tonight to support the charter change proposal for community oversight of the police i support this proposal because i've witnessed the disheartening patterns of the berlington police department officers using excessive use of force and abusing their power against people in our community with inadequate inadequate repercussions and disciplinary actions the current structure that allows only the police chief to fire officers accused of misconduct definitely results in a lack of accountability and it's a conflict of interest i strongly support the creation of a diverse community board to oversee the investigation and discipline of police misconduct that is fully independent of the bpd and is endowed with disciplinary power investigative power independence representation and transparency i fully believe that this well researched and strongly supported charter change is a step that the city desperately needs to take to make berlington a safer and more equitable city for all of its residents especially those who are most vulnerable and marginalized so i urge you to please hear our voices tonight and put this charter change on the ballot in march thank you thank you next speaker will be sarah noel to be followed by sophie castle and i'm appreciating the help that folks are giving me just identifying themselves or others as by pock that's very helpful um sarah i'm enabling your microphone another weird thing is that sometimes this software um is uh that people have for zoom they have an older version of zoom and then when i click on them they get to get up to upload or do a panelist so it's a little strange sometimes um that's why that happens sometimes i usually just allow enable the microphone so that explains that if you see someone pop up on the screen um is just they have an older version of zoom so um i believe we have sarah with us hi max can you hear me yeah i can go ahead sarah hi my name is sarah noel i use she her pronouns and i am a white queer resident of fort eight uh sorry that was my cat if you could hear that i'm calling in tonight to voice my support for the proposed charter change put forth by councilor freeman time and time again law enforcement has proven that they are incapable of policing themselves and that's why i believe in the creation of a community oversight board that is entirely independent of the pd it is imperative that the board possess full investigatory and disciplinary powers access to the resources it needs to operate effectively and that its members represent those who have been historically impacted by police violence i think that this is a really exciting opportunity to enact real transformative change that is so desperately needed in our community and i hope that you all can work to get this on the ballot in march so that the public can vote on it thank you i'll rest my time okay so our next speaker will be sophie caswell to be followed by dana keys gibbons dirger graham arima minard orhe rio scarcia daniel mutianu hannah bristlin tessam again and lilo and lila fortune off um so that's just a couple of speakers coming up emily bremer is well after lila maggie chadwell and loson andy sub subberneck becky laird um eva fusco fernaguda brown trisha trish or patricia okane i'm a redden gallendriel richmond tyler pastorock um someone who was just grace um so that should give you just a little bit of an idea of who's coming up but i'm going to go to sophie caswell now and again to be followed by dana keys gibbons so sophie i've enabled your microphone all right can you hear me yep go ahead all right my name is sophie and i'm a white educator and ag worker living in ward two where i've lived for the past 12 years um i'm calling in support of both the just cause eviction ballot item as well as the formation of the board for community control of police uh the community drill board is a critical opportunity for burlington to be not just on the right side of history but at the forefront this is exciting we should all be excited about me yep go ahead okay here we go anyway um in order to create change in our community safety we have to have community control including the investigatory and disciplinary power over the police not just advisory boards and definitely not toothless recommendations from the bureaucracy that leave actual decision-making in the hands of the chief and the police union we need this new board in addition to the current police commission so that community power can extend past the scope of either board on its own this is the future of community safety and we are so close to making it reality i urge all the counselors to vote yes on the creation of the community control board and putting this item on the ballot in march because it signals not the end but the very very beginning of real accountability and care in burlington let the community vote on it thank you and i yield the rest of my time thank you our next speaker is dana keys gibbons to be followed by um dear dragram um dana i believe i've located you so i'm going to enable your microphone hi thank you my name is dana i use she her pronouns and i'm a white resident of ward eight i moved to burlington after graduating from college in 2019 and i've been a health care worker at a local clinic ever since i'm calling in today to voice my support for the creation of an independent community control board to oversee the burlington police department with the power to conduct investigations and take disciplinary action it's really important to me that this is an entirely new board and not an adaptation of the current police commission because it serves a different purpose the police commission focuses on policy and does not have the final say in disciplinary decisions they're also appointed by the city council while the independent community oversight board would be appointed by community groups connected to those who are currently and historically most targeted by policing like pipa and documented folks and lgbtq people another difference is that the police chief can ultimately override any recommendations made by the police commission which basically renders that useless i've been to countless zoom meetings this year where i've heard you all call racism a public health crisis and commit to dismantling systemic racism while these reforms will not end the broken and racist criminal injustice system in this country it is the first step to police accountability and it is urgent because it could literally save lives you all have the opportunity to take action and i hope you're not using the word crisis lightly we've all seen the footage of violent cops in the city and the harm the bpd has caused especially towards our bi-pop community members there have been many opportunities to engage with and deliberate on this topic and huge amounts of participation and work put in by community as well please approve councilor freeman's charter change draft and let the people of burlington vote on it on march second thanks i yield the rest of my time so uh dear dra gram will be fall will be next to be followed by arima minard or hey rio scarcia daniel mutianu uh mun tianu and uh hannah brislin um just to name a few um dear dra i believe i've located you and i'm enabling your microphone hi can you hear me yes i can go ahead hi my name is dear dra gram i'm award three resident i've lived in burlington for the past year and a half i've lived in vermont for the past eight years as an essential health care worker and bi-pop community member i'm calling to voice my full support of items 6.03 the independent community control board of the police um just a quick huge thank you to everyone who's worked tirelessly for months to move this proposal forward particularly councillor freeman and bi-pop family leaders in our community um this proposal as many have said before me has had ongoing support and input from burlington community members specifically bi-pop and other historically marginalized groups um and it's been informed by research and recommendations by the aclu and aligns with the demands of the battery park movement and the vermont racial justice alliance operation enix rise um to recap again as many have said before me it's imperative that we have a completely independent diverse and representative board that holds investigatory and disciplinary power over the police as it stands right now we the community have no control over the police specifically when it comes to disciplinary actions and let's never forget that police brutality and violence is very real and it's taken place in burlington um while there's some work surrounding disciplinary actions the police it's still all in the hands of the police and it's um you know the police unit it's protected by the police commission as i've claimed um to be community oversight board of the bpb holds no power whatsoever the current chair of the commission has said himself the board doesn't do much of anything they have no real power not only do they not hold power but it's so shrouded in cryptic information that the general public has little to no idea what they even do which again isn't much of anything and how can we begin to build public trust with such little transparency um and how can we begin to build public trust with a police department entrenched with outdated racist policies and a union which fiercely protects these systems um just quickly i have to say it was pretty disturbed by the last joint committee meeting the rampant confusion during the conversation made it evident that many of the joint committees specifically the commissioners were very very much behind on the general understanding of this proposal which demonstrates further that uh the the sheer ineffectiveness of the police commission of just one of a plethora of examples of how the current system is not good enough for us counselors if you truly aim to serve the community if you really do believe black lives matter if you really will commit to supporting and protecting the most marginalized among us i hope you recognize the answer is to not wait on moving this proposal forward the answer is not the police commission the answer is not pile dogs and if you claim to be searching for or uh perhaps more aptly waiting for a perfect model you're not going to find it um we know that it's going to take lifetimes of hard continuous work to dismantle white supremacy and the interlocking systems that perpetuate it in our society but what we need to do now specifically is act we need to pass this proposal and bring it to the ballot in march it simply cannot be stressed enough how much time is of the essence the independent community control board of the police is a step forward we need right now i yield the rest of my time black lives matter okay i'm going to go to arima minard next to be followed by uh Jorge Rios Garcia um arima i've located you and have enabled your microphone hi are you able to hear me yes i am go ahead great um hi my name is arima minard i use she her pronouns while i reside in waterbury i work at the peace and justice center of vermont and burlington which is in ward three i am speaking in emphatic support of the resolution for community control of police not only because i am the community engagement manager at the pjc but because as a bipoc vermoner of six years and citizen i and my partner like many others who live in neighboring towns also visit shop and enjoy professional leisure and cultural activities in burlington we are all therefore very much vested in safeguarding the safety and enjoyment of the city for all community members i commend councillor freeman and those on the charter change committee that worked with heart on moving this resolution forward and strongly support the fact that this resolution demands community control of police admirably the proposed charter change was created by receiving and hearing significant input from many across our community including bipoc and others from historically marginalized groups its likelihood of success is supported by the fact that it is informed by models in other cities and guided by the aclu principles for civilian oversight the resolution importantly aligns with the demands of the battery park movement and the vermont racial justice alliance's operation phoenix rise initiative the members of which have uh have acted as inspirational leaders in this effort to urge burlington to lead with impactful legislation that addresses racial injustices and inequities that you must trust bipoc community members and citizens of this nation suffer greatly from it is simply common sense that an entity that wields the power to use violent force cannot be left to also be the only organ that determines if such force was justly applied checks and balances must exist in order to hold entities accountable to the communities they aim to protect and serve and an independent community board composed of a diverse and representative membership achieves just that i want to thank ashley and jessleport mark hughes counselor freeman and all those who have given so much of their life energy time and effort to do the work of getting this resolution that is long overdue to where it is today now is the time for you to stop delaying and show your appreciation for this pivotal opportunity they have brought to you please help these courageous community leaders to achieve what will benefit all of us by creating a safe and peaceful city for all free from the terror of police brutality black lives matter thank you thank you and appreciate corrections on names so please um keep those coming it helps me to be better and more respectful at this so please correct me if i get your name wrong of course i want to get them right um so next i see uh jorge rios garcia so jorge enabled your microphone should be able to speak hello everyone my name is jorge rios i use from for now i live in burlington in world number six i consider myself as a latin ex-none wife i got a lot of things to say about this and this is a good time for burlington bring this for a debate make me feel that we are in the way of the promised land we as a as a latin ex-community we want to be included in the democracy we gotta be included no and other feeling is like no one can to stop this movement because those feelings are the feeling of the people and if those feelings are gonna be here and we are gonna be here stand up for our rights and that's that's a fact let me tell you uh you counselors that let's let's let's the people vote yeah i don't think you need more time to understand this document let's just the people vote and and i don't i don't some don't be scared that someone of color with this power are going to create chaos we want justice and equity that's all no and let me say something about this no one can do a worse job than people who are ready with this power it's it's impossible to think like oh someone of color are gonna do this no we just want we just want justice and we need we need to give some balance to the power if we want to prevent in the future police brutality so let's give this committee committee the jurisdiction of disciplinary authority transparency and investigation forward and this committee exists in other countries exists in other cities is not something new and we are going to keep asking to for legislation legislation in pro of immigrants and people of color thank you for listening thank you our next speaker will be daniel muntianu to be followed by to be followed by hannah bristlin tessa mcgan lilla fortune off emily bremer maggie chadwell and lawson andy uh sabranek becky laird eva fusco fern aguda brown trish uh ok so daniel i'm gonna come to you excuse me yes i can go ahead i'll try to be super quick my name is daniel muntianu i lived in ward one i've only lived in burlington for five months but before that