and welcome to town meeting television channel seventeen election form i'm here with three candidates who are current incumbents on the city council and we're going to be discussing the upcoming town meeting election in making sure that their constituents get a chance to hear from them in advance of the march sixth ballot so tomorrow right here is city councillor kurt wright a republican from ward fo then we have sharon bush or city councilor from ward one in an independent and max tracy progressive from ward two welcome thanks for having us we're going to be a little more freeform today i think this is just a great opportunity to sort of dig in and talk about let your constituents know your views on the rest of the ballot because there are a lot of interesting ballot questions and so i'm just going to start with the school budget and it is eighty five point nine million dollars budget it's a pretty small city increase but a large state increase relatively and i will tell you that actually the numbers among people you are not going to be anywhere near as bad as we thought initially because the governor sort of put out the alarm bell and said you know i would request that school districts really try to rein in their spending and the spending has come in the aggregate school spending across state is coming in at significantly lower numbers than was initially thought so it will be it will be significantly smaller increase on the state wide than we than we thought it was going to be nine point four cents i think we're talking more like five and a half or six cents now because when the first numbers come out they're estimating what they think you know looking at the patterns that they've seen in the numbers that they've looked at and it's it's coming significantly smaller so that's good and we're also looking at a income tax funding reform proposal in the ways and means committee right now which it's shifting some of the property tax burden to the income tax there's a lot of details that go with that but i know th school board members and school board candidates came up to the legislature last week on thursday and met with the chair of the education committee i think they were trying to meet with others while they met with members of the delegation and they're trying to i think the bill numbers eighty seven ninety five which was pushed forward by some school board members mark barlow and others which was to try to create a definition of what non education education expenses are it's not really what i've been told is not clearly defined and they want to be able to use some of that money for non education purposes the pile of money that ended up going from the schools mostly back to the city so we'll see what happens with that and we'll leave it there  sure your thoughts on the budget so i too will be supporting the budget however at our neighborhood planning assembly after the meeting there was a lot of discussion about how citizens could get involved in a in a way to reflect on how we fund schools what can we do why can't we have a state wide union why can't we collectively compensate teachers in a different manner how can we generate funds to support our schools that isn't totally reliant on property taxes these conversations continue unfortunately we over the years we haven't really made as much progress as anyone would like to have made on this so i think that you know i did get some comments which which are are sad because they're not meant to be hurtful they're just meant to be accurate that some people say that if we continue going the way we are that they will have to make really difficult choices and potentially move out of burlington because they can't afford it and it's not just on schools i mean there are other the bonding that the city's doing to it's all cumulative so i think you really have to look at that so once again i'm be brief counsellor right knows far more than i do because he's in the legislature also so some of this information was new for me to hear also but i'm hoping that the legislature will come forward with some other ideas of how we can fund schools and not have it total be on the community thank you when you say no more than think that in doing so we really need to make sure that we're cognizant that different districts around the state have different needs burlington being you know a more urban district with higher you know with and that's maintaining pretty consistent in rome and that has a lot of english language learners that has a lot of special ed needs we really need to make sure that we're funding all kinds of learners in our in our budgets and not just you know continuing to cut i think that they did a great job of really preventing a lot of painful cuts in this budget so i really support that i think on th when and when it comes to the city side you know we're not the ones who crafted formulate the school budget and i think it's important for us as city councillors when we get into our budgeting to really make good use of taxpayer money to keep that municipal side of the tax rate as consistent as possible and also really be smart about ways that we can both improve the city's credit rating because that's who people money in the long term as well as investing in burlington in a way that's sustainable as we've done with the ten year capital plan i think that right now we're in a really strong position in terms of back to taxpayers specifically low and moderate income seniors and i hear a lot of what sharon's hearing about seniors being priced out of burlington wanting to stay in their homes wanting to age in place and not feeling like they can do so so this is something we have to absolutely take seriously as a community that's aging rapidly or at least is popular with the numbers getting you know up there in terms of different folks so we really need to pay attention to that as we move forward great good responses are and sounds like strong support for the school budget overall  but a lot to be looking forward to in terms of financing reform and also just keeping an eye on how that money is being used so i think we are actually getting a call and we will go to the phones here with a question for you folks hi welcome to town meeting television you're on the air yes thank you for taking my call the name is bill tilton forty seven none of these councilors actually represent for an incident i believe it the king st work area i understand it the city council they go she did that down to forty thousand if it was paid by september first of last year i'm wondering if the counselors could give me the details of that and if there has been any issues resolved with public works as far as solving down a number of fronts i think some of them were had to do with electrical stuff electrical outlets and other and other issues that i mean to the treatment plants and there was issues with properly using big safe kind of not  that the council didn't negotiate any sort of settlement in that regard but that the that the city attorney was in conversations with with osha and that's what they arrived and i think it's you know really important to pay attention to when we do get those things because this is worker safety and we've received you know assurances that these issues will be addressed and will happen again from d p w so i can only hope that that's the case they came to the board of finance and gave a report however i'm really not well versed i'd have to dig out my stuff to really talk about it in any depth but they did report the finding they disclosed it which is what we expect explained how the event happened and and told us the steps they had taken to prevent something like this from happening again which is really all you can expect from a department you want to make sure we're all human we do make mistakes but you want to make sure that any mistakes that are preventable are going to be addressed  so let's move on to another ballot question and this one is asking whether burlington should join into a union minister for district with a number of the surrounding communities  chipping county public safety authority this would basically be more formalized mutual aid for dispatch services for emergency services i believe the idea is that it will shave a few minutes off response times  for the towns involved it's all about i believe six or seven communities and three need to pass it in order for the existing him or you to go into effect and i am certain whether there is any expected savings with this but when we hear this tat it is not necessarily touted as a plan to save money but more a plan to improve response times especially maybe outside of burlington where there are possibly you know less ask all the communities surrounding communities that are interested if indeed they want to pursue this and move forward with that i do support that this item on the ballot i trust chief locke i think he's a very responsive individual he has experience with chief yes yes excuse me yes he's the wrong to fire chief but anyways i trust him he reported he's been very forthcoming with what this does and what what the pros and cons over