Reparations Task Force — Burlington, VT
Date: 2022-12-06
Time: 17:30

December 06, 2022
 Reparations Task Force Meeting, Tuesday, December 6th, 2022, 5:30 pm
 *Hybrid Meeting*

@ Click here to view the minutes for this meeting
1. Agenda

 1.01 Motion to adopt the agenda

 Type: Action, Procedural
 Recommended Action: motion to adopt the agenda




2. Minutes

 2.01 Motion To Approve The Minutes From August 23, 2022 & October 25, 2022

 Type: Action
 Recommended Action: approve the minutes


 2 8.23.22 Reparations Task Force Minutes.pdf 2 10.25.22 Draft Minutes.pdf

3. Public Forum

 3.01 Verbal Comments

 Type: Action, Information, Procedural




4. Current Reparations Discussion

 4.01 Current Reparations Discussion

 Type: Discussion, Information




5. Adjournment

 5.01 Motion to adjourn

 Type: Action, Procedural
 Recommended Action: motion to adjourn




City of Burlington, Vermont Page 1 of 1

Reparations Task Force Meeting, Tuesday, December 6th, 2022,
 5:30 pm *Hybrid Meeting*
 12/6/2022


149 Church St. City Hall Burlington VT, Sharon Bushor Room

December 6, 2022 05:30 PM - 7:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Reparations Task Force

Draft Minutes

Recording: Reparations Task Force Meeting - Zoom

Start Time: 5:30 PM

Attendance: Pablo Bose, Rebecca Zietlow, Kim Carson, Phet Keomanyvanh, Sydney VanTassel, Christine Hughes, Kathleen
Kemp, Lydia Diamond, Empress, Mark Hughes, Adam Kersch, Al, New Baptist Ministry, Isaac, Alexander Mitchell

Agenda

Pablo motions to adopt the agenda, Rebecca seconds

Minutes

Pablo motions to approve the Minutes from Aug 23, 2022 & October 25, 2022
Rebecca seconds.

Public Forum

No Comment

Current Reparations Discussion

Introductions and Background: Background on the Reparations Task Force and the history of the task force. Discusses
Human Right Commission’s appointment, Bor Yang, and in her absence, Amanda Lucia as the replacement. Discuss Deacon
Hill being added to the task force. To appoint the next member, we would have to add that to the next agenda.



Discussion on the task force’s background including the hiring of a consultant and historian to look at census data and
archival records. One part of the historical context was to look at the broader context of the economy, like businesses and
would like to also focus on these components, such as residential segregation. What are models of reparations? Dr. William
Darity spoke with task force with his reparations and economics background. We looked at other cities like Nashville and
Evanston. California has a reparations task force that created concrete proposals on what reparations could look like.



City worked with task force to digitize land records to take a deeper look in it and we looked at migration trends. We could
look into ways that discrimination has been happening, for example, doesn’t have to be in convenance - could be in other
fields. Differences of discrimination that could look different for Burlington than larger cities, however, there is evidence of
discrimination there. Why isn’t there a migration north? Why didn’t people come up here?

Discuss background on Operation Phoenix Rising that began the movement for reparations, which lays out the context
about the history of the reparations work done in Burlington. We are framing this work on the fact that systemic racism is


 Page 1 of 4
 Reparations Task Force Meeting, Tuesday, December 6th, 2022,
 5:30 pm *Hybrid Meeting*
 12/6/2022

the legacy of slavery. Work has been going on all around the country and we need to look at the resolution. Discusses
hope for additional funding to get additional research about how the economy developed. As the biggest city in
Burlington, the economy developed from the economic advantages of slavery with connection between income and
slavery.



Discussion transition from rural to urban, as well as Vermont shift to being about poverty, which didn’t include blackness.
Housing and spaces Housing and spaces became metropolitan and how black people were not included in the
conversation. How do we connect data with these conversations and what do we want for data? States like Delaware &
Iowa are creating curriculum into systems. In Iowa, there are CLEs focusing on the History of Blacks in Iowa and part of the
process could be focusing on the history of a certain people in a state and in a community. Could we do that to have a
rendering of blackness and how it was defined before and what it means now?



