with young people with whom I teach I work with and I love. The average age of entry into the sex trade is between 14 and 16 years old. The people most often exploited in the sex trade are young women and girls of color who are living in poverty. This begs the question who benefits when the sex trade expands? Fully decriminalizing prostitution which is what this resolution would do makes it easier for sex buyers pimps and brothel owners to buy and sell the most marginalized in our communities. What happens when there are no legal repercussions for buying and selling people in a study done by the nonprofit rights for girls one in five men said that they would buy sex if quote the circumstances were right when prostitution is fully decriminalized the circumstances are right. Think back to the 14 to 16 year old girls who are most often harmed and exploited by fully decriminalizing prostitution teenagers like the ones I work with every day are bought and sold. My students are smart funny ambitious they are also extremely vulnerable resolutions like this intentionally or unintentionally exploit their vulnerabilities and they make it easier for them to line the pockets of their exploiters. As an educator I stand with world without exploitation in their call for the equality model an approach that will decriminalize those sold in the sex trade so your time is up keep their exploiters accountable. Thank you. Our next speaker is Maggie Karen. Okay. Maggie is followed by um Janet Metz. Oh wait okay. Public hearing I see Stephanie Clark. Okay. My name is Stephanie Clark. I'm the CEO of Amira Inc. We are one of the largest providers of exit and aftercare services to women exiting the commercial sex trade in New England. We work with women who are US citizens and to date 61% of the women we have served in our residential program were sold for sex in Vermont during their time in sex trade. I'm speaking regarding the proposal to strike language regarding prostitution in the city ordinance. In our 10 years of work we have served more than 400 women who were sold in the commercial sex trade in the United States. We've learned through the stories of those who were in the commercial sex trade in Vermont that is particularly active in Burlington and is directly connected to gang activity. Those who survived the Vermont sex trade experienced brutalization from gangs, hospitalizations from broken pelvises, complete jaw replacements, severe beatings, physical humiliation, access to opiates and fentanyl along with continued support and abusing those these substances. Their family members were targeted by traffickers and gang members. They had an inability to go back to areas out of fear for their lives. It's been well documented that when the sex trade has been fully decriminalized in other countries and provinces there have been a significant increase in those who are being trafficked and exploited. What I have listed out has been happening now to women without the decriminalization of the sex trade. Should this happen you are guaranteed an increase in violence and an increase in the most marginalized here in Vermont continuing to be exploited in traffic. The issue is that full decriminalization does not support those who are in the sex trade willingly or unwillingly. It will only increase the demand for their bodies, increase the violence that can be done against them and support the buyers who often come from the most privilege. If your goal is safety for those in the sex trade this will not help. There are already little to no services in Vermont that provide support for those exiting the commercial sex trade. This is why I'm here representing an organization that is based in Massachusetts because we are serving the women who are coming from Vermont. I urge you to reconsider this proposal and be in conversation with those who are actively working in this field to explore other solutions that have been shown to benefit those in prostitution. Thank you. Thank you. I have one other person who is non-Burlington in person, Rachel Foster. Okay. I will put you in the file for the public hearing. Okay. We will now transition back to non-Burlington folks who are participating remotely. So I have Isaac Bissell to be followed by James Mark Lease, Jim Sexton, Henry June, Christine Rigo, and Matthew Codsey. We have a couple more after that.  So I will go to Isaac Bissell now. Isaac, I've enabled your microphone. Isaac Bissell. Yep. Isaac, I see your hand is raised. I've unmuted you and I've enabled your microphone. Isaac, you should be able to speak. I'm not sure what's happening there.  Okay. Isaac, I can come back again and try again. We'll go to James Mark Lease now. Have you enabled your mic? Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. Okay. I urge no vote on the airport resolution. I'd just like to point out that the airport master plan says the airport now includes 950 acres and 55 of those acres are empty land already designated and zoned for commercial development. Those 55 acres are located right next to general aviation and beta technologies. They're perfectly located. Beta is using 21 of those 55 acres and that leaves 34 acres perfectly located for general aviation. Therefore rezoning 11 more acres of chamberland land is not needed. The best way to support general aviation, including beta and to protect the chamberland neighborhood is for the council to tell the acting airport director to withdraw the airport's request to rezone and chamberland and make the buildable part of that perfectly located and properly zoned empty 34 acres next to the valley available for general aviation. The council should begin planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well from this city owned airport starting by saying no to any expansion of fossil fuel aviation and no to the 22 gallon per minute climate killing F 35. So please vote no on council dengue's resolution and tell the airport director to withdraw the rezoning request and make the 34 acres in the valley area available to general aviation now. Thank you very much. Thank you. Isaac Basel, I'll come back to you and see if we can get your microphone working. So Isaac, I've enabled your microphone. Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. Okay, great. Thank you. I'm a resident of the chamberland school neighborhood in South Burlington. I'm also a member of the Burlington airport rezoning task force. I'm here to speak in opposition to the resolution referred referring general aviation considerations to the transportation energy and utilities commission. I wanted to begin by thanking councillor dang for his engagement with those who have raised concerns about the environmental and community impacts of the earlier drafts of this resolution. This having been said, I do have concerns about the language and the latest resolution. The present resolution includes warehouse clauses that are biased towards airport expansion. And this is not the appropriate framing for the issues under consideration. Additionally, the resolved clauses prevent the full examination of the concerns that have been raised relating to rising aviation emissions and the impacts of the proposed expansion on the chamberland school neighborhood. Lastly, the requirement to return the reported findings to the city council by March does not give the commission enough time to fully examine the issues at hand. The concerns that have been raised by local residents about the airport administration's active plans for expansion and by members of the general aviation about the airport administration's transparency are incredibly complex and deserve a complete and unfettered investigation by the city council or by the transportation energy and utilities commission. The resolution before tonight prevents that complete investigation. The council should vote no on the resolution and council members should take more time to engage further with the various stakeholders in order to find a path forward that will allow for a complete examination of the issues at hand. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Our next speaker will be Jim Sexton to be followed by Henry June, Christine Rigo, and Matthew Codsey. We have a couple more after that as well. Jim, I see that you are interested in speaking to the charter chain, so if you could just let me know if you'd like to speak now or wait later. Jim Sexton, you might have enabled your mic. It looks like you're muted on your end. It looks like you've unmuted, Jim. I still can't hear you. Jim, I will come back to you again for the public hearing. And then I'm going to go to Henry June. Let me just look at you and Henry June, I'm not able to locate you for this, so I'm going to go to Christine Rigo. Christine, you're interested in the charter change, so if you could let me know if you wanted to go now or during the charter change hearing itself. I am delivering testimony on behalf of another and it doesn't include any suggested changes, so I'll deliver it now. Okay, go ahead. This is on behalf of an ally and friend and sex worker client who asked not to be named. I want to thank the charter committee for voting to strike this dated and offensive language from the city charter of Burlington. This is a great first step in destigmatizing sex work and helping erotic laborers feel seen and recognized as the valued community members they are and ought to be. If the goal is to destigmatize, then promoting the stereotype that sex workers are all femmes and taking their agency by infantilizing them, all as helpless victims is not removing a stigma, it's just changing it. We also need to get over the stigma on how, on people who buy sex work. Anyone who watches porn is in this category. We're not all predators, perverts or misogynists. We're not all men either. This is personal to me as a survivor of early childhood sexual abuse and trauma and as an autistic person. After I was victimized at age four, I became extremely wary of physical intimacy with any family or friends. I never learned the implicit languages of intimacy, languages that were difficult anyway with autism. Once I hit puberty and developed my own sexuality, it became terrifying to me. I'm always held back by the fear that I'm doing something wrong when I try to flirt or approach anyone I'm interested in. I've only bought sex work legally online so far in my life but it's a source of connection and relief. It allows me to overcome my trauma and heal just a little. Sex work is work but it's more than that. Sex work is healing work and social work. Even with these legal limitations, the confidence, comfort and support I've gotten from consensual sex workers in my community has been as helpful and overcoming CPTSD as any of the normative medical arts therapy I've received. It's past time we stopped criminalizing humanity, stopped criminalizing the efforts of hurt and disabled people to reclaim our humanity. Thank you for beginning this process to help Burlington do that. I'm pretty sure I'm out of time so I will submit the full statement via email. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Matthew Codsey to be followed by Jack Garza, Lauren Hirsch, Trisha Grant, Audrey Morrissey, Abby German, Savannah Sly, Michael Chivaly, Carl Martin, and Laurie Cohen. So I'm going to go to Matthew Codsey. Matthew, looks like you've enabled your microphone. Looks like you're interested in speaking to the charter change so you can choose to speak now or wait until the public hearing later on. Hello. Yes. Ready to go? Yep. So do you want to speak now on the charter change or would you like to wait until the public hearing? I'd like to speak now. Okay, go ahead. I'm Matthew Codsey. I'm 18 years old.  I identified a brothel only 500 feet from my house. Cars full of men were lined up in front of the brothel late into the night.  She wasn't safe there and there's no issue with teenagers going to the place and paying for whatever services were being offered. It's truly terrifying to think that a college town like Burlington can soon be the center of sex tourism. What the laws that you're proposing do is suggest that for a price women can be bought by men but buying sex does not mean buying the consent of these women. No one can buy consent. At the very best they'd be buying compliance and those are not the same. It's a disaster to imagine that thousands of college students are at risk of being exposed to a decriminalized sex trade and the best I can do is tell you all that full decriminalization is wrong. It endangers women. It gives men the idea that they can exploit women with no repercussions just because they can afford it and it sets a Burlington, a college town to be one of the biggest sex tourism locations in the country. That's wrong. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jack Garza to be followed by Lauren Hirsch. Jack, I've enabled your microphone. Can you hear me? Yes. Awesome. I can wait to speak until they hear you. Okay. I will hold off on that. Okay. Next person, Lauren Hirsch. Lauren. Lauren, I've enabled your microphone. Lauren. Okay. I see that you are signed up for the charter change and are interested in, I mean, are interested in speaking to the charter change so I can try you again at that point. Then I have Trisha Grant to be followed by Audrey Morrissey. Trisha, I'm coming to you. Trisha, I've enabled your microphone. Thank you. I will also be waiting for the public hearing. Okay. Great. I will mark that for you. I come to Audrey Morrissey. Audrey, I've enabled your microphone. Can you hear me? Yes. And I see that you are interested in speaking to the charter change. Are you interested in speaking now or would you like to wait until the public hearing specific to the charter change? Well, I'm going to speak now because I'm just going to speak now. Okay. Yep. Go ahead. All right. Great. So my name is Audrey Morrissey. I work for organization, I'm a co-executive director of an organization in Massachusetts called My Life, My Choice, where we work with vulnerable adolescent youth who have been trafficked throughout New England. Some have been trafficked through Vermont. I'm here to say that one of the things that I know for sure, if Vermont were to do a full decrim on prostitution to fill the demand, I know that black and brown children will be sold at a very, very high rate. There is no way to have an adult sex industry where there are no children anywhere that there's an adult industry. There are always children. The other thing that I just want to acknowledge is that allowing privileged men to buy people of color is something that I am totally against. And even when we talk about adult women of color who don't have a choice, if we would illegalize pimping, it will be to fill the demand. There will be a sale of black and brown children and adults in numbers that we have never seen before.  And so I just want to say that. And thank you for giving me some time to speak. Thank you. Our next speaker is actually I was able to locate who to locate Henry June. So Henry June, let me go back to you. So Henry June, I believe I've located you and wanted to check in. Are you interested in speaking to the Charter Change? All right, I'll put for that. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thanks. Okay. Following that, I have Savannah Sly. Savannah, I've enabled your microphone. Hi. I'd like to speak on the Charter Change in the formal public hearing if possible. Sure. I will put that down. Thank you. To Michael Chevelli. Michael, I've enabled your microphone. Yeah, I'd like to wait until the hearing, please. Sure. Okay, I will then go to Carl Martin. Carl, I've located you and have enabled your microphone. Thanks. Thank you, council members. My name is Carl Martin, and I live in our state capital, Montpelier. I feel obliged to attend tonight to urge you to oppose the general aviation resolution number 6.03, because any expansion of general any aviation will mean an increase in the carbon emissions that accelerate global heating. We know that we must quickly reduce such emissions and instead construct alternative economic systems based on the well-being of human communities in our complex ecosystems. This resolution was constructed without any serious engagement with environmental damage or with the immediate impacts on the Chamberlain neighborhood. The conversion of more green spaces there is just another symbol of the subordination of the needs of everyday people to the old model of economic, quote unquote, growth. Moreover, as has been mentioned already, it's my understanding that of the almost 1,000 acres controlled by the airport, there are roughly 22 acres available in an ideal location for infrastructure improvements for current general aviation tenants. Thank you. Thank you. The Laurie Cohen is our last person I have signed up to speak in the public forum on this issue is not indicated. They would like to speak in the Charter Change hearing later on. Laurie, I do see you're interested in the Charter Change item, so just want to. Yes, thank you. I will wait. Thank you very much. Okay, great. I can come back to you for that item. Okay, so that concludes our public forum for this evening. We do have, as I said before, a Charter Change hearing on the Charter Change regarding sex work. A number of you indicated that you are interested in waiting until that hearing, so we will come back to that item. If you are interested in speaking, or if you're interested in speaking on that item and are in the room, you can sign up using the forums in the corner. If you are interested in participating in that public hearing online or participating remotely and have not already signed up, and again, if not already signed up, then please go to erlingtonvt.gov slash public forum or slash city council slash public forum. So that's erlingtonvt.gov slash city council slash public forum to sign up there. But if you've already signed up for that, I already have you on the sheet, so no need to double sign up. In fact, it would make it more complicated for that for that sign up if you sign up more than once. So if you've already signed up for that public hearing, please do not do so again. But if you are still interested in speaking, please use that sign up forum to do so. Having completed that portion of our meeting, we'll now move into our agenda, which is which continues with item number four, the actually we have to pick up where we left off, which is the item having to do with the redistricting committee. So I will come back to that item. And we had a question from Councillor Jang on that item. And Tracy, and I will start by saying thank you to the members of the ad hoc committee for your work. I don't know if Maggie, your professor is still here. Is your professor still here? No. Okay. Then it seems Leah Turner is here. And my first question is about the concept of at large city councilors. Has it been floated? And why was it in part of the report? Councillor Jang, to whom are you addressing your question? To alternate turn him. Okay. Leah, you're on mute. It was there were a lot of things, Ali, that weren't addressed by the committee. Their time was always short. And they were supposed to be listening. We were supposed to be listening to the public input and then feeding what we heard back to you. It was never any attempt for consensus. There was very little deliberation. Okay. Yeah. And if I remember correctly, the resolution has not mentioned, and I'm talking in the perspective of like a process, you know, I think like Wellington City Council. My name is Laurie Cohen. I am the CEO of ACPAT USA, the first organization. Not sure what that was. I apologize. Councillor Jang, go ahead. And I'm not speaking about, you know, this is more of a comment and also question. And the comment is basically, I think the whole process was to make sure that we have a transparent process and also members that we identified to serve in this committee to also be very neutral, right? I did not remember anywhere on the resolution where we mentioned the word alternate. I wanted to understand where that came about. Why did you, why the committee created, decided to create alternate position and where did we have alternates in all words? The NPA steering committees decided to do, to have alternate positions. NPAs that were experienced with redistricting 10 years ago, give or take, know that we had representatives and alternates from each NPA. That some NPAs decided not to elect alternates this time. That's an internal NPA process. I mean, from my perspective, we have to follow what the resolution tasks the committee to do. And if there are changes to please notify the city council that certain thing is happening. I was in Africa, but when I was hearing about the alternate, I was really confused. But again, thank you for your work. That was it for me, President Reis. Okay. Thank you very much. Any other counselors with questions or comments? Okay. Seeing none. City Attorney Richardson, are you able to just clarify where the process goes from here? Sure. I'd be happy to. So essentially, the process at this point is in the council's court, how the council wishes to proceed is not necessarily defined by either statute or charter ordinance. What has to happen, I think, is it's sort of a reverse engineering question, which is that at the end of the day, the council has to come up with a redistricting plan that satisfies the constitutional requirements. And ultimately is something that a majority of the voters of the city will approve. And so what both City Planner Tuttle and CEDO Director Pine and myself would recommend is that at this point, the council should make plans and we as staff are here to support mapping proposals that start to identify the districts and incorporate some of the feedback. Well, the feedback that the ad hoc redistricting committee has compiled and created but it's ultimately a council driven process. And I don't know if I see Megan is on as well, so she may have something to add. Yeah, just a very brief addition. I think the next step in the council's resolution was that they would consider the feedback that this ad hoc committee shared with you and would provide their perspective on the priority issues that should drive the creation of those maps for your consideration. So that would be the very immediate next step for the staff to be able to help move forward with the next step in the process. Okay, great. Thank you to both of you for your work on the process as well as for that clarification. Appreciate that. So with that, we will move into our next item, which is the climate emergency reports. Does any councilor have a climate emergency report that they would like to offer? Okay, seeing none, we will go to item number three, which is the consent agenda. Is there a motion, Councillor Stromberg may please have a motion on the consent agenda? Yes, I move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. We have a motion. Is there a second? Okay. Seconded by Councillor McGee. Any discussion? Okay, seeing none, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of adopting the consent agenda, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Brings us into our deliberative agenda this evening. So for the deliberative agenda, we have an appointment up first. Mayor Weinberger, would you like to offer some remarks? Yes, President Tracy, thank you very much. I am very pleased to be bringing before you for our appointment tonight a candidate to be the city's next Chief Innovation Officer. And my appointee is Scott Parker, who has just joined with us on the Zoom screen. And we'd like to share a few remarks about Scott and then if that's okay, President Tracy to turn the floor over to Chief Scott. Scott's a long time Berlintonian and has lived with his family in the New North End for more than 25 years. He has extensive experience with a variety of Chittenden County organizations managing IT teams and providing organizational leadership. He did this notably at MyWeb Grocer as a senior leader there for a decade and most recently with the North Country Federal Credit Union. Also, Scott I think has really distinguished himself, shown himself to be very committed to the community even before joining the city team. He has had numerous volunteer roles in the city including as a softball coach at BHS and as a volunteer for COTS. This appointment is to fill the vacant Chief Innovation Officer position. I do just briefly want to remind the public and the council of the history of this position. This position has only existed since 2014 when we created it to have a senior leader who would develop a comprehensive IT vision for the city as well as to resource our efforts to become a city that is better at collecting and analyzing data and using that data to drive decision making and to coordinate continuous improvement efforts across the city. The still new CIO position has been critical in everything from the city's permit reform efforts several years ago that led to the most significant structural change in city government in decades as well as of course our Chief Innovation Officer Brian Lowe played a huge role in the huge innovations that were required to respond properly to the pandemic, to COVID-19 in a very uncertain time. I am very confident that Scott will be a leader like Brian and like Beth Anderson before him the two prior occupants that really dramatically expand the capacity of the senior management team at the city that continue our forward progress improving our IT practices which have improved dramatically since this position was created and I hope Scott will secure your strong endorsement tonight. Thank you President Tracy and I'd like to hand the zoom over to Scott for a couple additional remarks. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Thank you everyone on the council and President Tracy Mr. Mayor thank you. I appreciate the opportunity and the challenge before us and I'm anxious and eager to get started and work with you to and the mayor and his administration to address the needs of both city employees and citizens of Burlington so I'm excited to get going and thank you again for the opportunity Mr. Mayor and if you have any questions let me know. Excellent so I appreciate that so now we need a motion regarding the appointment. Is someone able to please offer a motion regarding the appointment? Yes I'll move to confirm the appointment of Scott Barker as the Chief Innovation Officer and I'd ask for the floor back after a second. So you don't actually need a second Councillor Barlow so go ahead. Okay well I served on the interview team for the CIO position and I can report that everyone on the team was excited about his candidacy after we interviewed Scott like as the mayor pointed out he's a long time Burlington resident and fellow New North Ender I might add involved community member and has a rich background of experience in area businesses including North Country Credit Union and my web brochure and I'm just really excited to support his confirmation and look forward to having Scott on the city administration team. Thank you very much. Are there any other comments or questions from councillors? Councillor Jenkins go ahead. Thank you President Bracey and welcome Mr. Scott. I mean there is an anecdote that I wanted to share with the public and also with the council about this this this amazing person in 2011 I don't know how old was he in 2011 but what he has done is to invite his birthday became actually a neighborhood birthday he's a people person he invited a band Africa Jamano I was managing that band back then and Scott brought drumming and dance to his birthday and where he saw us our band was at flint school where his child used to go. A couple years after that Scott was working or was a board member at Technology for Tomorrow I believe right and he trained all the parent university participants about using iPads technology and then when he was done he gave them each one iPad to bring home. This is an amazing guy and I know that he everything that he will do with the city he will look it into an equity lens. Scott I am very delighted and also he is a proud new north ended so new north end 05408 represent looking forward to work with you and my best to Becky and your child welcome but this is now my question you can you are coming from basically you know private and institutional now you're coming into government politics what do you envision would be like challenges for you? I think the I think the biggest challenge is just finding ways to do what we need to do within the constraints of a city budget I mean you know when you're in a private organization a private company you can flex budgets and you can do all kinds of things that's a lot tighter ship when it comes to public funding so there's a lot of things you have to do to understand what the costs are and reduce those costs while still increasing the efficiency. The nice thing is while I have not been directly working in a paid capacity for from a public perspective I have actually taught at Marlboro College tri-sector leadership so the idea of how do we work with for-profit non-profit and public organizations to come together to get job done so looking forward to putting some of the stuff that I was teaching students into into action. Thank you. Thank you. Great anyone any other comments or questions from counselors okay seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor of confirming Scott Barker as our next CIO for the city of Burlington please say aye. Hi. Hi. Any opposed? That carries unanimously please join me in congratulating Scott as our next CIO. Thank you. I look forward to it. Great welcome look forward to working with you as well Scott. All right that brings us to our next item which is the public hearing on the the charter change before we get into the hearing itself. City Attorney Richardson would you be able to just please offer a an explanation of the charter change itself just so that folks who are interested in commenting who might not be totally familiar with the language itself or just the issue are able to have that in mind. Certainly the charter change that has been proposed involves section 48 of the city's charter it's a straight repeal of the city's authority to regulate the term prostitution houses of ill fame and disorderly houses the language is actually to restrain and suppress houses of ill fame and disorderly houses and to punish common prostitutes and persons consorting there with. The charter change provision simply seeks to strike this provision which from a legal perspective would eliminate the city council and administration's ability to promulgate ordinances in the subject matter area. However as I've noted in prior hearings this would not affect the state statutes under Title 13 that do regulate and do criminalize the types of activities that we commonly either refer to as prostitution or sex work. Great thank you for that explanation. We will now move into the public hearing itself. So for the public hearing what if you are interested in speaking and are here in person you can sign up using the forms in the corner and if you've already done so I have those forms because you all have signed up there. You are interested in speaking and are participating with this meeting remotely you may sign up for the just to speak to the charter change again just this is just to speak to the charter change you may do so by going to burlingtonvt.gov slash city council slash public forum that's burlingtonvt.gov slash city council slash public forum and that will take you to a form that you can then sign up on. I'm going to go first to the folks who are here in the room and I will go to Sherri Lamarsh. Hi my name is Sherri Lamarsh and I am a first-time speaker. I was born and raised in Vermont have lived in Burlington the last 18 years and have 27 years in Burlington overall. I oppose sex work being decriminalized that you are proposing. Some may be opposed to what I have to say and call it fear mongering but I will call it big picture thinking and I've done it my whole life. This proposal may attract abusive predators. I am worried about sex workers presently and even more concerned about young adults who after decriminalization may feel incentivized to engage in sex work for fast money for college rent food etc. These young adults may not have the street smarts for a lack of a better word to pick up on red flags of abusive predators that many in the industry have an eye for or feel for. I'm also concerned about men and women in abusive relationships that are looking to get out but need money and believe there they found the answer in sex work. One problem heaven forbid their abuser catches them. Second problem as a survivor I fear the emotional and physical health of not just the act of sex but also the potential of sexual assault and the trauma that goes with it. And for these reasons I oppose it. Don't let this be another destructive decision we can't get out of. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker will be Michelle Moran to be followed by Caitlin Macias. I am Michelle Moran. I'm a 25-year resident of Ward 5 in Burlington. I am sincerely bewildered by the vote of the council to decriminalize prostitution in Burlington. Why are you removing from city ordinance all criminal language relating to prostitution? Why are you stripping law enforcement of the means to investigate prostitution cases to protect those who are victimized by it? Do you not believe that women, men, girls, and boys in Vermont are being victimized within the practice of prostitution?  This charter change would only serve to protect the pimps and johns. Do we really want to protect the Jeffrey Epstein's, the G. Lane Maxwell's, and the Robert Kraft's? Please reword the charter change to add wording that will make it possible to prosecute pimps and sex buyers. Just another comment. I find it really disconcerting that there's no city councilors in this room. We have no way of knowing if they're even listening. And I find it really disheartening. Thank you. Our next speaker is Caitlin Macias to be followed by Maggie Karen. Good evening. My name is Caitlin Macias and I'm here representing World Without Exploitation, the largest national anti-human trafficking coalition with 200 U. S. based organizations that work together to create a world free from human trafficking and sexual exploitation. We're guided by the survivors of the sex trade whose perspectives are critical in developing just and effective policies. I come to this work with a unique perspective. In addition to my work with World Wee, I'm a Latinx woman and a student at the Columbia School of Social Work. Sex work quote sex work is not social work. It's actually incredibly harmful. And I sit here in opposition of resolution and anticipated charger endorsing the full decriminalization of prostitution in the state of Vermont. This charter and the ideology it represents demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the realities of the sex trade and also minimizes the lived experience of survivors. It's actually incredibly thoughtless to implement a resolution and charter that encourages the sex industry to expand during a global pandemic.  Violence is pervasive. Physical, psychological and abuse and harm is the norm. The best example of why New Hampshire, actually not New Hampshire, Vermont should not pass this bill or this incredible harmful charter is Rhode Island. Rhode Island fully decriminalized indoor prostitution for 29 years. As a result, the state became a regional sex tourism hub.  Instead of fully decriminalizing the sex trade, we must take a holistic approach. WorldWe and our member organizations support the equality model that provides exit services and strategies instead of criminalizing those in the sex trade. We also support policies that enable people in the sex trade to report violence and other crimes they have experienced. We know that criminalizing those engaged in the sex trade who are victims of violence and exploitation is harmful and does nothing to prevent sex trafficking and exploitation. But we also know that making it easier and less risky for third-party exploiters like pimps and brothel owners to profit off of exploitation is not the answer. So please oppose the resolution of anticipated Charger endorsing full decriminalization of prostitution in Vermont. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Maggie Karen to be followed by Janet Metz. If you could please put your mask on. Excuse me. Can you please put your mask on? Good evening. My name is Maggie Karen and I'm speaking as Vermont Chair of New Englanders Against Sexual Exploitation. Over the past several months your council has heard from numerous experts on the topic of sex trafficking and prostitution. You have ignored everything that they have said. You have also heard from many victims and survivors of sex trafficking and prostitution. People who have lived through horrific experiences of being shot, being stabbed, being tortured, being beaten, being raped, and more. You stare blank faced with absolutely no emotion to the traumas that they have been through. And then you clearly make the choice to ignore their voices and their traumatic lived experiences as well. What an enormous insult that is to the pain that they have been through. You have heard from constituents of Burlington.   Burlington, once a shining star in the state of Vermont with beautiful lakefront walks and charming church street will be reduced to a sex tourism capital of the nation in fact of the world while you continue to ignore your obligation to protect the public. It has become clear that you will ignore me too so I leave my words as a plea to the people of Burlington to stand against the assault these city counselors are taking against your city. Make sure your voices are heard, stand by your city, vote no on all efforts to decriminalize prostitution in Burlington. Thank you. Our next speaker is Janet Metz. Can you please put your mask on? Janet Metz to be followed by Rachel Foster. Good evening. For the record I am the chair of the Chittenden County Republican Party and the Vermont Republican Women's Coalition. My comments today however are solely my own. Others have delved deeply into the harm prostitution inflicts on women, young girls, and young boys. What I ask you to seriously consider is what impact it would have on this city. Rhode Island's experiment with decriminalization ended in 2009 when according to local law enforcement the extent of prostitution became almost pervasive. Beyond an explosion in salacious internet ads the number of massage parlors involved in prostitution in the city and elsewhere went from just a handful to more than 20 with some scattered in downtown a short walk from city hall. The preservation of Burlington as a vibrant economic social and cultural community is very personal to me. The memorial fountain and plaza at the intersection of Berlin Battery Streets is dedicated to my late father-in-law Burlington architect and chamber of commerce president Robert Metz. He participated in the renaissance of urban redevelopment in the city in the 60s and early 70s. He loved Burlington and would be appalled at the potential impact of decriminalization on citizens, visitors, schools, cultural institutions, and local businesses. Tourism is crucial to the city's economy. Do we really want to discourage families from visiting in favor of persons seeking to pay for sex? What impact will that have on patronization of the Flynn, Echo, the city shops, restaurants, and hotels?  Our educational institutions are a major economic driver. We'll concern that naive and curious young people could be lured into the sex trade make parents think again about sending their children to UVM and Champlain. What will high school students encounter on the way to and from school? Burlington has enough problems now with crime and homelessness. The city's businesses have suffered due to the pandemic. Is now the time to embark on a risky social experiment that could have long-term negative consequences? I ask you to seriously consider this before advancing the charter change proposal to the March 1st ballot. Thank you. Thank you. Rachel Foster next. I'm Rachel Foster. I'm co-founder of World Without Exploitation, which is a national coalition made up of over 200 organizations that work to combat commercial sexual exploitation, including here in Burlington. This is the third time in three months that I've traveled from Burlington to Brooklyn, New York to testify against the removal in the city charter of prohibitions against the purchase of commercial sex and brothel operating. I've come here for a third time because these resolutions are so alarming. The archaic and offensive language in the charter could easily be replaced with more appropriate language while still maintaining prohibitions against sex buying and brothel operating. Yet the city council is choosing to remove these vital prohibitions altogether. This speaks volumes about the intention to ultimately decriminalize fully prostitution here in Burlington. WorldWeb believes that combating commercial sexual exploitation is essential to the larger fight for racial and gender justice. Survivor leaders have testified before the city council powerfully sharing their knowledge and expertise and they have felt dismissed. The council has fundamentally disregarded the severity of harms of prostitution, the systems of prostitution, and minimized the experiences of survivors who have spoken out, who each represent hundreds of others who cannot safely appear before you or who are not alive today to testify. It is immensely reckless to adopt a policy that encourages the sex trade to grow given the well documented and severe harms to those bought and sold in this multi-billion dollar predatory and brutal industry. I have spent thousands of hours over the past decade truly listening to and working alongside powerful sex trade survivors from across the country, including those trafficked here in Vermont. And I have yet to meet one person who was in prostitution truly by choice or with a sense of their own agency. These women and men refer to themselves as prostitution survivors, not former sex workers for a reason. We have repeatedly heard that it doesn't matter what Burlington does here because there are state laws against prostitution. But it is clear that those who support fully decriminalized and commercial sex trade are starting in local jurisdictions and working their way to state legislatures. This is an organized, well-funded effort. Let's be clear about that. We are seeing this happen all over the country in local jurisdictions. The job of the Burlington City Council is important here because Vermont will be the U.S. destination for men who want to purchase commercial sex without any personal risk.  Prostitution and sex trafficking are not isolated to a particular locality.  They could not more forcefully raise the alarm bells than they have in their testimony before you. The central question before you is not as some have portrayed a binary one of decriminalizing prostituted people or not.  We believe there is an urgent need to end the arrest and incarceration of people who have been exploited in the sex trade and ensure that people in prostitution do not face criminal penalties, but instead are provided with exit strategies and services such as safe housing and access to health care. However, fully decriminalizing the industry leads to an increase in the demand for commercial sex and an increase in sex trafficking along with a slew of collateral crimes as seen in Nevada and Rhode Island. Your state will absolutely see an increase in sex trafficking and exploitation. Let's be very clear. Those who benefit by removing prohibitions against brothel owning, sex buying, and third party facilitation are those with the most amount of power and privilege. And those who are harmed are the most marginalized and vulnerable individuals in Burlington and those lured in or transported here to be exploited.  Overwhelmingly, people enter the sex trade because of systemic vulnerabilities, including discrimination, history of childhood sexual abuse, being in foster care, poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, and mental health issues. Even when there is no third party exploiter, people end up in the sex trade as a means of survival. The dark truth of the sex trade belies the notion that prostitution will be safe and empowering when exploiters and profiteers are allowed to legally operate. The council is correct that people who are prostituted and exploited should not be criminalized but decriminalizing sex buyers and third party exploiters ignores the systems of prostitution's inherent harms and normalizes and legitimizes the abuse of those who are bought, sold, and exploited. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I've gotten through all the folks who are participating remote in person, so we're now going to transition to folks who are participating remotely who have signed up for the public hearing on the Charter Change. Again, we're just addressing the Charter Change. Many of you had indicated that you were interested in participating and speaking to this issue in the format of the Charter Change. So I'm going to go back to Patricia Myers and Patricia. I've enabled your microphone. Okay. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I'm Patricia Myers and I would like to address the item sex workers decriminalization of prostitution. And though I can't appreciate the effort of the City Council to provide help to women in general, I don't think that this is a way to address helping sex workers. There are currently many organizations in Vermont and New England, as we've just heard, that help women who are in the sex trade. And these organizations address the real issues to help women realize their potential as human beings made in the image of God. But this action to decriminalize prostitution does not address the real issue, whether the act is between consenting adults or not. Decriminalization, excuse me, decriminalizing prostitution only encourages exploitation of women, children, and men by those who profit from the sex trade. This commoditizes women, children, and men for the sake of those who profit from their exploitation. As we all know, even though prostitution is currently illegal, it already exists in Burlington. And taking away any consequences for the sex trade is not going to enable prostitutes to get the help that is needed. And here's something for the City Council and Mary to think about. The sex trafficking trade is actually more profitable than the drug trade because those who are exploited can be exploited over and over again, every day and over time. And additionally, because sex trafficking is so profitable, more parties are attracted to its high profit margin, including gangs, drug dealers, and, you know, other terrible illegal activity. Why would we open the door to and welcome this kind of activity in Burlington? Burlington and the State of Vermont would become a sexual tourism destination state. And for me as a Burlingtonian, this is really just something I'm not proud of. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker that I have signed up is Jim Sexton to be followed by Henry June. Jim, let me just locate you. Jim, I've enabled your microphone. Yes, sir. Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. Thank you. I have been traveling all over the state for five years, fighting all kinds of issues, constitutional issues, pro-life, a whole bunch of things. What I noticed most of all when I start talking is the people I'm speaking with. And the first thing I would like to address is that I have no idea how Sarah Carpenter or Jane Strowman are going to vote, but I want to thank them both for paying attention. This screen shows other counselors who have absolutely no respect, no concern whatsoever about what's going on. I want to thank those two ladies in particular for paying attention. I don't know how you're going to vote and I really don't care. But you've been listening to us and I appreciate that because I've been to a whole lot of places where there's people that don't listen to us at all. So thank you for that, counselors. Now to my point. Since Sarah George has become the District Attorney for Chittenden County, crime has risen exponentially. Decriminalizing prostitution will increase the drug use in violent crime along with making numerous young women victims. The war on women seems to be fully supported by the potential change from this board. How is it that you continue to push for the destruction of young lives or any life by decriminalizing this? This is nonsensical. It's just why do you people on the board, why do you believe you need to change the law to decriminalize something so horrific and important? Do you have daughters? Do you have sisters and aunts? You know, how can there be such a gap in between morals where you decide that, you know what, it's okay for somebody from out of state to come to Burlington because now we've enabled them to have sex, to pay for sex, to destroy a young life as many people have already spoken to is being abused physically and mentally. There is not one iota of anything good in this bill. There is nothing that would make Burlington look any better. Crime has risen exponentially. Look at the shootings in Burlington. Look at the drug crimes in Burlington. Do you think that somehow making prostitution legal is going to diminish any of that? It's just nonsensical. You know, y'all have the opportunity to do something good for Burlington, the state, and yourselves. Blow this freaking thing out of the water, stop proceeding with it, and think about the children and the young adults who are going to be harmed by this. Along with every one of you, because the crime rates are going to increase, the drug crimes are going to increase, the motor vehicle crimes are going to increase, there is a one possible aspect of this that can improve Burlington, and I ask you please to stop it now. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker is Henry June to be followed by Jack Garza, and I'll read off a couple other names that have signed up. I have Lauren Hirsch, Trisha Grant, Abby German, Savannah Sly, Michael Chevelli, Laurie Cohen, Elizabeth Miller, David Mickenburg, and Selena Colburn. So Henry June, I'm going to come to you. Enabled your microphone. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Go ahead. Fantastic. I hope you all survived the recent Vermont cold spell well enough. My name is Henry June. I'm the co-director of the Itch Talk Collective, Montpelier-based anti-trafficking organization with an emphasis on sex worker rights. I'm also an active sex worker or a prostituted person, depending on who you're speaking to. So the kind of economic disaster that bites at the heels of this pandemic only highlights the common denominator when we talk about victimless crime. When I say victimless crime, I'm not speaking to sex trafficking, i.e. coercive relationships between pimps, landlords, lovers, drug dealers, even civilian bosses and professors. Instead, I'm talking specifically about the criminalized work that I do, educated, consensual sex work. I do what I do at the end of the day for the same reasons you go to your job. I have basic human needs that will only be met in an exchange of time and resources. When I hear conversations about exploitation, my mind goes further than the scope of sex work, as I hope yours will, too. In the United States presently, much of our agricultural goods are produced on the backs of undocumented laborers. Even in the state of Vermont, where we tout pridefully our locally produced kale, we scarcely offer protection, let alone livable wages. So beyond sensationalized portraits of labor exploitation like sex trafficking, I do gently want to remind us all that present day labor conditions look like a super spreader event due to systems not being in place to protect the working class during these times. People are forced to risk their health and safety just to pay their bills. Exploitation does not stop for silencing consensual sex work or by laughing up false, although popular narrative around our work. Striking the language in this charter is a long awaited first step in opening an intersectional conversation about what it means for us to carve out our space in the world with dignity. We can do better as a state, and I urge our officials to consider us consenting sex workers as allies in the anti-trafficking movement, because we are. We know factually that labor exploitation, sexual assault, and more heinous things than these exist beyond the scope of sex work, and are rooted in systemic injustices far greater than the conditions around erotic labor. Thank you once again for your unanimous support in striking down the oppressive language of punishing people like myself, and thank you for your audience tonight. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jack Garza to be followed by Lauren Hirsch. Give me a second to locate you. Jack, I've enabled your mic. All right, thank you. I'm speaking today alongside members of the ISTRAC collective, one of them you just heard speak, a Vermont-based advocacy and support organization for workers of the sex industry alongside survivors of human trafficking. The current charter language grants council power to indiscriminately criminalize any members of the public suspected of providing or soliciting sexual labor. This act utilizes outdated and dehumanizing language to do this. It demonizes sex workers rather than treating them as individuals bestowed with the same essential rights and protections as other laborers across Vermont industries. And this criminalization of voluntary sex work puts workers at risk when they are placed in harmful and coercive conditions. And criminalization also limits the ability of survivors of human trafficking to escape exploitative conditions and instead places them at risk of incarceration continued victimization rather than providing comprehensive support strategies. So people who can essentially engage in sex work, I believe and I feel like most reasonable people would believe this, should not be subject to the loss of liberty or property or bodily autonomy on the basis of their profession. And conflating voluntary sex work with trafficking and criminalizing this work does a disservice to both workers and traffic persons by limiting people's abilities to safely leave violent conditions without the threat of punishment. A variety of research and policy organization including Yale's global health justice partnership have reported that decriminalization is the single most important step toward promoting the health and safety of voluntary sex workers and traffic people alike. Organizations that support criminalization and use language of buying and selling of bodies quote and unquote do so at the sake of sex workers lived experiences and do not speak for those who are actively navigating the complexities of this type of labor. More so comprehensive social support programs not carceral punishment are the only things that will help people who have been trafficked. I hope that we can continue having productive discourse regarding decriminalization based on lived experience in fact and not fear mongering. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Lauren Hirsch to be followed by Trisha Grant. Lauren I'm going to enable your microphone one second. Okay. Mike should be enabled now. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. Fantastic. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Lauren Hirsch and the national director of world without exploitation. By way of background I spent nearly a decade prosecuting gender based violence cases in New York City. As the chief of the sex trafficking unit I spent more nights than I can count pulling 12 year olds out of brothels and writing search warrants to get 15 year olds out of trap houses. During my time as a prosecutor I got an up close and personal look at the sex trade and I had a few key takeaways. The first prostitution and sex trafficking are not the same thing but they are inextricably intertwined where you have prostitution sex trafficking invariably flourishes. Second in places where people are being sold for sex there is almost always collateral crime organized crime robbery burglary and gun violence and finally sure as you heard from the previous speaker there are a small number of people who voluntarily enter the sex trade but for the vast majority they aren't there by choice but they're there because of force coercion lack of options and other significant vulnerabilities and that is what is at stake here and that is why every one of our partners objects to a full revocation of this charter. To be really clear with you we agree that your charter language is antiquated and in need of change but simply striking this language without replacement language is not just misguided policy it will cause on the ground harm in Burlington and the surrounding areas. Week after week I've listened to these hearings we know the arguments being pushed it doesn't matter what happens in Burlington because there are state prostitution laws that come into play and yes there are state prostitution laws that come into play but here's why it matters in Burlington.  Finally I could not sleep tonight if I didn't share the larger context of all of this. Burlington is just one part of a methodical effort to decriminalize the sex trade in its entirety around the country. Many of these efforts are being bankrolled by wealthy men who are admittedly sex buyers and they're going into jurisdictions they're connecting with local partners and they're paying them. These men have a vested interest in making the sex trade legal they aren't looking to protect people. I'd like to end with a quick story when decriminalized was being proposed in Washington DC a black sex trade survivor walked into the office of a city council member she said I'm opposed to full decriminalization but you know who supports it my pimp that is what he wants and so I urge you tonight to consider all of these things to decriminalize those sold in the sex trade that's what we want we want to make sure that those in the sold sex trade are decriminalized and given the exit strategies and services that they need but we urge you to continue to hold accountable those who exploit in your state and in your city thanks so much. Thank you our next speaker is Trisha Grant to be followed by Abby German Trisha I've enabled your microphone. Hey there everybody can you hear me? Yes go ahead. All right awesome I am a survivor of commercial sexual exploitation of children and I'm just grateful for the opportunity to share once again with you guys. It was very disheartening the last time that I was able to share and just knowing that there was seemingly already a decision made about this bill that was going to be pushed through regardless of how many survivors shared their stories shared their pain shared their experiences with you that was very disheartening as a survivor. You know being in silence for 16 years already and then having spent the past 10 years with the privilege of walking alongside hundreds of survivors and advocates. It was just very disheartening so several of those survivors that I stated that I've been able to walk alongside receive services by me via mentoring and just being being somebody there to listen and hear them and hear their stories and the advocates that I was able to put them in contact with because they needed so many services to continue on their journey of healing after experiencing being exploited trafficked and prostituted in Vermont. It's just crazy to me that that we're even having to have this conversation again but I'm going to assure you of two things. As Lauren stated fire to me speaking you can't separate these things these things cannot be separated. People who are being trafficked and exploited sorry people are trafficked and exploited into prostitution. One requires the other. The second point that I really want to get across is all of them are violent. I would say violence is inherent in the sex trade. Law enforcement and the legal system should retain its ability to act against the harm and violent perpetrated against people being exploited and yes I am using that term exploited because as I stated you can't separate them you just cannot. I'll explain that a little further but I do believe strongly that Burlington is making a mistake to pretend this violence will not hurt your citizens mainly vulnerable women and children. I know because I was one I was trafficked in Vermont. The worst level of violence that I ever experienced happened to me in Vermont. Just the thought of having to come back to Vermont to testify this evening has caused me to need extra extra support throughout my day today from my team of people that I have to have beside me walking alongside me. I have been removed from my trafficking for 26 years and the long-term impact still affects me today. Please don't tell me it's not violent. Legalizing prostitution has never been an effective strategy to keep people safe because there is absolutely no way to know who is there by choice and who isn't and how old a person is. I was 15 years old when I was being trafficked I can assure you not one person who paid for me asked me how old I was or if I wanted to be there not one of them. It took me 16 years to learn that there was a name for what happened to me and that it wasn't my fault. Please do not let other people be forced to live in silence and suffer as I have. I'll just end by stating I would be willing to have any conversation with anybody and just share my personal experiences and also to share my experience of walking alongside other survivors. Thank you for taking the time to listen to us this evening. Thank you our next speaker is Abby German to be followed by Savannah Sly. Abby I have enabled your microphone. Thank you my name is Abby German my pronouns are they them I am not a woman I am a resident of Ward 2 and I'm here tonight to voice my support for the Charter Change on sex work. First of all in response to the fear mongering that has been rampant surrounding the Charter Change I want to reiterate the differences between sex work and sex trafficking. Sex work should not be confused with sex trafficking when a person takes part in the sale of sex through threat, abduction or other means of coercion. Any commercial sexual activity with a minor even without force, fraud or coercion is also considered trafficking. Conflating consensual sex work to sex trafficking is dangerous and furthermore disrespect and disempowers the experiences of both survivors and workers. The City Charter needs to change not only because the language is sexist and archaic but also because criminalizing sex work between consenting adults is in direct conflict with the human right to personal autonomy and privacy. According to Human Rights Watch in a report published in 2020 they have consistently found in research across various countries that in criminalized contexts sex workers are more vulnerable to violence including rape, assault and murder by attackers who see sex workers as easy targets because they are stigmatized and unlikely to receive help from the police. Criminalization may also force sex workers to force to work in unsafe locations to avoid the police and undermine sex workers ability to seek justice for crimes committed against them. Furthermore, due to Burlington police's limited time and resources prosecuting sex work is both illogical and irresponsible. These charter changes should pass. This charter change should pass to create a community in Burlington where sex workers are protected legally. Their work is de-stigmatized, seen as legitimate and respected by the public and their civil liberties are upheld. Finally, if we want to meaningfully address and eradicate violence and crime, we need to radically shift society from extractive white supremacist patriarchal capitalism to a society where folks feeds are centered and met. