welcome to the channel seven teams town meeting television and another in our twenty nine thousand candidate forums in this episode we are interviewing and speaking with candidates for the south district city council i'm your host matt kelly i'm pleased to be sharing the stage this evening with city councillor joan shannon incumbent democrat taco de francis running as an ink independent and muhammad to far also challenging as an independent are format for this evening begins with sixty second opening candidates statements followed by questions from the audience a reminder that our phone number is eight six two three nine six six you're welcome to dial in and ask questions and we'll do that in a round robin format followed by closing statements from each candidate ladies first joan shannon your opening statement please thank you joan shannon and the current city councillor for the south district and i'm running for reelection because i love burlington and i want to keep working on city issues the make a difference in the lives of our residents i believe it's important to attract and keep livable wage jobs in burlington and i'm proud to have led the way to change zoning on pine street to allow office space cafes dance studios and other entrepreneurial uses that have been transformative for the south and and they weren't values the environment is very important to me we need to fight climate change improve air quality and make burlington a more walkable by a couple city i want to continue to work on initiatives to reduce energy consumption source clean energy and improve storm water management and hold developers to higher environmental and energy standards we always need more affordable housing in burlington and like communities nationwide we are challenged by decreasing federal subsidies in an increasing need we need to look at creative housing solutions to attractive elop first to build more affordable housing through infill development and reuse of underutilized sites fostering economic development and cultural diversity in burlington is critical i don't want to see burlington become a boutique community but rather want to do all that we can to create an economically economically and culturally diverse community i apologize  expensive and combined with kind of a lack of opportunity especially for younger people to kind of get their lives and their careers and you know get really rooted in the city so i agree with a lot of what councilor shannon had said and  over forty percent of our population is rent burdened so what we do that is then infill development that's a great idea but we can't it's too hard to make in fill developments feasible under the current zoning so we never really look at inclusionary zoning is it can we make it more accommodating for developers so we can get more housing units economically feasible and then same thing parking requirements may be a downtown in those downtown infill developments don't need parker pirate's because we have doing that but you know the current council is not accommodating is not accommodative of those types of pro growth policies so that's really what i'm kind of pushing for i like the vision but i don't think we're going quite far enough for a policy angle very good  to light from my past i want to apologize personally to every single person that has been impacted by these tweets and moving forward i'd like to take the time to learn from the people that i have impacted when you hurt someone you don't get to decide that you didn't hurt them i just don't get that decision and i am here to move forward and to learn from the people i've hurt with that said i'm running for city council to address a lot of issues that have been persistent since i was since i came here from kenya as a seven year old issues around housing you know housing in itself  as again is it is an issue that we all deal with the entire city of burlington deals with homelessness child care these are all issues that you know made it difficult for my parents in a lot of other parents and families to go about their day to day lives in you know it's it's saddening coming back from college and watching my parents circles trying to figure out you know what and how they're going to feed everyone the next day after coming back from college so i'm involved to address those issues because i think our city can do a lot better for good candidates a pleasure sharing the stage with you you won't will now begin our round robin question and answer here with the questions that have been provided to you ahead of time our minder to you our audience that you can dial in and ask questions of these candidates yourselves the phone number is eight six two three nine six six pocket or francis will begin with you how would you characterize burlington's economic development strategy is it something that you support and you have alternative proposal as if not so you know i see there's a lot of things we talk about economics of vellum and it's you know a big umbrella term there's a lot of things going on there's all of this the seato office is doing a lot and then there's depends what kind of development are we talking about  about you know trying to really grow the major employers like we have the dealer dot com and you know other seventh generation both the south and as well as employers in the downtown where a lot of south enders work and then you know but then there's also the all aspect to make sure that you know our entrepreneur entrepreneurs have a good opportunity of you know making us get a small brewery get in a coffee shop because that's what really gives burlington life that people attracts both tourists as well as potential residents that we really need to bring in to get our population are going to our workforce are developed so what i really see is our economic development strategy is is to dependent on the u v and medical center at uva medical center is the bulk of most job growth in the city and we're really a branch out from being so dependent on the hospital and you know getting more doing more to create tack and you know there's some excitement going on the south end but what can the city do to i think  i have to say it's i think a lot of people in city government hate to say this but i don't want to acknowledge this but oftentimes the best way to really encourage more growth is for the city to take a step back reduce taxes reduce regulations rather ways that we can really creat long standing in the nation do you support the city's economic economic development strategy and what do you think the city needs to do going forward so my message