I'm going to convene this regular meeting of the City Council at 5.40, go to 10. 5.38. 5.38. 5.38. 5.38. First item of the agenda is the agenda. Is there a motion? Thank you. President Wright. Councilor Bush. Yes, I'm going to move to amend and adopt the agenda as follows. Note appendix A for consent agenda item 6.16 report Cemetery Commission for Holly Bush now for Councilor Bush. That's the attendance record. Note written material for agenda item 2.10 work session regarding discussion of possible uses of BT proceeds per COS right now. Remove from the agenda item 7.05 public hearing regarding Burlington's comprehensive development ordinance. ZA 19-03 parking per Councilor Mason. Remove from the agenda item 7.06 comprehensive development ordinance parking amendments ZA number 19-03 planning department planning commission ordinance committee second reading per Councilor Mason. Note revised version of agenda item 7.09 resolution use of proceeds from the sale of Burlington telecom to purchase eight sidewalk tractors. Mayor Weinberger and President Wright. Sorry, I just lost my place here per CAO Anderson. Note final amended version of the communication for this agenda item per Chapin Spencer. Remove from the consent agenda item 6.27 resolution authorization to enter into a contract with urban offsets and for the creation of a reserve fund for the revenue generated by the sale of carbon offsets to support the city's tree and conservation programming for the finance and place it on the deliberative agenda as item 7.10 for Councilor Hanson. This agenda item has been removed and will be part of the August 12 City Council deliberative agenda per CAO Low per City Council President Wright. And I so move. There is one other change. Was that put in here, the Board of Finance? I changed it from Board of Finance to you. Okay, all right, we got some. All right, so Councilor Mason, you second to that? Yes. All right, all those in favor of approving the agenda as amended, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Passes unanimously. We have our agenda. The next item are work sessions that we need to have executive sessions for Councilor City Attorney Blackwood. I believe we're going to start with public session on the BT proceeds and then see how that goes and depending on and I can kind of lay out for you what we're thinking of covering and what might need to need an executive session. All right, so we'll start out with the work session here from City Attorney Blackwood, the Mayor. See how Anderson, regarding discussion, possible uses of the Burlington Telecom proceeds. So the Mayor has provided a memo that lays out some recommended uses of the Burlington Telecom closing proceeds and what we thought is that Ralphine is here as well that if we get into a discussion of the membership interest possibility there that is still an issue to be negotiated with BT and what we thought we would, the new entity, Champlain Broadband and what we thought is that we could go over what is already known, what is already public and then if we wanted to get into a discussion about more the issues that we may yet want to negotiate and how we think about them and how we think about whether or not to do an interest, we should do that in executive session because openly discussing it at this point in time may negatively impact the city because of sharing it with BT, the other entity that we're negotiating with. Normally we wouldn't share our thinking about how to negotiate with the other party before we negotiate it. So we were thinking we would try to do as much of just reviewing for everybody, making sure everybody has all the basic information before we decided whether or not you wanted to go into an executive session on what you wanted to discuss. One of the key things that we want to know is there was some discussion before about wanting to have an outside person give some analysis and we want to get a good sense of what additional analysis we need to do. For example, in response to some comments by Jay Nodell we have approachers about getting, looking at projections and what those look like and they want to know some detail like what exactly do you want to know and we would like to talk about some of that. We think that probably is the kind of thing we ought to do in executive session because we want to make sure that we understand what we were talking about for our negotiation with them. But before that we thought we would start with going through this memo and then going over some other public information. For example, Ralphine is prepared to run through with you what has already been negotiated as far as the carry interest goes. So, it sounds good. I assume everybody's read the memo so you can maybe just give us that. I'm happy to, to, to kick some of it up. The, I think one thing that would be helpful is to, you know, start kind of narrowing and clarifying exactly what funds are available to us for considering investing. And so this memo tries to lay that out. I won't, you know, repeat in detail these words but there are two areas that I'm hopeful there. It's going to be broad agreement on it. Maybe we could decide on this relatively soon which is the city, essentially, BT owes the pension system approximately $400,000 if we've long contemplated that the sales proceeds, net sales proceeds would be used to cover that liability. But I don't think we've ever kind of formally taken action on that or, you know, really discussed it at length. So maybe some discussion of that to understand where people are at would, would be helpful. And then similarly, my strong recommendation for counselors who are interested in seeing a successful redevelopment of Memorial Auditorium, we don't know what that will involve when BT was initially built. Their, their substantial BT equipment was put in the basement of Memorial Auditorium. One can envision redevelopment plans. We're leaving it there. It definitely is fine. And there are other scenarios. We're leaving it there. And a redevelopment scenario is, is really problematic. Our recommendation is that we reserve and work, you know, we anticipated this issue and in the negotiation, you'll recall the agreement was sure. We have kind of clarified our liability here and put a cap on it and put some rules in place about that cap going down under certain conditions. Until we've made a decision about the future of Memorial Auditorium, my pretty strong recommendation is that we reserve some of these funds in case they are needed to address that liability that it is there. So maybe we could pause there for some discussion on those two items. See if there's general agreement. Can I may ask a process? Oh, sorry. Councilor Mason. Sorry. I forgot who's running the meeting. Are you envisioning, you know, if there is consensus on funding the first liability in Memorial, are you anticipating doing that now and then sort of thinking we're going to wait until we figure out where we're putting all the money and then just from an iterative process, what are you looking to do? I guess I'm not. My hopes for decisions being made tonight are low. We are anticipating an alternate solution to the snow plow issue. So I don't think any decisions need to be made tonight, but I think understanding kind of where people, where the council, some discussion about where the council is will I think be helpful in shaping kind of how the process unfolds from here? I mean, I ask only because I think, from my perspective, I would concur that at least going into the sale my expectation was we would fully satisfy the birds liability and put aside some reserves. Why would be supportive of that? I'm not sure, you know, what the process will be in terms of the remaining balance and how long that will take. So I look forward to that in public dialogue, but I mean, I agree there's greater discussion on those points. So no action tonight, I know one of the things that you were pushing for was that it saves some money if we act before August 1st or whatever. Yes, we are looking for action tonight on the snow plows. By the time we get to that on the council, there's a proposal for an alternative way of doing that. So because there's clearly there's some discomfort from number of councils and using these BT funds to do that. So we can wait on making any commitment on BT funds tonight and still get snow plows for one. Okay. Councilor Bush? So Mr. Mayor, can we begin with what is approximately the fund is, because that's the beginning of this process and I just want to be clear on this. So you've got the six point, let's just call it 6.5 million, even though that's grounding up a little bit. But then there's a $500,000 that hasn't been added to that amount, is that true? It has not been added in the position of the city attorney that it can't be added, if you like that. So what can that fund, so okay, let me ask one more question and then there's the million dollars that is kind of hanging out there that once everything's finalized, it may be a little bit less but it's going to be divided between the city and the city bank. So there are additional dollars and so are those two pots of money restricted in their use and if so, how? So that I understand really what the total amount from this venture is and because I think that for me it's not complete until I understand that piece and then understand where, how we're going to fund each night. Okay, so let's hear from Mayor Andorra Eileen. So great questions, they are answers different with each one of them and I think there's a timing issue here too that I meant to mention with respect to Councilor Mason's question. We have, the clock is ticking on us making this decision. We have a year from the closing date to in the insurers agreement to to do this. And the closing date was March 12th so that's the amount of time we have left and I hope whatever process I think it'd be good if we get to some process discussion so that we can make sure we give ourselves ample time to make a decision that won't time frame. The timing potentially matters here for one of the items. So first of all the 500,000 of working capital that was city money that was never considered utility money and it was returned to the city and there is no legal way, I'm sure Eileen could expand upon that if you'd like, but the short of it is that money is not utility money and is therefore not something we can consider investing in the BT equity. And has that been, so did that get returned Mr. Mayor already and has that been invested somewhere or not? It's essentially part of the fund balance. It's separate store and it's still separate it hasn't been rolled in anywhere yet. But it will become part of fund balance. Alright, thank you. Then the other piece? The other piece if there's money available and it is an if, I mean it is if you have some contingent liability it's not quite the right term but we have some ongoing liability there and and that there's a year timeline on that as well so I guess that is totally that date coincides exactly with the date that we have to make this other decision on so we will know I guess at approximately the time we are making this decision we probably could get some flexibility from sure as on this. I think that is considered utility money and is something that can be considered if it exists it can be considered as part of this universe. Thank you. So in response to your question with you or first I think that's a no brainer we have to do it. I think we should just do that the contingency for memorial certainly but I don't feel like there's urgency there. I think we need to know that we're going to set some money aside whether it comes from that where it comes I think we will be setting some money aside but I don't I feel like yes I recognize that need also okay so thank you. Councillor Paul. Thank you. I don't think that I don't recall us ever having a conversation that did not include the money for burrs and the money for memorial so I it would definitely be a change in course in what we had always discussed that those are costs associated with Burlington telecom and therefore should be part of the settlement. Councillor Pratt I was hoping we could get an estimate on the amount of funds that may be drawn down to satisfy liabilities is that something we can do now? We can't get anywhere near that. The none yet is what I can tell you we're not aware of it. That's good. What would be an example of is it a closing cost or are we going to no? No. Most of those would satisfy the closing costs. I mean there's some ongoing legal and accounting and what not I imagine but this is the end end. Oh for the end end. We're talking about the escrow account. No there's been no claim made against the escrow at all. Basically it would be let's say that they discovered that we had made a misrepresentation about a meaning that existed that we hadn't disclosed or something and that had to get satisfied. For example. Potentially. That would be an example. It might be that there's a chemical waste dump somewhere. Unforeseen. Unforeseen. Right. We misrepresented or we poorly estimated our cash flow. It's not that. No it's an escrow account it is in lieu of normally when a sale of a business closes like this you would have an indemnification agreement by the seller would indemnify the buyer for things that they can do. The city doesn't do indemnification because to put the taxpayers on the hook for a wide open something would be like establishing a debt and we'd have to have a voter approval to do that. In lieu of that we agreed they agreed to take a million dollars set aside for a period of a year that was part of what we negotiated in lieu of an indemnification agreement that would be usual in most closings. So we won't know the large. Right. Mr. Mayor. Just quickly it just occurs to me that we have some new members of the council since last time we talked about BT who may not know Ralphie and O'Rourke who's our outside council that has worked on the last several years. So how far do we need to go with this in lieu of the fact that we lay the fact that we are taking you said taking no action tonight except for the plows which will be funded in some other way that we're going to hear about later since we do have another executive session two others one of which is going to take up a substantial amount of time. How far. I'd like to do one more thing at least before you break which is that Ralphie brought a list and particularly the new members but probably all of you of what we have already negotiated in the APA she did a little a good chart I think for you of the terms of if we were to take a carried interest in BT what have we already negotiated and and as soon as she hands it out maybe she can run through just the highlights and this is a public document there's nothing in here that isn't already in the asset purchase agreement if you can just very quickly run through the highlights so really what I did is I went through the asset purchase agreement and kind of listed out the things so you could read it in more shorthand so you could find what you need to know and essentially it's showing you that we had a retain to write to buy membership interest in Champlain broadband LLC which is the operating company of BT telecom so what we have is the ability to buy 7.5% that would be the minimum amount that actually triggers the rights that are sort of interesting to us like being on the board of managers which is the equivalent of like a board of directors for a corporation it's just called the board of managers when you're talking about a limited liability company so that costs approximately 2.4 million to acquire that 7.5% we had also negotiated for the right to buy up to 33% that was the maximum amount that they had allowed us to acquire to do that though that exceeds the proceed amount that we have available so to do that there