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Savannah Sly to be followed by Michael Chevelli. Savannah, I have enabled your microphone. Great. Thank you so much. Good evening. My name is Savannah Sly and I'm calling in today from Orange County, Vermont to support the sex worker charter change. I'm not receiving any payment to testify today. I'm here as a grassroots impacted advocate. I have engaged in prostitution as a sex worker since 2004 and have worked frequently in Burlington. I'm the former board chair of the sex worker outreach project USA and have spoken personally with hundreds if not thousands of sex workers across the country who desire full decriminalization. I grew up near White River Junction, Vermont and I voluntarily started sex work shortly after graduating high school. I've had many jobs over the years, but I've always engaged in sex work either as my main occupation or to supplement my income. Via sex work, I've paid off my student loans, had flexibility to be a caretaker for friends or family, and I've even achieved the dream of becoming a homeowner. Sex work has given me a lot. I don't want to exit sex work. I also don't want to be arrested for it. As a sex worker, I've had to navigate some hazards. Because my work is criminalized, I've been targeted by predators intent on harming and blackmailing me. Predators target sex workers because they know that we can't call 911 without fear of arrest. They know that we're socially and physically isolated due to stigma and discrimination. My clients are also criminalized, which makes negotiating services and getting important background information for my safety a challenge. I've had clients who have been witnesses of crimes in the sex trade and they've been unable to report those crimes for fear that they would also be arrested. Things don't need to be this way.  Sex work decriminalization is supported by Amnesty International, the ACLU, the World Health Organization, UN AIDS, and other human rights welfare organizations. This charter change is a step forward in enabling people in the sex trade to reach out for help when we want and need it. Thank you so much for listening to sex workers and taking our concerns seriously. Thank you. Our next speaker is Michael Chevelli to be followed by Laurie Cohen. Michael, I've enabled your microphone. Hi. Thanks for allowing me to be a minister to speak. I'm Michael Chevelli. I'm with the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. I'm a 35-year career researcher and I've been through the research that has been spoken about. So far, I've spent years looking through the public health research on the impact of different forms of legal frameworks for prostitution or commercial sex. And some things are very, very clear from the balance of the research. And a caveat to any discussion of research is that there is so much of it, you can go into the body of research and pull out anything you want. I can pull out 100 studies that make it crystal clear that decriminalization is beneficial and I can pull out 100 that say it is harmful. So the only way to work through it is to be fair-minded and look at the balance of the evidence. And the balance of the evidence is extraordinarily clear and you do not realize all of the promised benefits of the proponents of decriminalization. It just doesn't happen. You can cite a number of organizations that say they endorse it and there are a lot of assertions about the benefits. But where have they ever happened? And it's very clear looking at experience, not speculation, not studies, not what would happen. It has happened. There have been experiments in relaxing prohibitions. There's only one country that's fully decriminalized sex work and it's New Zealand. And if you want to compare any other country to New Zealand, be my guest. But if you think you can isolate the impact of that legislation and say that there are benefits, it's pretty absurd. One thing that's very clear from New Zealand is under full decriminalization. Police are absolutely unable to identify victims of sex trafficking, adults or children. They just can't because they don't have the probable cause to even start an investigation. Most discovery of survivors or children that are being trafficked start with first seeing prostitution and having the means to ask questions, to take someone in and fingerprint them, to get them away from a pimp to find out whether they're there by their own free will or they're being coerced. Things like that. You can't even start those processes if you've fully decriminalized prostitution. There have been tolerance zones which are de facto decriminalization. The law hasn't changed but the police and prosecutors have said, we're not going to prosecute it. We don't have to speculate about what can happen because it's been tried and it's been a disaster every single time. Look at Boston. They did that in the 1980s and the place quickly became the most dangerous neighborhood in the state of Massachusetts. It became known as the combat zone. Right now it's happening in different suburbs of London and exactly the same story plays out. Legalization isn't any better. You could possibly get minor benefits in like one to five percent of the market and the rest of the market gets worse. It's happened in Nevada. It's happened in the states of Australia. It's happened in Amsterdam. It's happened in Germany that it just simply unleashes the free market. The vast majority of the market remains illegal and it gets more dangerous for people. So the other thing I just want to leave one comment. Several people have said across these meetings about the charter change and the related ordinances that it's really meant to just clean up archaic language and that you can't supersede the state law. In practice it's actually false. Technically I guess it's true but the thing is the police in Burlington have already absorbed the message from these proceedings. The prostitution has been decriminalized. I'm currently doing a survey of law enforcement for the U.S. Department of Justice and a respondent from the Burlington Police Department said we were asking questions about the demand-focused tactics and the police officer said well we used to do several of these things. We used to make a rest. We used to do different things but since prostitution in Burlington was decriminalized in 2021 we don't do any of those things anymore. So you can't claim that it's inconsequential in practice as long as we have the state law. I mean you've also said many of the council members have said over time that they fully support full decriminalization and really what's happening in practice is this local ordinance change is just a stepping stone to show support for a move at the state level. And we can speculate about what will happen but there's been plenty of actual experiences with it and it's never ever worked the way the proponents have set up would. Thank you. Our next speaker is Laurie Cohen to be followed by Elizabeth Miller. Laurie I've enabled your microphone. Thank you very much members of the Burlington City Council. My name is Laurie Cohen. I am the CEO of Ekpat USA the nation's first organization to focus on preventing the commercial sexual exploitation of children and a member of the Ekpat International Child Protection Network active in over 100 countries. We work closely in partnership with members of our survivors council. Ekpat USA strongly opposes the recent vote by the city council that advanced a change to the city charter to decriminalize patronizing and brothel keeping as it will facilitate the increased trafficking of children.  Children who are survivors of abuse and commercial sexual exploitation experience consequences to their health and well-being that are long-term and devastating. Victims often have many hospital visits during the duration of their abuse. Chronic cognitive problems can include PTSD and other mood disorders such as dissociation, depression, substance abuse, anxiety, attachment problems, self-harm and suicidal ideation. Exploited children learn that their main value is the dollar amount that their traffickers can earn by selling them to buyers. As you know and as you have heard tonight under federal and state law any time a child under the age of 18 is bought or sold for sexual purposes it is child sex trafficking. The proposed city charter changes will effectively hand those who are fueling this brutal inherently violent industry a get-out-of-jail-free card. They will be able to use and profit off young bodies with no fear of being held responsible for their actions. As Mr. Shively just mentioned and as we have seen with our partners in the ECPAT international network where other countries have legalized or passed full decriminalization of sex buying the resulting industry is not the safe and supportive one the Burlington City Council imagines. As Mr. Shively mentioned New Zealand we have seen following decriminalization of the sex trade in 2003 the U.S. trafficking in persons report identified that country as a destination for human trafficking especially child sexual exploitation and research has found that the average age in that country in which an individual is first exploited has decreased. In the Netherlands the number of children in the sex trade increased by 300% between 1996 and 2001 and in Australia the exploitation of children in the sex trade has increased dramatically where prostitution has been legalized or decriminalized compared to areas where it has not. Instead of a model of full decriminalization I urge you to consider the alternatives that have been discussed this evening including partial decriminalization allowing people in the commercial sex trade to come forward and seek support as needed but addressing demand by holding the trafficker and significantly the buyer accountable.  I urge the citizens of Burlington to reject this proposed charter amendment. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Elizabeth Miller to be followed by David Mickenburg. Elizabeth I've enabled your microphone. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. I so admired and and believe in the things that Michael Shively expressed earlier and I would like to just point out the obvious fact that the vast majority of the people that you've heard from tonight are bright educated women who have dedicated thousands of hours to this issue and are passionately against legalizing the sex trade. The facts are against the sex trade only a thin wall of isolated personal experiences and opinions stand for it. Now I am not as well versed as these professionals however I have had the privilege of traveling some as a young woman and I have walked the streets of the red light district in Amsterdam. I have walked the streets of Las Vegas at night with the sidewalks littered with brochures for sexual companions. I have lived in New York City with the strip clubs down the street and the carefully worded ads for prostitution in hotel bedside doors. I'm going to tell you that these places are dark and they're scary and they're high in crime and they're typically full full obviously full to those who live there of drug abuse and restless violent men. I'd like to ask the council tonight what kind of a city do you want Burlington to be in the future? I live in Shelvern I have two little boys my husband and I frequent Burlington all the time especially in the summer we love Burlington but if you allow this sex trade to proliferate to spread through Burlington and it will it will explode we don't want to be there we don't want to do business there we don't want to socialize there it will become a dark and violent place and and dangerous for women especially and children. This is not a good idea to to change the language to strike out this language I ask you I beg Burlington I beg you as a council do not legalize sex traffic the sex industry nothing good will come of it thank you thank you our next speaker is David Mickenburg to be followed by Selena Colburn David I've enabled your microphone thank you and good evening my name is David Mickenburg I grew up in Burlington I'm a practicing attorney and I'm raising my two daughters here I'd like to support the city council's unanimous support for putting the sex work charter change on the ballot I would also like to take a few moments to clarify some of the many misstatements that have been made tonight about this charter change and sex work generally first the charter change will not legalize or decriminalize sex work in Burlington if passed by the voters sex work would remain illegal in Burlington under state law second I'd like to mention that for the vast majority of individuals involved in selling and buying sex they are consenting adults for many sex workers the decisions to pursue this work are varied instead of demonizing these choices we should be making them as safe as possible which arrest and prosecution does not facilitate next while many people believe that consensual sex work is inherently exploitative and dangerous and therefore should be eradicated that's simply not supported by the evidence in fact it is prohibition that forces people into the shadows where they are more vulnerable to trafficking and danger consensual adult sex workers are also put in danger my by misguided laws intended to combat trafficking when lawmakers conflate human trafficking with consensual adult sex work consenting adults are arrested and prosecuted the ability to work safely as hindered victims face barriers to services and exploitation proliferates in the illicit market unambiguous data from countries which have implemented a prohibition model show a clear correlation between laws that criminalize clients and an increase in violence sexually transmitted infections and exploitation within the sex trade on the issue of what happened in Rila island I'd just like to mention that when in fact sex work in rural island was decriminalized the harms to those involved were reduced a 2017 journal article by Scott Cunningham and Manisha Shaw published in the review of economic studies found that that the judicial decriminalization of indoor prostitution caused a 30% decline in reported female rape offenses and a 40% reduction in female gonorrhea incidents during the six years that prostitution was not illegal and finally it is not true that the pub that the public and anti trafficking groups are uniformly supported of the prohibition model of sex work in fact freedom network this country our country's largest coalition working to ensure that trafficking persons have access to justice safety and opportunity and opportunity recently stated that in order to prevent trafficking in the sex trade consensual adult sex work must be fully decriminalized thank you for taking so much time on this important issue and we appreciate city council's unanimous support for putting this charter change in front of the voters of Burlington thank you thank you our next speaker is Selena Colburn Selena I've enabled your microphone hey um my name is Selena Colburn I'm a Burlington resident a state representative and a former city counselor and I support the full decriminalization of consensual sex work as I've shared many