i lived in vermont for about a year i was born in canada kid but both of my parents were born abroad some of the children of immigrants and i think for his testimony was exceptionally powerful because that definitely relates to why my parents decided to come here uh when there was strife in their country um and they didn't experience democracy in this way and this isn't something that my parent this sort of like city bureaucracy um is not not what america is known known for so i'm here to uh voice my support for the charter change uh to give community control of the police the uh legislative process and the deliberative process has spoken there's been immense community input uh it aligns with the principles of many uh civil civil liberties organizations here in vermont and abroad and it will definitely be the start of the solution uh in giving power to the people with regards to the people that police them and reverse some of the most oppressive institutions that have been continuous in this country that people still come to and there's a reason to that but it's an imperfect system and the time to act uh at least with that mr god is now thank you thank you i'm our next speaker is hannah brislin to be followed by tesam again um hannah i believe i found you so i'm going to enable your microphone can you hear me yes i can go ahead great hi everyone um my name is hannah i am a resident of war two um i am calling in support on the charter change um for community oversight of policing um the city took a vow like seemingly uh to dismantle um systemic racism we can't just say that we're going to do it we do need to to actually take necessary steps to do so and this charter change is a necessary step um another charter change that is a necessary step to dismantling systemic racism is um the just cause of fiction um both of these charter changes this body has had plenty of time uh to mull over it to provide your input and what you have um the next steps is for you to do your job and pass it along to the people to decide um this is their city and they have they have a right and it is necessary for them to decide on this and it is at that point where both of these are to be passed along to them to make that decision so um yeah i'll yield the rest of my time thank you have a great night thank you our next speaker is tessa mcgan to be followed by uh lilla fortune off um tessa here you go um i've enabled your microphone great can you hear me yep go ahead all right my name is tessa mcgan i use she her pronouns and i live in ward three i'm calling tonight in support of the charter change proposed by councillor freeman for the community control of police i want to say to the city councillors tonight if you care about the most basic safety of barlington's residents if you care about making barlington a truly livable city and if you care about addressing the public health emergency of systemic racism in barlington and in vermont as ashley said earlier tonight adopting this charter change should be a no-brainer it has been carefully constructed based on sound models from other cities and on the aclu principles of community oversight and it is tailored to fit our city specifically by incorporating significant direct input from bypoc and other historically marginalized community members it aligns with the demands of the battery park movement and vermont racial justice alliance's operation phoenix rise my point here is that these are the experts nationally and locally these are the folks who have direct experience have done the work and spent the time thinking about these issues and whose leadership you should follow as proposed by these leaders and in the charter change i believe it is crucial that police are overseen by a board that is independent from the police that is in fact representative of the group's most affected by police misconduct and that has true investigatory and disciplinary power i urge you not to rely only on the police commission which lacks these features and to not wait for god knows what you are being given the opportunity to act justly and act now on what is an urgent matter please take it thank you all you hold the rest of my time thank you our next speaker is lila fortune off to be followed by emily bremer lila i'm coming to you hi can you hear me yes i can go ahead thanks so yeah my name is lila fortune off my pronouns are she her hers i'm a white suss woman i live in ward three i was a student at uvm and i chose to continue to live in burlington after graduation because i love the city the best part about the city is the sense of community that i feel here communities take care of one another and communities listen to each other i believe true communities do not tolerate violence against community members nor do they tolerate conditions that make community members feel unsafe members of this community who are bipop unhoused and poor members of this community trans non-binary and gender non-conforming members of this community are saying loudly repeatedly that they feel unsafe because of the way the police in the city operate this mode of operation is not a coincidence it is a sign that policing as we have historically known and presently know it is working properly in the city the police were created on purpose by white men to uphold white supremacy the fact that community members feel unsafe is not a sign that something isn't working as efficiently as it could or that police officers are overworked or spread too thinly or that we need a new data management system to keep better tabs on the department violence against marginalized groups of people is a core tenet of police departments across the country including in burlington because that is what the police that is what policing as a concept was founded upon police should not be the entity that investigates or disciplines themselves because if they are this violence will certainly continue that is why i fully support this resolution to the charter change or of the charter change committee proposed by councillor freeman to create a new board that is completely independent of the burlington police department and will have full control to investigate and discipline police officers just because this resolution is unprecedented is not a reason that this council should slow down or question it we need to break from precedent to break the patterns of violence i also support the resolutions regarding just cause evictions regarding the additions to the airport commission and regarding the thermal energy systems because climate and environmental justice housing justice and racial justice should all be prioritized by the city you all work for us you need to listen to us stop grasping to keep your power and keep the status quo our lives are at stake thank you our next speaker will be emily bremer to be followed by maggie chatwell and lawson andy sebranek becky laird eva fusco fern gouda brown trish o'cane emma redden glandriel richmond eiler pastorock grace emily wanzer julie mesuga m bower kaley o donnell trav fryer meg tragolo gabriel ellie william keaton maxwell quinn just to give folks an idea of who we have coming up we're going to go to emily bremer and again emily is to be followed by maggie chatwell so emily i've enabled your microphone hi can you hear me as i can go ahead all right hello my name is emily bremer i'm a white woman and i use she her pronouns i'm a resident of berlington in ward six i'm here today to express my strong support of the proposed charter change related to community control of police i moved to vermont in april of 2019 from madison wisconsin up until that time i'd lived in madison my entire life one of the reasons i was drawn to berlington was because of its similarities to madison after moving here though an unfortunate similarity between madison and berlington became clear to me that police misconduct and injustices have splintered the trust of the community and diminished the safety and well-being of the bipoc and other historically marginalized communities back in september a resolution similar to what's proposed here was successfully voted on and passed in madison even in the short three months since then it has been meaningful in the process of rebuilding trust and slowly restoring justice among the city's marginalized communities i believe it will continue to be successful for madison for the same core reasons i believe the charter chain proposed here will be for berlington it will give both investigatory and disciplinary authority to an independent community control board it will hold police officers accountable to the communities they serve it allows for formal structured civilian oversight that has true and meaningful authority and it calls for a diverse representation on the board with a selection process that ensures the historically marginalized spokes have a seat at the table voting this charter change to voters in march is a meaningful step towards dismantling systemic racism in this community and it is imperative that it happens now we must hold our police accountable now to the community they serve there really is no time to waste thank you black lives matter thank you her next speaker will be maggie chadwell to be followed by ann lawson maggie i've enabled your microphone oh i'm do that panelist thing okay there we go hi can you hear me yes i can there you go hi everyone my name is maggie and i'm a white resident of war two and i'm speaking today in support of councillor greenham's charter change proposal for community control police i believe that this charter change is a vital step that berlington needs to take in beginning to reform the public safety safety system that under the current city charter is not designed to protect and serve our community but rather the police as it is now the chief of police and mayor have sole power in firing police officers we've seen this design fail our community time and again the fact that violent officers quarry campbell and joseph perot are still employed at the vpd are glaring in samples the fact that it took a three hundred thousand dollar buyout to remove jason bell advance from his from the department after his assault of derby melly and john braysha is another bottom line this system doesn't hold officers accountable this is why it's critical that the power to investigate and discipline officers be put in the hands of the community through creating a community control board that operates independently from the police department as the proposal outlines it is crucial that this board be made up of members of our community who are most impacted by police violence centering by pock lgbtq lgbtq folks those who have experienced houselessness substance abuse disorder and other historically marginalized groups brollington needs to start following the lead of the battery park movement in the and the vermont racial justice alliance and fight for meaningful tangible change for marginalized folks in our community that should only start with this charter change i urge you all to support this proposal and its entirety and fight for it to be on the march ballot thank you and you at the rest of my time thank you our next speaker will be ann lawson to be followed by andy uh sebranic um ann i've enabled your microphone great thank you and thanks for taking the time to hear from us tonight my name is annie lawson i'm a cis white woman and i live in ward four i've lived in brollington for eight years i'm a licensed clinical social worker and my professional background is in public mental health i want to urge the city council as well as the mayor to adopt the charter change as it's proposed by councilor freeman which will increase community control and oversight of the police i specifically want to express my disappointment but not my surprise at hearing a community leader share that mayor weinberger put forth his own counterproposal at short notice this is not the first time the mayor has used this strategy to undermine efforts by community organizers and it makes clear his lack of interest in engaging honestly with the public it is nothing short of a slap in the face to the community leaders who have invested countless hours in trying to engage with counselors and the mayor ahead of time so i'll use a moment of my time to recognize his continued pattern of disingenuous behavior to my city counselors it's one thing to support a blm mural on a street that receives lots of visibility but does nothing to actually support those communities most targeted by police it's another thing to enact actual policy to increase those protections in this case through increasing police accountability councilor freeman's proposal has received much community support from the public as evidenced by the turnout to this meeting tonight but in particular it has received support from bi-poch folks and from organized groups like the racial justice alliance and the bi-poch led battery park movement the significance of that cannot be overstated leading racial justice advocates in our community leading organizers of color have built and endorsed this charter change they're effectively saying here's one meaningful way to help undo systemic racism in our community these organizers already did the work for the city they are not asking the city to think up ways to address systemic racism they're saying hey we built a well researched solution to a widely acknowledged problem in our community now let's allow the public to vote on it to my white city counselors you have the power to decide whether or not you will listen to their voices please think hard about what message you send vermonters of color if you vote against this proposal and what message you send them if you support it thank you thank you i'm gonna go to andy sabranic right now i was able to locate jabari jones so jabari i'll come to you after andy andy i've enabled your microphone hey how's it going i'm andy i uh i'm a resident here in war two i've lived at converse court for about four years now i'm a white uh essential healthcare worker been living paycheck to paycheck struggling to make ends meet each month here but i still love this community a lot and i would like to see and make sure that all of our our population here in the community especially the most vulnerable are feeling safe i have a hard time imagining this is a hard decision to make but of course i do understand that we do live in a very colonial and oppressive structure here so i do understand that um that we do need to at least go through these these these motions um so i am in support of um you know making sure that there is a independent community oversight of the police department here in burlington um one that is fully independent and it's fully funded by all means um and has power for disciplinary action um i'll leave it there and and uh pass my time along thank you all right i'm going to go back to jabari jones who we had called earlier located them right now and so jabari go right ahead uh yeah thank you thanks uh for seeing my email um thank you city councillors and i'm just calling in to support this proposal for community control board we put on the ballots um and i just want to say that this is this is about raising the bar of justice um the police policing themselves as as where the bar is is insufficient and um it's perpetuating harm not safety and so i think that it's it's up to the people to decide if they want to raise the bar um and like people have said all night a lot of work has already gone into this proposal and um so i'm asking you to trust the wisdom of the people who have put in the work um or the course of months under difficult conditions and um and to to raise the bar when you know there is such a thing as self accountability for people to hold themselves accountable for the harm that