We will now convene the regular meeting of the City Council at 7.40. Would you all please join with me in resigning the Pledge of Allegiance? First item on the agenda is the agenda. Councillor Nodell, one more time. One more time and it's a doozy. I knew you'd appreciate that. I move to amend and adopt the agenda as follows. First note, the final updated version of consent agenda item 3.34, the communication from Marie Friedman and Jean Richards regarding Burlington International Airport Budget Amendment for Fiscal Year 2019. Note, written materials for consent agenda item 3.36, communication from Jean Richards, request for approval to sign a lease agreement with the rental car concessionaires, Hertz, DGS, Avis, and LRAC, doing business as Enterprise Rent a Car, National and Alamo to occupy and operate the quick turnaround facility. Note, written material for consent agenda item 3.45, communication, grievance settlement agreement between the Burlington Fire Department and the Burlington Firefighters Association per Assistant City Attorney St. James. Remove from the consent agenda item 3.52, resolution, fourth amendment to lease agreement with the Leahy Center for Lakeshine Plain, Inc., doing business as Echo from the Board of Finance. Place it on the deliberate agenda as item 4.055. Please note, not 4.10, but 4.055. Add to the consent agenda item 3.53, communication from Jeff Glasberg, CEDO, Real Estate Development Coordinator, and David White, Interim CEDO Director, regarding council update on City Place Burlington with the action to waive it, accept it, and file it. Note, Mayor Weinberger's communication regarding agenda item 4.06, resolution, contract for the reconstruction of City Hall Park, Board of Finance, per Olivia Lavechia. Note, checklist for this agenda item. Note, final version and title change for this agenda item per City Attorney's Office. Note, City Hall Park detailed budget for this agenda item per CAO Anderson. Note, updated written materials for this agenda item per CAO Anderson. Budget sources and uses updated, and CHP IFL request updated. Thank you, Councillor Nodale. Seconded by Councillor Busher. Yes, but President Wright, a question for the City Attorney. 3.45 is the grievance settlement, and we have not had executive session. Should we be acting on that, or should we remove that from consent? I think the idea of executive... Please use your microphone. Yeah, our office provided two sort of detailed communications, and the executive session was a placeholder if it was wanted or warranted on the part of the council. So it can stay on consent unless, is that what I'm understanding from you? I mean that was our perspective, but I think we were leading up to the council. Okay, all right, thank you. Thank you, Councillor Busher. President Wright, for clarification, since it's on the consent agenda, once the consent agenda is adopted, it would be approved. When we pass the consent agenda, if no one is removed, it will be passed. Right. Yes. Okay, everybody understands that. So with that, item number two is the public forum. We have to vote on that. Yes, thank you. That Councillor Busher threw me off there. All those in favor of the agenda as amended, please say aye. Any opposed? And we have our agenda. Item number two is the public forum, and we have a lively public forum tonight. So you have two minutes to speak, and we want to hear your comments. We want to hear your passion. All we ask is that there's no personalities are brought into it, be it the mayor or city councillors, that you make comments through the president of the council, and that it is respectful. We want to show how it's done here in Vermont, in Burlington, not the way it's done in Washington. So, thank you. So we will open the public forum tonight with Ali Zaparo, to be followed by Charles Simpson. Ms. Zaparo, there we are. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Thank you. And I'm sorry. Everybody make sure that, so the channel's 17, and everybody can hear you. Please pull the microphone right in close to you. Not usually on this side of that table. My name is Ali Zaparo, and I'm a resident of the Old North End. And I have the honor and privilege of calling Jane O'Dell, a professional collaborator, a friend and a mentor. I just wanted to take a moment this evening to express my deep gratitude for the work she has done on council. I've known Jane for less than a decade, but I know that the work that she's done, I've benefited from in that work she's done over many decades, including 10 terms on council, I believe, right? City of Burlington is not a place where passion for leadership and plain old criticism works. We need smart, thoughtful, brave, inclusive, and strategic people. And that is the kind of person Jane is. Jane has served on a lot of leadership roles in the city. Benefiting countless seniors, students, young Burlingtonians, our neighbors who were born outside of the US, and a number of other folks. It's not easy being a real change maker, especially when you're not in it for yourself and you engage in authentic governance. And that is what Jane does. Burlington is a sophisticated, complex city. No other city like it in Vermont. And you need somebody that has the right mix of financial management and ethical integrity, and Jane's always been that. Jane navigates positions of power with a rare sense of grace and humility and takes every decision very seriously. I haven't always agreed with those decisions, but I know that she uses her wisdom experience in her heart to guide her. Jane has one of the biggest hearts and it's one of the most thoughtful, ethical, and actually humbled people I know. So I will really miss you on City Council, but I know that you will always be an active member of the Burlington and Old Earthen community. So thank you, Jane. Thank you, Mr. Piro. And I should mention at the beginning, too, that absent any objection from the City Council, I will be having item number six, which is Councilor Comments on General City Affairs be right after the public forum. So we will be, and I will expect that we will be talking about our fellow City Councilors that are leaving, not that I can order you to not talk about something else, but I hope that's what we use our time tonight. Mr. Simpson, you're up next. Welcome. Good evening. Thank you very much. I'm a City resident and I'm concerned about the park. What can the City do with $6.3 million or $5.8 million, assuming we spend half a million on soil remediation, which it really took citizens to discover this toxic soil? Well, we could cut tracks as sure to otherwise rise once a $70 million price tag for the new brilliant high school bites deep. According to the Chinden County Homeless Alliance, there were 359 homeless on the day they last counted in the county, a 1,291 statewide, up 5% over 2017. Cities around the country are trying new methods of dealing with the problem, permanent supportive housing with social services, clusters of tiny houses with shared kitchen and sanitary facilities. What is clear is that the homeless are heavy consumers of medical services, 3,700 for a single ER visit. Heavy users requiring 44,000 a year in medical services and permanent housing cuts these visits as well as interaction with the law very sharply. Spending money in the homeless or simply returning it to the taxpayers rather than building a gilded and let's face it, ghastly Las Vegas style monstrosity of pulsating illuminated fountains on hardscape in a completely redundant performance space is a win-win. It's a win for democracy because it means the city will finally take seriously the city and state constitutional requirement, the fiscal items that generate signatures for an advisory ballot actually get put before the voters, a win because it preserves the dignity and tranquility of our central park for the continued use of children and seniors in historically sensitive and tree-shaded state, and a win because the city will have avoided making a historic, our historic downtown, a downtown where an 1816 Unitarian Church is the iconic centerpiece. Avoid making this an eyesore that a future generation will deeply regret. Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Up next is Donna Walters and Monique Fordham coming up together, I presume. Okay, yep, that's fine. So, Donna Walters and then we'll hear from Monique. So, set the timer for two minutes and then we'll start it again for Monique Fordham. Good evening, Donna and Monique. Welcome, you're going first, Monique. I'm going to go first, yes, okay. You have the floor. Thank you. Thank you, members of the council, for your time tonight. The mayor likes to talk about the years of outreach and work expended on this redesign plan. And yet after all these years, the city has never really been straight with the public as to where the funds for the project would come from. In fact, for years, the city stated on its website that the park redesign would be funded by the downtown TIF funds, period. Then just three months ago, the free press stated that quote, according to city planners, almost all of the three to four million dollar price tag would be paid through private philanthropy. A week later on May, on January 3rd, the free press printed a correction printing a quote from the mayor's spokesperson that said Burlington's share will likely be a combination of TIF stormwater funds and capital building funds. Two weeks after that, on January 18th, the mayor told Vermont Digger that he estimated the total price tag for the project to be four million dollars. And that in addition to donations, the funding would come from property taxes, the TIF, and from the institutional bond. And saying that the price was a good deal. Then on Friday, just days away from this council vote on construction funds, the mayor released his fourth configuration of city funding sources, along with a whopping new figure for the cost of the redesign, which is then now 6.3 million, a full 2.3 million more than the public had been led to believe up to this point. So today, literally with two hours before this meeting, there is another plan that's come out that in order to deal with this exorbitant price tag, skim some materials and eliminates the bathroom, which is one of the prime movers for this in the beginning, which will then be pushed through to next year's budget. In other words, hiding again the full cost of the project. In light of all these facts, how could anyone say with a straight face that there has been a robust public process here? The hallmark of this failed process has been a lack of genuine transparency glossed over by plenty of expensive slick PR and coupled with more borrowing into the future and 11-hour financial shell game maneuvers. We strongly ask the members of the council to speak up for their constituents who never got a chance to vote on this project and please vote down this astronomical exploding price tag. Thank you, Ms. Fordham. Donna Walters, and I am going to have to keep everybody to the two minutes. So I had prepared some statements, but after going to the Board of Finance meeting, just before this meeting, like, none of them are relevant. So I'm just shocked and appalled at the way this administration does business. Last minute, a bunch of deals, the public gets no notification, but apparently the private partners get notification because they were willing to cough up another half a million dollars in donations. And in exchange for that, we get fewer amenities and a lot less quality in terms of the materials they're using. So I'd like to ask the City Council to not approve this. It's too fast. It's too rushed. There's too many questions, and we don't even know what we're getting. And we don't really know what it's going to cost us because there's a lot of things we won't be getting that we will probably pay for later. So I'm almost speechless. I don't know what to say. I'm just very disappointed in the way decisions are made for projects that there's a lot of controversy around and you're just going to rush it and ram it through so you can get it done. I don't know. It's not the way I like to see business done. And I think a lot of other people feel that way too. So I hope you, you know, give some consideration to what the people that are paying for this, how they're going to feel about it. They're not going to be happy about it. And I'm sad about that. I'm sad and I'm mad. So remember in November. Thank you, Ms. Walters and Ms. Fordham. I like that. We'll remember in November and March. Brian Precourt is up next to be followed by Lauren Glendividian. Good evening, Mr. Precourt. Welcome. My name is Brian Precourt. My family owns the building. My family owns the building on the corner of Pine and Pearl Street across from Boeves Restaurant, the older one there, the Omnium Gathroom building. I'm here to comment on the sale of the municipal parking lot behind Boeves. I sort of came late to hearing about this. I knew that there was some development going on there. In 2001, I was opposed to the sale of the front portion of that parking lot to Boeves for the Victoria Place thing, where the parking lot was reduced from 57 spaces to 30 municipal spaces. Now it's being reduced further in that there's really no guarantee that those 30 spaces are going to remain. My commercial tenants use that parking. And it has a drastic effect on my building. My building that's been there for 150 years and is trying to maintain itself in that district. Last week I heard at a radio show that the mayor had made a comment that a great deal of study goes into these parking decisions. I find that hard to believe in that the study was done that the Cherry Street parking garage, the downtown one, the mall one, was torn down. This lot is being sold. And the belief that the removal of all of the parking spaces on the south side of Pearl Street was a good idea to do last summer. You're taking away all of the parking for our building. In 2001, when I complained about this, CEDO promised me that no, this will remain municipal. But if you read the agreement and I have, there's ways that they can tweak that. Those 30 spaces do not have to stay municipal. And I think it's a shame what's going on here. I was promised back in 2001 that that lot would stay municipal. And then all of a sudden, well, we're doing it. And if you look at the way the zoning was figured, You can finish your sentence. Those municipal spaces were counted into the calculation in 2001. They're being recalculated for the new development. They're double dipping on this thing. I think it's ridiculous what happened with this. Thank you, Mr. Pregar. And I don't think I mentioned the lighting system. I think most people know, but when the yellow light goes off, then you're getting close. When the red light goes off, then your time's up. But you always get to finish your sentence. You always get to finish your sentence. Lauren Glendavidian is up next. Hi, good evening. Good evening. Lauren Glendavidian. Welcome. Resident of, I'm not sure where I live, but I think it's Harrington Terrace. So I'm here to say thank you to the departing city counselors, Richard and Dave. And in particular, Jane Nodell, my friend. And I have some comments here from Megan Humphrey that I'm going to read. And here they go. Thank you for this opportunity to show my gratitude for Jane's service to the Burlington community over many years. While she began as my city counselor, Jane became a friend through mutual interests and priorities. I appreciate Jane's pragmatism, her ability to compromise with other viewpoints, her fiscal responsibility, and her commitment to remembering the most vulnerable people in Burlington. I'd like to honor Jane's lengthy history of service, of serving so many of us, most especially the older adults in the city whose voices are often left out of the