The Burlington City Council scrapped its original plans Monday night to hold discussions on charter change proposals to overhaul the current Police Commission and to enact eviction protections.
Instead, because scores of Vermonters had signed up to speak about the agenda items, the body chose to devote its entire meeting to public comment and use next week’s meeting on Dec. 14 to deliberate on the charter change proposals.
At the beginning of the meeting, councilors voted to extend the cutoff of public comment from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. When about 100 people had spoken at 11 p.m., but 50 people were still in the queue, councilors voted to extend the public comment period again past midnight, and let all those who signed up to speak do so.
Almost all of the speakers who called in Monday night spoke in support of the charter change proposal that would overhaul the structure of the citizen oversight Police Commission.
In October, Councilor Perri Freeman, P-Central, first presented a plan to restructure the commission to the Charter Change Committee. The commission currently serves as a citizen advisory board to the Burlington Police Department and has no power to change policy.
Under Freeman’s proposal, a new Independent Community Control Board would have the power to investigate complaints against police and dole out discipline. The seven-member board would also have the power to review or overrule any disciplinary decisions the chief of police or the department make.
The board would also be given the power to hold hearings, issue subpoenas, and access records or other evidence to aid an investigation.
Just before the public comment session began, Mayor Miro Weinberger posted a counterproposal to Freeman’s charter change proposal on Board Docs, at 7:50 p.m.
Weinberger proposes that the police commission and the mayor be able to review complaints against officers and give recommendations to the chief of police about how to proceed with those complaints. If at least six board members out of seven disagree with a chief’s resolution to a complaint, it could hold a hearing and issue a different opinion or “final agency action,” which wouldn’t be upheld unless appealed to Vermont Superior Court.
The board would also be allowed to hire an investigator to conduct or review any allegation of serious officer misconduct.
According to the memo, Weinberger feels Freeman’s proposal lacks sufficient buy-in to achieve passage in March, when the charter change goes to residents for a vote on Town Meeting Day.
“While perhaps Councilor Freeman’s proposal could reach the votes it needs for Council passage, it clearly currently lacks the consensus that would benefit its chances of ultimate success if it were to go on the Town Meeting Day ballot, reach the State Legislature, and get to the desk of the Governor,” Weinberger’s memo states.
“If the Charter Change does not pass all of those tests, we will have set back the opportunity to make changes to the problematic status quo for a full year,” it states.
Some criticized Weinberger for posting his counterproposal minutes before the public comment section began.
“I’ve just heard that the mayor has posted his own proposal at the start of this meeting, which makes it nearly impossible for those in our community to respond to it in a timely fashion,” said Ashley Laporte, a local activist and organizer who has been rallying support for the Police Commission overhaul charter change.
She said that the city needs a body that has disciplinary and investigatory power over the police. Freeman’s proposal has been well-informed by BIPOC and other marginalized community members, and groups like the ACLU, which she argues should give councilors confidence that this is the right model for the city.
“We want something that is truly independent from the police,” Laporte said. “Because we believe the police don’t hold themselves accountable and we have a right as the community to hold police accountable.”
Rep. Brian Cina, P/D-Burlington, also called in to express his support for the Police Commission charter change. He said a healthy democracy requires a balance of power, which a community control police oversight board would be able to provide Burlington.
“This proposed charter change would create an independent community control board, equipped with an investigative office empowered to hold our police accountable to the people that they protect and serve,” Cina said. “So please let the voters decide whether the community should have more control over the police, and please vote yes.”
Others told councilors that in order to dismantle systemic racism in Burlington, they need to overhaul the city’s police oversight systems, like the Police Commission, to create true accountability.
“If racism is systemic, then only changing the entire system, only creating something new, as this proposal proposes, is what will address it, right? That’s what systemic racism means,” said resident Sarah Burch.
“And this proposal,” Burch said, “is the most serious attempt, the most honest attempt to do so that I’ve seen be put before the City Council since moving here.”