have to be some other alternate funding mechanism which we don't know what that is and then so the board is set for the LLC at 7 people so it would be one of 7 if we do the 7.5% and I just wanted to highlight that there's not an automatic right to dividends it's only if the board of managers declares some sort of dividend structure so while you would be able to get those dividends if they're declared it's not guaranteed that they would be declared at any time the company might choose to roll in other words it's profits back into the company and keep reinvesting in the company however the big thing that we did get was the right to if we did invest that we could have our investment redeemed so in other words if we wanted to get out of the situation we have the ability to trigger a redemption and we have set in there that you could get it that could be done on an annual basis and I don't think it was negotiated how much you could do at a time I think it was understood if you did that it would be fully you know you'd be trying to get out fully that was the price for that was it would be determined what the price is on evaluation of the company but the multiplier it was a 6 times EBITDA multiplier that was built into it so that's fairly established and then the other big provision that's in here that's you know a good negotiation I guess is that if Shores were to transfer its interest in Champlain broadband or were to sell the assets of Champlain broadband they would first have to go through a competitive bidding process and give the city the opportunity to repurchase BT and that actually occurs whether or not just to be clear that right is in there whether or not you have a carried interest so I put that in here just to refresh your recollection on some of the other rights that that particular provision is not contingent upon having an equity interest and then we hadn't actually negotiated yet and drag along and tag along rights which are sometimes provisions that are put in when you're a minority shareholder in a company and I referenced that because those probably would end up being in a membership interest agreement and then the other thing I wanted to list the last one last provision in this chart is just all the other covenant provisions they're sort of titled by the name of the covenant in the APA that were protections that we built in for the city or for the customers that are still there and those are also not contingent on maintaining a carried interest they're just provisions that we're going to want to make sure we're monitoring and keeping track of because they were protections that were important to the city at the time so I just wanted to reference those again so I think that's the sum if anybody has any questions I'm happy to go over that Thank you this is extremely helpful Could you explain a little bit more this I think I'm not understanding what that is I think that's the methodology that was used in this for pricing out this the valuation of the company so EBITDA is a term that means earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization and what it is it's a way of sort of breaking down to the net profit of the company and then they're putting a multiplier on it it's just a mechanism for establishing a value of the company and it was the methodology that was used to establish the pricing for Burlington telecom by Mr. Dorman and others when it was being marketed and so we wanted to build back in that baseline level of protection if we were to invest if we were to want to get bought back out that doesn't mean the valuation would be the same it means the methodology for establishing a price would be the same so if we sold our stake if the value of the company 5% and then we sold that this is how we would be paid out based on this methodology the idea would be that you would have an independent appraiser calculate the value and break it down to get you an EBITDA number and then we'd have a multiplier any other questions on this I don't want to get bugged down on this because we don't have to act to make it also Councillor Shannon one thing for a future time but well you might know off the top of your head what was the EBITDA rate or you might not that we that was used to calculate the value which is a good comparison for the purchase price that we established was yours I believe it was the six times EBITDA and could you give us some information about the governance structure because there's two there's the SHIRS board and then there's the BT board and I remember having discussions that different decisions are being made at different levels and it's unclear to me what decisions are going to be before the BT board versus what decisions are really coming from SHIRS so the way that the structure of these entities Champlain Broadband LLC is a limited liability company that right now is a 100 percent wholly owned subsidiary of SHIRS communications so that company though the short Champlain Broadband is managing BT its board of directors presumably is largely comprised of people who are either on the board or who are employees of SHIRS so it's the decisions are being made at Champlain but with the decision decision makers are from SHIRS will that board be hiring and firing the manager? Yes that's what the board that's what that board and if we had a seat on that board we would have a voice at that table we wouldn't have a voice that would be a deciding voice but we would have a voice in discussing the management can we get any more information about the makeup of that of that board I mean we kind of assume that it's going to be folks from SHIRS but I imagine there are seats there are other seats because they won't they may have interest in having others at the table as well. They may I don't know that there's I don't know what the composition of the board is right now actually. I forgot they did they have told us we can go get them for you. Thanks. I feel very strongly that I need more information as in order to make a determination I had already talked to the mayor and met with the mayor and wanted to know where SHIRS was in their plan to go outside of Burlington I also felt that I would very much benefit as one member of the council from hearing from people who understand telecommunication and investing in it and rate of return and relative risk. I really need to understand all of that so that I can educate myself so that ultimately when we come forward with some options that I feel like I'm making informed decision about where I'd like to land on the decisions that are before us as far as reinvesting in the company so I realize you're short of time but I'm concerned that there are 11 other people who might have very different questions and how are we going to do this? It's not that we're not trying to get the questions answered we're not acting on this tonight and there's plenty of time to get more answers. But we need to get information so that the next meeting isn't gathering what do we want so that we're not wasting our time always gathering information. I understand we just don't need to get totally bogged down so we can submit questions to the administration other ways as well. That was going to be my question is if you would want feedback from us as to what information we're looking for a third party to give us how do you want to get that information? If you could email it to me, that would be great we've started asking for some so that sooner you can get us information the sooner we can find it out. Thanks, Councilor Mason. To that point Alphine does this with the materials that we would ask on behalf of any client looking to make an investment decision. Financial statements, articles, I would hope that you guys together could come up with that standard list and assemble that for distribution and then take their specific unique things that members of the council want in addition to the supplemental diligence list I think that's a good path between now and when we next take this up rather than waiting until we meet again and then saying well what do we need then? We haven't set an exact time as to when we're picking this up again it's not necessarily the next meeting. Mr. Mayor. Just in terms of how you're thinking about what we are trying to get done I do think there would be value into further it doesn't have to be very long but discussion of this item in the executive session in that we have started to develop thinking about how to look at this opportunity and I think it would be helpful to us in terms of understanding what additional work and analysis is going to be done need to be done in the months ahead to share some of that in the executive session and see if we're on track with the council or not. Then we should be getting into the executive session and we have two other executive sessions can we deal with those all in one motion? At least we can deal with them all in a series of motions if you all agree. I can put them together in a single motion if you agree. Yes, go ahead. So the three matters involving the negotiation of contracts the first one is this in terms of a contract with with Champlain Broadband for a carry interest in it and what we would be discussing is your thoughts and thinking about how we would go about doing that negotiation or how we would pursue it. Secondly, you have a potential settlement agreement with Burlington Country Club concerning the water over billing matter and DPW has a proposal for a settlement what a settlement contract with them might look like. The third one is under billing under billing, sorry. I apologize. The third one is with City Place Burlington developer and again we have a contract with that entity and this deals with that contract so the first issue motion that you would make would be the premature disclosure of these contracts would result in a premature disclosure of those would put the city at a disadvantage in the negotiations with those entities. There would be no action taken come out of this. There is no action expected on any of those except for that sidewalk plow thing that's listed in the next and we will, we do, you are going to need to separate who's invited to each of those separately because you have different city staff and professionals for each one. Councillor Mason. I just want to note for the record I'm accusing myself from the executive session under billing matter but after making that for the record due to a professional conflict of interest I will make the motion that City Attorney Black would make noting for which matter you want to deal with first. For the DPW we will have Director Spencer, Ms. Harrison. So the DPW item Director Spencer, Assistant Director Moir and Jessica I don't know your title. Customer Care. Thank you. From Public Works. Okay your President and outside council CAO Is that it? I think that's it. Okay and then the final I'm sorry city place who is president for that? Obviously you. The CAO Geoffrey Glasberg I believe is coming Jeremy Fartness is coming for that President McGowan as CEDO Director David White as the former CEDO Director and Planning Director who have been involved in these negotiations and the mayor's office in all of these. Okay so motion has been made for the findings seconded by Councilor Busher all those in favor of the findings please say aye. Aye. And unanimously Councilor Mason Who voted no. Sorry this is on all three motions correct correct yes and I voted no. So two no votes everybody else voted yes Councilor Jane so it's a 10 to 2 So based on that Councilor Mason Councilor Mason has moved based on the findings that we go into the executive session is there a second? Second. Second by Councilor Busher all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? No. Two no's and that's Councilor Tracy and Councilor Furman. So it's a 10 to 2 to go into the executive session. Alright so clear the room. Council at 747 Please rise. Okay good evening everybody and we apologize for being up here late and keeping you waiting for a few minutes but we're here now and we will move right into the public forum which as I said we're about a little over 15 minutes late from our normal time. We did Councilor Busher sorry you missed it we're going to take your allegiance so just remind everybody we want to hear the comments that you have to make for us to talk to us about. Your comments should go through the Council President not directed at any other city Councillor or the Mayor and there should be no we want to hear your passion on any issue but please refrain from any kind of personal attacks or anything so hopefully that laugh was in good spirit to what I'm saying. So we'll open up the public forum and the first speaker tonight will be James Lees to be followed by Stan Stan Hill. Good evening Mr. Lees welcome. Good evening so I'm going to read something from the one sentence from the law of war manual put out by the U.S. Department of Defense parties to a conflict must refrain from the misuse of civilians to shield their own military forces and weapons and that's what the military says itself for violating this fundamental principle of the laws of war the basing of F-35 jets amidst thousands of airport passengers and city dwellers in South Burlington and Winooski Burlington and Williston is illegal and a war crime so contracts between Burlington and the Air Force are void because the basing of F-35 jets in a city is illegal it matters not how much money the Air Force spent to upgrade the airport or how many jobs are supposedly at risk when something is illegal that makes the contracts to do that thing void no honorable military officer will allow the use of civilians as human shields that's part of the elementary training for our military forces especially when they have the choice to base remote from a city as five of the other choices were remote from the city from any city as owner of the airport Burlington has both the right and the power to say no to the illegal basing at its city owned airport exercising this power prevents its government officials from complicity with the war crime of human shielding and it also saves thousands of children and adults from harm thank you very much thank you Mr. Lee's Stan Hill to be followed by Charlie Messing good evening Mr. Hill welcome thank you I live on the east side of Burlington I'm speaking about the F-35s also they came and visited us for a couple days and I heard them take off they're very loud and it's going to be assaulting us every day I know this city passed a resolution a few years ago and it's time to do it again but I think that after reading the Pentagon documents that I've seen it's obvious that we will have nuclear weapons in and out of here because the air force moves them around they don't stay in one place because these are nuclear delivery systems we will become a nuclear target from the Russians in the event of a nuclear war Burlington will be subject to Burlington airport but Burlington too will be subject to a first military strike I also want to urge you besides condemning these things I think it's time to take some of the people that are complicitous and take their names off of things so I would urge you to rename Leahy Way and the Leahy Echo Center because Senator Leahy's been instrumental in bringing these death machines to our town I think we need to send a message that we don't want them I certainly don't want to hear them every day and I would hope my city council would take that seriously thank you thank you Mr. Hill Charlie Messing is up next to be followed by Joanna Rankin Mr. Messing welcome thank you three minutes tonight this is great I excuse me my park hurts but I'll get over it well I make comments on the comment sections of the stories about all the things that go on in the city I make comments on the comment pages of Seven Days and then other people make comments about the comments and it can