in general is the growth of the city of burlington and in terms of the economic development of the city of burlington again around that issue of being inclusive i don't think it's entirely inclusive and so while i support a lot of the economic developments that are moving forward i think that it is very important  we make sure that everyone is being taken into account and i think it's very important that we make sure that the residents of the people that live here and that actually make burlington what it is are being you know taken into account and those people's voices in their concerns are truly being you know attended to john shannon economic strategy for the city you're obviously on the city council and i mean driver to it can you share your thoughts about where the city is headed and  i think that the city has kind of limited tools to address economic development and we do the best that we can with regards to pocket a statement about reducing taxes if we reduce taxes on  businesses them were increasing the tax burden on residents and that's the unfortunate truth of that as for what mohammed is suggesting i'm not really sure how that translates into actual economic development strategy but what the city is doing and what i support our initiatives like what i put forward in the south then to change the zoning zoning did not allow offices in the enterprise zone and i put forward that initiative  attract tech businesses to burlington burlington and tries to coordinate between public nonprofit and government to give the support for tech industry and make the best use question for city council candidates for the south district i do or my question is for all the candidate records about question of before the downturn improvement district and i would like to know wh have actually read the proposed charter change language and then what specifics from the way i haven't formed your opinion very good good question and we're going to begin with you city charter changes and ballot question number four what are thoughts in terms of what has kind of dictated what my point in decision on this is it's not actually the language in the ballot itself but what residents are saying and again just circling back into that idea  there are people that live here that aren't getting treated in represented the way that they should so the so my informed decision on the downtown improvement district which i am against is in complete synchronization with the very residents that live in the downtown area there are people that live in the in the downtown area that are going to be pushed out when we expand our downtown area there's people that we are neglecting to take into account and so it's the residents themselves that are in for me my decision that's not the language in the ballot at all john shannon downtown improvement district your thoughts on the charter change and the ballot question i think the question was have we read the charter change and yes of course i have read the charter change on the chair of the charter change committee and i've gone through the language line by line so my position on the downtown improvement district is based on the actual language and i think that leadership is it's important to convey to constituents what's actually in that language and then get feedback from them because most people i've been out there are knocking and most people are not intimately familiar with what is with the details of the downtown improvement district i support it because i think that if it were in a new age with online you know online retail our downtown is very challenged we need to ensure the survival of our downtown and i believe that it's important to bring private funds to enhance and improve and bring public benefits to the downtown which is what the downtown improvement district does it was always envisioned by the founders of the church street marketplace and there you know i'll leave it at that ok thank you pata francis your thoughts on the downtown improvement district and the wording of the charter change yet so begin i definitely you know i've looked over the downtown improvement district but i was even more looking over that the charter change language how it relates to other downtown improvement districts i'm sure i'm not angle i think this is a great idea again talking about lowering taxes on residence and on businesses maybe not inside the downtown so they can you know grow in virginia that kind of add to their properties this downtown improvement district kind of helps get the city you know it removes some of that burden on the downtown from the city and allows those downtown businesses to improve their own you know their own little area a couple blocks off of church street  meet their own needs so that the city doesn't have to spend all that you know use those services so we get better you get a better outcome you know for less tax money from taxpayers because it's covered inside the district and i really like that idea and then i think the other thing is you know bars and pubs that you have been there for years and it's i think it's a lot more challenging for those business owners then a lot of growth residents realize in this economy time we're going to move on here but i'm going to actually kind your thoughts of what should be done with both of those properties two minutes starting with memorial ator e m i am a big fan of morey a lot of tory and i think that the public really wants to save memorial ator him as a community gathering space i mean that's definitely what we have heard the reality of it is that that's going to cost money and it's easy to say i support that but we actually will need the voters to pass a bond in order to make it happen so i think the goal for us is to try and bring something forward to the voters that is affordable that saves memorial auditorium as a community gathering space and i you know we're coming very close to having a proposal that does that on moran we have been having some meetings on the frame concept that's being put forward now where it's a partial demolition and using the literally the frame of the existing structure to bring some enhanced mints to our waterfront modest enhanced ments that could be built on from that point and it has been tremendously well received by the public can be done with the existing t funds and i support moving moving that forward or get your thoughts on memorial auditorium and its future as well as the concept from iran and if you support it or not there's no real value to that in the private real estate world just because because of the public trust doctrine there's