conversation. Thank you, Jane, for your commitment. And I look forward to your kind heart contributing in other ways in the future. So that's your Megan Humphrey. And I would just add, I think one of the things you learn when you are in politics or observing politics is that issues really never boil down to black and white, even though on the outside it appears that they should and decisions should be easy. And so many of us here bring so much thought to what we do and research and a high degree of integrity. And Jane, you are, I think, a magnificent example of a public servant. And it means that you take the hits, but it also means tonight that we give you all the love and appreciation that you deserve. So thank you. Thank you, Lauren Glendavidian. And I'm just so glad that I did not have to caution Channel 17's Lauren Glendavidian to use the microphone. Charles Delaney is up next to be followed by Barb Alsop. Mr. Delaney, going once, going twice. Barb Alsop, good evening Ms. Alsop and welcome. My name's Barbara Alsop and I live right across the park at 125 St. Paul Street. So the park is my front lawn. But before I get to that, I want to thank Ryan Pine for nominating Julia D. Pete. I can't even pronounce your last name. Thank you. To take the place that I won as Inspector of Elections. I think she's a wonderful choice and I think she'll be a great Inspector of Elections. But with regard to City Hall Park, when I read the news that the cost had gone up over $6 million, I had a question. And that question was, where's the money coming from? And how much of city services that are necessary will not be done because we're building City Hall Park? I walk everywhere since I don't have a car and I walk over city sidewalks that are literally unwalkable in the winter. The residents carve out walkways through the snow to avoid the ice and the slush caused by damaged sidewalks. This hasn't changed in the last eight years that I have lived in downtown Burlington, but we can find $6 million to fix a park. I don't think so. I think there are more things that need to be done to make this city livable for the people who live here than to put the money into the park. I also want to make a suggestion that this being voted on by this Council, which is going to be changed by one-fourth of its members at the next meeting, is sort of like a lame duck session. And we all know what the Republicans do with lame duck sessions in Washington. Let's not do it here. Thank you, Ms. Alsop. Artie Jones is up next to be followed by Kathleen Ryan. Mr. Jones, welcome. I guess that tells you something about my handwriting. Oh, what did I'm sorry? That's okay. What did it say? Andy. Oh, sorry. Andy Jones. Thank you. I stay incorrected. My name is Andy Jones. I've been a farm manager at Interrail Community Farm for the last 25 years, and I'm here to speak to item 4.02, which relates to pedestrian and cycling access for Interrail Road. When I first came to the Interrail in 1993, it was kind of a little bit of a dodgy place, and there weren't a lot of people in Burlington that knew about it. If you look at it today, it's an incredible resource for the city of Burlington, for all of its residents and people beyond. It's incredible for recreation, natural spaces, open areas, food production, employment on all sorts of levels. From my farm where we employ 15 people and we have 12 to 1500 consumers a week come down in the summer, to lots of other places, the summer veil events hosted by our Landlord of the Interrail Center, Gardener Supply, McNeil, and the list goes on, Tommy Thompson Community Gardens. Unfortunately, everybody has to drive there because it's incredibly dangerous coming down the hill with no sidewalk, no bike lanes, a road that's in terrible condition. We have teachers who want to bring school groups to the Interrail who won't. They walk and after they do it once, they never do it again. So I would urge you to support the transportation improvements necessary to make Interrail Road safe for bicyclists and pedestrians and to really take the Interrail into the 21st century and make it a place that'll be a cornerstone of Burlington's public resources for decades to come. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. And I said more about my eyesight than your handwriting. Kathleen Ryan is up next to be followed by Charles Messing, Charlie Messing. Good evening, Ms. Ryan. Welcome. I've been a resident of Burlington for 42 years and I'm a landscape architect. I've worked here as a landscape architect. I just got the news that there's going to be major quality modifications to this park design. I'm not in favor of this design. I think it's a good design, but I really was concerned when the historic design was thrown out lock, stock and barrel. There was no resemblance of this design to its historic background, historic design. But what it did have going for it was the quality. Keith Wagner is a very good designer and I know he used the best materials and the best quality. And to turn around at this point in time and throw out the granite, I know I heard secondhand that the public works or whoever has made this decision said concrete will be fine. They will put additives in it. It will be great. It won't be great. In 10 years it won't be great. The granite would be there. The granite would last. So unless you want to redesign this park and rebuild this park in 10 years, I think you ought to really think twice. Thank you, Ms. Ryan. Charlie Messing is up next. We followed by Jill Allen. Mr. Messing, come on down. Welcome. Not that much time. I won't do all the introductions this time. Hello, everybody. Those I remember, Dave Hartnett. We'll miss you along with Joan. Well, you gave an impassioned speech once about making the park more accessible, ADA accessible. And mistakenly thinking that moving the path over will make it more accessible, but that's not the point. What's the point? You'll be surprised to find all my friends are taking care of the park issue. I want to talk about the free college street shuttle bus. It's been there for a long time and it's very important to the ADA public, the tourists, the children, the college kids, all the senior citizens in my building who, being seven o'clock, eight o'clock, they are in bed. But I'm here to speak for them and they're all very concerned. It's a free bus. It's very important. It goes straight to the hospital. And the plan is now, by GMT, to change it in August, to change it to being charged and not even going up College Street. It's going to start at the waterfront, go to the bus terminal, go to the hospital, go to the mall, go to the airport, and it's just, and of course it's money. They have not raised their fares since 2005. What do you know that has not increased in price since 2005? Nothing. It's their mistake and they must fix that and keep the free college street bus. It is one of the gems in the crown of the Queen City. Thank you, Mr. Massing. That was perfect timing. We got the little wave hand at the light and everything. Should have been enacting. Jill Allen is up next to be followed by Wiley, I think, reading. Good evening and welcome. My name is Jill Allen and I'm here to urge this city council not to vote on a bid to reconstruct City Hall Park at this meeting. We're called the Green Mountain State and we're called the Green Mountain State for a reason because we like greenery or at least that's what I thought until I saw plans that indicated putting a splash pad in and paving the park and that really deserves me because I live in subsidized housing and there isn't very much greenery around where I live. So I go to Burlington parks to experience the green and if this park gets paved and a splash pad is put in then you lose the green. It's like paving paradise and putting up a parking lot like that song says and one of the things that I and many Vermonters value is the city and the state's natural beauty. I mean that's what we sell to tourists and if we construct this park whose cost keeps on ballooning and ballooning and ballooning the message that we're sending is that we don't care about our beautiful green state. We care about building higher and higher buildings and I don't know about you but that's not the message I want to send to tourists. Thank you very much. Thank you Ms. Allen. Wiley reading is up next to be followed by Lynn Martin. Good evening and welcome. So I have a lot to say about the park but I think the most important thing is that one of the things I love about living in Burlington is that as you know stuff terrifying horrible stuff happens on the national level and seems to get kind of pushed through with very little resistance seems like Burlington. There's a lot of like checks to people shoving things through. There's a lot sometimes it's really annoying. There's a lot of public outcry over pretty much every issue but it comforts me honestly because it means that things don't decisions don't get made overnight and we don't wake up you know one morning to find that something that we really really don't want has been done and it seems like this is that's happening right now it's you know the the public clearly is very conflicted about this park and yet it didn't go on the ballot we didn't get a chance to vote on it and now it's being voted on again and and being tried to push through and I think it's pretty clear that people don't feel great about it maybe some people do but not everybody and I don't like the idea that we're ignoring a large contingent of the population and I think that it it's a slippery slope to pushing more and more things that the people generally don't want so I urge you to consider that the fact that there's a lot of anger and frustration and just not wanting this plan amongst the people of Burlington when you want to take your vote thank you very much Lynn Martin is up next to be followed by Wayne Sanville good evening Ms. Martin welcome good evening to you I'm going to speak on a personal note here for the park instead of facts because I have done this now for three years and I found that I have internalized the park it would appear in a way that made me rather chuckle I recently rented an office at 86 St. Paul Street and I was trying to figure out how to do the interior and I thought well you know I'm a therapist and people have roots and they have branches in their lives and so I started off with one rather large tree on the wall which is eight feet wide it's wall decal eight feet wide and about eight feet tall no nine feet wide eight tall anyhow it now has three trees several branches a lot of birds and for all the world reminds me of the park and I realized I have brought my sadness about City Hall Park and tried to make it meaningful because I'm thinking it may we may lose it and I hope not I sincerely hope not but the peace from the nature in my in my with my fake trees on my walls the clients have had a positive experience I want it it's like being in a grove of trees I have lights up plants with flowers and I don't want to lose that outside in the park please leave us our park thank you thank you Ms. Martin Wayne Wayne Sanville is up next be followed by Richard Hilliard good evening Mr. Sanville welcome good evening first of all a quick thanks to the departing council members who have also put up with long emails for me for the last years so thank you for for your service on the council at this afternoon's finance board meeting a half a million dollars in changes last minute changes to the city hall park plan were announced largely apparently from what I gathered to reduce the quality of the materials it's hard to know for sure what all the changes are because this afternoon's roughly 15 minute presentation was the first opportunity any member of the public and probably any city councilor had to review or learn about a whole series of changes to the park design just 15 minutes for that as some of you know I served on the planning commission for 11 years I served on the development review board for two years more recently these many changes to the city hall park design again first set out just two hours ago or three hours ago call into question the validity of the current development approval of the park plan and I believe will require the development review board permit to be modified before any work can proceed I hope you take this into account before you rush into voting to approve the construction contract thank you thank you mr. Sunville Richard Hilliard is up next to be followed by Maxine Holmes good evening mr. Hilliard and welcome good evening thank you very much just like to start off by thanking councillors Dean and and Hartnett for their service on the city council and one of the things about appreciating what people do is you don't necessarily agree with them all the time so I appreciate your discussions in in good faith but have you said that I completely agree with everything that's been said by the keep the park green crew on city hall park I won't go on about that but request would request funds in the fiscal year budget for 2020 to divert some of the money that you've got earmarked for the park to the barn at Shemenceka Park which has been institutionally neglected and can no longer be used for neighborhood meetings on a professional note I don't understand why we can't get good bids in this city who runs the contracts we've had the nonsense for city hall park we've got St. Paul Street dug up we can't seem to get any straight answers out of Sinex or Ross or Brook Brookfield so this may work in government but it doesn't work in business and I've seen people invited to shovel manure for much less the public deserves competent financial management integrity and council and city hall and that transparency must be a principal and not a buzzword thank you mr. Hilliard max one other thing in response to the gentleman from the interval about eight or ten years ago dpw found that the part of interval road going down past the railway tracks was not in the city's software and I recommend to both director Spencer and the gentleman here that they investigate that because if that wasn't rectified that may have something to do with the condition of the road thank you mr. Hilliard Maxine Holmes is up next to be followed by Eric Hoekstra good evening again thanks for hearing me again I was very upset about the park when it first was proposed the changes and I'm even more upset now about the extra money that has to be spent as a taxpayer in Burlington I'm very upset that we're spending that kind of money on a park that really doesn't need all those changes and places where we need help such as afterschool programs as I was mentioning before initiating this Icelandic program if you can hopefully in Burlington requires buildings and spaces to be used for people in terms of groups and inside in the winter for example memorial auditorium I'd prefer the money being spent instead of putting a parking garage in memorial auditorium which I heard is going to happen I'd rather see it be kept as an open space for people to play and to get together and do sports I'm sorry but I think where our priorities are are mixed up here I really don't approve and I would urge you not to vote on this yes I would prefer that it goes to the voters with the increased amount of money and see what they have to say thank you thank you Ms. Holmes Eric Hoekstra is up next to be followed by Amanda Hannamford Andrew Champagne and Jim Larkridge and Lizzie Haskell together from the words two and three MPA Mr. Hoekstra welcome thank you councilor right chairperson right I should say I might be alone but I actually like the idea of city hall park but that's not why I'm here tonight I'm here tonight as a 17 year resident of ward two and a business owner in the city to thank Jane Nodell for her long service to the city council and the community Jane's been