turn into a brawl ah, good evening and it's pretty funny I have a following now not a following like a bunch of people who want to hear what I say and who like what I say more like when you're walking down the street and a bunch of people are following you calling things and one of them happens to have a rock they might throw it so I have a lot of followers online anyway they can't understand why we have opinions that are not theirs they call us the coalition against everything that's the coalition for a livable city I pointed out and they disliked that many people disliked it so the coalition against everything and they say we're obstructionists I don't know where they got that idea it's the trail mix they're all eating the trail mix anyway unfortunately I did go down to the fireworks with my decibel meter and I was disappointed in that the loudest fireworks which are really loud there were about 129 decibels are still half as loud to a quarter as loud as the F-35 will be or is wherever it is and that's really loud and that's for a minute instead of a second and I say times a day that's pretty darn loud I have a feeling that people are not going to be able to stand it so to speak and those who call it the sound of freedom well they won't be able to hear it for long because it makes you deaf so I hope everything's going well otherwise and I'm going to try and make sure my followers don't catch up with me thank you very much thank you Mr. Messing, good timing Joanna Rankin is up next to be followed by Dora Spendinger good evening Ms. Rankin welcome thank you very much for letting me speak I also heard the F-35s and we are very used to the F-16s living off East Avenue and they're much louder and moreover they're louder the low frequency range which isn't even counted in the decibel figures that the Air Force is putting out the kind of vibrational roar is very different in the F-35 so I don't think people will be able to stand it but I want to speak about another matter the F-35 is a nuclear bomber the F-35 is designed to carry nuclear weapons the US policy to review identifies the F-35 as the principle US delivery vehicle for airborne nuclear weapons so that's what pilots will be training for and that's what the F-35s have a principle purpose for furthermore the B-61 nuclear bombs that they will carry are much smaller than the other nuclear bombs in the US arsenal and in some people's view these nuclear bombs are usable they can be to use the horrible phrase dial down to explosive power which is even a little less than the Hiroshima bombs and so they are weapons that in some people's views could be used without triggering a nuclear war and that is extremely destabilizing in terms of the kinds of a balance of nuclear weapon forces that we've had up to this point furthermore we can have little confidence in any statements from the Vermont Air Guard that planes won't carry nuclear weapons that might even be policy in present but it can turn out a dime if the Air Force gives a signal and they become nuclear capable in Burlington and a very persuasive bit of testimony at the Vermont Senate hearings was the testimony of Roger Barossa who blew nuclear weapons from Burlington Airport in the 1950s so that bridge has been crossed there must be storage facilities for nuclear weapons it is something that has happened in the past according to his own testimony so we need to protect ourselves if we don't want nuclear weapons in Burlington Airport if we don't want a nuclear risk in Vermont thank you Ms. Rankin Dora Spedinger is up next to be followed by Mark Hughes good evening Ms. Spedinger welcome hi everybody I have in my hand a copy of the resolution that was passed in the Vermont Senate not too long ago and I just like to quote one line out of it and this is around Senator Bernie Sanders saying he strongly opposes the basing of nuclear weapons in Vermont just by saying we don't want them and our planes won't have them doesn't work because we don't decide once we get the F-35s here it is not our decision whether they get nuclear weapons or not thank you thank you very much Mark Hughes is up next good evening Mr. Hughes welcome I speak in support of the racial equity diversity and inclusion resolution this resolution takes the unprecedented step of adding a standing committee for diversity equity and inclusion committee to the Burlington City Council the committee in addition to overseeing the implementation of the equity strategic plan is tasked with quote exploration of the creation of a diversity equity and inclusion commission finally this resolution states that the city of Burlington shall create a senior full-time position responsible for overseeing managing it and advising other senior officials in the city's diversity equity and inclusion initiatives and the position will report to the mayor and be a part of the city's leadership team and have citywide responsibilities and authority the fact that this resolution is sponsored by 11 of 12 of you reflects that this city council not only has the ability to work together but it also reflects your shared values of fairness and justice I'd like to give a shout out to the consulers Ding, Roof, also Pine and Mason for being at the center of such important work and the mayor's office in the office of the city attorney who worked tirelessly to cause the resolution to come to fruition tonight the chief of staff never took her eyes off a single detail and while loaded down with her normal impossible job, she got it done in addition to the hours of work with the administration Justice for All brought upwards of 80 people together last week at a community discussion called what equity looks like in Burlington notably one of the most important recommendations on the equity in the administration group was a creation the city in city government and a task force to address the equity in Burlington our next meeting is scheduled for August the 13th and I invite you all to be a part of that we've always accomplished more as a nation when we've worked together our finest moments of progress come when all the voices are at the table not just the ones that we agree with we reach our collective full potential when we embrace those who are different not fear them or try to control them and our best ideas happen when folks that don't agree with one another have difficult but necessary discussions not avoid them now this is a proud moment for Burlington in a defining moment for the state of Vermont I ask you please don't wave the reading of this pivotal resolution tonight I ask that the 2019 racial diversity equity and inclusion resolution be read to memorialize this work and our commitment to dismantling systemic racism in Burlington in Vermont and in this nation that we may all have justice once and for all thank you that fat is up next to be followed by Judy Yarnel good evening welcome so the issue which I want the city to pay attention to I have been observed and suddenly experienced for many years I've been in Burlington for 14 years so we want the city to address the issue the safety of pregnant women and by that I mean creating a parking lot near the handicap lot for just pregnant women because the pregnant women run the risk of falling when it is wintertime even when it is hot and it's a risk for unborn baby so we want the city to really pay attention on that issue and really create a parking lot specifically for pregnant women thank you very much Judy Yarnel is up next to be followed by Tom McDonald good evening Ms. Yarnel welcome welcome good evening I too want to speak about the nuclear capability of the F-35 need to pull in your microphone Ms. Yarnel pull your microphone right up close so we can hear you I too want to speak about the nuclear capability of the F-35 I was present at the state house to listen to the expert testimony that Joanna Rankin referred to nuclear weapons have been here in Burlington in the past nobody knew about it the city council didn't know about it the mayor didn't know about it and very probably the governor didn't know about it the F-35s are designed to carry B61-12 nuclear weapons I think it's highly likely that those weapons will be here will we know when they're here we have no assurance whatsoever it's defense department policy not to inform citizens where where bombs are stored this is a particularly pernicious bomb because the B61-12 because it can be dialed up or down it's not designed to be a deterrent like other nuclear bombs it's a tactical bomb designed to be used in combat do we want to be part of that in any way connected with that I'd like to remind you and our citizens here that Burlington is a member of the mayors for peace organization which was started by the mayor of Hiroshima many years ago when Bernie Sanders was mayor of Burlington he happily signed on I urge us to think many times before we approve the F-35s here we have the power to do something about it it's our airport thank you thank you Ms. Yarnal, Tom McDonald is up next to be followed by Jennifer Decker good evening welcome good evening we'll talk about patrols and lack of enforcement a couple of weeks ago I was on Pearl Street toward the battery street and and on the south side of the street on the sidewalk three skateboarders got on the first two went on the third one fell back and rolled out into the street passed the bike lane and luckily for him there was no car coming at that same time not only is skateboarding an annoyance and maybe can cause possible injuries to pedestrians but obviously in this case with the condition of Burlington's sidewalks they're not too good and he could have been killed or maimed anyway so I looked past him further west and there was a person in a nice yellow jacket and I would have expected that person to say hey carry your skateboard didn't happen okay this is this sort of thing is repeated on the church street commons so a woman smoking she goes past and there were the two female patrol officers there and they're referred to by some people as the two bumble bees they're together and I can't see why they're together because it seems to me it's a job and the enforcement doesn't need two people together they can start from one end and cross each other and they're aware of lots of stuff if they need the big guns they have a phone okay I saw that woman smoking I looked back toward the patrol officers nothing happened there was a kid on a bike he went through nothing happened and then I saw in one situation where there was a skateboarder who was also a smoker and he was going up church street so that encapsulates the business with the lack of real patrolling and that kind of lack of enforcement after a while it creates a sort of seedy atmosphere you like to have some freedom and you don't want an arms camp but at the same time somebody should say hey put the cigarette out I've never seen that and I think we should thank you Mr. McDonald Ms. Decker is up next to be followed by Lucy Gluck good evening Ms. Decker welcome thank you very much I came to speak out in opposition to the basing of the F-35 nuclear bomber at the Burlington airport which the city council does have the power to cancel and that's a really important opportunity that all of you have before you wanted to share some of the testimony by Dan Grazier he spent ten years as an officer in the US Marine Corps he had deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and felt that that taught him to evaluate weapons and equipment for their true military value he also graduated with a degree in military history from Norwich University and he works now for the project on government services he has studied the waste and abuse that often accompanies pentagon weapons programs the F-35 the current price tag as far as I know is something around 1.5 trillion dollars surely much more costly to all of us as American citizens than is being factored into our local conversations despite the flood of optimistic press reports emanating from the pentagon and industry funded media outlets the F-35 remains a deeply flawed program so other folks have spoken about the nuclear issues and there are many other issues and problems with the plane but just to highlight some of the nuclear issues the B-61 12 bomb which is sized for the F-35's bomb bay is the world's most dangerous nuclear weapon so I wanted to invite all of you on the city council and the mayor to an event that we're holding to commemorate Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Sunday, August 4th from 4 to 6 p.m. in the park across from the airport where we'll be continuing to educate the public and educate our leaders about the importance of banning the basing of these planes so I wanted to also quickly mention that the planes are single-seat fighters this is the first time in history that on a nuclear platform we only have one person working together I'm sorry one person launching the weapon previously on all other systems there have been multiple involved the jobs are not what has been promised the jobs will mostly go back to Lockheed Martin not to folks in Vermont and the ownership cost to Vermont is very steep so thank you very much for this opportunity to speak other cities have said no this is our chance Thank you Ms. Decker Lucy Gluck is up next Rachel Siegel Good evening Ms. Gluck welcome So I think most folks know I live in the old North End and I grew up in South Burlington just a little ways from the airport so it's been here since I was really small 5 years old and the airport and that community our community in Burlington and also Wunewski especially all the people that can't be here to speak because they may not speak English they've only been here a little while but they're the ones who are going to be at the airport so I think there's a long list of reasons why the F-35 should not be based in Burlington with the population that we have so close to the airport the health and safety issues but as a bottom line when next month I'm hoping you'll actually consider a resolution that's being worked on by some of the folks on the city council here when that language is presented to you and has been very similar resolutions you don't want nuclear bombers in Vermont it's kind of a no brainer I think everybody can nod their heads and say whether this thing carries nukes or not it still makes us a target unfortunately but to at least draw the line there and so we're putting our hands in your minds and your hearts to really do whatever research you can between now even in next month when the resolution comes there's a place that has a lot of media really unbiased reporting and a lot of good information is the Save Our Skies Vermont website if you haven't ever been to that website and you can see all of the people that have given the reasons why the plane should be cancelled but there's a huge section of that around the nuclear issue and so if you could just take some time some of you have already done this but if you have a few minutes to look at that before your meeting in August or before you I would appreciate that I think it would be helpful for the discussion and to know that we're following in you know Winnowsky South Burlington the Vermont State Senate has all said this makes sense at the very least we could make our voices heard around the nuclear issue and I hope that you'll be willing to do that thanks thank you Ms. Gluck good evening former Counselor Siegel welcome Dave Hartnitz I'm next nice to see you all one after the other I am here to speak to a couple of things first speaking in favor of the diversity, equity and inclusion resolution that you have coming forward I'm really excited I was really excited when Counselor Dang reached out to me about it that things are moving forward in this way it's one of those things where you look back at it several years ago and go oh yeah duh like why didn't we do X, Y