they cause and i think over and over again the police have demonstrated that they're not good at that so we need a new tool we need a new means to hold uh these city employees accountable uh and so that really requires like an independent body with authority with real teeth when you have a police commission or somewhere there's a civilian police review board or something like that that doesn't have any teeth it's just performance and that's a waste of time it's a waste of money it's a slap in the face of people who are trying to put in the work and who actually just want justice non-retribution not the guillotine basic justice so i hope that you'll respect that and um approve putting this on the ballot thank you thank you debari our next speaker will be becky laird to be followed by eva fusco so becky i'm going to come to you i've enabled um let's do an here we go okay you should be enabled now can you hear me yep go ahead okay hi i'm my name is becky laird and i'm eva munter white burlington resident of board three i'm 32 years old and i use she-her pronouns i've lived here for just under 10 years doing mostly community outreach and caregiving work i've been paying attention to bpd during my time here and noting what keeps adding up to a lack of transparent accountability i've been craving a change in the disciplinary channels for officers it becomes clearer and clearer that if the police hold a position of power in our community the community must have a larger and weightier say and what happens to an officer when they use excessive force there needs to be a system of greater accountability and transparency in order to garner trust which sorely lacks police cannot police themselves i'm writing in support of the charter change put forth by consular freeman related to community control police it's important this new board be an independent body that will collaborate with the police commission this new board should be an independent of bpd with full investigatory and disciplinary powers as well as have all the resources to carry out these investigations there should be full transparency along the disciplinary route the ability to hold public hearings and testimony to provide complaint related to information to the public and the production and publication of public reports it's important this new board be diverse enough to reflect burlington's diversity and the whole community particularly those historically marginalized and the public should be able to easily access the means to file the complaint through many channels at business non-business hours and on weekends those are the points that i especially wanted to highlight and please put this charter change on question on the ballot in march 2020 2021 this is urgent and police reform can save lives if this feels overwhelming it's because this change is long overdue but not impossible some people have lives so haunted within our system that they can't ever take a break from an overwhelming reality that they don't fully feel safe your community is vocal about its commitment to building a system that more easily allows being heard protected and holds accountable those who would do harm this board is one big step in that direction black lives matter thank you thank you very next next speaker is ava fusco ava i've enabled your microphone hey can you hear me yes i can go ahead all right sick um hi i'm ava i'm white i use the she pronouns and i've lived in burlington for a few months i'm currently in massachusetts on winter break but i view burlington as my home i'm here to voice my support for community control of the police specifically counselor femons draft i think that when tons of time is spent deliberating about whether or not to even deliberate as seen in the meeting before public forum it's easy for the city counselors not affected by police oppression to become separated from the reality of the situation which is that black lives are on the line marginalized lives are on the line the lives and livelihoods of burlington community members are on the line which is why it's so vital that we establish burlington specific community control it is so clear that police cannot police themselves as shown by the miniscule or non-existing consequences given to officers bellavans campbell and coro despite the horrifying acts of violence they committed this is an urgent matter and it needs to be on the march ballot nothing but love for my comrades who spent literal days working on this draft resolution thank you i yield the rest of my time thank you i'm going to go to karen sita next to be followed by fern aguda brown karen i'm enabling your microphone mayor there i don't know why he went off especially when a black man started speaking he decided to go off so i would like to speak oh the mayor is back okay sorry i was eating because i was wondering if he was leaving for good um so my time has now started i would like to say black life has always mattered uh black disabled lives matter no matter what you're going through so sorry i was eating in the middle of this conversation um so i'm a student at shampoong college a black woman a kongalese woman a proud african uh proud african american and a student at shampoong college and a struggling student at shampoong college based off racism based off slavery based off how black women are disliked this with disrespected and not embraced and not loved at all which is a shame based off mayor Weinberger's budget and the way he tends to view america um or at least raised america so i would like to say that we deserve the whatever we're asking for we deserve the freedom we've suffered we have took the chains we have flew off the ships we have done the best we could and we continue to suffer we continue to vote for him if you don't have to do anymore he's we understand now that um our master does not have to be mar wineberger and his weird obsession with um dal pozo and cheap polices if you want an ivy league friend uh brian chana is an ivy league and he does not is disgruntled and he does not believe in um police department is just being so disheveled like your friend uh dal pozo so i'm a south brolinton resident i sleep in heavenly peace knowing that i don't have mario weinberger as my mayor we can also sleep in heavenly peace chinning county knowing that too so march is our time to tell him we don't need your budget we don't need your viewpoint we don't need your fake uh bothering because this is just a shame and i feel like you know all those kids have suffered with white parents that feel like they don't understand them he's gonna soon be in that same position i always take it personal because we all know black people are personally suffering so we he can be hurt too um it's about his time so we can take him off and we can find whoever we like and we can be proud of that person and we don't have to sit here and you know now we know who is our masters and we can say we don't want that we don't need this covid we don't need our masters and we can actually go back to a life that we're proud of um if we were ever really proud of brolinton because he's been here for how long and he's done nothing for it so again police officers don't need to sit by brattory park and watch black kids be black kids playing games you know especially since they're trying to get free food since their parents are struggling under minimum wage which is a new form of plantations so we don't have to live under that we can understand america's free um and we've always been free vermont is a free place we can be a free care as long as you're free so remember your freedom that's the whole point and remember that we can free ourselves from mario and his oppression and his budget especially in housing and health care um and that's not even talk about what he doesn't do for people and job and growth so to all my immigrants south americans africans refugees the african association who needs grants to support our people because you know how many people do you know that are really dedicated to that kind of passion so we need to i know i'm taking a full time but i'm going to just say one more thing um don't forget voting is where we decide who wins and he can leave when he wants to but we can ask him to leave legally on march so you know he can play these games through the phone calls but we can finish the game in march so just remember that always and just let him know that and you know he's going to have to find his new ways just like del pozo had to find his new ways after we'd exposed him for the lack of ethics that he had and i i'm a student at shamp plane who's taught by the chief law enforcement officer of the state who is uh tom is thonovan and i would some would say that he would disagree with your behavior and he would not understand where you're coming from and some would also say that he would be ashamed just like the rest of us so i would say uh people of burlington this is your time to fight and remove him and he knows he wants to leave and there's no point of him being there anyways so we all have our time and my time is done but our time in vermont is clearly growing so this is our time that's it and this is our vote especially that you can unmute me thank you the next speaker will be fern aguda brown um to be followed by um trish o'cane so fern i've enabled your microphone can you hear me as i can go ahead okay great my name is fern aguda brown and i use she her pronouns i'm a white resident of ward seven i'm calling in tonight to support the proposed community control board i want to honor the voices and work of the by poc folks who spoke before me on this call in the incredible amount of work that went into this charter change their mobilizing has made it so easy for me to learn about this charter change and call in to support it tonight i'm deeply grateful for their work which can make burlington a safer city for everyone but most importantly those impacted by police brutality and violence right now the police have too much power and protection and too little transparency and accountability the proposed charter change establishes an independent body and importantly holds investigatory and disciplinary aspects the diverse composition of the board is critical to its functioning and and accountability the police department should be serving listening and answering to the members of our community which is proposed in this charter change what does painting black lives matter on main street mean when we don't listen to our by poc community members who are asking for the proposed community control board counselors you have the opportunity to support substantive substantive actual change tonight that goes much farther than painting or flying black lives matter flags and the work has been done for you you have a proposal ready to go in front of you that aligns with the acl use principles for civilian oversight and with the battery park movement and the racial justice alliance please vote to ensure that this draft is on the march ballot so that the people of burlington can decide thank you thank you next speaker is trish okane to be followed by emma redden so trish i'm enabling your microphone thank you can you hear me yes i can go ahead thank you trish okane i live in the new north end i've been here five years in uh board seven i support the freeman resolution to put community control police on the ballot thank you to everyone who worked so hard on this issue i teach environmental studies at uvm and i direct an after school nature program pairing college students with children many of our kids are children of color i ask you to support this resolution so that all our children not just some of them can walk down our streets or explore burlington's beautiful woods without fearing the police i care deeply about these issues because of an incident i witnessed in wisconsin just before moving here to vermont i was in graduate school in madison walking to class when two black students a young man and woman rode by on a moped suddenly a police officer stepped into the road and began yelling the officer pushed the young man down onto the sidewalk and handcuffed him yelling at him the whole time i pulled out a notebook and started recording the exact time and what was said and done i didn't have a smartphone the officer saw me taking notes called for reinforcements and suddenly there were two police cars and several officers interrogating the three of us 30 minutes later the officer strove off without even issuing a citation the girl shaking and in tears a 19 year old nursing student said the officer told her and her boyfriend that they shouldn't ride double on a moped i insisted we file a complaint these students were too afraid the young man said to me thank you ma'am but i'm from Detroit this happens to me all the time this was not george floyd nobody was killed or injured physically but this may have been a life-changing event for those students as a privileged white woman it certainly was for me commissioner gemash explained tonight that burlington is also a city where the police can operate with impunity erasing disciplinary records after just a year after the ridiculous twitter gate scandal in 2019 involving former chief del pozo and his deputy brutality cases against three officers and the release of a horrific video it's obvious that our current system of oversight has failed the people we need a new one no one should have to fear our security forces please support the movement to change the city charter thank you thank you um i i've been able to locate mark hughes um and i believe also christine hughes um so i'm going to go to to them right now they were up earlier on the list and so i'm going to bring them back in i believe i found you under the rga name so i've enabled that microphone click you're muted on your end good evening folks mark hughes racial justice alliance what's up hey i wanted to uh just give a shout out to the council and also to all the folks who've been doing this uh work especially i'm lifting up ashley uh just many of the others folks i've been um in and out of this policy myself multiple times got a strong relationship and also i've been collaborating with jds for years on this and stuff like this so if there's any doubt in your military mind whether or not the racial justice alliance is behind us for supporting this let's just clear that up we're all over this so yes we support this in every way now i don't have enough time right now this is kind of ridiculous chasing the clock anyway so i'm not going to do it so here's what i'm going to do i'm going to tell you this consulates got any questions give me a call morrow here's the deal you know as well as anybody else that it's time to change this thing and and everybody please stop holding folks out just because they black and brown on the commission talking about oh well it's good to go we're not monolithic people i just want to remind you of one thing i resigned from the commission and i got a woman sitting right next to me who would never do it again and she did it for three years come on so what i started with you'll stop at the shenanigans you know this is all political nonsense really at the back end of this thing really what was really on the table right here is whether the political and economic power that you hold is more important than people's lives we see the same thing playing out at the national level right now right well you got folks who know they need to make a decision but they choose not to because they want to hold out because they're afraid they're going to lose political or economic power so people suffer does it sound familiar does that sound familiar so no i'm not going to chase the clock tonight but i will tell you that yes just like i told you you know back in 15 when i said