an important leader in our community for more than 30 years serving on many of those years on the city council and sometimes as the city council chair Jane's been an independent voice that has worked across party lines to advocate for what she believes is in the best interests of the city she's been an advocate for socioeconomic equity and Jane has particularly focused on the most vulnerable among us working on behalf of low income families seniors and individuals on initiatives such as permit reform fair and impartial policing sponsoring dumpster days in the old north end sponsoring a resolution to push back on the waste districts closure of the reuse zones working on inclusionary housing working on behalf of the family room as it separated from the vna and sponsoring the creation of the senior center study to make sure that seniors have stable services citywide Jane's been an advocate for smart growth supporting development projects in the city led by private sector nonprofit and public sector developers like most strong leaders Jane's made tough decisions on behalf of the city many times when finding herself and the city caught between a rock and a hard place I think we will all welcome Perry Freeman to the council in April and also acknowledge the enormous shoes she will have to fill when she joins this group more than anything I want to thank Jane for being my friend and I'm comforted to know that Jane will work as a strong leader in the community and that work is far from over thank you very much thank you mr. Hoekstra come on up crew from the ward 2 and 3 npa hey everybody how you doing we're here to lighten the mood a little bit okay my name is Andrew champagne I'm here with fellow members of the wards 2 and 3 npa hello to the mayor hello to the city counselors and to distinguished guests here thank you so much for coming um we have a three-part presentation and I'd like to start it off by saying that we are obviously parts of words words 2 and 3 npa and that's the only npa that offers a dinner so it's a really great thing and we would like to thank and acknowledge Jane's many years how about 20 years of service to our neighborhood and to all of Burlington Jane has stayed committed to the work of city council through the most challenging times and issues and we're all grateful for her willingness to be a part of the npa experience connecting city politics to our neighborhoods we wish her the best in her next adventure and at the last npa which Jane was out of the country for so she wasn't here we Melissa Cain made a sign and it turned out that we needed three of them because so many people signed it so they say they say thank you Jane signed by the members of the attendees and members of the npa we also this is from Liz Curry who had to leave and she just wanted to say thank you and give you flowers also Jane so we'd like to present you with the flowers and these three cards and our and our blessings so thank you so much Cindy Turcott is up next to be followed by Paul Bush art hi I'm Cindy Turcott I am the president at Gardner supply company an employee owned company and we moved to the interval veil to turn it into the agricultural haven and and do a lot of the work that was done to get it to where it is now the beginning of it anyways we have 150 employees right now that are driving on interval road so not only do we want to support the foot path that's there but we also need a road that we can drive down we have customers now we're going into busy season and the customers are already complaining about how difficult it is to come down the road right now it's basically one way as you go down if any of you have been on there it's some really really difficult to get down there and it makes it near impossible for the pedestrians and the foot the foot bicycles all of them that are trying to get down into the interval which is a beautiful place for them to spend time and you've got the CSA you have the McNeil plant we have trucks coming in bringing stuff so it's basically just we're out there giving our support to improving the road and improving what needs to happen for the foot traffic there and we're in complete support of having that foot traffic there so that's what I have to say thank you very much Paul Bushner is up next to be followed by Carolyn Bates good evening and welcome good evening so as a Burlington resident and a business owner I want to just encourage the council to move forward on city hall park I will say the current status of the park in my opinion is unacceptable living with the status quo um isn't something that as a community we should consider doing I will also say that I was was very dismayed to hear the the increase in cost although I am assuming as with most projects of this nature the cost will never go down to do it properly the cost will never go down so if this is what it takes then let's go ahead and do that however would also encourage the council to look at ways without reducing the quality of bringing that cost down perhaps I don't have a line item on what each each thing in that goes into that project costs but perhaps taking out the water feature the pop jet fountain something of that nature as opposed to compromising on materials but I would leave it to you is how how that could work but I would strongly support going forward at this time to redo the park make it a welcoming place for the farmers market and for the and to invite the community in to use it as a resource thank you mr. Bushner Carolyn Bates is up next to be followed by Jessica Oskie good evening miss Bates good evening it's so much fun to have someone say good evening to you and I would like to also say to thank you to all of you and for the city counselors who are going to leave when I'm through speaking I think we ought to do a standing ovation for all of them not I mean well we've got we've got more stuff coming that we're going to do ceremonies on all right I want to just be sure they're fairly treated and with me in city hall park um you know when I first started with the city hall park and listening to you guys it was five hundred thousand dollars for maintenance and five hundred thousand dollars for a creative inclusive splash park so the handicapped kids including Ben Wood Lewis could use a great place to play and unfortunately it went underground for four or five years and then 2016 we suddenly get a new plan and a new budget it's now around three million but that supposedly also includes the million dollar donation I think we need to pause our city hall park plan just like the malls pause just like the Moran has been paused we need instead to start immediately to remediate all of those trees before anymore die that is the most valuable resource we have for shade and air pollution etc etc we need to remediate those trees and then I think we need to really sit down with the design that works and find new designers or redesign with the people who are here and keep them to a budget of three million dollars plus whatever we get in donations and allotments and that they have to stay in that budget I don't know why that wasn't done before I have just no clue or why they kept creating and never telling us that there was a new cost it was right up front we need to keep all the remaining trees we need to be sure that if we put in a splash pad it's creative thank you is that the end of me thank you thank you thank you miss Bates jessica oski to be followed by michael along thank you mr president I like saying that I want to take a minute or two that I have as a longtime resident of burlington to thank councillor no dell for her years of service tireless and thankless service to the city of burlington councillor no dell's years of experience her brilliant mind her patience her integrity her strategic thinking her progressive values of inclusion fairness and transparency her deep love for the people of the city and most importantly her mad leadership skills will be sorely missed by this councillor by this council councillor no dell leaves a huge hole that won't be filled anytime soon in my opinion councillor no dell is even a greater loss by a nose to this city than it would be for the city to lose you president right which hopefully won't be happening anytime soon thank you councillor no dell I will miss your leadership but I will look forward to your future contributions to the city which now can be schemed on monday nights thank you jessica michael along welcome good evening thank you again just three things strike me about the the park plan the park plan was secretive heavy on hardscape and exorbitantly priced to begin with and now it is morphed into a plan costing millions more than advertise also 3,300 voters urged reconsideration of this plan far more than typically vote to elect a city councillor and a third item strikes me is that this is the last meeting of the city council as currently config configured and three of the four whose seats were contested this month will no longer be councillors next week because in at least half of the four two ward legislative districts voters have resoundingly chosen new councillors to represent them it would seem that no rational analysis could conclude that tonight is the night to approve a divisive controversial and fiscally stressed park plan each and all the factors noted above make it incumbent upon the council to refrain from any approval of the park plan tonight thank you thank you mr long karen long is up next to be followed by steve goodkind good evening miss long welcome there's not a lot left to say but i do come because i'm super frustrated with our sidewalks the sidewalks that we need to walk to school we need to walk to work we need to walk shopping out to dinner whatever um yeah we're talking about tearing up the sidewalks in city hall park and i've walked all those sidewalks and in the center of the park there is one that has a big section of cement missing but if you walk on union lumas wnuski um pearl any of the streets around here probably every you know i mean there's just huge huge amount of very unwalkable sidewalks so that is a huge like frustration to me that we have 6.2 million dollars to tear up the historic park that many many people love uh get rid of the treat 50 of the trees that are providing shade i mean again you've heard this and heard this but i just don't get it so please reject this plan um most designers and i've been in the design business for 40 years um do have a bit of a budget we paid 750 thousand dollars for this design and if the plan was going to be three to four million that is 25 design fee i mean i've never made that much money um on a design fee um i doubt richardine has either like that would be building a 500 thousand dollar house and you pay your architect 125 thousand i mean we were really misled with this and please it's no reason to go ahead with it just because we already wasted 750 thousand so our streets are crumbling our sidewalks are bad and you need to serve us more than we need to serve um you know tourists that might think the splash flat is fun thank you thank you miss long steve goodkind is up next to be followed by kelly divine good evening mr goodkind welcome good evening and thank you president right and counselors know delin hartnett um during my time as city engineer public works director i was responsible for scores of capital projects and i know an unsuccessful bid process when i see one i think it's time for the city to recognize for various reasons and maybe even for all good intentions that the bidding process so far for city hall park has been totally unsuccessful and it should not be a basis for moving ahead we should learn some lessons from it i think by now most people recognize it needs additional design work it needs value engineering and not just work done over a few weekends but it needs a serious effort under no circumstance should either of the two bids become the basis for a contract a negotiated contract for construction they're way out of line my personal feeling is neither of them were actually a serious bid and they've seen it before i think these were thrown out there and i don't think either contractor intended to get this job and they should not become the basis for that i think you've got to have the courage to go back and let this process go through like a normal project only for political reasons with this thing go forward it makes no financial or engineering sense to use what you have now it's time just to go back take a breath and do this right and by no means to just negotiate a quick contract and go forward you're asking for nothing but trouble thank you thank you mr goodkind kelly divine is up next to be followed by our final speaker susie sugar good evening miss divine good evening you have your voice back i know but just just barely right so i sent in some written remarks so i won't go to the trouble of having the audience listen to them all but we've been involved in this city hall park project since 2009 i think and in in main part because i do think that a city as wonderful as burlington needs a great green space and i don't think we have that now with the existing city hall park there are significant drainage issues with the park there's stormwater runoff issues and my organization is also really concerned about lake health and so we need to do something i'm really not in any position to comment on the budget because i haven't looked at it in any depth but i do know that we did have an extensive process we did have a vote by the city council to move forward on the project and i do hope that the council can find a way to continue to move it forward tonight i did get an opportunity to take a look at the amendments and one thing that our organization has also been working on is along with council roof is this initiative to try to make more public bathrooms available in the community so if the council does see fit to remove that item tonight i hope that that we can continue that work because we do know from pretty much maybe one of the few issues that i think the community is really united on is that we do need more public of bathrooms available for downtown so i would urge the council to move forward and i have 27 seconds left to say that it's been my honor to work with councilor nodell counselor heartnet counselor dean um you guys have just done an amazing service to the community some of you for many many years other you for a shorter period of time but it's just been a real honor to work with you and thank you so much for your service thank you very much miss divine susie sugar is up next to be followed by our final speaker patrick dunsey good evening welcome in the chair good evening i'm susie sugar i'm here to hug our park trees and our collective wallets i've been here once before it was to speak out against the massive construction downtown and i'm here again for the same reason for every person speaking out there are dozens and dozens and dozens who have elected you to represent them who are wondering how come with 3300 people signing a petition this is not being decided in a democratic process i wasn't entirely against the construction downtown i'm not a hold on to things that need work i think there is some work to be done in the park but the costs here i think are exceeding the return to the community especially when we think about having fewer potential vendors at our famous farmers market that's so upsetting to me in a town where you can't add an extension onto your driveway because you're adding more concrete we're thinking about adding a massive amount of concrete and that just confounds me um no one is moving to burlington because of that park let's be clear here we have other pressing issues in our community and no one is skipping our farmers market because of that park so i would say let's try to figure out some better things