and Z then and now it's it seems so obvious now that he laid it out and that you've all worked collaboratively on it it's really exciting really excited about it and I have two little hesitations about it that I'll mention because I think there's always room to do better right one is my concern about having a singular position in charge of it we know that when Dan Balone was in that position for the schools he died of a heart attack that wearing the job of being the person doing diversity and inclusion work for a huge institution especially as a person of color who hopefully that's who you would hire because they're the experts on racism that that's a huge toll in terms of the stress and can cause heart attacks and kill people so maybe the next iteration is to give a department not just a single person and I also hope that nobody just passed themselves on the back because we always all need to keep working on this stuff and especially for white people to continue our own development and racial identity work so thank you in advance for doing that I also unfortunately am here to speak in opposition to the F-35s which we all know now are going to be nuclear capable and we all know that while our senators have said they don't want any nukes here they're not likely to I don't see them following up on their word on that but you can and we can and if you go to the Save Our Skies website you'll see a list of seven different cities where through resident pushback the Air Force did in fact change their mind it is in fact not too late it is not too late and you are in a position of incredible power so I hope you will utilize that and and it brings us back to diversity and equity because if you are really true to the principles of diversity equity and inclusion you'll recognize the disproportionate impact of the F-35s even if we do make it to the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in a year we're heading up on the 74th even if we make it another year and we don't get bombed for being a target we still are disproportionately impacting poorer people and more people of color with the noise impact so if you really stand by the principles of diversity equity and inclusion as you're doing with this wonderful resolution I hope you will also apply that to the impact of the planes on the poor people and people of color we know that militarism always impacts poor people and people of color more than people who can be insulated from it on the hill thanks thank you former councillor Siegel former city councillor Dave Hartnett councillor Hartnett welcome good to see everybody it's glad to see I'm glad to see councillor Siegel here because my topic is commissions and the selection process then councillor Siegel and I made great changes to that hopefully for the better but obviously we failed just not two, three Monday nights ago but over the last six years this process has been a circus here in the city and it's been unfortunate probably one of the most important things that we can ask from the public is public engagement that we want people involved in serving on commissions is one of those roles why would anybody want to serve on a commission knowing the process that we've been through what happened to commissioner Dunn a few weeks back a disgrace a man that has given great service to the city many years representing the progressive party is up for reappointment in the police commission it's not the fact that he didn't get reappointed I know those things happen it's the fact that this council used him as a bargaining chip to get their friends on the commission and get political favours done for them at the expense of Jim Dunn how did Jim Dunn not get appointed when everybody up here on this table wanted him to back on the commission I'll tell you how it happened we put our friends on and we take care of our political favours and we're worried about who might run against us for city council okay and it's not all the councillors it just takes one or two of the room of the process and quite honestly there's a long history here led by councillor Paul that plays games with this process that is committed to putting her friends on and doing political favours keep it try to keep the names out I'm directing my comments to the council but I'm just going to call it as it is you can't have that process you cannot you worked five and a half hours putting a slate together the Thursday prior to out on the 20th right what good is a slate when all these side deals are being made putting their political friends on and taking care of their friends what does that say to the people that want to be on our commissions so I come with a solution tonight that I hope this council will think about because I know it's easy to come up here and complain but this is what I like I'd like the process to look like three city councillors representing different parties the chair and the vice chair of each commission that we're selecting and a representative from the mayor's office that committee to put the council to the commissions together that takes the politics out of it that takes the friendships out of it we're also getting input from the chair and the vice chair of what that commission might need that they might be looking for we'll hear about attendance issues with commissioners right we don't go excuse me I want to finish up because there's one point I want to make because we do have an issue with one commission on the police commission with attendance records she's been approached about whether she continues to serve or not she was approached before the process she has made it very clear she wants to finish her term she is feeling bullied by city councillors to leave that position so they can get Jim Dunn back on the commission that is unfortunate that we have a single mom who's got a mom in a nursing home that she's trying to take care of and she feels that members of this council and they're the same ones that play all the games are bullying her to get off that commission that is not okay thank you councillor Hardnett Karen Long is up next she's followed by our final speaker Nancy Jacobson good evening Ms. Long welcome I'm sorry I'm sorry so I'm going to talk about the lake and our sidewalks I do want to say before I read my piece that I heard the most troubling thing that somebody went to Burlington health and rehab and the only thing this person wanted was to get outside and get some fresh air and I have recently complained about one of our step ups from the sidewalk is the size of my phone this is one slab this is the other so this woman who is 70 had to push her friend who I don't know how old she is on the street and we know on East Avenue same thing co-housing people say that our sidewalks are so bad on East Avenue that they are pushing in their wheelchairs motorized wheelchairs on the street and that just I can't believe you can ignore that and I do appreciate the extra $500,000 but that is not going to help when we're spending 6 million on City Hall Park and those sidewalks are good so anyway I'm sorry because I actually have something written here that I want to read to you stormwater runoff is the greatest source of the excess phosphorus fueling algae blooms and accelerated eutrophication the City of Burlington loves the rain garden and I do too but it has been incredibly lax and irresponsible about enforcing our regulations on lot coverage letting lawns be lawns instead of parking lots and protecting public and private green space from compaction and vigilante paving would do yeoman's work and reducing stormwater runoff this simple measure following the lot coverage rules would keep phosphorus and other nutrients and pollutants out of the lake and substantially reduce the beach closures from both algae blooms and ecoli this is a crisis that the City has shamefully ignored all around town is housing required by law to have green and permeable yards front and back but landlords have seized this space for parking to benefit themselves despite the damage of our lake and our neighborhoods what has the City done next to nothing in many cases it has helped landlords break the law and pollute the lake this needs to change the sorry state of our lake even Trump's EPA has noted it is mashed by the sorry state of our sidewalks I already said that about the sidewalk so I'll leave that out I am really upset that you're going to tear up and spend six million dollars when our sidewalks are so bad anyway, as leaders you are obligated to step up and step up for the lake and step up for safe sidewalks will you? and I will tell you my first complaint was in 1997 when a parking lot was put in the backyard on luma street and nothing much was done but you can walk on luma street and there are so many yards that are parking lots not officially paved some are some aren't but I have been crying about this since 1997 and now with the lake closures I'm hoping, or beach closures I'm hoping you will do something thank you thank you Ms. Long our final speaker tonight Nancy Jacobson good evening Ms. Jacobson welcome maybe some of my past with this city but I want to tell you about me I started in college before I finished high school I was raised in Madison, Wisconsin and born in Milwaukee I came to the city and it saved my life I was supposed to die before I was 30 my husband and I are great great grandparents and we raised four children in this town our eldest is currently in Washington DC at a committee he retired Air Force Space Command worked on the projects and out of space and was a station to times at the Pentagon my background is I speak four languages and I've lived overseas for several years when I lived overseas especially in Paris in the 16th arrondissement which is is the embassy area I attended the University of Wisconsin Madison University of Wisconsin Trinity, excuse me, Trinity College University of Bonn in Paris and the University of Vermont I'm an alum of those colleges I'm a bachelor of science degree in housing and design and housing and environment I wanted to be an architect when I was young like my well known grandfather in the Midwest especially in Wisconsin Minnesota and my family been in politics for years and what I'm here today about is an issue that should never happen again I have contributed to this committee for years and been elected official in several positions including spectrum elections worked by chair for many years and I am fed up with what is happening and I agree with the people that I just heard now my grandson was visiting us he and his father has been in prison twice is no longer allowed on our properties and the issue that happened this morning that I'm going to tell you about and I hope you will listen to me and not cut me off take another half a minute our grandson was told earlier in the evening that he was to leave our property with what he could carry and come back the next day and get what he needed and he was no longer allowed on his property nor was his father was twice in prison he's now in the east and he's already got himself almost killed but he made a phone call and the person who came to the door while I was putting away some knives in the kitchen because of our grandson and my husband horsing around but his hands over me while I'm holding knives in my hand stabbed himself I go to the door and I still had a small carrying knife in my hand forgot all about it and apparently I was yelled at three or four times my husband says drop that well I didn't drop it because I knew if I did it would spring up knowing what I had in my hand and injure somebody else besides myself or the police officer or my husband for God's sakes in my front entrance hall and the next thing I knew I got rid of it I threw it out to the east I was facing south he was facing north and he assaulted me he slammed through the door three steps after I took and he slammed me on the floor just before my heart surgery and I've been handicapped since this is my first time out since this happened and I will not and if something isn't done by a person who lies or is not trained properly something else is going to happen here and one person on this committee knows about it and I leave it at that thank you Ms. Jacobson J.F. Carter-Newsbizer final speaker good evening welcome good evening and yeah sorry to sneak in at the last minute there I just want to express my support for the resolution that Mark helped introduce and that I think will most likely pass unanimously tonight and it's definitely a step forward and the special committee on policing is a step forward but I just want to make sure that the council and our community make sure similar to what Rachel Siegel had mentioned that we don't kind of lull ourselves into a false sense of security around and we can put that issue to bed and move on because it's a constant process and I certainly am not one to pretend that I grew up in a family that social justice was a common topic around the dinner table but it takes a lot of work on an interpersonal level and on an institutional level and I think everyone on this council representing the community of Burlington has kind of an extra responsibility to be investing in that and just to highlight the need to continue that work we had conversations around bodycams we had conversations around the need to divert resources into addressing the root causes of why we need policing in the first place why folks are suffering from addiction and poverty and trying to decrease negative interactions with police and still we had an uproar in city government and among the community that was somehow anti-cop to have those conversations so I think while this is probably the most significant resolutions that at least in my short four years of being involved we need to make sure that we recognize that there is a ton of work to do moving forward and then quickly because I am running out of time I just wanted to express my support for the resolution that should be in front of everyone in August opposing the basing of the F-35 and I also just want to throw on folks minds that we should really start to have a conversation about rank choice voting again in the city and the benefits of it and how that can benefit our local democracy both in local state and federal level so I appreciate the time and thanks for letting us speak. Thank you Mr. Newbizer. That will close out tonight's public forum. Thank you everyone for coming out tonight and speaking. We appreciate your sentiment and we will now move on to item number six which is the consent agenda Councillor Busher. Yes I'll move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Seconded by Councillor Roof. All those in favor of adopting the consent agenda and taking the actions indicated please say aye. Item number seven on the deliberative agenda is a report from the Burlington Electric Commission. A report from the Burlington Electric Commission. I don't think they did. Good evening. Welcome. Thank you. For the council I am Gabrielle Stebbins. I'm chair of the Burlington Electric Commission one of five commissioners. It's great to see you all this evening and with me in case you guys have any really sticky questions is our great manager Darren Spinger who just started up on his second year with us. I trust you received both the annual commission report which was this time signed by all of our commissioners as well as the performance measures report covering all of our efforts and the BED teams work over the last year. Also I don't know if you have a copy of this but you should take a look at some point on the website. The 2019-2020 strategic direction and I just want to highlight I work in the energy field not so much in Vermont but in many many states in the US as well as Canada and the major drivers for an electric utility are to make sure that it's safe, make sure that it's reliable make sure that the rates are