please don't hire del pozo and no i didn't live in burlington at the time it's like i told you last january please take a closer look at that contract the please contract before you sign it i'm telling you right now here i am again you know folks come on you know if if you are a consular right now and you're on this car and another thing is enough with the shenanigans with all of this you know oh we're going to send it over to this this uh joint committee you got commissioners looking at this thing before the consular's come on what is what are you guys doing so consular's if you're on this call right now and you haven't made up whether or not your mind up whether you're going to go for this it's because you don't want to make your mind up because you don't you you have no intention on doing it and if that's the case just say it but at the end of the day if you really want to talk about what's in this thing i'll tell you what's in this thing if you really want somebody to explain it to you like kindergarten give me a call there's not one of you who do not know how to reach me thank you miss hughes can you pick up the timer as well please hi everyone thanks max um i am actually really encouraged to hear all of the people that spoke before me and really encouraged as somebody who has been doing racial justice work you know some directly with the police and just in the community since i was about 17 and i'm kind of old now so it's been a really long time and i am really encouraged and i wanted to pick up on something that one of the speakers said oh and also thank you councillor freeman for having the courage to put this forward um somebody was was making the point about if you're going to be committed to dismantling systemic racism this is the meat of the system right these you know we have different rules and laws and all these different ways that people escape accountability or get to you know police themselves and if you think about like other professions like you know doctors and a whole bunch of people even the work that i do with people with disabilities helping them find employment there's like a couple of different oversight measures for me the work that i do does have an impact on people's lives but we're talking about police who obviously can get away with killing people or hurting people i mean how is there any question about whether or not we need oversight and oversight from the community talk a lot about community policing but we stop short when it comes to putting any power in the community's hands that are the ones that are being policed um i did serve on the commission i did finish a three-year term it was really significant for me to watch mark walk away from that because he doesn't walk away from much all of you know him and you know how hard he works and um i honestly you know when i was on my way to the police commission meetings i used to say to my kids i'm off to the rubber stamp crew meeting seriously like that's what i called it because after being there i realized that we had no power and i was kind of wasting my time so yeah get this done thanks for your time and for your work so racial justice reliance is going to stay behind this we're going to continue to support it and of course we're going to lift it up we're going to amplify it but you know this shouldn't be a heavy lift folks it's really shouldn't be a heavy lift we should really just move on let's let's get back to work thank you thank you all right our next speaker will be um emma redden so i'm going to come to you emma i've enabled your microphone i live in a rental property in ward two and i grew up in vermont i moved to berlington about four and a half years ago i'm a teacher of young children and i'm a white person who believes whiteness is the most dangerous part of our city um for one to the mayor um you put out your counter protest the moment the meeting started that's slippery it's sneaky it's disrespectful and we see you until the council and all the folks calling in tonight we're asking you like simply to allow democracy to happen we're asking you to to allow democracy to happen as it has happened so beautifully and with so much grief and so much grace this past year in the city we're simply asking you to allow our community to make a long overdue collective decision these charter changes are about creating barriers for abuse barriers for abuse of police abuse of power by the police barriers for abuse of power by property owners i'm here to stand in full support of the community control police charter change thank you councilor freeman and black folks in leadership for your work on this last summer after 21 hours of public testimony the longest testimony the city's ever seen the majority of the council passed the racial justice resolution that resolution was an attempt at limiting the harm the police can do to black folks to indigenous people to people without homes to people with mental illness and that was a step and it's your job again to take another step to allow the public to consider and then pass a charter change that centers the safety of black folks over the paycheck of police it's a shame it took 21 hours for you to do what's right i hope it won't take nearly that long this time i'm here to also stand in full support of the just cause charter thank you councilor high tower and the cdnr for all your work 62 percent of brillantonians rent their homes as racism is the blood of the police so is it the blood of the housing market it's in it by design that our city and all around the country that black people disproportionately have vulnerable under resource and unsafe housing it's unfair it's wrong and not our responsibility to try to redress this i hope that when next week comes and it's been a week since you heard the outpouring of love from all of us tonight that you remember that we're still here and we're still watching and we're still expecting you to show us that you believe in the dignity and the sanctity of black lives by voting with us i stand in solidarity with the battery park movement with the racial justice alliance black lives have always matter show us that you know that past the charter changes thank you thank you our next speaker will be glandriel richmond to be followed by tyler pastor rock and actually before i go to the next speaker one thing i wanted to ask is if i clerk bobby if you are city clerk bobby if you're able to um share the your screen with the list on it and if that's if you need a second to do that i can go to the next speaker and come back it's just i wanted to to give folks given given that we're getting up closer to 10 o'clock just kind of scroll through and just so that folks can see where they are on the list so that i can then so that they have an idea about where they might be on that list just so that we can give them that idea can continue to read off lots of names but that might be helpful okay maybe folks can see this hopefully you can um and again i'll try and read off a bunch of names at at at the moment and it's hard to predict again folks just because we're sometimes folks aren't on but everybody's doing a really great job and i just so appreciate everyone being right there um oh perfect thank you for doing that that's perfect awesome okay so this gives folks a little bit of an idea of just like where it is um in the queue um and we can just scan through that so hopefully we'll get through as many people as possible but just wanted to to give um that and again i'm trying to prioritize uh burlington residents in this um so that's um if you see someone in in blue that's just because i've they're a non-burlington resident and that has been our practice to highlight to prioritize burlington folks so um that should give you a little bit of an idea of where folks stand and some folks did write to me and ask to just have their names taken off so that's why i've highlighted them and registered i know about that but see we have quite a few folks signed up i don't know that we're going to be able to get to everybody this evening but just wanted to give everybody an idea of where there are on this on this list so um thank you so much um see clerk boby for doing that i'm very much appreciate that and again i'll keep trying to call folks on the list um just so that we can try and get to you um or give you an idea as to where you stand and if you're coming up so um let's keep going um with the forum keep trying to get to as many people as possible so um next speaker is glandriel richmond and um they're going to be followed by tyler pastorock so glandriel i'm going to come to you please correct me if i pronounced your name wrong that was perfect thanks max um my name is glandriel richmond i use she her pronouns i live in the south end of burlington and ward five i've lived in burlington for 30 years and i've been at my current residence in ward five for the last 23 years i'm a middle-aged white woman and i haven't had occasion to interact with the burlington police department in all of that time i'm embarrassed to say that for a long time i assumed that that meant everything was going fine and that my experience or lack thereof was evidence that all was well it seems so obvious now that i was wrong to assume i knew there were problems other places but not here i thought not only was i surprised to learn how wrong i was but i was shocked when i found out that our policing uses almost a quarter of our city budget burlington police officers have a challenging and complicated job and i'm happy to have my tax dollars pay them a generous salary however i think it's time for us to take a look at how city resources can be used more effectively when it comes to policing and supporting a community oversight and control board can be one of those ways we need transparency and accountability we need to do everything we can to ensure that all of our residents and visitors are receiving equitable treatment we need a community control board that is completely independent of the burlington police department it's not reasonable to expect the police to police themselves so i support the charter change proposed by counselor freeman and i urge the council to support it let's get it on the ballot and let burlington voters weigh in on this issue thank you thank you so our next speaker will be tyler pastorock to be followed by grace um i hope should be able to find you um but tyler i'm going to come to you and enable your microphone right now hello and i can hear you go ahead tyler uh good evening counselors my name is tyler i use he him pronouns i'm a white resident of ward three i've only lived in burlington a few months but vermont for a few years i currently work as a solar installer in the region i first quickly wanted to speak in support of the charter change to allow the city to regulate thermal energy systems and buildings we choose the rules of our economy no matter how you look at it and right now the rules favor energy systems that exploit people and ecosystems all over the world uh yes burlington is small and our direct impact may seem minimal but we can set an example for cities around the country and that impact can be significant and also benefit local businesses who specialize in these technologies but i'm mainly calling in tonight to speak in support of the charter change to establish an independent community control board of police with full disciplinary and investigatory powers one that is representative of people who are marginalized by police and one that is well resourced for its role there are plenty of folks in the community here tonight emphasizing the details they care about so i wanted to share my concerns about counselors i've seen saying this proposal hasn't had enough time and is lacking the necessary input to move forward if you're sitting here tonight thinking something along those lines my question for you is where have you been many of you voted months ago to initiate this process agree that racism is a public health crisis but haven't engaged with this proposal at all until just this past week meanwhile countless members of the public along with local experts and relevant organizations have given thorough input and endorsements for this proposal so to sit here now and say you have issues with it and want to gather more input or go in a completely different direction when you have had months months to speak up and work with the community on this is irresponsible it's abusing your power and it tells me that you don't care enough about community members that suffer at the hands of police to be proactive and engage with this issue as an ally this is epitomized by mayor uh by the mayor waiting to post this proposal until this meeting already began as now mentioned earlier morose proposal completely throws out the community control board and even the police commission can only override a decision by the chief with one short of a unanimous vote vote this isn't even remotely close to what the community is asking for he's blatantly playing games to obstruct this proposal um i'll skip to the end here this proposal is a creation of dedicated counselors law experts and most importantly importantly the public do not throw this out do not jump to a last minute proposal coming from the man at the top maintain the integrity of the current proposals for values and get it on the march ballot thank you thank you all right our next speaker i believe i've located you grace um so i'm going to enable your microphone and grace is going to be followed by um emily wanzer so grace should be all set it's grace warlock you see your pronouns and i'm a resident before long i've lived and worked in berlington for five years calling in support of passing the charter language set forth by councillor freeman for the creation of the community control ward i want to start by saying the idea of this draft proposed being rushed and cannot be cannot be an excuse here as city counselors i feel that it is your position and roles we keeping up these charter change community committee meetings and charter draft language proposed by councillor freeman have been occurring and available for over a month the pertinence of this to your constituents and the safety of bipoc constituents has been loud and clear and should warrant your close attention concerned public members and bipoc organizers have tuned in and done so much painstaking work reading through and suggesting upon language and policy holding police officers accountable is a very pressing issue and to truly investigate and discipline them independently from the berlington police department is essential these issues must be handled with great care and adding them to the responsibilities of the police commission is broadening their scope past their capacity two officers remain in uniforms with blood on their hands and one of them has been paid out 300 000 in a comforting retirement package it doesn't sit right the harm that was done will alter the victims of this violence without proper repair the physical harm caused by officers bellivance cambell and coro is held in a feeling of vulnerability and fear by berlington citizens to properly address these issues the board must have the power to investigate and discipline officers there must be a place for public complaint that is entirely autonomous from the institution of police that has harmed them the police commission's advisory stance has proven null and void to the action that must be taken this board will not give a seat at the table the board will not only give a seat at the table to bipoc in the most marginalized who should be centered in relationship to police but it will allow for folks to be able to take real action we are so lucky to have bipoc community members who are willing to do this work what we have here has