so many you know it's going to have so many things on it that it has to be used for public but we could make it through the museums of like that right but you can't be kept under that five point seven million dollars price tag you know you see that same thing at city hall park that's mostly wanted a half million now it's four and a half million memorial and memorial i think the best way to do is sell that's the private sector get back on the tax rolls and i think the support it i do again just want to make sure that it is published and for everyone it is inclusive but in its current form i do support it as for the memorial auditorium i went to edmonds middle school and right after school we often go to more auditorium so that's a very very important space for me excuse me growing up and and i think it's important that we keep it a public space i don't think we should sell it off to private to private interests and the counselor john shannon says that we you know that take some money take it to you know to fix this thing i think it's really important to also acknowledge the fact we do take initiatives on a lot of things that you know take even more money in for instance the big hole that we have in our downtown space you know decisions like that should be a little bit more transparent and so in my opinion i think we do have the money to make sure that that we do keep that space for the kids that grew up and and do not own that property nor are we spending money on that property that's a private development thirty seconds yes so again i think it's a great you know there's a lot of history there it has time but unfortunately i don't think it's  that the city can afford it's going to take a tremendous amount of money to bond out for those you know for those renovations to get back up to you know get back up to a usable modern space thirty second response again going back to just like the downtown improvement district that we just you know are ready to throw money on there's more important things and if we are unable to prioritize the things that actually are for the residents and the people of burlington in itself then you know ok we're going to move right on we've got the phone tree lighting up here so we're going to go right to our taller collar you're live on the air here with city council candidates from the south just or do you have a question for our candidates yes i do my question is regarding job growth for the city of burlington is what the sickly would each candidate do to help professional development for you in the city and specifically for it in promoting women and professional development what kind of programs would he support in that area ok thank you  we'll give this question right to you and then we'll go right down ok so in terms of just looking at the job prospects for the next twenty i think the new american community in itself is a big base we can look at if we can get that community immersed so that they're getting the resources that they need a job so that you know they're getting past just that initial initial you know getting the job so that they can advance and we can get a lot more of these people in places where they already do have the skill set and they may not be able to communicate it that would be great i think in terms of job growth that that in itself i think will will will bring a lot more people and there are a lot of jobs already that are quite vacant and we can create a lot more jobs and we do need a lot more jobs as a lot of people are you know we we spend and invest in our schooling system and a lot of folks that we educate are now leaving the state of vermont to go find opportunities in other places so there's definitely a lot more we could do and in terms of in terms of creating our opportunities for women i think first of all this addressing the fact that you know for every dollar that a man makes a woman makes eighty cents is something maybe we should we should talk more about and i don't specifically have specific proposals but i would love to you know learn more about what we can do as a community to move forward and to create those opportunities for women as you suggest the question was about job development job growth and opportunities for women you know i think in terms of job development in job growth i already spoken to the fact that there are certain initiatives in the city where we have been sick and successful particularly b t v ignite and attracting tech companies to burlington also zoning that allows businesses to move to burlington in order to benefit youth women and everybody else we need to actually make sure that we can still support businesses in our downtown and in our industrial zones  th you know i think i think that that pretty much sort of pocket of francis the question was about job development job growth in the city of burlington and development for workforce development for women yep so i think there's a couple different areas here that we can improve on and it's you know they kind of go hand in hand so first of all if we don't have the workforce here to begin with it's very it's you know it can be a virtuous cycle or could be a vicious cycle i think we're kind of in the middle of a vicious cycle stuff but it's not quite enough and what i would do to change that is you know zoning we have to zone for growth that means less is only not more zoning and then as far as the workforce development vermont is at the bottom for higher ed funding education for berlin tony and so they can you know especially more alternative higher education so you can get into those you know license jobs ok very good now we've got another question here so i apologize we're going to move right on here caller you're on the air here with the south make sure that that extends to the parties the state parties i mean most corporate most corporate campaign contributions don't go to virtual candidates they go to political parties so we also have to ban those but then again it's like it comes this murky area because you have kind of get this double dipping situation where they're able to get corporate canned paying contributions and then just give them to the candidate so does that really do anything if we just limit you know just direct to the candidates that when we have these pacs ok the question was about campaign can finance reform and whether you yourself are taking campaign contributions from corporations and businesses i'm personally not taking any contributions from any corporations or a t and i certainly agree with i think you're right it should be extended to you know state parties and not just individuals