affordable and then more and more over the last several decades we've seen more and more discussion about making sure that the utility of the future is becoming more and more sustainable and I just want to say that that is exactly what BED has been working on if you've had a chance to skim through the performance measures report pretty much all of our stats are either improving or holding steady and this goes from how frequently there's a power outage planned or unplanned as well as how long the duration is as well as our rates heading into the 11th year of not having a rate increase that's pretty unheard of when everything else you possibly buy goes up and also in terms of reliability and finally the innovation aspect the innovation aspect is really about trying to figure out how we can continue to drive towards the Burlington City net zero energy goal by 2030 and that's for everything from power so electricity to thermal how we heat and cool our buildings to also ground transportation not airplanes but I'm happy to take any questions our four commissioners have been with us we just had a new commissioner join last year but otherwise everyone's going into another round I just want to say that the team continues to work really really hard our budget that was just passed by the commission you all and the finance committee if you take a look at those stats pretty much everything is holding steady even labor expenses every single way that is possible this department is holding steady and it says a lot not just for a city department but also if you look across the board it says independent operated so for profit utilities if you look at municipal utilities and if you look at cooperatives it's really great work can we always improve without a doubt there's always room for improvement but it is great work and I encourage you to actually take a look and skim through that I know you guys always have tons of materials but it's pretty impressive and it's I'll just add very briefly that Burlington Electrics really fortunate to have the commission that we have and the support that we've had from our electric commission has been outstanding in terms of helping us move aggressively on a number of our goals giving us appropriate oversight when it comes to our budget process and you know really coming up with ideas with us as we go and I think that the team really appreciates the interactions that we have with the commission we really appreciate Gabrielle's leadership and we're fortunate to have the dedicated citizen commission that we have alright thank you questions we'll start with Councillor Tracy thank you so much for this report and as well for your service to the city of Burlington as both chair of the commission as a commissioner in general really appreciate that one of the issues that I care about a lot is district energy and seeing that project move forward and I'm just wondering what work the commission has been doing on that issue and how you see that work proceeding in the coming year sure so we saw a lot of progress over the last two or three years we found an entity that could provide a variety of different business models either you know the city potentially owning and managing the project or them owning and managing the project and us being off takers essentially a lot of great research at this point I don't know if you guys are looking at natural gas prices unless you work in the field probably not but that's what tends to drive the price of electricity right now and it continues to be really phenomenally low which has you know made the discussion and the budgetary review for some of our key potential off takers who we need those lynchpin properties to really crunch their numbers tighter and tighter we do have a couple of opportunities we're looking at moving forward I've been working on a side couple of side discussions with Darren in terms of how the Department of Energy might be able to actually help support the project that's very far off in the future but we're working on it and there are some new ideas about how we might be able to continue moving along this path the model still stands that if we were to move along what Corix the company that had done a robust amount of work until about a year and a half ago year ago or so the model still stands that if we were to shift over to the technological design that they had come up with that we would see overall a two thirds reduction in MMBT so basically thermal carbon output is an easier lay person to put it but do you want to add anything yeah I think we had been focused in the legislative session on getting some authority to help us fund the next phase of work through our existing incentive funds we received that authority in a bill that the governor signed just in June I believe and so we're in the process of trying to reopen some of the discussions with the potential customers with that in mind and talk with Corix talk with different stakeholders and see what the best route is to move things forward I think we're essentially trying to move forward to competing fuel source to compete with natural gas potentially at very low current prices so we need a longer term level of thinking I think when we look at this project but it's very much alive we have some new authority that we're looking to use to help move it forward and my hope is over the next coming couple of months we'll be doing some additional intensive work and have some things to report back to you thank you very much thank you councillor Tracy councillor Mason thank you both for being here I know in the report you touched on sort of the electric lawn mower and the electric vehicle just hoping maybe you could speak briefly to that and also I know there's sort of what outreach you're doing to sort of expand the scope I know that's been some criticism we've read in terms of its limited outreach so I'm wondering sort of what you're doing to increase those wonderful programs that you're offering I'll take a first stab and Darren you know finish up after I'll just note that this is the general managers that the lawn mower is like his personal drive I mean he's excited about it like every week to mow his lawn and I personally have signed up to try out the electric vehicle that you can loan for a few days just to get a sense of how far you can drive on it what happens when you go up a hill, down a hill because I still drive like a 15 year old Subaru in terms of outreach for the lawn mower perspective certainly there were a few different outreach events at our local hardware stores we have quite a few social media events going on and going out actually one of our commissioners who joined us a couple of years ago I think Scott Moody just did a video of him trying out the electric vehicle and he says he's not quite there yet he needs to have a few more years to drive his current car in the road but that highlights the need even more to your point of slow and steady and repeated marketing because we don't buy new cars every year and if we're going to make this transition to a more sustainable society and community then we have to constantly gradually infiltrate people's heads so that if they're going to maybe think about a new car in two years that they're ready there and then but go ahead and add whatever else I'm missing yeah I think with the lawn mower program we've had great success I think we've done more than 90 lawn mower rebates in a little over a month and that's outstanding for us we've had the downtown hardware store and the hardware store on North Avenue the 2A store sold out I believe of electric mowers for a period of time and I think what we're seeing is we have a $100 rebate on a piece of equipment that's $300-400 to a gas mower so people the $100 helping to move the market with EVs we're offering or plug-in hybrids $1,200 or up to $1,800 for low-modern income customers is still only a fraction of the upfront price even with the federal tax credit we know the upfront price can be challenging I was at and I'll leave it as an unnamed auto dealer in the community this morning because we do talk to our different potential partners in the auto community I think we have a challenge when we think about outreach is that some auto dealers even that have a plug-in hybrid or an EV for sale don't necessarily look at it as a vehicle that they're trying to move actively a few of them do and I give them credit for that but this is a market that's partly been created through regulatory push at the national level one that we fully support and I think our challenge is getting more and more auto dealers, auto makers to see this as something that the consumer wants to be educated about because it's a unique experience when you get into an EV or a plug-in and you drive it and you enjoy it and you see the performance and fuel economy benefit but we've got some outreach challenge there with that particular aspect that we're working on well and to that point besides the fact that it costs less to actually drive in terms of filling up your tank with electricity versus going to the gas station the maintenance fees are significantly less as well so there's a bit of a push and pull there if you're an automotive dealer that actually does a lot of business by providing ongoing maintenance so that's a tug within the industry as well Thank you Thank you Councillor Mason, Councillor Busher and then Councillor Pine So you mean the advertising on TV for the leaf is a little misleading that I can't just fly That'd be great Anyways I am very interested in since my life has changed somewhat and I'm not really driving long distances anymore I am more interested in electric vehicle now so I just wanted to just share that As far as the lawnmower are there still electric lawnmowers now available and how long will the rebate be available for people? We tend to run our programs on a year-to-year basis so most of the time we'll say that they expire December the end of December and then we'll renew or update them but folks can expect that that program will be available for the remainder of the year my intention is that we'll keep it available in coming years because I think we've seen the value of that in driving adoption of electric mowers and I know it can seem kind of a trivial thing but around 5-8% of local air pollution in a community can come from these types of engines these smaller non-pollution-controlled relatively non-pollution-controlled engines and the statistic that really jumped out at me was that collectively as a nation when we spill gas filling up our mowers we lose more than an Exxon Valdez spill worth of petroleum every year by spilling gas collectively so electric has a number of benefits cheaper, cleaner, safer and I think we'd like to see this be a part of the future for a long time that's really good to know and I'm interested but I wanted to make sure that the people watching would understand how long they had in order to take advantage of this rebate Councillor Tracy asked you about district energy and in your communication you said and you referenced this that you were looking for some minor modifications to state legislation and you said it was passed that has to do with access to thermal incentive funds is that the piece of legislation that was just signed in June? Yes, yes the governor signed that bill and it lets us use our existing funds to help support the project in a more meaningful way. Okay and I think I had one other thing. Let me just look and see Maybe not Maybe that's really Sorry, excuse me, sorry In your report also you talk about the strategic direction vision for Burlington a net zero energy and you talk about a report a draft that was available in May and then a final report in July. Is that actually ready for prime time? That's not yet, it's still being worked on the consultants that BED and the commission decided upon. There are many, many consultants that submitted proposals. Their goal date for completing their near final report in terms of their research is the end of July and the goal on our end given that so many people are out of town etc in August is to really do a proper release of the report. Obviously there's going to be a given take in terms of where does the discussion take us but in terms of their methodological analyses and all their modeling that would be complete by then. Will that report be at least either presented to the council or at least be on consent for us to have access? We were hoping to work with the council to set up a date hopefully in September I could have the folks from Synapse which helped us with the study and RSG come and present with the Burlington Electric team and really do a thorough run through of that analysis. Great, thank you. Thank you Councillor Buscher. A lot of items left to deal with. Councillor Pine up next and then Councillor Hanson then Councillor Jang. Councillor Pine passes. Councillor Hanson then Councillor Jang. Thanks so much to both of you for being here with us. Just two quick ones. One is around the EVs. You mentioned some of the challenges around getting stronger uptake of EVs and this is a question that we had discussed a bit in the budget sessions but I'd love if you could reiterate some of the potential solutions to get especially more low income uptake of electric vehicles and my other question is is there something I haven't seen but that caught my eye in the report was this energy coaching pilot program. I'd love to hear what's going on with that. Thanks. So I'll just say we should caveat it's not that we're not seeing EVs not being picked up. We are seeing EVs being picked up but just in terms of if you look at our climate change goals and the desire from a lot of Burlington and I'll just add there have been a couple of efforts and there are a few negotiated agreements with some of our local credit unions in terms of providing financing terms that are more favorable and more helpful for low income residents and I believe we've had two that are completed but feel free to add more. When I think about the EV market penetration that we've had with our rebate program we have something like 85 rebates overall I think three of those have been for low-modern income customers. The 85 is not enough because we know we need really significant adoption of EVs. The three is not enough because we're obviously not able to do enough yet to get more folks in so one of the most significant things I think we could do and we're looking at it and we're not only looking at it at Burlington Electric but I think all the utilities are working with some of the people that are working with us. I think that's a significant incentive program that is part of legislation that was signed this session that may offer incentives for folks who are at or below I think some sort of a median income level to help them with EV purchases and leases and that would be on top of our incentives so that could be a meaningful opportunity to add some additional cash and help make it more affordable. We know with EVs used vehicles can still have a meaningful warranty on the battery and usually a car comes with about an eight-year battery warranty so if a vehicle is coming out of a three-year lease and has five years left that could be a good vehicle for somebody to drive. We haven't had used vehicle incentives yet but the state is working with the utilities on that and there's potential for that to make those vehicles more affordable and just briefly on the energy coaching that you mentioned Brian Riley who's one of our great team on the energy services side working on energy efficiency has been hosting sessions at the family room and working with customers and the idea is to go where folks are who might need our help and might have questions about high energy bill or an energy efficiency program. We've gotten great feedback from that. I think we're looking at maybe trying