are you reference the fact that it as far as nine one one calls there would be an improved response time not only for out other areas but actually for burling tony and also at least that's what he stated when he came to speak at the n p a this aspect of it so step one if this passes then and then step two is one where there is some controversy so the dispatcher's currently are employees of the city of burlington and if we reach a lobbyist they would no longer be employees of the city of burlington all of the dispatchers would be in this new entity and there is some concern about the fact that these individuals would have to reapply for their jobs there's concern about retirement and compensation all of these are valid and he doesn't shy away from these concerns so i'm for going forward but then the next step is the one where we really have to roll up our sleeves and understand i want to protect the people that have done an excellent job for our community i want to make sure that they have a job and compensation that's adequate counselor traci so i didn't support this when this came to the council and a lot of it had to do with the fact that we had dispatcher showing up really not feeling comfortable with it and also not feeling like they had been really involved in the conversation in addition to that they also questioned some of the statistics in terms of response time that the chief that both of our chiefs alok and i were giving and so i felt like it wasn't ready for prime time and needed more conversations with with those frontline workers out of the respect for the tremendous work that they've been doing for many years and that they needed to be more involved in the conversation from the very beginning to make sure that we had as much employee buy in as possible so i think that well you know overall it makes sense to m this direction i think we have to do it in the right way and make sure that we're bringing in you know those those dispatcher voices the people who are actually doing that frontline work and so you're not supporting this question i think that there's too many open questions about you know about this this this issue at this time to to really be you know to have earned my support i feel like i want to be respectful of the people the you know the the dispatcher's the police officers and others who showed up at the meeting and said this you know we haven't been involved in this conversation we really need to be brought into this conversation in a meaningful way and we really need to understand what this is going to look like you know in in terms of you know as an operating into the i understand that you know it's a chicken and egg thing to a certain degree and you get to get approved to kind of figure things out but i feel like there was a lot of misinformation a lot of confusion and it's really i think posing a morale hurdle for some of those those those folks that are doing such great work for city councilor right thanks morgan i do support this i think that the savings that they're talking about is something like sixty to seventy seconds and when i first hear that i think not a big deal but it really is a really big deal in regard to people's lives being on the line during these when these things happen so i think that as sharon said i agree that i hear the concerns of the dispatchers we heard them when they came that night they're concerned about the potential loss of jobs having to reapply etc and i do understand that i wish they'd been involved a little bit earlier but there was an amendment put into the language that actually to ensure that they will be involved going forward and i do trust the chief to do this has been an issue that's been out there for decades now and i think other communities are waiting on burlington and so i think this is  a fair question to ask for voters to at least for the first step to enable us to go forward to the next step all right great and viewers if you'd like to call in if you have a question for any of these counselors please do give us a call at eight o two eight six two three nine six six that's eight zero two eight six two three nine six six we'd love to hear from you so moving on to another  the next ballot question this is about proving six point one million in bonding for capital projects this is part of the mayor's ten year infrastructure plan an initial bonding initial bonding was approved in the november election in i believe twenty sixteen and this is following through on more of that believe the money is largely for replacing water and s lines as well as sidewalks and roads and continuing to expand the waterfront bike path and so we are back to you councillor wright will you be supporting these general obligation bonds for infrastructure i will be and this is part of this is it's for sidewalks infrastructure as you mentioned roads repair and i think this this is included with the deal with you v m in champlain college that we will capital improvements are really important to our community and and we have made some improvements we want to continue to keep that moving forward and to address some of the needs unmet needs that have gone on for quite a while do with the fact that this was posted on board docks at six thirty the night before and this is been a trend we've we've got on the website where agendas and meeting items are posted thank you for clarifying yeah absolutely so this is a this is when it was made available to the public  and this was you know the night before essentially twenty four hours before a meeting was to begin and i just think that that is a really unfortunate way to do business you know as a city i think that the administration has an obligation to really get things to us enough time to really  thoughtfully consider them and provide some feedback we had been able to provide feedback at earlier and earlier junctures but you really can't digest something is as important as this within that you know within that period you know within a twenty four hour period so i think that it's really lot from burlington and we need to make sure that we're getting you know our money's worth when it comes to funding these improvements that we all benefit from because the taxpayer should certainly have have put their you know have have certainly put put their money where their mouth is when it comes to funding these improvements so the  great all right and then moving on we have another we're getting into the advisory questions now but again the ewers if you have a question for any of these counselors or for all of them the number is  two eight six two three nine six six give us a call we'd love to hear from you so what we saw now there's a visor question on climate change and it says shall the voters urge the governor and general assembly actively pursue the goal of ninety percent renewable energy with firm deadlines and ensure transition to renewable energy is fair and equitable for all residents with additional support for low income in rural communities and i believe councillor bush or we're back to you with that how do you view that so there's nothing in this that i would vote against i would certainly be supportive of this i think that renewable energy is really the way to go and that's that's what we've done in burlington and we really want to have this state wide and so i think when you read this though they're with firm interim deadlines so they're you know it's not just a deadline but interim deadlines to e really felt very good about burlington as we've positioned ourselves for a new global energy counselor tracy i absolutely support this climate change is real it's happening right now and we need to aggressively do everything we possibly can especially given that the federal government has largely abdicated its responsibility to take any sort of action on climate change it falls to us as a state and also as a city to really do everything that we can to reduce our carbon footprint  and i'm committed to doing that in terms of burlington i think that really encouraged by the recent commit the net zero commitments that he has announced and i think we need to do more to just understand what that means as well as you know do the same in terms of setting  this definition of even if it's hard to really pin down what net zero is but what burlington's working towards there so we're trying to make all of our you know energy sources renewable and away so that we're we're basically not contributing to  our carbon footprints and so that comes in a variety of different sectors we've made tremendous progress in terms of the electricity generation sector that's what the big headlines were a couple about a year or two ago burlington hundred percent renewable city we've made progress in there largely because of the leadership of burlington electric and the you know the just amazing team we have over there in the old underhill yeah great great great work there and it's been happening for a long time and so i think that you know where we were we haven't made as much progress as in heating which is where you know i think we need to really continue to pursue a district heating