again that reroutes you know who gets to make those decisions and it's not about who has money and who has connections with money it's about everyone and everyone is brought to the table when we actually do find when we if we do implement these reforms and i do agree with the state legislature in passing that for the simple fact that again it brings everyone at an even playing field and that's important don't stand and campaign finance reform your songs yes i do agree with the with the policy and i don't accept corporate donations i also agree  with that this is it really hasn't been an issue in local campaigns i mean the extent of corporate contributions and local campaigns is often things like a guy who owns a painting company makes a donation from the painting company rather than from himself personally i think what we're really worried about is really some some untoward influence the corporations might have and hiding behind a corporation where you don't really know who is that making the donation whereas to the extent it's happened in local politics i think we probably really do know who that person is but no i support the policy i don't expect except on corporate donations for good joan we're going to stay with you here with th next question here and it's very timely you being on the city council and it has to do with ballot advisory questions should all citizen advisory questions automatically go on the ballot or should it continue where the city council has final say what goes on the ballot or not i i think that the city there's a good reason why state law and why the city council gets to decide whether or not to put these questions on the ballot i don't think we want to live in a direct democracy we've chosen a representative democracy and there are good reasons for that one one thing is the timing that when you put something on the ballot when it's gone through a whole lot of promise process and permitting in your you know half way into a project he can't come back and put the project on the ballot it doesn't make sense you have very limited information from a yes no vote on a ballot referendum question where oftentimes you need a more nuanced answer to if you don't like that what is it that you do like what is it the you want the city to do people often vote for their personal benefit rather than the fairness to the community this is an example is in south burlington the rebel name for the high school is that something that should be put on a ballot or do we want to recognize that there are civil rights issues here and there are there's a concern for the entire community that may not play out in a public vote i'm sorry we'll have to leave it there on the last pocket of  response on that question as to ballot advisory questions should they automatically go on the ballot or do you like the process as it stands now i mean i think that the process is stands now with you know him having the t go through city council make sense because just the yeah i think the process is good by i think we do need to hold our you know direct city councillors accountable you know at the ballot box if they are you know if you disagree with  the you know take that to the ballot box itself homages are your thoughts on the ballot questions should they automatically go on the ballot if they get thirty three hundred signatures my answer to that is yes they absolutely should and my reason for that is very simple if i'm elected as a city councillor i'm elected by the people and i mean elected to represent the voices of the people i don't get to go there like a parent and decide what the decision is that's not my job as a city councillor my job is to represent those that are you know that are seeing me as their representative so in my opinion i think it's you know it undermines the process of democracy in itself especially that's why we have the item in itself or that's why we have the process for the signatures for the petitions whatever it may be so it is important to understand if we are going to have the you know those processes they should be such as it should be a facade they should be real and if people get what they are they meet the prerequisite for the requirements and the people should get those items automatically on the ballot otherwise why have the process at all ok rebut that thirty seconds for the reason we have the petitioning process is because there are certain decisions that can may be made to regulate by the public and so that requires this petitioning process and then those items can go on the ballot so that petitioners have access to the ballot in a lot of vermont the voters actually have decisions over everything in their town down to whether or not to buy another plough so that's why we had that process in place but i do agree we need to be more clear with petitioners about what our parameters are for what's going on the ballot or not less serious because the city council if you put every advisory ballot item on the you know on the ballot and then they all passed within the city council can still go in you know not you know not choose to push any of council already has discretion at the end so to go back to what councillor shannon said earlier sometimes people city council may be hesitant to go back on an item and put it on the ballot due to the fact that it's already gone through so many prophecies but the fact that people don't know we're in are still having to garner so many signatures for a petition is due to a lack of transparency and that has to be discussed as well because if people are aware of you know what what this process is or what the development is or whatever it may be then obviously aren't you know that they would be knowledgeable enough not to not to have a petition so if thirty five hundred people signed a petition there wasn't transparency people don't know about it all right we'll move right on here this is a question that is very close to the heart here at channel seventeen and it has to do with funding for public access channels there is a rule change that the f c c is considering in july of this year that would remove the funding for public access channels burlington telecom is in fact encouraging cord cutting which directly impacts the funding for public access channels which city councilors if you're you know might have kids at home single mothers they're not able to make it to the meetings but they have that where do you think the funding that should i mean the funding should come from the feds but if it if they cut it we have to pick up the slack as this as a city the city yes but again it becomes a priorities