to make energy services team do a great job on outreach and that's a good example of them thinking creatively in terms of getting out there. Thank you Councillor Hanson. Two more councillors that I think we're going to conclude. Councillor Jang then Councillor Polina. Thank you so much for being here and I have a couple of comments and also a couple of questions and first of all Gabriella thank you so much for I can feel the love of what you're doing and the expertise all of that I can feel it. Thank you for what you do for the city. So my first question is actually in the second bullet. Avoiding the need for a rate increase for the 11th consecutive year. I see myself as still someone who is learning English but my understanding here is that you guys have the need to increase the rates but you are avoiding it. Is that accurate? Not quite and Darren feel free to weigh in afterwards. Right now we're monitoring the need I mean it's like a home budget. You develop your home budget you get a sense of your expenses and what your incomes are and if something different occurs you have more medical bills or what you want to do. So that's what we're doing right now. We have been watching and monitoring the regional market and that's how a lot of our energy pricing and our income not so much our expenses but a bit but mostly our income how that's developed is what's going on regionally. So when regional shifts occur we need to monitor what's going on and what's going on and what's going on and what's going on and what's going on and more and more expense for us. Thus far we've seen shifts for example the value of renewable energy credits we've seen some of those numbers go down and then back up over the next two or three years that's one of the items that we've really been looking at quite a bit here but also diligent in terms of getting a really reasonable price amount for our wood products. So things like that how can we reduce costs here to address when the regional market might change and therefore our income might change. But you know things do change in the region and we did think about a year and a half ago that we would probably need to increase rates in large part because of a variety of different measures that the BED team have identified and then brought to the commission and discussed over a series of meetings that the team has really figured out a way to keep holding off on that. Will it come someday? Certainly everything goes up in price someday but to the extent that we can hold our rates as affordable as possible that's pretty critical and to the extent that if we do increase rates at some point in the future the goal there would not be to do it by a teeny tiny percent that we have to come back next year and correct me if I'm wrong but I personally would prefer to see a reasonable step approach that is thoughtful and to the point about the rates that's exactly what the BED team is doing. I have other questions but let me just ask you this one because I know many people waiting but and it's not only BED and I think it's this is applies to all city departments most of the time when we get these reports we don't hear the perspective from the staff. Do you do staff survey? What are the satisfaction in staying in the company? Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yes definitely so two general managers ago we had a very long tenure and then when we had a new general manager Neal come in he did a lot of probing a lot of customer a lot of staff surveys and that has continued and also to this strategic direction to be honest it kind of gets my goat but this comes to me after the staff have had a chance to see it and I'm like wait a minute but the staff look at it first and they say one of the major changes that has occurred in the last year is I think it's our reliability team felt that when they looked at this they didn't see their work they did not see how they're showing up and making sure everything all the folks that aren't that interested perhaps the poles and wires all of that so that's one of the pieces that they came to Darren about and they said look we need to see more of how this resonates in our day to day work so yes there are yearly I believe I know I saw one about a year and a half ago staff surveys there's also been over the last three four or five years significantly more workforce training and a lot more ongoing education opportunities as well but feel free to weigh in on both yeah we've had a employee staff survey in 2015 2017 and we're in the process of conducting one for 2019 and at least for the 2017 and the 2019 I believe this was true for 2015 as well we don't conduct the survey we contract to have a firm who comes in and conducts the survey for us and is able to kind of anonymize the data so we get the feedback we get to know what items are on people's minds what things they would like to see more of people are taking the survey at a fairly high rate I think last time it was around 92% participation because they know that it's valued and they also know that they're not singled out when they respond and so we're in the process of setting that up for 2019 as well thank you Councillor Jang our final question from Councillor Polino I'll be brief but I just wanted to publicly thank you for being so welcoming to me every time I've had a question you've reached out and we've met and I agree with Councillor Jang that the approach you guys take to the work you do is very contagious and the fact that you've had zero complaints out of 21,000 customers in 2018 speaks volumes and keep up the good work thank you Councillor Polino and with that thank you very much for that presentation we appreciate that very much and item 7.02 is a communication from thank you appreciate your service communication from Darren and thank you for the good work you're all doing Darren Springer, general manager and Chris Burns, director of energy services regarding the resolution relating to energy efficiency and rental housing for a relatively brief update on this thank you we'd like to thank the council for the opportunity to present briefly on this report which was in response to the resolution from two months ago and Chris Burns and his team helped put some of the data in here together I think I can summarize briefly and Chris is here to help me answer questions what we looked at here was providing some background on the what we call the time of sale ordinance but it's the minimum you know rental housing efficiency standards ordinance looking at the background there looking at data that we have and that we've worked with Vermont Gas on to accumulate for the report trying to give a whole picture of energy efficiency in the rental housing space BED is only a partner in that space Vermont Gas is a significant partner for us because roughly 95% of the community is served with natural gas they run energy efficiency programs for weatherization just like we do on the electric efficiency side so if it's a building that is electric heat, oil, or propane we would be the energy efficiency provider on the thermal side for that building but in most cases when it's a natural gas building Vermont Gas is doing the bulk of the work as reflected here and they've been very helpful I think in helping us put the data together some of which in here is fairly unique data that looks at these different pieces by word so that each area of the city can be looked at in terms of energy use and I'll probably leave it there and see if there are questions that Chris can answer related to the report great, thank you questions from the city council Councillor Hansen thanks so much and just to give a little context for folks watching the main issue that we're trying to address here is kind of the idea of the split incentive where we're a renter heavy city about 60% renters but in most of those renters pay the heating bills but they're not able to do any efficiency work and the landlords are able to do it but often don't because they don't pay the heating bills so that's an issue and because of that we've had somewhat limited uptake or people aren't taking advantage of a lot of these great incentive programs that are out there for energy efficiency so it's both a climate issue that we need to solve and a climate issue as well so that's kind of the background of why we're pursuing this and in terms of some of the questions I had around the report so there was one statistic in there that said that potentially about 40% of eligible units for this type of efficiency work have had some work done on what time frame that was over that that work had been done I'm going to say in the last 15 to 20 years okay, okay, got it and then a couple of the other items that I wasn't totally clear on in terms of the averages so we got a snapshot of average usage per square foot could you just to give us a sense could you tell us how that compares to the national average and also I wasn't quite sure from the data how that has changed over time cannot tell you how it compares to the national average it's driven by the age of the housing stock local and state energy codes programs that have been running for years climate there's just so much that goes into it so what we gave you was real data through our partnership with Vermont Gas through our energy champ program looking, working with the city assessors, getting square footage for the buildings and doing those calculations but I think you'd have to go and find reasonably like age type and most important climate, heating and cooling degree days and in terms of the progress we've made over time do we have data do we have this current snapshot and I was a little unclear on how it's changed over time we haven't gone back and done that same analysis year after year so I can't answer that question and I should add some context is we run the energy efficiency program through the state it's a state regulated program with efficiency utility and we're unique doing that in Burlington the rest of the state has efficiency Vermont on the electric side and Vermont Gas runs it on the heating side so we pretty rigorously track and report and there's some links in here the data for our expenditures through that program but some of the data that was requested here we either don't typically track or we had to partner with Vermont Gas to access the data so where there's gaps that's the reason why I understand there's been a lot of ongoing discussion about solutions and ways to move forward on this issue and understand there was some hesitancy to make recommendations ahead of some processes being completed around that but I'm wondering if you could at least provide some of the potential ideas I think there are some kind of no-brainers and would love to kind of move forward as quickly as possible and curious to hear if you could speak to any of the potential ways to make improvements so as mentioned in the report we've had a group, not just BED but really a city group that's looked at these issues around this specific ordinance over the last year and is continuing to do that work I think through the Mayor's Housing Summit we have consideration of not just this particular potential reform that could go as well I think our feeling is that it would be premature to recommend changes based on this particular ordinance without knowing kind of the outcome of some of that additional work because it could have an impact on what type of investment we're looking to make what types of requirements we're putting in place what effectiveness we would have but I can say that the types of issues we've been looking at are is the cap on cost still appropriate to be considered in light of today's energy efficiency investments likewise with the payback period requirement in the ordinance as well as we've had conversations around the enforcement and how that can be administered so I think we would like the opportunity to complete the work through the Housing Summit process and be able to offer recommendations not just related to the time of sale ordinance but to the broader suite of potential programs that could positively impact energy efficiency for rental housing great great yeah and I'll just say as a comment first of all thanks for all your work and really excited to work together and moving forward I think there's a lot of clear solutions that we can move forward on together I think a couple of things that just stood out to me as pretty glaring that were kind of identified in this report is and for those who haven't read it you know this was an ordinance from 1997 and we haven't had it was made clear that there hasn't been strong enforcement of the ordinance and there also hasn't been tracking of our performance how many you know in terms of compliance with the ordinance and in the impacts that the ordinance is having on our goals so I think these are some key things that we can really work together that I see as kind of no-brainers moving forward to strengthen this and also build upon this policy to really weatherize every every home every residence and apartment in Burlington thanks thank you councillor Hanson thank you councillor Freeman nobody else had their hand up so you're up next sorry I almost missed my hand no you're good go thank you for this report I just wanted to elaborate a little bit on councillor Hanson's question I you know appreciate there's a ton of information in this report I did feel that the recommendation you know it was a bit confusing I think because it was so vague it's just four sentences it's an answer but it feels a bit like a non-answer and so I think for me this issue in these and I feel from your department and from your leadership that there is a similar sense of desire to really address the climate crisis and to really work towards efficiency I have an incredible feeling of urgency around this issue there's not a day that I don't think about the fact that there's what an 11 year clock ticking to solve this issue so for me this the sentence recommendation felt incredibly vague I'm really looking to the administration and to your department to understand the idea of this timeline there wasn't really any elaboration on when the housing summit when that feedback would come back and how we can really move forward because we don't really have time not to be it's not dramatic to say that we are in the midst of a climate emergency that this is a crisis and I really want to bring that sense of urgency this was unanimously supported by the council so I was just looking there's so much information here and I so much appreciate that work but I was looking for just a lot more sort of information even some low hanging fruit in terms of some real recommendations that we can get going thank you councillor Freeman Mr Mayor did you want to respond or Mr Mayor are you I would just respond to the question about the follow-up from the housing summit as we committed to we expect to have we've committed to a September 4th meeting public meeting where we will be offering preliminary proposals on all five of the issue areas that we took on that day had workshops on it that day and I have already responded to councillor Hanson inquiries to try to collaborate and the lead up to that we welcome the opportunity to try to do that as well so we agree and have been working for years on this NEDZERO roadmap which will also be released in September I think we are on the cusp of detailing how we are going to achieve probably the most ambitious municipal energy goals of any municipality in the country and we share your sense of urgency and considerable more details forthcoming on that timeline. Thank you Mr Mayor we all set. Thank you very much Director Burns and General Manager Springer for that update we appreciate it Item number 7.03 is a presentation from Cotter Hashim and Ahmed Latif BHS students and we've got about 10 minutes for you to