system we have a lot of waste heat that's lost through the mcneil generating plant in the old and the old north and that we could if we created basically like an old house a radiator system through burlington we c huge port percentage of the city council right sure this is just a general question to the voters to advise the governor in the legislature if they support these goals i don't think it is blood any details of how you get to those goals for the most part so i'm supportive of this question and we have a caller hello you're on the air welcome to town meeting television well thank you very much my name is very true of course for i was wondering if i could back it up to the sometimes you have to find out whether all the neighbors want sidewalks sometimes you're going to put sidewalks in and some neighbors want them some neighbors don't want them so i totally hear you greg and i would have to check on on on that in terms of what the possibilities would be in terms of sidewalk on your particular street on stanbury i think that the city has actually changed not not to my liking actually but the city has taken the the people out of the process and they did a study on actually on existing sidewalks and which ones need to be repaired and then they look at areas of travel and determine how many people actually travel down a certain section and what the safety issues are before they actually implement or put move forward with either improving side existing sidewalks or putting some in place i feel that that's fine because it's detached but i feel that it should still be overlaid with some ward specific needs that the public in that the people in that ward really want this to happen and when you when you remove people you end up spending money based on quezon and therefore some people in some sections of the city feel like their voice is not heard because they don't get any money or any any input into improvements and i think that you can be smart about it and have it both ways you don't have to just be one way or people to to for them to get an adequate sidewalk or any sidewalk there it took a long time of piecing together federal state local different grants and different money sources to really do all of that work and i think that that continues to be the case in other areas so i think that there is interest in expanding sidewalk infrastructure but also taking care of that infrastructure and doing so in a way that is really prioritizes the worst sidewalks and what counts or bush or referred to was a survey done a feature in every square of sidewalk in the city with a  with an instrument that assesses and allows for us to geo low k t square assess a variety of different composition whether it's pitched whether it's cracked whether it's nonexistent document that and then and then try and create a plan for really addressing those so that you know it's not just the squeaky wheels that get the grease but that it's really prioritizing you know the conditions of that sidewalk are some of the worst sidewalks because sometimes you know with residents you know with words that have a higher percentage of permanent residents versus you know my ward which has a lot of renters you know it can be difficult for the for the to get those those infrastructure needs addressed because people are is you know plugged into the channels of city government and that's you know something that i continue to work with and present bottom line with all that is that that we cannot guarantee that they bought that but i think i think a secondary answer there is talk to your neighbors talk to occur and shut the city council meetings make your voice heard thank you for the call all right well we will keep cranking here we got some more advisory ballot questions there is one this asks if we should if the city should be advised to identify and adopt a progressive local option revenues to exclusively fund the city's housing trust fund and to do that used to make loans or to make grants that help build affordable housing throughout the city and i think that some of the options you guys can probably better inform this conversation but some of the things that they've talked about property transfer tax for properties over a million dollars in value something like that is what's being contemplated here and so i would take this first to counsel tracy go and so i actually was the lead sponsors in getting this on the on the town meeting a ballot i think that you know one of the issues that we've continually run up against is out of you know affordable housing availability and well you know we had a recent report that said that our inclusionary zoning ordinance that's an ordinance that basically says when new development has takes place a certain percentage of that development has to be set aside is as perpetually affordable housing well that's worked to a certain degree we need to be doing you know there are other things that we could be doing to  generate revenue and create increased affordable housing stocks and so i think again it's one of those questions of where you know if we recognize that this is an issue just doing the same thing over and over again or merely leaving you know our housing issues to the market forces our our infrastructure or affordable housing infrastructure really contributing directly to the housing trust fund which is really geared towards brick and mortar housing construction and so this is really asking you know trying to gauge where people stand in terms of progressive taxation so you know having people who make more contributing more to that and say lowering the incidence a local option tax that would be on the table for this as one of the lead sponsors could you just sort of what did you have any specific taxes in mind when you when you proposed this you know so this this was originally proposed as a real estate transfer tax and we had identified luxury properties in the way we set the luxury property bar was we looked at the median in the median housing price in terms of burlington and said and that was about that had taken place over the last couple years that was about two hundred fifty thousand and so generally in real estate and with housing experts we're talking to you know double that median is considered you know about double that median and above is considered luxury housing so we wanted  place a one percent tax when those those sales those property transfers take place and have that one percent that contributed to that basically understanding that you know those folks who are able to purchase a you know more expensive home have that ability  know are should should be doing more to contribute to that about affordability that we so desperately need in burlington council or write your views on this advisory question thank you i'm going to support this question that's before us now as kind of a general more generalized question and i think people will i think you'll see big numbers come in on this basically saying we want more affordable housing i think that's the message that we're going to get i think the first question would have been significantly more controversial the one that this started out as council tracey said as a one percent real estate transfer tax houses over five hundred thousand dollars we were hearing from the real estate industry that night and they were raising some very serious concerns i'm not sure whether this would have passed if it stayed that way but with this being sort of watered down  and made like a more general question i supported the way this so you wouldn't support property tried out i would not have i think that would have would cause a problem with competitiveness with us with other regions around them a so i certainly have want to continue to find ways to add monies to the housing trust fund and i will be supporting this also but even though i thought the transfer tax was one that i thought was creative and i thought was a good measure i wasn't sure about the threshold of five hundred thousand dollars i must admit i had gave me pause i didn't really i wasn't a sponsor and i didn't really know if that was the right number  this just gives progressive local options and so i think that it's open ended and hopefully as as current said and of course max a strong support hopefully people will say yes explore that we want to put more money into the house and house and we are running a little short on time but i'm going to try and sneak one more in it is a controversial one but please do try and keep your responses closer to a minute this time if that's possible in this is the f thirty five issue shall the voters of burlington request the cancellation of the placement of the f thirty five at the international airport request instead low noise level equipment with proven high safety record appropriate for a densely populated area first to you councillor wright thanks morgan i do not support this one and i want to talk more specifically about the language in this i proposed along with cancer no delicate also hard to changing the language which we've had to do with other petitions on questions before this one has language