been thought thoughtfully deliberated in the countless hours and unequivocal attention of peri freeman and community members it is your job to listen and get it on the march ballot and let the public vote on it it's their decision please do this thank you all right our next speaker will be emily wanzer to be followed by julie mesuga emily i've found you and have enabled your microphone hi my name is emily wanzer i'm a student in berlington resident of ward two um i had some words prepared about why i support the community controls police and the proposed policy introduced by councilor freeman but as i've listened to my peers in my community speak i've realized that the only thing that i have to say tonight is that if you do not support this charter change you are failing us all this is about keeping us safe keeping those most marginalized by our oppressive systems safe listen to what our black leaders our black women and black people of marginalized gender identities are telling us vote yes put this on the ballot in march i also want to lift up our immigrant neighbors and community members and say nomos poli migra finally i would also like to add that i support the charter change for just cause evictions i'm a renter here and i didn't even know until a few weeks ago that i could be kicked out of my own home without any reason for why we know that berlington has a housing crisis and if my four housemates and i were kicked out it is very likely that we would not be able to find affordable places to live i also support the charter change for decarbonization now is the time to act to save our planet and ourselves and this action must happen at every level these measures must go on the ballot in march black lives matter thank you thank you next speaker will be julie mesuga i think i think i know where you're under okay um my name is julie mesuga i use she her pronouns and i live in ward two i'm here to support the model that counselor freeman has put forward as well as the thermal regulation item i'm here as a queer white woman and also as a fossil fuel resistance organizer i recently had an experience well where fully armed police officers came to my apartment completely unannounced i had to tell the officers i did not want them to come inside because the last time someone came into our house under similar circumstances someone was completely traumatized i know the berlington police department why would i want to invite that violence into my home right now it seems that berlington is okay with police brutality especially against by pock we've seen that the bpd will fire someone immediately for perjury but wait eight months to even mention an officer cracking a man's skull for no reason the police commission is not separate enough from the police it's meant to oversee and discipline this is similar to letting a grade schooler grade their best friend's test it doesn't work and it doesn't foster trust meanwhile the mayor is trying to consolidate more power for himself we need an independent oversight board that represents our community and especially those with marginalized identities i also want to speak to this thermal regulation item fracked gas infrastructure can be a 50-year commitment and one that disproportionately impacts by pock and low-income communities paying fees for electrification now will save us in decades to come and we won't be stuck with stranded assets city control of thermal regulation can help make this a reality the newest fracked gas pipeline that cut through our state had a projected cost of 87 million dollars which nearly doubled to 165 most of which had to be paid by vermont gas ratepayers for only 900 new customers which comes to 183 thousand dollars per new customer which federal regulators would not have allowed on top of all of that the gas we get is coming from indigenous territory in so-called alberta it's not even energy being produced in the united states let alone vermont so please help give our community power to reduce the harm caused by violent officers and from fossil fuels thank you thank you our next speaker will be m bower to be followed by traf fryer and let me do a couple names after that as well just so folks know where they're where they stand on the list um i have um i couldn't find kelly o'donnell and i believe has let known that kelly was not planning on speaking so then traf fryer meg tragollo gabriel ellie or elie um william keaton um rosalyn or rosalyn um kimberley chatwell daniel scha grace amed um jake van vol vol vol vol vol vol lear um maria castine alana redden ian lund jazelle glassby christine fleming alexandra karambolas lydia kern amy malinowski and emma galvin so those are just another couple of folks who are coming up i'm going to go to m bower now to enable your microphone hi my name is em bower i use they he pronouns i'm a white trans ward two resident i'm also lifelong vermonter i've lived in berlington for over two years now and i have family who also lives with berlington i'm here in support of community controlled police and the proposed policy introduced by councillor freeman in particular i'm supportive of this policy as it grants the board an investigatory and disciplinary power and calls for complete independence from the berlington police department i know that this policy has received significant input from our community and that it will continue to center by pock in those from historically marginalized communities including but not limited to my fellow members of the lgbt community and those who have experienced houselessness mental illness and addiction by mandating diverse and representative board membership it's essential that we create effective oversight of the police that is completely independent from the berlington police department it is evident by the fact that joseph coro and kori cambell are still officers of the berlington police department that our current systems cannot be relied upon to hold the police accountable community organizers have put hours of mental and emotional labor into addressing this wrong as others have said before me if the city can acknowledge that racism is systemic our leaders have the responsibility to take action to work to end it and let our city vote on this policy i'll add that i am also in favor of the just cause evictions charter change thank you for your time and i yield the rest of my time thank you all right our next speaker will be trav fryer to be followed by meg tragolo trav i'm coming to you and have enabled your microphone hi thanks for having me i'm trav fryer assist white man landlord and ward two i've lived in berlington most of the past 15 years i'm calling to support councillor freeman's community control of police resolution i think the police must be accountable to the people and to do that we need a completely independent body from the brun the police department to oversee the police department seems like common sense to allow it to be voted on in march it shouldn't be a huge decision just to allow it to be on the ballot so thank you all for your work on this and i yield my time thank you so our next person will be meg travolo meg i found your microphone um before i do that let me just say who's next um we got gabriel elie or ellie um so go ahead meg it looks like you're muted on your end there you go okay hey my name is meg travolo i'm a resident of resident of ward three currently i've been covering city news for various local outlets since i moved here in 2017 my opinions don't represent any publication i've written for those three and a half years have proven to me that berlington desperately needs community oversight over the police department so many incidents of violence and profiling getting ignored or forgotten about even cori cambell the officer who killed douglas killberg may he rest in peace got two weeks paid vacation afterwards the police also disproportionately target black berlington residents the population of this city is only 4 black but black people make up between 15 and 20 of those that bpd officers stop suspect and arrest that's a direct statistic from bpd's website they admit that's straight up it is clear by now but not only is policing as it exists across this country a harmful presence berlington police go out of their way to avoid policing themselves nobody's watching the watchman so i am in full support of the proposal for an oversight committee made up of the community members who are impacted by bpd violence the most last lives matter i yield my time new i was not able to locate um gabriel elie so i'm going to go to william keaton next actually i believe already okay william keaton yes there we go i found you and enabled your microphone all right awesome uh my name is will i use he and pronouns i've uh been in brilliant in for 20 years as a local um if american exceptionalism is the idea that america is invincible invincible uh i say like i think like vermont exceptionalism is the idea that vermont is like a paradise for white people where politicians build pits in the city as you know people like swim with the beach and ski in the winter or whatever and i think we can all say that that's a lie that conceals the blood and violence endemic to our state and the country in general uh we have to realize we as white people and uh active agitators is that this is not a radical change we're asking for this is this is one step towards eradicating the police institution uh fundamentally built in slavery and slave patrols and the terrorizing of black people and vicious people and many other types of people so um yeah we're not really in here you know begging for you to do this uh we're in here you know demanding that you do your jobs and then you know we the people will do our jobs by holding you accountable uh that's all i have to say i see my time thank you um our next speaker will be um i was unable to locate rosalind so i was i've got kimberley chadwell um to be followed by danielle scha so kimberley i've enabled your microphone can you hear me yes i can go ahead okay my name is kim chadwell i use she her pronouns i am a white resident of ward three here in burlington i have lived here for two years and plan to make burlington my long-term residents as i pursue an education and software engineering two of my three younger sisters also live in burlington and we are collectively invested in getting this charter changed for community control of police introduced by councilor freeman onto the march ballot i had further points um regarding different aspects of um the policy but um at people who have gone before me have really driven that home so i want to speak to those who hesitate to back um to back the community control of police if you are hesitating because of quote unquote snappy slogans like defund the police if you see this policy policy shift as unorganized call for lawlessness i urge you please look at the contents of this charter and ask who really does this harm is there any language that actively harms law-abiding officers does it not just ensure that all are abiding by the laws and people they swear to protect and dole out appropriate consequences should they violate those oaths as police officers it seems only logical that they be held to certain standards and that we as a city ensure they face appropriate action should they fail to uphold those tenets when interacting with our populace police officers who do their job without bias and malice will not be harmed by this long overdue call for accountability thank you thank you am i was not able to locate danielle scha so i'm going to come to grace amid grace i'm going to enable your microphone i'm grace amid i'm a south district resident um i support a vote to put the resolution relating to an independent community control board to oversee investigation and discipline of police misconduct on the march ballot um i find it morally unacceptable that thousands of people were out in the street in burlington this year protesting dangerous officers on our streets and we were told that there was no legal procedure that the community could use to remove officers that we do not feel safe having policing us um the charter change is the beginning of a process of obtaining community consent in how we want to be policed and we need more direct democracy in burlington and i would like to see this on the ballot and take it to the voters and i see my time thank you thank you all right so jake van wolverier i'm to be followed by maria castine jake i'm enabling your microphone hello um my name is jake van wolverier i'm a white resident of ward two i'm calling in in support of both the community control over police as well as the just cause evictions at the core of both of these resolutions is the right for community members to feel safe in the city that we live in as it currently stands landlords have the right to evict tenants with no justification um yeah housing is a human right and allowing landlords to use eviction as a threat to tenants is indefensible no one should ever be kicked out of their house because some wealthy landlord just wants to make even more money off the backs of exploited renters just cause evictions gives tenants the much needed security um to put down routes and become permanent members of this community just cause evictions is a long-term investment that will we will benefit from for decades to come additionally burlington is also experiencing a housing crisis um and we desperately need tenant protections in place if we want to protect the soul of the city um and that soul being of course the working class tenants who make the city function uh working class renters are already being gentrified out of the city and we need immediate action in the form of just cause evictions to prevent our city from becoming a place where only the wealthy can afford to live i yield the rest of my time thank you our next speaker will be maria castine maria i've enabled your microphone and maria will be followed by alana redden hello can you hear me yes i can go ahead hi my name is maria i am a resident of ward six i grew up in milton vermont spending a lot of my weekends in burlington and i have been a resident for about three years total um i'm also an educator in the burlington school district i'd like to express my support for both the just cause um resolution and the charter change for the um community control of police um i see a lot of similarities to this um situation as last year when we were working on the nomos poly migra resolution when mayor weinberger um brought up his new um memo the day we were going to deliberate it as well as people being afraid to join in to something that created substantial change you all signed the resolution or a lot of you signed the resolution over the summer and now it's time to make a change i know that i hear you know across the board not just in city council but in school districts in businesses people want to hire consultants people want more data people want more investigation to make sure that they're not doing anything wrong they want more information they want it to be burlington specific and we can't waste any more time that doesn't help anybody um as someone said before if you're waiting to feel comfortable that's not going to happen you need to support the people um who have been spending countless hours and days creating this and it's time to put it on the ballot and have people vote thank you okay our next speaker will be elana redden to be followed by ian lond elana i've enabled your microphone yes i can go ahead um my name is elana redden and i'm a resident of word six i'm calling in support of the proposed charter change um to establish a hundred percent community led board that has both investigatory and disciplinary powers to oversee the bpd this feels like and has been