give us a presentation on this issue in support of Children of Yemen. Good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Ahmed Latif I came to Vermont from Iraq as a immigrant on 2013 I had BA in law in Iraq and I had BA in English language and I just graduated from Vermont law school I got my master in law and I planning to have exam for Vermont bar examination I'm here just to support my daughter she leading initiative to support Yemeni children and I will let her talk Good evening everyone my name is Cotter Hashim I came here from Iraq in 2013 with my family as an immigrant I am a BHS high school students rising junior and my dream job is to be a cardiologist and I want to serve my lovely community so today I will be talking about the crisis of Yemeni children the violence of this war have caused victims to die and to be injured and most of them are suffering from lack of severe food, drinkable water medicine and safe shelters and the Yemeni children has been affected by the war the most next so right now we will be moving on to quick fact number one every 10, sorry third population is 29.2 million 75% of the population is in need of humanitarian aid people in Yemen do not find food to feed them or their kids about 5 million which is approximately 17% of the population is living in family like condition 2 million are displaced and under that goes a about 2.3 million people have been either had to leave their homes which is unfortunately still happening Yemen is the largest food emergency in the world and there are about 7 million kids in Yemen so we will be moving on to important fact important fact number one every 10 minutes a child under the age of 5 dies because of starvation next so as you can see in this picture children in Yemen they really need food and they really need medicine and I think the picture can really speak itself so in here this is a video that was published by BBC News it's a reporter from BBC News that went to Yemen and met a female doctor there and there the doctor kind of just showed her around the villages and why they really need help there and especially the children so you can play the video you can play the video play the video oh sorry just need volume now there is a sound to it I need the volume so the original video was 5 minutes but we had to cut it down do the limited time this is so you can press next so 8.4 million people are at risk of famine and not to mention 14 million people don't have access to clean water so as you can see those pictures the water is really bad and can you just imagine you have to go through that and you're not able to help them, you're away from them and you would appreciate everyone or each one that's trying to help them next so the people of Yemen are facing random attacks bombing, snippers, kidnapping, rape and more and in these pictures you can see that a lot of people are dying and all of them are losing beloved ones and especially the ones who are leaving behind children especially young ones next about a quarter of school aged kids are out of school and 2,500 schools have been either damaged or not able to run and the children basic rights is just to have education and they can't even have that in Yemen so it's kind of bad next 14 million of Yemenis don't have access to clean water and 1 million people in Yemen are suffering from cholera and so yeah it's okay so this is a speech by Bernie Sanders that he did at the beginning of this year and he was the first one to speak about this issue and he rose awareness from look to a lot of people and I was actually one of them I didn't know about the issue that was going on in Yemen so that really helped me so the video is too long so I can't really play it right now it's like 14 minutes but this is the link in below you can check it I guess so I'll just be reading like two bullet points I kind of just summarize what's going on in the video so at the end of 2019 it will have taken the lives of 2019 sorry 219,000 Yemenis and 140,000 kids under the age of 5 because of starvation is at risk of famine and the most severe famine in more than 100 years next so what do they need I put this in two groups the first group is short term and the other one is long term for short term they need drinkable water, food, safe shelters and medicine for long term in general they need protection but if we kind of divide that they need safe camps they should not be bombing or using these camps and it should be running under the UN and the second one it says safe bathes and this is just to help the Yemeni kids who are trying to who have problem with their healthcare they can just go to other countries hospitals and it's basically kind of just temporary health access in other countries yeah so I made a donation link in Mercy Corps so if you want to donate you can just go there and your donation will reduce all the pain from those powerful innocent and poor children and this is the link we're trying to also make a GoFundMe account but there are some technical problems with it so we will send you the link afterwards next so this is my cited page most of my information I got on the UN website and Mercy Corps yeah I want to thank all of the Mr. Counselors for being here and giving me this opportunity and a special thank to Ali Cenk for making me come up here and I want to thank all the people the audience who have been listening and I want to thank everyone who made me come here thank you any questions thank you very much for that really moving presentation and hopefully the video tonight will help you raise more money to help more kids in Yemeni Councillor Pine yes can you just tell us how this is a tragedy this is an incredible disaster for this entire planet but how did it come up for you as the thing that you wanted to focus on well the whole story started one night my dad we usually talk about public topics he said he talked about the Bernie Sanders speech and so I heard that every 10 minutes a child dies I didn't know about that especially I'm Arabic, I'm Muslim I kind of should have at least have an idea about it but I didn't know about that it's a hard broken story and so after that I did my research I went to my teacher and then this is basically where I started thank you thanks so much Councillor Jang it sounds like you from Iraq and Iraq been in war as well so why not help Iraqi children and why focusing on Yemeni's children well it's our moral duties to help as a human being to help the whole world especially the whole world is like a small village so we need to help all the people thank you just 15 years old I think this is inspiring thank you thank you Councillor Jang anyone else thank you very much for that really moving presentation of the heartbreaking pictures that we all remember hopefully we can all do something to help that situation out great job tough to move on after that item number 7.05 and 7.05 we're missing 7.04 is a special I told you it was hard to move on special event outdoor entertainment permit application Councillor Roof thank you President Wright I will move 7.04 approval of a special event outdoor entertainment permit application application is for July 19, 2019 and July 26, 2019 Mr. French Band on July 19 from 5 till 9 amplified music yes dancing yes Phil Abbeyour Band on July 26 from 5 till 9 also amplified music yes and dancing yes OK, we need to vote on this by Councillor Tracy anybody need to comment on this other than, say, the Phil Abeyour Band no, we will talk we're all set, any discussion hearing none, all those in favour please say aye aye any opposed that passes unanimously item number 7.05 and 7.06 have been removed and so item number 7.07 is a Councilor Jang. Thank you President. I wanted to make a motion to introduce the resolution 5 7.7. Wave the reading and ask the floor for a second. Seconded by Councillor Payne. Councillor Jang you have the floor back. I think it's important to bring some background around this resolution as it all started with Mark's huge and then he brought up to a couple of city councils and we worked on making it better and we were fortunate for this time around to have the privilege to work with the mayor Weinberger and today we had a wonderful great conversation at CCTV channel 17 and I really recommend that when the video is up for the council to look into it because everything started with the vision and of the mayor who when he came to office in 2012 directed Vermont our partnership for healthy community I believe you know to create the the strategic plan and then the that report came back and since then you know there the council and also the mayor been busy with all the things and I'm glad that this is time around we all came back together and very impressed of every single person here especially those who met with the mayor roof pine Mr. Mason as well as the mayor's chief of staff Jordan Rebel but I think it's important that because Burlington pride itself on being an welcoming and inclusive community as the largest and one of the most diverse city in the state of Vermont we have the opportunity to be leaders in highlighting the importance of diversity equity and inclusion not just through words but also through meaningful action and I think this resolution is an important step in this direction it create a senior position in the city government to guide and support city leaders and departments in becoming more diverse equitable inclusive internally all across around what we do so it also creates a committee of the city council focus on diversity equity and inclusion and that committee will be tasked to explore the creation of a commission so I think those two components are very very important because around this work nobody has a crystal ball we all trying to figure it out and I think having someone who would monitor progress and who also will be reporting to the mayor directly as well as the council as we move forward so it's no doubt that the city in the city we have we face many challenges but we have learned that diversity in our community is one of our greatest strength we cannot take this diversity for granted we must work diligently to ensure that everyone regardless of race religion gender identity age ability or country of origin is fully included in the fabric of our community and I think Latif who was just right here 15 years old from Iraq who just inspired all of us to look at the world in a very global and aspect so we all leave now in the same boat we all leave we all human beings basically and I think this resolution begun to develop the focus through the creation of a new position which has never been created in my knowledge there were components of some city staff to do that work but now someone will be here to work diligently to erase race-based disparities around city departments and also to make sure that inclusion is at the length of everything that we do so to finalize I want to thank Mr. Mayor again for his leadership around this issue we also cannot thank enough Stephanie Seguno who is here who worked diligently around this resolution in giving us the accurate data that we all need Rachel Siegel was also here and to talk about what we need to do moving this forward and I think one aspect of it is maybe down the road for us to think about the creation of an equity and also engagement office so it won't be just the work of one person and what is good about this resolution also is there are so many steps in order for us to get to where we need to go one of the step is to just vote it tonight and after we voted tonight the mayor will be working also with a couple of city councils to create that job description of that person and then from there the council will be able to weigh on that job description make amendments make it better and then hopefully to hire that person by January 1st I think that's important to highlight so and I'm sure there will be some amendments because there are not a city council here that haven't weighed on this resolution specifically and I think Sharon Buscher we had a lengthy conversation about this that was also very inspiring so we hope that everyone will be able to vote for it and so that we can move forward as a council thank you thank you councillor Jane councillor Buscher thank you I just want to just echo what I learned about the process and how inclusive it was and I really appreciate councillor Jane reaching out to me and the conversation that we had about how he wanted to move the plan from the shelf to become active and to be fully embraced and I think this really does that I had talked to him about one minor amendment which I'm going to make or put forward but the rest of this is I see that you know I was going to call it councillor Siegel but Rachel Siegel came forward and and she did reference one concern she was hoping that by having this one position it wouldn't diminish the effort from the existing team and I certainly want to make sure that that doesn't happen because I see this person is helping that team still have that commitment to racial equity diversity and inclusion but I see that this individual will help keep them focused and have keep this as a priority and so I see this as as essential working collectively with the existing team and not eliminating that team so I certainly want to just make sure that her fears aren't realized this is in no way diminishing this is augmenting and expanding our commitment to this the one amendment has to do with line four where I have to smile because I it has to do with talking about diversity as a gift and this diversity encompasses people of color people with disabilities older people that's where I want to make the change LGBTQ people of different faiths etc so the people working on this I believe were in the younger category and so what I had hoped to do was to eliminate the older people and put and not really eliminate the older people but but to replace that language with people of all ages because I think that's more consistent with what we're talking about we are trying to reach out to people everywhere and it's not just older people but it's people of all ages and so I'm going to move that or as an amendment to this resolution thank you council Bush this is where I really wish we had friendly amendments we can accept this but since we don't is there a second to the amendment second by Councillor Jang any discussion on the amendment hearing none all those in favor of that change in language the Councillor Bush you just suggested please say aye aye any opposed that passes unanimously thank you council Bush you have the floor back thank you I had also talked about making some other changes because as you know the resolution states over and over people of color and when I came to lines 20 through 23 were now it was it stated blacks as opposed to people of color I thought about replacing that language but I also remembered about the report that came to us from the criminal justice system which did differentiate blacks from Asians etc and so I chose not to change that the blacks to people of color because I felt I was tinkering with a report that did differentiate different ethnicities and I didn't feel this would be well founded so I've left that alone and so having said that I'm really happy to be one of the sponsors and be and be voting in support of this thank you thank you councillor Bush your councillor pine and then the mayor thank you Mr. President I just wanted to point out that in many respects our school district has taken the lead on this issue really they have had devoted staff they have a committee standing committee of the school board that is perhaps called the diversity equity inclusion committee I think and I just want to point that out and say that I think we have a lot of work to do but it's really important that we not shy away from a topic that makes folks sometimes uncomfortable and I think that's