six six tonight i'm joined by morgan true a journalist formerly with them on tiger morgan thank you so much for joining me tonight good to be here we have a antacid show for you right now and later on tonight so i hope you stay tuned to child seventeen we're going to give you an overview of the elections in the various by mr polity and then we're going to have some clips of voters as well so going to be a good five twenty five show so we're going let's talk a little bit let's actually let's try to jump right into burlington the mayor's race yeah yeah it's now definitely top of the card so three candidates we have the incumbent democrat maria weinberger running for a third term and then the two challenge an exciting race i mean i think the big question for a lot of folks minds is whether infinit in corrina can hold the mayor below that forty percent threshold and force a runoff for one of them to take him on in a runoff election and so i really do think that that's what the focus is on i think they're all pretty strong candidates the mayor has the benefits of incumbency a lot of people are pleased with his performance there are others who  his left voicing discontent especially with process and an inclusive process something both of the other candidates are promising and so yeah i mean it's a referendum on roe it is a interesting you know time politically in our country a lot of people want to be involved and want to see change but again moreau has position himself well so i think the big question is that forty percent figure can he get it and do you think this is some kind of a vote for growth and no growth  opponents have offered a very different vision for how growth should happen or how and a different verdict on the growth that is happening currently so i do think that that is that could be seen that way do you think any of this spills down into council races that's an interesting question and one i had not thought as much about but to be honest i don't except that the benefits of incumbency trickle down you know these councillors are tough to unseat and again there you know with the current national political climate if there are we have seen two young progressives in ward eight and  ard five that are trying to maybe capitalize on some of the energy that there is nationally and here in burlington you know the home of a lot of very progressive politics its own progressive party so it's possible that we can see them capitalize on the but otherwise you know it's really hard to see incumbents and especially when there's no when the mayors the highest you know there's no senate there's no president you know so although i've heard that turnout is so why are you out here voting today well i feel like it's an important election especially with the mayor's election and there's you know important issues related to the school and and just kind of getting a finger on the pulse for like the thirty five or whatever it's called and how do you feel the mayor election is going at the about the process leading up to today ah as far as the process i mean i think i mean there's been lots of signs and so forth but i think  i don't know i kind of feel like it's time for for a change and so that's why i want people to journal but why the why did you decide to come out to vote i think it's one of the best ways to make sure the people that are elected listen to the people which they don't seem to be doing locally in burlington at least so that's when the main reasons why i came out today measure was heard are there any items on the ballot that you feel especially passionate about sure i think that that's one of the number one thing that we can do to reduce the burden of disease in the united states i'm just happy with the way things are going in burlington and i want to keep the progress going are there i think it's been a really good race in terms of giving the electorate an opportunity for a real choice and the debates been significant and i think it's been good you know in general and i'm a strong supporter of the mayor i think  vote how are you feeling about such a contested city council race in this ward i don't think it's really contested i think there's been a lot of noise but i don't think it's actually going to be close and so i think i think karen will get another term and she's she's done a really good job of keeping people in touch with what she thinks and how do you feel about the events or process leading up to today's election there's been tons of information out there i felt like i thought a great opportunity to learn about the candidates and the issues so it's great are there any items that you're particularly passionate about  i spend a lot of time thinking about the f thirty five the school budget as always those are probably of the the most important ones that i saw the mayor all race and i feel like i am informed about that but i didn't know too much about the item about consolidating emergency services dispatch yeah the basing of the f thirty five so i don't think it makes a difference in terms of them coming or not but it's important to show our support for do you feel that you've been given enough information about these issues to make an educated decision probably more than i want how do you get these and this information and people coming to your door tons of leaflets so the junk mail will get a little lower in the days to come so why are you out here voting today i think the right to vote is one of the best things about our democracy so i feel very privileged to do so momentum going in our city it's also important this year in particular you know of both sides of issues we're out in full force informing the public more so than i've seen in the past and so i feel like i was very i that is an interesting word as you heard some of the voters there say the incumbent is karen paul a democrat and trying to unseat her is charles simpson a progressive he's been an activist locally regular presence at council meetings and  definitely running to her left and then joel fitzgerald a republican first time candidate works that you've e m f let excess ran a campaign on sort of pocketbook issues that will be interesting to see what happens there but i do ree candidates are vying for we have progressive brian pine he has held that seat previously there is the democrat lizzie haskell a first time candidate recent you v m grad very impressive candidate has worked very  hard james lockridge very involved community advocate especially around issues related to memorial auditorium so he's an independent and that is three really solid candidates for war three to choose from and that will be probably one of the most exciting races because again no incumbent open sea that means there's you know a lot of action and i think that all three candidates there's a lot of mutual respect but they've all been hit and hit in the campaign