proven to be the next step in advancing the priorities of the racial justice alliance the battery perk movement and protecting our community um i had my whole spiel written out and then i was just listening to the call and and the bpd speakers before me and reading through the charter change and i just have been so struck by the arrogance of you mayor and many members of the city council um that you have continued to show over the course of the summer in the fall and now leading into the winter i think that your whiteness and your fear of losing power have stood in your way of the incredible opportunity that organizers of this city have offered you month after month issue after issue community members specifically by pock leaders are spending time that they don't have doing the research the planning the visioning that you all should be brave enough to do i feel like i just keep watching you let these amazing policies and strategies and ideas just like slip through your fingers because you're so burdened or stuck in your fear around what changing this might mean and to make matters worse mayor you continually try to bypass the a plus plus plus work being created around you to then propose like a d minus alternative it's insulting it's degrading and the by pock leaders deserve so much more respect than this so i just want to remind you that you're elected to be listeners and representatives not experts we can't be experts on anything your job is to listen and and to listen to this plan that was informed by actual experts in our community at the aclu from cities around the country you are being offered an opportunity to say thank you i accept this and i want to put this forward to the community so that we can hear what the community thinks about it because that's your job and that's democracy so thank you to the organizers to the reporters or to the by pock leaders thank you counselor freeman for all your amazing work um and mayor and city counselors i just really hope you recognize the opportunity yet again being offered to you and and really um take it and run with it and let it bring it to the community thank you and okay let me i had ian lunds our next speaker folks can just direct comments to me as chair i appreciate that next person is um jazelle glassby ian lund to be followed by jazelle glassby ian i've enabled your microphone hi chair um thank you so much for this opportunity um i strongly support counselor freeman's proposed charter change and i think like alana just said it was extremely well thought out um a lot of work has been put into this and all we're literally asking you to do is just you know put it to a vote of the people in you know this city and this democracy that we live in um and that's really not too much to ask it's honestly not a lot of like sweat on your back because it's like you know we're actually going to be making a decision the people so just let us make our decision let democracy do its work um and pass this um charter change thank you thank you next speaker is jazelle glassby jazelle i've located you and in enabling you to speak your next person um will be or the next person on the list is christine fleming so jazelle go right ahead hi i'm calling in to both support the community control of police and just cause evictions just cause eviction is yet another way to help the community here in burlington landlords are yet another example of people in power who are used to impose fear and control the community landlords should not have the right to use the threat of eviction to renters and lead renters to feel unsafe in their own spaces and feel unable to report misconducting code violations people want to live in burlington and want to be able to stay here but don't want to continue having people in power controlling and forcing fear into their community members i yield the rest of my time okay our next speaker is christine fleming to be followed by alexandra carambolas um christine i've enabled your microphone hello can you hear me again go ahead hi my name is christine i use she her pronouns and i'm a resident of board eight i'm calling in in support of the charter change proposal about regulation of thermal energy systems and residential and commercial buildings the ability of the city council to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings is an important and necessary step in terms of climate action in burlington as i'm sure you already know climate change is one of the most important crises facing humanity today without urgent action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors of the community climate change will only get worse burlington has the opportunity to be a leader in addressing this crisis that is threatening literally the entire world and i strongly encourage you to support this charter change and any future climate action thank you i yield the rest of my time thank you our next speaker is alex uh carambolas to be followed by lydia kern alex i've enabled your microphone hi there my name is alex i'm a resident of ward four and i currently work as a crisis counselor i'm calling in support of councillor freeman's charter change proposal for an independent community control board this is about saving people's lives and we need your courage ongoing and relentless courage to stand up to the systems that needlessly kill and harm our people the disciplinary processes currently in place are shielded from public knowledge and recourse and were created to protect the police from accountability it is more dangerous to continue this system than it is to change it further the continued employment of violent officers has shown us that no one individual should be in charge of discipline the unilateral authority of the chief of police poses a serious conflict of interest and has proved to be a failure you all as our leaders have committed specifically to reforming our policing systems this year when you signed the racial justice as well as a protesting and public safety resolutions and that commitment included a timeline we waited years decades and centuries where these issues have been present and nothing has been done and no changes have been brought to the table year after year when community members are engaging in these processes more than our elected officials we have problems when elected officials do what they can to silence public opinion and circumvent public process we have problems maro i'm looking at you to be clear these were public discussions that have been happening for months about this proposal which has received tireless community review editing and feedback and has been backed by organizations leading efforts for reform such as the aclu the vermont racial justice alliance the peace and justice center the battery park movement and the black perspective just to name a few if you feel that this is moving too quickly you need to ask yourself why you did not make the time to show up while this has been discussed the public cannot be denied the fulfillment of this critical promise for structural change because of a lack of commitment and honestly competency for the work that must be done to deliver we need you to proceed with urgency as if this is a matter of life or death for you or your family because it is for somebody else this is what we mean by dismantling systemic racism if you can't do that job move out of the way please let us vote on this issue and stop safeguarding the system thank you thank you our next speaker is lydia kern to be followed by amy malinowski again just please direct comments to the chair um lydia i'm going to enable you hi everyone um my name is lydia kern and i'm an artist and a care worker living in burlington for the last nine years um i currently live in ward one uh i'm just really blown away tonight by words by so many spoken um the report sisters mark and christine hughes and jabari um just thank you for everyone who's been at the forefront of this um we need this charter change like christine said i don't we don't need a rubber stamp meeting uh the police commission has not sufficient community control of police with investigatory and disciplinary power is necessary um for those in our community to feel safe um this moment we're living in requires diligence as we move forward and disentangle white supremacy i think on a personal level disentangling whiteness is a task and it's a task systemically too with policy and this is such a simple clear thing we can say yes to um you've heard from us the people in your community that we want to vote on this it's really exciting to think about raising the bar in this way um you know i'm 28 and i'm young i want to be voting on these things i want to say that burlington gave me the chance to do that and so yeah an independent community board is needed um we can do this and we just got to listen and put this on the ballot thank you i yield the rest of my time thank you her next speaker will be amy malinowski amy i've enabled your microphone and you'll be followed by emma galvin awesome can you hear me yep awesome so i'm amy i'm a white woman i use she her pronouns um i grew up in jericho and then i left for a while and then i moved back this summer so now i'm a resident of board three in burlington so i'm calling in to just be like one more voice among all of these voices sharing my support for community controlled police and the proposed policy from counselor freeman um i've never listened to or called into city council meetings um until the summer and as i've been following along i'm really excited to see this proposal come to life um i want to lift up all the time and energy and expertise and emotional labor that's been put in by uh by pot community members and um i think it's critical that the proposal grants the board the investigatory and disciplinary power and and also the resources to be effective in its pursuits i'm also really excited to see that it's intentionally structured for diverse and representative board membership so i really urge you to please make sure that this is on the ballot in march uh not just because this deserves our urgent attention but also because it's really thoughtfully constructed and it's received rigorous feedback from many people across their community um so that's all i'll just say thank you thank you am i galvin next to be followed by alexandra zane i'm galvin i've enabled your microphone good can you hear me okay max yep go ahead thank you so much hi everyone my name is emma galvin i use she her pronouns i live in ward five um and i'm here like many others to voice my support for counselor freeman's charter change regarding community control of the policing as well as the just cause of fiction charter change um i grew up in berlington i moved away for several years and i came back because in this town is important to me um i have a lot of people i love here and i have a lot of people i want to be able to take care of here um but it's been really disheartening in this last year they're not particularly surprising to see organizers energy and labor and brilliance be met with such typical bureaucratic evasion and half measures um we're really speaking clearly right now we're saying that we want a city we feel safe in and we want transparency and we want community control of the policing this is a necessary first step for taking care of one another and taking care of the most vulnerable among us BIPOC folks in particular um so i just hope that everyone is listening to our voices and i appreciate all of the organizers who come before and who spoke in so beautifully this evening and have put in just hours and hours and hours of labor into this so i yield the rest of my time thank you thank you um i was not able to locate alexandra zane alexandra um you can use a raise hand function for me to to find you um if you are on i'm going to go to steven margolan um next um steven i've enabled your microphone steven i can't hear any hear you if you're speaking we can't hear you steven hello there we go okay hi um i just want to um discuss some points that were made earlier and i think remain salient most notably when this meeting started uh commissioner gamesh indicated that of the problems that the police commission currently faces the two biggest are that the chief of police is a hindrance to the process and and policy regarding disciplinary actions in such ways that may have total and ultimate authority that stops the police commission from doing anything similarly the limit of only holding police disciplines records for young for one year uh grossly diminishes the ability to track and identify patterns of errant behavior um it's these two elements that really indicate and show us that police cannot police themselves at every possible opportunity police union will defend itself and its right to abuse citizens above actually protecting them so we need to move beyond the police commission and its ineffectiveness into a community control of police and support a system that is independently run community minded with divorce voices that enables uh independent investigation and disciplinary action um which also leaves me my second point the fact that the mayor thinks he has a better plan or the fact that councillor shannon was on these policy change commissions but has openly said that she does not support it um is kind of really misleading and ultimately disruptive it's these kinds of actions that are intended to slow down the process so that we get pushed up against the wall and miss the date to have this on the march election that shows just how vain and inept it are jone listen up if you don't support this resolution vote for it in march and say no because that's your personal opinion otherwise you are failing to do your job as a city councillor put this up to the vote and let us all choose what we want thank you black lives matter hey thank you again please direct comments through the chair um our next speaker i will be wiley redding to be followed by and i'll read off a bunch of names here just so that folks know if they're coming up um we have ali martel lily lily triviato dan kirk sofia hodson jesse gustafson charlie messing jill brooks tia hunt alex ferden lienne schulman andrew gigler abigail hodson alayna feinberg andy crawford lily and vincent rachel smith sarah ciratino thea zealowski christie delphia joe meggy zoe kenninger and maggie mccoy so i'm going to go to wiley now and again wiley is going to be followed by ali martel wiley your mic should be enabled hi everyone my name is wiley redding um i live in ward two 32 years old and um i do care work and i work with kids in an after school program um i want to express my support for counselor perry's proposal um this police can't police themselves i mean it's been said over and over tonight and i don't have anything particularly interesting to add but it's just so obvious that this is what we want we keep calling we keep writing to you we keep protesting this is what we want and if you're not listening to us then why do we have a city council so i urge you to consider you know even if you don't think it's a good idea even if you personally don't think it's a good idea i urge you to consider the fact that a lot of people are telling you that it's a good idea and that it's what they want and your job is to listen to the people um that's all i got i yield my time thank you wiley i'm having trouble finding some folks now um i wasn't able to locate ali martel lili and traviato or dan kirk so i'm going to keep going i'm going to try and find sophia hodson who will be followed by jesse gustafson hey sophia i'm enabling your microphone you should be able to go now can you hear me yes i can go ahead thanks hi my name is sophia hodson and i'm a white resident of ward six i believe that it is each community member's