thing if we do all these things that mohammad encounter talking about the public access that might you know that's what that's one of the reasons why i want to sell them more a lot more in for example so that we can we have more resources as a city to focus on things worse really needed like public access television the homage of far future public access funding your thoughts on it and i agree with palko in many senses i think if the federal government itself won't pick that up it is on us to to take that slack and i haven't decided whether it should be at a state level or local level we're going back again to the type of things that we are willing to fund and then taking away from things that are important like these public access channels you know what are we prioritizing like what is important to us and what are we so willing and ready to defund and take funding away from school is one of the biggest things as quick as things we're ready to take funding from and it looks to me like just another you know important assett and facet of our community that  we're ready to just kind of hey let's let's cut funding on that so if the federal government itself does not and is not willing to fund that it's on us it's on the city and it's on state joan chen in the future of public access funding just to be clear here so that the public also understands public access is funded through a three dollars fee on your cable bill and that is through a law that the f c c has an act in their thinking to take away that that that requirement so your thoughts on the future funding for public access and the role it serves the community yeah i think that you know cable and telephone are both the soon to be things of the past and the utility of the future is the internet and so public funding for channel seventeen needs to be done through internet providers to say the city should pick up the tab you know i don't think you serve a lot more than just the city of burlington and i don't think that the city itself can can pick up the tab but we do need to look at it statewide because it's certainly a state wide problem and i don't think we can rely on the federal government sadly to help us out but your service is essential service in our communities and we do need to find a way to fund you so thank you for raising that issue it's time for closing statements we have a little bit of extra time to do so so up to two minutes for closing statements and a homage of our will begin with you so again i'm running for city council to address issues that have persisted for forever i've been here since i was seven years old i grew up here i serve on several boards  also serve on the committee that actually brought my family here and helped us get on our feet when we first came to the united states which is which was formerly known as the refugee resettlement program but now is the united states committee for refugees and immigrants as well as a couple other youth advisory boards that i serve on i'm running for city council because it's time we start representing everyone it's time we up putting on this facade where we pretend like we represent everyone and we start representing everyone homeowners home renters you know young people that are fleeing the state of vermont because there are no opportunities i mean we have a state policy that pays people to come out of state to come to vermont into the city of burlington to find to find opportunities that our young folks aren't able to find here and i think that's problematic so again i'm running for city council because these things do need to be addressed i'm running for city council because i've lived the experience of not knowing if my parents were going to have enough food for me to eat tomorrow or my other ten siblings so people need to realize that there are people sleeping outside in some degree weather in not that are homeless that are on church street you know and so it's important that we re prioritize we really direct where our our priorities truly lie ergo thank you john sharing your closing statements please thank you i just want to address one thing that was it was said here which is about throwing money at the downtown improvement district and to be clear the downtown improvement district is an opportunity to use private money for public benefit it's not something that the city is there owing money at it actually a tax that comes from the property owners in the business property owners in the district that i think as an elected official it's very important to be accountable to the voters and to be accountable for delivering accurate information which i always try to do i think that one of the things that i've always really worked on is to be responsive to my constituents and my constituents have many different issues it depends on where they live what that ishy was going to be and over the years i've really enjoyed working with neighbors to make sure that we have you know roads and sidewalks and city services that are serving our community and when they're not being responsive to bring people together to bring people to the table to make sure that everything is working for the citizens of burlington i really believe that government is here to serve the community and i work very hard at making sure that that is how how things work in burlington and i want to thank tank of channel seventeen for this  opportunity to have this discussion i want to also thank my fellow candidates here for productive discussion on issues and i want to thank all of the people who have invited me into their homes as i've been door knocking around and it's become kind of two antiquated in that regard we need to empower department heads to have more control over their spend so that way they can drive real meaningful value for taxpayers and then the other pieces housing without the parking requirements because the that's really hindering growth in the market the private sector the free market can solve a lot of our problems liberalism we just need to do more to get out of the way and let the other private sector solve those problems pocket of francis jones shannon and mama deforest thank you so much for joining us here this evening it's been a pleasure sharing the stage with you best of luck to each of you on election day march fifth a reminder that early voting has begun and you are able to contact your local town clerk and pick up and complete your ballot today and a reminder to join us for election night coverage beginning at seven o'clock right here on channel seventeen town meeting television for all of us  kelly thank you for watching tonight