trail hard so and i'm sure some of them are going to hear from in the go right now to studio b with matt kelly who's going to tell us what he's going to be up to tonight matt great diane thank you so much it's a pleasure be here this evening it's literally the calm before the storm if you will lots of anticipation here in studio b and what we're going to be doing and focusing on the ceiling is bringing you live interviews as they occur here in studio b so as people come into the studio whether they're winners or losers we plan to grab them and ask them some important questions about their race still plenty of time for you to get out and vote as the polls don't close until seven pm tonight so if you have not had a chance yet to go out and cast your vote still time to do so we are here in studio b there's a lot going on in studio c with lauren glenn davidian three candidates for two seats one of them is a write in candidate but he may have the most name recognition of all three and that is when you see as much as well as burlington that was my one quite live pretty close so i do think in that writing kid they were talking about is how colston formerly with the good news garage was also been doing some work in the public schools in burlington and when you ski and i do think that gives him that edge a name recognition over his opponents who are who is a black lives matter i believe founder for the vermont chapter and also has a store front on the circle new ski so probably some name recognition for her as well i do know that there there was some seven days coverage of a controversy that she had with some of her fellow black wives matter activists that may have actually prompted hell to jump into that race and then well they are he said that was not the case when we did our  the county public safety authority which we're going to talk a little bit about lee yeah because that is a become increasingly hot topic on the school districts asking for a tax increase of two point nine percent so that's well here more about that later later tonight emory are running unopposed interestingly but there are some contested school board races yep i'm laura williams is contesting as the chairman elizabeth yeah who has held that seat for quite some time and i think will again have the benefits of incumbency but there has been some rancor in the burlington school south burlington schools not just over sort of steadily increasing property taxes which is an issue everywhere but there had also been some  bad blood over the rebel alliance or the rebel name change which spawned a group called the rebel alliance and they actually had some writing candidates last time around for school board and they have i think maybe to some degree given up on bringing back the rebel name although i'm not positive about that that may still be an issue for them but i do think it has gotten them to be more involved politically and to have a and what sort of made him decide to run i believe is his is his experience last time around and doing some of the advocacy work with that group which again wanted to keep the rebel name which the school board seat and we actually have a clip of michael rossi talking about i believe the rebel change and yeah and so we'll cut to that in just a moment but i do think that that is what makes this more interesting race to watch just because it could sort of take the temperature on how people feel about that sort of moment which again definitely had flared up last town meeting today is that still an issue that people care more not so much on every branding but the process again i will stick to the process and accountability i didn't go to south burlington i went to rice we went through that when we had the little indians to the green are not not even close to the same type of reasons but it made sense personally speaking rebels wools the name itself but i'm not attached emotionally attached to any of it i understood the argument i think the argument the change in him was valid i think every student should feel safe i think every student should feel welcome i think every parent should be proud that they go to south burlington where i had a problem and i wrote this was published in the free press and i did write to the board is the process you did have seven hundred plus residents taxpayers asked the school board to at least discuss the issue  form there was a motion made it wasn't brought up so there's different swing listening and acting so you could sit in the audience and say what you want at the school board but nobody was rich it didn't feel like anyone was real with that solution was made they mishandled that particular issue i think the board should've had a second how to destruction and if they decided not to bring it to a vote fine then that would be their decision but not to have actually have that discussion and be on record and not for bridget and the rest of the members to second that motion i think they mishandled it and they i think they did a distrust as to those members of the community that was the south burlington school board candidates talking about the rebel name we're going to go on to the town of e this contest to select board race elaine so chicken who's the village trustee is vying for the seat against ramona shepherd and timothy far on that seat was vacated by susan cook we have some information from last night's meeting that's right they got  in early they did nice write so we have some results to let you know about the budget actually all the items passed there was a slight change the municipal budget was increase interestingly forty five thousand dollars for an additional police officer on in the mckagan joy emotional return voters are looking at zero eleven about eleven million dollar budget and there are a bunch of ballot items again the public safety authority which we're going to talk about in a minute interestingly which i keep bringing this up that we have this regional this regional item on the all the ballots for the public safety and the same time the news develop park district which wilson is a member they are looking to not be a member any longer and  brought that to the ballot around the cost thirty two thousand dollars a year and how the fees are divvied up amongst the different communities so perhaps the devil's in the details yeah and this is interesting to see we are going to see a lot of towns possibly pass regionalizing of their governance for public safety dispatch at the same time williston is considering pulling out of a regionalized conservation partnership so i do think that it's a good one for you to highlight because it's interesting because these are you know there's a lot of push and pull give and take you know there's a lot of maybe possible benefits but also unintended quinces these aren't simple clean cut things these regional governance issues no they're not and it's