[B]URLINGTON — Mayor Miro Weinberger laid out an ambitious agenda in his annual State of the City address Monday, citing continued fiscal responsibility, fighting climate change and addressing the city’s housing crisis as focus areas in 2019.
Weinberger highlighted what he viewed as major successes in the past year, including steps to upgrade the city’s waste and stormwater infrastructure, permitting reform, and moving forward with the “Frame” renovation concept for the Moran Plant.
“I am proud to report that the state of our city is very strong, and for the seventh year in a row, stronger than it was one year ago,” he said.
Monday night’s meeting also featured swearing in new councilors Democrat Franklin Paulino, Progressives Jack Hanson and Perri Freeman, as well as incumbent Democrat Joan Shannon. Republican Kurt Wright was unanimously re-elected as council president.
Weinberger highlighted the city’s work with community partners to address the opioid epidemic, noting that opioid-related overdose deaths in Chittenden County dropped by half in 2018.
The mayor announced that starting Tuesday, the city will embed social workers in the police department to screen people who are arrested for addiction, and offer those arrestees access to treatment.
“We know that a large percentage of individuals who commit crimes are suffering from opioid addiction,” he said. “Like Vermont’s successful new program of providing treatment in prisons, this new, unprecedented initiative will ensure that the criminal justice system is doing all it can to bring this epidemic to an end.”
Weinberger also called on the Legislature to pass H.162, which would decriminalize possession of buprenorphine.
Weinberger also drew attention to the improved credit ratings the city has earned during his tenure, which the city estimates has lead to more than $15 million in savings for Burlington taxpayers.
With the closing of the contentious Burlington Telecom sale last month, Weinberger proposed Monday using a portion of the $7 million the city received to avoid a property tax increase voters approved last month and to replace the city’s fleet of sidewalk plows.
“After years of waiting, it is time for Burlingtonians to benefit from the recovery of these funds,” he said.
On the climate, Weinberger said the city was continuing to aggressively pursue its goal of being a zero net energy city by 2030, and that Burlington Electric Department would be releasing a new plan analyzing strategies to meet its net zero goal this summer.
The city is undertaking a handful of electric vehicle initiatives. BED is doubling its incentive for plug-in hybrid purchases or leases to $1,200, and Green Mountain Transit is planning on adding two new electric buses in the fall.
Weinberger also stressed the city needed to continue its work to improve its transportation infrastructure by implementing the city’s Walk-Bike Masterplan as a means of addressing climate change.
“Only when we have a true network of continuous and interconnected bike lanes will we see our transportation patterns shift in the direction that we need,” he said.
Another major subject area of Weinberger’s speech was housing; he stressed that building more housing was crucial in addressing many of the city’s issues.
“In short, when we create more homes, we are taking a step toward a future where housing is a human right and where Burlington is the sustainable, vibrant, affordable, inclusive and equitable place that we strive to be,” he said.
Weinberger said that while the city has been successful in building more homes during his tenure, more work needed to be done.
The city isn’t moving fast enough to reform local regulations which make it more difficult to build housing, Weinberger said. He said it is time to reform the city’s inclusionary zoning ordinance, which has been under review for a couple of years and is intended to keep some housing affordable.
He said his office would hold a housing summit in May to review housing policies, with the goal of delivering draft ordinances for reform to the city council by October.
Reactions
Weinberger’s speech received a generally warm reception from the council, although some councilors were less favorable than others.
Wright said that he was pleased that the city would be using part of the proceeds from the BT sale to remove the need for the property tax increase voters approved in March.
“That shows that voters can have trust that when we say, ‘we’re not going to use that if we don’t have to,’ that we didn’t,” he said.
Wright said he agreed with much of Weinberger’s agenda, but not his transportation goals.
“Where he and I will part company, and where I think he has taken sort of a pass to the left over here is on the transportation agenda, which to me at times goes too far,” he said. “I continue to have issues with that agenda, which is replacing parking and losing parking spaces for biking. I think we have to be very careful about that.”
Councilor Brian Pine, a Progressive, said Weinberger hit on a hopeful and collaborative note during his speech and laid a groundwork of common goals.
“It’s important to stay at a high level during a State of the City, I think that’s where you lay out your priorities and your agenda, and you try to find areas of common ground,” he said. “I think he hit on a lot of those tonight, the details are always what matters, but we’ll deal with that another day.”
Councilor Karen Paul, a Democrat, supported the mayor’s initiatives on BED and thought a housing summit was a good idea.
“Probably one of our biggest lingering issues is housing,” she said. “We’ve tried a lot of things, I think having a summit and really getting a lot of smart people in the room, and a commitment to really doing and implementing those ideas, I think, is a great step forward.”
Councilor Ali Dieng, a Democrat/Progressive, said he thought the mayor should have highlighted the Burlington High School renovation more in his speech, discuss equity issues more, and focus on the building of small houses to address homelessness.
“The strategy around housing affordability, I think he should have been very, very specific to homelessness,” Dieng said.
Board of Finance
The only contested position of the night were seats on the Board of Finance, the most influential council committee.
Paul and independent councilor Sharon Bushor were re-nominated for the board, and Pine was also nominated.
Dieng nominated himself, which sparked some confusion on the council on how to proceed with four candidates for the three seats on the board — the mayor and council president also sit on the board.
The council unanimously voted for Paul, and then voted 11-1 for Bushor and Pine, with Dieng being the sole vote for himself for both of those seats.
Pine said that his experience, including years working for the city and on the council, made him suited for the board. He also said that he thought every neighborhood should have representation, and with former councilor Jane Knodell leaving, the Old North End deserved a representative.
Dieng said as a Democrat/Progressive, he had expressed his interest for the board with a number of councilors, but the process was more partisan than he thought it should be. The Progressives decided to support Pine instead of him.
