City Council - Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee — Burlington, VT
Date: 2025-03-18
Time: 17:30

Racial, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging



 Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 5:30 PM, Racial, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (REIB)

Held in the Sharon Bushor Conference Room, Ground Floor City Hall
OR
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1. Motion to Adopt the Agenda

2. Motion to Adopt Minutes
  Subject 2.1. October 2024
  Meeting March 18, 2025 - REIB City Council Sub Committee, March 18, 2025, 5:30-7:00pm -
 Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 5:30 PM, Racial, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (REIB)
  Category 2. Motion to Adopt Minutes
  Department Racial Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging (REIB)


  Type

  Subject 2.2. December 2024
  Meeting March 18, 2025 - REIB City Council Sub Committee, March 18, 2025, 5:30-7:00pm -
 Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 5:30 PM, Racial, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (REIB)
  Category 2. Motion to Adopt Minutes
  Department Racial Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging (REIB)


  Type

  Subject 2.3. February 2025
  Meeting March 18, 2025 - REIB City Council Sub Committee, March 18, 2025, 5:30-7:00pm -
 Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 5:30 PM, Racial, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (REIB)
  Category 2. Motion to Adopt Minutes
  Department Racial Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging (REIB)


  Type

3. Public Forum

4. REIB Updates
  Subject 4.1. Juneteenth 2025
  Meeting March 18, 2025 - REIB City Council Sub Committee, March 18, 2025, 5:30-7:00pm -
 Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 5:30 PM, Racial, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (REIB)
  Category 4. REIB Updates
  Department Racial Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging (REIB)


  Type

5. Adjournment
  Subject 5.1. Motion to adjourn
  Meeting March 18, 2025 - REIB City Council Sub Committee, March 18, 2025, 5:30-7:00pm -
 Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 5:30 PM, Racial, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (REIB)


  Category 5. Adjournment

  Department Council and Board


  Type

  Recommended Action

6. Informational and Non-Discrimination Statements
  Subject 6.1. This agenda is available in alternative formats upon request. For more
 information on access, call Lori Olberg, Licensing, Voting and Records
 Coordinator (802-865-7136)(TTY 802-865-7142). Persons with disabilities
 who require assistance or special arrangements to participate are encouraged
 to contact 802-865-7000 (voice) or 802-865-7142 (TTY) at least 72 hours in
 advance so that proper arrangements can be made. This meeting will also air
 on Town Meeting TV the Wednesday after the meeting, starting at 8:00 pm and
 repeating at 1:00 am and 7:00 am the following day. The City of Burlington will
 not tolerate unlawful harassment or discrimination on the basis of political or
 religious affiliation, race, color, national origin, place of birth, ancestry, age,
 sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, veteran status,
 disability, HIV positive status, crime victim status or genetic information.
  Meeting March 18, 2025 - REIB City Council Sub Committee, March 18, 2025, 5:30-7:00pm -
 Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 5:30 PM, Racial, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (REIB)
  Category 6. Informational and Non-Discrimination Statements
  Department Council and Board


  Type

REIB City Council Committee Meeting
 Oct. 15, 2024
 5:30pm – 7:00pm
 Sharon Bushor Room, 1st Floor City Hall and Zoom
 Minutes

Attendance: Councilor Melo Grant, Chair; Councilor Gene Bergman; Councilor Becca Brown McKnight;
Phet Keomanyvanh, Interim REIB Director, Mark Hughes, Pablo Bose, Christine Hughes

Meeting Start: 5:45pm
Motion to approve the agenda
Councilor Bergman motions, Councilor Brown McKnight seconds. Agenda is approved.

Motion to approve the minutes of September 17, 2024
Councilor Bergman motions, Councilor Brown McKnight seconds. Minutes are approved.

Public Forum
Mark Hughes invites the public to the REIB’s Mission and Vision community conversation that will be at
Richard Kemp Center on Sat. 19th at 3-5pm. Mark brought up the City’s legislative agenda, and
expressed collaboration with the City to work with the Racial Justice Alliance in issues as the Equal
Protection Constitutional Amendment, the Reparations bill, the economic justice policy and also
statewide police oversight. There was a discussion about charting the REIB and this opportunity is
almost lost for it being the middle of October. Expressed that the resolution, dated 29, June 2020 and
Racism is a public health emergency has been pushed off to the wayside like the work never existed.