to work on let's reprioritize and let's maybe regroup and reject this proposal for now and do better as a community so that's my two cents thank you thank you miss sugar the final speaker tonight is patrick dunseath mr dunseath welcome thank you um my name is patrick dunseath i'm the land manager at the interval center um and i'm here just to speak to briefly to the bicycle and pedestrian access study um in alvaro road is the point of access to the largest continuous block of open space in the city um at its southern end um and this landscape and uh the interval center's role um in managing that landscape are key contributors to the city of its reputation as a sustainable and green city um the interval continues to rank as a favorite outdoor space um to burlington residents and your support for this road study will continue to show a commitment um from the city um as a as a sustainable and green green city we believe at the interval center that local food and recreation and open space are all huge draws to burlington and contribute um to folks moving to burlington to work and live um as a testament to that we've just completed a uh fundraising for a million dollar capital campaign um to enhance the amenities that we provide to the public for free including trails gardens um meaningful opportunities to connect with sustainable agriculture and food um their csa pickups there's scientific research between uvm and extension um and meaningful opportunities to be employed in agriculture um so like i said we're committed to providing these amenities to the city um but we need the city's support to do that um in an equitable equitable and safe manner um i'd also like to say too that we are committed to supporting this in whatever way possible um and we plan to establish a roadside path um as part of this which we'll see in the scoping study um as as a contribution thank you mr dunze and with that we will close out the public forum and i will look for a motion on the consent agenda before going to item number six councillor nodell yes president right i move that we adopt the consent agenda as amended and take the actions indicated thank you councillor nodell seconded by councillor busher all those in favor of the motion to pass the consent agenda and take the actions indicated please say aye may opposed we have passed the consent agenda and now we will go to item number six which is city councillors on general city affairs and uh i i'm going to take the i'm going to start on this one so these flowers are from the city council for our departing city councillors but even more for the city councillors they're for your spouses councillor councillor busher started this really many years ago and um so it is our way of saying thank you to your better halves for allowing you to spend all this time here with us and on your constituents behalf and on burlington's behalf we we really appreciate it and we do have one spouse that is actually here tonight lisa hartnett over here and and and and i just gotta say if anybody deserves a dozen roses it's lisa hartnett i think we could all agree on that um yeah so let's let's uh let's start with councillor hartnett well thank you um and uh surprised but happy to see her uh if you want to blame on anybody councillor hartnett i got her here that's okay all through the community for all the years i've been on the council and the parks commission and i all the people i've dealt with and they've met obviously me and they met my daughter katie a lot and they and that famous question would always come up Dave is there really a lisa hartnett and there is a lisa hartnett and if it wasn't for lisa hartnett and my daughter katie i would have never been able to serve the eight years on this council they literally have been my strengths my inspiration for me to do this uh they've been my partners uh it's been incredible uh to have them by my side through the eight years it's been one of the most unbelievable experiences in my life other than being a dad i would say it tops the list um i would certainly like to thank the people of the new north end who have supported me in so many ways just not at the ballot box but my entire family and and embraced uh us in good times and in bad times and we have developed a partnership up out there that we have been through a lot together um i'll never forget their gratitude i will continue to work hard and advocate for the people in new north end it's a very special place to live uh and i've enjoyed it uh so much um i also uh would like to thank my mom who is probably listening and watching on tv and i got my standard call at 6 30 tonight to say behave yourself i'm watching uh it's amazing to have a mom that's 90 years old and has uh has enjoyed city politics as much as she has has worked at the polls who loves this city as much as i do uh has been at the same house on bricks ad for 57 years and it's just been an incredible run to have her part of this as well and um also would like to thank my sister mary who is the youngest in the family out of eight uh and the only uh only daughter who has given my mom the most quality of life anybody could ever ask for and from our brother's standpoint of view and for the rest of my brothers to be able to know that your mom is getting a quality life at the age of 90 and is being well taken care of and that has allowed me to serve here on this council i would like to thank my sister mary so thank you for that and lastly the city clerk's office and their staff for all the work they've done for me over the last eight years you guys have been great i appreciated it so much and i'm going to miss you but i'll be down to visit and uh hopefully it's just a short tender away from politics i'd like to come back and serve i love this city it's amazing i've said this a thousand times i'll say it one more time tonight i think councillor paul and councillor mason can relate to this but there is nothing more humbling to grow up in this great city attend public schools play baha hockey literally baseball whatever it might be run a business for nearly 20 years have your family grew up here have your daughter go to the same school you did and then be able to come back and serve your community there is nothing more humbling than that i appreciate it i love this city and i think we're in a good place and i hope to be working with you guys down the road thank you very much okay who wants to try to top that councillor shannon councillor dean councillor dean thank you president right i i don't think i can top that um it's uh it's a moment now and i'd like to note that this is probably a you know it's not my choice to be leaving this council i've only spent a short time here but i want to say thank you to my constituents who have supported me and given me projects to work on during the time that i've been as part of this council i i really hope you know that that this has really been a lesson to me about uh city government and how important we all are and all of you are um to making to understanding the needs of the city and and making the voices of our constituents heard so um i'd also like to say um what a lesson it has been for me in the past two years about how complex this city is and how dedicated our city staff is to making this city go i have seen them in action i've worked with uh dpw on a number of issues it's a really complex mechanism i didn't learn at all um but i do understand how important is the dedication of the people who work for us to making this city uh a place that we liked like to be and like to live and um of course i have to offer a thanks to my family and particularly to my wife um i will be welcomed i think with those dozen roses i may not quite be enough i may have more dinners uh to make this up but um it has been uh and and i think everyone should know that every one of the members of this council make significant sacrifices to be part to provide public service to be public servants um and finally i would say thank you to all my city council colleagues um it has been an amazing experience to learn from you to understand the depth of knowledge that you have about the city um and to try to keep up and i know that i haven't quite done yet as best as i as i would hope for myself but um you are a real inspiration to me um i'm um you know sorry to be leaving and not having the opportunity to continue to work with you but i do plan to stay engaged with the city you will see me back here on occasions when things are important um and i thank you for all of the lessons that you've taught me over the past two years thank you councillor dean councillor shannon uh thank you president right uh there's been a long tradition on the city council of giving councillors plaques when they are departing the council but i understand that this year the cost of the plaques is being donated to city hall park and i didn't good way councillor but i did i didn't want our departing councillors to go without um and i spent a lot of time with high schoolers these days and i noticed that what they do to honor um their fellow teammates in most cases is they give paper plate awards um so uh i'm sorry to say that i came up with my paper plate awards uh ideas at about 545 tonight um and i think i failed art class but i did the very best that i could and i'd like to start with councillor dean um councillor dean you really have brought an intelligence and your heart and soul to this effort and i've learned a lot from you and i think the council has greatly benefited from your skills um and your courage when you you know you were one of the first councillors really to get on board with the idea of renovating our high school which was a hard decision for us and we've had many hard decisions along the way um but you've really used both your intelligence and your heart in the decisions that you have made and for that reason uh you you are going to get the tin man and scarecrow award thank you very much thank you councillor councillor heart net you're the one who fears me most i suspect there's a lot of things i could say but it's all on videotape except there's a few things that are not on videotape and one of them is the work that you do outside of this room and uh probably a lot of people know that you knock on a lot of doors because a lot of people must have answered those doors including people in south burlington he cannot stop he does not stop in the new north end he doesn't stop at his own campaigns he knocks for a lot of other people's campaigns probably all over the city but he has even gone so far as to knock on doors in south burlington and for that you will get the door knocker award first place and councillor nodell you might fear me a little bit but not as much as councillor heart net um i have always admired your courage we all make a lot of hard decisions on this on this council and as has been recognized by the public tonight and others a lot of times the answers seem very simple and they're not uh and it's been difficult and you have stood up for what you believe in um in burlington i think that we all know that we stand up against racism and sexism and all the other isms there's an ism that has not yet been identified at least in like terminology and a word for it and you've stood up against that too in other communities it might not be deserving of an award but in burlington it is and i think that uh councillor right should open that and you can present that award to councillor nodell you can pull it out pull it out it's wet which is why it's in there the glue didn't dry sorry my friend is a republican and i'm not afraid to admit it i think maybe she should have been afraid although one correction but first of all councillor shannon that's a pretty darn good job for 545 today yes it is i gotta say that the only thing i'd correct is i don't think councillor nodell is afraid of anything but uh okay great job councillor shannon who's up who's up next councillor pine i should have yielded the floor to councillor nodell mr president did she want her to go in that order okay all right um i don't want to speak long because it's it's getting on there and we have a lot of business ahead but i want to thank each councillor by just saying almost a word that i think will typify their service or something that they can be proud of and i want this community to know that and i actually think that councillor dean we have to thank for the councillor shannon mentioned the high school but i really think at the most pivotal moment when the when the decision could go either way councillor dean spoke up at a time when it wasn't the most popular thing to do but he did it in a way that was brought everyone along and brought us to the point where we're gonna have a basically a new high school for the youth of broingsen so i will always think of him as that person who is there at that pitable moment councillor hartnett before he even got on the council i used to actually fight with councillor hartnett over um balls and strikes and stuff at little league but but then i got to know him better and dave came once and spoke before he was a councillor that broingsen needed a place where homeless people who couldn't quit whatever substance they were abusing could go and dave said we're gonna get a warming shelter at some point and i thought to myself now there's somebody who's driven by a certain set of values but i'm not sure he's realistic about that we may never see a warming shelter and i gotta give dave credit because we do have a warming shelter partly due to his advocacy and i want to thank him for that uh councillor nodell i actually um i've noted for so long that i i have a long list but i'm just going to say jane's ability to take an issue and dig as deep as possible and then look at all of us and say we actually have to go a little bit deeper to get to the root of the issue has always amazed me and that jane's ability to do that in a way that is uh respectful of people with different different opinions and gets us to a point where we as a group can come together is something that i'll miss a lot so i just want to thank her for that thanks jane councillor nodell thank you president right i feel really overwhelmed um i just want to say i'm happy i didn't put my mascara on tonight because you know big real big mess um i just want to really appreciate and i'm just so humbled by everything that people have said in public forum and that my colleagues have said and um this is a very strong and effective city councillor and it's council and i'm really impressed with the work that we've gotten done in the last two years um i'm extremely humbled and appreciative that people have have voted for me and have trusted me to represent them um and it is extremely important work and it is we should not take a high functioning city council and high functioning city government for granted now if people can hold on to the end of the meeting i have a few more substantive remarks to make but i'm gonna keep it at this for now um and just say thank you so much thank you to ted um thank you to jassi and um and uh thank you thank you to the mayor we've had our ups and downs um and i greatly greatly admire your hard work your work ethic and you you never give up and i think that's that's important in this business thank you very much anyone else on the council councillor busher um yes i i won't take a lot of time but um i just wanted to say briefly um something about each councillor um i'll start with councillor dean um we've been together on some really difficult issues um and um i you are a rational voice a really good listener come up with really good um possible solutions um and i really valued that and i think that the trio for ward one and eight adam richard and me we were a good trio and we served that that npa well and i they will miss your voice and um and so thank you very