The Burlington City Council voted unanimously Monday to create a task force to study payment of reparations to Burlington residents who are descendants of enslaved Black people in the United States.
The council and Mayor Miro Weinberger listened for more than two hours as people called in to the City Council meeting to voice support for the measure and express concern over the mayor’s veto of a ranked choice voting resolution. The meeting dragged on into the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
The task force will research and develop proposals for reparations that it will offer to the city for action, according to the resolution. It will be funded by $50,000 that comes from the City Racial Justice Fund.
Along with studying reparations, the task force will also look into offering a formal apology on behalf of the city for its role in slavery.
Councilor Perri Freeman, P-Central Ward, who co-wrote and sponsored the resolution, praised it as a historic moment for the city.
“It feels like a big step, but it also feels like a small step,” Freeman said. “I think this is just the beginning or at least part of the beginning of the work that we’re doing around systemic racism.”
Councilor Brian Pine, P-Ward 3, agreed.
“There are times when we, as elected officials have an obligation to confront past mistakes, past tragedies that were committed by people other than ourselves, but by a system that we are now inheriting and are now part of,” Pine said. “And for those of us who have the unearned privilege of having privilege, I think it’s especially important to acknowledge that, you know we’ve benefited a legacy that is incredibly troubling and brutal.”
The task force will be made up of five members including Tyeastia Green, the city’s director of Racial Equity Inclusion and Belonging, or her designee, as well as one member selected by the mayor, City Council President Max Tracy, the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance and the Vermont Human Rights Commission.
Candidates for the task force will be from “diverse backgrounds” to represent communities of color in Burlington and will serve for the life of the task force, according to the resolution.
Mark Hughes, the director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, praised the council for taking the first step in passing the Racial Justice Resolution June 30, which acknowledges racism is a citywide public health crisis and promises to reduce the number of Burlington Police officers to 74 through attrition.
“I think, you know, we have come a long way and I just want to give a shout-out to everybody who put in an incredible amount of work,” Hughes said. “I appreciate the work that all of you put into it and I also appreciate the fact that you know that you’re going to get this done.”
Weinberger also praised the resolution and offered his full support.
“I enter the process with no preconceptions where we’re going to land,” he said. “I do know, however, that we will never fully realize the ideals of our country until the issue of reparations is addressed. And I welcome today as a small, but actually groundbreaking and important step towards that crucial goal.”
Override of ranked choice voting
Just after midnight, the council took up Weinberger’s veto of a resolution that would have put ranked choice voting for municipal elections on the ballot in November.
Ultimately, the override failed as proponents did not have support from a two-thirds majority. Seven councilors including Council President Max Tracy, P-Ward 2, voted in favor of overriding Weinberger’s veto, while five voted to sustain it.
Weinberger issued the veto Aug. 6, explaining to the council that he rejected the resolution because of its “timing, avoidable expense and substance,” specifically, the $45,000 cost of the ranked choice vote.
“An RCV Charter Change this November will divide and distract us at a time when it is critical that the community stay focused on and united in our pandemic response, the multiple other Council declared emergencies, and arguably the most important federal election in the country’s history,” he wrote.
Weinberger told the council that his veto would preserve city funds during the pandemic.
“There’s a limit to what we can afford to take on in this environment and the budget we created and improved together at the end of June,” he said.
Weinberger said simply moving the ranked choice voting issue to March from November has no real impact on the issue.
The failure to override means Burlington residents will not take up the issue of ranked choice voting in November and the selection of mayor on Town Meeting Day will be by traditional ballot. It’s the second time in less than a year that Progressives have failed to move ranked choice voting forward. A proposal in December to get the issue on the ballot last March also failed.
The Progressives retained the mayor’s seat through an ranked choice vote in 1999 when Bob Kiss narrowly won.
