Burlington, Vermont city councilors held a sometimes contentious debate on public safety proposals during their meeting Monday night.
The meeting came just after the mayor issued a message to the city acknowledging it has “experienced some scary and troubling events in the last couple of weeks.”
And while there were a number of items on the agenda, the primary issues considered by Burlington councilors were resolutions addressing public safety. The first focused on protecting the city from gun violence.
Ward 2 Progressive Gene Bergman said amendments to the proposal allow the council to work together to address public safety issues.
“We’ve identified this as our number one problem and it is seriously important that we collaborate on the particular points. I will have much to say in the ordinance committee,” noted Bergman. “But it’s worth us having that conversation and with all the other change in here, it is something that I feel comfortable about supporting.”
Fellow Progressive Central District councilor Melo Grant said she would support the measure only because it furthers the efforts of Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak.
"I’m furious over this process. Furious. Our children are being recruited by drug traffickers. You don’t talk about any of that,” Grant admonished. “ We’re the most affected district. I’m out here in these streets begging for help and you don’t include us in the discussion.”
Grant is interrupted “Point of Order.”
“I will be,” Grant continues.
“There’s a Point of Order,” advises Council President Ben Traverse, as Shannon interjects, “I don’t think this is...”
“I’m sorry. Just a moment. Councilor Grant. There’s a Point of Order.” Traverse continues.
Shannon then explains, “I don’t think that this is germane to the resolution before us.”
“Of course you don’t.” Grant asserts.
“Councilor Grant, excuse me,” Traverse cuts in, “I would ask that comments please be kept to the substance of the resolution itself.”
“I believe this is to the substance of the resolution in terms of how it came about,” Grant affirmed.
To resolve South District Democrat Joan Shannon’s point of order, Council President Ben Traverse had turned to the city attorney, who deferred back to Traverse as to whether Grant’s comments veered too far off topic. Traverse allowed Grant to proceed with caution.
Later Shannon was also faced with a point of order from Councilor Bergman during her comments.
“We should be speaking to the action we are taking. But instead we’re repeatedly talking about ‘oh, nobody told me.’ So let me share here that nobody told me we were going to diminish and demoralize our police department back in 2020 and...”
“Point of Order!” exclaims Councilor Bergman. “This has nothing to do with guns, violence.
“It has to do with responding to what everybody else has been saying tonight,” Shannon retorted.
“Not me,” Bergman said.
“There is a Point of Order that has been made here,” advises Traverse. “The door has been opened for debate on this topic.”
“So, as we continue to claim that we didn’t have time and nobody told me and nobody collaborated with me, nobody has to confer with you on every resolution,” rebukes Shannon.
Councilors voted unanimously to pass the Protecting Burlington from Gun Violence resolution.
The next issue debated was whether to adopt a measure to improve recruitment and remove the cap on hiring sworn police officers.
While the debate was not as heated, councilors were split on the matter. Ward 8 Progressive Marek Broderick said the proposal does not address the real problem.
“We do need to take a look at what is happening with recruitment. Why is recruitment not happening here in Burlington?” pondered Broderick. “And I just don’t understand it, why we are constantly bringing up the cap when we cannot even reach the cap. It’s not what we should be focusing on. We should be focusing on the root cause. The cap is not it.”
Ward 4 Democrat Sarah Carpenter pointed out that the resolution’s intent is to examine recruitment strategies.
“The focus of this is what things could we do better. What would help us and we’re very focused on one aspect of this but there’s a bunch of stuff in here that we need to explore,” noted Carpenter.
The second public safety resolution passed on a 9 to 3 vote.
Consideration of the remaining two public safety resolutions was postponed until the city council’s next meeting on September 23rd. One proposes the establishment of a downtown public safety hub and the other a new police department facility.