that starts out as a question leading up editorial statement leading up to the question which we really don't usually have in these it would have been like if we allowed the north avenue petitioners last year to say leading up to the question about the pilot project on north avenue as supporters of bike lanes and are supporters of the bike path and public safety we ask you this question we would never have we would never have allowed that and people i got a call from a neighbor in florida last night who said my wife and i almost voted for this and then we went back and read it again we realized it's not what we thought it was they they found the wording to be very misleading deceptive and that's what i'm hearing as i'm walking around with the candidate that people are just really sort of incensed that we put this type of language on this language in my opinion a lot of petitioners on this particular question to have special rights and privileges that other petitioners have not really had before we should only put very specific questions on that that go to what the question is  right would you support the idea of are you supportive of the i thirty five i am supporting we have thirty five basing and i think this language was a problem people were afraid of this going to court and i would have welcomed it going to a judge they would have the or city attorney made clear that they would have been done on a timely basis for the march election i would rather found out if a judge would have ordered us to put this language on i rather had a judge say that and i'd also rather see whether the judge really would have wanted to create the precedent where we had to put whatever language anybody came up with any future question i think i think would create a bad precedent with the land or so i represent toward that definitely is divided on this question there are definitely a very strong camp of individuals who really are opposed to the f thirty five and there and a number of them are opposed to a military presence at all and then there's another group of people who really really want to have a military presence at the airport ok so i feel that i see support of putting the question on the ballot i agree with counselor right much to my surprise i didn't think it was as difficult to understand but i've actually had several people reach out to me and say i don't understand whether i i want to vote yes or no and i said well what is your position and i'll help you tell it but but they're having difficulty understanding it  i was displeased i am i going to vote yes or no i'll probably vote no on this but having said that i wanted the f thirty five to actually come to burlington and what all of us hear the sound because noise is one of the issues i was absolutely dissatisfied that our our congressional delegation including the mare went down to florida different topography different ways of sound traveling went there to evaluate that that didn't work for me the residents needed to hear that counselor tracy i supported putting this on the ballot and i'll be a strong supporter of voting yes on this question i voted yes because i opposed the f thirty five i am a strong opponent of them have been for years introduced a resolution opposing the basing several years ago and i continue to be concerned about the sound impacts the impacts on housing and just so many other things that i think that the spacing you know that negative impacts that this spacing will bring to our community and i gre brochure that this should be something that people should get a chance to hear for themselves before we're forced to deal with it for years and is better sixteen's are already pretty loud and if this is louder which is what everybody seems to be saying it's really going to have a negative impact on our quality of life  great we have only a few moments left but i would like to just open it up and give you guys each a minute to just address berlin tony ns in our viewers go ahead sure and let me just start out by we got a call from a person identified himself as greg roy from stanbury and you mentioned to him which was good morgan that he should come to city council meetings with him as neighbors and you know what's unfortunate grego used to come to every city council meeting and he stopped coming because it was his own personal protest of being charged prices leaders that we didn't used to charge up until now we've reduced it back from ten o'clock to nine o'clock but that i think is sad and i think it's also sad that i think some businesses are being hurt by that as well and i hope that we continue to work on trying to reduce those hours but let me say that i've it's been an honor for me to serve in the borough to city council three different stands fourteen years and i will be honored to continue to serve the new north and ward fo and will work hard for you on issues around making bronze in this fordable place to live as possible because i believe that that continues to be the biggest issue that we face and broadens and that's why we've sponsored resolutions to the cancer trace he mentioned to take a look at trying to return some citizens so i really want to thank the lord one residence for just being who they are they're so vocal and engaged and i think that we have been affective in getting our our needs met and letting people know our position on very important issues i am honored also that i have been reelected a number of times even in contested races so but one of the things that i really therefore for you is that i haven't always agreed and a pet in this past year i've definitely not agreed with the current administration on a number of positions and i need to say one thing that max tracy said that the administr has not really worked well with the council giving us the lead time we need in order to weigh in on it really important issues and i would like that to change i would like that to change either with a different mayor or this administration of getting that you have independent voices on the city council that we all don't just line up behind the administration's plans but that we ask tough questions and that we are willing to go out on our own even if it means you know being the only one to vote against a particular measure i've proven that i'm willing to do that that you know if i don't agree with something i'm not just going to go along to get along but i'm going to stand up for the old north and i feel like that is you know that our neighborhood kind of walks to the beat of a different drummer sometimes especially on issues like the mall you know we'll see with the stuff thirty five question and you know i really want to make sure that i continue to represent the people of the old north and will tune in to channel seventeen on election night and we'll have full coverage of all of that word by ward breakdowns thank you all for coming it's been informative discussion you're watching channel seventeen town meeting television we really appreciate you the viewers and we'll be back shortly with ward three contested race forum for you guys thank you very much welcome back to town meeting television on channel seventeen morgan true your host for the evening we are here with the candidates for ward three city council and i have a series of questions for them and so i would like to introduce the candidates this is james lockridge an independent we have lizzie haskell the democrat and bryan pine a progressive and guys we're going to get right down to it i'm going to start with opening statements and jim you have the floor two minutes thank you i'm running because i've spent the last twenty years as a citizen coming to recognize our city government is structured to prevent citizen participation in the decisions that define or future we haven't had leadership bold enough to confront our outdated status quo and take action to give us a fair transparent and inclusive city government and all the ways that it could be we're on a path to making burlington an affordable for rent or home ownership for those of us who want to live humble lives in the city we call home city council has to be visionary enough to protect us from the displacement caused by gentrification before it's too late and we have to be responsible for our public commons like them or a lot of tory i'm making sure that the infrastructure we inherit is treasured and maintained and not lost to negligence or sold off professionally i've led an entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that has served three months youth preserved its cultural history fostered community and economic development contributed to cultural heritage tourism and harnessed emerging technology to accomplish these goals as a nonprofit administrator a community builder a volunteer and a respectful and civil citizen activist i've built a skill set that fills up void at city council we need councillors who are determined to build relationships not divide us among political tribes we need to inspire collaboration and citizen empowerment not make decisions that come across as self serving and disconnected i'm prepared to bring our voices