much and i just wanted to let you know that um dave um you're amazing in so many ways you're scary sometimes for me um sometimes you're passionate and so sometimes you bring me back to and i'm going to compare you to someone maybe you like or not but to to mayor sanders when i would sit here and he would be sitting across where the mayor is right now and i would be sitting where brian is and he would make some statement and it would be oh my god i'd be so mortified i'd want to hide under the desk and then other times his insights and his awareness and he had his finger on the pulse and that's you you're a mix of of sometimes some things that are maybe not so right and other things that are really spot on and really i think back to the serious issue with with the um unfortunate death in the new north end with a person who is having mental health issues and i and i look to you as to beginning the dialogue between police and and people with mental health issues to make it safer and better so the outcomes wouldn't be always what happened there and i will never forget that um and the other thing i will never um i won't hear an ad without thinking of you and that ad will be guess what day it is it's hump day because of the interruption for poor megan tuttle in the presentation she's coming back tonight so let's hope this doesn't happen again but anyways dave it's been a pleasure sitting um beside you and you had your roots in ward one as you know as as did richard dean absolutely um i'm taking more time than i said i'm sorry president right um it's really hard to to really put into words um my relationship with jane or or um councillor nodell we are the yin and the yang of the council i say too much she's very succinct we have very different styles and yet we have found a working relationship that i think has benefited um the board of finance and the council and the community i really really value i think brian pine said that too i'm calling people by their names because that's what i feel this is about where people not counselors right now um i i feel that that brian was absolutely right at the depth that jane when jane at the board of finance when there's an issue she will go get well research it and then come and ask questions they're not frivolous questions they're meaningful questions that really just move us to a better place and that will be missed um i really want to thank you so much for everything you've done and your friendship so thank you very much thank you councillor busher councillor tracy thank you president right um so um i just want to say a few words about each councillor because i've had some great interactions with each of you individually um i'll start with councillor dean i very much enjoyed serving on the license committee with you i certainly appreciate the fairness uh and the eye toward safety that you've had on that committee in addition to that i very much appreciate uh and value what you did with the burlington wild way is i think that that is probably your biggest achievement on this council and one that burlington will be grateful for for generations to come in the sense that it will i think lead to not only making not only preserving beautiful open spaces but also making them more usable in a way that's sustainable for for burlington residents so thank you very much for that um councillor hartnett um i you've been an incredible sparring partner especially on issues of having to do a transportation i know we see things very differently when it comes to that but i think in that in that sparring and in that conversation you've taught me a lot not only about um those issues um and helped me to to sort of check my own my own perspective giving me sort of reason to to think deeper and to to really see it from the other side but you've also helped to educate me about your neighborhood and the people that you represent up in the new north end and i think that this council will sorely miss your stores your stores i view that you prevent that you present to this council i think that there is tremendous value to that i think we have a wide range of different personalities on this council and yours is certainly very unique in the sense that you bring that sort of you know you know that perspective of someone who's constantly interacting with just average burlington residents on a day-to-day basis in the context of your store in the context of the high school and just in the context of your life because you really reach out to people and take care of people on a smaller scale not just on these big policy scales so i'm going to miss you know seeing you on on these miss serving with you on the two and just thank you for that thanks max now with councillor nodell i think that to say that we have a complex dynamic would be an understatement and you know to be totally honest it's been you know difficult at times between us and i think that you also have taught me a lot you've also have helped me tremendously in this role and in that complexity i i hope that it's not lost that i recognize and truly value what you have done for the old north end for decades um whether it is the expertise that you've brought on the board of finance helping normal citizens to understand complex financial issues through your professorial uh teacherly way of breaking down things and helping you know normal people understand those issues to actually serving and getting your hands dirty like we did last summer together in the old north end and dumpster day which is something that you did that i think also in a very different way helps to support the quality of life of residents in the old north end so i hope that by no means do you forget that i value and truly recognize the intelligence that you bring the tremendous political acumen that's not something that i'll miss because you've run circles around me time and time again and you're brilliant at that uh and just the dedication to the old north end and i really appreciate that so thank you for that thank you councillor tracy any other councillor before i go to the mayor all right mr mayor um well thank you president right first of all for uh continuing this uh i think really um thoughtful and important tradition uh when we do have councillors parting and especially uh three councillors who have given so much to the city so first i'll and i will say a few words about each of you as well i'd like to say to councillor nodell that i feel very fortunate to have served together over most of the time i've been in uh in public life over the last seven years i'd like to think we had more more ups than downs and i certainly feel that we are closing at least this chapter having worked very well together on many important things um uh it i think i think it would have been maybe easier not to have served at the same time you at times but i am uh i am very certain that um many of the initiatives and decisions uh that we made as collectively would not have been better had that happened i feel again very very fortunate for that i think your ability to focus us on the nub of an issue and to explain things with incredible clarity is something i'm jealous of and and uh we'll miss um but i think what i'll miss most is uh you're willing this um to uh serve in this role both play that important um role of listening to your constituents of knowing what your constituents uh are saying and and weighing in but never fail never forgetting that a key part of these jobs is to also stay true to your own self and your own judgment and and uh that that uh you never lost touch with that and i appreciate that um i councillor dean um richard um i uh i really uh you know i think the public um probably well has a little sense of how valuable the skills the hard skills you brought to this council are i think we're going to see an example of that later tonight when we get into some of the discussions about city hall park having a professional um of your caliber on this council has been a great opportunity for the city it doesn't happen that often because it's difficult to combine uh the life of professional life and fatherhood with serving doing what it takes to to serve in this role and we've been fortunate to have that for the last couple years um i think uh and councillor tracy pointed out already but i think it is very rare to come to this council especially as a new councillor and immediately offer the city a new initiative like you have with burlington wildways that uh is going to have i agree a very lasting impact on this community i do think in the years to come this is going to be kind of burlington's long trail or or appellation trail this this connection of public ways uh over different land ownerships connecting these public spaces i just think is going to have a huge impact on keeping the quality of life in the city outstanding even as we evolve and grow as a city and uh in your short time you you made that happen um i think the thing we'll most miss about you though is just your your goodness and your humbleness and your uh just what uh the attitude that you bring um to our interactions so thank you richard and uh you know finally dave um council hardnett um you know i think what i like most about this experience the last seven years and i've seen it happen numerous times is um you know we're we're a city that loves our our politics and loves our campaigns and fights them really hard and uh uh but what i think maybe isn't fully appreciated by the people that don't sit at this table is once we get through those campaigns how uh then we come together and we roll up our sleeves and we uh find ways to get things done for the people of burlington i'll never forget after you know my first election where you and i were in uh on opposite sides and the public knew about that um immediately when i stepped into this role you made it clear uh that you were going to work with me to move the city forward um that is over time built into a real friendship that i'm very grateful for i'm very very grateful to have gotten to know katie and lisa as i have over the last seven years um and i will miss your judgment um about people i will not forget how you impacted so many of our uh search processes for department heads because you had a great knack for seeing talent and seeing what would would work especially uh with our parks and with our schools the judgment and commitment you brought there was huge and but finally i think what has so set you apart as a counselor is just how in touch with the people in new north end you consistently are i think all of us like to think that we're in touch with our constituents you uh really actively work at that and put huge amounts of time into knowing where your your your neighbors are and uh i'm uh i'm not going to stop uh stopping by the store in the hope i'll find you and be able to get some of that knowledge to know what's really happening on the street um and i'm sure uh we'll stay in touch and look forward to your continued contributions to the city thank you all right uh presidential prerogative i get the last word um and i'm gonna cede my time later on to for a few remarks in the end of the agenda to counselor no doubt i'll be brief because we need to get down to some business here um so counselor dean um it's only been two years but i think your impact on the council was was tremendous i think you were a tremendously thoughtful counselor um i certainly learned from you and will miss you on the city council um i know it was a tough tough campaign and um it was tough to keep up with all you're doing in your personal life with what you're doing on the city council and keep up with everything but uh i thought you did a tremendous job as chair of the license committee um and i just i think you will be greatly missed on the city council so thank you very much counselor dean for your service to our city don't take off dave i thought he was i thought he was i thought he was gonna pull one of those where he's where he's leaving on me again i thought it was good i saw the chair go backward so dave and i don't have a complicated relationship we're longtime friends we go back 35 years and um you know we i have times where i have to go to dave and say dave you know i think you may have to apologize on that and dave says what are you talking about but he comes around he comes around and and you know dave has dave has a temper we all know we've seen it but he also is a person that cares more than anybody i know uh he cares about his family he cares about his city he cares about his friends and dave would give you the shirt off of his back um and uh this council is not going to be the same with dave hartnett not on it so dave as a as a colleague but more importantly as a nearly half of my lifetime friend um thank you for your incredible eight years on the city council i cannot even put into words how much you will be missed thank you councillor nodell we we started out dueling back in the early days in the 90s i think you were on your second term or third term and i was on my first term and we we butted heads a lot back then and but we we developed a mutual respect even then and uh and the respect grew and grew and so did our our friendship um now we i bother jane on a almost daily basis um i once a while i give her a break and say jane i think you've had enough so i'm not gonna call for a couple days here we've had our moments too i remember the famous episode where i where i told jane something that she didn't like and i heard a quick click i called her back and said jane after all this you're hanging up on me but um but jane you have also been there through thick and thin and i mean i i cannot say how much i appreciate your supporting me when i know that it cost you and and that plate that councillor shannon gave you and i think the plates that councillor shannon gave actually though they cost nothing i think they are far more value than any plaque that the city could have given you um i think they meant far more and and the plaque saying um really hit me saying i have a republic you're my republican friend i'm not afraid to admit i i i regret that i had you support me but i i know that anytime that i brought that up councillor nodell said don't worry about it it's the right thing to do and i'm going to do the right thing i i think councillor nodell you're you're intellect your leadership and and everything else is really unmatched when you think about all the issues that we faced on this city council in all your years here um i just cannot even begin to put it into words with you either um your your loss is going to be an incredible loss for the city for the city council and for me personally as a as a long time colleague and a long time friend and i will miss you and and actually one last comment i remember during the burlington telecom debate i'm sure you'll remember this councillor nodell because i forgot i was going to say that so i forgot but you made a one of your most eloquent speeches and then you said i'm not feeling the love remember that councillor nodell i think tonight you have felt the love so um so one last time a standing ovation for the three outgoing councillors and i will get down to some business we are back on the agenda now um thank you everybody in the audience for sticking with us through that it's a little bit of a draining few moments here but um we are going to i think we are on to director spencer i think you're up next so there's three scoping study issues here and um we talked about this if you'd start with the the one that's a little separate from the other two which is the 4.02 the interval correct yes we are going to start with your uh support uh president right quickly on the interval road scoping study and then transition to the two related to colchester avenue uh the intersection in the bridge i have with me senior transportation planner