The Burlington City Council unanimously approved the establishment of a COVID-19 Resource and Recovery Center during its Monday meeting, among other steps to aid the city during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Resource and Recovery Center will be funded initially with $1 million in funds from the sale of Burlington Telecom.
The center will aid those affected by the crisis and direct them to state and federal resources.
Five people in Vermont have died from the disease, including four residents of Burlington Health and Rehab, which has seen the largest outbreak in the state thus far. As of Monday afternoon, there were 32 cases in Chittenden County.
The relief package also waives interest for late utilities payments and waives the city’s gross receipts tax for businesses. It asks Chief Administrative Officer Katherine Schad to review extending deadlines for personal and business property taxes.
The resolution also establishes an emergency work and paid leave policy for city employees.
The councilors unanimously supported Weinberger’s proposed response.
“I think it’s important we are setting up this critical infrastructure and appropriating a non-trivial, significant amount of money toward the effort, with the expectation more will come,” Councilor Adam Roof, I-Ward 8, said.
The council’s first virtual meeting in its history took place on Zoom Monday night, ripe with the perils and strange intimacy of video chatting — connection issues, peeks into the homes of councilors. While two councilors were present at Contois Auditorium, most participated remotely.
Weinberger said center staff would help residents access resources from all levels of government and social services, including laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits, homeless individuals who need housing, and renters and small businesses concerned about getting evicted.
“This is going to be, we believe, the place where we get as much help as possible to as many Burlingtonians as possible as quickly as possible,” Weinberger said during a Monday afternoon press conference.
The center opened Monday morning, Weinberger said, and aims to respond to all inquiries in 24 hours. The center is currently being staffed by repurposed employees of the city’s Community and Economic Development Office and can be reached at 802-755-7239 or recovery@burlingtonvt.gov.
The $1 million in Burlington Telecom funds will be used to pay response center staff, cover costs of the Emergency Operations Center and for other emergency spending.
The city is estimating it could lose $5 million in revenue due to reduced economic activity, closed city facilities and canceled functions caused by state and local measures put in place to slow the pandemic.
Unassigned funds, including the proceeds from the Burlington Telecom sale, will be used to cover the revenue shortfall, Weinberger said.
The city received $6.5 million in the sale of the telecom to Schurz Communications. The council decided just last month to not invest a portion of the proceeds into Champlain Broadband, the local affiliate Schurz established to run BT.
The resolution gives the administration additional authority to make purchases and enter into contracts without the authorization of the Board of Finance and City Council if the mayor or CAO determines that waiting would negatively affect the city’s response to the pandemic.
At the council’s April 4 or 13 meeting, Schad will present a plan that would allow taxpayers impacted by the pandemic to postpone the June 12 municipal tax payment to Aug. 12, and explore if the education tax can also be delayed.
Schad’s plan will also explore allowing a longer term payment plan for residents with severe hardship, and link any property tax relief with a requirement the property owner pass that relief to residential and commercial tenants.
The city will not require businesses to pay the city’s gross receipts tax for taxes collected March 1 to June 30 and will consider the abatement of Church Street Marketplace fees for the remainder of the fiscal year.
The council also approved a new emergency work and paid leave plan for city employees that directs many employees to work remotely and allows employees to take additional leave without using existing sick and vacation time.
The resolution also “strongly urges” the Department of Health and Burlington Health and Rehab Center to relocate patients in rehabilitation units, deploy testing and physically separate residents who do not have coronavirus from those who do have the virus.
The resolution also expresses support for the administration’s work with the Department for Children and Families to ensure housing for the homeless during the pandemic and urges Gov. Phil Scott to stop all evictions and freeze rent.
Councilor Perri Freeman, P-Central District, introduced language that called for the city to push for the governor to enact a freeze on rents and a freeze all ongoing evictions. The amendment replaced language that froze evictions only for those unable to pay due to the coronavirus. Freeman’s amendment passed 8-4.
During the meeting’s public forum, Walter Keady, a renter and a member of the Burlington Tenants Union, called for the city to make a formal demand of the state government to freeze rents, evictions and house the homeless.
“Social distancing is the right choice, but protecting people from a deadly virus cannot come at the price of subjecting people to eviction,” he said.
The resolution also urged the Department of Homeland Security to suspend all deportations and detentions during the pandemic. It also calls on Scott to issue a shelter-in-place order and a shutdown of all non-essential businesses, both amendments proposed by Councilor Jack Hanson, P-East District.
The anti-deportation amendment passed 9-3, and the shelter-in-place amendment passed 11-1.
Weinberger said there would likely be additional measures to address the crisis in coming weeks.
Clarification: This story has been updated to provide additional context for Perri Freeman’s amendment freezing rent and evictions.