today i am running because i want to make sure every voter in my ward feels heard knocking door to door i realize that a lot of residents in my ward don't even know who the current city councilor is let alone feel like they have a way to reach out and something i propose our monthly meetings with your counselor to really open up the conversations that people can have a deep connection with their city councilor and they know they have someone to trust and they can go to if they have an issue going on in the city that they would like addressed something i'd also like to really address is affordable housing and treating the opiate crisis i'm really excited to be stepping up as the young woman in this race i'm a recent you b m graduate and i decided to stay here after graduating because i fell in love with burlington the community around here but i know we can do better which is why i'm running  arrived thought that i might make it my home but didn't realize how burrowing to embrace me as a young person i got involved in our community as a recent college graduate because our mayor bernie sanders was very welcoming and very encouraging  civic engagement and many of the people in burlington really embraced young people such as myself as as energy that was helpful to burlington energy that could be put to use and we were tapped as you would i think that's something that we need to really get back to is looking at our young people both indigenous young people who start their lives here as well as young people who arrive with goals and dreams and aspirations and tap into that i think there's a huge untapped resource in burlington and i want to be part of that i have experience in city government i served on the council for two terms in the early ninety's i served as the city's housing director at s managed multi million dollar projects i've worked with neighborhood groups to revitalize our parks i was part of a grassroots effort to to really build support for private fundraising along with some help from the city to rebuild the battery park playground the roosevelt park little league field and a whole number of other community efforts that have served as not just examples of what we can do when we get together but actual tangible real results for making our community a stronger healthier so we have three candidates vying for this see and no incumbent in the race and i wanted to ask a question that really delves into a lot of what you guys sort of touched on but i'm wondering if you could tell us about someone you know who is a renter somebody who needs social services assistance is like snap or that i have trouble paying medical bills someone making less than fifteen dollars an hour someone that you know in your life that is experiencing some of the difficult things about our current economy both in burlington and nationally and how that relationship will inform your time on the council and lizzie will start with you so i am currently around here in burlington  professional in the area so trying to find a place to live was really difficult that way to fit my budget while i'm also trying to pay for student loans utilities food and save for buying a home one day or other future personal expenses so that i can bring to the council and i have a personal perspective that issue in terms of social services i grew up with a family that worked incredibly hard but neither my parents are able to go to college and there was a certain point of time in our life when we were using social services such as food stamps in order to survive so that is something else i can bring i've been through those circumstances and while i also understand that these circumstances are only my own which is why i'm committed to meeting with residents and making sure i'm understanding the why number of perspectives that we have here in the ward and addressing all of them bryant sure as a thirty plus year resident the old north and i've known many people i live across the street from someone who has struggled mightily over the last few years to hold her family together and meet her expenses and i provided support as a as a neighbor and as a friend to actually help her and her family get through this challenges secure more stable housing understand and navigate the not only social services them but the job training systems so that they could actually get themselves on the path to self sufficiency it's important i think to be connected to people in that way because it gives us a real life example of when we're making policy decisions to remember that there are people who struggle day in and day out we're playing by the rules but who aren't even making ends meet i think we need to constantly remind ourselves of those folks who were always weighing decisions when we were a decision that the city council bring that perspective as a deep part of who i am and what i did give my life to james go ahead i hate to say but i'm surrounded by musical visual artists who work several jobs just to get by and they live on a financial knife edge and they work nights and weekends and  the burden to pull it together to rent and and afford to live in burlington is one that is it is impossible for some people you know i  have i have people who i consider friends and colleagues who i've seen their teeth crumble out of their head more than one person because they can't afford you know the medical support and they're people who have these multiple jobs so you know i know that even as we're aspiring for this fifteen dollar minimum wage the cost of a livable a livable wage in burlington is even higher than that so the reality of living in burlington is one that you know is more of a pressure on people who have modest means than maybe you even realize  we have a lot a lot to work toward to i don't know make provide a level playing field and to create the opportunities for for people who struggle this hard as a city government  we create offices like sido to you know to help to come up with the ideas in the programs and to make the investments that that can can make life you know more what it should be more equitable for everybody and and as a city councillor that's something that i would pay absolutely critical attention to the quality of life for everybody should be one that we're paying attention to ok and just for viewers seato is the community economic development office it's department within city government that does work on housing another economic development issues and so we'll stay in that vein i'd like to ask what would be some of the solutions you would bring to the table  to make housing that's affordable at all income levels including folks that are making minimum wage and what is your view of the recent housing reports both the twenty fourteen report on housing sort of broadly in the more recent one on burlington's inclusionary zoning ordinance again that is that ordinance requires a certain amount of affordable housing in any large development based on federal income measures but are measures that were set by the city but i believe based on federal guidance and so i'll start with you brian your thoughts are the i think it's important to just keep in mind a few important facts about housing in burlington and broadly starting out by saying housing prices continue to outpace the wages that people can earn in the burlington area it is it's no it's no secret that the demand for housing has outpaced the supply and that that continues to put upward pressure on rents beyond what many folks can afford and this statistic which is kind of mind boggling is that about half of our renter households are rent burdened meaning that they pay more than the thirty percent of income that is the federal standard for affordability for rent plus utilities that's kind of a staggering number that vermont is the thirteenth most expensive state in the union for renter households and burlington probably leads the pack there  the housing wage in the greater bronzan area is twenty six dollars and eight cents and that means that someone working full time would need to earn that wage in order to afford the average apartment that's about five dollars higher than the average wage unfortunately minimum wage renter would need to work is one person sixty nine hours per week to afford the average rent of eight hundred sixty two dollars when you think through those statistics i think everyone would  done a lot we've done an amazing amount as a city but we have so much further to go we have so much need that is still on met i believe that we need to boost the funding for the housing trust fund specifically vote yes on question five we'll get to the ballot questions in a little while but i want to put a plug for that  that we must find a way for you v m to house conserve more if not all of their students close to campus and take that pressure off the market and as far as the recent housing report i think it focuses the council's attention the mayor's attention and hopefully the communities attention to build consensus to get us where we need to get to on housing james brian started to describe the situation to bronson almost twenty five