REIB Updates
Reparations Task Force Report

Pablo Bose and Christine co-chairs of the Reparations Task Committee
A report was put together about what the task force has done to date and the background of the Task
Force’s charge. Looked at the overall landscape of reparations, some of the different forms it's taken
and indicated some of the work that the task force had commissioned. Several of the studies of
Burlington history and other relevant work. There has been turnover of the task Force members and
with the REIB leadership. Also there has been very inconsistent engagement with the City Council itself.
It’s time to reinvigorate the process and re-engage with City Council. The Task Force wasn’t able to
carry out many of the charges due to all sorts of reasons, mainly because of the REIB leadership
changes. The Task force was launched during COVID and now 4 years later past this charge of work.
Access to the original funding that or started out with is not available and the committee members
have not been paid their stipends out since the start. There's much more that can be done and ought
to be done. Reading the original resolution it looks like time is essentially up because there is only 26
meetings that are allowed. This report has circulated with Task Force committee members in January
and the preliminary recommendations that was included has been removed due to decision of being
premature on majority of Task force members.
Actions for Nov. 19 REIB CC Committee meeting:
 1. Phet to compile histories and processes of the Reparations Task Force and post them on the
 REIB website.
 2. Phet to provide an update on stipends for Reparations Task Force members at the next
 meeting.
 3. Phet to put together the next meeting of Reparations Task Force to discuss and prepare
 recommendations for next steps to present at the REIB CC Nov. meeting.

Mission and Vision Community Conversations
Phet shared upcoming community mission and vision community conversations will be on Saturday,
October 19th from 3 to 5 Pm at the Richard Kemp Center and Thursday, October 24th 5 to 7 Pm. at the
Burlington Electric Department in the Spark Space Conference Room and then Wednesday, October
30, th from 8 30 – 10am at City Hall in the Sharon Busher Room.

Empowerment Fund
The Empowerment Fund opened up October 1st and will close November 5. These funds are about
empowering black and brown communities. We are making this accessible to people. You don't have
to be a nonprofit. It's really uplifting and community building.

Community Forum

Councilor Grant had some ideas about engaging the gunfire task force and the new American Advisory
Council that also talked about youth to give some advice in terms of how we could proceed with
community safety. This would be a good community forum.

Nov. 19 agenda items
Status of the Reparations Task Force and potential funding needs.
REIB Committee to review and discuss preliminary recommendations from the Reparations Task Force
and REIB Committee vote
Empowerment Fund applications update

Motion to Adjourn

Councilor Brown McKnight motions, Councilor Grant seconds.
Meeting adjourned
7:15pm

Minutes by Phet Keomanyvanh
 REIB CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE MINUTES
 Sharon Bushor Room, 149 Church Street, 1st Floor, City Hall, Burlington, VT
 Tuesday, December 17th, 2024
 5:20 PM Meeting Called To Order

In Attendance

Gene Bergman, Melo Grant, Christian Berry, and Mark Hughes

 Minutes


 1. Motion to adopt the agenda.
 a. Motion to adopt the agenda by Council Member Melo Grant,
 b. Motion seconded by ______?___(I am not sure who was speaking)
 c. Unanimous pass
 d. There aren’t any October or December meetings uploaded so we will approve them in January
 2025.
 2. Mark expressed his congratulations to Christian on her new assignment and assured her of the
 community's support. He also mentioned that they had not yet reviewed the administration's
 Memorandum on the history of the REIB.
 Re: Report on the background of the REIB
 3. Melo on glanced at it, it exhaustive and it is a lot of work it for the Mayor to do a deep dive. Mayor
 Emma is very supportive of this work.
 4. Interim Director Christian Berry provided Directors Updates on Community Engagement
 conversations around the Vision and Mission.
 1) Hired Maria Davies as the Administrative and Finance Coordinator, starting in January.
 2) Katie in Africa attending a wedding.
 3) Christian on her own for now.
 Mayor’s Office conversation:
 1) Clarity- community wants clarity on the function of the office. We will do our due diligence to go
 out more into community. There is a mistrust in the community we need to address that.
 2) Frustrations- Folx thought that given the previous climate around previous director this was not
 the right time for these conversations.
 3) More centering on blackness. Getting away from diversity being a measurement to whiteness.
 4) We were unable to meet with our Burlington Business Owner and Burlington School District.
 Holding more of these conversations in the New Year.
 5) City Council Member Melo Grant - Dr. Livingston presentation was amazing.
 5. Melo Grant encouraged about things happening around the city.

Next Steps

1. Melo Grant- What is the ETA to schedule the meetings with Burlington based business owners and school
district? Christian indicated this will happen in the New Year.
2. Christian to follow up with IT to get the agenda and attachment back up on the website.

3. Christian to schedule additional vision and mission community engagement sessions with Burlington-based
business owners and the school district after the New Year.