times with this body for reasons of public health and safety as well as civil liberties I want to really commend you for giving voters the opportunity to repeal the outdated offensive language in Burlington's charter regarding sex work doing so will not change the landscape of state law which still applies but it will allow us to remove this questionable language from the city's books Burlington is one of the few Vermont municipalities with its own prohibition on sex work without this repeal Burlington will be stuck with broad language that appears to encourage perhaps even mandate over enforcement and discrimination that extends far beyond the state's policies I agree that meeting the needs of trafficking survivors is critical and as I've done before I'd be happy to share in-depth information with the council on the state's most recent efforts to support survivors by strengthening laws and adding resources laws prohibiting trafficking and non-consensual sex work will remain in effect regardless of the repeal of this charter as well as protecting children thank you thank you my final speaker that I have set signed up is Sonia Osorio Sonia I'm not able to locate you Sonia Osorio I don't see you okay not seeing Sonia I will go ahead and close the forum for this evening and we I'll go to city attorney Richardson are you able to just clarify what the next steps on this charter change process are city attorney Richardson sure at this point the the second hearing's been held the city council has already voted to approve it if the city council chooses to amend the action it can otherwise it should vote to send this charter change onto the ballot for the voters as written okay and does that need to take place this evening or at a future meeting no it needs to take place tonight because the ballots have to be finalized tonight or the language has to be finalized by the end of the meeting okay so to that end to that effect you we would need a motion from the council that's correct okay great thank you for that clarification attorney Richardson is there a is a council are prepared to make that motion this evening council Freeman you know president Tracy um I can move that I would um ask for just uh sort of I'm sorry I didn't I didn't I thought that it would be at the next meeting I apologize I had the timeline wrong um but I suppose if the is the motion just to move to uh place the language uh as as I'm not sure I can I can offer it you know short of anyone choosing to make an amendment um the motion would be to um uh direct the city clerk to place the charter change amendment as previously passed by the city council onto the ballot okay I moved to direct the city clerk to place the charter language as previously written to um or posed um onto the onto the ballot okay we have a motion from council Freeman is there a second second seconded by councilor hightower council Freeman did you want the floor back uh I sorry I didn't I thought it would be at our next meeting I think I was maybe I apologize but um I don't really need the floor back other than that I think there was a lot of incredible testimony tonight um in in favor of this um especially um you know I'm it's really wonderful to hear come out and support of it um you know and as I said before I'm I'm thankful to anyone who speaks to um their experience on this um as many have said um there is um you know ample reason to um to change the language uh you know other than the the public health implications um I think that the fact that the um the language is antiquated um that the the state will hold the responsibility um to um you know sort of move forward on this um is the right move and uh yeah I I really appreciate it thank you thank you council Freeman council Shannon thank you president Tracy um I want to say that I have been fully supportive of this action the the language that we're striking is um arcane it's unused we rely on our state law to prosecute um sex crimes and sex trafficking but I am feeling increasingly uncomfortable tonight listening to both sides of this argument that have persistently and consistently told us that this is the first step into the criminalizing um sex work and I do not support that I respect that um some people do I think around the table some people do and some people don't but the thing that we all agreed on is that this language is arcane and unneeded to um to protect people from sex trafficking but tonight we have had both sides telling us this is the first step in decriminalization which I'm not comfortable with and we have had experts from far outside Burlington who have come to the trouble of going to an empty room to tell us how dire this situation is if we take this action and they're people with professional expertise far beyond mine and I believe far beyond anybody at this table and they're telling us we understand that there is state law that will take effect that this that prosecution isn't reliant on this language but at the same time this is the first step towards decriminalization and that it can be this can have detrimental effects for victims of sex trafficking it also sounds like both sides are creating a misperception of what the action that we're taking is and that we may be attracting sex trafficking to Burlington because of this misperception being perpetrated on both sides so I am increasingly uncomfortable and I'd like to hear from my fellow counselors attorney Richardson I sent you an email I don't know whether or not you saw it asking if there is alternative language I don't really think that Burlington needs to go on its own to create sex sex trafficking regulation beyond what the state does but perhaps we could put something in the charter aligned with what the state is doing to remove arcane language that is agreeably it is impossible to defend the existing language and I'd like to hear how my fellow counselors have received the public testimony that we heard tonight are you seeking response counselor Shannon from city attorney Richardson well I don't know if he if he has anything yet he hasn't had a lot of time to work on it and I'm interested to hear from other counsel I thought I'd give him more time to work on drafting something and interested to hear from my fellow counselors if you know if other people are feeling as I am or this is a waste of our time because people are decided on this issue but the testimony tonight has really affected me changed my mind I've been defending this all day to people um but my concern has become elevated okay so I don't think you're seeking a a um answer from city attorney Richardson so I'll go to counselor high tower to be followed by counselor Barlow great um thank you president Tracy um there was a lot of hurtful testimony and I certainly won't minimize anyone's experience or the evidence that they found um I think a lot of people I've expressed a significant fear of what happens in Burlington if this language is removed and I still mostly believe that very little if anything will change I think that this is first and foremost about removing our cake language which as counsel Shannon just noted we all agree needs to be done and is the first step and then I think the other thing that I want to point to which we actually haven't heard about at all is well I guess for alternative language we have heard from house representative that they are working on it at the state level and I do suggest that this be done at the state and national level um and what we haven't talked about today is that most language on the books but any kind of whether it's sex work or pornography or anything that is sex related tends to be um either made to criminalize the most marginalized or is then in courts used to criminalize the most marginalized and that's not just true local law that's true in state law national law that's true across our borders and other countries even if the intention isn't always to criminalize the most marginalized is you don't always get to choose how a law is used after it's implemented our own ordinance is an excellent example of a new law that is meant to regulate sex in some way that is first and foremost targeted not the folks that it should be targeted at and then again in you know after it goes through any kind of process and who you know how it's chose to be enacted and how it's chose to be enforced I think the evidence definitely shows that when we try to regulate sex that it tends to harm the people who are most marginalized and so I will be supporting this not because I think it does a lot but I think it's one of those archaic ways that we have across the country um of trying to marginalize folks further anytime it has something to do with sex and so I think that this is one of the many many sex laws across the country that needs to be removed thank you councilor hightower I have councilor barlow did you take for you councilor barlow to be followed by councilor mason thank you uh president tracy I had um listening to testimony at tonight's public hearing and also prior public hearings and meetings I've had with um um advocates for uh for decriminalization of the sex trade I I sort of feel the same way and I think councilor uh Shannon said it more particularly than I'm saying it right now but you know I would I would I think we have to strike the language that we have said we wanted to strike in both ordinance and in charter but um I'm wondering if we could put a placeholder in the charter so we could maybe have a more expansive conversation on this so the the I understand that if we remove it from charter we give up our ability to to say anything whether or not we're putting in ordinances to protect victims or or anything about um sex work so if we had a placeholder in in the charter that was essentially I think um attorney Richardson is called an enabling language that would still maintain our ability to have some sort of local setting um and not give that up completely I could I could be supportive of that are you seeking an answer mark councilor barlow I guess I guess I guess I'm asking um attorney Richardson if it were possible to have language that would enable and maintain our ability to have some be able to enact ordinance um without having any ordinance enacted about it right now if that's clear attorney Richardson sure I'm happy to respond um certainly there's a couple of different ways in which the council can proceed um if under that direction um one way would be to essentially halt the charter change process and um go back to a proverbial drawing board and do a strike and replace um with other types of of language so that instead of simply repealing the or the charter provisions um you would you would strike it and then replace it with language that might be more in line with title 13 um the other direction to go would be to continue um the direction that the council has voted to go and pass this charter change and if the charter change um was approved by the voters of earlington and then the legislature then um and frankly any time the council could take up a proposal to draft alternate language in its place because this subsection of section 48 will essentially say repealed until you put new language in at once the legislature does that um I mean those are the two primary avenues to go down um what I would say is that you know the term prostitution is defined in title 13 and then uh it has a series of statutes outlining certain behaviors and activities that have been criminalized under that statute um it's not usually good practice to simply say you know to refer to state statutes in in the charter as we want the same power as this statute um uh simply because some of those statutes do change um and it would be you're you're looking I think to define it a little bit more more broadly I can certainly come up with enabling language to the effect um of that um but those are really your two primary options you could say where thought you know and and I guess maybe there's a third that I outlined uh to councilor Shannon which is you know if one of the concerns that the city council has is that um the repeal of the city charter is perhaps sending a signal beyond what the council is particularly comfortable sending um certainly as far as the enforcement priorities that becomes an administration issue and that's certainly something that council can certainly resolve to direct or recommend that the police continue to enforce the prostitution and lewdness statutes under title 13 so that's another option altogether but you probably want a fairly broad enabling language if you're going to take that step of going forward to continue to um have a footprint in this particular area those are my recommendations thank you richards and you have the floor council barlow thank you I'm good okay I had councilor mason to be followed by council carpenter thank you president tracy um I want to thank councilor shannon for raising our hand and starting this conversation my perception of what's going on is you have we have heard from two diametrically opposed positions and each side is trying to spin an action of this council to support their position I I appreciate in addition to the um options that that city attorney has put forward I think using this public forum to articulate where we're coming from is yet another option I would agree with councilor shannon that I am I am concerned with the language that was in I mean just for the public's benefit to read it the language that's there that is being stricken um makes it a crime to restrain and suppress houses of ill fame and disorderly houses and to punish common prostitutes and persons consorting therewith um we heard you know through through this process that the city has not relied upon that or brought an enforcement action under that in years or at least as far back as anyone could remember we also learned during this process that state statute continues to exist and that was the mechanism by which the police were dealing with trafficking and prostitution I've heard nothing tonight that that leads me to believe that you know we have that language I don't think we can come up on the fly with better language I think we should continue to lie in state statute I would also support moving forward with this charter change process rather than at the 11th hour to try and rejigger it um but with the message that my at least my vote I don't speak for anyone else is not sending a message that I support to re decriminalization at a state level and I'm I'm prepared to rely upon that and advocate for that if this does move forward thank you thank you councilor mason and council carpenter thanks um I just wanted to clarify a couple of things um it's my understanding that this journey version of them the most communities do not have legislation like that is that accurate that is correct I can actually give you a little bit more um information about that just simply um researching this question there's approximately in my review of city charters there are seven municipalities that have either prostitution or prostitute language in their charters for the regulation or in this case may be suppression there the three of them are villages one is one is a town and three are cities and that includes the city of burlington uh there are two other municipalities that have um charter provisions regarding houses of ill fame but do not use the word prostitution in their charter um and then there are approximately uh seven more municipalities all villages that have language that refers to disorderly and gambling house but do not reference prostitution so trying to capture sort of a broad circle I can characterize um the municipalities that have this are there's only three cities burlington ruttland and newport sorry four burlington ruttland newport and virgins always um then there's only one town which is the town of chester and then there's a series of villages now I don't