really important to just be up front about that name it and and focus on the result that we're trying to get I do think that I want to respond to mark Hughes who asked me specifically because he was pretty sure no one else would want to read it I'm going to read just the resolve clause if I could so I'm surprised I know we waived the reading but I'm going to take a minute to do that now thorough now therefore be it resolved that rule four of the rules and regulations of the city council should be amended to add a standing diversity equity and inclusion committee to oversee the implementation of the city's equity strategic plan as follows committee assignments no later than the second meeting following the election of the president of the council that is the present shall appoint standing committees on licenses ordinances institutions human resources charter changes community development and neighborhood revitalization public safety parking and transportation energy and utilities parks arts and culture and tax tax abatement and diversity equity and inclusion be it further resolved than in addition to overseeing the implementation of the equity strategic plan the diversity equity inclusion committee is tasked with the exploration of the creation of a diversity equity and inclusion commission and shall report recommendations to the city council within 90 days from the time the committee is established and be it further resolved that the city of Burlington shall create a senior full-time position responsible for overseeing managing and advising other senior officials on the city's diversity equity and inclusion initiatives the position will report to the mayor be part of the city's leadership team and have city wide responsibilities and authority and before further resolved that the city council respectfully request that the administration in consultation with the city council institutions human resources committee develop a job description and seek council approval for the proposed position on or before September 23 2019 and seek to fill the position on or before January 1 2020 thank you I just wanted to get that in the record and make sure the viewing and listening public was aware of what the council is doing thank you councillor pine mr. mayor thank you president right I too want to thank everyone involved in working extremely collaboratively and productively to bring this action to the council tonight particularly appreciate councillor james leadership on this and collaborative posture throughout this and the generous recognition tonight that this is in some ways the continuation of work that we certainly have been trying to do as a city throughout the last seven years I appreciate your recognizing of my role in that but I do think it was it's fitting the councillor seagull is here as well tonight and that she definitely played a leadership role in the early formation of the committee and I do think we have made some progress since the the plan was completed in 20 for 2015 sorry 2014 and I think that plan focused us as an administration as a city on some areas that may not have gotten as you know the attention without without that work I think in particular some of the work the police department has done reviewing why we lose applicants people of color going through the police trying to who are trying to become police officers and why the outcomes are so much different for recruits that are people of color than white recruits I think the work that has been done being much better about reaching out to various communities particularly communities of color to encourage people to apply for our commissions there's been a market change there we have made we have moved the ball a little bit in terms of overall city hiring and diversifying our workforce I and more I do think this core team structure that was set up intentionally instead of creating a position at the time on the recommendation of the report has had some effectiveness but I'm very clear that I think this is the right step tonight and the whole senior team within the administration is supportive of this I think we are at a moment you know it's just such a tumultuous interesting scary time in some ways to be in this country and there's so many concerning and unprecedentedly terrible things shocking things that we see our federal government doing I also sense somehow simultaneously with that a real reckoning in important areas including racial justice I think there is a growing awareness of just the vastness of the you know the magnitude and the wealth in the recentness of government injustice to in particular African Americans and I sense there is a moment we can we can make we can make we are making progress as a country where there's urgency for that progress and Burlington every institution in America needs to be part of that certainly the city of Burlington needs to be a part of that and I the current structure puts too much too much relies on work out of the mayor's office to to move us forward and for the kind of sustained steady day in day out detailed rigorous work that I think really is necessary to make us an institution with less institutional bias less implicit bias we we need the discipline and the rigor and the capacity of someone waking up every morning saying saying how do we move move the city forward today I think that's what this resolution this position is going to do and I'm excited that it appears to have such broad support tonight thanks thanks president right thank you mr. mayor any other comments by the council are we ready to vote we're ready to vote all those in favor of the resolution please say aye aye any opposed passes unanimously item number seven point oh eight is commissions and boards boards and commissions selection committee regarding the special committee on policing appointments counselor Mason thank you president right I would like to make a motion to approve the following slate of individuals to fill the seats on the special commission to review policing practices I would note before I start listing them off that pay attention because this is different than what was published with two additions and I'll highlight them the first is two members representing local communities of color the slate would include mellow grant and cd Madison second is the member representing a local mental health substance abuse service provider dr. Kevin Rodgers third is a member representing the local lgbtq community that's jf Carter new visor next the member from a local activist organization skylar Nash finally a member with a professional a personal and professional background that would enrich the work of the committee that's Jim Dunn let me go back that's the slate I will say that just for everyone's benefit that was I did have discussions with the members that were on the committee and that amendment to the slate was approved by all members of that committee second my motion would be to re-advertise the position for a member representing a local domestic abuse service provider and I would ask for the floor back after a second to explain second by council roof counselor Mason you have the floor back thank you president right first I would like to thank the community for again your overwhelming interest in this very important position our committee met last week to review the applications that were submitted prior to just for the council in the public's benefit prior to the meeting we did have three individuals that sought to be removed but we did still move forward in light of that the one that's re-advertised we did not get any applicants that were interested in filling that specific role so I would ask you know I know we've all agreed to sort of do some outreach to try and fill that position and as soon as possible I think the expectation is that commission should kick off and get started because unfortunately we don't meet again as a council for some period of time so with that thank you well and I also I know the council president there are some members of that are here that may wish to speak but I would again thank members of the public for their interest unfortunately we did have you know more interested qualified applicants than we did necessarily slots but again thank you for your interest in what I hope proves to be a productive exercise thank you councilor Mason thank you for chairing that committee and good work to the committee a couple counselors are lined up first I do want to see if anybody that applied wants to speak you don't have to the names are on the slate and they're going to be approved but anyone want to okay hearing none we'll go to councillor pine and then councillor Polina it's really just a question of how to ensure that this this position that's being reopened much like the position for I think we designated as a provider mental health and substance abuse this is a member representing local domestic abuse service provider could we also just understand perhaps without any amendments but that that could also be just a person with lived experience councilor Mason I know that I know our resolution didn't say that that's probably I'm not sure I'm the appropriate person to answer that question I don't know if it's roof or I have a no you'll be recognized don't get to speak without so I mean this is I don't know I mean I know other than the belief was we would do specific outreaches to individuals that represent those organizations but I would say our application of a criteria was somewhat loose you know you didn't have so yes we would encourage anyone that's interested that may fit but I also I'd welcome if council roof has a different view as the author of the resolution I would defer to him that's a roof the language is the language but I think the intention was not to strictly limit it to be an employee of or a director of any of the service providers so if there's someone representing a service provider maybe with the endorsement they could be somewhat lived experience and not be an employee of I think that would maybe meet meet the intention if the whoever does the selection deems it applicable I think that was the intention during the authoring of the resolution sounds like we all agree is that sufficient because of fine thank you councillor Polina I just want to say I had an update on that and I probably should have reached out earlier but I did reach out today and got back from Keona Heath from the network against victims of she's the same and program coordinator of Vermont Council on Domestic Violence and she's confident that if she's not interested in the position she will find somebody to apply for it she just wasn't ready to do it by 4 30 today so it'll be I'm confident they'll produce somebody and meet thank you for that update councillor Polina any other councillor are we ready to vote on this late here's we are ready all those in favor of the slate as proposed by councillor Mason please say aye I any opposed that passes unanimously 7.09 is a resolution for the use of proceeds from the sale of Brawlington telecom this originally was on here from the board of finance it is not being sponsored by the board of finance but it's actually has my name on it councillor Paul did you want to did you want to move with councillor Paul I am prepared to do so if you want to know why don't you go ahead councillor Paul if you don't mind sure no I don't mind at all so I'd like to move the resolution waive the reading ask the floor back for the floor back after a second as I need to make a few amendments seconded by councillor Shannon councillor Paul you have the floor back thank you very much I don't know if there are where the I have a I have a copy of the changes is it possible to put those councillor Paul you're off my yeah I know we're working on getting those up there because so that so that everyone can follow along okay well they'll work on getting them up and you just alright so I'm on the resolution before us I would propose the following amendments to strike lines one through four on line nineteen to change the dollar amount from one million seventy five thousand dollars to five hundred and seventy thousand dollars and on line nineteen as well to replace the words proceeds from the sale of Burlington telecom to dollars from the unassigned fund balance and then as well on line nineteen to replace the word eight with the number four and I'm sorry go ahead okay so I just wanted to just mention that just for the benefit especially from people who are following along that I think this resolution is another example of collaboration between the administration council and also the board of finance who discussed this earlier on I think all parties have worked collaboratively to address a significant capital need we all know that we need snowplow snow sidewalk plows yes sidewalk plows no snow plows sorry sidewalk plows well we need both of them and we need this this is a way of collaborating to address a significant capital need and balance that with a funding source that we all hopefully can support as as as we all know the mayor and his state of the city address stress the need to replace our aging snowplow fleet the resolution asked for the council to support the purchase of four brand new snow plows sidewalk plows and over time there will be a need to replace others but that will be in the years to come the the resolution originally came from the board of finance and because of the funding there was some concern about that but I believe that all members of the board of finance now support the resolution we have before us thank you thank you Councillor Powell and so Councillor Powell can you I lost track for a second there so to crystallize the changes that the number of amendments made is again one more time okay so the to crystallize it we are going to be taking if approved five hundred and seventy thousand from dollars from the unassigned fund balance as opposed to where it was originally going to come from which was double that amount one million seventy five thousand dollars that would have come from the proceeds of the sale of Burlington telecom so in other words instead of eight plows we're talking about four okay and the other four will be decided at a future date yeah all right thank you Councillor Powell Councillor Busher and then Councillor Mason I guess point of order is there a motion on the floor that's what I'm trying to do now Paul did you make a motion on those amendments was there a second you put that on the floor as amendments no I did not okay so you are making that motion on those are a series of amendments that did what you just suggested yes seconded by councillor councillor busher no we're not gonna go back forth councillor busher you want to second that fine you're seconding it no pointing back and forth go ahead councillor busher you have the floor in addition to the second thank you okay I just wanted to further amend be the title so now it should be use of the unassigned fund balance to purchase for sidewalk tractors and that's I just wanted to make sure that got updated also but I did want to speak to this amended resolution I wanted I want to thank the mayor for listening and coming forward with a resolution that he can live with but certainly felt more strongly with the original resolution and I and I understand that I had suggested that maybe we could use the unassigned fund balance to fund to do this and actually it had a conversation once again trying to revisit where we were with you know we want to have at least 10% in as unassigned fund balance and we're at 13.5 and so I had talked to the CFO about how much money that really was and was trying to come forward with a proposal that wouldn't fully fund all eight but maybe would have funded maybe six or so I know that there was some hesitation in moving forward with that dollar amount because of some uncertainty with where w