4. Christian to send an email to the Council about upcoming vision and mission community engagement
sessions.

5. Christian to inquire if Dr. Robert Livingston's previous talk was recorded.

6. Christian to reach out to Town Meeting TV about potentially recording Ta-Nehisi Coates' upcoming talk.
Melo Grant will promote this.

7. Christian to follow up with Emiliano about funding commitment for the Black Experience event. Phet and
Emiliano spoke about possible funding. Christian will honor the funding.

8. Christian to finalize details for a potential luncheon with Ta-Nehisi Coates.

9. Christian to investigate creative ways to provide food at REIB meetings within city budgetary constraints.

10. Christian to look into holding future REIB meetings at community locations such as the Richard Kemp
Center.

11. Christian to follow up with Mark Hughes regarding the status of his empowerment grant application.

12. Mark Hughes to send information about the Martin Luther King Gospel concert on January 20th to the
committee.

13. Mark Hughes would like to figure out ways to better engage and entice the community to come out to
these meetings. Community could be looking at Empowerment Grants. Catering meetings may be helpful.

14. Monday, January 20, Melo Grant’s birthday.

15. Awarded 32 organizations in the community with the Empowerment Grant Funding.

Announcements

Mark Hughes- Game Night on Friday (12/20); Blackopoly, Saturday (12/21); Legal Clinic from 11- 1PM; MLK
Gospel Concert Night (1/20).
History of the REIB. Melo on glanced at it. Place it on the January agenda.



Next Meeting

Tuesday, January 21, 2025, Sharon Bushor Room, 149 Church Street, 1st Floor. 5:30 PM- 7:00 PM
Meeting adjourned at 6:16 PM




 Page 2
Tuesday, December 17, 2024, 5:30 PM, Racial, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (REIB)
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 Page 3
REIB City Council Committee
February 25, 2025
5:30 – 7:30 pm
Champlain Room, 149 Church Street, 3rd Floor City Hall, Burlington, VT

Attendees:
Christian Berry, Interim Director REIB
Katie Greene, Community and Belonging Program Manager REIB
Councilor Melo Grant
Councilor Gene Bergman
Mark Hughes
Jacob Alfar

Meeting Convened: 5:33 PM

 Agenda:

  Motion to Approve Agenda
 Councilor Melo Grant motioned to approve. Councilor Gene Bergman seconded.
 Unanimous pass.
  Motion to Approve Meeting Minutes
 a. October 2024
 b. December 2024

 Approval of minutes moved to next month

  Public Forum

 N/A

  REIB Updates
 a. Staffing

  Currently five positions available in the department but not yet posted. Discussion on
 incorporating roles focused on New American communities, health equity,
 Indigenous representation, and education.
  Councilor Grant inquired if the five positions represent cutbacks. Christian clarified
 that while different, the positions align with available resources for the upcoming
 fiscal year and will evolve based on office needs.


 b. Education & Training
 i.  City-wide Bias Awareness Trainings
 Christian shared that this initiative stems from the 2020 resolution and responses to
 the open letter. A training and education model has been presented to the
 administration and will be included in FY26 to ensure continuous learning throughout
 the City.
 Councilor Grant asked about the continuation of past bias awareness trainings.
 Christian confirmed that the last sessions stopped under previous leadership and were
 not continued due to transitions within the office.
 Christian confirmed plans to collaborate with HR and track training progress via
 UKG. Updates will be provided to the committee.

 ii. BPD Bias Awareness Trainings (BPOA survey)

 Councilor Grant highlighted the results of a police survey showing dismissive
 attitudes toward racial disparities. Concerns were raised about continued bias
 awareness training for officers.
 Body cam footage reportedly shows racial profiling of Black and New American
 youth.
 A discussion was held about how REIB should engage with the Mayor and interim
 police chief regarding training needs.
 Councilor Bergman suggested preparing a report on bias training to present to the
 City Council.
 Christian noted that this is the first time all department heads have equity-based goals.

 c. Programmatic / Event Updates
 i.  Vision / Purpose Next Steps

 Seven engagement sessions held across the city in the fall.
 Next phase: Engaging businesses and schools, creating space for youth input.
 Timeline: Expected completion by mid-to-late March.


 ii. Juneteenth 2025 Planning

 Christian stated that REIB will work closely with BCA on event production.
 Due to budget constraints, REIB is seeking sponsorship and working with Doreen for
 fundraising efforts.
 Current estimated budget: $70,000, with only half secured so far. Fundraising
 discussions with BCA are ongoing.
 Councilor Grant asked about the possibility of a community dinner; Christian said it's
 too early to confirm but smaller welcoming events are planned.


