join together in the pledge of allegiance right so we have a motion and a second all those in favor i oppose to take of the oath of office for a third time i will work very hard over the next three years to make good on the trust you placed in me i want to thank you to attorney general t j donovan for being part of the ceremony burlington is proud to have one of its own sons leading the state on immigration and law enforcement issues i'm grateful for your partnership on the opioid crisis and the adoption of twenty first century policing practices and i should've known that i needed some this room and in this city and i want to thank you for your leadership on addressing housing affordability and the opioid crisis i also want to thank you for looking new at t you know the courage and resolve to respond to events and to change policy direction when needed is a rare thing in american politics and the people of burlington see and they welcome your bravery on commonsense gu sacrifice you gave to the people of burlington and still continue to give to this day thank you for your serv here with many members of her family she has lived on brooks avenue for fifty five years volunteered for twenty five years at the polls raised eight kids here in this community you know we have your wrist your respect we respect you m general stephen crane and lisa cray i want to thank you for being here tonight and for all you do to keep this community safe and to build the links and relationship between the people of burlington vermont and the from on national guard thank you for your service  it is truly one of the great joys of this job there are a lot of them but one of the best is getting to come to work day in and day out with this this great team a truly outstanding group of individuals i want to congratulate the recently reelected city councillors sharon bush or all i also want to recognize councillors richard dean dave hartnett gino dell and joan shannon i hope and i will do my part to ensure that the next three years are marked by the same collaboration product finally to my parents ethel and michael thank you for being here tonight and for all of your love support and good teachings over the years and to my wonderful life partner stacy thank you without your i would like to start my report on the state of the city with some great news the asphalt plants are about to open  and with the council and the voter support for millions of dollars of bonding work will begin next week on more than five miles of paving that will be completed this season including repairs of all the major arterials that will damage so badly this past winter the fact that we will be able to respond to a difficult winter so quickly and comprehensibly is a function of our growing strength as a city in the areas that we are focused on together for the last six years municipal finances downtown economic development and proving the city's core infrastructure that supports our quality of life and economy in the last year we secure another credit rating upgrade that will help save residents millions of dollars in the years ahead and keep burlington more affordable fiscal responsibility is the foundation on which all of our successes and vicious projects and vision for the future are built over the past twelve months we are rehabilitated and improved another three miles of our treasured bike path and completed the first of five years of major investments in our streets sidewalks parks and water lines we have broken ground zero well largest public private investments in city history already this project has created new contracts for dozens of local firms and labor and resource will be sharing more about their collaborative job training and business resiliency efforts in the weeks ahead when built the city place burlington project will reduce our carbon footprint create hundreds of new high wage jobs and reconnect fuel north and with the downtown and after a difficult debate within these chambers we acted with broad consensus to resolve the future of burlington telecom in a manner that protects taxpayers secures and during public benefits and ensures that berlusconi and unlike a majority of americans will have high speed internet choice for generations to come are seeing progress on these initiatives and many more the events of the last year including the elections here on town meeting day a month ago have made it plain that our communities work towards a more just future is not done as in many successful american cities today there are deep concerns within our community about the rising cost of housing pushing low and middle income households out of brunt and friend and frustration that this problem is not being addressed quickly or effectively enough some of our neighbors desire more and different city engaged we have major on met child care needs as a city and we continue to grapple with how best to treat those struggling with opioid addictions these challenges come at a time when the federal government is period of great uncertainty and failing to meet its fundamental responsibilities of addressing climate change gun violence immigration reform and racial equality such national failures mean that we in burlington must continue to lead and continue to step forward we can and we will provide this leadership in two thousand and eighteen the seat of the city of brawling to end is very strong and it will grow even stronger in the years ahead as we work to ensure that all of our residents benefit from our recent progress and have a voice in the future direction though we have much to be proud of as a community we still have much work to do to become the welcoming equitable and sustainable city we aspire to be over the next year that work will include progress and new efforts in five areas that i'll detail tonight collecting and analyzing data on city equity initiatives working to turn the tide of the opioid crisis continuing to build our early learning initiative taking our next steps toward becoming a net zero energy city and strengthening our public engagement efforts all then conclude with some thoughts on the link between these efforts to make burlington more equitable sustainable and welcoming in our downtown housing and land use policies for the last year and a half city employees have been meeting monthly here in this room for b t v staff meetings our data collection and analysis effort that attempts to measure and track the results achieved by city departments to ensure that our city government is properly oriented towards achieving progress for all members of our community in the year ahead we'll be focusing p t v stat on equity i've asked our department heads and the chief innovation officer to begin measuring each department's performance against new equity goals and to track this data are public dashboard in addition these statistics will be collected and analyzed in an annual equity report that we published as part of the of the city's traditional annual report starting next town meeting today nowhere is our work more urgent and nowhere is there more at stake then in our efforts turn the tide of the opioid crisis it has been four years now since governor peter s focused the nation on this epidemic and yet in two thousand and seventeen again the death count attributable to accidental opioid overdoses continue to rise nationally and here in vermont more americans now die every year as a result of accidental drug overdoses and were killed in