(Correction: This story was updated March 8 at 1 p.m. with combined results in the Central Vermont Public Safety Authority board race. An earlier version misstated the outcome.)
Montpelier voters named the late David Budbill the “People’s Poet of Vermont” on Tuesday, while also approving 12 other ballot items including the school and city budgets.
Residents also approved a $4 million bond to rebuild Northfield Street and a contract renewal for City Manager William Fraser (whose contract had already been renewed by the City Council on March 2).
The city budget was $8.8 million. The school budget approved was $20 million.
City Councilor Anne Watson kept her District 2 seat after facing a formidable challenge by political newcomer Alison Soccodato.
An open District 1 council spot will be filled by Mary Rose “Rosie” Krueger, who won a four-way race that included Alex Aldrich, Thomas Gram and Joseph Kiernan.
Ashley Hill won an uncontested race for a District 3 council seat.
Becky Bowen and Bridget Asay were elected to the school board, besting Ira Shadis.
Criminal attorney Sam Dworkin mounted a last-minute write-in campaign for a position on the Central Vermont Public Safety Authority board after he saw that no one had filed to run. Although Dworkin carried Montpelier, results from Barre compiled Wednesday showed that Jim Ward, another write-in, won the seat with more total votes.
Daniel Dickerson, who was uncontested, claimed a seat on the parks commission, and Jake Brown was elected to the Green Mountain Cemetery Commission, also uncontested.
Montpelier voters approved every article on the ballot this year, including the $20 million school budget, a $47,000 allocation for the Central Vermont Public Safety Authority, and continued pay (with no increase) for city councilors and the mayor.
Voters also approved a special downtown property tax to pay for aesthetic improvements and marketing to benefit downtown businesses.
Kellogg-Hubbard Library secured a $330,633 appropriation from Montpelier voters as well, and Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice got the $20,000 it asked for from residents.
Turnout was moderate, with 2,277 voting in a city whose population is just shy of 8,000, said City Clerk John Odum.
Odum said it’s not unusual for Montpelier voters to approve every ballot measure. “Montpelier even has a bit of a reputation” for it, he said.
The Montpelier Town Meeting Day went smoothly, Odum said.
“It was as close to picture-perfect as an election can be,” he said. “This election was a joy to run.”
The candidates
Several candidates spent much of the day in front of City Hall carrying signs to shore up their support.
Many were taking their first shot at elected office this year.
“I’m excited,” said Shadis, in his first run for office. He said it was hard to tell before the results were tallied how much support he had.
“Something about small-town politics, I think, is a little more opaque,” he said. He attributed the lack of clarity to the absence of polls and voter surveys.
Kiernan, a City Council candidate, said he ran because there are too few councilors with experience in civil engineering or the construction trade. This was his first try at elective office.
Kiernan said before the results came in that he will probably run for the council again in two years if he’s not elected this year, “but if they’ve got things under control, probably not.”
The voters
Numerous residents said they were thankful for the opportunity to recognize poet Budbill with the ballot article.
“I think it is thrilling to have him named ‘People’s Poet’ because he well deserves it, and it’s very uplifting also to see that on the ballot at all,” said Joy Spontak.
“To me it’s one of the more sane kinds of things one can vote for, based on the years and years he spent on writing poems and other literary works that are so meaningful to Vermonters,” Spontak said. “It’s great to have an opportunity to vote on something meaningful in this positive way. It’s an unusual experience these days.”
Felicia Messuri said she, too, appreciated the opportunity to vote for a poet.
“I’m a big fan of his,” Messuri said. “It was so great to have something like that on a ballot.”
Susan Ritz said the Budbill vote could correct an oversight in the Vermont literary canon.
“He never got to be (Vermont) poet laureate, which he should have been, and this is a way to address that,” she said.
The city’s budget was on voters’ minds this year, with a 3.6 percent increase since last year to total $8.8 million, and with a $4 million ask on the ballot to rebuild Northfield Street. The Northfield Street makeover will include new water and sewer lines, along with improved sidewalks and a bicycle lane.
“I actually came because I thought most of the budget stuff was pretty reasonable,” said James Lamonda. In particular, Lamonda said, the Northfield Street item “really drove” him to the polls.