percent of the bronson population spends more than fifty percent of their income on rent and that's not conscionable it means the work we've been doing to create affordable housing isn't enough and we have a long history of accessing federal subsidies and growing land trust properties but those are go to resources and we need more resources we need more ideas new models for affordability we should be inspiring privately developed cooperative housing supporting any other innovative entrepreneurial private sector solutions making accessory units convenient to convert or build create zoning for tiny housing pursue a hotel surcharge that supplements affordable housing funding in vermont  burlington explore new revenues that subsidize our local housing funds ability to expand the number of properties available and set of eyes on the sale of houses in densely student populated neighborhoods making them available affordably to single families helping restore the quality of life and diversity in our neighborhoods and our colleges should require students to live on campus through at least the first three years of their undergraduate careers so there's there's a long list of things we could pursue you know and they all are  not necessarily something we've done before and that's what's important i think for us to understand we live in an entrepreneurial city where saying the innovation is part of our character we can't rely on decades old traditions of providing affordability  need to innovate in that sphere we need to serve our people better and to respond to you know the other part of the question i don't think that we have been honest about our inclusionary zoning requirements i don't think that the waivers we allow or that the the math we use to determine affordability is what it should be i think that we should face that fact and address them lewsey so i currently understand that burlington's housing market forces you to choose between live ability and affordability and i know a number of young individuals like myself struggle with in the area and i really think that needs to change or forcing a lot of our young talented group out to find housing in other cities an alternate means because there are enough jobs here that match the cost of the housing costs and i think the effort to increase the amount of affordable housing we have here needs to come from a number of different fronts we need to like brian said increase the amount of money that goes into our housing trust and such i understand that you've just built a brand new dorm that will housing more students on campus than we did previously housed before but i believe that you is currently trying to find another place to build another alternate means house students on or near campus and i think that work needs to continue on the current downtown about one plan that's being bill is supposedly going to be able to house champlain students and i really hope to see that through and make sure that is what happens i think burlington at the city needs to work on making sure we're increasing the amount of affordable housing that we have around here by unfortunately building more i think i you know i recognize that brings up a lot of concerns people have about development in the city but in order to meet the demands of the housing crisis that we have here is something that we have to do i do believe in protecting kluge in arizona because i think it addresses a lot of concerns that my residents have is why are we only building luxury condos with the inclusionary zoning it supposedly will get twenty fifteen or twenty percent  affordable apartments or housing within a development project and i'll hopefully ease the housing burdens that we currently are going through in the city all right thank you all and i'll just remind our viewers that this is a ward three city council forum we have three candidates vying for an open seat and we would love to hear from you guys if you have a question for the candidates give us a call eight zero two six two three nine six six that's eight zero two eight six two three nine six six give us a shout and let us know what your questions are and so now a question about building community culture and if you guys could all talk a little bit about how you would approach your work on the council and what you might do to try and address systemic racism in burlington and how brewington can do a better job of weaving together a community of diverse backgrounds and interests in we'll start with you james i've been speaking out publicly and writing commentary about everybody loves a parade miro and what led to it becoming central to a discussion about structural racism we understand that the way the city works  is has built into it just big then systems that exclude the public's participation in the diverse way that it should be and and i say that lovingly them optimistic that we can change this we're growing into a better city a better democracy to do that we have to step forward and say this must be done and we must open the doors and we must decide what is a publicly vetted appropriate template for public input processes for any public project like the mural where we are assured that our outreach to our community is robust and complete enough that these voices are heard and we have to do that knowing that some people in our community residents of our community come from entirely different cultures or have cultural experiences as even native burling burlington's people of color who have been under cultural stresses that we can't even comprehend and we have to to do a good job of including those voices in the decisions we make so whether it's public art or development projects we have to do a better more complete job including those voices purposefully and we also have to recognize that it's inappropriate for  for us to speak for people who come from other cultural vantage points so we have to be sure that what we're talking about makes room for their voices to be represented as authentically for this so i believe to address the samick racial issues in our city we need to make sure we're doing adequate training for things such as our police force and schools and making sure that we're hiring a diverse population i believe we also need to make sure we're addressing the minority communities that we have here in the stooges new americans and refugees and such one thing we could do in this election season is making sure that we're moving forward by electing councillors of color right now our city council has a one person that is a person of color on the council and i think that could change and really make a big difference in the way our council functions we bring in other perspectives i respect that you know the number of people on the council are white and vermont is historically why but i think we can change that by encouraging people of color to step up and take leadership positions in the community so we can make sure we're seeing all these different perspectives and not just listening to them or actually allowing them to lead and move forward and making sure we're creating a diverse culture and community bro i think it's a sad sack that we should all root acknowledge that racism is ingrained in our society i don't think people like to talk about it i don't think people like to consider the fact that they actually harbor racism because it's part of who we are is america and i hate to say it but it's ingrained throughout and we all try our best on our own personal journeys to overcome that but i think that local government reflects the fact that society is inherently has racist and our society has race as history and we have to overcome that we need to be really focused like a laser beam recent analysis shows that our police department continues to pull over black drivers at a rate that is considerably greater than the portion of the population that they represent in addition to being searched about eight percent of black drivers were searched in the first part of twenty seventeen to compared to about one half of one percent of white drivers so those types of biases that show up there that's the place that people in burlington experience the city's bias most acutely is through the police and i'm not singling out the police to say they're doing something horrible i'm just saying they reflect what i just spoke about earlier about what our society the the races history of our society that they have carried forward and i think that's  huge education challenge and a training challenge and i know the city has tried to deal with it but we still have lots of work ahead of us there was a twenty fourteen diverse a neck restrict plan that laid out specific items of business and action steps to dismantle racism in unintentional bias and that diversity in equity plan has not seen enough attention over the last couple years i think it's time for the city to revisit that and see what we can do on that list and engage the community again in that process  you all and i would just remind viewers again that if you'd like to ask a question of any of the ward three candidates use give us a shout eight zero