the entirety of the vietnam war too many of those deaths continue to happen right here in sydney county since last august medical center and a professor at st michael's college live just minutes from here in south bronx and they wanted me to share shon story this evening as they did in the same room in february as part of the monthly community stat meeting burlington convenes so that the reasons law enforcement medical treatment and social service agencies can grapple with the challenges this crisis pose the blake shared their son's story in the hope that we can as a community learn from it shawn drew a peek here and he loved the lake and mountains he was bright creative and active in theater in athletics as a young man he struggled with bipolar disorder and addiction and he ended up good marked by dramatic rises and falls after a brief stint in the shands addiction dragon downward to the point that he was incarcerated at the infamous rikers island in new york city there his life actually started to turn for the better as he received mental health treatment and medicine to treat his addiction he returned from that experience to vermont with the supports in place and he did well until going off his medications when he went off treatment he returned to prison here in vermont where medical medicine at that point was not available just over a month after he was released last year he overdosed and he died the blakes couldn't be here tonight because they're attending a memorial service for their son buff vermont's prisons have been among the leaders in this country in creating opportunities opioid treatment yet as xan story shows we still have work to do one of the most important bills before the legislature this year is s one sixty six which will continue to expand treatment options for people in response prisons and build on the work that the parliament has already begun the city strongly supports this passage is a lifesaving piece of legislation and believes will be an important step forward in this fight but expanding access to treatment in prisons is only one needed step in the year ahead we must dramatically expand access to medications that could help save lives burlington is proposing that we move towards having a system where a health professional prescribes methadone or people who are from the opioid addicted patients at the time patients are ready to start treatment and accept treatment increasing their chances of freeing themselves from the grip of this terrible addiction that's not the system we have today in too many cases currently patients often have to wait an average of seventeen days between their requests for treatment and when they first receive a prescription from the hudson county we should take advantage of every opportunity every moment when someone is ready for treatment to start their medication rather than telling them to wait until monday or wait until next week or the week after that knowing that for them to stave off withdraw all that patient who wants treatment will likely use a list of drugs multiple times maybe even dozens of times before treatment becomes available and the opportunity for a better path will be gone this reproach is guided by the emerging hopeful body of evidence their rapid access to medications cvs lies for example a randomized study in connecticut found that twice the rate of success in treatment when overdosed patients were offered right in the emergency room to apply this evidence in burlington where working with experts at the johns hopkins school of public health and elsewhere one longtime member of safe recovery arced our syringe or syringe exchange program told me that in more than a decade on the job she's seen so many moments of interest in treatment appear only to slip away for good no more our goal for the year ahead which we are pursuing with you via medical center and representatives are here tonight in the howard center which is also represented here and i will be to improve rapid access to medication in order to start effective care at the right place and at the right moment to save lives public safety in two thousand and eighteen will bring the same focus on innovative and on innovation and results to grow the new burlington early learning initiative while we have conducted extensive research with you when you the city council prove the first allocation of city funds for this effort last july with that commitment the city stepped into a new area where we had little precedent locally or nationally to look through what we did have is clarity that hundreds of our youngest brewington toddlers and infants were not getting the high quality care they deserved and he shared ten to take action to address this challenge in for an infinite toddler cares and need major equities when kids do not have access to high quality care during this critical time they star pre k and kindergarten already behind and too many of these kids then struggle to ever catch other nine months after the program was created it is starting to make an impact on the ground together last week we made our first grant through a center that will create for a much needed new burlington infant and toddler childcare slots in the weeks and months ahead i look forward to working with the city council and with the neighborhood  killer to finalize our next round of grant requests shaped the new program strategy for its second year and set a path for securing new partners and funding that will expand the impact of this initiative throughout the city in the years ahead also in two thousand and eighteen we'll continue to work towards becoming a net zero energy city with continued focus on the district energy project this project represents perhaps the single biggest emission reduction action we can take as a community brought to electric has been leading a unique partnership that would move the project to the advanced engineering and design phase and put us in position to resolve the feasibility of this effort by the end of the calendar year i also appreciate very much the support of our chinning county delegation who successfully moved forward a new bill in the past week that will allow you to lecture to access over one million dollars in thermal energy incentives to apply to district energy thank you to the legislators for that work while the city continues to pursue this and other critical work we must continue to communicate and engage the public fully we excel in public engagement as a community in many ways and we can do even better over the next year we  complete three important improvements to our public engagement efforts first we will complete and bring to the council for approval of the city's first language access plan our city is growing and welcoming english language learners into our neighborhoods every day and we must be thoughtful and consistent in how we address language barriers that impact city services second will bring to the council for discussion approval a new public engagement handbook to guide our efforts to forward and improve city initiatives and finally as proposed by others in the recent campaigns and consistent with a resolution that cancer care paul has proposed the administration will look to review the role and responsibilities of the neighborhood planning assemblies and how the processes by which the departments work with the m p s and other stakeholders in our community can be improved these initiatives will do much to make our community more equitable