Miro Weinberger is angry about how the City of Burlington has been managed during the last six years.
The 41-year-old entrepreneur and airport commissioner claims that he “had nothing against Bob Kiss” back in 2006, even though he supported Democrat Hinda Miller in the mayoral race that year. “But I became disaffected,” he recalled last week, and that ultimately led to his entry in the upcoming contest.
“The mayor’s job is not a legal position,” he argued in an interview with VTDigger, “and it’s not legislative. It is a leadership position. Motivating people is part of the job, but I’m the only candidate who has been in charge of large enterprises.” At the same time, he doesn’t “want to be seen just as a businessman. My life and work is in line with progressive values.”
Weinberger became an airport commissioner in 2003, shortly after returning home to Vermont. He had spent several years after school building homes with Habitat for Humanity and working with the Greyston Foundation, a nonprofit community development company that helps low-income families. He then co-founded the Hartland Group, a Burlington-based company that finances and builds both affordable and market-rate homes.
“I’m not a Trump developer,” he is quick to note. “My entire professional career has involved work with vulnerable populations, creating housing and jobs. Yes, I’m a businessman. But we partner with other groups to do affordable housing. We’ve also restored an old furniture mill and a rural health center, finding unusual new uses for the buildings.”
Nevertheless, the central message of Weinberger’s campaign thus far has been that he is best qualified “to put Burlington’s fiscal house in order.” To make that case, he has released plans to stabilize city finances, protect the airport and save Centennial Field. He also thinks that the city, with about $80 million in unfunded obligations and other liabilities, is facing “unpleasant choices.” Even the possible sale of a municipal asset like Burlington Telecom, he says, can’t be completely taken off the table.
“If anyone tells you they are against selling, ask them: Does that mean asking the city to pay another $10 million to not sell it?” he said. “Are we willing to put in millions more to keep this from being taken away from us? We don’t truly own it anymore. City Capital owns the equipment. I think they want to be bought out, but it’s a complicated, expensive case with uncertain outcomes.”
To reach a settlement, says Weinberger, “the last ingredient is a new mayor. Mayor Kiss has no credibility, but a new person can be seen as an honest broker.” His proposal is to invest “no more public money” but keep looking for a way to maintain some local competition with Comcast, perhaps through a partnership, and hopefully with “some place at the table for the public.”
At the same time, he draws a clear line between his fiscal pragmatism when faced with the risk of losing BT and Kurt Wright’s proposal to reduce the city debt by selling the Burlington Electric Department. “Burlington has benefitted from owning BED and the airport,” he said. “The community feels strongly, and these enterprises have been successful. Also, a lot of damage has been done by poor privatization.”
Weinberger said BED has been “a key asset for 100 years,” and he cites recent progress on efficiency and renewable energy use. Even considering the possibility of a sale would be a last resort, he said, “not something I would be excited to do. But despite the rhetoric, I don’t think the other Democrats have totally ruled it out.”
His main point is that the city runs several large businesses and he has the executive experience that will be needed. “None of the others running have a background like mine, including a deep understanding of finance and how to make difficult financial decisions with long-lasting implications,” he says.
Doing things differently
In 1989, when Weinberger was 19, he spent the summer break before his sophomore year at Yale traveling 15,000 miles in a Volkswagen to 26 major league baseball parks for three months. Along the way he filed reports for the Upper Connecticut Valley News.
More than two decades on, he’s still a major fan of the game, as well as a catcher on the Burlington Cardinals, part of the Vermont Men’s Senior Baseball League. Last week, he outlined a plan “to save Centennial Field, keeping the Lake Monsters and the baseball tradition in Burlington.” Key elements include negotiating with the state and the University of Vermont to create a Tax Increment Financing District and securing Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credits.
“We can get the feds to help pay for this,” he said. “Corporations that bought the credits would become limited, basically silent partners.” The approach would include encouraging “targeted, fan-friendly investments” to upgrade Centennial Field but avoid the use of taxpayer money.
After Yale and a master’s degree in Public Policy and Urban Planning from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, Weinberger edited a baseball anthology and worked briefly for two U.S. Senators – Vermont’s Patrick Leahy and Pennsylvania’s Harris Wofford. But the “turning point event” in his life, he said, was working in Americas, Georgia, with Homestead Habitant, a Hurricane Andrew recovery project. “We demolished and rebuilt a house for an injured man and his family. It affected me deeply, and I also learned how to break down the building process into steps.”
His approach to politics is similar: a combination of liberal instincts and nuts-and-bolts analysis. The proposal to restore financial stability and accountability, for example, is a five-point list that begins with defining the problem and bringing in “a new generation of civic leadership and thinking. I align myself with progressives, but I come from a different background,” he explains. “There is an opportunity to do things differently.”
Point three focuses on Burlington Telecom, stressing the need for a strong negotiator to resolve the debt, deal with the state and attract new investors. The last two items are fixing the pension system and protecting the long-term health of the airport. To address the former he would convene a summit of stakeholders and, if necessary, seek voter approval for any new funding mechanism.