nicole loesch who will be giving the overview on the interval road scoping study thank you director spencer and thank you council for putting this on here at agenda tonight i want to start by thanking the chitenden county regional planning commission for their funding and project management support for all of these projects and for this one to thank the interval center for their contributions and the community members that came out in support of this tonight try my slide advance as well um so this project was uh really set out to identify ways to enhance access into the interval and improve the bicycle and pedestrian connections in particular the study itself identifies the existing conditions evaluates various alternatives and engages the community to ultimately select a preferred alternative the alternatives are based on recommendations in previous planning studies including our transportation plan the walk bike plan and the parks recreation and waterfront master plan and data that's been collected by the interval center over the years shows how important this is while vehicles are still a primary mode of transportation down there there is very strong use by people walking biking and additional um trucks that use this for other uses there is a mix of agricultural recreational and industrial uses where with all of this pedestrians and bicycles are sharing the road with all the vehicle traffic the roadway itself approximately a third of it is paved this other most section and the remaining section is gravel with the narrower right of way there is one railroad crossing along the asphalt segments and there were three reported crashes between 2012 and 2016 we involved the community in various ways through the study we had an advisory committee of city staff the regional planning commission the interval center and gardener supply and we had two community meetings the last one was an open house at the interval center that uh helped us really narrow down the preferred alternatives so the alternatives that we're moving forward with and recommending tonight uh is alternative three for the asphalt section and this includes 11 foot travel lanes on the roadway itself with a striped shoulder as well to help vehicles stay in a clear path a 10 foot shared use path on the west side that includes a three foot buffer for lighting and green space and the cost estimate for this section is 1.67 million in the gravel section they're recommending alternative two and this is a stone dust path on the eastern side of the roadway it's outside of a right of way so this would require strong coordination with the interval center to either install and or maintain this path and they have participated along the way and are very willing to work with the city as we try to install this stone dust path the estimate for this section is 230 000 so it's a very quick overview of the study itself i did provide a link to the website in your packet and on the screen here for anyone that would like more information tonight we're asking council to endorse the plan itself and endorse the recommended alternatives so that the city and the interval center can move forward for construction and funding i'd like to thank the transportation energy utilities committee for considering this item and supporting this as well and with that i'll take any questions that you may have thank you nicole and actually let's get the resolution on the floor council tracy so i would move approval of the resolution intersections the intersection scoping study of bicycle and pedestrian access feasibility study of interval road and waive the reading and adopt the resolution and after a second i do not need the floor back seconded by council busher and council busher you do on the floor yes just one i might have missed it but with um the gravel segment the alternative to that's going to be maintained by the intervail center correct they have expressed their willingness to maintain it yes right and that's much less invasive it's much more environmentally in sync with that section and so it really is quite nice the whole the whole process is a really good process so thank you thank you any other questions from the city council hearing done councillor jang yep and um it's just a simple question about timeline in starting the project and when do we hope it will be finished and at the same time we know the interval during the summer is very busy if that work will be impacting um the interval access at all thank you um we don't have a construction timeline yet um are we have a couple of ways of pursuing funding to build this project um one option is we think this will be a very strong candidate for the state's bicycle and pedestrian grant program and so we will consider that in grant applications and the other option is uh trying to fit this into the annual capital program for the city and so we don't have the funding set aside yet um we would make sure that we would coordinate any construction around the big events in the intervail the big activities during their busiest months to have um the least impact that we can thank you councillor jang any other councillor dean it's not uh thank you president right it's not specifically a question but just a comment to say that we've already heard about how valuable the interval is as a as a one of the the largest open space uh and center of wild lands in our city and this makes as part of uh the thought about a wild ways connection this makes that uh it just enhances the ability for us to connect this piece of of a critical property to many of the other open lands that exist adjacent to it so i think it's it's a real positive to see this come forward thank you okay thank you councillor dean any other councillor okay we're ready to vote all those in favor of approving 4.02 which is the interval uh issue please say aye aye any opposed passes unanimously now we'll go back to 4.01 and that one is uh scoping study of the main street slash wanouski river bridge thank you my name is peter keating i'm with the regional planning commission and we entered into study and cooperation with the city i think they came to us a couple years ago it's that important link that connects you to your sister city of wanouski i want to thank the city councillors busher and dean who are on the advisory committee for this they had to sit through about a year and a half or some meetings we also have a couple of people who spoke earlier from the ward one mpa wane sandal and rigid hilliard who are also on that committee i want to thank them for their input as well i'm going to spend a couple of minutes in some background but then i want to leap to the recommendations i think that's the most important part they're a trick to this all right thank you this is like a side so a little bit of background this is the bridge it goes back to the 27 flood when the previous bridge was washed out um it has gone through some pretty significant repairs in the 60s 70s and 90s very recently if you crossed it probably would have seen last year the replacing segments of the railing that which had deteriorated surprisingly for a bridge that's 90 years old structurally structurally it's very sound unfortunately it is not the best bridge functionally the current configuration is this the lanes are too narrow at 10 and a half feet there's no shoulder whatsoever i thought it works aren't up the standard and the railing is too low if you're a cyclist this is a very very dangerous link there's no cycling facility at all you're on the sidewalk you're in traffic neither of those is very very unsafe we came up with a number of alternatives but the two i want to talk about have the same configuration on the top on the deck this is what it is it essentially widens the entire bridge by about a third it adds bicycle and pedestrian facilities on both sides 12 foot shared use paths separated from the lanes the lanes were expanded to 11 feet we provide a two foot shoulder as well there is a slight difference underneath the bridge between alternatives four and five that we're asking you to make a recommendation on and it's related to the abutments and the piers in the river alternative four would expand the current abutments and piers that are in the river to a cost of 18 million dollars a little bit more than that and the other alternative five looks at taking out two of those piers and replacing it with one this was a suggestion that came from the agency of transportation to cut down on the obstructions in the river and the agency of natural resources folks like this as well to have things out of the out of the waterway the cost of this is a little bit higher at 22.7 million the other part of the recommendation is related to a technique and how this new bridge would be constructed it's called accelerated bridge construction i'm going to go through this graphic very quickly to explain how this happens and why it's being recommended as well this is the current configuration those little blue dots you see to the right are the utilities there's fiber optic cable on this bridge right now it would have to be relocated what would happen is the the abutments and the piers would be expanded on the downriver side put in the bike ped facilities on that side move the utilities over to that newly constructed piece build a new bridge right next to the current bridge on the upstream side when that new bridge is ready close traffic on the existing bridge take it apart build the abutments and the piers back to what you need and slide the new bridge in the place this is a technique that the agency of transportation has been using increasingly all around the state put in the traffic get rid of the temporary supports for the old bridge this is a little tough to see this is a very very constrained site and to make this happen to build the new bridge that will be slid into place on the upstream side you've got to get into the river next to the current bridge that means getting in from both the Winooski side as well as the Burlington side so when this happens there will be impacts to the chase mill parking area as well as the park on the Winooski side the reason this particular method is being recommended is the closure of the bridge there would be total closure obviously when they have to take the traffic down and demolish it it's estimated to take four to six weeks if this build a bridge was built by conventional methods would take two to three years replacing one or two lanes at a time as you move across the bridge keeping some traffic at open open two or three lanes at a time so it's difficult for the four to six weeks it's totally closed but instead of having restrictions going on for two to three years it was seen as a as a better way to move forward so similar to the last project we're asking you to accept the resolution on this particular one to endorse it if you do that we'll have to go to the agency of transportation to seek funding for this right now it's not on any v-trans bridge list because the condition of bridge is actually pretty good we'll have to advocate to move that forward there may be some alternative funding methods that we can look at too in the coming years but to the question related to when this project might happen that came up earlier not likely in the very near future it's a very complicated project a very expensive one taking place in a very very constrained site so we'll get back to you on the on a schedule and we know better all right thank you um councillor tracy to move the resolution yep whoa sorry so i um i move approval of the scoping study of the main street wunewski river bridge um and waive the reading and adopt the resolution seconded by councillor busher councillor uh any with floor back councillor tracy yeah so just one thing that i want to say is that one of the things that we see through these these scoping studies thank you i really appreciate that i apologize i the through these scoping studies is that we are able to see a tremendous amount of collaboration take place first hand between our fabulous dpw staff between partners like the ccrpc and between adjacent communities like wunewski and i forgot to mention on the last project between other community partners like the intervail center which was an amazing partner on that that project as well so uh i think that that's one of the most exciting elements of this is that this is uh not only a an actual connection a physical connection but the process by which we've arrived at it has been through through a shared collaboration with our adjacent communities and has also been respective of the next item that we're going to talk about which is an adjacent intersection area so really trying to take a holistic view not only of how we interact with with other communities but how this particular project will relate to other projects in order to increase safety and access and ultimately connection between surrounding communities so thank you for all your work on this thank you councillor tracy discussion by the city council hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye opposed that item passes unanimously brings us to the item 4.03 which is another scoping resolution uh on the colchester avenue riverside avenue barrett street hill street um issue and set us up thanks for having me i'm jason surest with the chitin county regional planning commission i just want to when we start these studies we develop what was called the purpose and need statements and i just want to begin by reading the the purpose statement just so everyone can get a sense of what the alternatives i'm going to show are trying to achieve and that was to define a safer intersection that enhances mobility and access for all users while contributing to livable and vibrant communities and ensuring efficient operations and with our needs we sought to address was to improve safety and mobility simplify the intersection enhance it as a gateway into burlington and manage traffic congestion we had several different entities representing our project advisory committee that advised us along the way uh councillor busher was on the advisory committee thank you for your support and on this committee and we also had wane senville and richard hilliard who were previously mentioned were our ward um one and eight npa representatives and i forgot to mention it but i did want to thank our consulting team stan tech for their work on this um they were asked a lot along the process i think we originally had three project advisory committee meetings scheduled and we ended up having a total of five and a large part of that reason was catering to the request that the advisory committee gave us there was one short term alternative that was considered and approved by the committee there were three medium term alternatives two of them focused around a consolidated signalized intersection there were just variations on each other and the third one was a roundabout the roundabout was discarded a little bit um before the end of the process it's just not being viable um so the main decision centered around the two um the signalized intersection variation and the advisory committee landed on um preferring alternative one which i will show a graphic of momentarily there was also a hybrid alternative that could sort of serve as a stepping stone if the medium term alternative was taking too long to get to there's the option of adding an additional northbound through lane uh coming down the hill on colchester avenue going across the bridge into wanouski to kind of mitigate the extensive queuing that happens up the hill and when i say short term that was envisioned to happen within a three-year time frame and medium term was within a three to ten-year time window but a large part of that will depend on the availability of achieving funding to construct these and last on the slide but not least