very basic right to feel safe in their city as it stands now that it's not the case in burlington and the burlington police department has more than justified their own need for accountability i fully support the charter change related to community control of the police specifically creating a system of accountability with investigatory power that is completely independent from burlington police department i'm a trained data scientist and believe that action should be driven by looking at raw data with an unbiased perspective records and data tell their own story and it is not ethical to have that story be told by someone who stands to gain from selective reporting i believe this charter change is a necessary and long overdue step to preventing violence and building compassion in our community thank you for taking the time to listen to me and everyone else who has spoken tonight i yield my time thank you our next speaker will be jesse gustafson to be followed by charlie messing so jesse i'm going to enable your microphone hi can you hear me yes go ahead um hi my name is jesse and i live in ward seven i've lived in burlington for most of my life um i've worked in the mental health and education field with youth in the burlington area and various settings including the howard center and burlington high school i fully support community control of the police and the proposed policy introduced by councilor freeman granting investigatory and disciplinary power to a board comprised of those in our community most historically marginalized and impacted by police violence is critical i also support this board being completely independent of the police department allowing the police to police themselves as a threat to our community it took a movement and a buyout for bellivance to be removed from the force and abusive officers coro and campbell are still on the force today despite public outcry it's clear that the current system is unable unwilling and uninterested in actually holding police officers accountable we live in a city that has declared racism a public health emergency but claims it's unable to fire violent police officers if you all truly believe racism is a public health emergency act like it and listen to and honor the black organizers who have put in hours of work on this charter change and support community control of the police thank you for your time thank you our next speaker will be i was not able to locate charlie messing or jill brooks but i did find tia hunt who will be followed by alex ferdan so tia i'm going to come up to you and i've enabled your microphone can you hear me yes i can go ahead hello my name is tia hunt i'm a white woman i use she her pronouns and i've been a resident of ward two for four years now i'm a nurse in the uvm mc emergency department and i'm calling in today to express my full support for the charter change related to community control of police proposed by counselor freeman i started my career as an emergency department nurse in september of 2019 and within six months i was working on the front lines of a pandemic saying firsthand how the cove 19 virus was affecting our community and specifically disproportionately affecting our bipop community in july of this year around five or so months into the pandemic you mayor Weinberg and the city council announced racism as a public health emergency in accordance with the demands and work of the vermont racial justice alliance with this declaration of an emergency there should come an element of urgency the need to take action quickly in order to protect our bipop community members from continued harm this independent community control board is one of those sustainable actions that is absolutely necessary not only to create proper oversight of the police department but also to protect the health and safety of bipop and historically marginalized community members our community and specifically the bipop leadership in our city have made it abundantly and repetitive repetitively clear to this council that the way our police department is currently being run is absolutely unacceptable and unsafe i hope that the city council takes action to support your own repeated statement that racism is a public health emergency and puts this charter change on the ballot for the immediate safety of our community this charter change has the ability to save lives thank you and i yield my time thank you so i was not able to locate alex furden so i'm going to go to lianne shulman to be followed by andrew gigler lianne i've enabled your microphone hello my name is lianne shulman um hopefully you all can hear me now and i am a white cis woman i use she her pronouns and i am a resident of ward seven where i've lived for six years now i am calling in to support the charter change uh proposal by councilor freeman as well as the just cause eviction and the proposal relating to climate change and housing weatherization regarding community control of the police this is something that is long overdue and has been demonstrated through the actions of our police leadership in this city to be eminently necessary i really hope that this council can trust that the citizens of berlington should be able to vote on how our community is our community police officers are overseen and who gets to control who controls the police it should be the community and we should at the very least get the opportunity to vote on that i strongly urge all of the council members to vote to get this on the march ballot there's been lots of discussion about this i have been able to participate in just a few of those meetings and i greatly appreciate all of the people who have worked so hard to make this possible um i yield the rest of my time thank you all so much thank you our next speaker will be andrew gigler to be followed by abigail hodson so andrew i'm going to come to you and enable your microphone you should be able to go hello can you hear me it's like any go ahead hello my name is andrew gigler i am a white cis man you see him pronouns in a resident of ward one in berlington i'm a student at uvm and live in berlington for over three years and at uvm i work i've worked as a resident advisor and i'm currently a peer mentor i support the charter changed introduced introduced by councillor freeman and i thank councillor freeman and all of the community members especially bypaw community members who have had a role in developing this charter change i agree with pretty much all of the reason said by everyone who has spoken before me the current police commission does important work but it does have limited disciplinary powers to fire police officers it has no true investigatory power and it is not completely independent from the bpd berlington is in clear need of an independent body with real power and to all of the city council members who still are considering if they are going to approve this proposed charter change or not i simply ask you to listen to all of the bypaw leaders and put their concerns first when considering what public safety in berlington should look like these bypaw leaders have been marching the streets speaking at public meetings and getting in touch with local lawmakers nearly every single day since august when the battery park movement began but their demands and efforts go back much further than that and many of them have dedicated their lives to this please do not put your concerns first just simply listen to me and the nearly 136 other people i believe that have called in this meeting all echoing the same demands listen to people to berlington that are willing to step up and make this fight part of their life especially the bypaw people that do this every single day thank you black lives matter okay so our next speaker will be abbey hodson to be followed by alayna feinberg so abbey you should be able to speak hey can you hear me all right um yes i can go ahead great thank you um so my name is abbey hodson i'm a white resident of ward six and like so many before me i'm calling in to support the formation of an independent community control board to oversee police in berlington um a lot of this is just going to be echoing what other people have said um but i'd like to reinforce that a lot of research and energy and time went into this proposal and i strongly encourage everyone here to put this on the ballot in the spring so that your community can vote on it um this is exciting but also it's not that radical we've seen it in a lot of different cities like chicago madison many more um and i think it's about time that berlington follows suit the couple things it's really important that this board has disciplinary and investigative power complete independence from dpd diverse representation and enough resources to uphold the principles of the aclu for community control of the police um like i mentioned before um i'm a white person who loves her community and is trying to be um a better ally and to unlearn racism and i'd just like to ask that all the other white council people tonight consider why um for you just to consider why you say the things you say and why you do the things you do um because in my experience as a white person i found that sometimes i'm saying the things i say because i care more about being perceived as anti-racist than actually being anti-racist um so i think it's really important um that everyone kind of you know questions why they're saying the things they're saying and doing the things that they're doing to make sure that we do the things we do because we actually care about keeping other people safe um because you talked a big talk this summer about caring about this mantling systemic racism and if you want to prove to your community that you actually care about this and you don't just care about being perceived as anti-racist then you'll put this on the ballot um thank you so much for your time and attention tonight and i saved the rest of my time i think i found alexandra zane and enabled them to speak alex okay so this is an alex this is actually a bipod can you hear me okay so maro this is actually for you so as a bipod i feel disrespected that you're using your daughter as protection i don't fuck with that all right so if you're really fucking with black life matter how about you stand up and actually do something actually matters all right thank you that's all i want to say black life matter and fuck you and wait one more that's my foot being put down please don't do that we could just please direct comments to the chair our next speaker will be alayna feinberg to be followed by andy crawford so alayna i'm gonna come to you alayna you should be able to speak can you hear me yes um hi my name is alayna feinberg i use any pronouns i'm a white non-binary person and a resident of uh ward three i've lived in burlington for nine years i'm speaking to voice my support for just cause eviction as well as my support for community control of policing and the proposed policy introduced by councillor creaman um as you heard uh this proposal includes input from uh bipok and historically marginalized groups in our community while also aligning with the acl use principles as well as those of operation phoenix rise and the battery uh park movements demands as well um i support the creation of a new independent uh community oversight board comprised of diverse representatives um and that that board will have uh investigatory and disciplinary power over the police um police cannot police themselves community control over police is necessary um this proposal is really well researched um and it is what democracy looks like um please support putting this charter change on the ballot in march thank you okay thank you go to andy crawford next um i was not able to find andy so i'm going to go to lillian vincent lillian i have found you and have enabled your mic hi can you hear me yep okay um hi my name is lillian um i'm a white resident of burlington i live in ward eight um i've lived here for in burlington for six or seven years now and i've lived in vermont for the past 13 years um i was calling in to support um the just cost charter um change and also the community control of police um charter change um and yeah i mainly want to talk about the community control of police one um just that the police were created to uphold white supremacy and enact racial violence and seeing resistance to the community control it's really clear where people's priorities are um on one side you have literal white supremacists who created this and on the other side you have experts like the aclu the racial justice alliance the battery park movement the black perspective um and i believe also the majority of people in burlington but we won't be able to test that unless you put it to a vote um bipoc activists have given so much time and energy to create this um and to educate all of us in the public about um how this would work and answer all of our questions and if you haven't been taken advantage of that i think you're not doing your jobs and you're being lazy as community members and as neighbors and also as public servants um and yeah i really hope that you put it on the ballot for march um and black lives matter i yield the rest of the time thank you our next speaker is rachel smith to be followed by um sarah sirtino so rachel i'm going to come to you now i've enabled your mic thank you very much my name is rachel smith and i live in ward one i wholeheartedly support the proposed charter change this past year has underscored just how important it is to have community control over policing given the power that police have over the lives of those in our community the community should have the power to vote on this thank you so much to vermont racial justice alliance operation phoenix rise counselor freeman and everyone else who has worked on this and i ask all of you to support placing this on the ballot and while i have a moment i would also like to express my wholehearted support for just cause eviction thank you so much i yield my time thank you our next speaker will be sarah sirtino to be followed by fea zealowski sarah your name your mic is now enabled hi there um my name's sarah i'm a white ward one resident and i use she her pronouns i'm a student activist at evm and i'm calling in to support the charter change to be placed on the march ballot that would allow the city of berlington to regulate healing systems um to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and i'm also calling in to support changing the police charter and in support of community control of police and councillor freeman's proposed policy um allowing berlington to regulate heating systems would be a step in the right direction towards getting berlington off of fossil fuels myself and my peers worry about climate change every day and as a city that prides itself on being green um it's pretty absurd that we rely on biomass which is a much more carbon intensive renewable energy source than some fossil fuels massive steps need to be made for berlington's reality um in terms of energy use to align with our outwardly projected values and this is a good first step given the time constraints associated with addressing climate change as a whole failing to pass this charter change or to do anything less than this as a first step is unacceptable in the name of my future and the future of everyone facing the front of the climate crisis near and far in particular um by pock and lgbtq folks and women um i urge the city council to adopt the charter change um and i also you know i'm sorry i had a comment prepared for the community policing but it seemingly disappeared but i will just say that the um you know i think that as people who as a city that claims to be um accepting and inclusive and one of the most diverse