Talk about resolution and asking City Council for more direction. How are reparations defined? Has it been defined? Task
force has not defined reparations, but could be good to focus on specific areas, like health, wealth, ownership of homes.
How do we show a connection between slavery and reparations? Would we require people to show ancestry? Consider
impact without ties to slavery. Need to define what emphasis on research will look like, maybe a Root Cause Analysis.

Are there local colleges that could help or have uncovered information pertaining to reparations in Burlington or Vermont?
Amani Whitfield has done a lot work exposing of self-perceptions of being an anti-slavery state. Vermont’s Eugenics
movement has been exposed, but not necessarily focusing on black residents.



Have discussion about securing additional money for research and developing an RFP for community engagement sessions
at the Richard Kemp Center. African American community members who know they are decedents of slavery and is open to
others. Do we want to create a space for those who are decedents of slavery, rather than to everyone? It is important to
take ethnographic data. Before we add other people, we have to make sure we have resources for it and we need more
information to create more proposal. Identifying who that would be for the listening session and can talk offline about
designing those sessions.



Reparations vs. Restorative processes after. Reparations is about a group of people, which is more specific. As you move
forward in time, it might be come inclusive in restorative methods/methodologies. Include immigrant & refugee
populations in restorative process, but reparations have to be about chattel slavery. As we do research, we are creating a
record and revealing it.



May need to define city connection vs. state connection for reparations. Thinking about DCF, use of force, and impacts
already recorded and connected with data. Waiting for Pablo to go through his report and highlights. When the task force
started this process, what conversations happened about defining the work/honing out the work? We divided the original
work in blocks of time. A lot of the work we’ve done was develop an RFP on the subjects and the history of slavery in
Vermont. The convenance and the information that Pablo and team – we were waiting for that. We are trying to figure out
what to do next.



 Page 2 of 4
 Reparations Task Force Meeting, Tuesday, December 6th, 2022,
 5:30 pm *Hybrid Meeting*
 12/6/2022

Look at nine deliverables to do on resolution and consider going to city council to define reparations task force resolution.
What should we be reporting back or what does city council want us to do? Kim will try to find more clarity or information
on this resolution.

At the REIB Council Committee, there wasn’t a discussion about specifics of charge or deliverables. We have only really
thought about home ownership, and we haven’t reached other subjects. Medical history, prison labor, and what historical
systems we still use in Vermont haven’t been explored yet and each of these domains talk about education.



All of the ways systemic racism is harming people as a legacy of slavery all over the country. I feel like it is problematic to
say “prove it”. Can be hard to prove. Could take research nationwide and scale it to Burlington. There’s no reasonable way
that it couldn’t have it. Talk about what’s happening now. We have data. There are disparities in all systems.



Disenfranchisement vs. Discrimination not given equal access to the systems vs. individual experience. Disenfranchisement
is how we were disenfranchised from the gains, the systems, the growth, and taken out of gaining as others did. Restorative
measures would work with those disenfranchised systemically and disproportionately impacted.



Will continue relationship building for this meeting. Will reaching out to Bor Yang & Roy Hill. We will reach out tomorrow
via email to individuals and invite them to next Reparations Task Force Meeting. Phet sent Christine a format for a proposal
for RFP and Kim could connect with Christine offline.



Next agenda items include:

a vote for new members & chair

would recommend talking with Karen Paul and Zoraya Hightower about taskforce, background, and clarity

agenda on next meeting: proposal of how much money we would like



Continue Meetings on the 4th Tuesday of the Month. Next meeting is January 24, 2023. Will send out calendar invites and
draft agenda.

Adjourn

Kim motions to adjourn. Christine seconds.



End Time:

7:11 PM




 Page 3 of 4
 Reparations Task Force Meeting, Tuesday, December 6th, 2022,
 5:30 pm *Hybrid Meeting*
 12/6/2022

Notetaker:

Sydney VanTassel




 Page 4 of 4