sustainable and welcoming the will ultimately only succeed however if we get the fundamentals right and fully fix our downtown housing and land use policies growing dynamic evolving cities have room and opportunities for people of all backgrounds incomes and ages will cities are also the most sustainable communities as residents consume far less energy heating and cooling their homes and workplaces and drive far less than their suburban and rural counterparts in contrast that put up regulatory walls to stop change lock in some of their physical character but they lose their community soul in the bargain young households and middle class and middle class are pushed out by rising demand in older wealthier households while low income households refugees and others seeking opportunity are blocked from even getting in the door this is the future we were headed towards just six years ago we had created only a couple hundred downtown homes of the prior decade despite mounting demand younger households where measure would be being forced out of the downtown in that period as the average burlington rent climbed to forty four percent of median income over the last six years i'm happy to say the council on the voters have repeatedly taken action to open new opportunities with our downtown development policies and we are now on a different trajectory since two thousand and thirteen more than twelve hundred downtown homes have been built or on concern or are in the construction pipeline this effort is starting to work vacancy rates are edging upwards and landlords are reporting new pricing quality pressure as they see tenants and this is happening even before the first of the major new downtown projects opens at champlain colleges one ninety four st paul street this fall this work however is not done at front doors and coffee tables around the city this winter the cost of housing continued to be the most urgent problem on the minds of our voters young couples told me they were on the verge of leaving burlington or even the state for rent relief retirees described frustrated searches years of frustrated searches for downtown apartments near their grandchildren and students many of whom are here tonight turned out in very high numbers this town meeting day in large part because they are demanding better living conditions in short we have much more work to do to work our way out of the affordable housing crisis on march sixth after much debate the city voted to keep moving forward with this work in the year ahead we must bring new resources to our local housing trust fund and get our parking affordable housing student housing and other local land use policies right this work is difficult and will continue to require focus and commitment when we get it done however we will ensure that burlington will remain what it has been in the decades ahead and will remain in the decades ahead what it has been throughout its one hundred fifty year history of vermont city of opportunity where all are welcome to start a career in a business where people of all backgrounds can buy a home and start a family and where bro and tony and of all ages thr thank you all for being part of this important annual tradition i'm excited and eager to take on the challenges of the next year together let's get back to work let's have a great t governed we were told by b c a leadership that the lack of response is the response while we were asking for more representation for the arts community including music and theater and dance the board of dca voted to allow the annual reelection of board members who had already completed the three three year terms allowed by its byelaws thirty percent of our city's arts office advisory board is now in practical terms permanent and has been there for more than ten years thirty percent of the board will never be new voices at a meeting of the park's arts and culture committee the director of  describe these permanent voting board seats as rewards if the mayor were to declare that one third of the city council were to hold permanent voting seats and the mayor were to call those seats rewards w you be ok with that or would you be inspired to do the job of leadership you were elected because you're trusted to steward our democracy and make us proud of early ten city charter says that you the city council is responsible for oversight of pca if fairness and transparency is going to happen there it will be because you as a person with integrity and as an elected representative choose to live up to the values that got you elected thank you for hearing this it hasn't been heard yet my colleague and friend councillor curt right curt has was just recently reelected by the way in his first unopposed race ever in either the state house or the city council just showing how much his ward feels that he really represents them well kurt is a seasoned legislator having served of course many years with distinction in both the city council and the state house we know that kurt it will be fair to all city councillors and everyone will have equal access to the floor and to move forward their initiatives i'm very confident that he will defend the council's role in our city government as a strong and independent body well working productively with the mayor to move the city forward finally i know we all know that he will he will serve in this world and and and yield the the gavel with humor and patience and i'm sure everyone is looking forward to that so with that i will i will close my nomination with an i'm i'm i'm very very proud to be your colleague and friend counsel right to thank the council for the support and the confidence and thank you councillor president no doubt for those really gracious kind remarks i kauser hard news also let me know that i have big shoes to fill i don't think anybody could run a more efficient meeting than you have for the last three years and put in the kind of countless time and energy you have for the job throughout these past three years i know on a daily basis so thank you counselor and president no doubt the one promise i want to make to all my fellow councillors is that no republican colleagues on the council will get any special privilege yeah a few quick everybody's been mentioned out there but i guess i want to thank governor scott for being here i don't remember of all the times i've been here for mayoral state the city speeches i do not remember seeing a governor maybe i missed one but thank you governor scott for being here and of course the two former mayors one more time mayor cain we all love mayor cain and miracle val i miss those monday nights we had a lot of fun and i know you miss seeing me on all those monday nights in the past hat was last but this really is last any school board members that are out there please rise i'd like to acknowledge the school or members you now i know if things are quiet on the school board right now so with that i just again pledge to the city council that we will work well together i look forward mayor weinberger to working together with you on the many initiatives that you just outlined for us each of whom have served you know putting in countless hours in support of the city and our efforts over the last couple years and i know you you know i'm hoping you'll have unanimous support of this council as you move forward in that endeavor thank you thank you members please say i any opposed we have our board of finance for the next year congratulations