cities in the state we really do have to do whatever we can to make by pock feel accepted and just to you know make sure that this is the safe community and city for everyone and um having you know met so many people who have been affected by the way that policing is done in berlington it's really just really ridiculous that there are people who still think that there isn't a massive problem that needs to be changed drastically in the ways that we police the city um so yeah i yield my time thanks oh okay so our next speaker is theas luski to be followed by christie delphia fea i've enabled your mic hey you should be enabled now if it looks like you just need to unmute on your end okay can you go to christie delphia christie i've enabled your microphone one knows exactly what i'm here for i've been the driving force behind just cause evictions since the city and our meetings started in february started back up again in end of june beginning of july as i sit here this evening i watch our city crumble under the weight of systemic racism in housing reforms that are not being performed as we have repeatedly asked i sit here in an apartment with my 75 year old mother during a breathing pandemic and have had to endure drugs being cooked in a building that we are living in causing us to have fans in our windows at 15 below zero sitting here with blankets on our legs and our winter coats on because the landlord refuses to turn the heat up we are being evicted from this apartment because we have complained to code enforcement we are allowed to be evicted by this system for no cause and that's exactly what the eviction is about we are being forced to prove that this is a retaliation eviction this is absolutely unacceptable behavior from certain people using their powers to use city officials to let landlords know about things happening in this city and not notifying tenants to deals that have been made that i've now been broken which is one of my biggest pet peeves and i had to deal with all of my life we are screaming for these reforms countless hours countless protests and countless voices are telling you you are the government of the people by the people and for the people we are the people you need to listen to what we are telling you i am seriously scared that my three grandchildren are going to grow up in a world where systemic racism and political power takes over the voices of those who are marginalized beaten unhoused and disrespected now is the time for you to stand up and do your jobs and listen to the people that are telling you what they want this is our world this is about our protections please do your jobs hold up to your agreements stop using your personal political powers and personal political views to control our lives please stop arguing over the may or shall and pass this resolution for just cause evictions that will stop people from being kicked out of their homes for no reasons better our community and stop making tenants live in fear i strongly urge you to pass these resolutions as they are written and give the people the choice to vote on their own protections thank you thank you so it is now 11 o'clock per our motion um so um we that will be our final speaker for the evening um we had had a motion on the consent agenda as well um someone councilor stromberg are you able to make a motion on the consent agenda yeah so i moved to adopt the consent agenda as amended and take the actions indicated okay is there a second to the consent agenda seconded by councillor paul any discussion of the consent agenda councillor hanson uh is there an opportunity after we vote on the consent agenda to complete the public forum if we if we choose to as a body um i mean if i i guess the councillor could make a motion um though yeah i mean so any other discussion on the consent agenda um hearing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor please say aye hi hi i opposed hearing none that passes unanimously councillor hanson yeah i would i would like to move that we finish the public forum especially since we we've already cleared the dock of other items i think we should hear from folks who've been waiting for hours to speak um and let everyone speak so i would like to make that motion okay second seconded by councillor high tower councillor hanson just so i understand you mean burlington residents and non-burlington residents yeah okay okay so there's a motion and a second is there any discussion of the motion councillor hanson um how many people left do you think um we're at 104 and i have a total of 147 signed up and then there's other burlington residents non-burlington residents who gone over um in part of the prioritization and there's probably maybe a dozen or so of those as well so we're talking maybe 50 more people or more but again i don't know how many folks are still on the line so that's another aspect of it so it can sometimes like as it gets later it can go more quickly so because not that many people are on with the 80 folks on so i don't know of those folks who still has yet to speak okay thank you and this is i believe requires a two-thirds because it's an amendment to our agenda so point of order yeah councillor shannon aren't we voting on the same thing twice because we already voted on how we're doing this and we already voted on ending the um public forum at 11 taking up our consent agenda and now we had 40 minutes of debate about our agenda and so now we're going to do that again i don't think that that's um i don't think that we can actually vote on the same thing twice attorney blackwood are you able to please weigh in yeah i was weighing that myself the the motion that i wrote down that you voted on before said that you were going to um do hear public forum until 11 p.m then take up the consent agenda then recess and continue to next monday so i think you've already voted to recess once you um done the consent agenda you you can't amend your agenda now you can't change your agenda and i think you've already um uh voted to recess after the consent agenda okay councillor hinson can we reconsider that motion attorney blackwood um my concern is that the opening law now requires your agenda to be the first item that you work on and once you've set your agenda um i'm not sure that you can think it again okay i mean i mine my interpretation from the maker of the motion was that we weren't meant that was that we weren't meant to continue the am i still do i still have the floor but i'll give you i'll get to come to you next councillor polina um yeah my interpretation from the motion was that the whole idea was that we would complete the public forum tonight so that next monday we could dive into our work the way that we're doing it right now we would just reopen the public forum next monday and continue so i don't i don't feel that this is consistent with and also i feel that as a body you know we should be able to make this decision at this point councillor polina i i appreciate uh eileen's a clarification of the previous motion so i wanted to ask a follow we so it's a point of information point of order i'm not sure but it really is we can't really entertain motions if we voted already and it was to recess immediately after can we i guess one question yeah i mean i i think you did vote that okay thank you one more point of information and apologies yeah sorry this is for me because i don't think i totally did i guess did in terms of reconsider i thought that councillor hanson had voted no and please sorry just correct me but on so why wouldn't he be allowed to reconsider if he voted no on the original proposal turning back what are you able to answer that um i'm i'm i'm thinking about it it's late at night and i'm thinking about it councillor mason just a further point of information i i want to make sure because i think councillor hanson said something incorrect the motion that passed was to have public forum till 11 recess the meeting there is no public forum starting on may 14th that is not consistent with what councillor hanson said okay turning back would any further thoughts on this i am um i just want to look i'm looking quickly at the open meeting law and what it says about setting your agenda so if you could give me just a moment to do that president tracy may i weigh in yes go ahead councillor shannon i thought that councillor i may have misunderstood the question but i thought that councillor high tower's question was about the fact that um councillor hanson had voted no so why can he not make the motion was that correct was that the question yes often yes so he can't only those voting in the majority can make a motion to reconsider right i really bet after i asked it but okay i answered my question about the agenda you can you can't add or delete anything to the agenda but i'm not sure this would be either in addition or deletion this would be continuing something that you were just already hearing that was on it so i think you could move to reconsider the proper motion for reconsideration was made councillor freeman i'll move to reconsider okay is there a second to that motion seconded by councillor stromberg any discussion hearing none we'll go to a vote all those in favour of the motion to reconsider the question please say i actually know will the city clerk please call the roll councillor carpenter councillor jeng councillor freeman yes councillor hanson yes councillor high tower councillor high tower yes councillor mason no councillor paul yes councillor paulino no councillor pine yes councillor shannon no councillor stromberg yes city council president tracy yes eight eyes four days okay so the motion to reconsider carries and we are now back to the original to the the original motion correct attorney blackwood yes uh point of order yep go ahead councillor shane it's possible to reconsider an agenda that we just went through we've already like doing the thing that we've reconsidered so how is it possible to reconsider the agenda the motion that that i think that you were reconsidering is hearing public forum until 11 p.m and then taking up the senate and then resourcing and continuing until monday that's that portion of the that your that you approve the agenda with that part in it so now you have to decide even though you started your agenda can you reconsider what i'm looking at in the in the open meeting law as it says an addition to or deletion from the agenda has to be made as a first act of business but any other adjustment to the agenda can be made at any time so i'm looking at this as you you adopted the agenda with that additional language in it and that you can that now it says you can make an adjustment to the agenda and you're doing that by reconsidering the agenda you can't undo what you've done of the agenda so far but what you haven't yet done it seems to me you can adjust i don't believe that's a reconsideration point of information councillor freeman go ahead so is the motion attorney blackwood now then if we did want to extend the public forum um would i be amending councillor high tower's motion or would i just move to extend the forum well what you just voted to to to reconsider is your motion to um to adopt the agenda and it has written on in on board docs plus amended as amended with the public forum ending at 11 and recessing after you did the consent agenda point of information on that go ahead councillor polina so i thought earlier i mean you clarified we you had to be in the majority of that vote of the amended of councillor high tower's amendment to the agenda in order to reconsider i thought we clarified that i don't know what you're asking it was councillor hansons motion and he voted against it councillor freeman made this motion that you're looked to reconsider that you voted just voted on but she also voted no that's not the case councillor polina so i have councillor paul then councillor hanson go ahead councillor paul thank you president tracy um i just have a quick question for attorney blackwood so i've always been um under the impression that we cannot vote on the consent agenda until the public forum is finished so should we have voted on the consent agenda on the off chance that there was someone in the queue who wanted to speak to a consent agenda item you have to allow public comment before you vote on the consent agenda you announced that you were limiting public forum until 11 p.m and then you were going to vote on the consent agenda you have done that you're now talking it seems to me about reconsidering your what you had put in the agenda as your next action which is to recess until the next meeting okay all right that's all in the interest of time thank you i you've answered my question okay councillor pine i'd like to move to call a question okay so we're calling the question on the original motion which was to reconsider the original question which was to end at end at 11 and recess to our next meeting and attorney blackwood this would just require a simple majority right point of order i don't know that there's an item on the floor we pass the motion to reconsider that pass right but then you have to actually vote on the question itself you have to decide whether you want to reopen the question and then the question itself is on the floor and now councillor pine has called the question no motion has been made though no but the motion was on the floor already it had been made we're reconsidering it so now councillor pine has called the question on on this and councillor and motions to call the question are non-debatable is there a second to the motion to call the question seconded by councillor hightower these motions require to the motion to call the question requires two thirds will the city clerk please call the roll councillor carpenter please remind me what i am going on here calling the question oh yes councillor jang yes councillor freeman no councillor hanson no councillor hightower yeah councillor hightower no thank you councillor mason yes councillor paul yes councillor paulino yes councillor pine yes councillor shannon yes councillor strongberg no city council president tracy no seven eyes five days okay i'm looking at paul's the question fails we're back to the the question itself councillor freeman so i can move to amend that we the motion the underlying motion to extend to continue the public forum right right yes so i'll move to extend the agenda for tonight to include the rest of the public forum okay so i will complete the public forum i'm sorry so the motion is to complete the public forum of the people who are currently signed up for the public forum okay is there a second to that motion seconded by councillor hightower any discussion okay hearing none will the city clerk please call the roll councillor carpenter yes councillor jang yes councillor freeman yes councillor hanson yes councillor hightower yes councillor mason yes councillor paul yes councillor paulino councillor pine yes councillor shannon no councillor strongberg yes city council president tracy yes eleven eyes one day so that amendment passes we're back to that original motion that we were reconsidering we're ready to vote on that as amended so as i understand it we're saying we're going to complete the public forum the people who signed up giving them a chance to speak and then we'll recess the meeting at the end of that and then go into the rest of the agenda and that we that we have not dealt with this evening and are not planning to deal with this evening any further discussion okay let's go to a vote all those um will the city clerk please call the roll councillor carpenter yes councillor jang yes councillor freeman yes councillor hanson yes councillor hightower yes councillor mason yes councillor paul yes councillor paulino yes councillor pine yes coun