“That’s one of the reasons we live here, is to have services,” Lamonda said. “That seems like a basic expectation. And our streets are so bad.”
Infrastructure’s needed, said Steve Gold, but so are good city councilors who will get the necessary services in place without harming residents who live within small budgets.
“We need a City Council that thinks about how Montpelier can deal with a very serious infrastructure challenge and at the same time try to rein in costs, so we can keep the city affordable for everybody, and not just the people who make $60,000 or more,” Gold said.
“I think we’re in grave danger of becoming a high-end-only community,” Gold said. “I think if we became a high-end-only community, that really diminishes the quality of life.”
Meg Hadley said she lives off Northfield Street and hopes it is rebuilt, even if it will cost residents money. Inaction won’t save money in the long run, she said.
“Anywhere the public has to approve these things, they’re always worried about their pocketbook, so these things get neglected for too long,” she said.
The school budget — $20 million this year — was another big-ticket item on the ballot for many voters.
It’s sorely needed, said Montpelier High School senior Theresa Noonan.
“I think because it’s such a small school you can definitely see where we need the money, and right now it’s definitely the bathrooms,” Noonan said. The women’s bathrooms are in bad repair, Noonan said, with many of them lacking locks on the doors and sufficient numbers of sinks.
A former student representative on the school board, Noonan said she knows how important it is to pass a budget.
Gold said that in this instance, as with the City Council, the budget will always be necessary, but so will talented school board members who can use the money most effectively.
Board members must “really think about how can we keep the schools excellent and contain our costs as best as we can. I think that’s the major issue,” Gold said.
Hadley said good school board members are critical — and said that’s why she didn’t vote for any.
“That was my only protest vote,” she said. Candidates didn’t provide voters with enough information to clearly demonstrate any were up to the task, Hadley said, and on the town’s voter guide, “the write-ups they provided were either nonexistent or insipid.”
Messuri said she approached the school budget question with mixed feelings.
“I want to support the schools, but at the same time, it’s on the backs of the taxpayers,” she said. Normally Messuri splits the difference and votes for and against the school budget on alternating election cycles. This year she voted in favor of it.
“A 5 percent increase didn’t seem like that much to me,” Messuri said.
Kellogg-Hubbard Library made a pitch to voters this year to give it $330,633. About half of the nonprofit library’s funding comes from Montpelier and five neighboring towns, library Executive Director Tom McKone said.
Gold said he voted in favor of the library’s budget request, after standing in front of City Hall for two hours holding a sign requesting that other voters do the same. Gold is the president of the library’s board of trustees.
“The library has historically enjoyed the highest number of positive votes of any item on the ballot,” Gold said. “I didn’t have anybody walk by me and say, ‘Bah, humbug,’ while I was holding the sign.”
At least one voter said that although she supports the library, she wants to look out for smaller organizations, too.
The library receives funding from other sources than voters, said Judy Gibson, and with the overwhelming support it usually receives the library may need less support than other groups that aren’t as well-known.
At the same time, the library is among the amenities that make Montpelier what it is, Gibson said.
“I live here, and pay huge taxes — but this is what makes our city great, and you have to pay for it,” she said. “If you cut back on the things that aren’t necessary, you’re really cutting back on the quality of life.”
The ballot item on Fraser’s contract drew a great deal of attention, but the question was moot.
Fraser has been the subject of public scrutiny and controversy in recent months, after Mayor John Hollar tried to orchestrate his ouster without the knowledge of some council members.
Some voters said they used that ballot item to express their frustration with the process leading up to the renewal of Fraser’s contract. Some said the issue influenced how they voted on other ballot items.
“I’m a city employee, so I’ve been very much affected by what’s going on in the disagreement between the city manager and the mayor,” Gibson said. “That has made me very certain I’m going to vote for the city councilor I can believe in.”
Ritz told a similar story.
The vote on Fraser’s contract was one of the foremost things on her mind when Ritz came to the polls, she said, and she used that ballot item to register her feelings about the issue. “I may be voting differently than many in Montpelier,” she said.
But the controversy over Fraser’s contract also influenced her City Council vote, Ritz said.
“I’m looking for someone who has experience working in government and government institutions, so they understand the procedures that need to be in place so that we do not have another problem like we had,” she said.