 d. Project Updates
 i. Empowerment Grant Update
  Part 1 completed in the fall; Part 2 to be released in early March.
  Adjustments made based on feedback to reduce applicant burden.
  Responses expected by May.
  Councilor Bergman suggested highlighting grant impacts through personal stories.
  Councilor Grant recommended incorporating photos and videos.


 ii. VNAAC Report

  Follow-up discussions on momentum from prior presentation.
  Shared with department heads; discussions on collaboration underway.
  Mayor and Christian met with VNAAC representatives to discuss next steps.


 iii. 2020 Resolution
  Discussion held on ensuring tangible next steps for progress.



 a. Committees / Task Forces

  Burlington Advisory Committee on Accessibility: Awaiting restart;
 REIB will collaborate closely.
  Vermont Language Justice Project: Focus on disseminating
 legislative changes and digestible updates to the public.
  IDEAL Vermont: Monthly state-led meetings on inclusion, diversity,
 and equity across municipalities. Christian to extend an invitation to
 Xusana Davis.

  Community Forum

 o Community Safety Issues Affecting BIPOC Kids: Discussion tabled for next
 meeting.
  Suggestions to invite representatives from King Street Center and Boys &
 Girls Club.
 o Concerns in the New American Community: Possible collaboration with
 AALV and community partners.
 o Committee Meeting Locations: Discussions on holding meetings at community
 centers for accessibility.

Public Comment: Jacob Alfar’s Experience at BPD

  Former CSO Jacob Alfar shared concerns about workplace culture at BPD, describing a
 lack of inclusion and hierarchical division.
  Issues highlighted:
 o Officers physically and socially separate from CSOs and other staff.
 o Lack of basic workplace courtesy (e.g., greetings from leadership).
 o Racial disparities in BPD’s workforce composition.
 o Under-enforcement of laws in certain areas.
  Councilor Grant and Bergman acknowledged concerns and requested written testimony
 for committee records.
  Discussion on potential engagement with the interim police chief regarding department
 culture.

 Reparations

  Mark Hughes provided an update on reparations discussions.
  A pending state-level reparations bill mirrors H432.
  Discussion on advocating for release of related constitutional articles post-Town Meeting
 Day.
  Police oversight bill (H361) under review, with implications for city-level accountability.



  Motion to Adjourn
Councilor Melo Grant motioned to approve. Councilor Gene Bergman seconded. Unanimous
pass.
Adjourned at 7:05 PM


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REIB City Council Committee
March 18, 2025
5:30 – 7:00 pm
Sharon Bushor Room, 149 Church Street, 1st Flr. Floor City Hall,
Burlington, VT

Attendees:
Jeff Smith
Ted Castle
Patrick Brown
Sherwood Smith
Emma Kouri
Ferene Paris
A. Gonzalez
Tishawn Williams
Jory Hearst
Karen Sita
Christine Hughes
Mark Hughes
Dave Rapaport
Rooney Castle
Katie Greene, REIB
Christian Berry, REIB
Councilor Melo Grant
Councilor Gene Bergman
Councilor Becca Brown McKnight
Councilor Ben Traverse

Meeting Convened: 5:31 PM

Agenda:

 1. Motion to Approve Agenda
 Councilor Melo Grant motioned to approve. Councilor Gene Bergman seconded.
 Unanimous pass.
 Councilor Grant asked to amend agenda to include “Path Forward”. Council
 Bergman motioned to approve. Council McKnight seconded. Unanimous pass.
 2. Motion to Approve Meeting Minutes
 a. October 2024
 b. December 2024
 c. February 2025
 Council Bergman motioned to approve all minutes. Council McKnight seconded.
 Unanimous pass.
 3. Public Forum
 Discussed Juneteenth 2025 Award Nominations. Discussed concerns about REIB
 Office staffing and sustainability of the Office. Look to recording for more detail.
 4. REIB Updates
 a. Juneteenth 2025
 Discussed the importance of community involvement in decision-making
 around resource allocation. Acknowledged the need for adjustments due to
 financial limitations. Highlighted opportunities for future collaborations
 and external support. Agreed to balance tradition with new approaches
 given current challenges. Look to recording for more detail.

 5. Community Forum
 Discussed the future of the REIB office and event planning, addressing
 concerns about staffing and funding. Attendees emphasized the
 importance of community engagement, potential partnerships, and
 fundraising. A motion was passed to request additional support from the
 City Council, with follow-ups planned to address staffing and budget
 concerns. City councilors committed to promoting REIB’s work and
 fostering continued collaboration. Look to recording for more detail.

 6. Motion to Adjourn
 Councilor Melo Grant motioned to approve. Councilor Gene Bergman
 seconded. Unanimous pass. Meeting adjourned 7:19 PM


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Minutes by Katie Greene