this study was actually delayed uh quite a bit we started in early 2017 i want to say january of 2017 and it was actually put on hold because the wanouski bridge study started maybe about a year after so we kind of waited for that to catch up just to make sure that the two of them would align appropriately and the main consideration there was we were unsure of how many lanes on the bridge were being recommended so once they were confident um with that study that there was going to be four lanes we we picked this back up and moved it forward so up on the screen right now is the short term alternative it north is up just to orient you um riverside av and colchester av kind of come in from the south you'll see barrett street and mill streets coming in from the east and it largely looks like it does today but there's some significant um enhancements in terms of bicycle and pedestrian movement um throughout the intersection um enhanced crosswalks and bicycle markings through the intersections pedestrian signals are called for here which have actually been installed by dpw so part of this is is complete it calls for a new crosswalk across the bridge which is at the top here which doesn't exist today calls for a sidewalk along mill street uh there's a little bit of um unconventional parking that happens on this side of the intersection so that's been formalized and we've also called for adding in a protected left turn to go into barrett street it's a difficult movement right now so that would actually give a vehicle a dedicated green arrow to make that movement and then also some better signage for people coming up riverside avenue and here is uh alternative one the four-way intersection and that would consolidate things to a signalized intersection at the intersection of riverside and barrett street which is right here and it would turn mill street into a stop controlled intersection uh it's um advise that we uh examine an an possible right turn only coming out of that intersection but that's a detail that'll be flushed out further as this goes into design good some more bicycle um enhancements this actually removes the on-street parking between barrett and mill street and we have eliminated this area right here that's probably the most significant aesthetic wise um that would create the opportunity for a pocket park and would decrease the amount of pavement in the area the cost of this is about 3.3 million dollars and this is the alternative that the project advisor committee and the transportation energy and utilities committee are recommending for endorsement as the municipally preferred alternative next steps i think there's a resolution in front of you for those two alternatives that it just went over and just a note again that the short term implementation has begun take any questions all right thank you uh let's first get the resolution on the floor councillor tracy i move that we waive the reading and adopt the resolution regarding the intersection scoping study of colchester avenue riverside avenue barrett street and mill street thank you councillor tracy seconded by councillor dean councillor tracy do you need the floor back councillor pusher so um i will say that um this was not as easy um this was challenging and we did come together with alternative one but you did reference one of the issues that still need some further discussion mill street is this little street in ward one that has a lot of activity now there's some new businesses there's a restaurant and it's been revitalized it's very small i understand that but if you start restricting traffic and only have it go one way or right turn only um that was not something that everyone that interacts on mill street either lives or has to do business there was absolutely supportive of so i think that really does need a second look other than that i think that we did come together and i think the process it's a healthy process it was a very diverse group of people and we all got our our thoughts out there on the table and it was amazing that we came up with something that we all could support so anyways thank you for your efforts on this thank you councillor pusher anyone else hearing councillor jang thank you for the presentation and i just wanted to double check as to why we haven't seen uvm as part of the study here looks like there were a lot of organizations but not uvm knowing that cultures have any cuts through uvm we did have a representative on the project advisory committee that was speaking on behalf of the hill institution so uvm uvm medical center and champlain college and also in terms of cost looks like the first presentation around the bridge it mentioned the agency of transportation in terms of cost but here where the cost will be coming from that will remain to be seen there is the possibility though that this could go after some safety funding that funding is is limited that's actually how the roundabout in the south end is being funded so that's a potential opportunity thank you thank you councillor jang any other councillor hearing none all those in favor of item 4.03 the intersection scoping study of colchester av riverside av barrett street in hill street please say aye aye any opposed that passes unanimously thank you very much um real quickly before we move on to item 4.04 we are going to adjourn the city council meeting don't worry just for a minute and we are going to not adjourn excuse me not adjourn not adjourn we're going to recess briefly the city council meeting so that i can convene the liquor control commission meeting um item number one is the agenda commissioner dean thank you commissioner right i would move uh that we adopt our agenda seconded by council roof all those in favor of adopting the agenda please say aye aye any opposed we have the agenda item number two commissioner dean i would move the uh adoption of the consent agenda taking the actions as indicated council that is seconded by council roof all those in favor of adopting the consent agenda please say aye aye any opposed we have passed the consent agenda now onto the deliberative agenda and item 3.01 commissioner dean thank you commissioner right i'd move the approval of the 2018 2019 first class restaurant bar liquor license application for loboka wood fired pizzeria with the following conditions contingent upon fire marshal approval with all standard conditions seconded by council roof any discussion on the motion hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed that passes unanimously item number 3.02 commissioner dean thank you commissioner right i moved the approval of the 2018 2019 first class restaurant bar liquor license application for pizanos 176 main street with the following conditions contingent upon fire marshal approval with all standard conditions seconded by council roof discussion on the motion hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed 3.02 passes and 3.03 commissioner dean commissioner right i'd move the approval of the 2018 2019 second class store liquor license application for napoli dumpling house 78 north street with the following conditions contingent upon fire marshal approval with all standard conditions seconded by council roof any discussion councillor jane i have a question and a quick question and if you can make the distinction between first class and second class what are the differences please so a first class liquor license allows those people who hold that license to serve liquor on the premises and requires them to then monitor how the people who are running that that business to monitor how that's and comply with dlc restrictions on how it's served a second class license is for sales of liquor in a store environment so it's essentially as a store than those are too understood is by the dlc is two different type of licensing requirements thank you councilor jane thank you councillor jane any further discussion on this item hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed and we have passed item 3.03 motion to adjourn move to adjourn by commissioner dean seconded by commissioner roof all those in favor please say aye aye post we have adjourned the liquor control commission meeting and again thank you commissioner dean for your great workers chair that committee have big shoes to fill thank you we will have big shoes and now i with that meeting recessed i am going to convene the board of civil authority meeting um mr mayor thank you president right i'd like to convene the board of civil authority 9 49 p.m. and first item on the agenda is the agenda to walk on motion for move approval thank you president right is our second second by councillor jane discussion all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye motion carries unanimously and that brings us to the consent agenda move approval of the consent agenda take the actions indicated is our second thank you councillor dean discussion all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed motion carries unanimously and uh at 9 50 p.m. president right the board of civil authority is adjourned all right thank you mr mayor now we will reconvene the regular meeting of the city council at the same time 9 50 and item 4.04 a communication for mayor weinberger regarding appointment of human resource director mr mayor great thank you president right um i would like to invite uh diana plumbo to join us here at the table and uh diana pluba hat we are so here's the thing you know the city of berlington um like most organizations the most important asset that the city has is in many ways it's its people it's its employees and the stewardship the care of the employees um the nurturing of our employees falls to the human relations uh department to um uh to the human resources department to uh take care of and um i'm excited that after an extensive national search uh to be bringing diana um to you for uh appointment as the new director of human resources tonight let me just say a few things about diana's background and why i think she's such a strong candidate um um she has been uh had an extensive uh career working with employees in a variety of roles she had a long um run at ibm um and uh where she uh got rave reviews from her colleagues there and then um after um uh she she moved to the west coast and became involved with a biotech company out there called gilead sciences um and while she was the um head of employee relations that company grew from 4 000 employees to 10 000 um and uh diana throughout that period headed up an international team uh that um uh helped that that company manage that successful growth she uh so in addition to her excellent background she has deep roots in this community she grew up in colchester she uh has um received a a couple of degrees from sampling college um and finally throughout her professional career particularly at gilead she has demonstrated her commitment to diversity inclusion gilead was recognized by forms forbes magazine as a best employer for diversity during her time at the company and after she had pushed for inclusion as one of the core values of of of the company so um for those reasons and more present right i'm excited to uh be presenting um diana uh to you for for confirmation tonight all right thank you mr mayor any uh country shan i'll recognize you for a motion and then if we have questions for the candidate uh i moved to approve the mayor's appointment of diana paluba as the city's director of human resources and grant the uh personal hardship waiver for residency okay councillor thank you councillor shannon seconded by councillor dean all right it's on the floor discussion councillor chang welcome and thank you for joining the city and my question is maybe to yes councillor shannon around the hardship is it undetermined or do we have a specific time for the hardship for her for the new employee to relocate here in uh in burlington councillor shannon um i'm sorry could you repeat the question what was the question yeah the question was about the hardship yes yes so i was asking if there is a specific time that we grant the hardship or it's just undetermined oh i think that's probably better for the city attorney yes i believe under the 2016 changes that you folks made to the rule it is if they were to change their residency in terms of sell the home then it becomes uh it would come back to this body but there's not a time limit upon this subsection okay but can we make one can we propose a specific time it's it's not in the rules that this body passed i'm not sure it's not in the rules it's not in the rules all right but now consult president it's not in the rule to determine at a certain time for the hardship but how can we ensure that we have one like maybe two years three years how can we ensure that we will approve that aspect well the mayor i think would want to speak to that but we have we passed an item on this where we we changed actually we have an exemption that would seem to fit this one pretty neatly mr mayor that's right president i just want to point out the the um the the essence of what councillor shannon has moved is that uh it is clear within the way the charter is written a new appointee has up to a year to become a voter of the city of burlington the council has the authority um under certain conditions to grant um an extension an indefinite extension of that that's what councillor shannon has proposed um the council has defined the reasons uh by which these extensions will be granted there are three of them um and we are proposing that diana be granted the extension out of the third one the one most recently created which has been given to four other department head directors which is that because she uh owns already um a house in a nearby community within shitton county her house happens to be about a mile from the city border and one that her family has um occupied for generations uh decades um that it would constitute a hardship to require her to sell this long family position um for uh for what amounts tonight to a three month appointment and and what will you know ultimately be uh you know no longer than two year appointment um my my view on it is we have granted this uh exemption to again four other employees i think would be a mistake um and very hard to define why we would do that for um uh our other department heads and not do that for diana i think would be a major mistake to do that thank you mr mayor also that councillor jane um not really not not really all set but i just wanted to make sure that we all have an agreement that maybe we will give um diana like a year at least in order for her to figure out ways to become a register border of the city of burlington i mean i just wanted to bring that um aspect into it okay and that's not what the motion is the motion is that we're granting her the exemption so she does not have to come back after a year so then it's up to any councillor if they choose to to not support this um okay now but now we have councillor tracy in line and then councillor mason and councillor hartnett so thank you so much for being here tonight and for um applying for this job um i'm very much impressed by your qualifications and i think that um you're going to do great work for the city of burlington should you be approved tonight um and i hope that i have reason to work with you in that role should you get it um you may know this about me but i've been very consistent on the residency requirement um i've voted against pretty much everybody every department head that's been actually not pretty much every department head that has been brought uh forward who has not lived in burlington i just have this thing that i think that the department heads um who are part of the city uh should live in the city of burlington um i know that others have moved to burlington and or have have relocated to this area and have made the