have enough information to really speculate as to why it's mostly villages that have it I think the likely reasons may be that this language and and I should say all the language seems to be of the same quality um and the same sort of origin so I suspect it probably dates to a similar time period so it may be early 20th century when a lot of these independent or late 19th century when a lot of these villages were formed and they may have included that language sort of as boilerplate as part of it now it may also be because as a village they were dealing with more urban problems than a more rural town that might not have the same sort of issues with either houses of ill fame as they were referred to or prostitution so there's only about 16 municipalities as I said mostly villages four cities and out of those four cities only three of them ruttland newport and burlington actually use the word prostitution or prostitute the rest the city of virgins just simply refers to houses of ill repute um or ill fame I'm sorry um and so in that respect this is fairly limited when you think about there's over 153 I mean just towns alone in in vermont um not not counting villages in in them as well so this this represents you know roughly less than 10 percent of all municipalities I'd see even goes low if I think well I was on math major so I won't go any lower but um it is a fairly limited it seems to all date from a certain period of time because the language follows from or charter to charter so this isn't burlington it's not the only municipality that had this type of language but most of them I mean most of the municipalities in vermont do not have this language now some of them may regulate by ordinances and I'll use Montpelier as an example Montpelier has an ordinance against prostitution but it refers to a section of their charter that no longer exists so arguably Montpelier has about as much legal authority to regulate prostitution as it does to regulate burlington which is to say not much but you know nevertheless it is on the books and I suspect there may be other municipalities with ordinances on the books but as far as charters go there's only there's only those seven municipalities that actually even have the word prostitution in their charter thank you that that is what I understood and I guess has pointed the fact that prostitution for example hasn't become a boom business in colchester and south burlington in Essex just sort of generally speaking I think we are better off tackling the serious issues of human trafficking on a state level and we need to be cohesive I was very moved by a lot of the testimony so we need to think how we do that better but removing this provision does not seem contrary to our desire to really deal with human trafficking nor does it seem like it promotes prostitution since really most of the rest of the state it's already legal or not it's not legal under state law but there's nothing in the town prohibiting it thank you thank you councillor carpenter I will go to you councillor I I have councillor jang thank you president pracey and thank you councillor preman for all this conversation that we have started here but from my perspective this is the most compelling it's a um listening session that I have ever had assisted as part of each other but not going to the to the voters and to tell you the truth I I I am no longer you know comfortable in one point because advances advances tonight here right here right now um that's exactly where I am and I from the perspective that Burlington is the biggest city in the state of Vermont and also we know there are a lot of other elements associated to prostitution you know I we heard arguments about you know drug dealing we heard arguments about you know all types of crimes and we don't want the city to become a hub about you know prostitution and right now city attorney Richardson I was just wondering you know since we are here it doesn't seem we have any amendments to amend this language and was just wondering what are our options in basically putting a break into it at this point is there any path forward that we can pose this send it back to the committee what what will be said yes or no sure I mean if you wanted to send this back to the if you wanted to not send it on to the voters that this is what this meeting is is for and the way charter change provisions work when you take public testimony if you as a council decide to um you can you could vote to you know there's a motion on the floor so from a parliamentary point of view that motion would have to be resolved either through an amendment or a vote and then you would move if it was not passed on to the voters you would move to remand it to the Charter Change Committee for further consideration sorry um can we make a motion basically to just send it to the Charter Change or the which we have to put on the motion on the floor right now you have to vote on the motion on the floor um just because that's the pending motion and so that that has to be resolved one way or the other okay and if the motion passes does it require two-third or just the majority just a simple majority okay and if it doesn't pass then we can make a motion saying sending it back to the okay correct thank you Councillor Freeman thank you President Tracy um I just wanted to quickly address um some of the concern I was hearing about you know will the character Burlington change will there be a significant change you know carrying councilor James comments about will there be an increase in violence um any of these sorts of things I think it's important to note that we are not prosecuting this currently it's it as Attorney Richardson mentioned you know it's a it's a decision of of the of us of the city of the administration how much we sort of enforce this in terms of regardless of the ordinance and the Charter and we have not enforced this really actively for quite some time I think the change is significant and that it formalizes that and it codifies something that you know as we've seen with the World Health Organization ACLU you know leading health experts and legal experts have indicated and shown that this is a sort of modernization of policy for the safety of of sex workers but also of really anyone because it reduces it reduces violence and that is from what I understand is in alignment with the practices of the state attorney's office that they are also not interested in prosecuting this so the state is moving to modernize our policy and I think Councillor Carpenter to your point you know we we are in the minority as a municipality for having us on the books it's not an issue or there's not a the sort of the fears that are being promoted as as you know this is going to become a rampant violent issue is just not founded in the reality what we do see though is like I mentioned before which can be was reported on by seven days as we had a sex worker in Burlington who was strangled by a client and then when there was you know the idea that we're going to support this person people scatter because they're afraid and you know as someone who has worked very closely with with folks who are you know victims of sexual harm with sexual violence domestic violence is someone who has experienced many of those things personally and feels really I feel real strong you know this this issue really resonates with me and I and I hear what you're saying Councillor Mason that it feels like there's sort of these polarized sites that are trying to make them these like sort of really strong cases and and just sort of or diametrically opposed but if I didn't believe that the evidence was there to support this in every sort of every way I understand that you feel like that there there feels like there's sort of two conversations going on which is one to to modernize our policy and then also this sort of broader conversation around legalization or decriminalization which are two separate things and I do not support legalization just for the record but if I didn't feel that this change and also changing the conversation around as Councillor Hightower said sex laws in general with in the country nationally in our conversations I really the the data is their personal experience to show that this is what and I mean again the World Health Organization they seal you I think you know leading public health experts legal experts show that this is the best way forward so I it sounds like there is as I think before there are folks who support this change from a difference of perspectives and I think we can continue to have that nuance with our constituents you know I hear you know Councillor Mason you said basically you know if this if the state looks to decriminalize I won't support that and I think that's that's that's fair for you to advocate for that and I would love to have more conversations with you about that to you know offer my perspective but there are different ways to move forward from this point but I think from a governance perspective this is the right way forward especially since from a law enforcement perspective from the state's attorney's office we are not prosecuting this and in the reality of it is that nothing there's not going to be this sort of like you know city of a violence that's created from this change a smart change in terms of the city. Thank you Councillor Freeman I have it is 1030 so Councillor Mason are you prepared to make a motion on suspending the rules? Yes President Tracy I would make a motion to suspend the rules I if we were in the same room I would get to have a better sense for I believe items 601 through 607 are all time sensitive I don't know about 608 which is the creation of a new position digital media reaction specialist redaction I forget I will just make the motion to take up the remainder of our deliberative items. Thank you Councillor Mason is there a second to just complete the deliberative agenda as a motion to suspend the rules seconded by Councillor Shannon any discussion? Councillor Paul. So I'd like to find out on item 607 I would want to know whether or not that can be done on the 31st of January as opposed to this evening and item 6.08 that was removed from consent you know we have a we have a terrible record of doing very important work at midnight 12 30 1 o'clock we have several items that are left if we can if we can do item 6.07 and 6.08 next week and I think we should do it. So Mayor Weinberger flipped on your camera Mayor did you want to speak to that? I believe 6.07 can I'd be interested in dance take on this but it still is before the end of the month and I think actually then they would avoid any kind of gap in the mask mandate also so I think that could be delayed the 6.08 a.m. well I don't know if keep me right is still still with us I you know we'll have an impact of a week on the creation of a position that's one that's been sought by the police commission and others but I think that would be the impact that was needed quickly I think it would be fine to probably not have a major impact okay Councillor Paul did you yes and I would I would ask if the sponsor of item 6.03 feels that that resolution could wait until next week or or not obviously it's their their choice and we would all honor that but I would just ask that question. Councillor Jang you were asked if the the resolution regarding the 6.03 is time sensitive or if it could wait till next week um it's it's not time sensitive but I yeah it can wait until next okay and then Councillor Paul did you want the chief murad to also address 6.08 as well um I I thought that actually the mayor had already done that but that I I don't need to know okay so are you gonna based on what you've heard Councillor Paul are you are you gonna make an amendment to the the motion to I yes I would amend I would amend thank you President Tracy I would amend Councillor Mason's uh motion uh to uh to move forward with items 6.04 6.05 and 6.06 the other items to be done at the meeting on the 31st of January in one week and just so I'm clear that also includes completing 6.02 the current discussion that we're yeah yes yes yes yes okay so we have a an amendment from Councillor Paul seconded by Councillor Shannon any discussion on the amendment I wasn't seconding actually I'm sorry I inappropriate second from Councillor Mason is there a discussion on the amendment um I just wondered if I feel badly when at the 11th hour we have something that was on our consent agenda it was put last on our agenda and it probably would take two minutes to resolve now we're we're not doing that so I would just ask that the items that we're not taking up tonight that we take them up first on our next agenda and prior to public forum because we've already had public forum that that allowed for public forum on these items thank you I'll note that request Councillor Shannon thank you council any further discussion on the amendment to suspend the rules okay seeing none we'll go to vote on the amendment to the uh the initial amendment to the initial motion to suspend the rules um to complete items six the current item 6.02 and then 6.04 6.05 and 6.06 with the other items to come at our subsequent meeting is everybody clear okay so let's go to a vote on that all those in favor please say aye any opposed that carries unanimously and we are back to the original motion as amended any further discussion on that we're essentially voting on the same thing now councilor shannon oh we haven't voted on the nevermind sorry any further discussion on that okay all those in favor of the uh motion to suspend the rules as amended please say aye any opposed that carries unanimously and we've suspended our rules to just complete item 6.02 6.04 6.05 and 6.06 we are now going to continue with the discussion in which we were engaged prior to this prior to that motion um with and I had councillor shannon in the queue thank you I appreciate the contributions that that many councillors have made to the discussion that I kind of requested um I feel like I'm in a hard position because I really I want to be an ally to the victims of sex trafficking and an ally to those who are fighting for them and those people have come to us tonight and asked us not to do this in no uncertain terms and as I said before they have a lot more expertise than anybody at this table um I think there's a lot of fear about the motivations of our actions but I have to look at the merits of our actions and the merits of this action I can't you know after hearing from the city attorney I I can't defend the existing language I can't defend keeping it in our charter and if I thought that there was better language we could be putting in our charter um I don't think it's urgent to get it out of the charter it's useless as councillor mason pointed out it's never been used in anybody's memory but I don't see any path forward that has us put better language in our charter because it's just not an appropriate place it's not how we are prosecuting this in Vermont I have concerns about where the state might go I want to say unequivocally I don't support well I can support amending existing language and um more uh more appropriate language I want to be sure that whatever we do gives those that are prosecuting sex traffickers and defending the victims of these crimes have every tool that they can in their tool chest but this is not a tool in the tool chest it's not a usable tool so I can't see any reason to keep it there and this is not the tool chest that anybody is going to open to find tools it's going to be the state language and so with that I will continue to support this I was considering amendments but I understand you know there isn't a good alternative that um that could be forthcoming you know I I could support the idea of sending it to committee if I thought we could do better but I don't think that we can do better I don't think that this language is needed