two six two three nine six six i'd like to move on to a food policy question and  burlington once had a goal of producing ten percent of its food within the city what do you think the city's current what do you think of the cities what do you think should be the city's current food policy and what more could be done to eliminate hunger and give equal access to new nutritious food while also growing our local economy and brian you start us off sure my first work study job that you v m in the summer was actually working with craig fuller who ran the burlington community gardens and we went around and really promoted you know really vibrant active use of our community gardening network and brenton does continue to have an amazing community garden network we also acknowledge that that doesn't mean that everyone gets served and everyone is reached that way there is a new americans effort or should see a garden effort with new americans to really bring new americans out into the community into the community garden opportunities that are out there i think that's critically important we continue to support that as part of the legacy plan brenton had a goal that ten percent goal and i think it was an ambitious  don't know that we've spent much time talking about over the last few years the goal was that we have this intervale of seven hundred plus acres much of it is land it can be far and we ought to produce more of our food locally because it's better for the economy it's better for health it's better for the environment and and so a lot of progress is made we have over eighty people working in the intervale and ag related jobs those are decent jobs those provide people with a quality of life and they provide something that all of us value which is our food i think we need to look at food insecurity a little bit more closely unfortunately the food stamp system doesn't serve folks neighbors they have who live off wood stamps or who rely on food stamps are often hungry but about the middle of a month every month or food system doesn't deliver enough food security our food shelf i work the food shelf when i go to college as well and unfortunately need for the food shelf is still there unfortunately has grown since those days and i think we have to do more to support that but hopefully move to the place where we as a society don't have people needing to line up to get food but can actually take care of their own needs james i don't think that local food production is going to be a reasonable solution for affordable local food but i think that a culture of local food production contributes to our city's success in other ways i think the entrepreneurial is local food producers the environmental benefits of not transporting food a long distance and the pride we can all have in being a little more self sustaining are important to the city can support home  school community gardens it can make sure that you know greenhouses are hoop houses or garden structures don't don't aren't impeded that zoning and pax's don't affect people actually stepping into a culture of food production  we can reinforce the civic pride in having our gardens throughout the city and having a local food production mindset be something that we aspire to as a culture of our infrastructure like city hall park and the more a lot of torreon where the farmer's market wants to return to should be thought of in terms of food production that might not be a natural fit big building and food production like that but that's something that we need to to think about the follow through and fill in every little puzzle it can be really overpriced for a lot of individuals i know that i love city market but i can't go on afford to spend all of my money there and i know a number of the city market products are locally sourced maybe not necessarily from burlington but from the state i would like to hopefully see an increase of food coming from burlington itself but it's not sustainable i mean the burlington is largely a city and we do have the intervale a number of community gardens i think we need to make sure we're sourcing food locally there's a number of farms attention in county and other areas around the state that i think we could better implement into our schools i would hope to see more restaurants and other local businesses really implementing the amount of local food that we can source from the say into their products that they're selling for individuals ok great  want to come right back to you because i apologize but i skipped you and it should have been your turn to respond first so i wanted to do a quick question on public safety which is also one of the ballot questions burlington is services for public safety is that something that you support and how would you advise voters on this question yes so i know that there are a lot of concerns about this ballot i don't because there is a risk of losing jobs and such but from what i understand you know there are ways of those individuals keeping their jobs by joining on to this regional dispatch system i do support that ballot item because i feel from research shows that that regional this patch just i'm could decrease response time by sixty or seventy seconds and i know that that could save a human life so for that reason alone i do encourage voters to support this ballot item ok brian i think i agree with lizzie on that one the i think the potential to improve the delivery system outweighs those negative potential negatives i think they can be overcome through you know careful planning in the imitation regional entities are  we have a few in other areas solid waste we have a regional transit system we have a regional park system through new parks so we do have some form of regional governance that has service very well and i think we need to be really mindful of the fact that you know the ultimate goal is to improve the public safety delivery system first responders are ready to go it shouldn't be a laborous a laborious process to find out who's available and right now that process doesn't work well and results in  significantly longer response times i was originally supportive of this proposal and i like the data as it was presented the seventy seconds and you know savings and time i thought well that could save my child's life and it was important to me and i was supportive but i came to understand that in the course of deliberation that led to this proposal the dispatchers the officers were left out of the conversation and from reading their comments about this from their groups from their perspective i came to understand there is details we need to have considered there is the potential for efficiencies in maintaining a municipal system that we won't have in a regional dispatch system and without those voices of those those people who have the firsthand experience participating in the the structure of the proposal that we're talking about now i don't feel that that proposal is complete so i may be i may come to a point where i believe that there was a genuine informed discussion that led to what we're talking about i don't feel that secure now you know it was proposed the data that arrived at the seventy seconds was faulty in itself so until that's resolved i'm standing by ok all right and just a reminder to viewers if you have a question for any of the ward three candidates give us a call eight six two three nine six six i'd like to shift gears a little bit and get to another bout question a moment but i would like to ask a question james really starting with you about the airport and that is do you believe that the burlington airport located in south burlington on an operated by burlington should be managed by a regional government through a regional governance model and should the surrounding communities have more say in key decisions that are now made in burlington yes i think that the safety concerns the noise the traffic in the air and on the ground impacts our neighbors possibly more than burlington itself and to exclude them from management decisions that affect the lives of many people who are burlington's extended family is something that we should ethically choose to do we don't have i think the privilege to dictate the quality of their life because of how we operate our airport i can leave it at that you know that's the that's of a firm yes i support a local regional oversight i wouldn't  which is one of the options ok i would support a local or regional governance system for the airport i would need a few concerns to be addressed first i would be concerned that the issues and decisions would take a longer to make and there definitely who would have the final say in certain decisions and i would want to make sure that there is an inclusive dialogue in making sure we're addressing all signed the concerns that each group could bring up but moving forward i would be in support because the airport is in south burlington so to me it doesn't make any sense that they're going in doesn't have a larger say in the issues ok right i think i'm probably more cautious on this one because i believe that the city of burlington and the