specific choice to move to burlington and so um purely out of fairness to the and out of consistency to those other department heads who i've either voted against or who have relocated um i will not be supporting your appointment tonight but it's not a comment on your character um or your um your uh your qualifications for the role and i just want to be very clear about that because this is a matter of consistency and a matter of really feeling that we should have our department heads live in burlington but thank you thank you councillor tracy councillor mason thank you president right um thank you for coming i'm like others i'm most impressed by your resume and look forward to working with you i do however have some of the same monies that i think we're hearing and i think that flows out of the 2016 exemption um that we adopted and i i think it's worth this council potentially referring to charter change to sort of dig into a little because my concern is this is drafted now which i think miss palua has met all it requires is a certification of hardship and we're somewhat bound by that as it's been applied it's sort of been because of you know with various candidates you know the statement that if i moved i would lose money uh my concern is you know that exemption is somewhat consuming the whole i don't know anyone that would not meet that criteria if it's just moving causes a financial hardship everyone would meet that criteria so i hope to work with maybe councillor tracy and some others to come up with a resolution for the next council to maybe look a little closer at that and put some greater certainty around that to avoid this uncomfortable conversation every time someone doesn't live in burlington thank you councillor mason okay are we councillor no he's all set councillor pine yes please yeah uh mr president i wondered if the um there are a couple of department heads that i believe are not subject to the residency requirement now and i'm just it occurred to me that this one may be one for future consideration in that regard so when we talk about you know future changes i'm not sure the hr director is um you know is one that needs to be on that same list because there are other department heads that we have made that exception for it permanently right thank you appreciate that okay councillor paul thank you um so i was i had the pleasure of uh spending some time with diana and i was really glad to be able to be at the press conference um your resume speaks for itself um and your qualifications you're very qualified for the job and i think i i think it's our job to support you and see that you're successful um i i have also like councillor tracy and councillor mason have have always supported that um department heads should live in the city of burlington but you know we we did make an except we did make another um uh um exception and change to that policy um by allowing that if people lived in shittenden county um at the time that they were appointed that they did not have to move and um that's one of the you know just like being promoted from within and having children in another school district so again i you know it wasn't something that i was particularly supportive but it is a rule and um you know whether you win or lose it's it's it certainly is one of the things that um uh it it is it is an exemption and so um because of that i'm happy to support you and we'll do everything that i can as i'm sure everyone else whether they vote for you or not um will do what they can uh to see that you're successful so thank you thank you very much thank you councillor paul any other discussion by the city council hearing none all those in favor of the appointment please oh would you like did you want to say a few words um yeah just i just want to tell say that i'm really excited and honored to have this opportunity to be considered to be part of that the city of burlington team and the hr department um i am you know really tied to this community i understand your your positions and respect that for sure but i live right in colchester and i live in my family home um i have two adult children that live in california and i'm hoping to entice them to move back to vermont by you know selling um my home to them someday when they return so i'm not opposed to moving to burlington someday but it's not something i'm able to do now um you know i have a long history i've been working in hr for about 16 years and i some of the areas of that i'm passionate about that i hope to bring to the city of burlington is uh my my desire to really focus on employee engagement because that's how we get important things done um my um my focus on um on making sure that we have equitable and fair employment policies within the within the organization which i work for and and finally you know i've really got a history of being focused on diversity and inclusion and i think that's something that's also important to the to the uh to the mayor and to the city of rolandton as well so i um i really just asked uh thank you for your consideration and i'm really excited um and hope that you will support me on this thank thank you mr bolumba i think we are ready to vote great all those in favor of this appointment please say aye hi any opposed one no vote counselor tracy so that your you are approved congratulations congratulations thank you item number 4.05 is a communication from the mayor regarding the appointment of brian low as chief innovation officer mr mayor thank you president right um so to make sure we're on the same page about what's happening here you may recall a year ago um brian low who has served important roles for the city to two prior important roles in the mayor's office um we came forward and asked you to make him the interim chief innovation officer and the reason for asking him to be appointed as an interim um there was no doubt about how committed brian was or his hardworking nature how just his all around uh great collegiality and great person to have on the team there there was a question stepping into this very different role in the prior ones whether it would be a great fit for him and whether it would be a great fit for the city um i'm very happy to be coming back here not surprised but still very happy to be coming back a year later um when in this role brian has had an incredible i believe record of achievement over last year he has led the effort that resulted in voter approval to um create bring about perhaps the most significant reorganization of city government in a couple decades with the permit reform effort he has stood up the early learning initiative first the capacity grant um effort and now as you know we are out in the community um with the beginning of these first step scholarships something that wouldn't have happened without years of effort on brian's part he uh shepherded um with the support of uh others but he was on point for the equity report that i think was an important addition to our annual town meeting day reporting this year and he um has uh totally and quite seemingly effortlessly the the rest of us uh brought about a wonderful you know really a very substantial redesign of the website making it a far more user-friendly interface and i you know there's a lot of less visible stuff on the technology side that brian has also been responsible for and succeeded at at overseeing and and ushering in so um it is with uh great enthusiasm that i come back to you and ask for brian's um interim role to be made permanent and um i hope he'll have strong council support uh in that tonight right uh mr low did we're not seeking a residency exemption no residency exemption all right i know i know exactly where he lives um all right a couple words mr low before we see if there's anything with the council just just very briefly it really has been a great privilege to serve in this role i'm grateful to the mayor for the opportunity um and those are very kind words but there's definitely a big team working on a number of these different projects that um in the int department and then across the city thank you mr low any questions from the council council heart net thank you i don't have any questions i just have a comment and so i'm glad we're actually doing this tonight um i because i remember a year ago and we did this right and everybody was kind of a little uncertain for different reasons right and and i was really glad that the city was out thinking outside the box here right that we were going to give somebody that had uh you know worked hard for the city an opportunity to prove himself and to show us you know what he had we didn't really go for the national surge and we we didn't do this we said to somebody look you've been good to brovington you've worked hard for us you've done a lot of great things you'd like to try this opportunity you know you're going to work close with beth Anderson you're going to do you know all this stuff and um and i know that felt gave some counselors a little uncomfortable feeling i was excited that we were doing that i i think that says a lot as a city that we're willing to take care one of our own that worked hard and give him the opportunity to see if he could succeed right that we were going to give him that challenge he was going to accept the challenge and take it and and and he has done so in just a remarkable way and but i applaud the city for taking that approach i think it's important that we do that we don't have to do it every single time but we have to do it once in a while and this was a great case to do it in and we we've been we've been rewarded with it and i just would like to acknowledge all the work that he has done on the early initiative learning it's been amazing i've been proud to work with him on that we spoke earlier tonight um it's just i i welcome this and it's a great great appointment tonight thanks thank you councillor hartnett i think we'd all agree that brian's done a great job for the city any other discussion about the city council hearing none councillor jang um sorry president but i have to say something about this wonderful guy because he's an incredible person and many people don't know he's a soldier as well he's a member of the military a father and also a resident of my ward when i came here and i was new i'm still new here not even two years yet but he was the first person who really showed me real integrity and real hard work how it looked like and i think it all came out during during the middle you know and i looked at him all the time and hope that when i become mayor someday you'll work for me thank you thank you councillor jang that's not tonight though okay so all those in favor of this nomination please say the appointment has not been moved councillor shannon i moved to confirm the appointment of brian lowe as chief innovation officer seconded by council roof all those in favor of the appointment please say aye opposed congratulations thank you a lot of standing o's tonight item four point oh item item four point five five we have to keep moving here folks item four point five five was three point five two on the consent agenda councillor nodel yes president right this is item four point oh five five which was three point five two on consent i move adoption of this resolution making a approving a fourth amendment to the lease agreement with the lehi center for lake champlain briefly have to request the floor after second seconded by council roof councillor nodel you have the floor back thank you president right um this the city has a lease agreement with the lehi center for lake champlain also known as echo um this is we this is a long standing lease this is the fourth amendment that we propose making tonight um it comes to the council on a three to one vote at the board of finance which is why it was pulled off of consent um the issue that came up at the board of finance meeting relates to the fact that um this change in the lease will acknowledges a change in the governance of the lehi center that has been in place for over 10 years but which is at odds with the change in the bylaws of the lehi center is at odds with what the lease has said these many years and so we are bringing the lease into conformity with the bylaws um my view was i didn't love the process but we the city has many ways of ensuring accountability of the lehi center to the city um and based on that and the fact that they've been functioning well and that there was a discussion with the university president and with the mayor when they made this change in board composition um i was comfortable with it and um i urge support of this motion thank you councillor nodell councillor busher so i was the no vote um and i just wanted to explain um so i i so value the um echo um but what the original lease said was that there would be the board of directors would be comprised of one third of the representatives coming from the city of burlington one third from the university of vermont and one third to be representatives of the public at large and the communication that we were given as as councillor nodell stated was that in 2008 there was a a drift from this um and uh there was a decision from by their bylaws to no longer adhere to that to me that's disturbing that i'm but i but what i didn't know was what i learned was that that was shared with the president of uvm as councillor nodell stated and the mayor at that time um and i understand that this brings this into compliance with their bylaws but i feel that echo is on the waterfront i feel that it's really important that there be some members it doesn't have to be the ratio that's stated in the original um lease but i really felt that there should be representation from one or two members from burlington um i understand that there are they have a very close working relationship with parks and rec and um but i still feel pretty strongly that as we move forward in the future you have to take the people out of the equation and just talk about structure i think it would be a better structure for burlington if we had representatives from burlington on that board and that's why i didn't support this thank you councillor busher any other discussion on this issue hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed no two no votes the two no votes are councillor busher and councillor tracy that passes by a 10 to 2 vote uh we are now on to item 4.06 and a request has been made that we have a recess a really really short recess uh so we will recess for two minutes we'll literally back be back in two minutes we are back item 4.0 are you ready councillor nodell 4.06 councillor nodell thank you president right i move adoption of the i wave the reading and move adoption of the resolution relating to authorization to execute contract for the reconstruction of city hall park and ask for the floor after a second second by councillor hartnett councillor nodell you have the floor thank you the the version of this resolution that i moved is the one that was posted to board docs at the end of the week last week um so and i wanted to note that the whereas clause starting on line 81 is not strictly correct but the the amendment that will be coming from councillor pine if it if it succeeds will correct the small inaccuracy there about the exact action taken by the board of finance if that motion to amend fails um will be read we we should just correct that that language about the board of finance action so this vote tonight is a is to approve a construction contract this is not a vote on the design of city hall park the design of the city hall park renovation has gone through many many meetings at different levels of our community and last june the council after the ad hoc committee did its work and after the development review board granted a permit a board of citizens appointed by this body to act on behalf of the people o