interesting that  towns and basically the idea is to regionalize dispatch services so that emergency calls are all going to one center and then that's that's how dispatch is handled right now towns have their own dispatchers and  you know some of the controversy is that this will eliminate some positions in people lose their jobs and that is obviously uncomfortable for especially the folks who have those jobs they don't want to see that but they say the issues broader than that they say that you know municipal leaders who are pushing this are exaggerating the efficiencies to be gained on response times which we've heard pegged at around seventy second switch in an emergency is you know yeah definitely but so they've questioned those findings and then they also say that you know it's not like you know these dispatch centers are only connected by landlines you know that they say that they're it's not like we're just calling each other up there is more there is more coordination now than they say they're getting credit for and so there has been quite a bit of pushback i do think a lot of it is originating though with people whose jobs are potentially on the line and fair enough we would expect that yeah and i don't believe there's any need to pass in three to go into effect ok and we have actually have a clip from the south bronx and city councillors this is a discussion with meghan emery and helen really about this public dispatch we had a centralized dispatch center we would have at least two or three people duty so that there could be just a again a sharing of knowledge and a sharing of the  different steps that you have to take as a dispatcher and in under a lot of stress and you're very concerned about the people that you're sending out to to deal with and mitigate and emergency right so just having what i would call redundancy in the same room which brings you know a lot of expertise in to a place where all these things can be seen as a whole i was really convinced when i heard the dispatcher who was in the audience express that concern that i've just expressed tonight that were there to be a true catastrophe and you're one person on duty having to deal with fire police making sure that these people that you're sending in dangers way come back safely that having several people there in order to be able to communicate with the different units simultaneously she sees that also as a safety issue and that's what really drove home for me so i just kind of curious about you know are there other places where this should happen you would like to see it happen you don't want to see it happen and i think it's just a really interesting discussion so i think another area that being considered  the airport as a regional government study and i support i mean i don't have a position on whether it would be a good idea to have regional governance at the airport but i do think it makes sense to have an independent broad group of experts who are individuals from from communities  research that and consider and come back with the pros and cons and a recommendation i would like to see a study first oh yeah that's what i would really like to put out there that it's not a network it is located in the city and that city is south burlington and so very plain that horizon every plane that departs leaves from south burlington the land has you know been expanding and it's not because of the commercials but because of the military and so we have seen the purchase of a lot of homes and south burlington and they're not  homes that can be replaced these are fordable single family homes on quarter acre lots and if you look at what's being built today that's affordable in the county you will not find quarter acre lots with a single family home on it so we've lost two hundred of those i would really see as quite appropriate that south burlington have a role that is more than on the receiving end that we actually participate in the decision making and i do believe that looking at these maps that the f a a and now the air force are producing that when you ski and listen potentially on some of these issues and hopefully the three city councils will be able to have some kind of meeting to have that conversation because  and the airport commission really do need to understand how both windows key will in the future and how south burlington has been impacted and find a way to have more  influence the request to the f a a for tearing down homes purchasing them and demolishing them because it really is counterintuitive to economic development and controversy in and of itself but it's essentially asking voters if they would like to see local officials push to have a different plane located here or if there can be they can prevent it from arriving all together again the f thirty five is supposed to be louder than  sixteen that they're currently a lot of concern around that it's coming in the fall of twenty nineteen it's an advisory question so it's nonbinding but i have heard politicians from from the mayor on down say that if there's overwhelming support for doing something different they will take that seriously and into consideration so then there is some bonding on the burlington about a little over six million and that is for infrastructure and if it passes it will secure additional payments from u t m and champlain college these are on top of other payments in lieu of tax they make those are big tax exempt entities in the city and they rely on city services and so the mayor has been negotiating with them for a long time to try to increase those payments those payments will increase if voters also make an investment in their roadways sewer lines and expanding that waterfront bike paths so infrastructure on general education so those are two big ones obviously the school budget and we have one that's another two more advisory ones one on climate change on pushing the governor in the state legislature to achieve their twenty by ninety by fifty goal which is ninety percent renewable by twenty  find a progressive tax to put more money into that housing trust fund and that trust fund makes grants to developers that build for the housing here locally ok great so are just about wrapping up our five twenty five show if you haven't voted don't forget polls are open until seven o'clock that's right still time please get out you know it might be some lines but six or six now you might you get an hour so it absolute worth it get on out  there and we hope you'll come back and join us at seven o'clock or right after if you're still voting yeah i'm because we're going to have our live results show at seven o'clock we're going to have interviewed a lot of funny dates are going to have exit polls we're going to jail seventeen always gets in first and we do we're going to have up to the minute results for years so we hope you'll join us at seven o'clock thank you so much