His service as an airport commissioner has led to the conclusion that “the current administration seems more interested in squeezing fees out” than protecting the long-term stability of a regional resource. This, he says, is one of his major beefs with Mayor Kiss: “It’s most important to have a wide range of flights at affordable prices. Not long ago there were limited flights, and we are at some risk of reverting to an earlier area.” His prescription includes resisting fee hikes, partnering with business to increase the airport’s Canadian presence and managing the garage more professionally.
Other airport commissioners share his discontent with how Kiss has handled things, including an attempt to fast track the search for a new airport director. In a 9-3 vote, the City Council backed a commission request to delay action until after the next elections.
This Monday, at the end of a two-hour special session, the council declined to accept an agreement forged by the mayor with South Burlington to resolve a dispute over airport “fees for service.” Instead, the matter was referred back to the commission on which Weinberger sits.
When it comes to other issues, however, he feels that both the mayor and council have responded too slowly. “I recognize that the council has a great deal of authority,” he said. “But it’s been eye-opening during the last six years to see how we can bog down into gridlock.”
A prime example he cited is the handling of the Moran plant, the 90-foot high generating station on the waterfront that burned coal to provide municipal power for over 30 years before it was decommissioned in 1986. The same year, city voters approved a development strategy for the waterfront, including new zoning, a 100-foot setback, a park and the bike path. Since then, the city has considered, but ultimately dropped, many plans for the hulking structure.
Weinberger served on the Moran advisory group and voted for a redevelopment plan championed by Mayor Kiss. “But it concerns me that we would go years and not have a hard, binding commitment,” he said. “We still don’t have one, and Moran has become a symbol of the city stalling and stagnating in recent years. We’ve have 25 years of pretty dramatic progress on the waterfront,” he added. “It feels like that has stopped. Once in office, I’ll figure out whether the current plan is feasible.”
Values and a fresh start
Looking at the shape of the race, Weinberger sees some logic in the argument made by Tim Ashe, another candidate for the Democratic nomination. Unless Progressives and Democrats join forces in some way, Kurt Wright, the presumed Republican nominee, will be difficult to beat – especially in a three- or four-person contest.
“Kurt is a likeable guy and a formidable opponent,” acknowledges Weinberger. Although he disagrees with Wright about selling BED, he was impressed with the timing and boldness of the announcement. Nevertheless, his critique is blunt. Wright isn’t “in line with the last 30 years of progress,” he charged, and would take the city in a radically different direction. At the same time, “he has been very much involved in many of the problematic decisions of the last six years.”
It doesn’t stop there. Wright “hasn’t been in leadership positions,” he added, contrasting that with his own private sector background. “He has trouble in this race because people know that we have a tough job ahead of us. Six years of a failed administration has created some real problems for the next person. There is a concern about whether Kurt has the chops to run the city.”
But concern about Wright’s politics, competence and appeal doesn’t translate into acceptance of Ashe’s argument that only someone with established connections to both Democrats and local Progressives can win.
To start, he says, “some Democrats don’t like the fusion thing.” He agrees on the need to build unity and break down barriers but doesn’t think Ashe can get elected “because of his close relation with Bob Kiss and his management of BT. This makes him vulnerable.”
Ashe has distanced himself from the mayor but did continue to defend the handling of BT finances for months after problems were revealed. “There is no scandal, there is no controversy, and there is no poor health of Burlington Telecom,” he declared in November, 2009 at a Progressive Party convention.
Weinberger also drew a contrast with Ashe’s experience in the field of affordable housing. “Tim is a project manager with a narrow focus,” he said. “I have been a principal with responsibility for everything and have faced financial risk.”
His tactical argument is that, although he is clearly a Democrat, he has progressive values. Referring to recent economic protests, for example, he said: “I’m quite sympathetic and angry about what has happened in the last few years. Banks have gone back to paying enormous bonuses. I’ve been uncomfortable with executive compensation for years.” On the other hand, he said he can also appeal to voters in more conservative areas like the New North End “because I’ve also been a business man. My campaign is about values, a fresh start, and competence.”
Like the others in this race, he knows that winning the nomination will come down to turnout at the Democratic Caucus on Nov. 13 at Memorial Auditorium. His strategy includes at least 15 house parties, “office hours” at local hang outs and generally being as visible as possible. Last Sunday, he was the only candidate to attend the weekly Occupy protest in City Hall Park.
Despite a self-assured style, Weinberger admits that winning an election is, in the end, different than running a business. “Motivating people and being able to speak to the issues is certainly part of this job,” he said. “But in this election, it may be appropriate for the balance to tip more toward financial skills due to the challenges.”
What gets him excited is nevertheless the possibility of new thinking and a fresh vision, things like a “21st century transportation plan” that combines employee-oriented park-and-ride space, a dedicated bike path throughout the city, an improved downtown transportation center and better coordination among buses and other forms of transport.
No matter what the outcome of the caucus, Weinberger plans to be at the Democrat’s unity event on Nov. 14. “If you want the privilege of being part of this incredible process, it has to mean something,” he argues. “I’m also committed to that.”
