VERGENNES — A special election has put the Vergennes City Council back in business.
After a series of events this summer, a majority of the city Council resigned. No quorum, no ability to conduct city business.
On Tuesday, 14 candidates competed for four seats on the council in Vermont’s smallest city; the council includes five aldermen, a mayor and a deputy mayor.
Four of the 14 campaigned together, advocating for change, and three of the four were easily elected: Dickie Austin and Ian Huizenga, both restaurateurs who operate mainstay Vergennes establishments, and Jill Murray-Killon, a contract administrator. All three are new to city politics.
“I feel great about it,” Austin said. “We ended up getting together and making sure that we actually all agreed on various platform points. And then, the idea was essentially cooperative campaigning. The results have proved out pretty well.”
Mel Hawley, who was the Vergennes city manager for many years, won the fourth seat, beating David Small by a single vote. Small was an alderman from 2018 until March of this year, had campaigned with Huizenga, Murray-Killon and Austin. A recount is set for Friday.
Austin, Huizenga and Murray-Killon say they’re eager to begin governing. (Hawley was not immediately available for comment.) A special meeting is already set for Friday, when the reconstructed council will review permit applications that have stacked up in the last two months.
Murray-Killon said the group ran together to show a shaken electorate that a cohesive team could take the wheel of governance and get back to business.
“It was a way for us to really strongly demonstrate that the four of us could work really well together,” she said. “None of us knew each other very well before going into this, and it’s just been such a cool experience to band together and be able to have a positive outcome.”
Huizenga’s and Hawley’s terms expire next March; Murray-Killon and Austin have terms that run until March 2022.
The election turnout — 750 voters — was higher than it had been in the statewide August primary, as 35.9% of registered voters cast ballots on Tuesday. City Clerk Britney Aube said she printed 100 extra ballots in preparation for a high turnout, but had to make even more copies to accommodate voters Tuesday afternoon.
“The level of drama surrounding what created the need for the special election certainly triggered people who might not pay attention to local politics to pay attention,” Austin said.
Those events included a text message exchange between former mayor Jeff Fritz and city manager Daniel Hofman in which Fritz made negative remarks about the Vergennes Police Department. Hofman called a special meeting, then displayed the texts for more than 70 people at the meeting to see.
Then-deputy mayor Lynn Donnelly was the first to ask for Fritz’s resignation, saying she felt threatened by a text from Fritz to Hofman that said he would take her “to the woodshed” if she didn’t “simmer down.” When Fritz resigned, Donnelly assumed his role, where she remains.
Aldermen David Austin and Lowell Bertrand also remain in their posts, but three aldermen resigned following the July 16 meeting, leaving Vergennes without a quorum.
Despite “the elephant in the room,” as Murray-Killon calls it, she and other newcomers share a motivation to move past the incident.
“It’s a really good opportunity for all of us to be able to go in and work together with the folks that are currently on City Council,” she said. “I have no intention of going in there with, so to speak, guns blazing, or to try to shake things up. I value the people that are in there right now, and the opportunity to get to know them and work with them.”
In a recent letter to the Addison Independent, one of the former aldermen, Mark Koenig, said he resigned specifically to give Vergennes voters the opportunity to choose new council members.
“As you consider the choices in this special election,” he wrote, “you need to decide whether we should control the future narrative by embracing opportunities or hang on to the status quo a little while longer until changes are forced upon us. I suggest embracing change for the better and voting for those candidates with strong ties to the community who are committed to bringing about needed change.”
Koenig said he supported Huizenga, Murray-Killon, Austin and Small.
While Huizenga said he’s ready to get government operations rolling again, he’s also looking to advocate for new residents of the city who have different ideas. A fear of change, he said, isn’t productive.
“People are coming in and have positive ideas and potential visions of what the city could be,” he said.
Along with other incoming aldermen, he said he’ll push for updates to the city’s aging sewer plant, which often releases partially treated water into Otter Creek.
Huizenga and Austin say they’re interested in citizen groups that would oversee or collaborate with Vergennes police.
“There needs to be some work, and there needs to be cooperation amongst the department and the city,” Huizenga said, though he doesn’t think the department needs a complete overhaul. “It can’t be a one-size-fits-all type of scenario.”
Nial Rele, who was on a committee studying whether a citizen group was needed to oversee police, said in an email that he’s pleased with the election outcome, and happy the committee’s work can continue.
“In the face of decades of the status quo and in the face of negative campaigning,” he said, “this group of candidates stood up for what they believe in. Their vision for a brighter and more inclusive future for Vergennes clearly resonated with voters.”