boeing taxpayers before there was an f a a not many people know the f a a has only been around for forty years so for the first sixty years of the airport's existence taxpayers foot the bill and it came from burlington taxpayers to create that incredible asset that infrastructure i think we have to ask what are we trying to solve with this what's that what's the problem we're trying to solve and let's be clear about what are the what are we going to have for for contributions for skin in the game from the other municipalities if they want to be at the table and they want to have an ownership stak perhaps the citizens of burlington are owed basically payment for that because we're the ones who foot the bill in the airport so i think that's something that i really cautious about ok staying with the airport there is obviously the vermont air national guard base there there are thirty five basing that is expected to happen in the fall of twenty nineteen and there is an advisory question on the ballot asking shall voters of shall the voters of burlington request the cancellation of the placement of the f thirty five at burlington international airport and request instead low noise level equipment with proven high safety records appropriate for a densely populated area  personally feel is misleading i i know i understand that the f thirty five we're moving now would be against the national guard that would put a thousand jobs at risk from what i understand these at the current use the f sixteen the f thirty five our imperative for them continuing their training and they'd also be using them for active missions our green mountain boys are the first in the air for nine eleven and i need to make sure that they have the proper equipment to keep themselves safe and to keep moving forward with keeping us safe that is a huge thing for me i understand that our current congressional representative representatives leahy sanders and walsh all are in support of this issue you know i do understand that there are a number of concerns and knocking on doors i fully recognize that there are a number of my residents that share of why a number of concerns about this ballot item they don't want to see the f thirty five but i would ask them to take a look at what that could take away from our national guard if we do not support the f thirty five coming to the state know i've i've spent a little bit of time looking at this issue i know more recently over the last just week or so there was actually some news about how the military will handle how the national guard will handle this base if the f thirty five isn't stationed here and from what i've gathered that won't have a negative effect on the jobs that go with that facility so ultimately have come down on the side that the negative impacts of having those jets flying over our communities outweighs the potential positive impacts of of preserving that type of activity here so i feel that we've reached the point where we've got to speak up as a community i would urge the borders of ward three to support of this question i understand people's perspective and i don't think i'm so i'm certainly not speaking for everyone and speaking for myself and i do think the negatives are going to weigh the positives they're all right james  this is a fun one i like jet planes a lot and my parents are air force veterans and i grew up going to air shows and i have a deep affinity for people in uniform and  fighter jets beyond that i understand the f thirty five to be a crass toxic politicized poor quality hot rod of an airplane that has no business being in a populated area like burlington its safety record the catastrophe if it were to crash and burn the fact that it's four times noisier than the current airplanes and will cause physical harm to our community all make me feel that it is only reasonable to not have the f thirty five in our in the center of our of our city i also think in this is important to say that it is supportive of our air national guard to say this out loud to bring this critique to the conversation because if this airplane with its poor safety record in the harm it will do crashes  and and causes the harm that we anticipate that's hung on their neck if we support them we don't want that to happen and i'm familiar with the source documents the court proceedings i understand that the air force has said that there are other options for missions here more appropriate options more responsible options and therefore i support this ballot item ok thank you guys for those we are going to move now to closing statements we have time for two minute closing statements and so i will leave that open ended and brian will start with you go ahead two minutes thanks morgan thanks to shell seventeen and the viewers in our our live audience that we have here at the  studio the the process of running for city council i have to say is is one that is incredibly inspiring going door to door and meeting voters engaging with people at their homes having them let me in on cold cold nights and  getting a chance to warm up but to hear their concerns their dreams their hopes their aspirations is isn't truly inspiring process and i feel incredibly honored to be part of this process to  be engaged at this level i think we are incredibly lucky we have a very caring and engaged community and i look forward to the opportunity to work with our community work with our residents to try to be a bridge between the community and city council and city hall and to give people a sense of what's possible to give people a sense of hope because hope is what we every day have that gives us a chance gives us a reason to try and make things better i think that's our ultimate goal here i believe all of us are here because we want to make the best it can be and i hope you'll give me consideration for the city council to be able to do that for you all right thank you james i got to say thank you for this opportunity to speak to everybody and i'm stepping forward as a citizen who has lived in town for close to thirty years who has invested myself as a volunteer in this community for decades who is aspirational in optimistic about our future so seeing that we have opportunity and opportunity that goes on tap because there hasn't been the next level of energy and investment and creativity applied from the city council i want to fill that void i want to step into an opportunity to remind us all as a city that you know we have a future that is open ended and we can build it and we can pull together the wisdom the creativity  resourcefulness that we all have throughout our community focus it through the city council with with leadership like i would help contribute to and that we'll have a better city for it you know going above and beyond what we're used to and i have to of bryant's sentiments this is you know the the process that we're involved in here this campaign coming to to learn the authenticity of my opponents and their commitment to our city is something that is very enriching and fulfilling for me and you know it's a selfish experience but a beautiful one and i'm happy to share that and help you understand that your engagement in this process whether in city commissions or in future city council races is something that you should consider so i hope you vote for me on march six my campaign can be found it i vote lockridge dot com you'll find a platform there thank you for visiting and appreciate the chance to share these thoughts with you thank you ok so again my name is lizzie high school thank you to channel seventeen and morgan for having me here today but a lot of fun sitting here with brian and james i am running because i want to make sure every a voter and our ward feels heard by the city council and also like like we mentioned here i'd like to address the housing crisis and i'd also like to treat the opiate crisis here i'm running as a young vermonter young professional in the area and that is a perspective that we need on the city council we need more young people to step up and run for office because we have an aging population in  engaging young individuals in this state we can hopefully reverse that because we can bring forward the concerns that we have and what we need in order to make vermont a more livable place for this age our this age set so i hope to bring that perspective to the council also addressing a number of concerns i really hope to create an inclusive dialogue for all age groups but i think bringing a different perspective to the council be really beneficial for the entire city ok well thank you to all the candidates  viewers again this is channel seventeen town meeting television this was a candidate's forum with the candidates for ward three an open sea vote early you can do it at city hall it takes less than ten minutes if you go at a good time could take a few more minutes but it's worth it it is a quick and easy process and if you don't vote early make sure to vote on march sixth thank you to our viewers thank you to the candidates what an excellent forum and  really appreciate it so yeah they thank you to you guys and good night