I don't think the charter is the appropriate place for it and so with that I will I will support the language thank you counsel Shannon counsel Barlow thank you president Tracy um this is my first time where on the council where we're um moving charter changes like this so I have a procedural question about when we if we approve this tonight is there um is there like a memo that will be drafted by either the city attorney or the administration to explain the charter change that we're doing and if there is could we be explicit of an intentful about the language we've put in there um you know communicating to uh to voters that you know the um the points we're making here tonight that we're not actually decriminalizing or legalizing um sex work in any way we're simply um falling back on state language um and and and so I guess my my point is is that we're I'm trying to look for a way to dispel the sort of beliefs on both sides the the polarized sort of speech we heard tonight where both sides are looking at our action and coming away with sort of different views of what we're doing so we could be explicit about that is there a memo um that comes out that communicates the um the ballot the ballot question that we're going to put forward I guess that's directed to uh maybe attorney Richardson sure attorney Richardson or um normally not um so to be clear unless the city council uh votes to amend the charter change language it essentially stands as it is now my office can prepare uh essentially illegal memorandum um and what I've deemed to be like a public memorandum that would outline the legal implications as my office understands of these this charter change but it's not official ballot language nor would it be um anything other than a public memo that would be available to the public um representing the opinions of my office um but uh normally there's not a an explanation um charter changes are often driven by either council or advocates um that um you know then go through in some political process of persuading voters um and that's not really the function of my office I mean certainly if the council itself wants to pass a separate resolution um you know directing uh or encouraging the police to you know um continue to enforce all statutes it can it can do that I mean the police still do that it's not as if they're waiting at council but if if council wants to send a separate message but at least for my office I can certainly draft a public memo to that effect I think that would that would be helpful for me I mean um I I I do agree that we need to strike this language and I I don't have anything to offer in its place right now um but I would I I am I am troubled by the fact that folks think we are decriminalizing because I I also do not support to criminalize me but and legalization but um but I don't support the language that we have now either um so if if we were to be able to have um a communication to share with voters I mean I've been telling them that referring them to uh to title 13 but um but yeah that would be helpful I think um and the run up to tell me that thank you thank you councilor barlow I don't have anyone else in the queue okay let's go to a vote will the city clerk please call the roll councilor barlow yes councilor carpenter yes councilor jang no councilor freeman yes councilor hanson yes councilor hightower yes yes councilor mason yes i'm sorry councilor paul yes councilor mcgee yes councilor shannon yes councilor strongberg yes city council president tracy yes eleven eyes one day the motion carries meaning that the um the language will go on the ballot for a town meeting day vote we will now move on to item we decided to not take up 6.03 this evening as part of the motion to suspend the rules so we will move to item 6.04 a resolution regarding um the uh public improvements and securing indebtedness for the downtown tiff district councilor mason may it please have a motion thank you president tracy i'd like to make a motion to waive the reading and adopt the resolution as drafted and ask for the floor back after a second have a motion from councilor mason is there a second seconded by councilor hightower go ahead councilor mason thank you president tracy the hour is late so i will be brief i would like to start by thanking directors pine spencer cio shad and the administration for their work um on this matter both leading up to this vote uh in terms of the public hearings as well as sharpening the pencil um this resolution seeks to empower the voters in burlington to accept or reject um a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make transformational investment in public infrastructure without raising taxes the ballot item that were or i'm supporting putting on the ballot seeks voter approval to borrow 29 million 920 thousand dollars in addition to the previously approved 10 million dollars and adding that to the downtown tiff district if approved by the voters the repayment of this borrowing will be paid from incremental property tax revenues from the downtown tiff district without raising property taxes on brolinks and taxpayers if approved these funds will be used to rebuild main street to the city's great street standards from south union street to battery street the project scope also includes relocation of a portion of the ravine sewer which is currently an impediment to read the redevelopment of the parking lot at the corner of south linuski and main street as well as the super block which has been talked about for years that was something at least that was unknown to me and came out through this process i encourage all of my colleagues to join me in approving this resolution putting this before the voters on the march 1 2022 ballot i would also note that there are members of the administration here to answer any questions the council may have although i can't see them on my zoom screen right now thank you president tracy thank you councilor mason before we engage and open it up to discussion from the council directors pine or spencer did you have anything that you would like to add for the council uh given the hour i um i think councilor mason did a great job of summarizing uh comments that i would have made if i'd had the opportunity so i'm here to answer questions if needed okay great same thing director spencer okay awesome great so the floor is open any councillors wishing to speak to this item councilor freeman uh yes i just wanted to speak quickly i think i might be the councillor opposing this tonight i am pretty consistently um so uh opposed the uh tiff michael as a as a financing model um i i still i know um i appreciate you know former councillor fine i'm here tonight oh can you hear me yeah i'm having yeah there you go that's better thank you sorry uh you know uh being a proponent of this um uh we've discussed it um you know at many points um over the years um i still uh just don't feel convinced um i know uh that puts me um i think in a minority of in terms of this body um and maybe broadly but um it's not there on it and tonight i'll be voting no um maybe maybe 11 to 11 um i've taken a few times um and uh yeah i'll just keep it brief thank you councillor freeman councillor brawler thank you president tracy um i was wondering if someone from the administration could speak to the feedback um we got during one uh public comment speaker about the risk of having to find a way to pay the debt service on the tiff bond if the increment didn't materialize um i guess my question is has that ever happened in burlington and can you can you can you also speak to um what what actual risk you believe there is as it relates to this project sure uh director pine or the um the business of of anticipating and estimating risk in the future is one that i uh i try to stay away from as much as possible but i would say that there's a few key things that are in in uh i think in our favor uh in terms of mitigating the risk one is that the growth in in values in the downtown tiff district over the last decade have been 66 percent over a 10-year period so roughly 6.6 percent annually some years more some years a little bit less we projected the uh growth and value over the next 14 years of this district would only need to be going up annually annually 1 percent 1 percent a year it also assumes there's no change in tax rate no change at all in 14 years so that's a worst case scenario and in a worst case scenario there's sufficient essentially sufficient sufficient growth in tax value taxable value in the tiff district to service the debt that's going to be incurred by issuing the bonds for this project so we we do believe that there are three very likely projects to go forward which will enhance the um the taxable value in the tiff district uh as soon as those projects come online uh and there will be there will be others as well but we're trying to be really careful really cautious and really very conservative um in addition um vepsey has to review our financing plan uh before we go to market so when we go when the city goes out to issue bonds uh there's another layer of review and i would just say in the experience in burlington since the first tiff was created in 1996 this has never happened in the 26 years um that burlington has been using tax or mid financing to fund public improvements and um unless somebody's aware of a big federal source that uh we all aren't aware of there's there's not some other big pot of money available to do this so we're really looking at this investment as um this is the the chance to do it and we have until next march to do it so i think that's um why it's especially critical at this point okay thank you that was super helpful thank you councillor barlow i have councillor hightower to be followed by councillor miggy and apologies um director pine actually just addressed what i was going to so i will i will okay great councillor miggy thank you president tracy thank you director pine and dr spencer the administration for the many presentations we've gotten on this project over the last couple of months um you know i'm going to be supporting this tonight i you know i think that the tiff as a model for funding these projects is flawed and i do hope that we can get some movement um from state and federal leaders to find a better way to do this in the future um but i do acknowledge that this is a very important project for us to to get done and that these infrastructure improvements are are crucial so for that reason i'll be supporting this tonight thank you councillor miggy i don't have any other councillors in the queue okay sorry go ahead yeah sorry president tracy thank you um but i want to particularly you know uh say thank you to councillor parker director pine and mr mayor and i think for the first time as a city councillor i have never had a better understanding about how tiff works until this year and i think you know the council done david has a way of explaining things to a third grader that's very clear and also very concise um and you know director spencer i think that what you guys have already planned for um you know mainstream i think it's beautiful it's amazing and you know was was was was amazed by you know what it will also enter in terms of safety in terms of mobility and most importantly i think this would be a project that will at least allow the sea to be able to have a land that we can develop that parking lot because what's underneath is so um you know an arca it is archaic and now we have a land that we can develop and we just like what the mayor used to say burlington should not become a boutique city and now i think i welcome this type of development and um i love also the way that the risk associated with it with that is almost impossible or almost minimum so i am very happy and supporting this and thank you all mayors team for doing this thank you thank you councillor jeng don't have any other councillors in the queue ready to go to a vote okay will the city clerk please call the roll councillor barlow yes councillor carpenter yes councillor jeng yes councillor freeman no councillor hanson yes councillor high tower yes councillor mason yes councillor paul yes councillor mege yes councillor shannon yes councillor strongberg yes city council president tracy yes 11 eyes one day the motion carries and that will also go on the town meeting day ballot brings us to another town meeting uh related item which is a proposed increase to the general fund tax rate um which um believe we have an amended resolution but i will go to councillor paul for an emotion on that uh thanks president tracy so i've moved the amended resolution uh waive the reading and would ask the for the floor back after a second thank you councillor paul is there a second second from councillor carpenter you have the floor councillor paul uh thanks thanks very much um as uh uh councillor mason said the hour is late um this is a this is a challenging item and um i don't think there's any questions the last thing that any of us at this virtual table want to do is bring forward a resolution requesting that the voters approve um uh a tax rate increase on you know the past the past few years that we've all been gathering most of it remotely have been a struggle for many in our community um really unlike no other in modern history um we faced a perfect storm of social challenges um hopefully getting closer to the end than the beginning of a pandemic and we're seeing a lot of the scars and consequences of two years of economic strain on you know i i'm sure that i am not alone on on the council in saying that um i've heard from constituents that we as a council and an administration um are out of touch by moving this tax rate request forward um and i don't believe that we are out of touch in fact in many ways i feel quite the opposite you know we're in touch with our priorities for city services um we're in touch with our commitment to being responsible stewards of city finances um we're we're balancing needs and we're prudently budgeting on the revenue side given many revenue uncertainties um to ensure that we maintain our unassigned fund balance that we preserve these precious ARPA funds that we've all been talking about in wanting to address you know major priorities like addressing houselessness um and that we're prudently asking for a modest tax increase at a particularly interesting time when other tax rates are going to be declining um you know i think there's a couple of takeaways that i just want to mention about why i think this increase is something that we can support on and feel that it's the right thing to do for burlington at this time on you know for many years and you know i i have spent a lot of time thinking about economic indicators for a large part of my professional life for many years decades in fact on this country has not had to worry about inflation you know most people will just say well cpi it must be between two and four percent and since 1982 we've been thinking that way on this is a very unusual time on in our economic history on you know lagging economic indicators are finally coming back at us and we've seen the largest quarterly rate increase in 18 years um it's brought on by worker shortages by pressure on employers to catch up with pay freezes um and layoffs that were deployed in order for businesses to survive during covid but you know despite a seven percent increase in inflation which is by far the largest component of the overall increases that we're seeing in this budget they make up 71 percent of the overall increase despite seven percent we're only seeing a growth rate in the budget that is expected to be 2.7 percent and even with this increase the 5.8 percent request will still be below the rate of inflation which maintains our track record of managing to hold the line on spending acknowledging our high property tax burden by remaining under inflation for the past